Izakaya experience

As majority of the contestants have not arrived, Ms. A and myself, together with our sensei went down town where we managed to do some shopping and had dinner at an izakaya!

Look at the menu!

Sensei ordered a lot of things but I'm afraid that some people might find it rude to take pictures of food.....hence, no food pics! Only managed to take the ones that were specifically for me.

Like this gigantic bowl of miso soup with fish meat in it!

Then as if we weren't already stuffed to the brim, we ended the meal with a yaki onigiri! But omg, the best onigiri ever!!! How could plain rice taste so good??

After that it was time to catch a taxi back~

It was really cold that night~ but that miso soup really warmed me up!

That night itself, all the contestants slowly arrived one by one and near midnight, we were all standing at the corridor, introducing ourselves to one another in our pajamas! I guess we just couldn't wait to meet the others! Though I was super tired from all the travelling, I too joined in the conversation about our activities the next day and about the speech contest with the others. :D

International House

The place where we stayed was about 20 mins drive from the station. Each of us got our own room equipped with our own toilet.

Tada~ Looks just like a typical 2/3 star hotel's toilet.

This is my room~ so much bigger in terms of space compared to a hotel's. I even have my own long couch. Just that there's no personal TV in the room. 

My comfy bed.....really thankful for the warm sheets at night!

View from my window.

Acerola drink and mini red bean buns bought from KIX as snacks for my bus ride but I didn't touch them throughout the journey.

I think acerola was getting pretty big in Japan at that time as many drinks had acerola. That mini red bean bun was super yummy, I even thought of buying it back home! Love the soft fluffy bean with the smooth red bean paste!

Really loving this place from the moment I saw it! Just look at the views from up there! Oh, the place was located up on the mountain and hence, it can get pretty cold in the morning. But the air there is super fresh!!!

It's still kinda bright but it's really beautiful at night~

hehe....caught Ms. A in the action!

This is the taxi that was supposed to bring us down town for dinner. Felt so spoiled that there's a taxi chauffeuring us around!

Here are some pics taken while exploring the place the next morning.....this is the walk way on the side of the house.

Then when you turn around, you get a view of our dining area!

Walk further behind and you'll see the dorm for the teachers. Heard that the rooms here are really huge! Well, too bad I didn't have a chance to see it for myself.

Travelling solo to Okayama

The best part about winning the contest was of course the return tickets to Japan! :D

But never did I expect that I would have to fly on the day of my birthday! And what a lonely birthday that was. :(

On the night before my bday, I was already at KLIA, waiting for my flight that delayed an hour! Then took a  6+ hours flight to Osaka. From there I had to take a bus to Okayama which takes about 3 hours! Yup, basically I was just travelling and travelling!

Thank goodness, it's Japan! Hence, signs were easy to interpret and I got my bus tix and got on board safely.

Well, as with anything in Japan, if it says 9am, you better be there before 9am because people will start shoving you up the bus before the stated time and at 9am sharp, the bus will be moving!

The best part of the ride was that the bus route was along the bay and hence, I got a nice view of the bay. 

Plus I passed by a lot of the places that I've been to in April!! :D 

Well of course I would, since the bus had to pass by Osaka and Kobe to Okayama. I initially wanted to snap some pics of  familiar places but failed! Oh well~

After that, it was factories after factories.......

Finally arrived at Okayama station at noon where I met up with sensei. Little did I know that another contestant from Sri Lanka was also in the same bus with me together with her escort. Moreover, she was on the same flight with me to Osaka! Totally didn't spot her at all~

We had a quick lunch at the station before heading to our dorm.

My lunch, an Okayama tendon set with hot soba noodles! Yummy! Best tendon I've ever had!

 The portion was so huge....but I managed to swallow everything. Plus so thankful to the hot green tea on a cold day!

Speech contest 1

I think one of the main highlight for me in 2013 was winning the speech contest!

It was truly a great experience for me~

I have joined the same contest in 2012 but only got 1st runner up, so I decided to try my luck again this year. And, there were wayyy more participants this year that last year! Tough competition! Everyone was so good, even those who have only started learning Japanese that year! It's amazing to hear how well they speak even though they have not been learning the language as long as I have.

This was the overall flow of the programme.....

Thank goodness I was in the first half because I didn't want to wait so long before I presented. The long wait will truly tire one out.

Last year's topic was about our dream and it was interesting to listen to other people's speeches, especially the younger generations! If not, I wouldn't have know that one of the most popular ambitions for youths now is to become a voice actor! During my time, thanks to the influence of anime and manga, many people I know wanted to become a anime or manga artist, but now it's a whole new thing! It's amazing how in 10 years time, still due to the influence of anime and manga, there can be such a huge difference in the choices that the youths make.

I guess I was really lucky to come out as the champion as every was so good. *counting my blessings* I guess sometimes in competitions like these, besides working hard to be good, you need a little luck~ and thankfully, luck was on my side that day!

Truly happy that the prize included a return air ticket to Japan for the competition there!

 Some of the participants were really young....and at their age, to be able to speak so well in Japanese....is truly a gift! Think of all the possible opportunities that could be available to them when applying to universities or jobs in the future! 

Overall, it was truly a fun day as everyone who was gathered there that day all shared a common interest in Japanese! Plus we had an amazing dinner after the contest too~ :D

Dinner at Shakespeare SS15

First visit to Shakespeare with Urs.

We initially wanted to go to Burgertory but it was drizzling and we couldn't get a parking near the shop, so we changed plans and came here instead.

We ordered the half-half pizza. Not bad, but the air con was seriously too cold and our pizza became cold really fast!

Ordered this cake because of I was attracted to its Japanese name and now I can't remember what it is!!! Great, I'm so tempted to just call this the shiroi koibito! hahaha....yea, but this cake had a really nice name. 

Tried one of their chocolate macaron and it was good. 

Overall a good place to just chill and have some nice cakes. I think I shall return in the future to try their breakfast set as it looks quite nice from the menu! :)

Bounenkai at Japanese class

Before the year ends, japanese usually have bounenkai and we did it n our class too!

Just with some light snacks at the end of class, without any alcohol~ lol!

Here are some cookies that sensei baked!

Green tea Kit Kat by Joey whose brother brought them back from Japan!

Caramel pudding baked by sensei~ yummy! I love caramel pudding!!!

2013 had been a great year! Hopefully 2014 will be just as great!

Happy New Year to all~

Xmas dinner 2013

For this year's Xmas dinner, we chose to go to Chicago at 1U as Jas said that their BBQ ribs are super good!

This is Urs trying to figure out how to use their high tech menu, hehee....

The usual picture of the 4 of us before the food came.

Cheese nachos~ Love this, would definitely order it again!

Beer-battered mushrooms....too bad the ones we had were covered with a super thick layer of batter.

Grilled chicken with mash and beer-battered fries as sides. Quite disappointed with the fries, but the chicken and mash were good!

BBQ ribs with mash and baked potato as sides. The star of the night!! Yummy ribs paired with yummy mash! :D

Some goodies brought back by Jas from Taiwan.

Lovely foldable handbag holder from Tham.

We took this chance to celebrate Jas's and Ursula's birthday too~

hehe....caught them in the action!

Great post Xmas dinner. Unfortunately, 1U took down the Xmas decos a little tooo soon!!! It was only a day after Xmas and there was literally no more Xmas deco left!!

Wat Rong Khun in Chiang Rai

On this day, we booked back the same tour guide who brought us to the elephant camp to go to Chiang Rai.

It was a looooong journey........and along the way, we see nothing but a lot of greens.

Stopped for breakfast at a Roong Aroon hot spring area.

I seriously had no idea what to order....I just took whatever the guide took! lol.....

Two rows of shops before the hot spring area.

Parents had the pork noodle soup.

I guess this must be a common rest area as many buses stopped by this area too as we were about to leave. Funny thing was that other tour guide asked our guide which part of Thailand did his guests come from!!

 Er.....do we look like Thai?

Hot water gushing out from this little hole.

Free leg spa anyone?

After that it was more greens with sign boards showing various tourists attractions along the way.

Finally, after almost 3 hours....we arrived at Wat Rong Khun, the famous white temple of Chiang Rai!

This is Chalermchai Kositpipat, the man who designed the temple in 1997.

Truly a work of art~ just look at all the details~

Love how every minute thing is designed so intricately.

Yikes~!!!

  

Looks totally real~

This golden one is not the temple....this is actually the toilet!!!

This looks like it came from a set of some Hollywood movie.

Highly recommend this temple to anyone who is going to Chiang Mai. It's beautifully designed and took years to complete. Even so, the entry is free! You will get a small little surprise as you enter the temple.....you might find some familiar anime characters or Marvel comic characters! hehehe......