Hammer Session!

Synopsis:

A con artist, Otowa no 4, escapes from the police after the car transporting them has an accident and falls into a lake. While escaping, he comes across Hikari Gakuen School and sees a teacher who is going to burn the school down. Not long after, police comes to the school to search for missing fugitive. The headmaster strikes a deal with this swindler: he will not surrender him to the police if he is going to be a teacher in this school. He takes over the identity of the teacher who was going to burn the down the school as Hachisuka-sensei and begins to change the lives of his students.

My opinion:

High school comedy drama is my favourite genre and I always have high expectations in terms of both educational value and entertainment/comedy value. The idea of Hammer Session! is to put these naughty students in harsh situations that makes them realise the gravity of their delinquencies and learn their lessons. The first episode hits a high note as the example of given is powerful.

Sadly, things start going downhill from then onwards and I will blame it to the weak character development. When we talk about juvenile delinquencies, we will not run far away from being rude with parents, shoplifting, underage smoking/drinking/clubbing, etc. Thus, there is nothing special with the theme. However, the students are like strangers towards one another at the beginning and the progression to become a united class towards the end totally does not make sense. Not to mention that Kaede -the main female student protagonist- is a kaypoh social butterfly who seems to be close enough to be with anybody who is the focus on each episode. It also does not make a good story telling when we are watching this class together from the beginning but only at the last few episodes we come to know that this student and that student are friends etc.

I was honestly expecting the ending to be something similar to Gokusen, especially since Hachisuka is a criminal. Spoiler alert: he does not get recaptured in the end as the policeman (who happens to be Kaede's father) sees him as a teacher after witnessing how his students look up to him as a teacher. Prior to the ending, it is revealed that Otowa no 4 stole money involved in bribery from a member of the police force. Thus after the accident in the first episode, the police simply considers him dead and close all investigation to prevent further opening cans of worms of the bribery. So is it right for Kaede's father to do what he did? I think the answer is morally debatable.

Otowa no 4 was hired as a teacher to change the school but until the end, I think he only manages to change a class. I guess that means mission failed? Lol..

Anyway the picture above is like totally giving wrong expectations. The movie is not as badass as how they cast appears in the picture. The only thing related to beach is just a few minutes in one episode. With so many school-themed series, I don't think this is something that I will recommend, not even for the comedy alone. Looks like I am running out of good shows as the recent ones I watched have been rather disappointing.

My afterthoughts:

I am passionate about teaching and watching this reignites my wish to seriously start thinking if I have to leave my current job and to do a career switch as a lecturer. I still have 10 more months until I am legitimately free and in the mean time, I really have to think if money and annual leave are more important than purpose of life.

Yakuza...ishi..

My parents were in town over the weekend and I have no idea if really they were here to offer thanksgiving at the temple or that was a smokescreen to accompany my sister's boyfriend who is moving here. They stayed at Swissotel again (yay!) and that makes it a total of 5 nights of stay so far. I will be able to get a physical member card and lifetime membership. Hurray! We received a surprise of 3 pieces of chocolates delivered to our room yesterday and I was wondering why. I already signed up as a circle member since the last time but we did not get that on the previous visit. After researching more in the evening, it seems that it is because I hit the 5 nights landmark.

My dad's choice of food really surprised me this time. Usually he always eats at food court but yesterday he suggested Buffet Town!! I just had buffet on last Saturday but I had not tried Buffet Town before so I did not mind. The seafood and the sashimi are great, the teppanyaki is disappointing (they put grilled and teppanyaki so big at the shop entrance and yet only vegetables and chicken for teppanyaki???!!), the pizza is shit, the cooks at Western section needs customer service training, and the fruits and desserts spread are pathetic. I still find it worth, though, because I really cannot eat a lot so I am not that pissed having to forgo so many of the uninteresting sections. Haha.. Don't even talk about second round as I never even try everything for first round. However, I never ate that much sashimi and seafood in a buffet before and the $41 (after all the ++) was worth it. My parents still continued for another half an hour after I gave up. Lol. My dad said that was his first buffet since his surgery.

I have finally overcome my inertia to take up Japanese language class. Lets see if I will succeed or I will give up like what happened to Mandarin when I was in university. I just had the first lesson today and I think I am really old as a lot of the others are still studying :( Gosh.. And I think my brain is too old to study. It is a challenge to remember new words but the ultimate 'killer' is the hiragana. How on earth I am supposed to remember those letters? Not to mention that hiragana characters are quite arty/pretty with their round-ish shape and I suck with such things. My characters end up being too pointy or too round like a circle. Bleah.. Long way to go... But I am still enthusiastic about learning this new language!! Hehe...

And in case you are wondering what the title of this post, it is the Japanese for my occupation. No idea why it contains a yakuza. Haha...

Hero 2015

If not because of stress, I will give this movie a miss. I am not a fan of KimuTaku and I never follow the previous Hero TV series or movie. I saw the trailer during Attack of Titan: The End of the World and I thought the story is quite intriguing as it involves a police investigation and a foreign embassy. Of course there are funny moments and I need a good laugh to release my stress.

Despite having zero knowledge about the series, the movie does pretty well in 'showing but not directly telling' the background of the characters. I sort of guess that Prosecutor Amamiya used to be Prosecutor Kuryu's assistant and worked in the same office. She is now a prosecutor in a different city and ends up having a case related to the one Kuryu's is handling.

The case which becomes the focus is the death of a lady who was running away from an embassy of a fictional country, Neustria. Investigation of the embassy or involving the embassy staff is impossible as a foreign embassy is considered a foreign country which has immunity to local law. Things get pretty intense as the culprit attempts to kill Kuryu and stops him from investigating. Kuryu does not die and this spurs the rest of his colleagues to solve the case even more. In the end, justice prevails.

I will say the plot is rather shallow and borderline lame. Failing to enter the embassy, Kuryu and his assistant explores another way of getting Neustria and possibly some Neustrians. That is by looking for a Neustrian restaurant which happens to be the one and only one restaurant in the area. Obviously they will be able to find some Neustrians and embassy people. This does not go well as the embassy people get weary of them. Then comes the murder attempt and suddenly everything starts to fall into place. Amamiya's fiance apparently has some connection with Neustrian's independence day celebration which allows Kuryu and Amamiya to 'infiltrate' the embassy. Their saviour is the Neustrian ambassador who turns out to be the random old man that Kuryu meets previously in the Neustrian restaurant. Mr Ambassador used to teach law before becoming an ambassador and thus is at the side of the law: he sends the minister who is involved in drug trafficking back to Neustria to be trialed (since he has diplomatic immunity and is untouchable by local laws) while the person responsible with the murder of the lady at the start of the movie is just an embassy staff who has no diplomatic immunity and hence is handed over to local authority.

Character development is almost absent and until the end of the movie, Kuryu and Amamiya's relationship remains ambiguous.

Despite poor plot and character development, I still enjoyed the movie for all the comedy. It is quite amazing that most of the comedy comes from the sidekicks and not from the main characters. However, a part of me feels that the movie is not good enough as it does not make me interested in finding more about the TV series.

Aaah and age is really catching on Takuya Kimura. He no longer looks as young as he used to be when I was a teenager which also means that I am growing old. Lol.

WDCC Aladdin: Racing to the Rescue

WDCC Aladdin Racing to the Rescue was released in 2009 and is considered Time Limited as its production was limited only to the year 2009. Therefore, it bears a paw of Dalmatians. The figurine comes in a box measuring 34cm (L) x 31cm (W) x 35cm (H). The figurine itself is about 23cm tall and the widest dimension of the base is about 22cm.

The box, the figurine, and the Certificate of Authenticity

The box is still in excellent condition

No idea why the caption is "Aladdin Treasure Surfing" although the official name of the figurine is Racing to Rescue

If after seeing the first picture you are wondering why the box is almost twice as tall as the figurine, the following pictures will give you the answer.

The packaging seems solid up to this point

Okay the packaging is quite worrying now. Haha..

Front view

The vest and pants give a nice dynamic effect but Aladdin seems to be sliding, instead of running/racing

Back view

If only I can consistently get this kind of lighting

The face is rather off: so fierce and so un-Aladdin like

Head looks disproportionately too big from this angle

Hmm.. where can I find such big gold coins in real life?

The effect of flying coins is pretty good

The sword is mentioned as one of the highlights of the figure but I don't see anything special about it.

The small detail of the sown patch on Aladdin's pants is not left out

Under zoom, the piles of gold coins look more like piles of melting chocolate

Or looks like mud.. or shit..

Better paint job for this foot

Disproportionately big hand

The base and the Dalmatian's paw

Certificate of Authenticity and advertisement booklet

 Certificate of Authenticity

I am quite confused regarding the scene that this figurine is based on. Based on some description online, it is as if Aladdin is racing to rescue Jasmine from Jafar but I don't recall Aladdin going back to the Cave of Wonders when banished by Jafar near the end of the movie. For me, this figurine seems to depict the scene when Aladdin is escaping from the crumbling Cave of Wonders after Abu touches the ruby. But if that is the case, then the title does not really make sense. Anyway, let's not be confused thinking about this and just enjoy the figurine.

The original price for this is USD 199 and I paid for about USD 180 including shipping. I bought this in late May 2014 but I have been way too busy to write posts about my toys and hence I am only writing about this 1.5 years later. This is actually the first Aladdin WDCC that I am interested in. It broke my heart when shit happened in 2013 and after patiently waiting for one with reasonable price and can be shipped overseas, I am still disappointed in the end. Aladdin's face looks off for me, I don't like the disproportionate body parts, sloppy paint jobs turn the supposedly grandeur gold coins into chocolate cookies, and gemstones which look nothing like gemstones.

A side by side comparison with WDCC Aladdin A Whole New World shows a stark difference in quality. I know that both have different sculptors but since both come from the same line of products, I was expecting similar quality and scale. Of course in the end, money will explain everything since A Whole New World costs twice of Racing to the Rescue.

Just to show the difference with the hands of both figurines

Few seconds of fame

Call me a vain pot but I was happy to be in the newspaper and to experience a few seconds of fame in the television because of my volunteering event on Sunday. A few people that I knew were the official photographers and I knew when they were taking my photo but I was completely not aware that there would be media. On Monday, a colleague told me that she saw me in the news and I did not believe it. But in the evening, I saw the clip and I believed. I saw my photo in Chinese newspaper too and I don't know what the article is talking about. However, the caption sounds as if I am working somewhere else. Sadly, I have no friend and noone tags me in the photo or in the video lor :(

Work has not been kind to me recently and I really feel like fucking off. Once a year, when the error report from the previous year is completed, we will repeat the same discussion again which eventually will be forgotten after a month and only to surface again in the following year. Gosh.. It is like I do my reporting is wrong but I am also wrong if I don't do the reporting. In short, no matter what, I am always wrong. Similarly with ASEAN Para Games planning. It is not unexpected that there will be last minute changes but I am sick of 'begging' others for help. Gosh seriously I am just a middle man in everything I do. I have responsibilities but none of the authorities so please don't be mean or curse me. I am just doing my job. Haiz..

I am still a kid. I need to learn how to leave work at work and don't think about it once I leave work :(

God at play

Honestly, since I came back from Japan, I have always been feeling lazy to go to church. I kept making excuses for me not to go but amazingly, I still went for all the 3 Sundays. Not that I am complaining but everything that happened was not mere coincidence but God's work.

On the first Sunday after I came back, I still felt so tired. I was lazy to even go out for lunch and I went quite late for lunch. After done with my lunch and grocery shopping, it was close to 5pm and no way I would wait another 30 minutes for Mass. On my way home, I was stopped by ANZ credit card promoter. I actually was not interested in having another credit card but I was tempted with the unlimited lounge access in airports. By the time I was done, it was about 525pm and yup, just nice to walk over to the church for mass.

After that, I realised that the lounges which are accessible by the card is apparently not very nice :( I did not bother to pick up the phone call from the bank for the following 3 days after and I hope that my application is rejected :p Haha.. Seriously I am not keen on having additional cards for now.

I messed up my sleep cycle on last Saturday which made me end up on the bed only at 2am on Sunday morning. I decided not to set up my alarm clock and heck if I could not wake up to go for mass. I ended up cannot sleep well and was awakened at 530am!! So yeah, I decided to go for 7am mass, had my early lunch and then to have a long afternoon nap after that.

Today I had a volunteering event (but honestly I volunteered myself just to hit my KPI) which was planned to end at 1.30pm. I already planned to skip mass again as I was very tired. I woke up at 5am today because I had to reach Bedok by 715am. The event ended earlier than expected at 1230. The train ride to Bugis from Bedok takes about 14 minutes so I would still be in time for 1pm mass at the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes. Yay!! So I went for mass again this week.

Dear God, I appreciate all these that allowed me not to miss any mass for the past 3 weeks. But for now please fix my dripping my aircon:(

Attack on Titan: The End of the World

I watched the first movie and found it rather messed up with the plot. I know I cannot expect much with the continuation but I am really interested to know how they are going to bring the messed up plot to a closure. With ratings mostly of 1 or 2 stars, I was prepared to be disappointed and hell yeah, I am disappointed at the end of the movie.

With a run time of 87 minutes and the first few minutes are spent for recap of the first movie, they could simply combine both movies into one and spare us from the agony. There are no changes on how bad -over the top and inappropriate- the acting is while the other changes are for worse when compared to the first movie. The titans and the fight against titans are absent here and we just get CGI fights among the special titans: Eren's titan, Shikishima's titan, and the Collosal titan. Boring... There are still too much talking to explain what the heck is actually going on.

I admit that the background story is pretty cool: civilisation was actually very advanced and titans were actually the results of human's scientific progress. Things took a back turn when things went beyond control and chaos swept through the land. Few people ('the government') built the walls and labelled the titans as common threat to unite the people and there was peace. The government also banned all knowledge to prevent scientific and technological advancement to prevent similar horror from happening. After hundred years of peace, the younger generations take it for granted and starts to have an idea of exploring the lands beyond the walls. Thus the government let the titans attack humans -in the first movie- to remind humans of the horror out there and unite them once more.

Sadly, they kinda butcher the plot after that. There are so many hints given which leave audience with unanswered questions at the end of the movie. There are so many actions and decisions taken by various characters which are not explained well. Just to list a few (heavy spoilers ahead):

-We are given a glimpse of Eren's childhood but no explanation or connection of that scene to the present time.

-Before his death, Souda-san mentions about Eren's big brother. Eren does not seem perturbed to find out more about this which does not make sense.

-What exactly is Eren's motives? Initially he wants to take a revenge at the titans. After knowing everything from Shikishima, I am quite amazed that he is fine with just closing the walls and doing nothing towards the government who is the mastermind behind the titans attack a few years back. Everything that he does does not make sense.

-Who is Shikishima and why can he also turn into a titan? Who is actually the General Director who turns out to be the Collosal titan?

-Nothing is mentioned about Shikishima and Mikasa. Mikasa seems in a dilemma throughout the movie but nothing is mentioned about the cause of her dilemma and this totally undermines everything she does here.

-Armin and friends' decision to follow Eren seem simply because they are 'friends' with Eren and they do not know Shikishima that well. That is quite surprising, especially for Armin who is supposed to be the smart and sensible one. In end of the world situation such as this, I am pretty sure a sensible person will want to know more about everything before making a decision.

-Why does Shikishima change his mind and fight Collosal titan in the end? What is the reason of the change of his motive? What is the fate of both of them after the explosion?

The best surprise, however, comes after the end credits. The movie makers are nice enough to hint audience to stay until the end of the end credits for extra scene. The end credit reveals the one and only bird we keep seeing is actually a camera and a voiceover over Eren and Mikasa standing on top of the wall looking at the outer world states that 2 test subjects have successfully overcome the test field. Yes that shit is bloody similar to the first Maze Runner movie and leaves me with "What the fuck is everything about?".

Although the first movie is kinda rubbishy, I still enjoyed some parts of it as a standalone movie. But after this second movie, everything is out of the window: everything is crap. And seriously who is the idiot who thinks of Eren's line: I'd rather be free in Hell than be a slave in Heaven. That is the most idiotic statement ever after all the crazy things he has seen the titans can do to humans. I really think that is fucked up.

Tidying up

I still feel so tired after my trip and other than my luggage, everything has been as they are from Japan for the past 2 weeks. I am so lazy to unpack the stuff as it will mean that I need to arrange how I store all of my toys and honestly I don't think I still have a lot of storage space :( I am done with checking the anime books but Genie is still wrapped. A part of me is scared to find if Genie fails to arrive in Singapore in one piece.

Let's talk about money first. I initially changed 175000 JPY at a rate of 1000 JPY to $11.32 and at the last minute I decided to add 100000 JPY at a rate of $11.91. I came back with 185000 JPY which I just changed back to Singapore dollars at a rate of 1000 JPY to $11.68. Anyway my decision to use credit card to pay the hotel is correct as when I calculate, the exchange rate works out to be about 1000 JPY to $11.52 for that. However, the credit card use at Disneyland and Mandarake is at a rate of 1000 JPY to $12+. Of course I can always think that this rate is close to $11.91 and I actually make a profit as those I changed for $11.32 are worth $11.68 now. But for someone negative like me, the additional changing of 100000 JPY was a mistake.

I had been thinking of taking Japanese class after my trip but it was just in my head. I did not actually google to search for Japanese language school in Singapore. Curiously, a Japanese language school kept appearing on my Facebook newsfeed! I opened the page and saw a friend liking it. After checking with him, it is actually the language school that is set up by his ex-teacher. Oh great! Since there is a great testimonial from a friend, I am decided for it. The schedule for the beginner class is also just 'nice' to suit my schedule. It will start on 18 Oct and run for 10 weeks which means the class will end on 20 Dec. I actually will fly home on the 19th. I checked with the teacher and he is willing to give replacement class. Yay!! I am sold. I sincerely hope that my Japanese will not be as hopeless as my Mandarin so that I can travel happily to Japan every year.

I went for my acne follow up last Saturday which cost me almost $400. I am supposed to apply 5 different creams every morning and every evening now. Gosh!! Not that I am complaining as I seriously can feel and see the improvement. However, my face becomes very red now as I have to use Differin in the morning and Stieva-A in the evening. My previous regiment was only Stieva-A on alternate nights and I thought it was quite harsh for my skin.

I can confirm that the 3kg gained in Japan is really weight gain and not 3kg worth of shit. To make things worse, I have been eating like a junk since I returned: 8 packs of Kettle potato chips, 2 McD meals (the new Double Ebi Mentaiko and Cereal), KFC (the new Cheesy Crunch Burger), MOS burger (Osaka-yaki burger and rice burger). My face looks like shit right now and it basically proves that these things are really triggering my acne! Aarrgh.. October is coming and that is my aim to restart my good diet and lifestyle.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials at Gold Class

Honestly I don't know what I am going to write about as I am completely lost watching the movie. I watched the first Maze Runner without knowing the synopsis but the movie was able to carry the plot well and I roughly understood what was going on. That was not the case for the sequel Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials.

The Scorch Trials continued from where the first movie ended. The Gladers who just managed to exit the maze was brought to "safety" by a military group. On their journey, they were attacked by zombie-like creatures before being brought to their safe haven. While some cherishes the safety, bed, shower, and food, Thomas felt that they were brought to a prison with the limited freedom they were given. The Gladers learnt that there were many other mazes and those who survived the mazes were gathered at this place. Periodically, a few survivors are called and they are informed that they are transported to a different city where they can finally lead a normal life. Thomas' suspicions remain as all these while, Teresa is always kept separate from the rest.

There is a new guy, Aris, who is introduced as the first guy who arrives in this place until now. Aris shows Thomas the 'secret' on what happens to the people who are being called. They are kept in the room where they are kept barely alive with tubes running through their bodies. Thomas eventually learns that this complex is actually also part of WCKD when he sees the leader of this place communicates with leader of WCKD that Thomas thought had been killed when they escaped the maze. Just because of that, Thomas decides that he has to escape this place, go to the unknown world outside, to find the a group in the mountain which is resisting WCKD. I think that is a very silly thing to do when you have limited knowledge of the world outside and the group that you will be looking for.

Thomas, his roommates, Aris, and Teresa escaped the facility. One of the guys got bitten by the zombie and got infected by the Flare. He then decided to shoot himself rather than turning into zombie as well. With the only hint of a resistance group in the mountains, they cross the desert towards the mountains. When a storm strikes, they run into another facility for shelter and meets Jorge and Brenda. The facility is raided by WCKD but everyone manages to escape and eventually meet the resistance group in the mountain, the Right Arm. During the escape, Brenda was bitten by a zombie and got infected. After meeting the Right Arm, they come across Mary Cooper,an ex-WCKD scientist, who helps to stop Brenda's infection.

If you find everything is confusing from the first movie up to this point, Mary Cooper gives you all the answers. WCKD is looking for the cure against the Flare and the cure cannot be manufactured. The cure can only be harvested from the Immunes. That explains the tubes that drain something from that maze survivors' bodies that Thomas saw before he escaped the WCKD facility earlier in the movie.

The movie reaches the climax when the Right Arm is attacked by WCKD. When Teresa was separated from everyone in the WCKD facility earlier in the movie, something was done to her and she gained her memories. She feels that WCKD has the answer to all these and thus she contacts WCKD on their whereabout. Don't ask me how on earth she contacts the WCKD. The movie ends with WCKD capturing some of the Gladers back while Thomas decides to stay with the remains of the Right Arm to continue their fight in the next movie.

Fiuh... the first movie, which I thought to be so-so, feels so much better after watching this. At least after watching the first movie, I was tempted to read the book. I did not feel that with The Scorch Trials. The plot is very weak and it is just mindless running with everything only revealed in the last part of the movie. The worse part, however, is that it feels that there are no characters in the movie. There is very little character development that they can simply replace the characters and it makes no difference to the plot at all. After all the heroism of Minho and Newt during the escape from the maze, they are reduced to useless and nothing here. So yeah, what kind of movie when there is no plot and no character? Rubbish..

I am still in holiday mood so after knowing that this movie runs for more than 2 hours, I watched this at the Gold Class. Gosh.. What a waste of money.

And joke aside, with the haze back in Singapore, some people made a meme out of this: The Haze Runner. Lol.. A stroke of genius, I would say :)

Sayonara, Japan!

All good time must come to an end and here I am back in hazy Singapore. This morning we took a limousine bus to the airport but the nearest limousine bus was at Metropolitan Hotel. It was not that far from our hotel but we took more than 30 minutes on foot while dragging luggage and lugging the heavy Genie. It was a comfortable ride for less than 2000 JPY. Lucky I was not crazy enough to follow my initial plan to just take a taxi to the airport.

As expected, Genie was almost not allowed to enter the cabin. After a little argument, I was glad that one of the counter staff was understanding enough when he knew that it was a fragile figurine. He said "It must be something precious to you". The immigration officer was rather unfriendly, unlike the one during my arrival. The departure lounge is pretty good although it is still not as good as Changi. I decided to have my last meal in Japan: Japanese curry in the airport.

We saw Mt Fuji from the plane after take off. Great!! Weather was great after we left Tokyo. Huhuhu T_T I decided to finish watching Harry Potter (which hung during my flight last week), slept, and then ate lunch. When it reached me, I was told that the Indonesian meal was no more. No problem as I had been wanting the Japanese meal. Well, it sucked. It was terrible. During transit in Jakarta, I had to put on a pitiful face to ensure that Genie was allowed into the cabin. Haha.. The flight to Singapore was not full and guess what: I had a broken in-flight entertainment screen! What the fish!!

Some personal reflections after this trip:

1) I am not going to take Garuda for any medium or long haul flights anymore. I should have paid $100-$200 more to fly with ANA or JAL which I believe would be much better than Garuda.

2) I realise that when I am travelling, I enjoy sightseeing and camwhoring more than shopping. Shopping always leaves me with negative feelings such as: Am I going to run out of cash? Is my luggage enough? This is so damn bloody heavy and troublesome to carry? and many more. I feel much happier looking at my photos and reminiscing the good memories while camwhoring.

3) I have yet to find a suitable travel mate :( Yes it is fun to have someone with similar otaku-related hobbies but when it comes to shopping, I prefer shopping alone. My friend does not mind helping me taking photos but because he is not into photos as much as me, his skill is not as good as I want to be. Haiz.. And because he is not that into camwhoring, it feels weird if I keep camwhoring alone and ask him to help me take photos in funny places and inappropriate occasions.

4) Japan is great and I am confident to go there by myself subsequently. I went there with zero knowledge of the language and I survived. Yay!! Haha... Honesly, I can imagine going there for a few days just to hog anime/manga related stuff. There are so many cheap second hand anime/manga related goodies which are still in very good conditions.

5) Japanese customer service is really amazing and inspiring. Although I was unable to reply anything that they said (and I am pretty sure they knew I understood no Japanese), the service staff I encountered would still keep on saying those things that they usually say to the locals. In fact, it makes me want to learn Japanese language so that I am able to reciprocate their courtesy. Compare that to myself at work daily, when I am unable to converse, I will just cut short on everything, put on black face, etc. I am inspired to improve on my customer service. Let see how long I am able to emulate such excellent customer service.

6) Okay I can't believe that I am going to write the next paragraph but I am honestly glad that I work in Singapore. WOW!! Haha.. Yes Japan is great and I don't deny that I used to dream of living and working in Japan. This trip has been an eye opener. First, Japan is so big. Heck, even Tokyo is much bigger than Singapore. Being in tiny Singapore, train journey of more than 15 minutes is considered for me. Compare that to my stay in Tokyo, from my hotel at Ikebukuro, going to any major places (eg. Akiba, Tokyo, Ueno, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Shimbashi) takes me at least 30 minutes. In Singapore, that is comparable to travelling from Woodlands to Toa Payoh daily and I really think that is so far. Haha... Second, Japan seems to be a more stressful and workaholic place than Singapore. So yeah, I prefer having slightly better work-life balance and go holiday a few times a year in Tokyo to enjoy myself. Third, transport cost in Japan is much higher than in Singapore. I might not feel the pinch as I used JR pass for most of my transport. There were occasions that JR pass could not be used and each tap could cost anywhere between 200-400 JPY. That is expensive! In Singapore, I think from 1 end of the island to another island cost $3 at the very most. Not to mention that taxi is much more affordable in Singapore. So yeah, I can't really complain a lot about Singapore anymore.

7) I always think that those imported Japanese food or groceries that I can find in Singapore are expensive. Now I am a changed man after seeing the real prices in Japanese. The prices in Singapore, even after conversion to SGD, are actually comparable to the prices in Japan. It is a matter of mindset. I guess when travelling and holding a foreign currency, everything seems to be more affordable. Lol.

I have to unpack now. My room is like a mess not only with the things I bought from Japan personally but also with a lot of things that I bought from Japan online. Haha.. I am so tired to do anything right now..