It’s been a week since I’m back in Japan! Slowly settling back in, and finally have the energy to blog! That, and also because I got kicked into action when I noticed the average visits dropping everyday since I’m not writing regularly anymore hahaha… ha.
Anyway… back to the topic at hand. I’ll be covering just the highlights of the past week!
MET WITH MUMU
My one and only friend in Japan. Hahaha!
No, seriously.
I’m actually not kidding.
Where got opportunities to make friends you tell me? And it’s true what they say. It’s extremely difficult making friends (friends, not acquaintances) when you get older :(
MUMU I LOVE YOUUUUU! Let’s do another lunch date again soon!!!
DANCE CLASS
Went for a kpop dance class after more than half a year!
Dunno what happened this weekend, it’s like the gathering of crazy generous people.
One brought food she made to share and offered it to everyone in her class and the next (which was my class).
Another was giving out these prettily-packaged and looks expensive-ish biscuits. She offered them to me and I was so paiseh to take! I didn’t even know her! But I already rejected the previous lady and don’t want to appear like some cold unsocial bitch so I took one and thanked her several times lol.
The instructor, however, is beyond mad.
She just came back from Korea or something and took out CD albums of some group AND STARTED DISTRIBUTING THEM! She was all like “Who wants this? I only brought 4 today. I’ll bring the other 8 next week.” The students who were the chummiest with her happily said “Me, me!” and took them.
Me? I didn’t even dare meet eyes with the instructor OR the CD album lest I appear greedy like I want them lol. Ended up I didn’t even know what group’s album it was >_>
COPYEDITING
Took up another copyediting assignment! It’s actually quite fun because I learn stuff from it haha. AND I get paid! Double win :D
FU’S BACK!!!
In order of importance, this should be listed at the top, but eh, I’m doing it sequentially la.
Seeing him not through a screen for the first time in a month!
You know what his first words were?
“Aiyoh! You really have a lot of pimples now leh!”
Such a romantic he is.
Side note: I don’t know what’s up with my skin lately! It has been acting up since America. Probably hates traveling or something. I didn’t have a TENTH as many pimples during puberty as I do now!!! FML.
CHANGE OF VISA STATUS
Fu had Tuesday off so we headed to the Immigration Bureau to change his visa status to “Highly Skilled Foreign Professional”, which apart from the mouthful schmancy title, its main benefit lies in allowing us to apply for PR in just 5 years (soon to be revised to 3 years) instead of the usual 10 years.
The thing is… he qualified for this visa when we first arrived in Japan 2 years ago, but we didn’t think to change his visa status. They will probably start counting the years towards PR from the time we get this visa, which effectively means the last 2 years are wasted UGH :(
CHRISTMAS PRESENT
I received my first (and possibly only) christmas present for the year! I spent about 2 hours picking out the earphones I wanted and the gift-er (Fu) just paid for it after lol.
Lately I’ve been obsessed with upgrading my music collection and equipment, so I bought a good entry player (iphones and ipods don’t count, guys) and started re-ripping CDs into lossless format. Yes, lossless is a word. My sister thought it was a typo for lousy. Which may I just add, does NOT even make sense -_-
To complete the beginnings of my audio snobbery, I just needed some good earphones! :D
Initially, we wanted to buy the wireless Bose headphones, because headphones give that encompassing, surround-sound effect that I love. I also really like the timbre produced by the headphones! BUT. The band hurts the left part of my head, and only at a specific point. It makes me wonder if my head is lopsided or something, because if it is symmetrical, then the pressure should not be just on one point, right?
Anyway, no sense in spending $200+ on something that hurts 5 minutes into wearing it, so I started trying out almost every single pair of earphones in the shop.
GROSSEST THING I’VE HAD TO DO IN A WHILE EURGHHHH.
At first, I was cleaning each pair of earphones before placing it in my ear, but I ran out clean estate on my wet wipes. And there are literally rows upon rows of earphones in the store it was simply impossible to keep up the cleaning business.
I took a deep breath and mentally steeled myself, with the comfort that I will thoroughly sanitize my ears at the end.
I know, I’m so brave.
My ears may have screamed a bit though.
CYCLING
This is also a highlight because… it’s the first time I’m cycling in months and my lungs almost collapsed 5 minutes into the activity when I had to go upslope. The worst thing was it was just a gentle slope!!!
I thought of the cycling anime I was watching and decided they are insane. Why would ANYONE find it fun to cycle??? My lungs and thighs felt like they caught fire as I gasped for dear life while inching along painfully.
In that moment, I also decided I’m insane as well, for actually watching (and enjoying!) 20 over episodes of people… cycling.
Winter is truly a terrible time to cycle. Wear too little and the wind will whip the cold right into your bones. Wear too much and it’s like a sauna party inside your coat. I wore my coat, gloves, wound the scarf around my neck, and had a mask.
The mask caused my glasses to fog up every time I exhaled. I couldn’t see half the time. If I removed the mask, my nose, lips and cheeks would get freezing cold.
My neck was nice and warm, but got a bit too nice the more I pedalled.
I had to check my phone for directions and when I removed my glove, my fingers transform to icicles.
Worst of all were my ears. They got so numbingly cold I developed a headache. Hate it when it happens :A
When I arrived at the destination, my nose was running from the cold, I had rock-hard thigh muscles from all the strain, a throbbing headache, couldn’t even walk properly, nicely rounded off with extremely hot and extremely cold body parts.
Such a bloody mess.
My JAPANESE DRIVER’S LICENSE
The main reason why I stayed in Singapore so long was for converting my driver’s license! Finally made the first step by bringing my license for translation today.
It costs 3,000 yen (~$30). The worst thing is that they told me I arrived too late and I couldn’t get the translation on the same day. Had to pay an extra 392 yen for them to mail it to me :I
Let’s hope I can take the test (or at least the practice test) before the year is over!
