My god! Its already October 2007!

Been fighting those lazy demons keeping me away from this blog. ehehe...Ok guys, seriously sorry for the lack of blog updates. For those of you that I met in KL on my last trip back, you have been up to date with the happenings so far. I promise I will write again from today. So, to date I am still studying at the Japanese language school in the morning and working at Hakuhodo in the afternoons. Ive been busy with the strategic planning team and mostly been coming up with creative strategies, marketing strategies etc etc. This is all new to me, so Ive been trying to grasp it all as I go along. Its tough trying to digest the facts and research in Japanese! Anyway, won't bore you with the details...suffice to say, my term with the marketing department ends on October 12th. Woohoo... After that I'll be focusing my energy on the Japanese language proficiency test in Dec. Yuk! Then back to work with the global marketing division. And now enough of the updates, on to the fun stuff...

September babies: a year later

I don't know if you all remember my post on September babies. My sister Yasmin gave birth a year ago to Jaris and my friend Oo gave birth to Tomoko chan around the same time as well. If you want to see how old 1 year looks... here it is:

Jaris





























Tomoko

Bread - If (1971)

My favourite video of the week...after someone serenaded me on skype :)

I am a facebook whore

Ok I have to confess that I am a facebook whore. Harsh but true. I am addicted to facebook and all its wonderful, crazy, silly applications. From being able to choose your own designer bags, to petting people's fluff, to redecorating your own playroom. Even my old client from work has bitten me as a zombie! Sounds crazy huh? Check it out for yourself. By the way, I would like to post a shout out to chilli frog legs, schmooki and cencalok the flirty hippo. You guys know who you are! Keep up the good petting and poking...xoxox





http://www.facebook.com

100% design in tokyo

Ton emailed me a link on dutch designers exhibiting here in Tokyo. I was so gung-ho about it that I called my friends and headed straight to the exhibition on the opening day, October 4th. Sadly, as soon as I arrived at the station, I remembered the exhibition was from 31st oct - 4th nov. So i guess ill keep you guys updated when i go there AGAIN next month...

http://www.100percentdesign.jp/

Sports shirt for the school

Like I said, not many chances to design things here. hehehe... This was a sports t-shirt for the school. Don't know if my design got selected. The kanji stands for "endurance".

Magazine for my japanese class

Since there is a lack of opportunity for me to design (believe it or not) I have jumped at every opportunity to design anything which included a newsletter/ magazine for my class. It was a few pages about pop culture in Japan. Nothing fancy. I was the only eager idiot ready to take on the job.

Interview with Kobe Bryant's....dad

Some of you might know that I do stints for a temp agency working all kinds of jobs from washing dishes to lecturing Japanese people about Malaysia. My latest job was to interview Kobe Bryant's dad for their free magazine.



The article I wrote:

Basketball with Bryant sensei
Challenges in Japan and his lessons for the ‘game of life’
Joe Bryant, also known as coach or ‘sensei’ to the Tokyo Apache team stands tall at 207cm high. It was an impressive view as we met to interview him during his basketball session with the children at a community centre here in Tokyo. Warm and friendly, he was ready to field our questions with a smile on his face. As a child, Bryant was a natural at basketball due to his height and won a basketball scholarship to enter university. He carved a mark in the basketball world as Joe `Jellybean` Bryant, a man known for his skills at the hoop and his soft spot for jellybeans. When Bryant named his son Kobe after the famous Kobe beef, his interest in Japan was sealed. The opportunity to work in Japan provided him with the challenge to learn a different culture. To date, Bryant has lived in Japan for 3 years stating his love for the good food and the great service. Unfortunately, shopping was not part of the list, as clothes here don’t seem to come in his size. Challenges for Bryant also came with coaching the team. Even though Basketball speaks an international language, his main challenge was to incorporate language that both coach and team could react to in the heat of the moment. Towards the end, Bryant had a few words of advice for us students on how to tackle the ‘game of life’. “If you study all the time, you are going to be stressed. You need to have a ‘shut down’ period. No TV, just relax and rejuvenate your body. Have patience in life. You have to smile and learn to turn the other cheek.
Life goes on”.

Thank you to Dezryn and Jeffrey for tips on preparing the questions.

The craziness that is Harajuku

Harajuku is crazily crowded and full of weirdos. This post is for Eriko and Lina who made this request a year ago! (sorry lina) Well Harajuku is a teeny-bopper land full of gothic, manga-loving, punk, baby doll girls and boys strutting their stuff in a crowded street full of trinkets and tacky junk. But of course, there are those RARE occasions when you just might stumble upon something actually worth buying..































































harajuku girls picture courtesy of markokon's photostream

Highlights of Osaka

Osaka was quick. Got in from Kyoto in the evening. Slept in a teeny, tiny capsule hotel. And out again the next night on a bus back to Tokyo. Highlights were the crazy neon signs and the capsule hotel which is not recommended for claustrophobic people.

neon lights at night

















capsule hotel room

Ming and Ton's visit

I have given up with dates since I am so behind with my posts. I would like to point out that I had a wonderful time with Ming and Ton who came to visit during one of my holidays (23 march-2 april 2007). We went to Kyoto, Nara and Osaka. Ming and I did the girly shopping and chatting whilst being photographed by Ton. And Ton and I went to an amazing onsen up in the mountains in Kyoto. I must say the highlight of the trip were the beautiful cherry blossoms!

I would like to say...

Thank you to those that have dropped by and those that will drop by to visit me here in Tokyo. Amazingly, the list is longer than i thought!

+ Mom
+ Baba
+ Amsyar Jauhar
+ Ming
+ Ton
+ Mark Johnson
+ Op Hutachareon
+ Kamil
+ Fairule
+ Aida
+ Almaz
+ Rory Fitzwilliam-Hyde
+ Amy
- Jeff Noble
- Tim Hall
- Aiman Johan

+ have visited
- scheduled to visit

Suuuu-MO

I went to watch the sumo semi-finals a few months ago (maybe in may 2006). It was pretty amazing. A bunch of big guys trying to flip each other out of a ring. Im sure you all know the deal. If I wasn't out with a friend that liked to bet, I would have been bored to tears. Every round that came up, we would bet 10 yen on our choice. In the end I went back home with 120 yen or something like that. woohoo!

It's nearly June 2007!!!

Hi everyone, I'm so sorry for not updating my blog for awhile. It's been a hectic last few months. Ok the order of these next few events are so out of sync, but just bear with me whilst I update you on the happenings in Japan since my last posting. Enjoy...

すみませんでした！！！

Me in a glo-in-the-dark Karaoke Bar