PianoForte

Football Updates

2009-07-14T22:33:00.000+09:00

Sigh... it's been more than half a year when I last played a game of football. Leg is getting itchier whenever I see the kids playing football here. Ah well, too bad there isn't a proper place to play football around my area. The futsal here cost 1000 yen per game (or hour, not sure bout it), which is freakin' expensive!

Today while surfing the football site PDS I've noticed a few new additions in the football boots. Interesting....

David Beckham's ClimaCool Adidas Predator Power Swerve.
The colour suits the LA Galaxy's colourway.

Adidas Predator Swerve Confederations.
Designed for the 2009 Confederations Cup in South Africa. Colour of the tongue is inspired by the national flag of South Africa, which will be hosting World Cup 2010.

Adidas Predator Swerve Champions League Star.
My personal favourite. Love the colour combination of black and red!

Adidas AdiPure II.

Nike's league, the Nike Tiempo Air Legend III.
Glad to see this line able to go on. There're still players who prefer simple design and classic touch, and I'm one of them.

Nike Mercurial Vapor Superfly.
Upgraded version of ordinary Mercurial Vapor, this series succeeds the earlier SL series.

Nike Mercurial Vapor V.
5th generation, still a popular choice of top players.

Nike's new ball for the new season. Nike Total 90 Ascente.
This is the English Premier League's version.

Haru yo Koi~

2009-07-13T22:39:00.002+09:00

Last night when I randomly surf through Youtube I found this song which reminds me of certain moments in life not so long ago.

This song, 春よ、来い "Haru yo, Koi", litterally means "spring, comes". It's sang by Matsutoya Yumi (松任谷由実), in year 1994. 15 years since then huh....

The original MV.

I posted the song up last year December when I first discovered this song. I still remember a friend shared this song through mobile's bluetooth.

This song meant a lot to me. It reminds me of the life in the last few months while I'm still in KL studying the Japanese language. How fast it can be, then half a year later I'm here in Tokyo huh....

This is a beautiful song, an adjective I rarely use to describe a song. It's such a miracle, a special rhythm and melody that only can be found in certain Japanese songs.

You know, sometimes we may enjoy foreign songs eventhough we don't understand the language. The emotion embedded in the song itself can easily "clicks" with our feelings.
While listening to the song I was like being teleported back to that moment, the last few months I spent in Malaysia. It's feels like magic.... everything just came back into the mind.
The things I've done, the food I've ate, the streets I've walked, the places I've been, the people I've met.....

Hah, I just enjoyed listening to such quality songs from time to time to spice up some interesting past memories~

Lastly, a live version of the song. Good thing is that this video has [HD] mode so you can enjoy it at better quality~ :D

Testing Apple Safari

2009-07-12T22:07:00.000+09:00

Currently writing this post via Apple's Safari browser for Windows. Wanted to try out a browser from Apple after trying out Firefox, Chrome and IE (worst).

I try to play around with browsers to see which fits my usage well. So far I've find balanced in both Firefox and Chrome while once in awhile I would boot up IE if the particular site isn't accessible via Firefox and Chrome.

Each browsers are being used specifically for different purposes. Say, one for Facebooking, another for blogging while the other one for casual net surfing.

So some pics comparison, how the 3 browsers look on my iGoogle page.

Firefox

Chrome

Safari

Noticed how similar Safari and Chrome looks eh? I was kinda surprise with it as well.

Comparing the memory usage, it's kinda surprise that Safari actually eats up more memory than Firefox, which I noted is a heavyweight browser.

I didn't take notice on how fast the browsers load, due to the unstable network I had over here. It's hard to get a fair comparison but both Safari and Chrome loaded slightly faster than Firefox.

Few years ago I've actually tried the initial version of Safari for Windows but it doesn't worked out nicely so I've completely forgotten about it when I came across it again today while browsing Apple's website.

A rather different experience in browsing, which I kinda like it. A good method to have a taste what's Apple programs run like. I've tried iTunes but didn't really like it somehow. For media playback I would still stick with Windows Media Player.

Somehow I didn't install Opera because from my previous experience I find it kinda odd, different than those of Firefox or Chrome.

Final verdict, I would liken Safari to a combination of Chrome and Firefox. It's quite easy to get used to it, because the settings and preferences are similar to those 2 browsers mentioned. From now on I'll be playing around with the 3 browsers at the same time. :D

Apple's Safari is certainly a browser to look after if you're already sick of the few choices lying around. More info here.

Update

2009-07-12T17:53:00.000+09:00

A brief write ups to update people what I am up to recently.

Apologise for the lack of update in this blog, due to busy commitments I had with studies, homeworks and tests. Seems like there's no ending in this routine huh....

This coming week will be a busy week. The daily evaluative tests, weekly pentagonal 5-chapters accumulative test is coming up, and not to mention the final test for this semester on the 4th week of July.

Besides that, next Friday-Saturday am going out of the town following a school field trip. Will be staying there for a night. I've been chosen to visit the Shiraito Waterfalls (白糸滝), my first choice. From what I've seen on the net, it's a beautiful waterfalls. Currently set this pic as my wallpaper.

For the trip, each class had to perform a 5 mins show out of free topics. My class chose to perform dancing acts which includes Backstreet Boys' "Everybody" and a Malay folksong "Dikir Puteri".

Was quite fun to work with the classmates. One decides the song, one decides the dance movements and one edit and trim the songs (me!), heh.

Yesterday went to school to practise. Was quite satisfied that we can progress to that level in such a short time. Everyone had been cooperative so that's a big bonus for all of us. With a few practises I think we can do it! :D

Some interesting pics to share...

Pepsi Shiso. Tasted like mild mint, doesn't taste like any ordinary Pepsi at all.

Yaki soba-dog. The Japanese' style of mixing both Western and Eastern food. Yaki soba (Japanese fried noodles) placed in the hot-dog styled bread.

A sample of Clorets Ice chewing gum. Love the chilling menthol!

Vice-principal of the school. A friendly man with sense of humour. Too bad he is not my Maths teacher or I would love to attend the class! (current Maths teacher is boring.... zzz... sucks my energy and spirit away all the time lol)

That's all for the brief update.... Back to the pile of books.....

Of Maths and Science

2009-07-08T21:56:00.001+09:00

The Malaysian government had just announced a decision today, that is to revert the teaching language of both Maths & Science subjects from English to Malay. This applies for both national type primary and secondary schools.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Cabinet has decided that the medium of instruction for Maths and Science will revert to Bahasa Malaysia in national schools and mother-tongue languages in national-type schools from 2012 onwards.
[Source]

Back in year 2003, the then Prime Minister of Malaysia Tun Dr Mahathir announced that Science and Maths subjects would be taught in English. Many protested, but the plan goes on for the years to come.

I think this is a STUPID decision. I don't regret saying it. From the point of view of a student, seriously I would prefer the subjects to be carried out in English rather than BM.

I was the last batch of students that learn both the subjects in BM. I entered the secondary school in year 2002 so everything is still in BM. Even when I've reached Form 4 in year 2005, the subjects are still being taught in BM.

Back then I noticed that I had problems to understand the scientific terms in Malay. Some are verbally translated from English to Malay so still understandable, but some of the native Malay words are making the lesson harder to understand.

For example: "displacement" VS "sesaran", "differentiation" VS "pembezaan", "prime number" VS "nombor perdana", "oxydation" VS "oksidasi" etc etc.

Somehow I felt that BM is not suitable to express scientific and technical terms. The original context is in English (materials used to be taken from the British O Levels) and somehow upon translated into BM it just make things more confusing, especially if there's certain mistranslate or misunderstanding in the languages.

I shamelessly admit that when I was in secondary school I had problems to cope with understanding the lesson, especially the Science subjects and Maths. It's not that I struggled badly, but you know when you're in the mid of understanding nothing much, even if someone tried to explained, it's not easy to figure it out eh.

Of all 3 sciences, the weakest would be Physics. For some reasons I did not perform well in this subject as compared to Chemistry and Biology. Mainly is because many of the formulas used in Physics are written in English, and when it's being mixed together with BM it can be confusing.

Another example, the basic formula of acceleration, a = (v-u)/t.
In BM, a = pecutan, v = laju akhir, u = laju awal, t = masa.
In Eng, a = acceleration, v = final speed, u = initial speed, t = time.

The letters in the formula represent certain units and when you have a lot of other formulas to remember, it's not uncommon that students will get everything mixed up.

For Chemistry and Biology, it wasn't that bad as most of the terms are direct verbal translate from English, but it's still twisting the original words here and there would confuses the student easily.

I struggled initially when I continued my study in A Levels. Everything is being taught in English. Anyway, sooner or later when I get used to it I've been doing quite well. That time I can understand most of the concepts easily because of the language used. Few months later I've abandoned the terms in BM and embraced the terms in English.

At the tertiary, or pre-tertiary level of education, the lesson is being carried out in English. For students who had to convert from BM to English, it's quite a challenge and not everyone can pass through it smoothly.

It's best if the students are exposed to the English teaching environment earlier as the days later would be much difficult to cope with. Just like when we first learn those basic knowledge in the primary school, everything seems to be kinda difficult but as we grew up things would be much easier isn't it? Same applies, if the students learn it earlier, they won't be facing so much problems in their later days.

There are people said that teaching those subjects in English would corrode the pride of BM, making the students neglected the importance of BM as the main language in the country. Their points may sounded reasonable but I would snub it.

It's indeed that BM is important to the country, no doubt about it. But for the sake of our knowledge, for the future, the better choice would be taught the Science and Maths subjects in English.

Other than local public universities, most of the private or foreign universities that Malaysian would likely to further study at are being carried out in English environment. Singapore, Australia, UK, and US are popular destinations among the students, this is a known fact.

Tun Mahathir spoken of his opinion regarding the execution of his initial plan to had both the subjects taught in English. Anyway it's written in BM so sorry for those who can't understand it.

It's an open secret that everyone knows how much the government have spent to switch from BM to English last time, and few years to come it's going to be reverted back to the step one again. What a waste of time, resources and money. Sadly, this is how the way they do things in the Malaysian government.

I believe concerned parents would voice out their disagreement with this topic very soon, just take note of the newspapers, especially the reader's opinions column in The Star.

Switching the language is not an easy task eh, what's moreover to change back to the original state in less than 10 years time. It's draining, not just for the government but everyone involved in the education sector as well, including the teachers and students.

Reverting the teachings back to BM is moving a step backward for our future. For those who said that the decision is made at the interest of the kids, maybe they should listen to what the kids say.

I'd say, stick with English!

P/S: Some might argue that the students who can't cope with studying the English language. Given the trend of globalisation, it's better to change the students rather than change for them. Besides, why make the change when it only benefits the minorities?

Malaysia is such a weird country that the concept of favouring majority and minority is being blurred, set place in a gray zone where you don't really obey the universal law eh.

First visit to Shobi University

2009-07-05T22:42:00.000+09:00

Am kinda excited and looking forward to visit the university campus today. Woke up 15 mins earlier before the alarm rang. It's always good that you wake ahead of alarm instead after it, heh.

The Shobi University's campus I'm visiting is located at Shima-Fukuoka, Kawagoe City, Saitama prefecture (埼玉県川越市上福岡). It's located north-east from Tokyo in the suburbs.

Headed out at 0823 from my room. Changing train from JR Yamanote line at Ikebukuro to the Tobu Tojo line isn't that complicated. Train interchanging in Tokyo isn't that complicated once you tried it for a few times. Trains' maps are available for free at the train station.

Reached the Shima-Fukuoka station at 0940. Waited for the university's free shuttle bus to pick the students up.

Was like 10 mins late from the tentative starting time 1000, but anyway I didn't miss much as they would just talking about filling the survey form. Noticed most of those present for the open-campus were Japanese, especially high school students.

Was given a tour for the 5 major fields in the Information Representation Department (情報表現学部）. Had the chance to see some of the equipments available in the university, such as a few grand pianos for the student to practise, and a room full of keyboards.

The highlight of the tour would be the visit to the live performance studio, where we're being shown how to manage a live studio performance which we've usually seen on TV.
It's interesting to see how they apply the crossfading, visual effects, switching the camera views etc in the studio, and you can see the real-time result on the main screen. Cool!

Later visited the audio recording studio, something which I'm greatly interest in. Too bad it's just a basic briefing with a rather simple song sample.

Lunch time was cut short with the extra briefings. Settled it with 2 onigiris, a salmon flavoured and another fish roe flavoured. Messed up the onigiri packaging, tearing the nori (seaweed)... ughh....

1240, got to try out what is it like to study in the university. The "trial class" I joined is mainly about making sound effects with computer.

Am shocked to see the age of the computers there, running on Windows 2000!! Reminiscence struck when I heard the pre-XP's Windows startup sound hahah. I dunno when is the last time I heard it, probably 7 or 8 years ago?
Anyway the computer does fitted with something eye-catchy to me.

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy sound card.

The trial class is just a brief introduction on how to edit simple sounds using Sound Forge. Doing basic things like cut, paste and synthesis the sample track.

It's not something new to me, as I've play around with Audacity before which has similar functions too.

Trial class ends around 1410. Then waited awhile for my turn to speak to one of the lecturers. Coincidentally the one I speak to was the lecturer who gave us the trial class moments ago.

A friendly lecturer he is. I gave my feedback that the class was kinda simple, and he replied saying that he can't jump into more complicated and technical parts of sound studies yet because those high schoolers might not understand anything at all.
Once I'm done with the questioning, I left the campus around 1550.

I didn't took many pics though, as I see no one doing it so I better don't make myself look silly.

The plaza near the entrance.

A corner of the campus.

Waiting for the train heading back to Ikebukuro, Tokyo. Most of the time the train arrived sharp at the stated time.

Commuting fee cost 310 + 400 yen to get from my hostel to the university. Times 2 for the returning journey, so totally spent 1,420 yen just on traveling. Kinda costly huh.... ~MYR 52.

So what can I say about Shobi University? The environment is pretty simple but that's just nice for study. With the large field and trees near the campus, surely it kinda feels good to study in. But then, maybe is because today's Sunday, no one's studying, so kinda too quiet to my liking.

Anyway, I'll be coming here again to check out more stuffs. Gonna be joining the 2 more trial classes in coming August. Also, I'm gonna take more pics that time then.

Briefly stopped by Ikebukuro's BicCamera to check out audio stuffs before heading back to hostel after a tired day.
The Sony's noise-cancelling earphone seems attractive, able to cancel out the sound of the noisy department store well. Love the colour and the sound quality.

Sony MDR-NC33. 7,980 yen.

Well then, that will just briefly put in what I've been doing for today. Kinda exhausted, another busy week to come....

The 3rd Month

2009-07-04T13:46:00.001+09:00

Well well well..... I dunno how should I put it, but it has been 3 months since I landed here in Japan in early April. I dunno how should I describe it, but 3 months seems to be long or short sometimes, depending how am I thinking about it.

Map of Kanto region. 関東の地図

Naturally people would ask me: "How are you there in Japan? Is everything fine?"
My reply would be: "Yeah I'm doing pretty good here, so far so good."

To what extend my Japanese language studies has been doing, I would say it's slowly improving, in a steady pace. Compared to the time when I just get here, now I can speak a little more, but still far from being fluent.

Speaking tests' result for May & June. 五月と六月の会話テスト成績。

It's good that the teacher can list down every single mistakes that I've made during the test so that I will know which part should I be concentrating to improve.

There's no point rushing to master the language in a short period of time, give it time to improve. When I first started to learn the language in last Dec I'm kinda doubtful but now seeing that I'm having pretty good improvement here so that makes me a little more confident with my choice of coming to Japan at the first place.

The textbook, "Everyone's Japanese Language".　《みんなの日本語》。

Another common question I might be asked would be whether I like Japan or not. This is a tough question, as I can't be giving a solid answer yet. For now I would say I'm content with life over here, but there are still a lot of things waiting for me to discover and explore, to find the reasons why I would like Japan.

The Japanese culture and society is very different than those of Malaysia. It's not fair to compare both together as they are not at the same level. It's normal to think that Japan is a better country than Malaysia, but there's some elements in Malaysia that Japan lacks.

Busy crossroad at Shibuya, Tokyo.　渋谷ににぎやかな街。

Japan is mainly consist of a single-racial society, so it's understandable that everything is dominated with Japanese (in terms of culture and language etc.). Influence from other civilizations do exist but it has been cleverly assimilated into part of the Japanese culture.
For example, introduction of foreign vocabularies into the Japanese language written in katakana, such as マンション (manshon = mansion)、コンビ二 (konbini = convenience store)、デパート (depato = department store).

From the example above, you may get a glimpse on how English is being used here. When I first came I thought that Japanese would might be able to speak basic English, given that their secondary language (though should be minority) would be English, due to their close ties with the USA. It's kinda shock that most of them could not speak it.

I noticed one of the reason might be the way they teach English in the school. They uses Japanese language to teach English!

A hilarious video joking bout the Japanese's English speaking ability. Watched it few years ago before and had a good laugh!

This is not the first time I express my surprise over the Japanese's English speaking ability. However, there are some "exceptional" cases which the Japanese can speak English very well.
I think that maybe the Japanese can't speak well, but at least they can read simple English don't they?

Check out the English at the bottom!　おもしろい英語。

It's well-known that the Japanese are polite and indeed, they are. Courtesy, as well, are part of their culture. One would immediately noticed the level of commitment the Japanese put into their job when stepping into a shop or restaurant.
"Irrashaimase!" is one of the most common phrase that one would be greeted when stepping into a commercial establishment. It means "Welcome".

Police and cat.　警察と猫。

If you have the chance to came across Japanese at work, you can easily see how seriously they put in effort to do their job, let it be just a stall vendor, a shopkeeper, or an office worker. Working professionalism, that's what I like about them. They're reliable and you'll know that everything will be working out fine.

There's still a lot of things of Japan which I have not seen. I'm eager to explore the suburbs and enjoy the natural beauty that Japan is famous for. City life can be exhaustive so it's good to get some well-deserve fresh air out of Tokyo.

Love this simple patio surrounded by trees! Ootsuka Park, Tokyo.　大塚公園でちょっと休む。

From July 17 to 18 there will be a school trip traveling to another province, to catch a glimpse of the famous Mount Fuji. The first time when I saw Mt. Fuji was on the way from the airport to the hostel at the very first day. Now that I've the chance to see it closer, surely it'll be a different experience! :D

I hope that I can visit this famous Shiraito Waterfalls (白糸滝) located not so far away from where we planned to have our trip. I've done a little search on Flickr and the returning result is convincing.

July will be a busy month for me to deal with exams and documentation stuffs. Tomorrow am going to visit the Shobi University's open campus to catch the glimpse of the university which may be where I'll be studying in next year. Am excited and looking forward to it! :)

'til then again, that's all for the monthly update. The next one would be written in August, feel the summer heat!

Sleep~

2009-07-01T23:45:00.001+09:00

Image via Wikipedia

If you have not read the facts before, perhaps you have not realised that we humanbeings on average spend 1/3 of our lifetimes sleeping! Just do a simple Maths, a day consist of 24 hours, and normally we sleep for 8 hours, so it's 1/3 of a day we spend on the bed.

I guess I don't need to elaborate more the importance of sleep. If you tried to stay awake for 24 hours or more, you will feel the crunch of not having enough rest, sleep. Your robust body needs to be turn off for some time for the "factory" to do some maintenance works. Having not enough sleep for a long term will eventually causes certain mental disorders in later life.

Everyone needs to sleep, but not everyone can get the quality sleep they wanted easily. It's not uncommon that city dwellers having a tough time to get asleep. It's either they have to stay up late night to work, or couldn't fall asleep due to the stress in urban life. Without quality rest, one's productivity and creativity will drastically been affected.

I had issues of insomnia before, and from time to time I had written the sort of experience in this blog, especially during my college days.
Here I would like to share some tips on how to relax yourself to get a good night sleep.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

#1 Clear your mind off

It's important that you set your mind off thinking of nothing prior you gets into sleep. I find that sometimes the brain would work "over time" the moment before sleep, which can be a good thing and a bad thing.
Good: spice up some new ideas or inspirations.
Bad: force your brain to keep on working that it won't stop easily, thus making it harder to fall asleep.

I would suggest that you tried to gain control of your thoughts, think of nothing and left it blank. When you're tired and your mind is blank, you can easily fall asleep.

I take the example of a computer:

If you've been running on lots of programs, it may take a while to get it shut down. If you have been running less or no programs, it shut downs almost immediately.

Same concept applies to human mind. If you use it lesser, it will enter "sleep mode" faster than you had been thinking things, especially things happened recently.

The key is to relax~ In what sort of methods you can relax, I'll follow up on the following points.

#2 The lullaby: MUSIC

Image via Wikipedia

Listening some chilling and relaxing music before sleep is one of the another method I employs to get my mind to relax. One of the key is to find for the perfect song to calm your mind down, the lullaby.

As a fan of instrumental music so naturally I would have a few pieces of relaxing instrumental songs at my disposal to relax a little before heading into the dreamland.
Some of the artists' songs I would listen at this moment would be Jim Brickman, Yiruma, Yanni and some other musicians.

Some recommended pieces:
Yiruma "River Flows In You"
Jim Brickman's "Angel Eyes"
David Lanz "Cristofori's Dream"
Yanni "Felitsa"
Yanni "Nightingale"
Yanni "Whispers In The Dark"
Beethoven "Moonlight Sonata 1st movement"
Enya "May It Be"
Enya "Tea House Moon"

I've embedded the Youtube links for the songs which you can easily enjoy it. Do click on [HQ] for higher quality playback, which will enhance the listening experience.

You may wonder why I did not include some of my favourite musicians such as Kenny G and Joe Hisaishi or sort. Well I would say that listening to their songs would make me stay awake instead of falling asleep, there's the energy in their songs, you get what I mean don't you.

There are a few times where I dozed off into slumber while the earphone still sticking in my ears. I would be awaken by the music when it switches to another song once the song finished.

I strongly believes that music can interacts with the mind in some ways that it could make the brain to calm down slowly into rest.

#3 The basics

Why would I call it the basics? I think it's actually things that one would easily overlooked when it comes to solving sleeping problem. These are actually simple things that would make you more comfortable to sleep in.

Some examples:
- A warm shower.
- A cup of milk or hot chocolate (in Malaysia's case, Milo).
- Do the "toilet business".
- Prepare the bed.
- Wear comfortably.

A few more details to take care off, set the sleeping conditions.
- Noise: the quieter the better.
- Light: the darker the better.
- Temperature: 18~24'C would be good.
- Comfort: the blanket, pillow, mattress factor.

Reading might work for some people but it doesn't for me. Reading book is good but it would only makes you sleep later because you'll be sucked into the reading realm, to keep the brain working.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When one would have enough sleep, naturally the mood will gets better. In a good mood, people can do a lot of great things like brainstorming, interacting etc etc. Never underestimate the power of sleep, heh.

All these above are written based on my own experience, so if you have any other tips or tricks to induce sleep feel free to share around~ :)

Below Average Service Encounter

2009-06-29T19:23:00.001+09:00

Just came across something that I think I ought to write it up here.

About 2 months ago I've registered for this SoftBank phone contract, and according to the contract a gift voucher worth 5000 yen (~RM 185) will be delivered to us after 2 months.

My friends who registered the same date as me received their gift vouchers. Almost everyone got it except me. Baffled by this situation, I ought to give Softbank a call to check things out.

Too bad the Chinese-speaking agent Ms Pan is having issue with her phone so she's not easily being reached. I've decided to call Softbank's English customer support line.

The operator attended me was Ms Satou (if I'm not mistaken). When I started to speak with her I noticed the way she responded to my requests are kinda.... how should I say, a little rude?

The conversation goes something like this:

-------------------------------

(skipped the introduction part)
CLF: " OK, so my name is XXXXX-XXXX-XXX."
SB: "uhuh...."
CLF: ".....? "
SB: "Please wait a moment while I check for you." *Plays Tchaikovsky's music*

SB: "Sorry to keep you waiting sir. I've just checked, and according to the information you will be receiving the voucher by 2X of July."
CLF: "Wow that's quite some time to go! A question, how come my voucher would be delivered later than the others? Because my friends who registered the same together, same phone and same package had already received their vouchers."
SB: "Oh? Let me double check again, hold on a sec please." *Tchaikovsky's music again*

SB: "bla bla bla.... (something about database assortment thingy)."
CLF: "I see. I would like to know how come there's such a big gap in between me and my friend's? As the reason mentioned above we all applied on the same time so it should be delivered roughly around the same tine isn't it?"
SB: " (sounded annoyed) The voucher will be delivered to you, so please wait for it."
CLF: "Oh OK.... Well then, that's all. Thank you."
SB: "Thank you. Once again, my name is Satou. Bye." * line cuts off *

-------------------------------

Things aren't that bad initially when I asked her to check the status for me. It's only when I started to question her regarding the why I would be getting the voucher late, she started to sounded unease.

I don't think whether I've asked too much, but as the customer I had the right to inquire the delay in the service. A simple reply would be sufficient but the way she sounded, as if she had lost her patience.
Her English is OK, we can understand what we're talking about so it is not really a problem of miscommunication.

The whole conversation lasted within 10 mins, it isn't long winded, just straight to the point. I expect at least satisfying service from Softbank, but turns out that this time I've met a bumper. Although I roughly got the answer, I'm not entirely satisfied with it especially the service of the operator.

Previously I've called the English customer service for another matter earlier this month. The attendant Ms Moma (again, if I'm not mistaken) was good, so I expected similar service this time and unfortunately it was a disappointment.

Japan is famed for it's superb service quality, no doubt. I've seen it and experienced it for myself. Luckily I bump into such trouble through a phone instead of real-person encounter, which would be more troublesome then.

My Japanese level is still far from fluent speaking so I would stick to English to prevent any possible miscommunication or faux pas. Too bad, it's hard to find a Japanese that can speak English fluently. Seems like they're kinda afraid speaking it. Some more details I would talk about it in a later post in this week, if I had the time to write it.

Education Fair at Ikebukuro

2009-06-28T23:27:00.001+09:00

This morning reluctantly woke up at 0815 to get myself prepared attending the education fair at Ikebukuro (池袋).

Left the hostel at 8:48am, and reached Ikebukuro's JR station at 9:15am, earlier than I expected.

Walked to the Sunshine City via the station's east gate. Sunshine City consists of few building complexes to make up the concept "city within city". There's some other similar concept complexes such as the Tokyo Midtown located at the Roppongi area, which I've yet to explore it.

I joined in my schoolmates which came a little earlier than me. Walking towards the education fair hall is quite challenging as we've to pass through different levels before reaching the hall.

There're quite some people lining up there around 9:40am. Spotted many familiar faces there. The organiser did a good job in the crowd control, to ensure smooth flow of the participants.

Preparing for the education fair to starts.

The fair starts sharp at 10am. I'm lucky that I'm with the first few batches of students that gets into the hall before it gets too crowded.

Quickly went to the booth of Shobi University where I'm likely to head to. Was the first to consult the reps so I took my own sweet time for Q&A sessions with the rep. It was a fruitful session as I've managed to get answers to my doubts.
Am likely to settle down for "Sound Acoustics" course instead of the earlier "Music Media" as I noticed I prefer to learn technical things bout those PA systems. Music Media is more to those of compositions etc.

Many thanks to Ms. Tashiro for explaning to me all the details thingy. The freebie pen + mechanical pencil is cool!

Shobi University's booth, with Ms Tashiro attending other students.

Anyway, am going to visit the campus on next Sunday. Oh boy, busy week to come!

Spend some time walking around looking at the other booths. Noticed the crowd had significantly built up when I'm done with my Q&A session.

Recognise this university? One can judge the popularity of this university based on how many people lining up in front of this booth.

Met my teacher Endou sensei there. She's kind enough to help us out to find out the universities and collecting the university info for us. Great teacher she is! :)

Around noon I left the hall with hostelmate and classmate, Cong Jie heading back to our hostel. First we settled our lunch at Yoshinoya.

My unagi don, 550 yen. Affordable and delicious! :)

Somehow I would prefer Yoshinoya than their competitor Matsuya but too bad the nearest Yoshinoya is located some distance away from hostel.

After the lunch we decided to walk to the nearest train station to do some sightseeing in Tokyo. It's a good time to explore the yet-unfamiliar cities of Tokyo.

Somehow we came across Gokokuji (護国寺), seems to be a famous temple by judging the structure and area.

We stop by the Ootsuka Park (大塚公園) to rest for awhile. It is such a relaxing park with all the tree shades.

Interesting fountain in the park.

Patio with tree shades, relaxing~

Found this man relaxing while reading a novel. Seems like he's off-duty, heh.

Narrow buildings in Tokyo....

By the time I reached home it was around 2:30pm. Felt a little dizzy so took a shower and had a nap. It was raining, so nice to sleep until I kinda refused to wake up eventhough I've still have things to do, heh.

Due to self-constraining budget, I didn't went anywhere to do sightseeing much as I don't want to spend too much money. Given that I had something to do outside, I wouldn't miss the chance to feel the real deal of Tokyo and explore new places~ :)

P/S: Took this pic when I reached home.

Michael Jackson 1958 - 2009

2009-06-26T23:59:00.000+09:00

Michael Jackson via last.fm

This morning I woke up unusually earlier at 7:15am. As usual I would briefly do a round of online checking mails, blogs and social network sites for any updates or so from previous night.

My attention was caught by a Japanese blog feed which I subscribed few days ago, revealing the shocking news. It was in Japanese so I would have to read slowly and carefully.
Roughly getting some ideas what it's talking about, I went to check BBC news (I'm more used reading it than CNN).

Around 7:45am, BBC says that MJ has fallen ill and taken to the hospital, no confirmation of the demise yet. Unofficial reports had spread on Google News, some US medias already reporting the dead of the star.

By 8am, BBC's site is updated with the official news to put all the doubts aside. He's dead. It's real.

It's said that Michael's dead is caused by cardiac arrest. In layman's term, it's heart attack. His health condition might be a myth, but anyhow he's killed by one of the most common causes of death.

I was born at the time Michael Jackson is reaching the peak of his fame during the late 80s. I knew some of his songs, but didn't really amazed me that would leave a deep impression on me.
MJ is not really an idol whom I followed fervently, but I do like some of his songs nevertheless.

MJ musical style of pop hits, doesn't really attracted me as I'm not into such genre of music. Anyhow, I do enjoy some of his softer songs like "You Are Not Alone" and "Heal The World". Those would probably be the few songs that I can remember of him.

Surely, many of us had at least read or heard of his weird actions through the last few years of his life, which I could remember correctly when he shows his 3rd child from the balcony of the hotel suite in a dangerous manner, which provoked many people at that time.
Later there comes the court lawsuit against him for molesting child, being forced out from his Neverland ranch, and later bankruptcy.
Life is tough for him, regardless of his stardom he achieved decades ago.

Many thought he' a freak, doing some unusual things without logical thinking. I guess that's some serious affect he had from his younger days. There must be some sad and untold stories about Michael Jackson. Although he does not talk about it in detail, but he has given hints on numerous times as reported.

Let me share with you some of MJ's most memorable works which I like.

"Earth Song"

A masterpiece-class music. I first saw the MV many years ago on the TV, and am amazed by both the sound and the visual effects of the MV.
Up until today I'm still amazed that this song talks about environmental issues when it is still not really something important on everyone's agenda at that time (mid 90s I think). A very good song indeed, but too bad not everyone gets the message that the song tried to express.

"You Are Not Alone"

I would credit Sun Hua for reminding me of this song. Back in secondary school from time to time I would heard him humming to this tune. Years later I would remember this song well. Very meaningful, a soft and yet nicely done piece, kinda different than MJ's usual style.

"Heal The World"

Besides "You Are Not Alone" above, another soft and yet powerful song would be this, "Heal The World". I would say this is probably my favourite song of MJ's.
With the message of peace, MJ hopes that his song could somewhat help to stop the war happening around the world, which if not mistaken the war of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early 90's.
Unfortunately, the message of the song wasn't able to stop all the wars by that time, and it's still continue even until today.

From some of the styles of his music, I can see the pacifist in him. I guess he had witnessed a lot from his life and those happening around the world. He dislike conflicts and violences, thus he tried to use his musical influence to persuade people to stop fighting against each others. Too bad it doesn't' work out well as expected. :(

Michael Jackson lives a controversial and extraordinary life. Now that he can forget all of the troubles, and finally rest peacefully, a good sleep.

Rest in Peace Michael Jackson, the legendary pop musician of our era.

Apple products perhaps?

2009-06-23T22:24:00.001+09:00

Recently I've been following the news of Apple products, from their MacBook to the iPod line. For some reasons I'm keen on following those news, subscribed to a few blogs' RSS feeds so that I can stay updated for the latest happenings in the Apple world.

Nice looking Apple setup.

It's not a secret that Apple's Macintosh computers are somewhat superior than the conventional Windows PC. Performance-wise, reliability and security, Mac wins.
The few things that Windows would beat Mac would be the price and the abundance of programs available. Anyway, there're always good Mac alternatives to handle the job of what PC can do. It's not surprising that those programs can outperform their Windows counterparts.

I am attracted to those features as mentioned above. It's not just a commercial gimmick, but the pros are running on Mac, rarely on a PC. Those graphic designers, audio engineers, studio mixers, business representatives etc, are running on Mac.

Thus, I might be getting a MacBook, but definitely not in near future.

MacBook is not cheap, from the Apple Malaysia's online shop, after some tweaking, a satisfying machine would cost me RM 6,150.

The add-on programs cost quite a sum, but I guess if I am to make full use of the machine, those programs will come in handy, especially if I'm traveling here and there frequently.

There are another 2 models in the MacBook family, the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. Those would cost more than MacBook and until I can afford another one, a MacBook would be good enough for now.

Besides a Mac, I would also like to have a unit of iPod, preferably iPod Touch.
It's well-known that I'm a music lover, I took the Sony Walkman wherever I move on. I almost getting an iPod Nano at that time but I opt for a Sony Walkman instead.

Although it's said that iPod's sound quality is inferior to Sony Walkman's, but I've yet to judge it both side by side. I had played around with an iPod Nano and I'm impressed with it.

Besides the well-known music playability, the iPod syncs well with MacBook, both can flawlessly integrate the data from each others. Besides music and photos, calendars, contacts and reminders can be synced together on both machines.
Oh and not to mention, those fun and useful apps on the iPod too!

MacBook + iPod would be my current target of next computing gadgets. Aprroximately I would need around RM 9,000 to fulfill this target. Would try to earn the money by myself and get it someday later.

I hope this current Dell Studio 15 can last til I get a Mac eh. :)

Oh and by the way, although the Apple stuffs look cool and stylish, those aren't the main concerns why I would like to get a Mac product. Usability and functionality, is what I ask for.

In Search of University

2009-06-21T23:31:00.000+09:00

My main purpose of coming here to study for a year is to get into a university that offers course that I wanted to study, which is sound engineering, or related field.

So far the best choice I can get is Shobi University (尚美学園大学）. It offers 2 courses which I'm interested in.

The first is Music Media course, and the second is Sound Acoustic course.
There are difference between both courses, and both had things that I wanted to study.

Upon checking the course guidelines, I was wondering which to choose between the 2 courses.

- Music Media offers the subjects related to general music industry, which includes compositions, modern music trends, musical analytics etc.

- Sound Acoustic is a technical course which plays around with recordings, consoles, studios etc.

Initially I thought the sound engineering I want to study consist of both subjects listed above, but now I realised it has been branched out into 2 different courses.

I've consulted my teacher about this matter. She's been kind enough to guide in as much as she cans but ultimately I would have to consult the university representatives for more info.

Next Sunday am going to Ikebukuro for an education fair, which the university also participates. Gonna consult them which course is more suitable for me etc etc.

Then, maybe on the first Sunday of July am going to the university there to look around? The campus is located at Saitama prefecture (埼玉県). I think it would take like 1 hour+ to travel there via train from where I am right now.
For your information, it's located to the north-west of Tokyo, while I'm currently located at the north-eastern of Tokyo.

Ah well, still have some time to think about it, as the application starts on late Oct.

My teacher told me by the progress of the lesson I'm having now I should be able to make it up to the standard for university application. She told me not to worry, and confident that I can get the course I want. :D

Actually I've learn that in KL there are a few places where I can study sound engineering as well. One is pretty close to the place while some are around PJ area.
So the question is, why I'm spending so much to study overseas whereas I can study it locally?

I think given the chance, to study abroad is quite good as well, a total different experience than study locally. You are exposed to more things outside, more freedom to explore things that you didn't came across before.

Living in Japan does have it's ups and downs. It cant be denied that home is still the best, with all the comfort and people around you. But then, a little hardship will build up a stronger character.

Well then no matter what..... gonna spend some more time here staying also.... Since it's my choice at the first place, so no regrets coming here to study eh? :)

Facebook TAG

2009-06-21T15:52:00.000+09:00

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 100 Truths about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you.

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, copy and paste this note, erase my answers and enter your own, tag people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)

WHAT WAS YOUR :
1. Last beverage : Mitsuya cider
2. Last phone call : to my classmate, asking want to play ping pong or not.
3. Last text message: some random answers to another friend.
4. Last song you listened to : Fallen Embers by Enya.
5. Last time you cried : can't remember.

HAVE YOU EVER :
6. Dated someone twice : nope
7. Been cheated on : nope
8. Kissed someone & regretted it : nope, but why regret?
9. Lost someone special : not for now.
10. Been depressed : once in awhile, but recover rather fast. :)
11. Been drunk and threw up : half-drunk, yes.

LIST THREE FAVORITE COLOURS :
12. Red
13. Black
14. Blue

THIS YEAR HAVE YOU : (2009)
15. Made a new friend : yeah
16. Fallen out of love : fallen out? huh?
17. Laughed until you cried : when I came across a laughter bomb.
18. Met someone who changed you : yep, learn from others to be a better person. :D
19. Found out who your true friends were : known~
20. Found out someone was talking about you : somehow heard of it, but I don't really mind it.
21. Kissed anyone on your friend's list : nope.
22. How many people on your friends list do you know in real life : countless lol.
23. How many kids do you want to have : no idea for now.
24. Do you have any pets : nope in real life, unless you count the one in Pet Society as well.
25. Do you want to change your name : no, it's perfect lol.
26. What did you do for your last birthday : had lunch at Kenny Roger's Roasters.
27. What time did you wake up today : 1030.
28. What were you doing at midnight last night : listening to Enya's angelic voice.
29. Name something you CANNOT wait for : hmm..... I can wait for most things.
30. Last time you saw your Mother : few weeks ago through Skype video chat.

31. What is one thing you wish you could change about your life : don't need to worry bout finance?
32. What are you listening to right now : Enya "May It Be". classic! :D
33. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom : Tom, yeap an Argentine net friend.
34. What's getting on your nerves right now : Uncertainties in decisions, something that is out of my control.
35. Most visited webpage : iGoogle, my homepage.
36. Whats your real name : Ling Fan.
37. Nicknames : CLF
38. Relationship Status : complicated
39. Zodiac sign : 2 fishes
40. Male or female? : Male
41. Elementary : SJK(C) Mun Yee
42. Middle School? : SMJK Chong Hwa
43. High school/college? : Tunku Abdul Rahman College
44. Hair colour : Black
45. Long or short : Currently kinda long to my liking, prefer shorter.
46. Height : Above average I guess? There's always someone taller than me.
47. Do you have a crush on someone? : Crush? traffic jam.....
48. What do you like about yourself? : Great thinker~ a wicked one. :P
49. Piercings : nil.
50. Tattoos : nil.
51. Righty or lefty : Right, but being left can be interesting as well.

FIRSTS :
52. First surgery: Year 2000, to remove a benign tumour on by back.
53. First piercing : I don't pierce.
54. First best friend : Kok Yi or Hong Inn eh? primary standard 1 friends til now~
55.First sport you joined : badminton I guess.
56. First vacation : Been to many places with family. one of the most memorable earliest would be going to Sabah in 1998.
58. First pair of trainers : sport shoes eh.... can't remember.

RIGHT NOW
59. Eating : nope, just ate like an hour or two ago.
60. Drinking : yep, tap water and Mitsuya cider.
61. I'm about to : Write blog
62. Listening to : "Exile" by Enya.
63. Waiting for : Evening, go out to get dinner and grocceries.
64. Want kids? : Yep, it's part of the human life cycle~
65. Get Married? : Not so soon, maybe before 30 if I can afford it?
66. Career? : Sound engineer. :)

WHICH IS BETTER :
67. Lips or eyes : O_o
68. Hugs or kisses : Hug then kiss, the universal law~
69. Shorter or taller : Neither.
70. Older or Younger : Same or younger perhaps.
71. Romantic or spontaneous : Practical would do.
72. Nice stomach or nice arms : Erm, anything to do with it?
73. Sensitive or loud : Both?
74. Hook-up or relationship : Relationship~
75. Trouble maker or hesitant : No idea lol, but don't want any unwanted troubles!

HAVE YOU EVER :
76. Kissed a stranger : No
77. Drank hard liquor : Yep, but just for the sake to test it.
78. Lost glasses/contacts : Nope.
79. Sex on first date : Hell no.
80. Broken someone's heart : So far nope.
82. Been arrested : Thankfully I'm a good boy. :P
83. Turned someone down : Turn down? I think nope.
84. Cried when someone died : yes
85. Fallen for a friend? : possible.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:
86. Yourself : Yep, me myself and I~
87. Miracles : if I believe in miracle I would've hit the jackpot! :D
88. Love at first sight : hardly, not so practical.
89. Heaven : No idea. you will never know what's life after death~
90. Santa Claus : nope. don't really celebrate Xmas heh.
91. Kiss on the first date : nope
92. Angels : if there're angels, then there must be demons as well to balance out~

ANSWER TRUTHFULLY:
94. Had more than 1 girlfriend/boyfriend at a time : nope
95. Did you sing today? : yep, humming over the song's melody~
96. Ever cheated on somebody : cheated on small matter~
97. If you could go back in time, how far would you go? : hmm.... perhaps back to secondary school time? that's when I learn many things.
98. If you could pick a day from last year and relive it, what would it be? : hah, 23 Feb 08 I think.
99. Are you afraid of falling in love? : if you're afraid you might miss out the best part in life. :D
100. Posting this as 100 truths? : well amost.... lol.

The Birth of a "Baby"

2009-06-18T20:39:00.004+09:00

Tuesday my class finished earlier at 2:30pm. A friend asked me to help with some photo-shootings of his just-delivered baby. Am glad and honoured that he asked me for the favour, happily agreed to help him.

It's a Canon!

EOS 50D.

The new born "baby" is a Canon EOS 50D DSLR camera.

The proud owner, Jian Shan looking happily at the newborn, which is held by another friend Kenji.

The body, with the lens cover take off.

Baby with the bundled lens.

EFS 18-200mm lens.

The lens comes with image stabilizer and auto/manual focus.

The little screen that shows some of the vital infos such as white balance, ISO, focus etc etc.

The complicated functions dial. Lots of unfamiliar options to me.

The rear body. Again, lots of buttons to play around.

The output. Besides th conventional USB, this camera comes with HDMI output as well, nice.

Some accessories bought together. Screen protector, Compact Flash card etc.

Posing.

That's all for the pics that I took with my Canon IXY. Didn't get to try play around with the DSLR as the battery is being charged.

From what I've seen from the sample pics taken later, the image quality impresses me. The black and white photos are especially amazing! Gonna ask the pics from Jian Shan next time eh....

I kinda like photography, but at this moment I'm doing fine with consumer level product. Am happy with my current Canon IXY 920 IS, ain't planning to change it any time soon definitely.

If I were to consider upgrading camera, I would try out prosumer level camera like this Canon PowerShot G10 which another friend owns.

Photography is not a cheap hobby.
Getting ready for everything, from the DSLR camera body, the lens, kits and accessories would easily cost more than RM 5k, much expensive than my current audiophile hobby.

Salmon~

2009-06-15T22:47:00.002+09:00

Been cooking for say, 2 weeks + and had learn to handle the fire a little better, but still not good enough. I still had problem to fried an egg nicely huh....

Anyway, today's main character is salmon, 鮭. I believe this fish is not unfamiliar for those who love Japanese food eh, the distinctive orange-pinkish texture.

Image by CLF via Flickr

Salmon doesn't have those strong fishy smell, thus most people can accept it.
It's bone can be easily retrieve and that's another plus point considering that we normally would take time to pick the bones out while eating fish.

Salmon can be eaten raw (sushi and sashimi) and cooked in many ways. The theory behind this flexibility is beyond my knowledge, but as long as it taste good, the public can accept it, then it's good enough for me.

I learn a little trick or two to prepare salmon back in KL where my mother showed me how to do it the easy way.

Below is my noob ways of cooking it, it's nothing comparable to those pro chefs or mothers who've been cooking for centuries.... lol.

*-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~*

#1 Microwave salmon.

As the name suggested, it's fairly easy to start with.

Things you need:
- Salmon steak/fillet.
- Microwave oven.
- Oil, sauce etc. (variable, depends on what you had).

1) Get the salmon steak placed on the microwaveable plate (make sure it won't explode lol). It's better that if it's defrosted, if not, just leave the frosted salmon out for awhile like 30 mins until the meat is kinda tender and soft.

2) Add flavouring like soy sauce, oyster sauce etc. that you can get, based on your liken. Back home we usually use both soy sauce and oyster sauce.
If you like you may add a little amount of oil in, or perhaps a butter. Salmon itself produces the fish oil when heated so just a little additional of oil will do. The salmon's oil is good for health by the way.
Oh and a dash of pepper, or pinch of salt is good too.

3) Send the poor fish into the microwave oven. Tentatively, heat it for about 4~5 mins under slightly-above-average heat. When it's done, you can leave the dish in there for awhile before collecting it. Let the heat accumulated inside to further heat the fish.

4) After awhile (5 ~ 15 mins after the microwave done), you may collect and consume the fish.

2 pics here of the final result, with and without flash.

You may noticed the large pile of dried black sauce on the plate is due to the overheating, which is the problem I had. So it's wise to put the heat level around the middle.

Comparing it to the one I made back in KL.

Also, this method may make the microwave oven dirty due to the oil being microwaved, it would splash~ So it's good that you prepared tissue papers to wipe the mess off after finish with the salmon business.

*-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~*

#2 Stir fry salmon.

Another conventional method to cook salmon besides the lazy way mentioned above.

Things you need:
- Salmon steak/fillet.
- Fry pan.
- Oil, sauce, flavourings etc.

1) Again like above, get the salmon steak defrosted before proceed with the cooking. Leave it there for ~30 mins for the flesh to get tender and soft, and you're prepare to cook.

2) Depending on personal preference, you can choose to apply the sauce to the salmon before cooking it, like marinate it to give it a better taste.
You can do so few hours prior cooking it, or maybe let it marinate overnight?
Never really try this before as I normally do without marinating it.
I think soy sauce, oyster sauce are good marinating agents, maybe you have your own secret recipe eh?

3) I personally would prefer to add a little oil and some garlics into the fry pan to heat things up a bit before placing the poor fish in.
For now I would cook under low heat as I still can't control the fire just yet.

4) After the pan is heated up, you can start to fry the salmon bit by bit. You can flip the fish over from time to time. I usually use the stirrer and the fork to flip it over.

5) Also, while stir frying the salmon, add some sauce and water into it so that it won't be too dry up.

6) It should be cooked after 5~10 mins of stir frying. You can check whether it's cooked by poking the flesh with the fork, check out the meat inside.
Do note that salmon doesn't need to be cooked 100% or it will be kinda hard to chew later on.

7) You may stop the fire and serve the salmon when you think it's cooked enough.

Pics from my "experiment".

*-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~*

Salmon is relatively easy to prepare, a good fish to start off for beginners like me.
It might not be the cheapest fish, but it's reasonably available.

Back in Malaysia I think the reasonable price is around RM 25~30/kg at hypermarkets (Carrefour, Tesco, Giant etc.).

Here in Japan they usually cost 80~90 yen (~RM 3.25) for a half U-shape salmon steak. How much it's worth per kilogram I didn't take notice of it.

Also take note that, salmon doesn't need to be 100% cooked. Best is let it cooked around 80~90% to retain the tenderness and juice of the fish itself.
More than that, you'll noticed the fish's texture changed and you may not like the flaky and hard characteristic, in other words, not chewy.

There are still a lot of ways to prepare a salmon dish, and I just shared with you 2 methods which I currently know how to prepare it.
I dunno how to make salmon sushi, but might try salmon sashimi if I had the fresh ingredients.
Cutting the salmon slices into sashimi requires precise knifework, to get the thickness just right, not too thick and not too thin.

That's all for now which I wanted to share about my cooking experience so far. Feel free to share any of your stories or recipes if you have one. :D

Japanese Audio Updates

2009-06-13T15:05:00.002+09:00

Image by CLF via Flickr

I've been here for 2 months+ and I've been noticing the audio scene over here in Japan, generally based on my observations on how common it is for the Japanese hook up their earphones or headphones.

I was quite surprised and baffled by the amount of Japanese put on the earphones and headphones while commuting in the train and walking on the streets.

I think out of 10 persons in the public, at least 2 or 3, had something stuck into their ears, listening (or maybe blocking the noise?).

Riding the bicycle is a common method of transportation for the Japanese, and it's not uncommon to see them cycling while listening. I quickly adopted this habit as I find cycling much more enjoyable while listening to my favourite tunes. :)

Other than those common earphones (let it be earbuds or in-ear monitors), it's quite normal for them to stick with big-sized headphones like those normally used at home.

Back in Malaysia, I've seen only a few people who dared to put on a full-size headphone inside the LRT, but for the Japanese is very common.

Image by CLF via Flickr

From what I observed, the Japanese prefers iPod to any other MP3 players, followed by Sony Walkman. Some would just listen from their mobile phones. What songs they are listening, I had no idea.

Noticeable earphone and headphone brands the Japanese prefers are Audio Technica, BOSE, Sony and Panasonic. I personally favours Audio Technica to another other brands listed above.

From my experience using 2 units of Audio Technica headphones, what I can say is the superb build quality and most importantly satisfying listening experience.

Image by CLF via Flickr

Japan is the motherland of Audio Technica so it's easily available at those

electronic department stores (I wouldn't call it shopping mall because it lacks the kind of comfort and feel of a real shopping paradise like those back in M'sia).

They had almost the full range of the headphone products and able to audition it one by one. Unfortunately, the environment is too noisy to do judgement. Lack of volume and sound input control is something bothering me from making a proper audition of those headphones.

A general guide for audiophiles to decide getting which headphone is to try them out personally to determine whether the headphone suits their "tastebuds" and whether their bank can afford it (not joking, as some high-end headphones can go up to thousand USD!).

This Audio Technica ATH-ES7 is a piece of headphone I would love to own in near future as it's been highly rated among audiophiles. Read quite a lot of Japanese using it due to it's portabality, elegence design and most importantly the superb sound quality it produces.

So far the cheapest ES7 I've found is on Amazon Japan, selling at JPY 11,180 (~MYR 400) compared to the suggested retail price JPY 18,900 (~MYR 673).

I've been tempted to get this headphone, but not so soon.....

Anyway, this is not the end of the audio scene in Japan yet. I've yet to explore some other great discoveries like Denon, another headphone brand native to Japan.

'til then, will be updating when I had made some new discoveries.

Life in Japan Report

2009-06-09T23:00:00.001+09:00

It has been slightly more than 2 months since I first landed here in Japan on 2nd of April.

Ah well, so far it has been OK, though having ups and downs within my mind is something I don't really like, but it can't be helped as I'm here not just to study Japanese language, but to live all by myself, to be independent.

Since I've started to cook, so can save quite some money from dining outside. Now slowly to get used to the budget life. Eating out is like a luxurious nowadays.

Might not looked the best but hey at least it's edible!

Applied for the part-time permit after persuading my teacher, tentatively will get the permit by next month.
Should be start working by end of July or maybe August. Still not sure what I plan to work part-time though, either as restaurant helper or maybe some job if got anyone introduce me to do.

I understand that by working according to the Japanese law I can barely made it to cover my monthly expenses, but anyway if I can ask lesser money from the family, it's good enough.

The family understands that I still need some money as a backup in case of emergency, or when I needed it.

Talk about the Japanese language, I think I've getting slightly better in speaking out.
Though I may scored quite well for written test, I still have a lot to catch up when communicating in Japanese. It is said that working part-time can greatly improve our speaking.

Ah well.... from time to time I will still have bits of homesick. Looking back at those KL pics, the food, the people, the places..... induce the urge to fly back to KL hahah....
Although it's said that Tokyo is a better city, but I still find my "soul" back in KL, heh. There are something special about KL, which is why people would like it in some ways after they went there.

If only KL can improve it's security and hygiene, it would be a great city for all. :)

Anyway, I'm likely to back in KL during the end of Feb, 2010. I hope I can get all my university applications done by then, cross-fingers....

Arakawa Matsuri

2009-06-09T18:52:00.001+09:00

Last Saturday (6th June) I had the chance to join the local matsuri (祭り, festival) celebrating err..... well actually 天王祭 I think. Roughly translate is to celebrate the King? Whether it is referring to the current Emperor Akihito or previous emperors, or deities, I had no idea.
Anyway, this is just a small one for the local community, not as large as those full-scale ones that normally the TV shows.

We gathered at the local park which is just located behind the hostel to prepare for the matsuri.

Mikoshi 神輿 (portable shrine for matsuri) is the object that we would be carrying in order to proceed with the so-called matsuri.

Me, getting ready to join the fun!
The festival clothing was being loaned from the organisation which runs the matsuri.

Hostelmates.

Some shots of the mikoshi before carrying it.

Up and here we go!

Carrying the mikoshi...

Was being scolded by people behind me that I slack off carrying the mikoshi while they bear all the weight at behind. Sorry guys, for the sake of blogging, it can't be helped. :P

After carrying the mikoshi, chanting and swaying for awhile, we stopped and rested for awhile. Free drinks are provided.
Was being given a can of Asahi beer and another cider. Anyhow I prefer the cider to the beer though.

Golden phoenix... err... chicken?

Second journey starts. Shots from different angles.

Making a turn into the narrow street.

Golden chicken, or maybe phoenix standing high up.

Continue carrying, chanting and walking....

This person's festive clothing is different than our normal ones, kinda cool but I can't read what is it. :S

The big fan to keep some of us cool.

Almost there, near the front of our hostel.

Group pic of the ABK students!

ABK Yamabuki hostelmates.

Back to the mikoshi. The mini shrine.

The golden chicken or phoenix standing at it's full glory lol.

The locals demonstrate to us how it actually works.

The housewives join in.

Our turn to join the locals. Asked my friend to use my camera since her's ran out of battery. *ahem* Sony < Canon in terms of camera. *ahem*

I LOL'd.

Positioning ourselves to place the mikoshi down.

The rewards, some traditional method-cooked rice, and a free pass for the local public bath which only valids on that particular weekend (first weekend of June).

It's hard to describe the process by just words and pictures. Here's a short video to roughly give you the idea how it works.

(alternate video link)

Joining this matsuri is really a different kind of experience for me, a good way to get closer with the locals, as we normally wouldn't interact with them much as we're just busy with our business with the school (study).

Will be looking forward to join another kind of matsuri if I had the chance!! :D

BONUS!!

Some miscellaneous pics which I find interesting.

Police & cat. What kind of relationship is this? LOL....

Super kawaii little girl in kimono.

Life in Japan continues...... :)

MYSH's tag

2009-06-06T23:00:00.000+09:00

1 . What have you been doing recently?
busying with school stuffs and my life~ :)

2 . Do you ever turn your handphone off?
so far no, keep it running 24/7 as I use it as my alarm clock.

3 . What happened at 10am today?
zzz.....

4 . When did you last cry?
April I think, was watching Okuribito lol.

5 . Believe in Fate/Destiny?
yeah, don't expect anyone just fall for you if you didn't work hard for it.

6 . What do you want in life now?
financial stability, and mentally prepared for things in the future.

7 . Do you carry an umbrella when it rains or just put up your hood?
I prefer the hood from my jacket, umbrella is not so useful if the rain is heavy....

8. What's your favourite thing to do on bed ?
Listen to music, think, and then sleep.

9. What bottoms are you wearing now?
black long bottom I got from NS days.

10 . What are the nicest things in your inbox?
inbox? e-mail? SMS? or the postal inbox?

11 . Do you tend to make relationships complicated?
hmm..... as simplle and direct as possible?

12 . Are you wearing anything borrowed from anyone?
nope, all are my own cloths. :D

13 . What was the last movie you caught?
Sword of the Stranger, a Japanese anime movie.

14 . What are you proud of ?
Myself, my interest, my background, my heritage, everything that is related to me. :)

15 . What does the oldest text msg in your inbox says and who is it fr0m?
from my Nokia 5310... dated back last year 7 July, a friend asking me whether I got his tutorial paper lol.

16 . What was the last song you sang out loud?
can't remember lol....

17 . Do you have any nicknames?
yep a few, like CLF etc.

18 . What does the newest text msg says and who is it from?
someone is confuse with something and need to discuss about it.

19 . What time did you go to sleep last night?
almost 3am lol.

20 . Are you currently happy?
yeah am kinda happy now, nothing much to worry about. :)

21 . Who gives you the best advice?
from books, or through some inspiring blogs?

22 . Do you eat whipped cream straight from the can?
huh?

23 . Who do you talked to on phone last night?
nay.

24 . Is something bugging you right now?
not really. :)

25 . Who is the last person to make you laugh?
random friends~

26.Do you like yurself?
yep, the best in me! :D

27.You want $5 or $10?
both ok?

28.Do you think you are stupid sometimes?
sometimes, but prefer to be the smart guy.

29.Who is your best best best fren?
not so sure about it.

30.What will you do if you like that boy?
OMG i not gay!!

31.Who are your favourite stars?
Stars? So many of them, mostly are instrumentalist musicians.

32.You hate your mother sometimes in some ways?
nope, i don't hate anyone.

33.Do you had even stead before?
I dun understand this question.

34.what type of girl do you like?
someone whom I can talk things with, and shares teh same interest. :)

35.Now are you single/attached?
physically single, but mentally taken. GG.

The Art of Convincing

2009-06-05T23:59:00.001+09:00

These few days we're to talk to our respective class teacher about applying for the part-time job permit.

Before coming to Japan, I was being told that doing part-time job while studying is plausible, and in fact it's being encouraged to do so.

Doing part-time job is not just solely for earning the money to support oneself, but also a different kind of environment to practise the language while you're outside of the school. When you mix along with the locals, naturally you'll be getting better with their language.

That's one of the few reasons why my family would send me over here to study as I can learn more things and to become more independent all by myself.

So far I've learn how to settle myself of daily needs, from the laundries, groceries and recently, picking up how to cook.

If I can pass the test of earning money by myself, then I can, officially "graduate" from being independent to live life all alone by myself. It's about time that I learn all these things, better to learn it earlier than later when I'm too old to accept any sort of drastic changes.

Back to the part-time permit stuff with the teacher, yesterday my friend had a talk with the teacher and his request is being rejected, as the teacher cited that his reasons were not convincing and strong enough for her to approve the permit.

The teacher is a great teacher I would say, a strict one. I heard she don't easily approve the permit even for previous batches of students.

So yesterday I've prepared a list of reasons why I need to work part-time. The contents roughly is something like this:

Limited funding from home.

Do not want to rely on family.

Mainly to cover living expenses.

Impossible to concentrate on studies if basic living necessity is not fulfilled.

Study is still top on the priority. Thus will not work OT.

Gaining working experience now so next time when in university can be prepared for it.

I roughly sketch the points in English and plan to write it in Japanese, but later I decided to write everything in English since the teacher should somehow able to understand simple English.

It's like a gamble, if the teacher rejected all those points, I still have a "last weapon" to throw out in case initial plan doesn't work out.

After today's class I talk to the teacher 1 on 1. She read the points and kinda agreed with me. She then proceed to brief me bout the expenses cover etc etc, and ask whether I plan to work for the sake to save enough money for university.

My reply is that, if I need a large amount of money for university, I might still need financial support back home. Anyhow, if I can support my own living expenses, that would've saved a lot of money from home already.

She did approved my permit application, and make me promised that if the teacher asked me to pause working, I must honour the teacher's request to stop working, especially before the major exams which falls on Nov.

Am happy that I got the approval from the teacher. I'm on the winning gambling side this time. :D

I noticed that in order to convince someone, first you must have some valid points to stand on. One might be able to lie about the points, but if you do not have solid evidence to back it up, sooner or later the lie will burst.

Try to think from the other's point of view. From there, you extract the possible points that the other party would likely to say, and then prepare counter-argument to strengthen your own points.

Sometimes the other party may be giving out some reasonable points, that one can accept and consider it, if it does really benefit oneself. If it's a plausible point, why not take it in if it sounded reasonable for one?

During such convincing period, or perhaps negotiation, it's best to control the emotion, be calm and professional. Yelling and shouting will only make the matter worse, communication breakdown.

Reasoning with someone close is a good practise for what you will be facing when you step out into the society in the career sphere. Those clients can be more rockheaded that what you face right now.

I think that convincing and persuading is a better than arguing for something. Would always prefer peace than violence. :)

Anyway, likely to receive the working permit by mid July, and then start working during the summer holiday which falls near the end of July. :)

Part-time cook?

2009-06-03T23:00:00.001+09:00

Sorry bout lack of updates here, kinda busy with all sorts of stuffs.

In short, been doing quite well with studies, able to cope with it. It's good that after class played a few rounds of table tennis with friends, funny to see how they fall for the cursive ball, heh.

Gonna settle with the part-time working permit soon. Gonna had a short talk with the teacher before she approves the application. Tentatively will had a talk with her this Friday, and then apply for the permit next Monday.

Hostelmates decided to go separate ways for our meals. Used to be cooking and serving dinner together, everyone shared up. It's just a matter of time before this happened, and officially from Monday onwards we go separate ways dealing with our dinner.

Situation had forced me to pick up the cooking utensils lol. Theoratically I know how to cook, but practically haven't really try it before.

Good thing is that for the first time I tried to cook, I learn the basic to control the fire, the amount of ingredients and how to stir fry it.

First meal being served.

Do note that the meat on the right and the potato salad on the left are bought from local shop, because I still not sure how to prepare meat yet.
The actual stuff that I cooked is actually not so obvious, the puny green and yellow stuff lol....

Today's class read a simple recipe of a dish which I like, the Oyako don 親子丼 which consist of chicken and egg. The recipe is kinda simple and since I got the ingredients so decided to try it up.

Given this is the second time I cook, the result isn't that bad lol.... though the taste is still far-fetched from those prepared in restaurants.

Stir frying chicken pieces, onion, and green vege with soy sauce + salt as the base~ (don't have any other stuffs now).

I like some green in my meal so throw in pieces of cucumbers in as well.

Taste-wise, it's edible and of course still got a lot to improve and improvise. The outcome so far had been pretty good.

The only thing is that, preparing the rice, the ingredients took most of the time. And also, the washing part.

Cooking, I liken it to a science experiment~

First you have to prepare the tools and ingredients, naturally, to get things start off.

Follow the procedures and formulas, which in culinary terms, the recipe, you carried out the "experiment" which requires pouring, mixing, stirring and heating etc. Sounds familiar to a Chemistry experiment, no?

After that is "observing and analyse" the final product, which to put it simpler, eat. :D

Then it comes to the part which I don't really like, cleaning the tools. Those who carried out experiment before would know it's pain in the ass to wash the tools when it's stained with chemicals.

It takes a short time to cook, but preparing the food stuffs and cleaning, took most of the time.

'til then, I believe in few months time I'm gonna improve in my cooking skills. :D

Rainy Days

2009-05-31T15:57:00.000+09:00

It has been raining consequtively for 4 days straight since Thursday, and from the weather forecast it's likely to continue until tomorrow (Monday), then sunshine returns on Tuesday.

Friday morning when I woke up I felt kinda lazy to goto school because of the bad weather. It was raining and definitely will make cycling to school more difficult than usual.

Anyhow I still chose to ride to school instead of take the train as at that time the rain is slowing down.
Wasn't a good choice, as the rain continues to rain heavily half-way. There's no turning back then so just keep cycling til I reach the school.

Although it's raining, but I still kinda enjoy cycling especially listening to some techno tunes, or something uplifting. I know it is dangerous to listen while cycling, but I just love to do so. :P

When I'm commuting to the school, I prefer to listen to some technos such as SoundTemp or DJ Tiesto to keep me awake, or maybe a few energetic pieces in the player.
On the way back, I tend to listen to some relaxing tunes, pianos, instrumentals or new age to unwind my brain after a day in school. Thus, I don't feel exhausted cycling. :)

Reached the school, all wet.

Jeans having 2 colour tones, darker on the top and lighter on the bottom, all thanks to the rain.

Adidas runners, Truant ATS. A good pair of shoes, as expected from Adidas. Love the grip and comfortable for long distance walk.

Friday's breakfast, "chicken rice roll" onigiri and a can of Cafe au Leit.

Visiting my friend's room at the school's hostel. A little smaller than my room.

2 big tests in this coming week.

Kindergarten children, guided by local volunteers. Noticed everyone prepared raining gears.

The greens outside my room after the rain, lovely colour.

Next Saturday gonna be joining the local township's matsuri (festival), kinda looking forward to attend the real stuff here, heh. :)

Observe

2009-05-30T20:25:00.000+09:00

I noticed that I'm kinda observative, analyse and learn the nature of the person. Normally I do it silently so sometimes it felt like stalking lol.... but actually I'm not.

I do not do it as a habit, but rather to reflect how I felt towards certain individual's qualities. I used to be kinda quiet, not really into socialising. A little regretted and nostalgic but from there I started to learn how to analyse individuals.

For most of us we usually communicate with people through one-on-one dialogue, or in a group conversation whether it's a casual chat, forum or meeting. Depending on the tone, idea and emotion the individual expressed, we would usually evaluate a person based on those available facts.

I do find that it's not good enough to judge a person based on just one occasion. I strongly believe that everyone shows a different side of them in different kind of situations, for example being in office and at home, on and off the sports field etc.

I for one, noticed that myself tend to show some sort of talkative chracteristics at times and telling some lame jokes around as if I'm a carefree person. Mostly this applies to my general socialising.

But when I'm into sports, say football or table tennis, I usually wouldn't speak much but rather concentrate to play the game. I can be aggressive as well when I'm totally involved in it, so it's normal for me to tackle the opponent dangerously or hit the ball hardly, and I do it within my conscious. Even if the opponent is my best pal, there's no "friendly love" on the field.

At times when I need to be more serious, say attending a function or so, I will revert to my more quiet and serious mode. Those who first met me might be greeted in this mood, I guess many people had similar experience too.
I do however, can revert back to the usual talkative mode when I met someone familiar or something I'm interested in.

I learn some of these from secondary school by observing and learning from friends. Below the three of us, whom I noticed express ourselves in 3 different occasions, all which I've mentioned above.

The other 2 are brilliant individuals by their own rights. Each of them know how to handle their different identities well on different occasions, which is why I get along well with them.

Another observation, I noticed that sometimes when people are too kind-hearted, others will take advantage on them. Once or twice may be OK, but unfortunately some people would just abuse it, as if they're suppressing the weaker.
That's why some of my friends are kinda pissed but helpless at times when they're being used by others.
For some, "extreme measures" may be used in such circumstances, which includes violence.

I think some of us might have experience it before, you're being stepped upon by someone else, and one day when the patience limit reached, you break down, and all hell break lose.
Sometimes, you just never want to see the collateral damage that would inflict upon the surroundings, it can be very scary.

Some might regret taking such action, while some shows no sign of remorse. Either way, you make it very clear that you're not someone should mess with, or left some irreversible scar on someone.
Careful one must be, to control the outburst of rage and the aftermath.

Through all the things that I've been through, I slowly settle down to be someone who doesn't really get angry easily, and seldomly dislike someone for a long period of time.

Once a wiseman taught me, not to get upset on things others done that has nothing to do with you, not worth the effort to get angry with it, especially something you have no control of.

Positive thinking in life is a key. Try start to see the bright side of someone, slowly convert the feeling of hatred to neutral, and let the feeling goes on naturally. It's always a good thing to have an additional friend, than having an enemy.

Everyone lives a unique life that only exclusive to themselves. Remember, we live this life only for once, so try to enjoy as much as you can than you regret.

Now the another piece of puzzle had been found, it's just a matter of time before I complete the overall puzzle of life~

All the dreams and desires.....

Random Pics~

2009-05-28T22:38:00.000+09:00

Quite awhile I didn't update the blog with some pics.... took some for the past few days.

Randomly sorted pics so it won't be following the order.

Map of Kanto region.

The Turks is having a friendly "sumo" with the Taiwanese classmate, hahah!

In the class, Endou sensei in action!

Kanji practise. If your eyes are sharp, you'll notice the difference than the normal Chinese words.

Brotherly love? LOL....

Speaking test, scored quite well. Was surprised that the teacher can list out the mistakes I did in the test!!

Activity in the class, everyone's involved.

Bak kut teh..... mmm.... Can see but can't eat hahah!

LOL another yummy-looking name....Satay Kajang!!!

Public toilet?!?! LOL!!

Maths questions.... high school level.

Mr Suat having a brief chat with Mr Tan.

Some of the girls from the class. The additional hand is from the Turks, heh.

One of my favourite song, "My Father's Eyes" by Eric Clapton.

Mr Suat from Istanbul, Turkey!

Again I confess, I didn't do it lol!

Friend's Walkman B series VS my S series.
As expected from the Walkman series, the audio quality doesn't disappoints.

My IEMs (in-ear monitors). Those eartips somehow looks like bug, so says someone.