Last japanese class

My japanese teachers are always so nice and supportive of the things that I do. 

I'm really grateful to them for organising this for me.

Probably my last group picture with these group of classmates who have been with me for the past year. Plus the teachers who have been with me the past 5 years!

I really enjoyed the beautiful tart~ sensei-tachi are all super nice! They buy birthday cakes for their students on their birthdays and organise farewells like these! :)

The past 5 years had been amazing, picking up japanese again, winning a speech contest, getting my first interpretation job, first experience as MC and later my translation work.

Thank you all, especially the teachers for my wonderful journey with japanese language! Hopefully, I will be able to improve while in Japan even though I will no longer be attending classes.

Heart warming messages from everyone~

A gift from my sensei of 4 years!

A pen that I will treasure for sure!

Plus this key chain from my last sensei. A key chain from the no longer running Cassiopeia!

色々ありがとうございます！

お世話になりました!

Moving to Japan

Since high school, I have always been interested in Japanese language and culture. At that time, I was into the 90s shoujo anime. Thanks to anime, I became interested in Japan. I wanted to learn the language to be able to watch the anime without sub and was very much interested to live in Japan as I wanted to experience things that I've seen in the anime. I think I watched the most anime in 1999, thanks to the influence of my group of anime loving friends.

After A levels, I thought of applying for the 2006 MEXT scholarship to further my studies in Japan. However, at that time, I didn't have any confidence in my Japanese language skills and I just couldn't imagine myself studying science or mathematics in Japanese. Plus I was worried that due to bad language skills, I would not be able to keep up in class. In the end, I gave up. Every single time I think back about it, I felt like kicking myself! I was young and have nothing to lose! It was really the best time to go to Japan! Even so, I did not regret my decision to pursue my degree locally as I was awarded full scholarship from my institution and led me to discover my passion in scientific research.

But my dream was not dead, 3 years after graduation and 1 year into my masters research, I decided to apply for the 2012 MEXT scholarship again, but this time for my PhD studies in Japan. Submitted my application forms, sat for 2 papers, went for an interview and was awarded the scholarship. However, due to various things that happened soon after, I wasn't able to continue with my masters research. In the end, I had to forego the scholarship.

Fast forward to 2015, I have finished my PhD research work and was writing up. While I was writing and especially after my submission, I really gave it a lot of thought. I want to live and work in Japan! At the same time, the thought of taking a gap year really starting growing in my head. After my PhD, I had about 2 months before my graduation and that was when I really began to applying for jobs in Japan. While I did get close to getting hired, the truth was that I didn't get hired in the end and it frustrates me that it was difficult for me to actually apply for jobs and compete with local candidates because I'm so far away. But I didn't give up. I have send out many applications and also received many rejections.

Back home, things were starting to work out for me in terms of career as I was being offered jobs. 

When you are an adult seeking for a job to make a living, it is tempting to pick the safer option. However, I've told myself before in 2015 that 2016 is the right time for me to move to Japan! 

Just when I was almost giving up hope, my job offer came! Without hesitation, I accepted it!

Just like back in the days

Met up with the girls last month for dinner and a discussion session for Jas' assignment.

Dinner was at Fong Lye.

I wasn't feeling well and on the verge of fainting. Unfortunately, when asked for a glass of warm water, the waiter told us that they don't provide hot/cold water, just mineral water. So I thought ok....it can't be helped since they don't serve warm water.

But Jas very nicely sneaked out to Coffee Bean and got me a cup of hot green tea! My life saver!!! *sniff* which led to the notion that I must find a bf like Jas. Lol....

We always order this sweet potato balls every time we're here. 

Jas' steamed fish dish

My sweet and sour pork

Up front is sea witch's 3 cups chicken

All the dishes came with 3 side dishes, rice and soup

I think that out of all the time I've visited this place, I enjoyed these 3 side dishes the most as it was the only time I actually finished all 3 dishes. 

After dinner, we went to Coffee Bean for our scientific discussion. While Jas' topic was specialised, it was interesting to me as it was something new and very educational. It really brought us back to our uni days when we would study together with Tham. 

hahaha.....it was funny when I saw the girls' handwriting and thought to myself, "oh, how nostalgic!". 

Plus it was inspiring to see Jas work so hard on her assignment. It made me wanna push myself harder too as I've been really quite relaxed since my graduation. It's time to push myself to not to be stagnant and to take in various opportunities to learn something new e.g. new knowledge or a new skill or get a new certification.

Fighting~!!!

old dance vids

Gosh, it was so many years ago when we danced in this studio......

I didn't attend much dance class at this studio after they moved here as I was at a point in my life where I was super busy with research. Moreover, the roads to this studio were always jammed!!!

At least I still have these 2 videos here to remind me of my time there. 

Street Jazz Pound the Alarm  

Waacking Choreo

   

Fei Bo Snow Beer, Ipoh Garden East

Visited Ipoh this CNY and we went for supper together with some of the extended family at Fei Bo Snow Beer at Ipoh Garden East.

They're famous for snow beer and it was the first time I tried one. Definitely new and interesting for me. They pour the beer into an ice cold beer glass and this is what you get~

We also ordered a few dishes to go along with the beers....

So happy when this dish arrived! Didn't really had the opportunity to have much veges during CNY.

Fried noodles which were spicy despite its looks but delicious.

My favourite dish of the night- fried squid~!!! Super good!

Salted egg bitter gourd! 

Yup.....you read that right! A first for me and while I hate bitter gourd, I actually enjoyed this.

Squid anyone? lol....the squid which arrived last minute and I guess every one already took a piece before cousin for the chance to grab a picture. 

The food there is pretty good. 

Hence, even if you are not a fan of beers, you can go there for their food.

Banana...nanana....

Last meet up with Moon & Nick before leaving for Japan!

We went to Sri Nirwana Maju at Bangsar.

3 different types of rice here.....the chicken briyani, mutton briyani and the normal white rice which is not visible in this frame hahaha...

That plate of fried squid in the middle costs RM20! hahaa....never knew it was that expensive before! But luckily they were good. I particularly enjoyed the fried bitter gourd and papadum, which went very well with my curry drenched rice. :D

After that, it was desserts time at Nutmeg at Bangsar Village II. They had a lot of interesting cake flavours. If you like fruit cakes, do drop by Nutmeg as they have very interesting flavours. 

Since we were obviously still very full from lunch, we decided to share a cake.

Chocolate flourless cake with hazelnut meringue. I enjoyed the hazelnut meringue with the cake.....if only the vanilla ice cream had a bit more depth to it! It's lacking the creamy texture that I like in ice cream.

After forgetting to take a group pic the last time we met up, we remembered this time!

And we had 2 this time! hahaha......even though I was the only who changed pose. 

Muar otak-otak

Muar is famous for otak-otak and this is our favourite! Octhavia Sdn. Bhd.

We always buy from this stall every time we are in Muar, We usually get the frozen ones.

While waiting for them to pack our orders, we ordered some of these BBQ otak-otak to snack on~

Sorry for the blur pic, but this is how it looks like inside.

I highly recommend you guys to try otak if you have the chance to visit Muar.

Dance classes

Dance classes is something that I will definitely miss while in Tokyo~

Here are 3 last videos that we took from Inspirations dance studio that I just joined for 2 months and then had to quit.

Street Jazz - Confident

   

Waacking - Rock 12"

   

Waacking Christmas Edition 

Mel's original coconut cake recipe

Mel's original coconut cake recipe

Ingredients:
200g unsalted butter
100g granulated sugar
4 eggs
190g self raising flour
100g sweetened shredded coconut
*chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Cream butter with sugar
2. Add in the eggs
3. Sift the flour and add them to the mixture
4. Add shredded coconut
5. Pour mixture into cake pan
6. Add chocolate chips if you want (the reason for not folding the chocolate chips into the batter is so that they don't sink to the bottom of the cake when baking)
7. Lightly level the top of the batter using a spatula 
8. Bake at 170C 30 minutes

The result? 

DELICIOUS~!!!

My parents really enjoyed the cake as they both love coconut and the cake is not that sweet too.

Swich Cafe, Atria Shopping Gallery

First time trying out Swich Cafe at Atria Shopping Gallery.

We ordered their Stacked Red velvet and Valrhona Gula Melaka. Love this because it literally has the best of both worlds~!!! hahaha.....chocolate and red velvet cake plus gula melaka!!! <3

Mangosteen cake which was ok as I've never been a fan of tropical fruit cakes.

Can't recall what this last cake was but I really enjoyed this too.

 Rich chocolate and with nuts <3

No regrets trying their cakes as they were all delicious. Love the fact that their cakes are moist and not too sweet too! Moreover, they have very interesting cake flavours which are unique to them and Malaysia.