A Whiter Shade of Pale: November 2010

Monday, November 29, 2010

Autumn Haiku

Hello people, I've done it again! Got my hair cut, with bangs! Just like what i did in 2008, except that, THAT was DIY and it looked terrible for 1 month after at least. Haha. This costs 4200yen but i guess i like it! The only problem now is that I probably won't be able to look like this after tonight. The service includes a "free" touch-up session within the next 2 weeks, meaning that when i go back, I can cut a bit more, get a shampoo, blow-dry & styling. Why did I cut my hair? I guess it was because I was fed up with how messy and out of shape my hair looked, especially when i compared to all the impeccable good looking people i see in this country. I can't afford to look shoddy, especially when I'm finally going to the Gaba office this thursday to sign my contract. I have to take a photo and record a video too. As such, a good haircut can't be better timed than this. I was extremely fortunate to meet a Japanese girl who lived in Singapore for 5 years at the hair salon. Which meant that she could speak an intermediate level of English! If not, it might have turned out to be a hairy disaster. She even told me that there's a Hainanese Chicken Rice shop near the local train station. Haha. She really loves loves loves Singapore- She seemed disappointed when I told her that I havn't visited the Universal Studios at sentosa. Aww, she's such a sweetheart.

Before I get ahead of myself, all of that happened at Kichijōji (吉祥寺). I headed there today for a wander around. There are so many salons there as it's meant to be an artistic district. It's brilliant for shopping too - many interesting shops and I think I will cultivate a love for cheap pre-loved clothes! It's really worth the money! I have acquired a 2000yen GAP navy blue with white trim trench/mac kind of coat. Ah... Yes. So besides the haircut and shopping, this place has tons of interesting bars and restaurants. Hopefully I will meet more people and find more friends to hang out there sometime soon, especially since it's only a couple of train stops from home.

Another attraction is the Inokashira Park (井の頭公園).Thankfully I found my way there and i got to see the colourful autumn leaves in their full glory. It's really beautiful. Its scenes like this that make me feel that the my suffering in the cold is worth it.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

週末

I had a lovely weekend and I'm already wishing that there will be many more weekends like that to come! I'm crossing my fingers that my work schedule won't be affecting my social life THAT much. Anyhow - i started off the day early, as i was awoken up by my neighbours. Not that they were especially rowdy, it's just too bright to sleep at 9am and the noise didn't help to put me back into lalaland. I had brunch and then went to Don Quijote (department store with marked down prices) with Gustav, my friendly neighbour/housemate to do some proper grocery shopping. It was fascinating to find a litre can of Asahi beer, and a towel with plush tits on them, just for people who likes the feeling of tits rubbing your back in the shower...

So we left with our arms full and dropped by the bridge across the local stream. We saw HUGE-ASS koi fishes who were being fed by the nicest japanese family. They offered us a slice of bread to feed the fishes too. Undoubtedly, we caused a feeding frenzy. The mom also taught her daughter to say "welcome" and "goodbye" in English, in response to us. I really appreciated their kind gesture, as it reawakens the hope that the world can always become a better place since kind and open-minded people like them still do exist after all!

Since clubbing at Roppongi will be pretty late at night, I joined my housemates for the regular weekend drinking chilled out session after dinner. We were sitting outside on the bench, on the front porch, having some beer and snacking on dorito chips. Nomimashyo (let's drink)! It was a wonderful atmosphere where people spoke in a mixture of japanese, english and even swedish. They were teaching me some useful japanese phrases - so difficult to remember and I always mix them up. I hope I learn a lot quicker as I really want to communicate properly with the people living here. Anyhow, the highlight was them teaching me how to speak in the girlish kawaii manner and the boys' demonstrations just put me into a laughing fit for the next 5 minutes. haha.

So eventually Gustav & I left for shinjuku to meet his friends, before heading to Roppongi. It was alright, but mostly everyone was rather clique-ish. (His friends mostly pangsehed him!) We were also led on a wild goose chase for at least 2 hours before we eventually stepped into the club called MORPH. The music was good at the start and at the end, when DJ Satoshi was playing. They played all sorts of music from R&B to house, trance, techno, eurodance, rock & roll & random strange japanese songs. From my virgin night out, I think that Jap girls usually don't dance like you see in our clubs, they just shift their weight gently on their furry boots clothed chopstick legs... until much later into the night when the alcohol takes over. (That's probably how they all manage to look picture perfect no matter how late it is... Seriously!) Jap boys are split into 2 camps - the overly active ones and the ones which just stand in the corner to chain smoke. Well, which is pretty much like the local scene, isn't it? haha.

Only in Japan, that you can have a song entirely made up of the DJ grunting "Jägermeister" throughout the whole song. It's a song in its own right. Similarly with the phrases, "arigato gozaimasu" and "sumimasen"... DAME (That's bad). That was the final straw. We escaped the boiling hot club and went in search of a thirst quenching drink from the konbini (convenience store).

So anyway, as a taxi ride home would be obscenely expensive, we had to stay out the whole night until the first train runs again at 5am in the morning. We managed to stagger our way home at dawn, which was AWFULLY COLD by the way!!! Catching the first train was another interesting experience as EVERYONE was sitting around on the platform, waiting for the train to arrive. It was probably something which I would never see in Singapore.

Just as I was starting on my blog entry, I received an invitation to join my housemates for a special "Fika", a swedish tradition leading up to Christmas. So it will take place every sunday starting today, for last 4 sundays till Christmas. We'll light a candle and sit around, drinking tea or coffee, munching on some biscuits. What a gorgeous way to spend cold wintry nights, while expecting Christmas to arrive. Even William, our resident cranky and strange cleaner looked quite happy this evening. :)

Friday, November 26, 2010

idiocracies

After my failed attempt to get a prepaid phone at Shibuya yesterday, I've decided to try my luck at Harajuku today. It was a fruitful day as i finally got my phone! It was soooooo slow, but in the nice way. I swear- Only the Japanese can make buying a phone a spa-like experience. They made me take a number, that was fine. I was directed to some bar seats armed with ipads and i had way too much time fiddling with it. Nice display anyway.

So finally some sweet service staff came to pick me up, guided me downstairs and showed me TWO prepaid handsets available. One cost 3 times more than the other and the only significant feature difference was that the more expensive one included TV. I asked to see the sample models of both phones, so she promptly took me around the store in search of them both, but nopes. No sample models. So eventually I told her i'll take the cheaper one as I don't need the TV. I chose white (it looks somewhat like sally's phone with the missing buttons! haha) Next, came the form-filling phase... I gave them my passport (5 times!!!) and other documents and I signed all sorts of forms. I was asked to choose between the 3000 or 5000 yen prepaid card; I can set my own PIN number; choose the last 4 digits of my phone number everything. Everything is so painstakingly personalised, I'm overwhelmed. She then went to get the handset and get everything sorted out. She pointed to the vending machine in the corner and said, "it will take a while, so please help yourself to the free drinks at the vending machine over there." Thus, i had no choice but to help myself to a cup of milky ice mocha. (Fortunately, today was nicely warm enough for me to enjoy iced drinks!!! Oh the luxury!!!) So after 5mins of idling around, i was back at the counter when her supervisor was yakking to her in Japanese about something. She then turned to me to ask if i'll make calls often. If so, I should consider a post-paid contract plan as non-contract calls made in Japan are rather expensive. I was like err. no it's fine! She's like hai, hai... Eventually all my particulars are doubled & tripled confirmed before putting the final contract into the ultra sleek scanner machine. The beautiful ordeal is still not over yet. I had to scratch the prepaid card and then phone the number to set up the registration. The service staff is so pretty and polite, I don't feel upset at the utter waste of time. I'm just so amazed at how long the entire procedure took.

Talking about personalisation, the Japanese really takes it to the extreme... While i was setting my bank account at Shinsei bank, I could choose which COLOUR i want my bank card to be. It's not even simply a choice of say, 5 basic colours. It was a mind-blowing array of about 30 colours??? I like it and i chose a "grasshopper" green - but I'm just awed beyond words.

One more weird manifestation in my city - they are extremely particular about sorting the rubbish out. I have more than 20 bins in my house to sort out my trash. e.g. toothbrushes, magazines, newspapers, bottle caps, batteries, CDs, tins, metal caps, milk cartons, glass bottles, plastic PET bottles, plastic PET bottle caps, plastic (light) e.g. bags, plastic containers (food), plastic (heavy), organic waste, burnable waste ETC ETC ETC. respect.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

First impressions

The first gasp-inducing thing i saw in Japan was seeing the train seats on the Keisei Skyliner swivel 180degrees (at the touch of a button by the cleaner/maintenance dude) to face the opposite direction, as the train was going in the opposite direction now. HOW CONSIDERATE is that!? Then, on my arduous journey to Koganei-shi, from Narita, i also realised that they play funny music to show that the doors are closing, instead of the annoying beep beep beep sounds in Singapore.

Today, i've managed to complete my application for Alien registration and national health insurance. The lady who helped me was telling me how much she loves Singapore. She has visited my country 5-6 times. That's intense love man!!! Soon afterwards, while i was in the bathroom, I happened to find the automatic water flushing sound sensor. You use it when you're peeing or shitting, whatever, so that people can't hear all the impolite sounds your body makes during the call of nature. I've also discovered that my air-con can be switched on for the "heat" setting. This is a life-saver! I'm freezing. Still am freezing. Oh yes, I am proud to say that the longest japanese sentence which I've said today is "Totemo samsui desu!!!" (it's very cold!)

Anyway, I havnt taken any pictures as I'm too busy running errands AND trying to blend in. Although the weather today was simply gorgeous- Sunny and blessed with a clear azure blue sky. Blending in is mostly not a problem, though i have noticed that some people have given me some weird looks. Probable thinks that I'm a PRC Chinese. Otherwise, most people have been spewing japanese at me & i get into a fluster trying to figure out what they mean while trying to say that I don't understand nor speak Japanese. This language barrier is probably the biggest obstacle to overcome. Ok bedtime pretty much. Wintry conditions put me into grandma mode. Oyasuminasai! x

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Send it in a letter & make yourself feel better

I'm in a strange mood right now. I guess it's a whirlwind of conflicting emotions i'm feeling in the last 10 days leading up to my departure. Everything's intensified now as D is leaving tomorrow morning too. Last night was a properly good night out with almost everyone important to our usual gang of people. It was overflowing with beer and champagne (literally at times!), much alcohol-induced & genuine affections, witty, nostalgic and familiar conversations - it felt really good to have recaptured the same atmosphere and mood of the good old apple county saturdays from uni times. Feeling this happy made me sad at the same time, knowing that it would be a long while before a casual reunion like this would occur once more. I also secretly fear change, that time and tide will change everyone and the precious feelings and memories which all of us had shared would just remain in the depths of our consciousness. So close, yet unattainable anymore. I truly hope that my friends & i are able to live our lives, no matter where in the world we are, and still be able to pick up the friendships where we left off.

Same with my girlfriends. I worry less about the above, but more about what i'll be missing. I hate to be away from them, away from the birthday celebrations, the silly times we spend to together, the bitchy conversations which I didn't bear witness to. I suppose my apprehension was distinctively affecting my mood today when i met them for dinner. I'm consumed by the thought that I'm running out of time for everything. It's a strong bittersweet taste in my mouth when they say they want to spend more time with me before I leave.

It's really annoying how i've really had lots & lots of practice with saying goodbyes (in all senses of the word) in the last 5 years, but i don't think that i've gotten any better with dealing with it. Nevertheless, I'm going to be optimistic- cross my fingers and hope for the best. I'll be missing all of you. x

Monday, November 01, 2010

Cinéma

I saw this with some lovely friends at the Singapore Botanic Gardens this breezy evening and oh... How I love old school cinema! This film was stage-adapted thus it was really minimal- there were only two sets used. Loved the dialogue, the thrills, twists and turns in the plot, as well as the convincing characters. The inspector was my favourite one as he added the comic element. Grace Kelly simply needed to look absolutely flawlessly gorgeous, while the rest battled it out for their fates and hers. Just annoyed that the women (in those times and maybe even now) have always been portrayed as naive, gullible and ridiculously dependent on their husbands.

Not too many sunday evenings to spend like this in Singapore anymore! We've also seen Le Petite Nicolas. Such a lovely feel good film from the french. It renewed my faith in mankind and restored the warm fuzzy feeling in my heart. Do check it out.