3-G

New Phones (all 6 of us got the same 3G Phone for 1 yen)

We love Japanese phones! Especially if it comes with a 3.2Megapixel camera, and SD card slot for music. :]

More than a song

Overnight Karaoke, Chihaya

Its great having a bunch of people you know you can count on no matter what. These are the first friends that I made when I first came here, and we are still steady even though we don't all live in the same dormitory anymore. Man, has my Chinese has improved so much after hanging out with them, learning vocabulary that Singaporeans never know about. I miss our cooking sessions terribly, and I know they share with me whatever they have/know, just like how I do the same for them. And trust me, they are one of the most well informed and enterprising bunch of people I know, or maybe its because I have been spoilt and pampered (relative to them) in Singapore and do not know the meaning of what it means to have to compete with...1.2 billion people.

Agent Jared is getting hopelessly sentimental again. There should be some medication for this, no?

Laters

Last bus home, Tenjin

Going back with the lawyers, I decided that I will not take photos merely of the noteworthy, but also of the mundane: the bus rides home, the meals I have, the people I hang out with, because these are precisely the things I will miss when I go back. Funny how we cherish things so much more once we know we are about to lose them....

Homestay

Shimizu Family, Meinohama

One of the resolutions that I have made recently was to spend more time with the people here that matter to me, my friends who I will be leaving behind once I go back home. Kouji and Eiko have been great homestay parents, and I am extremely indebted to them for all that they have done for me especially when I first came. I am really happy as well because I realised that I could almost fully comprehend all of what they were saying now as compared to when I first came I had to talk to them using an electronic dictionary. How time flies, how things change, and how precious friendships are

Guitar Festival

25th Fukuoka Guitar Festival, Momochi Palace

Went to support my good friend Hiroki who was performing in & organising this festival



With Charles and Angie



With Hiroki and the spanish speaking gang. I want to learn spanish too and study abroad in Spain! Agent Jared has fallen under the spell of Spanish/Latin guitar melodies

Yukata lessons

Chihiro's place, Kasuya



Nothing but pure concentration required to fold the Yukata, the summer men's kimono

I am indebted to Chihiro and her mom who brought me to Koga city to buy a very nice summer kimono... so now I can go for summer fireworks festivals all decked out like typical a Japanese :P Wearing the yukata is one thing, folding it back and caring for it requires a totally different skill level altogether!

----

JAPAN 1 - 4 BRAZIL
:( :( :( :(
byebye Japan

Magenta

Magenta Jazz Bar, Akasaka

Red, White, Good Company, Lawyers talking about the hellish life they left behind to come here. What else makes a better evening than nights such as these

S'pore

Marbre Blanc Cafe, Daimyo

Nursing an Irish Coffee, Lijun's birthday dessert segment (we had modanyaki before that) I looked in, as we talked and joked, Singaporean style, but my mind was far, far away....

阿蘇山

Road Trip! with my english student.
Approaching Aso Mountain. It took my breath away



With my English student Hiroyoshi on one of the best viewing points of Mt. Aso in Aso National Part
The clouds were so low today, it gave the magical illusion that the mountain was rising out of the clouds. I felt as if I was witnessing something spectacular. I was, wasn't I? Sugoi!



Lunch was local chicken grilled over charcoal at a traditional Japanese inn. They don't do lunch like this much in the cities anymore.

黒川

Kurokawa Onsen Hot Spring Town Resort
Worrying never did anyone any good, so take it easy, soak your problems away at Kurokawa Onsen, a quaint town tucked deep within the heart of Kumamoto Prefecture. I sometimes wonder if I am an escapist. Perhaps.

考えこと

i have worked my way up, somehow

The dream has ended

I have pinpointed the reason for my recent inability to feel happy. I have progressed to the last phase of my exchange life. Short term goals all checked and done, long term goals = what? This i have to admit, I am clueless about. Hence the recent feeling that everything is meaningless, legal research is meaningless, parties are meaningless, japanese lessons are meaningless, getting sick adds to the conundrum.

So, what lies ahead for Agent Jared, now that he no longer wants to see (more of Japan) or meet new people? Its a rush against time to think. THINK! look forward! for the life of you, what do you want to do with your life? Argh.

I read this the other day and I immediately decided to post this up:
「全てが変わること世の中で永久不変なものはない」
and at the same time, i decided that there will be some part of me that I will refuse to change, like my tenacity. Onward, onward, onward!

Memories

Pain, stacked upon itself in its melancholic drive into infinite sadness.
Pertinence, is the pain in which pain inflicts
Pressure, is the pertinence of pain which bears its load
Piercingly, pain and pertinence makes the man even stronger

Busan by night

Leaving the port, bound for home

Streets of Busan

Saemyon on a Saturday Evening



Streetstalls selling odon

Gyeongju

Day trip to Gyeongju, ancient capital of Korea
::Selected Shots::







I miss my freelancing days. At this point, we stand at the crossroads knowing that we either have to choose passion, or pragmatism, which means money. I am not sure how many people in law school are still in there for the passion, but me? not me. not anymore. but if not lawyering, what?