nothing much...
I haven't been updating lately because there just isn't anything to update about. I am collecting a lot of trash lately, not purposely, but by accident. In Japan, they do love to give out more things than they should.

I just got my keitai (hp) recently, and they give so much information regarding their plans and stuff. I have like 10 over instruction manuals talking about the same thing. It's crazy and redundant. Haiz... Plus in Japan, they do like to give out shopping catalouges into our mailbox. OMG! Now I have a lot of trash. Ha! It's accumulating.

I also have no time to study Japanese. Or should I say I'm sian. I really hope I can get a teacher to teach me soon. I need motivation. By the way, I don't really need to use Japanese at my work place. I use mostly English all the way. :) Japanese is only needed for extra curricular stuff like talking to the Boss (but he understands English anyway so there isn't a need to), nomikai (drinking party, urgh!) and entertaining guests/students. Haha..

I have a feeling I will improve my culinary skills more than Japanese. Haha! I love my cooking. Or myself. haha.

Anyway, good news: my boss came the second time to church yesterday! wow! fantastic!

So.. pictures of yummy food ahead!






meet up with Mai
Today is free day! So I went out with Yee Fei to Sannomiya station. Just walk around. Anyway, I was hoping to meet up with Joanne but alas, it is going to get busier. Jessica (the teacher whom I'm replacing in Temasek Language School) is coming back from Sg while Hui Shan (former teacher whom Yee Fei is replacing) is leaving tomorrow. Complicated ne? ha... Anyway we had a busy party just now. Forgot to take photo! oopz.

Few photos:


Nice hotel at the cross road junction!


I met up with Mai (a Japanese girl whom I met on the Hyogo cruise programme) and her friend after that. We went to Karaoke box. Each person paid about 1300 yen for 2 hours. Not very worth it hor. I thought Sg cheaper. Drinks are free flow. Any type of drink. BUT how many cups of drinks can you drink in 2 hours?!!?? Maybe cuz the place was just beside the station. So a bit ex la. We also ordered food. I order Udon. Yummy! Only Udon in Japan is nice. All those in Sg, YUCKS!!!


Mai is the one with rolled up eyes. I think all the pics I took with her are like these. Alamak. Haha.. She is a funny girl. :)






Something exciting is happening~~ My boss decided to come with Yee Fei and I to church this Sunday. So do pray in faith that he will come and be blessed. :)

Strangely enough, I started this blog because I thought I was going to go to Melbourne Uni for undergraduate studies. However, in the end I didn't go cuz NUS was nice enough to accept me. Ha! So anyway, here I am, after graduating, in a foreign country, Japan. Guess I had always wanted to explore other opportunities.

Actually, I was missing home the first few days of the week. However, as the week progressed, it got better. Sometimes, I do get kind of stressed out, thinking of how to best teach the students and them receiving it. Sometimes I get stuck when students are not very talkative. So I rather have talkative students. Ha! But all is great here. Its fun for now. AND I am having an "obon" (something like qing ming jie) holiday break of two days this friday and saturday. Talk about holidays, so fast sia~

Last night, we had our monthly nomi kai (drinking session). Ha! Anyway, sapporo beer was nice. :p I only drank a little bit. Teacher cannot drink so much. hee~






Today is church day. Finally! Quite happy today too. Haha! Finally that there is a really rest day. I think I probably appreciate Sabbath more since I work from mon to sat. haha.

Anyway today's church is Kobe Bible Fellowship (*pics below). I went to another church last week. It's called Missions for the Seafarers church (anglican). Anyway, I think I will stick with KBF since they are charismatic like ours. Plus, pure anglicanism can really kill. Haha. Too traditional la. Plus, in KBF, half is japanese & half foreigners. I thought it was a rather interesting mix. Then like that, can invite Japanese to go there mah. right? :)

I really feel quite blessed to have a good environment to work here in Japan. :D Very good. Everything went smoothly, from airplane to Kobe, making of documents like work permit and stuff to housing. I am truly blessed. Maybe except for the cell phone part, which I cannot subscribe to cause they thought that I might run away with the phone. You see, Japanese phones can be bought at 0 yen too. So just need to pay subscription and contract. But they thought I might run off with the phone without sticking to the contract. oh well, can't be helped. So, please pray that I can get my cell phone FOC. Thanks. :) Although actually I don't really think I need one. ha! I think KBF is really a lively church. They sang Japanese and English songs together. It reminded me of the combined church camp we had. Wow! BTW, the pastor of the church is actually stricken with cancer just beginning of this year, i think. But, all the more because of that, he is even more fervently preaching the Word. The church even has printed out sermon notes and recording online. How cool is that? haha. Alrights, enough bragging. Anyway, what makes it great is that God gave me a church to belong. So that is ultimate coolness.

Yay!

Photos update:

2nd meal that I cooked last week: looks good right? ha...


The school which I am teaching in: English conversation Temasek


My boss replacing the basket on my bike. Nice right? :)



My friend/colleague and me!


Kobe Bible Fellowship church




Yumiko and Yee Fei



Yee Fei, Yumiko and Miho (church go-ers)


We went to the Thai restaurant to eat after service. Service is at 4pm. Anyway, we ate Thai food ironically. But its great. My food is a fusion. Spaghetti and green curry. How awesome is that? Yummy!





God
God is trying to be 'funny' and has placed a huge task for me to do.

Which is very difficult.

boo~~~



thoughts
Finally after such a long time, I have the time to relax and blog. All the previous times were done sort of in a rush, so that I at least have some update for people out there who care. Anyway, really thanks to everyone for coming to the airport that day. I'm really very touched. Thanks to my church friends, secondary school friends, diving friends and skiing friends for making your way to the airport. Thanks for all the precious gifts. I will treasure it.

Special thanks to my Dad for crying until i can see the *biti (you won't want to know what this is). Special thanks to my family minus chong (cuz she didn't come n she was in thai enjoying herself). ha~~. love ya all. i will be back soon. i think.

Special thanks to Cheryl for making your way down even though you knew it just 3 hours before I fly. That is incredible. Yeah, the sort of chemistry we had just can't be described. I was close to tears reading your blog and the card.

Special thanks to Debbie for coming up with the scrapbook idea. The design is awesome. Of cos Li Fang's drawing is kanpeki *excellent.

Special thanks to Joel P. for making such a grand entrance, that it remains unforgettable. :)

Special thanks to Glenn for buying me another book on top of all the books the rest has given. (i.e. adds to the weight) haha.. but i really appreciate it. thanks!

Kobe is a nice city. Just like Hiroshima, i feel. I guess I haven't done much yet to be able to comment on anything here. But of cos I love the food here. Its awesome. Working is good too. I only have 5 lessons a day, from 3 to 9pm, mon to sat. Lessons are only 1 hr or less, depending on age. The awesome thing is that: when the students don't come for class, I end up having one hour free! whahahahah.. and that already happened for two times this week. And its only wednesday now. omg.

I shall take a photo of my cooking later if I rmb. Anyway I would really love to do some shopping. Abit nothing to do here. I kind of miss going out with the gang.

Photos update:

This is my apartment door, looking from outside.



The big canal outside my house. Quite cool, still got park somemore.




This is the place where I had my first meal aka breakfast in Kobe. See the word on the canvas, sankyu. It actually means thank you but reading it in japanese. haha.


Kitsuke udon. Super nice, i think. Since I can't taste all the wonderful food now due to a blocked nose. How sad is that? I have been eating food for the sake of eating food this whole week. I really hope I get better. :D I had this for lunch yesterday.


This is my room. Finally got a chance to see my nice room. I quite like the bedsheet colour. Quite nice hor. I bet my mum will like it cuz its fading colour. One of her funny craze now. :) See the prezzie plus my lovely red bible. heh heh.



I forgot to rotate the photo before uploading. dots. bodo me. i lazy to edit again. anyway thanks to jea n glenn, i have to bring the tiles to japan. So there it is, hanging on the way. nice right? ha..





photo log
There were too many random pictures taken during this week. So, I have decided to just upload all of them here. I'm suppose to get my visa today, i hope. Ha!

Friday!shopping area in motomachi. That day, my colleague/fren went to cut hair, so i went shopping instead. Just before work.
motomachi station
just a signpost!
super nice sweet, it's actually used for soothing sore throat though!

Saturday!
lunch~~ nice! i love onigiri!
hanabi! blur! boo~~~ On saturday, we went to a student's house to watch fireworks.
blurry pic of cityview from lvl 45 *ithink!
the apartment where we watched our fireworks (hanabi), looks like hotel from outside. looks really super cool inside!

Sunday!
Jessica's church fren, Tomi and me. We went to church together just now. And now it's lunch time!
Tomi and me!
this little shop has a history of 31 years.
Boss!
Jessica and Yee Fei

Jessica's farewell in little shop in kobe.

Food for Jessica's farewell!!! Yay!

Mini sandwiches.

Yummy sandwiches.

Mini cola. cute.

Mini egg beater



funny day
Although today's the second day of teaching, it was quite a tough one. I had naughty boys who talked japanese all the way, which I cannot understand at all. I think my japanese is really like crap now. Haha. I haven't talk japanese at all since I came. only simple words. i m shocked too.

i think i m going to be really super duper fat in japan. since i came here, i have been eating and eating and eating. non-stop. plus i don't need to wake up early. which also means i sleep early, wake up late. FAT. boo boo~~~ there are so many parties happening this week. we went to watch hanabi(fireworks) at a hotel-like condominium. it is super cool.

funny day goes like this:
boss was sitting on a stump, while waiting for the rest to take pictures. alas, there was gum on the stump. so gum on his pants backside. so he was super embarrassed and had to cover himself with the fan he brought. he covered it all the way to the station. while on the escalator, YF started pointing out that boss should lower the angle of the fan so as to cover the gum. the gum actually stuck with the fan now. boss got excited that he knew where the gum was.

BUT THEN the fan fell off while we were still on the escalator. he panicked. shock on his face. started looking for the fan. cuz we were nearing the top, he FELL down on his butt again. WHAHAHAHAHAH!!! so he lost his fan cover and got a painful butt.. hahaha.. he is super duper funny.

this sounds really bad but it is really funny. YOU should have seen his face. WHAHAHA!!!