an announcement

to the whole world,

today i have made up my mind: i shall stay in Japan.

for many dusk and dawn this question has bothered me, to be or not to be, stay or leave.
but just now while washing the dishes, a thought struck me that i want this all to last.
its just this simple. i like what i have now, and i dont want to leave it all.

dont know if this is the correct choice, but its definitely not the first time i hav to take a pick.

well, wish me luck again and stay tuned for the next episode. :]

cheers,



PS: mom dad, i m sorry if this came as a shock, but dont worry i hav no regrets till now and dont think i will hav any. & thanx for providing all this.

lulu's favourite.... cosmos.

around 6th of Nov 2004.

roof of a bath house. cant show u more cos its 18SX rated below the roof. :]

‚·‚¸‚«suzuki... see them, u know it's autumn in Japan.

dusk at Oita prefecture

mistresses of light

a servant of light

at last

well, exams are over, reports submitted, no more presentations.

couldn't be more happy. but i still have one more big quest, my thesis. which is still going no where.
i will be leaving for Kyusukei, a nice valley up north from where i am. will post pics when i get back. thats all for this time. need to get some shut eye now.

nity.

cheers,

a sudden thought

dear all,

senario:

while u were feasting at an all-u-can-eat lunch at ur local mama's cafe, ur phone rings u got a call from someone X who is on an airplane, that airplane is going to crash,

he says hi,
clock is ticking.
u say hi,
clock is ticking.
tik tok tik tok.
... .... ..... ...(mute)

that was the last u heard from X. wonder what u would hav said to X in those short moment...

--- --- --- --- ---

a slightly different senario,

what if u were on a craching plane, u make a call to X,
picks up the phone
X says hi,

clock is ticking.

you say hi,
tik tok tik tok.
... ... boom u see kingdom come.

now, would you wish u had more time to talk or are u content wif the short moment?

ponder,

colourful night... & good night fukuoka.

after a sumptuous meal, it was time for some exercise so that our tummy wont cause insomnia. nice view along the way...

she is more than a happy girl, btw this is right after dinner. i dont blame her for accusing me of causing her weight gain. she just cant keep up wif me.... hahaha, hail tzar nich~~

this was just appetizers, after these we had roast pork, marinated fish stuffed wif Mentaiko(delicacy of Hakata), shell fish etc... all for 3000++yen. simply marvelous...

this is the person in charge our noodles... better be nice to him before he leaves sth extra in the soup fr under his bandana...

delicious Ramen anyone??

not the sharpest photo... but i had trouble holding the cam still. a little too much booze caused this, not my fault :] the stall nearest to the left side gets the most business, someone there told me even the Jacky Cheong came to eat there. but i dont think they were lying, cos the food is really good.

they all have these hanging on the roof.

inside is fukuoka's red light district... we didn't visit any places in there, only the famous street hawker right beside the area.

fr the other side of our gondola

almost there...

we rode this...

wut i did when no23 came :]

remember the last time u laugh at ppl who do silly thing and then get themselves in trouble, especially when its reported in local news?

well, my roommates & i thought we'd get out of our cosy little house and get a taste of no23... get up close and personal wif her, just like Koji and i did when no21 came. only this time there were 5 of us... and a car.

the plan was to get to the beach... coastline to get a glimpse of how big a havoc can she cause. the news said it was the biggest by far.... from the last 15yrs. i got dressed pretty quick... in a tshirt and sweat pants. from my last experience, wearing too much wasnt useful. and the lot of us packed into a small car(called kei here or kancil for malaysians :] ) and headed for a hotspring by the beach. Koji and i had a pretty good time when we went out last time to meet no 21.

the way down to the beach from our place was pretty usual, lots of rain and trees swaying cos of the strong gust. then as we stopped at a traffic light at HIhirose, lo and behold... a big wave hit the shore in front of us sending a huge splash of white water up onto the concrete barrier.

Hooo... we all cheered in the minicar. rounding the corner, and there she was, doing all she could to bring down the structures between us and an angry sea. luckily she could not, and we spend some time cruising down the street while admiring her charm.

soon we reached the onsen(hotspring), koji and wes dashed ahead to the entrance only to find it closed.... surprise surprise cos it was opened last time no21 came by. hmm.... unable to get into the onsen we then decided to stand and watch the huge waves from the beach by the onsen.

the view was absolutely stunning. reminds me alot of a scene in LOTR where liv tyler summons a wave of horse on the 9 dead kings... only this time it crashed on 2 barriers erected to protect the beach, which we always complain to be an eyesore though this time it did wonders totally submerged under the angry sea, breaking waves and making an amazing scenario and not to mention keeping us safe from harm's way.

too bad i could not bring my camera with me... and there wasn't any decent shots i took from within the car that i could share. one can only see it to realize how amazing mother nature is.
that marked the end of our little adventure, as we were too cold and shivering too much to travel farther to another hotspring. we went straight home to a hot shower although we had to fight over who gets to shower first.... rats~!! why do i always loose in jangken :
all in all, it was just as nice as the last trip although i have to say the last one was pretty dangerous as koji and i walked all the way to the beach with nothing on us but our tshirt, pants, and two 500yen coins. haha... plus we got into the onsen last time :]

it feels great after that, knowing that i m still alive and kicking. and the big waves crashing down on the beach... white water washing all the way up to our feet, simply marvelous, better than a good movie or concert anytime.

till our next adventure, ciao. stay alive & take care

cheers,

reflection... also the glass is a cause of global warming :p

then this is tenjin main street. lucky i m not driving :p

and this is how it looks like fr up there... though still rising...

the biggest in japan...

more coming ;p

fukuoka... around tenjin and bayside area. i m not surprised why she was named the most livable city on earth. ps... these shots r straight fr cam wifout post processing, yet.

fresh fr fukuoka. will post pics later.

dear sis,

just got back fr a trip to fukuoka... wif lulu. we spent 2 days there to celebrate our 3 anniversary together. was a short but fun trip. i guess everything is good for now. got myself a pair of new levi's as present... pretty good eh. ;p

sometimes its just that i get sidetracked easily. guess its the way i function... never get one thing done properly. but i never regret coming here or any decision i ve done till now... for without them i wouldnt have been where i am now.

always had dreams to fly high... then never able to pluck up courage to go for it. scared that i would fall hard so hard i could never get up again. well this time... i m trying to do sth, and even if i fall at least i know that i ll fall in a blaze of glory for having the balls to reach for it.

so wish me luck and godspeed to wherever i m heading to. & u take care too.

cheers~

rough period

lulu and i are not exactly close these days. a lot has happened between us... sometimes i feel bad for not treating her right, other times i m just fed up of being together. wonder how it turned this way between us... always thought that we were going strong, different from all the couples out there.

guess i didnt see it coming afterall. silly me.

and now.... to be or not to be, that is the question.

hmm,

still marching on the same ground

well, 3 weeks into the semester, still at where i was about 1 year ago. dont know how this could happen to me. guess i m just not a person suited for further studies. :[ have yet to sort out all my required readings.

just turned in a copy of my resume to the career office at skool, i m actually trying for a job offer. i dont want to work, but i intend to find out what kind of a company would hire a person like me. hence the resume this morning. i ll be seeing some reps of the company on wednesday, 2 days later. figure this would be good experience for me to have a look at how a jap company is run.

things are really picking up these days... dont even have enough time to sleep these days. how i wish i can really do stuff that i like. if only i dont have to care about all the silly menial chores...

anyway, i ll keep on going.

cheers,

profile photo 

summer is over... back to skool

oh well, it's over. and school just started.

how did i spend my summer this year... let's see. hiked the highest peak in Japan, worked my @$ off afterwards and got myself a toy, impressed the manager to let me work as a regular in a jap hotel... guess i had a pretty exciting summer. all this aside, i have to admit that i didn't study at all during the break. that is not good.

now i have a tonne of material to catch up and try to solve my problem of not having a concrete thesis proposal. this is going to be tricky and i will have to work on it seriously. never thought that writing a report can be this hard. then again, this is not just any other report, this baby is suppose to get me into a grad skool.

wonder is i will ever make it into one. still wondering...

to all those in their final year as a student, all the best in ye endeavor.

cheers,

here's another. enjoy the view.  

these are after No.21... this is why i pay my expensive rent for.  

from my room, right after No.18. 

Life is good here

after 3 years in japan, i finally felt that i belong here.

today, my 2nd day as a waiter at a local hotel. the 2nd day as a regular waiter.

feels like i finally belong to a group of people, although it doesn't sound much but when one is far away from home any bit of intimacy shown towards oneself, feels as warm as it can be. like being home.

life is good , i m learning everyday how to deal with people at work. i must say its not easy serving people in a foreign culture, "try expressing yourself to a cockroach," its from a movie i watched recently-- i understand how that feels.

more from me tomorrow. good nite for now.

cheers,

Nic's online diary

a friend of mine sent me a link to her blog, that got me all started... thought i should have a little spot for myself too.

welcome to this site of mine, its a place for me to keep in touch with family and friends. feel free to leave a line, afterall this is why i set it up for. :]

well, have a nice time surfing.

cheers,