Thinking about this question. Will blog more later cos I'm finally going home! Yay!!!

I've started on my first cup of coffee for today! :) But even though I slept at about 2am last night, I feel surprisingly okay. In fact I woke up this morning feeling minimally tired. I just hope the friend that I was chatting with last night woke up in time to get to work! :p

  Am at the BOE again today. Not terribly upset cos it means I just have to get through today and it'll be the weekend tomorrow. YAY!!! 

  Oh, on the news last night, it was reported that Kochi prefecture's students scored the lowest nationwide in Japanese and Math for junior high school level! Not sure about elementary school and am not sure how they measure the results but oh well, I am not surprised. And Kochi wants to hit national average in 2 years .... er, like I told E and B, I think it's easier to raise the dead from the grave than to wake up a sleeping Kochi student in class!!! LOL 

My 3rd cup of kopi and still counting ...

Am at the BOE today and I decided that today will be use-the computer day or read-a-book day. My schedule says I have to be at my base school and the school is actually on leave today and tomorrow cos they had Sports Festival on Sunday and the rehearsal on Saturday. So it's not my fault if my JTE didn't inform my supervisor of the changes.. Cos if I'm not at my base schools, it means i'm supposed to get sent to elementary schools.

  I just decided that it doesnt pay to be kind and enthusiatic. So I get an office day today to 'rest' from my long week. Hopefully I will get one again tomorrow. It's weird cos when I walked into the office today, my supervisor didn't say anything at all to me and didn't ask why I was in the office instead of school. Oh well, like I said, it's not my fault that they fucked up and it's not my duty to inform her of the changes. 

  And I also decided not to talk to her too much and keep my distance. Afterall she is not my friend but my boss. So too bad if our conversation went something like this ...

  Sup: So did you attend Sports Festival?
  Me: No
  Sup: So did you have a good weekend?
  Me: Yes. I had a good rest.

  I couldn't even be bothered to tell her I went to another prefecture or to Fukuoka for Arashi's con. Not interested to tell her about that.

  I think I had a rather good weekend. Yamaguchi was overall so-so though; there were good parts of that prefecture but it's not really somewhere I would recommend to someone who wants to go around Japan. 

  I dropped by Thursday market on my way to the BOE. Picked up a bunch of veggies... yay!!! Decided that salad days r officially over. Going to start making soups for dinner now. Probably going to be more filling but well, the weather is turning colder. So soups r filling and delicious. 

  Two more days to the weekend! Yay!!! Going to the mall with Pearl on Saturday to hunt down my Uniqlo tights. Haha! There is this purple heat tech one that comes in an XL so I want it. Hope they have it though cos I couldn'f find it in my size. Oh well, if they don't have it, I'll order from the website since I want to get some of the other colors too. *crossing my fingers*

I thought Kochi was quite a dead town but turns out that Yamaguchi city was worse! Haha!

  It was actually a toss-up between Shimonoseki and Yamaguchi today. Yamaguchi won cos I figured I might really blow my budget majorly if I went to Shimonoseki. Cos my main purpose would be the huge mall there but I thought since I was there a few days ago and the mall wasn't so tempting so maybe it won't make a big difference the second time round!

  I checked out at about 9am and arrived at Yamaguchi at about 9.45am. Ok, the bus timings during public holidays REALLY REALLY suck! I was so worried that I may miss the buses at some points in time. Oh well, that didn't happen but yeah I'm at least glad that there were bus connections to the places that Iwanted to visit.

  My first stop was Ruriko temple, a 5 storey temple, which was situated in Kozan Koen, a rather small but interesting park with a picturesque lake.  The pagoda was really cool!!! I took quite a few pictures around that area which was a good thing as I had to go catch the connecting bus to Joei temple and the adjourning garden Sesshutei. Ok, the temple and the gardens were a tad disappointing, especially if one has been to the more beautiful gardens in Kyoto! I actually had 1.5 hours to spend in this place but was actually done in 1 hourm, including a trip to the omiyage shop where I got this really yummy orange cake and my Yamaguchi Hello Kitty key chains. So I waited for the bus at the bus stop for 30min!

  I decided that my last destination would be the Saint Francis Xavier Memorial Church and then I'd walk back to the station. Oh but I was sort of lost when I got there and took quite a while to detour around the ares before finally reaching the church. The church was very new but I think older architectures excite and interest me more. 

  Ooh, I was really relieved that I made it on the Shikansen and made the connection to the express train at Okayama! I texted Okaasan to tell her that I was on the express train and coming home soon. She was really funny .. she told be careful not to accidentally take the train all the way to Sakawa! Haha! So I told her that if that happens, I'll just go say hi to Ojii-chan and Obaa-chan, Okaasan's parents!!! They'll probably be surprised that I turned up though. Haha!!!

  Daikichi was really crowded that night. I was there cos I wanted to give them some omiyage that I brought back from Yamaguchi. At one point they were so crowded that the bowls and plates were stacking up!! I told Okaasan that if she needed help, I'll do the dishes for her. Well, Junya came about 10plus after his part-time job elsewhere so there was someone to do the cleaning. But it was so funny that most of the guests came at around the same time and all left around the same time too.

  It is good to be home. I like travelling but I also like the idea of knowing that I can return to somewhere, a place that I call home. Haha, actually my main reason for travelling is so that I have a chance to sleep on a bed. :p But recently I've been thinking that my futon is quite comfy too. :) 

Ok, before I blog about today, I MUST say something about the breakfast service at the Comfort Hotel in Shin-Yamaguchi!!

  I'm not a big fan of hotel breakfast. In fact in 2007 December, I stayed at the Comfort Hotel in Nagasaki and the breakfast buffet was not very nice. Everything was portioned out in cups and plates and the selection wasn't great. 

  Oh, but this hotel that I stayed at had really good breakfast!! There was pasta salad and regular veggie salad, a good selection of bread and a really delicious minestrone soup!!! For example, I had little cheese cake like cakes today and the next day I had chocolate buns. I think my ultimate favorite is the minestrone soup cos there were so many ingredients in it!! What a nice start to the day!

  Today is SL (Steam Locomotive) day!!!! And honestly I LOVE SLs!!! So when I found out that there is an SL that runs from Shin-Yamaguchi to Tsuwano in Shimane prefecture, I tried to get tickets to get on it. Sadly I only managed to do only a one way trip from Shin Yamaguchi to Tsuwano cos the return trip tickets were like sold out by 12noon on the day that I tried to buy them. Anyway I didn't mind coming back a bit later cos it meant that I didn't have to be restricted by the SLs time and could take my own sweet time to wander around town and then take the local train back.

  The SL ride took almost 2 hours and i was really lucky to get a seat in the European styled carriage. There are altogether I think 5 carriages and each is decorated differently based on a particular theme. For example, you have the Taisho, Showa, Meiji, European and Viewing Platform carriages. Mine was the nicest I think, cos it was the most elaborate! 

  The ride itself was pretty interesting. It was more amusing for me to see the numerous number of photography buffs who lined the sides of the train during various parts of the journey just to take pictures!! Haha! At one point when I was on the viewing platform (the last part of the train has a small section where you can stand outside and feel the breeze blowing on your face as the train chugs along) and when the train entered the tunnel, all the black smoke went backwards and enveloped me!! Gosh, everyone rushed to get back inside only to come out a while later and escape back inside again! Haha!

  I arrive at Tsuwano at about 1242pm. Decided to head to the Taikodani-inari Shrine, this vermillion shrine that is on top of a small hill and you walk through a long tunnel of red torii gates in order to reach it. Sort of reminds me of the Fushimi-inari Shrine in Kyoto! :) The walk from the train station took about 20min and the climb was about 15min I think. Lucky I was smart enough to stop for a bowl of niku soba before going up the gates!!!

  From the shrine, it's about 10min to the site of the ruins of Tsuwano castle which can be accessed via chair lift. Haha, it was damn scary, especially the flight down!! Cos there are no safety belts and if you fall down, that's pretty much it! I think I was more worried about losing my shoe than anything else!

  Up at the peak, it's another bit of a walk to get to the summit. Apparently it is possible to walk down and walk to another viewing site but I decided against it. Cos at some parts, it was so difficult to walk that I was worried if I fell down or fell off the hill, no one would be able to find me! LOL!!

  After the shrine, I headed down to Tonomachi Street where there's a line of old houses and a small canal that runs parallet to the houses. In the canal, there are like tons of monstrous carp!! They are freaking HUGE!!! I remember taking a picture of my foot and the carps and I think 3-4 of my feel could make up the size of one carp!! Gross!!!

  Next stop was the Tsuwano Catholic Church where I go some nice free postcards. The church was very interesting cos there weren't any pews but tatami mats on the floor! So worshippers basically prayed on the tatami mats ... a nice Japanese touch I guess.

  I took a detour and headed to to the Yomeiji Temple. It was a very nice quiet temple and I enjoyed taking a walk through the temple and of all things, the cemetery!!! Haha!! Decided not to go to the Saint Maria Cathedral cos it would require a bit more walking and I was tired.

  I headed back to the station and cos I stil had an hour more to spare, I took some photos in front of this SL that was permanently on display outside the station. I made a detour to this shop that was selling rice and I was wondering why the tourist information lady pointed that place out to me earlier. Turns out you can actually ask for permission to go inside to the small garden and view the carps. Ok, no big deal! Haha!

  The train ride back was quite nice and I think the bento that I got from 7-11 was better! :p My last night in Shin-Yamaguchi ... sob sob!!!

Hagi is a small town that's famous for ceramics and has a good combination of shrines and old samurai quarters. I was lucky that the bus to Hagi stopped outside my hotel, so after breakfast, I took the 1.5hour bus ride to Hagi.

  I was smart to get off at the Hagi Bus Center. That's like a few stops before Higashi Hagi station, the place that I was recommended to stop. I got the one day pass and got on the West-bound bus towards the museum. But I got off at the wrong stop (turns out the museum stop was nearer). Oh well, what to do! Had to walk back and I was thinking gosh, I've not been very good at this direction thing for the last 2 days. 

  Went to visit the Kikuya House and Kubota House first.  They were really fine looking Japanese houses and I think one part of the house even included a Japanese paper (washi) ceiling.  I discarded the idea of finding the Ishii Chawan Museum (cos it was getting a bit late and I wanted to move on to the next stop).

  I moved on to the Haji-jo ruins and Shizuki gardens. There's nothing much left of the castle; just some ruins but the garden was not bad. Would have been better if it was more well maintained and didn't look like so dried up. I had a bit of time before the bus came so I went to Mori house to check that out. Hmm, let's say it wasnt' worth the 100yen entrance fee. Actually it turns out later that I bought the combined castle and Mori house entrance ticket and I didn't realise it. Haha!

  I was intending to go to the eastern side of the train station but when I passed by Uniqlo, I decided to make a stop there. I wanted to take the 4pm bus back and it was about 2pm then. So it was a toss-up between Uniqlo and the temples on the east and the former won I guess. So anyway, I got off the bus and headed there. Picked up a few long sleeved Tshirts for 690yen a piece and was really happy about that.
 
  The only drawback was the bus going home. Cos when I was coming from Shin Tamaguchi, the Hagi bus was sort of like a tour bus kind of bus, with comfy seats and nice leg room. When coming back, the bus that I took was a regular one with very little leg room and the seat didn't have the back rest. Sigh! Oh well! And there was a traffic jam at some point all the way back to the station.

  Well, thank goodness I had a few buns from the supermarket near the bus centre. But I was sort of hungry when I got back. Didn't want to eat much so I had 2 pieces of spicy fried chicken and an American dog from 7-11. Yay! Unhealthy food rocks!!!

  The worst thing was that Yamaguchi didn't show Yamapi's drama, Buzzer Beat!!! So I missed watching the last episode!!! DAMN!!!! Guess I have to watch that online some time, some how! ARRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!

I took the overnight bus from Kochi to Fukuoka and really didn't have a good rest on the bus. I don't think it was cos i was excited about Arashi's concert. I think it's more like I couldn't really sleep well even though I was physically very tired. Before this trip, the entire week I was just physically very tired.

  I arrived at the Tenjin bus stop at about 6.40am, about half an hour earlier than scheduled. I was so glad that Okaasan made me a bento and I found a spot somewhere in the bus station to eat it. :) Thank God I did that cos I had to queue again (just for a short while only) when I got to Fukuoka's  Yahoo Dome.

  It was so funny, I thought I was early cos I realised at about 7.45am BUT there were already quite a number of fans there ... probably about 500m of fans queuing up. The staff told me that the sales start at 9am but was pleasantly surprised when the queue started moving at about 8.30am. Oh well, early is good. :) I amused myself by taking photos with the red and blue Arashi flags in front of the Dome.

 I met this group of friends/ sisters and they had colored frogs in the boys' representative colors. Cos I asked one of them to take a picture for me, so she gave me the red one (Sho-kun's color!) and I held his fan in one hand and the red little frog in the other. So cute and so nice of them to lend me the frog! :)

  Ooh, I managed to get my Arashi bathtowel and I picked up goods for Oh-sao too. Buying the weekend/ holiday one day pass was really a good idea. For 500yen I can take as many subway rides as I want in a day. Really a good bargain!!! Had enough time to go to to Tenjin for some shopping before making my way back to Hakata Station to meet Oh-sao and her friend.  Actually I was really happy cos I picked up my Uniqlo grey uggs (this furry boots in their new shoe collection) and a pair of green suede ballerina pumps. Picked up a few other tops too and my bill was like less than 9000yen for like 5-6 items. Very happy with the purchases.

  Met Oh-sao and her friend and we had a tonkatsu lunch at a shop near the station. After checking in at the hostel, we made our way to Canal City while Oh-sao's friend went to meet her Japanese friend.

  Gosh, we left Canal City at about 4.30pm to get to Yahoo Dome and theoretically we weren't supposed to spend so much time travelling there cos all that was required was a change from the bus to the subway at Tenjin. But the damn bus took such a long time to get to Tenjin and there was like a traffic jam all the way to the subway station. Luckily there were other fans on the bus and there were also other fans at the subway station so it wasn't too bad knowing that there are other people trying to make their way there too. 

  The concert turned out to be great and our seats were actually quite good. I felt really sorry for the fans who were holding placards saying 'please give up / sell your tickets'. I seriously wasn't expecting Fukuoka  to have such a response cos it's usually seen as the more unpopular concert venue compared to Osaka and Tokyo. But I am glad to see that the boys are popular. :) 

  I was really happy to have had the chance to go attend their concert again. Haha, I actually cried again at the beginning of their concert cos I was so touched. It's really a special feeling to be able to live out your dream and I know that once I leave Japan, I will probably not have this chance again. 

  Well, the whole day was ok but just a bit spoiled at the end of the day when we forgot to bring the receipt with the passcode to the hostel written behind it. Cos the hostel closes at a certain time and you need a passcode to enter. Oh-sao told me about it when the boys were doing their encore (I had given her the receipt cos she was checking out later than me the next day). Told her to enjoy the rest of the concert and then worry later. After the concert, I tried calling the hostel but no one picked up the phone. Oh well, dammit! 

  So we made our way back, tired and worried if we can get in. I told her that since it was Saturday night, people were probably still out or still awake so there is a high chance that someone would hear us knocking the door. Well, we were outside for like 15min and lo and behold, someone actually was kind enough to open the door for us.. Thank goodness!!!

  I'm not against hostels but there is a good reason why I prefer to use hotels over them. Clearly this passcode procedure is one of them. Another thing is the shared bathroom and toilet thing and having to take turns to do so. I'm also not a social animal and I also think that honestly I'm past the age of doing hostels.  A bit of comfort is good.

  So I have decided that I'm done with hostel living since I don't like it very much. I think next time I'd rather pay a bit more for convenience, privacy and comfort. The hostel we stayed in wasn't too bad in terms of cleanliness but definitely in terms of accessiblilty, it would have been more convenient to stay near the train station. So too bad for whoever who travels with me next time, if they want to do hostels, I would suggest living separately - they can do the hostel, I can do a budget hotel. Haha!

I can't believe it ... it's already the last day of August and it's the last day of my summer vacation. School officially starts tomorrow. Sigh.

  Haha, actually I shouldn't be sighing. I have had a very good summer this year ... 2 weeks in Kyushu, Yosakoi Festival in Kochi, Shimanto river day trip, Arashi Kokuritsu concert and also quite a bit of shopping. So I am quite ready to go back to school and get back to work. :)

  But today I decided that I won't do any work at all. Afterall, it is the last day before the new term starts and it's my last chance to just enjoy life a bit. Going to drop by the mall to pick up more ice cream and get my magazines before heading home for a nice relaxing evening of packing and cleaning. Haha!!

So I spent the morning booking accomodation in Osaka for the long weekend in November. I decided that i want to go see the autumn leaves in Kyoto again so since we are not going anywhere that long weekend (cos we are celebrating E's birthday in December instead), it's Kyoto for me. I love nature and I love to just walk around and see the changing color of the leaves.

  I couldn't get a place in  the hotel that I usually stay in.and it's too freaking expensive during that weekend anyway, so I had to pick somewhere else. It was a toss up between a cheap place but I have to transfer trains or a more expensive one that was 10minutes from Osaka station. The station one won in the end, so I'm staying there.  Yay! Am quite happy about that.

  Also spent part of the morning checking airfares to Tokyo for Junya. I hope he gets to go to Tokyo in December cos I think it would do him good to get out of Kochi for a while. Not that Kochi is bad but it's Kochi. Haha!!! And I think being able to see different things and have more enriching experiences will make him a better person.

  Sleepy sleepy ... to watch Shukudaikun tonight or not??? That is a big question. Haha!

I woke up really early at 4.30am! Haha, I couldn't sleep anyway cos I think I was too excited. Oh well, luckily the plane ride to Haneda was quite smooth. Must remind myself to get the travel agent to issue me a window seat when I book the tickets next time. Cos this time for both arrival and departure, I got aisle seats. They weren't bad cos it meant that I could exit from the plane quickly I guess.

  I took the airport limousine bus to Shinjuku and was contemplating dumping my stuff in a locker or lugging them all with me to go to the concert venue. Cos I wanted to go buy concert goods and by the time I reached Shinjuku, it was already close to 10am and the sales would have started since 9am. So I decided to just go directly to the venue.

  Haha, I don't really know at the end of the day if this is a good thing. Cos I waited for 4 BLINKING HOURS in the hot sun. At least I didn't faint! Haha, there were some fans who fainted and had to be carried out by the staff. I think if that happened to me, I would curse and swear after I woke up. Cos that means having to re-queue the next day or worse, missing the concert!!!!

  Gosh the blinking queue was SOOOOO long .... I started at 10.15am and didn't get up to the main goods area till about 2pm, Then JE came up with this new system ... the goods were divided into 7 separate sections and u had to queue separately if you wanted to get everything. Hmph!!! Stupid system in my opinion but it helped the workers who were selling stuff cos it meant that they didn't have to run around to get the goods especially for people like me who buy quite a lot. It was really annoying though cos I didn't get my bath towel!!! ARRRGGHHH!!!!! That was the one thing that was sold out! DAMN!!!

  I finally finished gettting the goods by 3pm. I was freaking tired so I decided to hop on a taxi and get the driver to drive me near the hotel. That was a damn good move cos it wasn't very expensive (less than 1000yen) and it brought me almost near to the hotel where I didn't have to walk so much. It helped me save some time especially when I had to return to the concert venue and meet Torii san and her sisters at 4.30pm.

  The concert was FANTASTIC!!! I cried 3 times during the concert. Haha! Once when the boys first appeared, the second time when they sang 'Beautiful Days' and the last time when Ohno-kun teared in front of the fans while the boys were taking turns to thank the fans. Actually my friend Torii san also cried at the beginning when the boys were suspended on wires and they came out singing 'Kansha Kangeki Ame Arashi'. I think as a fan, it's a milestone of sorts when you think about the amount of time you have spent loving this group and how much sweat and tears they had to shed in order to reach this far. 10 years and I have been a fan for 9. I think for Torii san it must have been even more touching for her cos she probably was a fan for a long time, way longer than me. I was just so proud of the boys and I also never imagined in my life that I could have that chance to see them 10 years down the road 'live' in a concert. Really a dream come true for me.

  Anyway my top 10 memorable moments at the concert ...

1. When the boys first came out suspended on wires above the stadium singing 'Kansha Kangeki', I was so afraid for Sho-kun cos he's afraid of beights!! LOL. Poor guy ... he must have been terrified! And that was when i burst into tears. Just as Ohno-kun said later that he couldnt imagine himself on his stage 10 years ago, neither could I imagine myself watching them live at their 10th anniversary concert.

2. When they were singing 'Ashita no Kioku' , they had a video presentation of the boys' baby pictures and when they were teenagers. Gosh, I realise I actually have so many pictures of them when they were younger, especially when Arashi first debuted. So proud of them, especially of how far they have come. You can literally hear the fans coo and say 'kawaii' at most of the pictures.

3. Ooh, the boys appeared in the same white shorts and transparent tops/pant legs as when they first did  their debut song, A.RA.SHI! Oh my gosh, I think everyone in the stadium just laughed cos they look much older now and I guess still as cute but well, honestly the outfits were such a bad idea!!!Thank God they don't wear such weird stuff now.

4. the water fountains and fireworks were fantastic, especially when the boys sang 'Believe' towards the end of the concert and the fireworks appeared!!! Super high man!!! And of course, who can foirget the fireworks that appeared across the station when Nino was thanking the fans. Haha, everyone turned behind to look and thank goodness it wasn't too long so Nino could continue with his thank you speech. Haha, but it was so funny how everyone just took a moment to appreciate the fireworks, though I think Arashi's were much nicer.

4. Balloons!!!! Tons of them were released when they boys sang '5x10'. Oooh, very very nice!!!! Of course it was impossible to catch the ballons since they flew so high and they weren't flying in my direction. Sheesh!!

5. The video clip about the key events in Arashi's 10 years. Each guy did a brief narration and it was kind of nostalgic reflecting on the various events over the years.

6. Nino playing the guitar and singing 'Kotoba yori taisetsu na mono' BUT he couldn't sing properly and play at the same time so his timing was a bit off. LOL! Still the fans loved him! I remember mouthing 'Gambare, Nino".

7. The re-arrangement of the songs that the boys did for their solos. Quite different and refreshing. Let's see what they each did...
Aiba-chan - Pikanchi
Nino - Kotoba yori taisetsu na mono
Ohno-kun - Kumori nochi/Kaiseki
Sho-kun - Tomadoinagara
MAtsujun - Wish

8. During 'Hitomi no naka no Galaxy', at one point, the screen showed Ninoi singing his part and then the shot enlarged to show him hugging Ohno-kun's shoulder and singing to him. AWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!

9. In 'Typhoon Generation', Nino starts the song by singing the first few lines. I guess it was a long time fans heard him do it 'live' cos when he did it, everyone clapped and I think Nino was a bit embarrasseed. Haha!!!

10. At the end of the concert, when Matsujun asked 'Who are we?'  The fans shouted in unison 'A~RA~SHI!'. 

  I got home late that nigh and other than the onigiris I had for breakfast at 9am, I didn't have food till 10.30pm when I got back to the hotel. But it was worth every moment, even when I had to queue up and face the blazing sun. Nex t year I will bring a little chair with me if I have to do this again. But yeah I love my boys and I am so proud of them. Think I will write fan mail when I get back to Kochi. :)

OVERTURE
感謝カンゲキ雨嵐
Step and Go
Lucky Man
(挨拶)
We can make it!
風の向こうへ
Crazy Moon
PIKA☆NCHI(相葉ソロ)
HORIZON
DANGAN-LINER
アレルギー
ココロチラリ
CARNIVAL NIGHT Part2
言葉より大切なもの(二宮ソロ)
Everything
瞳の中のGalaxy
アオゾラペダル
台風ジェネレーション
曇りのち、快晴(大野ソロ)
a Day in Our Life
Oh Yeah!
ハダシの未来
Beautiful Days
(ＭＣ)
とまどいながら(櫻井ソロ)
WISH(松本ソロ)
5×10シークレット
truth
明日の記憶
(ＶＴＲ)
A・RA・SHI
SUNRISE日本
君のために僕がいる
時代
ナイスな心意気
PIKA☆NCHI
とまどいながら
言葉より大切なもの
Hero
サクラ咲ケ
WISH
きっと大丈夫
Love so sweet
Happiness
Believe
(挨拶)
5×10

アンコール１
PIKA★★NCHI DOUBLE
明日に向かって
できるだけ
One Love

アンコール２
ファイトソング
五里霧中
A・RA・SHI

First of all, to all who have been following my journal entries, really sorry for the long period of absence. I wasn't entirely unhappy during this period of time though it usually is a main reason why I don't update. I think 'lost' would be a better word to describe the situation I was in. :)

  Am I better now? Hell, yah! I think this month was good cos my Kyushu trip, for example, gave me lots of time to think about stuff (for example, my future, recontracting, my non-existent love life etc). So I would say that this has been a rather interesting summer break.

  I'm not fully ok. (Haha, I think even in Spore I have never been fully ok either but that's another story..) But at least I'm more at peace with myself and know what I sort of want out of life.

  One of the things I decided after my Kyushu trip is that I will give up on love. Haha, it sounds sort of sad and a bit cynical but I think loving someone is really tiring and I don't think I have that emotional strength and courage to do that again. Also, perhaps, marriage is not meant for me. Or perhaps I haven't met that special SOMEONE but I have decided that I will stop looking and live my life for myself. Afterall, I think I can be happy being single, though I think my biggest regret if I don't get married is not being able to have buiological children of my own. Adoption is sadly not an option for me, cos I don't think it's fair on the child to grow up in a single parent family. So I guess in life, that's what happens ... when you choose certain paths, you have to make some sacrifices someway or another. But although most of the time, my feelings for the other parties have not been reciprocated, I'm thankful that  at least I have had the experience to love and enjoy the feeling of being in love. :) 

  Another thing that I have learnt is to be happy with uncertainties and that it's okay if one doesn't know what the future has in store for us. When I was much younger, I used to plan a lot and up till now, I still do plan for the things I want to accomplish in life. But I'm not that young anymore and I've probably lived almost half of my life. I may have only 30, 40 years left on this earth and I think the question of how I'm going to spend the rest of my life is really important to me. Honestly, I don't really know but I think coming to Japan and being on my own has made me more appreciative of life in general and I'm determined to enjoy the rest of my life to the best of my abilities.

  Anyway, today is another day at the BOE and that's only Crystal and me!! Even the new people have gone on their break so it's nice. I realise I don't really like it when it's so crowded so this is a good break away from people and just doing the things I want to do. Can't wait for tonight cos I'm going to stay over at Pearl's house and then tomorrow we are going on our road trip to Shimanto River together. Yay!!! v^_^ v

Wah, I spent a bomb today ... let's see ....
1. Paid almost 50,000yen at Nippon Travel for my Kyushu train tickets
2. Transferred money for Arashi's Kokuritsu concert (4 people's worth of tickets, so that was 28,500yen)
3. Transferred money to renew my membership for Arashi and Takky (8000yen in total) in case I forget and then I can't ballot for their dome concerts cos I'm no longer a member!!!
4. Bought plane tickets for Tokyo ((30,000yen)

  So the grand total today is, oh, less than what I expected... about 116,500yen.

  But I am glad I transferred the money today for the tickets. Yay!!! Now I will pray VERY VERY VERY hard that we get them!!! GOD, I REALLY WANT TO SEE ARASHI!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Haha!!!

  Oh well, I figured that if I (touch wood!) don't get the tickets, I will go Disneyland and Sanrio Puroland and Ginza and shop and enjoy myself!!! I did intend to go somewhere at the end of August cos after one month at the BOE, I think I will just die. So it's good to go enjoy myself a bit before the madness of school starts again in term 2. And cos it's the last weekend of August before the new term starts, I decided I'd better go grab my tickets before they get sold out. Wouldn't want that to happen! :)

  Met Elizabeth at 31 for ice-cream and bitching. Haha! Was in another mean mood, so I took a picture of her with 2 empty cups and sent the picture to Junya (second week in a row that I've sent him ice-cream pictures cos we went there last week too. 31 is having their 'buy 3 scoops at the price of the double' promotion. Too good to miss. Plus it's getting hotter so ice cream on a hot day is HEAVEN!!! Haha! poor Junya! Cos he loves ice cream A LOT!!! Oh well, haha, was in the mood to be mean! And he was sweet enough to reply but you can hear the envy in his email!!! Hehehehehe!!! 

I've not really been in the mood to blog recently. Seriously, I think I have a problem. Am feeling quite okay now but last week I was seriously looking at websites on depression and checking the symptoms to see if I have a mild case of it! LOL!

  Well, I don't know what's wrong with me. Maybe culture shock has finally set in! I guess it's possible. Or I'm just tired with Japan, or rather with Kochi.

  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my life to a large extent. I like the independence of being alone and taking care of myself. I like the travelling and sometimes, school isn't that bad too. Just that something is still missing and I'm not sure why.

  Oh well, anyway, today I went down to the BOE after school and my sup told me that I'm changing one of my schools when the new term starts in September. Ok, I'm not upset about the change cos the school that she wants to change is the one that I've been in since I arrived here 2 years ago. But I'm surprised cos my old sup just changed us in April when the entire Japanese working population gets transferred or when new people join the companies. So having to change twice is sort of daunting I guess.

  And she is NOT giving us any choices in the schools that she wants us to stay in or go. While I do see the rationale behind the change, I don't necessarily agree that changing every year is a good thing. Cos sometimes, it is good to have a sense of continuity and it is nice to see the fruits of your labour when your kids use more English or improve as the years go by. So changing us every year or in fact twice a year doesn't help in giving us a sense of belonging to the school and neither does it help to encourage us to see our students making improvements in English.

  In fact, my sup said it is good for the schools to get a variety of the different teaching styles and cultures that the  ALTs bring. Perhaps this is true but I think given the fact that we spend at most 2 days in school, we become more of a novelty and an entertainer than a valuable contributor to the school. Of couse I think sometimes being in one place for too long is not a good thing. Look at the schools in Singapore for example, where there are teachers who have been teaching in one school for twenty, thirty, forty years. But I think changing year after year is not a good scheme too. And in fact it's bullshit that everyone changes. Some of my Japanese teachers have been in the same school for six, seven years or more.

Oh well, since the change is here to stay, I'm ok with it. As long as I have a bus that goes to the school, that would be okay. Haha! Gambarimasu!!! But poor U-sensei... I called her just now to break the news to her and she sounded really upset. What to do??? She'll get over it, as most Japanese do over a variety of things.

I just came back from the mall! P and I met yesterday and we actually decided to go to the mall together today. Actually that was a good idea cos I needed to get farewell presents for L and R. So it was a good idea to go. Plus I spent a bomb there as usual. :p But the blinking mall was SO crowded cos there was some kind of event there. Almost died squeezing with the crowds.

  I was feeling really quite down for the past 2 weeks hence, it explains why I have not blogged for so long. Just don't feel like writing or doing anything. Felt so tired physically and emotionally. It didn't help that my period came and I felt like crap cos it was more than 2 weeks overdue!! 

  But first, about today... it was a really good shopping day and I think I needed that ... just to go look at clothes and shoes, feel and touch them and be happy. Haha, I know it sounds kind of superficial but that is how deprived I am and how good shopping therapy is.

  So I bought a top from Jusco, 2 short-sleeved tops and 2 sleeveless tops from Uniqlo (which were like a steal at 690yen each!), 2 pairs of earrings, eye shadow and nail polish, cleaning stuff, chicken rice chilli sauce and my favorite Thai noodle mix from Kaldi. Plus we stopped for lunch at the omu-rice restaurant and I had like this minced meat burger with omu-rice covered with some spicy bibimbap-like sauce that was absolutely delicious. :) Plus earlier in the morning before taking the bus to the mall, I finished the remaining 3 pieces of Okaasan's inari sushi. Very good!!!

  I'm really glad that P and I are talking again and that we get along quite well. Some issues have cropped up recently that made me feel really tired about the Japanese and non-Japanese communities here. Haha, oh well, I think I will get used to it. 

  Ate so much rice today that dinner is tofu in ponzu sauce (very nice!) and a packet of milk. :) Wanted to do a salad but figured I won't be able to finish all that amount of vegetables. Sigh, I hope my veggies survive till tomorrow!!

I saw the news early in the morning about Farah Fawcett actually and realised that she passed away. Was kind of sad cos I remember watching Charlie's  Angels when I was younger and I definitely remember her.

  Then 10 minutes later, there was a news flash about Michael Jackson and how he has been sent to hosptal

Arashi has a new album coming out in August!!! It's a best hits album so all their singles will be included in it. In addition, the first pressing has a special cd comprising of songs selected by the individual members. ;) Yay! Thank God I managed to pre-order both from cdjapan!!! Double yay!!!