Natsu!

Sorry for the late post! Been caught up with school work, extended essays and what not for the IB programme :( I wish I could graduate tomorrow! University applications as well... so tedious! But oh well, had an amazing summer in TOKYO, JAPAN after my internship! Loved it so much, was like a dream come true!

Met my buddy Takuya in Shinjuku for a day as well, where he heroically finished a salad for the first time in his life! So much fun. Wonderful memories indeed. And I never, ever wanted to leave the cyber cafe in Tokyo. That's how good it was...

Considering to work here in the future? Definitely. This, or Taiwan. Depending which language I manage to tackle!

I've also got guitar lessons at last, after so many months of unprofessionally mucking around with it. It's so much fun, I've always wanted to learn either the guitar or drums, and I'll finally be able to rock along with Asian Kung-Fu Generation (eventually) without strumming endlessly and mercilessly at the air around me. My teacher is an awesome guy, and thank you to a friend of mine for sharing him :)

Hopefully before I graduate high school I'll be able to pick up a new guitar, I like the one I have now but I like the one I want even more ;) Currently using a Fender Squire Stratocaster OBEY, which is not bad for my first guitar (I obviously bought it for the art without even trying to play anything on it).

my current guitar :)

But what's really enchanting me is the Gibson LP Black Beauty. Its beautiful. And I know I have not the skill level yet to even touch it, because that would just be disgraceful. So you know what, if I get any better at it I'll promise to somehow obtain the Epiphone LP Black Beauty, through some underhand Christmas gimmick with the family perhaps.

stunner.

A guitar, which you know what, conveniently looks pretty much the same, at a couple thousand dollars cheaper. Of course the name's different, but hey, I'm neither rich nor good at the guitar, so why blow it when the looks are the same :)

Anyway, back to my awesome, awesome, life-changing trip to Japan.

Actually, I think I'll let the pictures do to the talking:)

Now most of these pictures were taken in one day... so as you can tell, I probably took a billion pictures. I filled up my 8GB SD card on my DSLR and got a new 32GB in Odaiba. And I am obviously (for the sake of my time and for your bandwidth) not going to upload all of them here!

But I guess you can tell that I had aloooot of fun:) Other than that, my internship as I said before was pretty cool and I learnt stuff. And now I'm back to crummy old UWCSEA for my last and final year of high school! Hurrah hurrah! Wish me luck reworking my extended essay!

Have any of you guys been to Tokyo too? Tour or backpack?

You enjoyed it, didn't you :)?

Back in Singapore

Whooo, finally back in Singapore after all the holidays.

So I went back to Malaysia to stay with my family work at an internship then had an absolutely amazing week in Tokyo, photos which I will post in another post, and now I'm back in crummy old Singapore. Not that Singapore is a bad country by any means, just that... school is located in Singapore.

So it's finally my last year in UWCSEA and I can't wait to graduate and leave. Don't know what I'll be doing in university but wherever life takes me after that, hopefully I'll be able to land a steady job in Tokyo and then I'll really be living my life :P

So sorry for the delay in updating, been busy with the start of the new term and stuff, hopefully I'll be able to write more with pictures in another post on another day soon, till then!

Sri KL :)

Today I am proud to announce that I watched Twilight Eclipse with five guys. Epic. Can anyone get more cliche than Jacob, I don't think so. Jacob: "(to Edward) You can't deny that I'm hotter than you (being a werewolf and all)," That was just... delightful :) Friend was all over himself during that hugging scene..

We watched Twilight in Cineleisure, Damansara today. I love that place, barely any people, always easy to get tickets.

Went to a gelato store outside the cinema - ordered a single scoop strawberry sorbet, paid RM 5.90, went back to the pool place that we were at where a friend of mine realized he was cheated. We both had the same cup size - mine single scoop his double scoop ;) He paid RM 7.90, just that he had two flavours stuffed into the same sized cup, half half :P

TEAM EDWARD!! Simply because vampires keep their shirts on. Gosh. If they need to take their shirts off why don't they just take their pants off as well, where does it go when they transform? Clothes turn into fur or something? Geez.

Was a good day today, meeting friends that I haven't seen in so many years. All of us primary school buddies :) Same class, we had the "special" tag behind our class names for five years because we were underaged :D Good times, good times. Good memories, I still feel close to them as ever :) One of them was in the suicide-bombed Moscow train. Scary stuff. Still alive and well though :) No damage done ^^;

Even managed to say hi to a Japanese friend that I grew up with, he was my neighbour when I was four to five or something, went to same school together: today we met after about ten years of disconnection. Might see him again properly next week :)

Had Baskin Robbins a couple of times in Malaysia. Do you have it over at your country? A friend of mine over in Singapore was absolutely jealous that I was enjoying it. Yes, I am lactose intolerant, and yes I had sorbet. Sherbet. Whatever, was still good :)

Rainbow sherbert!

Also, I saw a lamborghini in Pavillion. THEY EXIST IN MALAYSIA NO WAY. Next to a Bentley too. Reminds me of that epic flood in Orchard Road, gym trainer told me he saw a Matzeratti get caught in that flood. Poor owner...

Starting to watch FLCL because of The Pillows, I absolutely love their song "Hybrid Rainbow." Another friend of mine thinks its boring because of the slow intro, psshh I say, "CAN YOU FEEELLL CAN YOU FEELLL THIS HYBRID RAINBOW :)" FLCL is pretty interesting, maybe it can go into my honor roll :)

ANYWAYS, my internship is finally entering its final week. RM 800 for a month, not bad I think :)! Save up save up! I looks crap in my office clothes. I do have pics. But I hate the tie..

Then after all that, a week's holiday to Tokyo. AHH I just can't wait. I'm gonna go broke there, so much things to see and buy...

And camera trigger happy too. I mean, HARAJUKU here I come :)

Michelle and Yuriko said they'll read this so HI MICHELLE AND YURIKO :):)

World Cup 2010 Over ):

And so the World Cup comes to a close.

I should really stop supporting teams that I want to win in international competitions, I have actually never seen a winning side through. Russia in the Euros, then Croatia and Russia both failing to qualify for the World Cup finals, South Korea bowing out,  then Japan losing out to an unlucky Komano penalty, Germany losing 1-0 to Barcelona and Real Madrid, then finally Netherlands losing to Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Yes I will never support Spain as long as Fabregas plays for Arsenal. Word is around the blogs that a couple of defenders from Barcelona - Puyol I think was one of them - were waving around the winner's medal and trying to entice Fabregas over to Barcelona. He has a contract at Arsenal and he better honor it. Barcelona are broke anyway.

Overall it was a good World Cup, entertaining in the later stages, slightly frustrating for the few opening games. I expect most of us wanted a more entertaining final but wasn't it all too reminiscent of Barca and Inter Milan in the Champions League? A little dreary yet effective. Respect for De Jong with his flying karate kick, correct me if I'm wrong if it wasn't him.






The timing was awful for someone watching from this side of the world. Finals on 2:30 a.m., Sunday!? Really, I'm surprised not to see more people off in the office today. Well, time zones are not something you can really alter, but I really hope the next World Cup starts earlier so all the players can enjoy a proper pre-season for their club.

Now that Wenger's back from World Cup pundit duty I hope to see a few more signings for the Arsenal, hopefully we'll pick up an Asian player from all the stuff on show this tournament ^^; Honda, anyone? I know we don't really need another attacking midfielder but I'd love an Asian player :)

So congratulations to Barcelona and Real Madrid (Spain), to Cesc Fabregas and my sympathies to the Netherlands. Van Persie, perhaps you will get the medal when Robben decides to pass it to you instead of trying to take on Spain's entire defence.

Someday.

STREAMYX!!

For all us budding Malaysians out there, no matter where we are right now, if we have lived in Malaysia for an extended period of time we know of the acclaimed internet connection service known as Streamyx. Or Streamy X as my friend likes to put it.

I was reading dannychoo the other day and discovered something rather interesting about the Japanese internet. Obviously their internet service is ALOT better than ours, but by how much?

Danny Choo's high speed Hikari line costs 1,022 yen per month for the first year and goes up to 6,720 yen per month on the second without any setup or rental fees. That's about RM 37 and RM 243 respectively, rounded up.

Streamyx on the other hand, offers its fastest package at a rate of RM 268 per month. So, promotions aside, RM 243 compared to RM 268 - that's not that much of a difference is it? Well you know what, I haven't told you how fast the internet connections are for these prices yet.


image (c) streamyx

As you can see here, Streamyx offers us a connection of 4.0 Mbps at RM 268. Danny Choo's Hikari line however, comes at a whopping speed of 100 Mbps. That's right, we are paying more for 96 Mbps less speed than Japan.

Then again we have to commend streamyx, as its internet service has been steadily improving. I remember a few years ago that I had to live on 31.2kbps dialup internet, and so if it keeps improving it will only be for the better. I just hope the price stays down!

I was downloading a rar file the other day, and my speed dropped to 52 BYTES per second.

Stunner :)