Bisdak Babbles

*Saraba Nihon, Tadaima Firipin - Farewell Japan, I’m home, Philippines
Before coming to Singapore, I stayed in the Philippines for a few days. My flight home was last March 24 in the evening but I was still busy packing until early in the morning (a really bad habit to break). I waited for the courier guy to pickup my Balikbayan Box until 2PM so I did not have time to throw all the trash! I’m really sorry to Kay and Kagz, the next occupants to my home for almost 3 years. I had to leave behind bags of trash.
Then my friends came to see me off to the airport limousine (bus) station:

I was really glad they did that. I had two huge bags, one very heavy handcarry bag, and the laptop case weighing more than 3 kgs!  As expected, I was way over the baggage limit.  I already paid for 10kgs excess baggage, so that gave me 25kgs.  But I still had 17kgs extra! Good thing one of my friend’s relatives were on the same flight.  So I only got to pay for 7kgs.  Because of the heavy bags I had to carry, I lost a very precious find… a Japanese painting.  I only noticed its absence when I arrived in the Philippines.The aircraft was very small but we were able to arrive safely in Manila and on time, at past 10 o’clock in the evening.  I then had to stay in the NAIA Terminal for more than 5 hours for my flight to Cagayan de Oro.  I was not able to sleep and I was really looking forward to seeing Shaynna and my family again.  My flight was a little bit delayed but I was grateful for that.  Why? Because when I arrived at the Cagayan de Oro airport, my family was still not in sight.  Being 30 minutes late would have been OK, but nope.  I had to wait for them at the airport for almost 3 hours!

A few days before I left Japan, Kay and I went to Europe…

haha.. I wish we’ve really gone there! The photo above was taken somewhere in Universal Studios Japan (USJ), last March 20. I had to at least use my one-year pass for the third time. I did not have the courage to try Hollywood Dream, but at least I got to see the lights parade. I have more pictures to share but I still haven’t settled completely here yet. I hope I could post more in the next few days.
And here’s my “Friendster pose”, also taken at USJ:

I’ve spent my last few days in Osaka meeting up and dining with friends and acquaintances.

March 18: The manager in the company I’ve last worked for treated us to a Chinese restaurant near the office and made the cook serve hot and spicy dishes. Most were eggs, shrimps, chicken, and eggplants - all allergens for me. So I went home with itchiness all over my body and an upset stomach for eating too much spicy food. But it’s OK. I’m more than grateful for being given a sayonara dinner.

March 19: Akane-san treated me to a feast at a Chinese restaurant in Umeda. I was so full that I was not able to finish everything. Akane-san gave me a tumbler, which I am now using at the office, and a lucky charm which now hangs in my cellphone. I’m really glad that she was able to meet me before I left. After all, she is one of my good friends in Osaka and my movie partner, too! I’ll definitely miss her.

 March 21-22: I’ve met up with my English conversation tutees. Kei-san treated me and Gelai (the new tutor) to lunch at a fancy steak restaurant at a hotel in Osaka. Kei-san loves travelling and I enjoyed every conversation we had. I hope I could travel as much as he does.
Hiro, the boy I mentioned in this blog, had been my tutee for almost 2 years. He’s such a bright and diligent boy. He’s actually more disciplined than me! I’m sure he could become someone big in the near future. Their home is far from the train station but it was such a delight tutoring him. His parents are also very nice folks.
Atsuyuki-san and Hiroko-san, a very kind and humble couple had been my tutees for more than a year. I also enjoyed every lesson with them. It was only at our last meeting that I learned about Atsuyuki-san being part of the team who created the vitamins I am now taking! They’ve been married for a few years. I hope they’ll have a baby coming soon.
I met up with Masaru-san, Junya-san, and Nene, too. Too bad I was not able to take any photos. These people played big roles in my stay in Osaka. They truly made my Osaka experience unforgettable. I’m really blessed to have met them! Thank you all… ’til we meet again.I’ve just noticed that I did the “peace sign” in all of my poses above! haha

Let me give you a short recap. Valentine’s Day here in Japan is a lucky day for the guys. They receive chocolates from the ladies, some of which are just “obligatory” chocolates, some are expressions of love. “Obligatory” chocolates are just those generic chocolates and are usually given without special wrapper. Whereas expression-of-love-chocolates are the expensive or handmade ones. Usually, the guys give something back onWhite Day, March 15th.  May it be obligatory ones, or the expression of the same romantic feelings to the girl who gave him chocolates.

On my first Valentine’s Day here, I distributed obligatory chocolates to both men and women teammates. In return, I received cookies during the White Day. Last year, I gave nothing, I received nothing. This year, I didn’t bother, but at my current office, the guys gave all of us ladies “obligatory” sweets. There are only six people in the office. Two are Japanese guys, so Kay and I only received these two packs of “obligatory” sweets:

Can’t get this song out of my head because I heard it live a while ago! Yes, Journey had a concert here in Osaka! A very good friend paid for my ticket so I had the chance to see Arnel Pineda and Journey in action.  Too bad cameras (even phone cameras) are not allowed inside.   How was it? It was great and I completely enjoyed it!  I like many Journey songs but I had never considered myself a fan.  During the concert, I became a new fan.

The original band members were awesome and so was Arnel Pineda.  As a Filipino, it warmed my heart to see the Japanese accepting him as the new lead singer, with open arms.  I was even more surprised to see the Japanese getting up their seats and clapping and dancing to the music until the end of the concert.  I thought that they would act as their usual reserved selves.  An added bonus was this teenage boy (perhaps an American).  He was seated right in front of us but even if I could only see his back, it was so evident that he was star-struck.  He even stole a picture! A die-hard fan, indeed.

Anyway, watching that concert was a bonus for me.  Early this day, I received a very good news and I’m just waiting for something before I write everything here.   I’m going to embark on a new journey, soon.  And let’s take it from the band Journey, don’t stop believing.

Two Japanese friends and I were 100% sure that there were still layers of cakes available near the counter as we entered the cafe. I’ve been obsessed with cheese cake lately so I was really thrilled to see that only a slice was taken from it. But when the waitress took our orders, we were surprised to know that only a few slices of cake were available. I was lucky to get the last slice of cheese cake. But how did it happen? Maybe there were lots of orders? But the cafe was not fully occupied at that time.

We we were about to leave the cafe, we took a closer look at the display. Alas! Those were just the plastic cake models. I’ve featured a lot of these in my previous posts. They look so real that you couldn’t really pick the real and the plastic apart!

Here’s another batch of plastic treats:

Japanese curry

Beef doria set

I couldn’t have survived my now two and a half years of stay here in Japan without my most faithful companion: my good ol’ Dell.

When I first stepped into my current apartment, only the necessary appliances were provided. I was glad that the company provided a small TV, but there’s nothing else to choose from other than the Japanese shows. Then the company offered to buy laptops for my roommate and me. Of course we had to pay for it for six months but it was already a very good deal.  We chose the cheapest laptop we could find at that time: Dell Inspiron 1300. True, there were many bad reviews about this model. We had encountered small audio and video problems but those were just negligible. When we had our internet connection, I basically abused my laptop, downloading every anime and movie that I set my eyes on. For more than two years, the abuse went on and never did I attempt to even defragment it.

Since last year, it started “crawling” that I had to wait for more than 15 minutes for it to start up. I ignored the problem, even ignore my good ol’ Dell, because I got to use the company’s laptop which is almost twice as fast. But I’m going to be assigned to another company soon so I could no longer escape but to get reunited with my old companion.

Last night, I finally formatted my good ol’ Dell’s 60GB and re-installed the OS.  Now, I’m using it and I’m really surprised and proud that it is once again running so smoothly! Just like how it was when I first used it.

Let’s just keep this between us, OK? I’m really, really scared of getting on roller coasters and the like.

During an educational trip when I was still in college, we went to the Enchanted Kingdom in the Philippines. I was about to be seated on the Space Shuttle but I backed out at the last minute. However, I was convinced by some friends to try the Log Jam and that one ride became one of my nightmares. Nothing bad happened but I’m not thrilled by these rides, rather, I’m terrified.

I went to Disney Land and Disney Sea in Tokyo.  I survived some attractions like the Space Mountain, but still, I couldn’t get over my fear. Yesterday, I went to Universal Studios Japan (USJ) with some friends. We tried the Spider Man and the Snoopy Ride.  Not much sudden falls on these rides but I was already scared to death and screamed at the top of my lungs! We intend to take the Hollywood Dream in our next visit but will I ever gather the courage to try it?