今年と来年

これは初めて日本語でブログします。 ^_^

今年は、２０１０、とても面白かったです。自分で日本へ来ました。自分で住んでいます。時々難しかったです。初めて家族ありません。でも、新しい友達と経験があります。よかったですから、私は今年忘れない。しかし、来年はもっといい年になります。いろいろ場所へ行きたい、たのしい友情がありたい、面白いほんを読みたい、おいしい食べ物を食べたい。実際に、私は時々少し怖いですが、わたしは心配しない。将来はここで、明るいです。来年は楽しみですね？

Translation:　This is my first time to blog in Nihongo.

This year, 2010, was very interesting. I went to Japan by myself, lived alone. At times, it was difficult. It was my first time to be away from my family, but I had new friends and new experiences. Since it was good, I will never forget this year. However, next year will be better. I'd like to go to a lot of new places, to have fun friendships, read interesting books and eat delicious food. Actually, I am a little afraid of the future sometimes but I won't worry. The future is here and it's promising. Isn't next year exciting?

What Is A Year?

What is a year? It's that span of time when the earth makes a full revolution around the sun, a cluster of 365.25 days and nights, marked by a beginning, middle and end.

Our lives are collections of years. You know how encyclopedia sets have volumes on them? That's life. We package our experiences in volumes of events that go together according to the time they happened. Some people are present most years, others disappear, many others recur.

Young or old as we are, we have our best years and not-so-good years. I'd like to think that 2010 is a year when the fluttering of the wings happen, pertaining to the butterfly effect--a small change at one place in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere. Elsewhere are the next few years of my life, and large effects, hopefully, are good things yet to come. My 2010 was not that epicly epic. Some parts though were noteworthy and remarkable. But in the greater scheme of life, little things have to happen in order to give way for grander things, and that is a belief I hold on to. As my favorite person Adam Young says, and I quote:

"The future is bright, and by all means, it’s beautiful. There’s really no telling what tomorrow may bring."

I would not dare deny that I have been very blessed this year. There were staple blessings like a good family, a healthy body & sound mind and meaningful friendships. And then there were surprises. Never had I imagined that I'll be sitting at a dormitory desk in Japan writing about what the year meant to me. You see when God surprises us, it's in ways we won't have a hint of. Now that's how surprises really are supposed work.

Try imagining where you'll be and what you're doing a year from now, on December 31, 2011. You'll be surprised that it's not exactly the way you pictured it to be.

I'm positive that 2011 will be a better year. :-) For everyone, I hope!

Christmas in Japan

This year Christmas is a little different. There was no opening of gifts under the tree when the clock hit twelve but it was meaningful, nonetheless.

What made my Christmas this year:

Yummy food and friends I have in Japan (Don't be mistaken, I don't eat my friends.)

Overnights and kris kringles and again, foood. Yay.

Getting surprises from Manila

My little brother sent me a book he bought with his allowance with a note inside. :-) It came on Christmas eve. It really made me smile!

What other things made my Christmas include phone calls, chats, texts, Facebook wall greetings from people who could forget greeting me since I was away (and it was excusable) but didn't. Thank you!

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

See You Later, Santa

It's the day of Christmas eve!

Christmas in Japan is not as festive as it is in Manila, that's given. Sans caroling, bibingka, queso de bola, parols, synthetic Christmas trees and only lights on trees as a reminder, Christmas here probably is just any other holiday, as important as Halloween and less-celebrated than New Year.

There are lots of different things about Christmas this year for me. But it will be meaningful and special just the same. (Crossing my fingers)

In Japanese, it's メリークリスマス. Merry Christmas wherever you are in the world!

おはよう

It's almost 7am and the sun has barely risen. It's totally still dark outside which made the waking up five minutes ago a lot harder to do. It's winter, yeah? And in the South Pole don't they hibernate when it's this cold?

I really had not realized that there are only three days before Christmas until I dated my journal December 22, 2010 before I slept last night. Of all the many things we cannot control, time is one of those, just easily slipping away from our hands. There's no way to chase lost time because time is unidirectional and it only goes forward. Well at least for now.

What am I thinking? I'm supposed to study for my big Nihongo test but I can't help but put the thought of winter break on top of my pile of things to think about.

I am not fully awake still so forgive the random rambling. I might laugh at this entry later today.

Growth Spurts

I believe in growth spurts.

You see, growth is not a gradual, boring, process. It's not like watching the sun rise on the horizon at a steady rate. It's more like the twitching your eye does when it's stressed. Before you can even anticipate it, there's this sudden spasm you're kind of scared to feel, yet it comes anyway.

Now that was a nice analogy, don't you think? We live our lives anticipating the big events like graduation, first day at work, moving houses, etcetera but somewhere in our heads we think "Hey not yet, don't come yet", because we know that sudden twitch, that sudden new, electric feeling, will give us a uneasiness. It will break the monotony of the present which can kind of hurt, that is, because we're so used to security.

But at some point in our lives growth spurts need to happen, because there's no way to go but forward, except if you're Benjamin Button or some martian with an alternate sense of metabolism. Growth spurts, I think, are a lot more exciting because they are so fast, they deliver a message: there is no backing out. You have no choice, yes you, human being who is not Benjamin Button, but to mature.

Being in Japan for exactly three months today made me realize how to live like an adult. And if you're sort of interested to know how much adventures and misadventures it took me to realize this, then, read on.

So it's not new knowledge that I had been the culprit of a plastic melting incident in the oven of our floor kitchen in the dormitory (which thankfully turned out more hilarious than dangerous). And that's only for starters. My hair dryer exploded too (hello, I am not an electronics major, what would I know about voltages?). It was funny alright, but it could have turned the other way around might I have been a little less careful.

Rule number one in being an adult is taking responsibility, since there's no one else to blame but yourself for any deliberate or accidental mischiefs. Responsibility too in many other things-- important travel documents, bills to pay, bank accounts, making sure that the heater and lights are turned off before leaving the room, eating dinner at an appropriate time, and so on. It took me one and a half months to figure out an alarm plan that works. Now, I have three alarm clocks ringing in the morning at varying tones, volumes and distances from my bed, and apparently it works!

Growing up is about making plans of getting rid of old habits and forming new ones. It's about memorizing pin codes and scholarship signing deadlines, making grocery lists and sticking to them, getting your butt off the chair to go do the laundry, making decisions you have thought two, three times about.

It's kinda hard but awesome if you ask me!

Declutter

I'm actually a 'home girl' kind of person-- if I don't need to meet people or do things, I would really prefer to stay in front of my computer and be face-to-face with it the whole time. But today I decided to go out by myself.

See the world out there.

Know what I'm missing.

And know if it would kill me if I missed it.

(Okay I should stop writing like Zusak.)

I decided to head to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. I've read about the place once or twice and found nothing really special about it in the pictures. I just thought well, it might be a beautifully-landscaped garden where I can sit and have a picnic, read a book, forget everything, and just get bathed by the warm autumn sun. For all I know I was wrong.

In an instant it became my favorite place on planet earth. That was how beautiful it was.

I've never really thought about the fact that gardens can change lives. Now I know why Martha Stewart was so passionate about advocating horticulture and gardening. I'm not really a fan of gardens, I have never actually seen much in my life. I may have seen less gardens or parks than an average person. But this one's kinda different and special. I won't try to describe it or explain why, because you might not get thrilled as I am right now. There are just places where you feel safe and warm and free to think whatever. I bet you have yours too.

Lately, I found myself detached, wanting something and nothing at the same time. I needed to clear my head and not think of the unnecessary.

My December

I wanted to write something but I cannot stitch what I wanted to say to words. Thus the illustration.

Thanks to Tim Burton and his work The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy for the much loved inspiration.

三冊本を借りました

3 new books to read! I just came from the library to fetch them. I had no idea which ones to borrow actually. I had trouble locating these since I'm not good with understanding call numbers.

The foreign books section (where all the English books are placed since most books are Japanese) had versions of these titles in Russian, French, Spanish, etc.

What are other ones nice to read? :-)

Autumnal Shades of Blue and Brown

All images were taken in Shinagawa on the 29th of November, 2010.

Mmmm Today.

1. I got to read, clean, rest, sleep, dream, eat and catch up on my personal reading list.

On Thursdays I have to attend one class only which I'm so tempted to skip, but I keep on telling myself that I went here TO STUDY. That's always a handy reminder ringing in my head whenever I feel warm under the sheets to get up in the morning and go out to the freezing world that's out there, or when it's too tempting to go to the park and just watch people play.

I'm moving on with items in my reading list. I'm on my way to finishing The Screwtape Letters (CS Lewis) and I've started reading The Book Thief (Markus Zusak). I've kind of mastered reading while on sitting the train, or even standing up, while walking when changing train lines or while walking home. I like the sound of flipping pages, maybe that's why I can't bring books down.

2. I also dreamt that I went back to Manila for Christmas. Maybe that's why I overslept. I'm clingy to the thought, but winter break's too short.

3. I was biking around with flat wheels until last Tuesday. It's okay because the next item is totally going to make-up for this.

4. Coldplay's Christmas Lights video was released today. I woke up to it, and I was so so so happy. I can relate to the lyrics.

I'm excited for our picnic this weekend!

A Good Conversation

What you'll need:

A pair of brains, to some extent, hot wired to sync. Preferably playful, serious, curious and insightful all at the same time. (This is one of the harder parts.)

Healthy, listening ears and sincere enthusiasm and interest.

While you're at it:

The most important thing is that it has some sort of flow. It's not structured, but the exchange of ideas just happens effortlessly.

Both of you do not always agree to what the other says, or else it turns out boring. Good conversations tell you that what you're thinking is not always right. It shows you that there are other perspectives to things.

But then of course, you should agree on many things too.

Insert nice things to laugh about and random trivia you think that person is interested to know.

You don't count the hours down before the conversation ends.

Post-conversation:

The realization that it was a good one not while it happens but when it's over.

Good conversations make you enjoy them while you're at it, and then leave you with some healthy thinking afterwards (around 10-20 minutes post-conversation).

You 'research' on about things you may have talked about.

You don't mind talking to that person again.

Other notes:

Can happen anytime, anywhere, whether it may be over Toffee Nut Latte, over the telephone on a school night, along the shoreline, on top of a hill, at 3 in the morning, in the front seat of a car or over Yahoo Messenger. The location or manner does not usually matter.

Good conversations are like stickers on a loyalty card-- they accumulate and indicate deeper friendship.

Happy Thanksgiving

I am thankful not for all the sleep I get, but for the many times I have found myself wake up.

I am thankful not for the quantity, but for the quality of meaningful friendships I've had over the years.

I am thankful not for my religion, but for the relationship with You it has helped me grow on.

I am thankful not for the happy moments, but for the family I can share them with.

I am thankful not for what I have, but for the dreams I've built out of what I don't.

Fan Mail

Dear Chris, Jonny, Guy and Will,

You are my most favorite musicians on planet earth. And I bet you hear that everyday, it may sound almost insincere. But trust me, I'm one of the many souls that mean it!

I have no idea how this letter got to you. I had intentions of mailing it since I am discouraged by the chances of it eventually ending up at your desks. When I watch Youtube, I see millions of hits on your videos. It makes me think that even if I didn't watch your videos or buy all your albums, or if I never became a fan, you'd still be as famous, as great and as awesome. And I don't really mind! I'm just glad to be your fan whether it matters or not!

Have you ever wondered which song of yours people like best? Some days, Violet Hill can be my favorite. Other days, I wake up singing Don't Panic or I put myself to sleep with Yellow on repeat. I used to say Fix You was my first love, but I might have to rethink that since any of your songs can, whether it may be Speed of Sound or Talk, bring back feelings of those eager days when I sped up to my room, locked the door and pretended to live inside a Coldplay world.

I'm a fan, not only because you are excellent with the whole music thing but because you possess such spunk. You are rock stars that are very comfortable under your skin. The total package was too original to be shoved off. The songs are simple and complex all at once.

It is my great fear that you stop creating music. Please don't ever get tired. You may not know it but many people, in the silence of their rooms during midnight, play your songs and remember feelings. Your songs are theraputic like aromatherapy candles, and that's your relevant contribution to the stressed out, baggage-laden world.

It has been my birthday wish to see you perform live for 3 years in a row now. I don't mind wishing for it until I'm old. I just sure hope it comes true, or else those birthday candles would be such a waste.

Kidding aside, keep on rocking my socks until they fall off.

Danne

A Yellow Box

This is the most beautiful yellow box I've ever seen in my life.

It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. I didn't really care if the doorbell of the mailman woke me up. When I spoke to him in the video doorbell thing and I heard the word にもつ, I knew it would be the beginning of a beautiful day.

YAY YAY YAY! I love the smell of home.

Sweet November

Hey! I wanted to share some pictures with you.

Here are some of my favorites. They were taken from different places, train rides away from each other, at different times, in different moods, so forgive the incoherence!

Let's start off with something classic-- Shibuya crossing. It's one of those busy sanctuaries in this city. You'll never get tired of repeatedly watching people rushing across the huge intersection.

This was a photo of people doing different kinds of banzai during our school festival. It was extremely entertaining.

Harajuku crepes! "Mmm." will be enough caption for this.

Here's a temple in our neighborhood standing high and mighty!

Roppongi Hills--classy! There's so much life in this place.

This is what you see when you look up while walking Roppongi Hills.

This is how freshly steamed side street Chinese food in Japan Chinatown looks like.

Autumn

This is my 150th blog post in this website (some which went unpublished due to reasons unknown). In this sesquicentennial entry I decided to write a post about Autumn.

Autumn is such a nice word, and I say that maybe because I like how the two consonants m & n go together at the end. I would have named my first kid that. But my fancy for Autumn goes beyond nominal, as such would hardly give it justice.

The crisp, cool air, layered clothing, late sunrises and early sunsets all contribute to a mood of slowing down. Nature exhibits entropy by the way falling leaves arrange themselves on the ground. People sit outside coffee shops drinking tea or cocoa in an attempt to keep them warm from the moderately cold air.

The sad thing however, is that autumn is hardly taken on its own. It's always seen as transitional, the season between summer and winter. It is like a middle child. It is then that leaves decide to commit harakiri so they don't die during the extreme cold. It's when people do fur coat shopping and stock up on food. It's when squirrels pack their belongings and begin to burrow on the ground. Nobody enjoys Autumn as Autumn. Everyone's anticipating Winter.

I'm not sure how Autumn herself feels about this.

Human Brain

Excerpt from my journal

It reads: the human brain-- probably one of the most important inventions of God.

It's just one very fascinating machine, no neuroscientist could probably get to the exit of the labyrinth that's in there. God must have really designed it that way so we can't boast.

Typing this blog post while drinking water and chatting and breathing, and my heart's beating and I'm shivering because it's cold; all of those controlled by a mere mound of human flesh that we call the brain. How did thoughts like E=mc² spring out of organic, decay-able human flesh?

Executive functions like planning, initiating appropriate actions and abstract thinking happen just so naturally, burning probably only a few calories, in a split second.

God must have been so proud when he invented it. Awesome!

Tonight

I'm not going to give any details but I want to sum it up to:

"It's been so long since my favorite shirt had been my favorite shirt."

Read between the lines.

Hihi

Today, for unexplainable reasons, I am happy. It's been quite a while since I got into the homesick rut. Going out of the dormitory to explore the city was just very liberating.

I want to build a home at the center of Roppongi Hills. Who knows?

Quoting my friend Jeanne, it's "I am so happy I can just hug anyone right about now," to think it was just days ago when I said I can't feel anything.

I write longer when I'm sad. Haha. Did you notice?

Because there are days when we just feel nothing.

Nothing. No happiness, no sadness, no fear, no pain, nothing really sensible to blog about. I'm giving you a chance to back out from reading this post!

My emotion palette is of untainted white. So today I tried to watch a movie which was supposedly good and critically-acclaimed. It had the best visuals, it was about dreams (my supposedly favorite subject), people in circus costumes were flying, there was a mystical waterfall, the background seemed like it came from A Midsummer Night's Dream--it had all I wanted in a film, but I felt nothing. What's wrong with me?

And then I realized there should be days of untainted whiteness for there to be days of vivid blue and yellow. Days are like pages of a sketch pad. You can be confronted with a blank white sheet staring at you, and then tomorrow when you wake up, you just find it flipped over to a page filled with a blots of colour.

There are days when we feel, there are days when our hypothalamus is wrapped in tissue.

Low Light

Today I paid a visit to a vault of around 1.5 million books and it was a wonderland for the soul! I was a wanderer thrilled by the thought of being surrounded by books from the 19th and early 20th centuries. In my one year stay in our school I sure should take advantage of one of the biggest libraries in Japan. It's a must to sit still and read, read, read!

I borrowed these books. I'm kind of excited to learn about C.S. Lewis' take on pain and suffering and all of life's dramas. The thicker book below is entitled The Psychology of Dreams from the 1920's.

Sitting in one corner, being totally isolated from the world and getting transported into an alternate universe created by some person you barely know-- that's the best thing about reading.

There you are, sitting at the back of my brain.

I Want You Now

I do not remember when of you I last held sight

I think I lost chances of seeing you since I boarded that flight

You're bad for me, that's what they all say

But I can't help to want you anyway

I do not care of the consequences of the future

Not seeing you is just pure, uhh, torture

You always let out the inner child in me

With such trivial things I feel so giddy

It's a no-brainer, you make me happy every time

And I don't even mind making you this rhyme

For the next time I see you I'm sure never to pass up the chance

To tell you how I've fallen into such a potato romance

Oh, McDonald's french fries

Getting All Geeky

Waking up is such a phenomenon, no wonder empowered (?) women like Katy Perry, Hilary Duff and Ke$ha sang about it.

Every morning we spend some time struggling between the lure of sleep and the promising waking life. Even when we're too tired to even think, a debate plays in our heads and it often goes: Do I want to stay in the sheets and put my brain to rest from the madness of last night, or do I want to get up and go out there?

Just as the phase between dreams and reality is a blur, there is a threshold of sleepiness or waking. I couldn't better articulate myself than by showing you a graph of what I'm trying to say.

Being geeky and taking this topic too seriously aside, I believe that sleep research is a very promising future for me, thanks to my Biopsych course this sem. The blur between dreaming and waking was always a fascination, and so are the things that happen before, after and in between them!

Sorry if I'm taking this topic too enthusiastically. And since we're at it, let me try to convince you why this whole thing is totally cool. Sleep is a reversible state of unconsciousness-- it is not anywhere like drugs or paralysis. And yes, it's better than alcohol. The morning-after feeling just feels so good. If you want to take a break from the daunting task of dealing with reality, it's easy to get in such a state of unconsciousness (well except if you have insomnia).

I ♥ sleep. Don't we all? :-)

Hot Fuss

Now an official Brandon Flowers/The Killers fan! I love 'Somebody Told Me', 'All These Things That I've Done' and 'Human'. They're the only 3 songs I've been listening to all day.

Thus the conclusion to make a Brandon Flowers wallpaper.

He is what you call hot.

Hearts!

The source of my happiness today.

Black hearts on a transparent umbrella-- just the way I like it!

Stars

Today in Bio Psych class

Secret Dream

The earliest memory of enjoying writing was in grade 5, when I would type down random essays about petty concerns, and they were not even for school. Keeping a blog, a secret folder of stories in the hard drive and a journal kind of helped me grow in writing. I admit that I may be lacking in the reading department, which I am trying to make-up for now. It's true that the more you practice to write and the more you read, the better you get at setting up the flow of your narratives, the more you can concretize situations and smoothen the exchange of lines in characters' conversations.

I want to tell you a secret, but you might have to promise to sush. My secret dream is to become a writer, an author (for more glamour)-- to pen stories, whether real or unreal. Of course, part of the perks of the secret dream is to tour Europe on book signing tea parties, but it might still be too early to think about that.

When I sleep, I dream of places very nice to write about. Then, I am not guarded. I am not limited to a world where gravity would not allow tables to float or geckos to fly. Emotions are real inside dreams. The characters inside your head don't censor what you think they feel. People in your dreams don't give fake smiles. If they think your yellow green hair color looks funny on you, they say it bluntly straight to your face. In dreams, things are at their purest. I'm a fan of Freud, I believe in the subconscious.

I dream to write stories of people at their purest, sincerest form. I think that is what makes a literary piece memorable. But it's so difficult! I tend to dismiss silly thoughts thinking how readers could be judgmental.

I'm literally having cold feet right now. The in-betweens of my toes are probably as cold as the magnets on the refrigerator.

Where on earth can you find encouragement to write away?

Random Someone

Just a random someone I've drawn weeks ago.

"I try my best to be guarded,

I'm an open book instead."

Kuro-san

私の自転車です。くろさんです。ユニスさん、あろがとうございました！

My bike (for now), Kuro-san.

Eunice, thank you very much!

Blessed

Lately, I have been thinking of so many things, asking a lot of questions. The feeling of being alone (without a family, with a couple of friends) in a foreign land got to me. So it takes a month before everything sinks in. It's what some others call "homesick". I'm human after all. I was waiting for this but it did not come, until after a month. I thought I was devoid of emotion.

I've been reading the Bible and spending quiet time now, which I don't usually do when I was in Manila. Honestly when people ask me why applied for this, I could not give them a straight answer. I myself did not know why. It just happened. Everything went smoothly, and I just allowed the flow to take me. Somewhere in the process, the Lord did it for me. Maybe bringing me here to be in complete isolation was the Lord's way of telling me "Hey, take it slow. You are always too busy. :)"

I admit that I haven't really been the best kind of Christian around. I was trying my best to live a good life, but I found it difficult to take time out for God, so He was kind enough to make some for me. It's a pause from all things: all my plans for the future, all my perseverance to achieve things, all my excuses.

Today, God just gave me the encouragement I need. I had so many questions that seemed to have no answers. God had provided some of the answers today. I feel very very blessed. I have met some nice people here in Tokyo, a bunch of new friends, people who have helped me adjust, a church that could help me grow as a Christian.

I could not be more thankful. :) I have yet to find a purpose of why I'm here, but I'm trusting He will continually provide me with answers.

I hope everyone is blessed as well. Happy Sunday.

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29:11

Tea and A Little Reading

I spent the cold afternoon reading South of the Border, West of the Sun. I'm not quite sure if it's Haruki Murakami's finest work. I have yet to read. I was really wondering if someone tore off the end pages of this book because I think it is unfinished. Well, that's just my opinion. It's not as if Murakami will care.

Nice buildup though. I wish he wrote more.

It's nice to know that Murakami studied college in the school where I'm studying now. Haha, there's this connection.

It Wasn't Easy

It's time to celebrate. I feel like a turtle living out of its shell. It's life-changing.

What was once unimaginable has now happened. I have cooked and eaten my first serving of broccoli today!! It has brought me to tears.

Well, I don't usually cry over food.

Some may know that I'm not in any way a vegan, I don't even eat veggies except for potatoes (if you consider potatoes veggies).

So let me tell you where it all began. I think veggies, especially the green leafy ones, taste like leaves (I haven't eaten leaves, don't you worry.) I just found it kind of repulsive to eat off trees since we're humans. But lately I had an epiphany. I woke up from a nap last night and I told myself that the time has come. It's time to get out of that shell, be brave and realize that yes, veggies are friends and food.

Not a fan of systematic desensitization, I grabbed a broccoli in a plastic bag off the shelf of the grocery store, some onions and a tomato sauce in can. I decided to go full-on vegetarian tonight. Maybe just for tonight.

I never saw this day coming, even if I'm tired I just had to write about it. :-) I'm off to live life fully, and this is something I won't miss, especially if it will in turn bring me good health.

It was just too liberating to be real!

It's good to act on impulse because you can't turn back! The decision-making process has gone too fast.

A 'High'

The most beautiful things here in planet earth are the ones that can elicit a 'high'.

This video changed my life and challenged me to take a turn. I always get goosebumps when watching it. It's all surreal. I'll give up hair dye or french fries anyday for a chance to be in that stadium. REALLY! And I mean it.

Lucky souls.

Bella

For my friend, Pat. :)

I miss Photoshop.

Fix You

"I am damaged at best, like you've already figured out
I'm falling apart. I'm barley breathing."

Lifehouse - Broken

"But if you never try you'll never know just what you're worth.

Lights will guide you home and ignite your bones, and I will try to fix you."

Coldplay - Fix You

What I Love About Tokyo

*This is fiction, anything resembling real life occurrences are purely coincidental.

8:17 AM

It takes me about a four good snoozes before I finally wake from a warm fuzzy dream in my cold bed. I slide the glass doors and go out to the balcony for some quick temperature check. I realize it's colder than most of the other days in autumn. I take a good warm bath, get dressed and throw my scarf on. I rush to the refrigerator, pour and drink some milk. It's a good morning in Tokyo.

9:23 AM

Girls on high heels readily beat boys on a race to the train during rush hour. Ordinary people choose to align themselves to the left while those in a hurry race thru the right lane. Today nothing puzzles me more than the railway map. I decided to take the JR Yamanote Line. I'm off to Harajuku.

9:53 AM

Prompt and prompt it is. The train arrives for Harajuku at exactly 9:52. I exit through the Takeshita Street Exit and swim a sea of transparent umbrellas.

10:45 AM

There are only four kinds of stores in Takeshita Street, and they sell either of the following: crepes, cosplay costumes, clothes and cute stuff. I barge in to a store selling little trinkets and huge mobile phone key chains, pencil cases, earrings, magnets, pins, hair bands, anything you think a girl would probably like. I talk to the sales lady in English and she answers back in Japanese. I was not really surprised. It happens, always happens. And no matter how much they don't understand you, they still try.

12:12 PM

There's no place in the world where ramen tastes as good as where it was originally made. I hear people eating ramen, and it's perfectly fine since I understand that it's meant to be noisy. I'm in their country anyway, who am I to dislike it?

1:02 PM

I took a train ride to Shibuya. Nobody speaks in the train. Some people stare in space, some keep their eyes glued to their pocket books while others who detest static plug their earphones to their ears.

1:49PM

In the midst of the city chaos I discover a temple, and suddenly it's another world. Sandwiched in Tokyo's urbanity is the peace that people find in such places. I begin to take pictures of people hanging their wishes on the rails.

2:35 PM

Walk in the main streets and you see the world, in the form of designer brands. Walk in the side streets and you see Japan-- the tiny stores selling fur coats, street food and kimonos.

8:12PM

Traffic lights from all roads turn red and the people rush in. The huge Shibuya intersection is the wildest intersection I have crossed. Probably more than a thousand people cross in one go, living about their lives, minding their own businesses yet dancing to the rhythm and the flow of the huge human chunk. In the middle of all these I look up and see countless lights, billboards, electronic televisions, street signs--signs of an awake city at night.

10:18PM

I walk back to my pad. The houses of the neighbors often intrigue me. They are so quiet, boxed in, small yet big. I marvel the silence that the Japanese enjoy in their homes, a far irony from the chaos and bustle in the main roads at night.

1:35 AM

As I go to bed and sleep, I stare at the ceiling I realize that today, I saw breadths of life in different dimensions I could have not imagined possible to exist in just one city. If I could choose to be in any city other than home it would be this. I always knew even before I came that I would like to live in Japan.

And there's nobody to be thankful to but Him.

Oh, The Hassles of Living Alone

Warning: this is a rant post

I honestly did not expect that living alone would be this overwhelming. Whew! It's like every day I need to worry about what every other mother in this planet is worrying about, minus the kids. I never thought it would be this difficult to maintain a home, let alone one half of a dormitory room. Maybe I'm just a control freak or just too concerned in being organized, but surely a life like this ain't easy to handle.

Don't get me wrong-- I love Japan. I love how when I go out it's all breezy, cool and sunshine-y at the same time. I love how the people wait for the pedestrian stop light to turn green before they cross the street even if there are no cars. I love how bikers are reckless in the side walks. I love it when I speak English to the Japanese they still answer in Japanese. I love how they have extra nice toilets in school.

Probably this tired feeling from doing all the house chores like doing the laundry, washing the dishes, doing the vacuuming can occur to anyone anywhere living alone for the first time. And yes, I'm one of those lucky ones!

Part of that of course is the hassles of cooking. Cooking is not for me. It's etched in the palm of my hand. During nights when I feel like treating myself, I go for a take-out and man I say to myself, "food really should be delicious". And oh last weekend I've tried ironing. I did not burn any of my clothes, bow.

Most importantly, no one wakes me up in the morning. I'm so annoyed at my alarm clock I would love to throw it on the wall, but then I realized I shouldn't do that because my body clock is pretty messed up. In Manila, the only alarm clock that works for me is a human being nagging me to get up.

I will enjoy this. I should!

Log #1829

I now understand what people mean by "it's so cold outside we better stay in". It's really darn cold, a 3-layer top was not enough. The moment I stepped out of the dorm I told myself that it was a mistake to not bring that other jacket. Last week it was hotter here that in is in Manila, and the weather suddenly took a hundred and eighty degree turn. I don't usually write about the weather until it bothers me. Autumn is on!

And because it's cold and fuzzy, I've been taking more naps these days. It's all good. The room is cold even without air conditioning and it makes for a nice environment for out-of-this-world dreams. I've been having hilarious dreams lately I can't even recall what they are. I just remember they're really funny that I want to live in them.

In other news, I have four periods of classes tomorrow and my first class begins at first period which means I have to be up by 7 (to take a bath, cook breakfast, get my school wear ironed and so on) so it's time for another sweet slumber. Good night and have fun dreaming!

One Rainy Day in Harajuku

Handsome

What makes him handsome is not the way he looks but the way he thinks.

To Wait

Last night at around four in the morning, I checked out Adam Young's blog page and saw a new entry. I decided to sleep away and save the reading for tomorrow (which was today) because even if I haven't read the post yet, I knew it was something worth it to wake up to. There's no other stranger in this planet that inspires me like Adam Young does, and I can say that over and over again. I hope he would never grow tired of writing.

On his recent post about airports, delayed flights and hotel rooms, he writes about the beauty of the here and now. Again, he hits the point spot on. It's never easy to wait, but waiting is one of the most beautiful things in the world. We wait in queue for our turn to the dentist, wives of US Army men wait for their husbands to come home, children wait for Christmas. In waiting, we slow things down. In waiting, we enjoy both what we do and don't have.

Similarly, in the SILS Opening Ceremony yesterday, Dean (Professor) Morita in his opening speech said that the world can be measured using distance or time. The distance between here to there never changes, but the time it takes for us to reach point A to point B shortens as technology advances. Ergo, the world is not shrinking in geography, but it is getting smaller with respect to the time dimension.

Both inspiring encounters make for the conclusion that: it's beautiful to wait, but man, in his impatience, has made it possible to wait for a shorter time. I guess that is a reasonable compromise. We have availed ourselves of the chance to feed our impatience but at the same time not skip the opportunity to wait.

I sort of believe that everything in life is polar. There are always two extremes: rewind and fast forward, introvert and extrovert, liberal and conservative, love and hate, fast and slow. Nothing though, would be as great as some good old compromise. It isn't exactly mediocrity. I'd hate to quote Hannah Montana but it's like the best of both worlds.