Friday, August 18, 2006
relaxing @ 5:20 pm
{{ Final Presentation }}
Yes! We're free! Well, not quite...ha ha. So it was quite a sprint from this past weekend until Wednesday night, when we prepared for our final presentation. It was a very tiring and difficult job...more than you can ever imagine. Since our audience is composed of mainly computer scientists who have no idea what "biology" means, it was my job to make sure I explain every terms well. T_T
Our final presentations went well yesterday. Before we knew it, we were at our follow-up dinner party. ^^;; They had some delicious food! And we got some awesome gifts! =)
Now that our research is "over," we have the next week to finish up our work and plan what to do for the week after before we go home! Scary...two more weeks and I'll no longer be in Japan. That is a scary thought...
Sunday, August 13, 2006
at toyonaka @ 5:13 pm
{{ Nara & stuff }}
It's been awhile since I last blogged! Not much happened this week...mostly we just focused on getting some work done before we have to start working on our final presentation. The typhoon that was supposed to hit us never came, thankfully. So the weather was cool for a day or two and then quickly turned back to a hot, humid microwave.
Wednesday night, Ichikawa-san took us to a Japanese-Chinese restaurant that served some GINORMOUS dinner dishes that filled us up to the point of puking (and there's still leftover), and it cost us about $10...I guess it was worth it. O_o;;
Thursday, Tameshige-san, a graduate from last year, came back to visit the lab people & us new PRIME kids. =) He was a very nice guy, AND he knew magic tricks! It was quite amazing... ^^;; We had lunch together at Senri-chuo's Chinatown. I had a very delicious mabo-tofu omelet dish...it was so good! I'm surprised to find some decent, authentic Chinese food here.
Friday, we four hung out around Shinsaibashi and ate at a very nice izakaya for Robert's 21st birthday! Unfortunately, he was a party pooper and wouldn't have enough fun, so it was kind of a downer at the end of the day.
Yesterday, Marshall went to the Summer Sonic concert while Ichikawa-san took Daniel, me, and Robert to Nara! It was quite an interesting city...there are deers everywhere! We came up to one part of the street where vendors were selling "deer senbei". The cool thing was that the deers around the cart wouldn't eat the senbei from the cart. But as soon as bystanders buy the senbei, they start cornering you and start eating you until you feed them something! Yes, I was one of the poor souls that got molested by those ferocious deer beasts...ha ha. ^^;;
Then we went to the Todaiji Temple that holds the largest Buddha statue in Japan (largest bronze statue in the world)! They had a column that has a hole on the bottom that's the same size of Buddha's nostril, and if anyone can climb through the hole, you will end up with eternal wisdom. I tried and succeeded! Daniel tried and... xP
Afterwards, we had lunch at a local restaurant. I had udon and persimmon leaf-wrapped sushi! Since Nara is in the mountains, they use persimmon leaf to wrap the sushi for transport. It was delicious! =) After lunch, we went to the Kasuga Taisha Shrine. Then, we went to the Nara Museum to kill some time until the lantern festival starts. We had dinner at a cafe right across the street from the museum. After dinner, we went around all over Nara to check out the lantern displays. And that's how we ended our day...
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
just got back from lunch @ 1:40 pm
{{ Dutch Students' Goodbye Party }}
Last night was a great party! They held the goodbye party for the Dutch students at the same izakaya as the one we went to for Peter's welcome party. This time, they ordered a meal set that includes unlimited drinks from a special menu! So what can we do when there's unlimited BOOZE, right? ^^;;
Things got really wild and crazy, and I have an exclusive VIDEO! Unfortunately, I have been told by a certain someone (featured in the video) not to put up the link. What a shame...
We're expecting a typhoon today that will probably last for a couple of days. Good news is that I'm down to 5 essays for my pharmacy school applications (originally 11)! Bad news is that we have ONE week to finish thevery first draft of our final presentation. EEK!
Sunday, August 6, 2006
chilling @ 1:40 pm
{{ Yodogawa Festival }}
Yesterday was the Yodogawa Fireworks Festival. It was the craziest matsuri we have been to since we came to Japan. It is hundreds of thousands times better than Tenjin Matsuri!
In the morning, we all chilled and relaxed. Daniel, Marshall, and I walked to our subway station to look for some food in the afternoon. I had a bento earlier, so I didn't eat anything at the cafe that we went to. But afterwards, we all shared a super delicious parfait with chocolate custard cake on top. *YUM*
We then went to Umeda's Yodobashi Camera to meet everyone around 5 PM. We took the train to another stop and started walking to find a nice spot for fireworks viewing. There were SO many people! We arrived at the Yodo River a little after 6 and there were already almost no spot to sit! We were lucky to find a place to settle down... =)
The fireworks wouldn't start until 7:50ish, so we all bought yakisoba at the local stands and waited for the show to start.
We weren't watching the time, but the festival started with a huge BOOM that came from multiple shots of fireworks! It was amazing! The Tenjin Matsuri only had about 4,000 shots, but the Yodogawa Matsuri had 30,000!
I don't think words can even begin to describe how unbelievably amazing it is. Even pictures that I took of the fireworks can't capture the beauty of every one of the fireworks. The fireworks kept shooting up into the sky continuously, and it was raining fireworks during the entire festival. They had fireworks in shapes of cats, rabbit, snails, planets, hearts, and other multi-colored ones! I think all the July 4th fireworks in America can ever match up to the Yodogawa Festival!
Afterwards, there were SO many people leaving at once that the stairs were filled with stationary people (the congestion was so bad that you can't walk). As a result, we all had to climb a wall so we can take a faster route! It was a very interesting experience since I've never climbed a wall in my life... O_o;; I got a few scratches, but getting a lift from the guys made it much easier than it seemed. ^^;;
Thursday, August 3, 2006
listening to music @ 10:40 am
{{ Last Month in Japan }}
It's been 3 days since August started...can't believe how fast time is flying by! Sometimes I feel like I don't want to go back, and other times, I can't wait to get on a plane and fly back home in warp-speed.
Looking back on the last month and a half, my summer was filled with unforgettable memories that I would never have had the chance to experience if I did not come to Japan. I encountered people different and alike, and I allowed myself to be absorbedcolorful train map and wonder what other colors Japanese can possibly come up with when they build more new train lines. into a brand new culture that I had little knowledge of in the beginning. I learned how to travel afar by using the very
I survived on rice, meat, water, and some occasional vegetables and fruits after battling an episode of food poisoning. I spent 7 hours in "heaven" (named BB) and after turning 21, I now face the big hurdle of "quitting" drinking because alcohol is expensive in Japan. I bravely entered an onsen by myself, and I ate the most delicious palace-style meal in my life at a beach-side hotel. I wore yukata to a real Japanese festival, and the geta almost gave me blisters - although the greatest accomplishment for me was learning how to tie an obi.
We long for a massage every night after walking miles in the morning, and we risk our lives everyday on the sidewalk with incoming bike traffic. We lost our voice after singing karaoke, and we made our own guacamole in a country that only imports avocados and tortilla chips. We were able to make our own okonomiyaki and takoyaki like real Japanese, and we made some cool, new friends.
Although we have less than a month left in Japan, I definitely intend on making the best of it! =)