A Fun-filled day of relaxation and Japanese elements everywhere!

...And a sing-along youtube session at late night at home.

16th October 2009, Friday

Dear diary,

Today I had a good day and night out with YS, involving Japanese things. As a tribute to this �Japanese� Day, the font of this entry is �Kozuka Mincho Pro R�, a �Japanese� font � I think. After seeing the post on IVLE about �Japanese Cultural Night�, planned by Japanese Studies Society (JSS), I informed YS of it, knowing she would be very interested in it. Sure enough, she was. She checked her timetable a few days later and found out that day she ended school at 12noon (yesterday she informed me it was changed to 1pm) so she could attend the event, as well as go out in between. She wanted to go somewhere on an outing to �walk around� after finishing her exams this week or last. I asked if she had been Ion orchard before, she had but never tried the ramen she heard so much before, (neither had I). So we decided to go to ION orchard. This morning I was thinking how to dress �Japanese� style, and in the end went with the only style I knew that fit that: the overshirt.

Before going out with YS, Mum and I had lunch at Kent Ridge Guild House. What happened was that, today Mum was supposed to have lunch with Prof. Yap, and he invited me along as well because I think he wants to talk with me about SEP, since he is involved with French DDP, and knows I am stressed out over the SEP process. However, I didn�t know and Mummy mixed up and forgot that the appointment was changed to next week. Wasted my effort in changing my orthodontist appointment to next week. There�s no way to bring the appointment back. Oh well. So I ate a roll of bread and a �small� portion of spaghetti marinara (small to me) and some fruits, so I was contented full. I wanted to keep some space for later. I didn�t expect the meal to take so long, so that only after 1.15pm did we leave the place and then go and pick YS from Science. Mum brought us along the way and dropped us off at ION orchard.

YS and I headed for Aoba Ramen. She was excited because it was from Hokkaido (apparently) and she went to that part of Hokkaido where the ramen was supposedly from. I wanted to eat ramen too, to taste it, but I had lunch just before that, so I ordered the cheapest ramen, hoping it was the smallest: Shoyu Ramen that had one slice of pork, a little bit of corn and one egg. I like it. ^^ YS had her spicy one. This ramen is much better than the one by Ajisen. Here it is springy. There it is a bit soft, like it�s all machine made, and not very properly cooked. $10.80 not including service charge and GST for mine, it is a bit expensive but it�s nice.

So we decided to go walking, and so made off for Uniqlo (I said hi to Mrs. Tay, my secondary school teacher, who I saw leaving the store as we were about to enter), and then up and out the higher floor and tried to find New Look, and we both found the clothes a bit too expensive, not very nice, and a bit trashy, And then on just kept walking around and going up and up. We skipped the 3rd floor when we took the 2 storey escalator to the 4th floor. I saw the flip dot waterfall thing and we decided it�s quite nice. At the 4th floor, I tried this photography game �Hakuna Matata� at the Sony store. It�s fun, but not as fun as the whole day today. I might prefer my Rock Band The Beatles.

A trip to the washroom that has many cubicles (YES!) and then we went to �Prologue� bookstore (which we found out was owned by Popular) and looked at stationery for the 3rd time today (first one at Kiki.K, second at Prints). So many cute files! Mamegoma! Kawaii...

Then because it was past 4, we took a lift down to B4 to have our teatime. YS�s friend told her to visit the crepe stall because of a certain reason. So we went looking for the stall, and found it, called �Tokyo Crepe Girl�. Her friend had told her that the chef was a guest chef and came only once in a while. We ordered and shared a mixed berry crepe, $7, and out of nowhere, the chef appeared. I affirm the reason why YS�s friend asked her to go there. Girls, if you want to know what I am talking about, visit the stall and you shall know. The crepe was served in a black and pink tray box, with two forks, one for each of us. We decided we couldn�t walk and eat though we were running out of time, so we found a counter and stood there and ate the delicious crepe. It had strawberry pieces, fresh cream, vanilla ice cream and generous drizzles of berry sauce that had small berries in it here and there. The assistant looked like she was executing some sort of precision job when she was assembling the crepe. I recommend the crepe! From where we stood and walked, we found out where the chef kept disappearing to while he was making our crepe, and reappearing later � there was a small counter selling Japanese milkshakes, and there�s a sink there possibly for him to wash his hands at. No wonder. On our way out, we were thinking of getting a snack to eat in the LT during the performance. The butterfly youtiao was too expensive for such a product. We saw a stall selling Japanese Rice Balls on a stick coated with a fat strip of paste like an �clair. Daniel told me what it was but I didn�t catch it. I read all the products there had the word �-Anu� at the end of them. I asked the assistant and the chef �Kuri� � if i remember correctly, answered, explaining in clear English that is not Japanese accented (very little) the difference between Tsuba and Koshi. One was a rough red bean paste that had the red bean skin, while the other one was the smooth red bean paste. After sampling the black sesame and the red bean paste at the counter, I bought a Koshi-Anu while YS bought the sweet potato one ( it was a purple paste).

So we quickly headed out of the building. I wanted to leave by the main ground floor entrance, as that was the logical way, but we found them closed off for VIPs, more than one entrance! So after asking the person at the second closed off entrance we found, we found and left via the small side entrance and stepped into the glaring sun. Later I found out from Daddy that Carrie Underwood was at ION yesterday and today launching something. No wonder.

Along the walk to the bus stop, we saw 3 kimono clad staff of some-shop-I-don�t-know-where(they wore name tags) come out of, I think, Nike. YS was so excited and wanted to work for that shop, any opportunity to wear kimono. We waited for quite a long time for the bus at Far East. The reason revealed itself when it appeared. It had caterpillar-ed (the buses bunch up after getting caught in a jam somewhere or something that two buses of the same number appear together). In addition, the traffic was jammed along the route. Fortunately, BTC came and we didn�t have to wait too long for it, and I informed the interviewer that I would be late. Yes, though the event tonight was at 6.30pm, I had to come back to school at 6pm for an interview.

YS and I climbed up the slope staircase at the periphery of RH. She�s glad she doesn�t have to do that at Science, and it�s like a whole new world to her on this side of NUS she has not visited before. She waited for me at the benches at E3 while I had my interview there in one of the tutorial rooms. I had applied for the Publications sub-committee of Engin Club, intending to join the role of �layout� to do the layout of the Engin magazine �FUSE� as well and the Engin Annual. I thought it was a role that I could serve in that would involve the least work and minimal clashing with Fencing (hopefully). The interview went well. It�s ok if I don�t get that role because I found out it might clash with the peak period for my fencing exco work, I�d rather have the club get someone who can commit more than I. The interviewer says he is likely to take me and another guy who is fluent in photoshop onboard his team. So we will see, the results will be out next Monday.

When the interview was done I realised it was past 6.30pm! so YS and I briskly walked to arts to find LT13. At the sinks outside the renovated toilets near LT11, someone showed us where LT13 was after we asked, and fortunately, as that person said, the event had not started! So after we put down our bags to reserve our seats, we went toilet. The toilet is much more well-ventilated now. It also has the racks next to the sinks which are convenient to put the handphone and wallet on (as many girls but me like to carry them in their hands) while washing their hands. When we got back, the Japanese Cultural Night just started, and the Daiko drums opening act just began. It seemed that the beat was flowing through all of them drumming, also that the drummers used their whole body to drum. I also noticed that the one keeping the beat is in fact the smallest and highest-pitched drum. In western music, it is usually the lowest pitch instrument like drums and bass that do that.

Then I finally saw my friend Daniel come on stage. He was one of the 2 emcees for that night. He wear jacket and hats and kept changing costumes as the show moved through the different seasons and was being lame with his jokes and his deliberately broken Japanese. Haha. Then it was a Japanese dance using the coins in a tube prop. I could tell that the dancers were probably volunteers who didn�t practice like nuts in front of a mirror. They were more of enthusiasts. Good attempt. But I notice for many �Japanese� performances, the attire is the red patterned with waves and big Japanese word happy coat, together with a white shirt and black pants. Is it pseudo or is it accurate? I know Best Denki sales staffs wear a happy coat over their business outfit. But a lot of people unfamiliar with Japanese culture synonymise that happy coat with the kimono as the national dress.

For the winter section, I was joking with YS. If she were to migrate, she would migrate to Hokkaido, Japan. I rubbed my upper arms as I said �I love Hokkaido�, meaning that despite the cold, she still loves the place. ;)

Then were the Koto performances by the less than a year old Koto Ensemble. For an ensemble made up of members who probably never played a koto before, it was a very good performance. I could hear one person was off note once in a while or missed a string, but overall the songs were enjoyable. I must also say that the songs are definitely not simple songs either. I actually have a CD of Japanese music, of some stringed instrument, but the pieces were more traditional than some of the other songs, and because I never studied music, I am sad to say that I can�t appreciate the music/twanging � I don�t know how. It�s not even in a major/minor key.

Then there were the Nihon Buyo dancers who were in kimono and danced first with something in the shape of a shield but much thicker like a pillow, supposed to represent a flower? It looked like a flower to me. Their kimono obis they tied them themselves. I could tell the bows weren�t the fake kind because either the shape was dented unlike the perfection by the fake bows, or was sengek. I also noticed that all the girls tied their kimono obis chochobi style � i.e. butterfly style. There are actually many ways to tie the obi but the butterfly style, the one that is the closest to the traditional western ribbon bow we are familiar with, seems to be the most popular, as that kind also appears the most (I think) for young female characters in Japanese pop media. Maybe the other kinds are associated with older females or males?

The dancers here were very graceful and I could sense that because of the union of their movements, synchronising to each other and to the music, they had practiced their dances a lot. The dances required precise tilting and oscillating waving (drawing an S) with the head, the twisting of the wrists of the props, a certain sort of expression on the face, etc. The second performance�s props were fans and a big stalk of a shower of sakura. I liked these performances too.

During the intermission, YS and I ate the rice balls. The paste had smashed and smeared itself on the wall of the plastic container during travel, so I tried mopping as much paste as I could with my rice balls as I relished them, and licked off the extra paste stuck on the plastic dolly that was wrapped around the plain side of the balls. Yummy. Daniel said the name of that snack, but I don�t remember it. I was asking him if he wanted the snack. Heh heh, YS and I were intending to make the people around us jealous with our Japanese food.

Then there was also the tea ceremony. The audience sat in silent observation, reverence for the tea ceremony. It was the first time I saw a male in kimono in person before. One of the guy�s kimono was way above the ankle � we were wondering why it was so short. We were also wondering why for the girl who played the role of the guest for the ceremony, her hair was let down instead of bun up. The president of the Sado (tea ceremony) society was in the role of host, expertly, calmly, formally, gracefully going through the steps and procedures. Ah yes, YS and I were looking and commenting on the kimono designs, which were generally �I like that kimono/that kimono very nice�. The male kimonos were dull and striped, like grey or brown, and had a smaller flat obi knot instead of the much more 3D chochobi. I also notice many female kimonos were dull coloured. But there were some in bright colours too. My yukata is pink, and my sisters� are dark blue and yellow, with flower patterns. YS�s one is dark red, with a patterned obi. I would like to see that. We have an idea now that she will bring her kimono to my home and we would both wear it, and I would help her tie the chochobi. I can tie it, after 3 or 4 attempts.

I also remembered the time when I had to do the tea ceremony. It was on the secondary school exchange trip. All of us had the privilege of being able to not only be the guest, but the host as well. We were guided along by the masters and I do remember the turning and wiping of the bowls, the whisking, the hot water, though I don�t remember in which order I did what. I like the taste and texture of matcha. Imagine, what kind of opportunity I had there in Japan? The town treated our trip as a very big thing, and they still do every year to each batch that goes, and gave us so many opportunities and were such gracious hosts. They even lent their own kimonos for us to wear to the tea ceremony, and helped us tie. Heehee the grandmothers and aunties flooded to me and awed at my skinny waist. -_-�� Now I treasure my experience even more, though sadly, I don�t have that many photos. I think I either lost quite a lot of them, or I didn�t take that many.

The drummers also performed two more items after the intermission and then after the presentation of appreciation gifts, the last item was presented. It was a dance originating from fishermen, performed by the people in the first dance item (I think they were the juniors of Nihon Buyo) as well as the Nihon Buyo seniors, wearing that white shirt, happy coat, black pants attire. The seniors actions were more graceful and properly executed than the junior�s � extending the arm and squatting down fully as they �pulled in the catch�. The song was catchy because of the call-response of �.....*i don�t remember* performers: dokaisho!(?) dokaisho! Performers and Audience: Dokaisho! Dokaisho! Performers: Sora! Sora!, audience and performers: Sora! Sora!� I think �sora� means �harvest� or �catch�, referring to the words of that Japanese chorus song Shelby learnt in hall choir.

While leaving the LT I saw S.H.E. from fencing leaving as well. The tune from the last song was stuck in YS�s head after we left the LT as we walked to the bus stop. During the drive home in my father�s car, I did not hint anything of my idea to join JSS when my father encouraged me to join the club for fun. Is that like THE MOST OBVIOUS sign that I should join JSS??? I was wondering if I should, and then I get a lot of exposure to Japanese things within the last week. It sure does help that GEK1016 lecture was on Modern Japanese Architecture.

Waiting for my father�s car, I felt that the Japanese fantastically fun night was all too soon faded away, pulling me back to the world of NUS and Singapore.

At home, while and after a long dinner (the sweet potato leaf was fibrous and needed more chewing than other veggies), Daddy decided to show me the turtle soup he was talking about. I�ve no idea how it�s related to turtles. Then Daddy was doing his most recent hobby- watching youtube on TV (the LG blue ray drive has that feature). He was listening to Elvis Presley. He was the original King of Pop, and his music is good (but that doesn�t mean I like all Elvis music) and his singing too, but I don�t like the always-act-sexy attitude he had, especially when he was younger and acted in those movies (I closed my eyes in some parts), but I can sense that he is deep down a nice guy who loved his wife very much and didn�t do drugs or anything criminal. I think he is Christian because he sang a lot of gospel songs. He died younger than MJ, age 42.

I later hijacked the remote when Daddy was away, looking for the A*Teens version of �Can�t Help Falling In Love� XD I sing along. Because MT and I couldn�t find �halfway round the world�s� MTV, MT decided to look for another group: Westlife. It was nice singing along to the songs, which I think almost every teenage girl of my generation knows. I don�t know all the lyrics but for the chorus agar agar know lah. It was great for �Queen of My Heart� for the video MT found had the karaoke lyrics at the bottom XD. Then she went onto Take That (I didn�t realise that), listening to a song I never heard before (sorry!) and the last one I posted on facebook. A great song to end the night with.

So that�s my story for today. I�m very happy with today, of the fun things and times I had. I�m not looking forward to tomorrow because it means more homework, and that jab that Mum insists on me doing. >< It�s 4.49am now. Goodnight! Oyasumi Nasai!