Happy Halloween

This is just step one. I am not allowed/supposed to smile while wearing something so formal.



With TianFang and Yuta after the Halloween Masquerade

Not that anyone back home really celebrates it, but Happy Halloween! We had a Halloween Masquerade party in the Kaikan and I borrowed Yuta's traditional aristocrat garments. Wow. Getting dressed is a challenge in itself and you could walk the streets of Kyoto in the dead of winter and still feel warm!

Sugoi ne!

Port Town

Fukuoka is not Tokyo. Here are some pics to prove it.





This is Pier Walk Marine City as viewed from across the bay. Fukuoka is home to the world's second largest ferris wheel, the largest being the London Eye in the UK. Standing there in the cool autumn breeze with the lights of the ferris wheel changing before my very eyes was just sugoii!



Cool yea, wonder when I would have a chance to sit on one of these.

Steeping in Japanese Paint

I have never heard of Utamaro, Hokusai or Hiroshige, grand masters of Japanese Art, but definitely I have seen their paintings before. Its the quintessential depiction of Japanese art and rarely has it been possible to see them all in one place, so I am lucky that I managed to catch it at the Fukuoka City Museum with Kouji-san and Eiko-san.

One of the exhibits was entitled "36 Views of Mount Fuji", and another was "A walking journey from Tokyo to Kyoto". Its amazing,the artwork is meticulous and yet simple but because I cannot take photos inside, it is better if you guys KLIK here

But the exhibits outside are definitely photographable (if there ever was such a word)





These are Hakata dolls, of which Fukuoka is particularly famous for.

Retirement Plans

I have found a place that I am considering retiring in.

I still remember what Jean told me: "Whatever images you have about Japan being like Tokyo, erase it". In certain ways, Fukuoka is like Japan, especially the downtown areas (pics would be coming soon, in case you guys start thinking I never go downtown), but in many ways, Fukuoka is a much more livable city than Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. This was the view taken from the Shimizu family house. Imagine waking up on a nice autumn morning and seeing the sun rise from behind the mountains and seeing western fukuoka stirring as it lights.

Being taken care of

I don't regret not tripping around Kyushu with Rakesh, Boey and Joan because this experience was really memorable. A weekend homestay with the Shimizu family.


Kouji san!

Kawaii Nephew and Uncle

Obaasan making yaki-onigiri

These were taken during the family BBQ at their garden. A chilly autumn evening, with grilled meats, red wine, and spent with really accomodating people. That was simply tanoshikatta. The Shimizus are really nice people. My Japanese is terrible, and I stutter so much when I speak, but they still take the effort to communicate with me, and teach me Jap as well. When they found out that I was into all things Jap, they showed me photos of traditional Jap clothes, told me about upcoming festivities and Jap traditional carnivals, and invited me to many gatherings with friends over the weekend, and somehow I managed to communicate with my limited Japanese. It was amazing, spending a whole weekend speaking just Jap, bathing Japanese style for the first time (you wash, scrub and clean yourself before you soak in the bathtub ofuro. I was meticulous because I think it would be embarrassing leaving even a single strand of hair floating in the communal tub. +P

They brought me on a drive around Fukuoka at night, to visit one of the highest shrines in the city, and I was sortof reminded of Fort Canning Hill, but with a spectacular view of the hole of Fukuoka city.

And I tried my hand at making Takoyaki (Takopachi to those in Singapore), those round balls with fresh octopus, as well, and met more Japanese people. I am really encouraged to study harder for Jap so I can communicate more fluently with them.

Net Worth

My blog is worth $6,209.94.
How much is your blog worth?

Apparantly this blog isnt worth a cent, but my old blog is at least a little more comforting. Ok, I sell you, microsoft or whatever, my blog, give me the money so I can tour Japan. Anyway the calculations are crap. Go type "xiaxue.blogspot.com" and see how much THAT is worth. Mind bloggling. (pun intended)

Temperature Fluctuations

The Street Next To Tenjin Eki [Train Station]

When I arrived in Fukuoka on the 1st, the temperature was a sweltering 29 degrees, and for the next 3 weeks I was going about in T-shirt and Berms like how I would do back home. However, for the past 2 days, the temperature has dipped to 18 degrees in the day, and it hit 9 degrees at night yesterday night. I found myself digging into my suitcase to find trackpants, sweaters and coats. Basically, stuff that i never had to bother with back in Singapore. Yesterday night I switched from Air Con to Heater mode for the first time.

Autumn is here, at last.

No Music No Life

Music City Tenjin: Live rock, folk, jazz, and other music fill the streets, live houses, event halls and not so hidden nooks of Tenjin as musicians gather in Tenjin, Fukuoka for a 3 day fest of good, live music!! This was at the entrance of Solaria plaza, where a group of Brazilians played really great Latino-salsa sortof music that the Japs were swaying their booties to. You would never see it in Singapore! People back home are too restrained.



This one was some J-rock goth band at the basement of Mitsukoshi Department Store. For a moment I thought I have discovered the Fukuoka branch of the Harajuku fashion madness, but then when the music played I realised why. Angsty girl-rock that could only be appreciated by, well, angsty girls. Wonder if they are so angsty and male hating why are they wearing bride costumes. Anyway I took this from afar, and was secretly glad I had an 8x optical zoom camera because I didnt want to be seen as one of those Jap perverts who takes pictures of young Japanese girls. Kareen would love this pic I think.



And for anyone who cares, Dick Lee is in Fukuoka as well, and I think this was the first time in recent memory that i have seen him sing. Not sure if its because of the Music City thingy, but was reading Straits Times Interactive and found out that he won some Cultural Award or something. Hmmm.

Singaporean meets Tempuraman

Say hello to the NUS Law Moot team Rakesh and Joan who was in Fukuoka for the International Space Law Symposium 2005 Well, Lim Lei Theng came along too, and I was surprised to see her so pregnant. Wooh. Anyway, me and Boey were showing them around Fukuoka the whole of last week, while they prepared for their moot, which they won Best Memorial and Best Speaker, not bad!

Anyway, this was the day after the moot, and we went to this really unpretentious tempura restaurant in Daimyo for an inexpensive meal of deep fried delicacies! The shopowner [featured above] is Nonaka, and he would dip each morsel in batter and deep fry it in front of us, and placing the completed fry on a plate in front of us, so it was piping hot and deliciously crispy. I have never had tempura served to me in this manner before. Usually it would be fried beforehand and served all at once, not piece by piece, so this was a real treat. We had Moriawase Teishoku, a nice mixture of fried prawns, vegetables and fish for 850 Yen. Not expensive, really.

The Fukuoka Now magazine [which I base my entertainment activities on] described Nanoka as looking like a pretty serious chap who was actually very friendly and welcoming to foreigners. Well, Joan would beg to differ, because, initially not very hungry and wanted to share with us, but as soon as her chopsticks hit boey;s tempura, Nanoka said NO SHARING! and she decided to get her own set as well. Haha, wonder if it had anything to do with her spilling the green tea over the counter. Haha. Anyway they should be busy triapsing all over Kyushu now.... not sure whether they are in Kumamoto or Nagasaki as I type this, but I decided not to join them and go for a homestay program instead, which I would update about later once I have edited the pictures into manageable sizes. Takes alot of work you know!

Dear all

I am fine, the eartquake that hit Tokyo was not felt here in Fukuoka, and as a further testament that I am not scrimping myself to anorexia, here is a pic from yesterday of my fully stocked fridge. :]

In the midst

The mad crowd went wild when the homerun was struck, and it was only natural to be swept away with euphoria. It has been a tough fight for the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks Baseball team, after fighting a long and embittered battle against the Marines. Japan's baseball finals was at its height, and here I was, at Hakata Canal City watching the game on the great big screen, with what seemed like the rest of Fukuoka with me. We were lagging, yet again, into the 7th round, but the cheering never stopped, even when the last batter came onto the pitch and nothing short of a miracle (actually, 2 straight home runs will do the trick), the crowd never did stop cheering "Hokkusu Hokkusu Gambare!", and Gambare indeed. The same spirit that rebuilt Japan after the war was epitomised before my eyes.

Even though I came back to my room only at midnight and spent the next 4 hours killing myself doing Japanese homework, I can only say that there was no regrets. We all have to do what we have to do (by which I mean homework), but then again there are some things we should never pass on.

Misrepresentation

This is not, by any standard, the nicest shrine I have visited, but it was one of the many shrines that I saw on our hour long bike ride to Hakata. A spontaneous action on my part, I just whipped out the trusty camera and before I knew it, we were inside exploring. One thing leads to another, there you have it, yet another touristy pic. I dont think I am doing anything sacriligeous though. Hmmmmm

Necessity?

Nicely photoshopped image aside, lets do some mathematics shall we. This endeavour shall not seek to prove or disprove the poor maths skills of lawyers and legal students alike, but would more appropriately give a comparative perspective on living standards between Nippon and Sunnypore. [I have been reading too much legal text, havent I?]

Phone: 0 Yen
Initial Administration Charges: 2580 Yen
Monthly Subscription Charges: 3780 Yen
EZ Web Mandatory Charge: 315 Yen
1000 Packet Discount for Email usage: 1000 Yen

Total: Whatever, you count for me can.



Ok, I know the obvious question would be if you want to save money why subscribe to email in the first place. The answer would be that the 3 main Mobile Service Providers in Japan (Namely NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Vodaphone) do not have integrated SMS service, for you lucky jokers back in Singapore, can you imagine a world where Starhub customers cannot SMS Singtel customers? Youd probably just curl up and die. Anyway, there isn't SMS at all in Japan. Within KDDI itself, of which i am a customer, you could C-mail other KDDI customers but then it is limited to 100 characters, so most people just email. It is cool, to think of it, but they better not start spamming me because I pay for every byte i send and receive, which is what the Packet Discount stands for.

Another thing about Japan is that you have to learn to be very very patient when it comes to administrative stuff. It is true that nowhere else on earth do they treat a customer so well, but on the flipside, the red tape is mindboggling, and when you are tired all the domo gomenasais in the world do not seem to help. Anyway, my gripe is that as an student, I am supposed to be entitled to a 50% discount, which is why I chose KDDI in the first place. (DoCoMo has cooler phones) However, because of my ambiguous status as a "Tokubetsu ChuoKou Gakusei", I am not granted this discount when I am obviously a student. I mean, which part of GAKUSEI do they not understand. Then again, if you were in my shoes you would understand why I just quit trying to convince them and just signed up for the non discounted plan, since i can hence Cmail other KDDI students. The people at the Law Faculty were amazing, and helped me contact the people to demand my student status derived rights, but because of some newly enacted company guideline which is too complicated to explain here, I still cannot get the discount, and the Japanese staff at the Law faculty summed it up accurately and pertinently in one word:

"Ridiculous."

Home

Because friends like Xianzhi have asked. :]

Well, by Japanese standards, it certainly is quite a nice place to live, given the low rent. However, fitting more than 2 people at a time would not be very possible. Given the space, I am surprised that they could fit in an attached bathroom (good for loooong hot soaks in the tub during winter) and a balcony where I took this pic from

Asian Festival

Asian Pacific Festival 2005, Tenjin

Because Fukuoka is the city closest to the Asian Mainland (We are actually closer to Seoul than Tokyo, geographically), Asia is celebrated in a more genuine way. This festival is like a bazaar with each stall manned by a different country, like an International Pasar Malam. Here, I could buy Nepalese knick-knacks, sample Korean Kimchi and watch performances, and buy tickets to destinations in China. The stall for Philippines was selling handbags, and I immediately thought of Imelda Marcos. Singapore was not represented there this year though, pity. [Hey Government Agencies! We know you are secretly reading our blogs! How about coming down to represent Singapore in Fukuoka next year huh?!!] My friend Saksama said quite pertinently that whatever the Singapore stall would sell the Malaysian stall was already selling, which, after closer examination, was kindof true. Samuel said that Tanya Chua came to perform last year, so I kept my eyes on the stage to see if JJ, Steph or Joi would be here this year. Nope.

Dorama

This is, as requested, for Huihua

This is the dorama [Yoshitsune]


The TV is a bane for my netless nights. I do not have internet access in my room, and I do not intend to get it because it would cost an arm and a leg to get it. The TV is a great substitute, and I have been hooked on many dramas and its guilty pleasure especially if I can justify it by claiming it to be for language improvement purposes. This is some period drama, starring Hideaki Takizawa. I cant seem to catch what they are saying except for the word [kamakura] which occurs once every 2 minutes. There is another one that I like better, a contemporary one about a henpecked husband who everyone envies because his wife is so chio, but no one knows what a monster she is. Hilarious. I think the title is Devil Wife or something.

Makansutra Fukuoka

Today is National Sports day, a national holiday, held annually since 1964 to commemorate the day that the Tokyo Olympics was inaugurated. Well, for myself the only sport I did was eating (ok, I confess, I jogged, but I had better jog more before winter comes), and met up with a bunch of Singaporeans in Tenjin, the orchard road of Fukuoka. This buffet restaurant, rougly translated as the Grape restaurant, serves really really good home styled japanese cruisine that you wont find easily, and at just 1575 Yen!

PS: One of them is Daniel Soo's elder brother, Samuel. Guess who?

PPS: I am the only exchange student from Singapore in Fukuoka. All the rest are either been here for more than 2 years or are doing their masters. Whoa!

Something New

Sundays = Baseball Practice

This is the Kashii little league, kawaii datta
I am still wondering how come they dont get off the pitch after strike 3. Hmm.

Lantern Festival

Saturday Night was amazing



Lantern Matsuri at Kashii town, with makeshift lanterns made by placing some sand and a single tealight in multi coloured paper bags. They lined the entire boulevard and canal





As we sat under the autumn stars listening to the Jazz band from the Voodoo Lounge play alfresco. You should have heard the guy sing.



And for the obligatory touristy pic:



Here are the folks that I cook up a storm with almost every night. The meals are quite communal, everyone contributes, and cheap too, I dont spend more than 250 Yen on dinner. Wonder whether this would work out once school proper starts, maybe will just get half priced bento after 8pm at the supermarket or something.

Mornings

This is Kashii Town, near where I live. Me and my hostel mates have elevated grocery shopping into an art form. In japan it is possible to live within reasonable means, but that means going the extra mile to find the best deals. Tsukareta ne!

Sigh

I wrote this on the plane:

"I awoke and looked out of the airplane window to see dawn breaking as I flew above the cloudless sky past Taiwan and onwards toward the Okinawan Islands. The rising sun exemplified, bore too much significance. I knew I was approaching. I put on my earphones and turned to the Japanese Station, DragonAsh’s latest hit was on, and I felt strangly calmed, elated even. My cold feet and irrational fears, nakunarimashita."