Home Sweet Home - with friends

As usual, nothing beats the comfort & familiarity of hanging out with old friends. Don't have to go through the hassle of getting to know the person & impressing anyone, as you know and they know all that is to know. Well, though, you've to spend some time filling in each other with the latest bits from each side.

But one thing I find hard doing is trying to get my family & friends to know what life is like for me on the other fence, without them. It's hard for anyone to understand unless they're in the same boat as you. I guess I could try if I am a good storyteller, but sadly not. Most of the time when people ask me how's life in Japan, I just keep repeating the same old things like, "oh, it's so hot or so cold", or "the new apartment is so small" blah blah blah. I can only really go into detail with someone who has been through the same situation as me. Just like the other night, I met up with one Singaporean ex-JET who has also moved to Tokyo for her new job for a meet-up. We went through the same hell & problems of finding a new job, apartment & the fear of having to leave our boyfriends here if we couldn't get a job. It was amazing that we went through the same emotions of going through those processes! It was like, "Did you ......too?", "Yeah! I felt ...." and "Yah, me too!". It felt quite good to laugh at those emotions now, now that they're over.

Hmm, I've detracted a lot. Just as I think that having new friends who share the same experiences as you is important, old friends are equally as important, or even more, as they are the anchor in your life that never goes away (unless you decide to dock somewhere else for good). They may not know exactly what you're feeling now, but they know what you're like. New friends are like other boats that go sailing on the same adventures with you, but eventually, they leave to go back to where they're from.

Home Sweet Home - with family

It was so nice going back to my newly renovated home, especially when I'd just downgraded from a 2 room to a 1 room apartment in Japan. My home at home looks really spacious now with a lot of the walls knocked down. And with central air-conditioning & a beach resort style balcony, it feels like a 5-star home! My only gripe is that although everything in our flat changed drastically, my room still looks basically the same as when I left for Japan, except newer! I joked to friends & family members who came to my place, that my room is just like a maid's room - very bare & plain.

Being able to spend lots of time with my family was good too. I went out with my sister & cousins a couple of times, and finally managed to see my "biao-ge" who I hadn't been able to meet for 2 years as he was in Canada and I in Japan. I miss my family gatherings!

Sucky rainy day!!

Such a depressing day....boyfriend was going to come for just a few hours from Gunma today, as he still has work to do, but because I wanted to go to a salsa event in Chiba that he simply refused to go, that I cancelled on him. That obviously didn't go down well with either of us. But because of the stupid endless rain that I was hoping would stop but only beat down with increasing intensity, I'm stuck at home on a Saturday night with nowhere to go & alone. It sounds like the rain is lightening up a bit now, but it's too late anyway! Hate today....:( Maybe I should just upload the pictures that I kept whining that I haven't had time for.

I've become such a bore...

Now that I've finally embarked on a real career (though not my chosen one; only something to keep me afloat financial wise & for gaining working experience in a Japanese company), I've officially joined the ranks of working people, which perhaps has made my life pretty boring, as my main focus now is my job. I've nothing interesting to say, or can't find anything that's worth writing about. Or is it because there's no time to think about what I'm doing now & structuring them into words.....hrh?

Come to think about it - I haven't mentioned anything about what I'm doing now. Am still unfortunately (for me & my students...hah) an English teacher, though I've upgraded to teaching adults Business English at their companies. This means I travel around Tokyo a lot as I go to different companies to teach at night. In the day, I'd go to my office for my other work - course planning, which made me take up the job offer, as it offers me an opportunity to use my Japanese skills & a chance to gain experience in a Japanese company in Japan. Although, my teaching workload is higher right now, as my company is slowly easing me into the planning aspect of the job. I'm hoping that I can slowly move on to that side of the work & reduce my number of classes (not that I have a lot now, but lesson planning takes up most of my time), as being stuck in teaching forever isn't my cup of tea. But I'm learning a lot now, even though I keep telling myself teaching isn't going to be my long-term career. It's always good to learn something from what you"re doing. You'll never know when it'll help you in the future.

A quickie!

Aah.....I keep wanting to write and post photos that are just accumulating in my folder, which I don't have anyone to share looking at with, but I don't have the time! Though I haven't taken many photos since forever (except for when I was back in Singapore), as I haven't taken any trips here lately (impossible now that I've started this new job) & there's nothing exciting about being in Japan anymore.

I don't have a long evening & night every day now like I used to, as I only reach home at about 8 or 9 p.m. And recently, I've been busy doing reading/research related to work, trying to find out what's the cause behind my stupid computer's random freezes and crashes (still don't know why), and planning for a winter trip to somewhere warm in December, hopefully Thailand, that I don't have the time to think about blogging.

Anyway, there're some new words that I've learnt at work from other native speakers & I'm really amazed that there're so many English words that I've not heard of or don't know of when I should probably know. Russian doll - stacking dolls that you open to reveal smaller dolls hidden inside one another . Rubik's cube - the cube game that people rack their brains trying to get each face of the cube into a solid colour . Donut shift - a shift system where you get free time in between. Hot desking - sharing desk/work stations for space saving or cost cutting. Bubble wrap - the plastic wrap with little air pockets that I love bursting, used to wrap fragile stuff. I've always loved popping those little air bubbles, but it has never occurred to me that there's a name for it. And when I think about it, I didn't know how to say that in any language at all! The Japanese call it "プチプチ". I wonder what it's called in Chinese!