Thank You 2009

It was a fantastic, fantastic year. And now for new adventures in 2010.

Life’s A Rollercoaster, Just Gotta Ride It

Here’s a line graph of my Happiness against Time for the year 2009:

As you can see November had not been all that great for me. In fact it’s probably the worst month of the year: 2 deaths and then I got sick twice resulting in two cancelled trips. :(

Oh well, best to remember that life is a series of ups and downs. Cherish the good times and when you’re down, it’s good to know that you’ve had your fun and can look forward to a possible upswing in the near future.

Speaking of remembering the good bits, Gwen Bell (my blog find of the year!) has a fantastic idea for the month of December (I know this is a little late). It’s called The Best of 2009 Blog Challenge . It’s a look back on the parts you like best in the year 2009, so go ahead and check it out.  I was really tempted to join in the fun but that wouldn’t be too wise: holiday season projects + many days off work last month = large Christmas Backlog Cake.

My Tokyo Trip in A Few Pictures

Hi everyone, I’m back from my trip to Tokyo, Japan. Had a great time there! Here are some pictures from the trip.

Tokyo Tower is the tallest self-supporting steel structure in the world and apparently, de facto icon for Tokyo and Japan. Here’s an embarrasing fact — before my first trip to Japan, I’ve never heard of Tokyo Tower. Back then, when I thought of Japan, Mount Fuji was the only thing that came to mind. Oh, that and Hello Kitty.

The design of the tower was inspired by a world famous icon — you guessed it — the Eiffel Tower in Paris. When I gave my mum a little Tokyo Tower souvenir replica, she asked me why I got her an Eiffel Tower thingy instead of something with Mount Fuji or geishas on it. LOL.

On a beautiful sunny day, we went to Meiji Jingu — a Shinto shrine near Harajuku and Yoyogi Park. There were a lot of boys and girls in traditional dresses at the shrine. So so cute, or should I say kawaii!

Wishes on votive tablets at the shrine. Shawn Yap from Singapore, you made me LOL. :D

We went to the Studio Ghibli Museum at Mitaka City (1000 yen). Was a little underwhelmed by the whole experience. I always imagined the place to be more magical and whimsical, the kind of feeling I get when watching Spirited Away or Howl’s Moving Castle.

We stayed near Akihabara Electric Town which is the place to get the latest electronics gadgets. Huge neon signs all over the place and a very noisy place too. Sales people stand in front of their stores shouting words of welcome and the latest deals. Pachinko parlours. UFO catchers machines.

There are a number of “maid cafes” in this area too, where the waitresses are dressed up in French maid costumes and addresses you as “Master”.

Akiba is also the centre for otaku culture. In fact, we saw The Otaku/Stormtrooper man himself, Danny Choo, in the midst of a book signing.

About 5 months ago, I reintroduced seafood into my diet. I got a little sick with having soya beans as a my main source of protein (is it normal to feel nauseous each time you drink half cup of soy milk?).

I ate mostly kake soba (hot soba), inarizushi, onigiri, mitarashi dango (rice dumplings with sweet and savory sauce) and tempura with rice. Here’s my ebi tempura don (prawn and vegetables tempura on rice) and miso soup which cost 500 yen. I didn’t eat any traditional Japanese sweets because I don’t really fancy adzuki beans (and they really love their red bean paste here).

I put on 2 kgs despite eating only 2 main meals/day and walking at least 6 hours per day. Hmm… I wonder why. Oh wait, I did eat a ridiculous amount of junk food there. I bought the chewing gum on the right (square boxes) because I remember eating loads of them as a kid. :) Not seen in the picture: a whole stack of Meiji chocolate bars.

And I still have a couple more bars with me right now. *Happy*

The Cat Returns

Hey guys, I’ve been really busy the past few weeks frantically trying to complete all stuff related to work. Why? Cos I’ll be flying to Tokyo, Japan next week for a little rockin’ n rollin’. So excited to be going there again! Will post some pictures if I’m not too busy stuffing my face with sushi and soba! See you later. :)

September Ends, A New Habit Develops?

Last day of Nablopomo September. This is the second time I’ve participated in this daily writing project and like the previous time, towards the end, I get a bit er…lazy. I didn’t have a plan/stuck to the theme this time round. Some notes:

I’m not very good at doing this everyday, especially on weekends. My weekends are usually spent away from the computer, unless I really have to do some work.

It’s not everyday that I have something worth posting. So some posts suck. I feel bad for my readers.

I read that writing regularly can help improve your writing however this exercise has not made me a better writer. Writing well-crafted posts regularly may improve one’s writing but to do that everyday no matter what is a little difficult (not impossible) for someone like me whose ideas tend to come in sporadic, tiny clouds of inspiration.

I do find myself writing slightly faster now. I stop overthinking every little detail of my post before hitting the “publish” button.

I heard that it takes 30 days to form a habit. I don’t think I have developed daily writing habit. Yet.

I really admire folks who can write beautifully on a daily basis. Will I be doing this again in future? Maybe, maybe not. As it stands, I feel I’m doing my readers a disservice by forcing myself to post everyday whether or not there was something worth posting. But it is a lot of fun to look back and read fragments of thoughts preserved in writing here. I guess that’s why we keep journals.

Have you ever committed yourself to writing daily?

Under the Weather

I’m not feeling too well today, so updates will have to wait till I get better. See you soon.