Hi everyone! I finally got my internet set up yesterday. I was too busy uploading pictures and stuff that I didnt really have the time to update my blog. So here it is, beware it's long and tedious and may not be very interesting. But if you feel like stalking me by all means read on!
Thursday, May 19th 2011
So, it has been a day since I've arrived at Japan.
Let me say, it wasn't as restful as I had wish it to be. Right after I got off the plane, I met up with my supervisor and another co-worker. I forgot her name already :S... I blame my jet lag. About that, I didn't expect myself to be so affected by jet lag. I was so exhausted by the time I got off the plane I couldn't keep my eyes open while we were taking the train from Narita airport to my dorm. I think my supervisor saw that I was trying hard to stay awake and told me I could nap if I wanted. Right after we dropped off the luggage in my dorm, I was finally able to call my parents (it was 3am?) and they were sleeping, but I didn't want to delay it any longer.. Then my supervisor treated me and one of the girls who lives in the dorm I met to dinner. I didn't feel very well at that point, my stomache felt queasy and I ordered some random bowl of rice with egg and soup of some sort.. We went to buy some lights since the lights in my room weren't working. At the same department store, my supervisor also asked me if I wanted a fridge. Of course I needed one, but it's such a big investment, I needed to think about what was suitable... I also wanted a water boiler but decided against it, again it was the thing with money.. I bought a pot for 770 yen so I boil my water with that instead. I can also cook with it! After that I felt like fainting because I was jet lagged, my feet were killing me because I was wearing flats. Now I have two huge blisters threatening my left foot... I just kept it in because my supervisor had things to do and I dont think I was capable enough to find my way around and communicate with anyone who didn't know english... Sooo I painfully walked to the Livin department store (which sold everything) and bought 8100 yen worth of blanket, pillow and bed cover. After we finally got back I was ready to collapse, but my hot water wasn't working yet so one of the girls who live in the same dorm as I offered to lend me her bathroom.. I was ready to sleep even without a shower since I was so exhausted but I didn't want to stink the next day or ... So I went. I took a quick shower because I didn't want to bother her and I think she was going to sleep, it was about 11pm. I still had a ton to do after I got back to my room... ie. unpacking because everything was everywhere. Nothing happened I just passed out on my bed.
Friday, May 20th 2011
Woke up at 5:30am today.. Jet lag? I unpacked and cleaned up a bit, boiled myself some water and thought about going out to get some breakfast but I didn't want to wear any shoes at all because the blisters were bothering me. T_T I was feeling kinda tired at 7ish so I napped until 8:30am and woke up to prepare to meet my supervisor again. So today, he brought me to get my alien registration card, my hanko (stamp with my family name which they pronounced "chin"), bought my second hand cellphone from softbank for 8300 yen so I can set up prepaid on Sunday. My lights were not working so they gave me a temporary one since the company did not want to pay for the new ones and wanted to fix the old one instead. Supervisor also helped me set up the internet, which I will not get until the next week (or so he says) I wonder where the other co-ops are and if any of them are living in the same dorm as I am right now.. I don't even know when they're arriving :P I feel so disconnected from the world. Oh my gosh. So my supervisor needed to go after I picked up my hanko so I needed to get back to my dorm alone.... I knew I was going to get lost. A 10 minute walk back turned out to be a little more than an hour. Good thing there were vending machines on every street that I walked on. It was hot and my feet were dying. I felt like asking someone but I wasn't sure if I'd be able to understand them or if they even knew where my dorm was amongst all of the other millions of apartment and houses in the area.. I also wanted to ask a police officer but I was scared they might bring me to the station or something. lol. So I sucked it up and continued to walk around the confusing streets for familiar landmarks.. It wasn't easy. It was painful and I was sooo happy after I found my way back. I didn't see anything interesting while I was lost. I only saw a whole bunch of young kids getting off from school and they were super adorable!! haha. They wore those cute yellow hats that you see in animes and stuff. The whole time I was lost, I was annoyed at how I didn't have my camera with me. Oh well, plenty of time left .. right?
4:30pm right now, I need to wash my hair and head out again to get myself familiar with where everything is or else I won't be able to meet up with my supervisor on Sunday at the train station. I'm not even sure what I should have for dinner... Feeling soo homesick now. Miss my mother's cooking, all of the food she just brings to my room... I should buy some fruit but they're a bit expensive. My supervisor's doing so much for me, I feel super bad that I can't even find my way back to the dorm. I haven't given him the wine I got for him yet, I hope it's okay to bring it to him on Monday. O_O honestly, I don't know how I'm going to present it to him. I think it would look bad if I gave it to him and not anything to anyone else that was around.. aiya. And I'm not even sure if there's going to be a higher boss I'm supposed to listen to. My supervisor is super nice, I hope I don't disappoint him at the workplace. He did all of the speaking for me when we were running all those errands today while I just stood there and smiled -_-. I really need to study my Japanese, because he's not going to be with me when I go around myself. Ahhhhhhhh I can't wait to see the other co-ops, it's so depressing being alone. I want to speak more english... My supervisor can speak it but I need to repeat myself sometimes because I guess I'm not every clear... I just want to sit on my bed and do nothing for the rest of the day. Mobility issues with the blisters. Maybe I should watch tangled. Cya.
Bess
Saturday, May 21st 2011.
4:25pm.
Yesterday, after washing my hair I was still feeling sorta tired, maybe I was still jet lagged... I took a 3 hour nap and woke up around 9pm. I didn't feel hungry but I thought that I should get something to eat anyway. I got myself dressed and went down to the convienience store Lawson's just around the corner... There wasn't much to choose from so I just got myself a rice ball. lol. I decided to explore a bit but it was sorta really dark already. I walked down the block and found this game center but I didn't go in because I wasn't bold enough.. for some odd reason. haha. Got back, ate my rice ball. When I was at Lawson's I had no idea what flavours there were so I chose a random one... It turned out to be salmon flavoured. Not bad. I was feeling tired again so I passed out at around 11pm.
So today, was my first free day alone in Yokosuka. I woke up at 5:30am again but I decided to sleep some more. Woke up at 7:30 and made myself "fa
kay sum" drink... I didn't feel like eating again. I planned what I needed to do for the day and headed off to explore a bit. I brought my camera
this time but my batteries quickly ran out. :S I know my way around now... sorta. There are many stores near Yokosukachuo station. Soo many things
to see. There were a couple of streets where people actually set up stalls along the side selling food!! (like takoyaki!) I didn't buy anything
though. I walked around and found myself at a shopping mall. I'm not sure if I covered the whole mall but I found this place called yoshida that
sold really cute things :D. I bought myself some flat socks, hopefully that will help me out with the blisters a bit... One thing I noticed was that
I felt more reserved than I normally am because I have no way of communicating with anyone :(. For example, when I was feeling hungry, I wanted to
find a place where the menu was easily "pointable" and did not require me to say anything... I stood in front of the counter and the lady stared at
me awkwardly lol. I had no idea what to say. I pointed to myself and said "I am canadian" --in japanese that is. hahaha... Then I think she
understood and I pointed to the ramen thing on the menu... This was at the food court. It was pretty neat, there were cups for free water I
believe... (but I didn't know how to operate the tap thing to give me the water..) and some pink towels. I had no idea what they were for... there
were signs in japanese which I did not know how to read... T_T I just guessed that it was for the customers to clean up the table after themselves so I did. There was also this ... container next to the garbage and I saw a kid dumping his drink inside... I wasnt sure if I was supposed to dump the left over miso soup of my ramen (i think it was ramen) so I just brought it back to the counter hoping that it was okay. It's sooo depressing not being able to read and understand any signs or not being able to communicate with anyoneeee. Anyway. I bought one of those melon buns - the ones that you see in animes and stuff lol. It wasn't as great as I thought it was going to be but it was worth it to try. 158yen. Walked around some shops and found a store with resonably priced clothing. I hope I'll be able to find way back to the shop once I have an idea of what it means to be "business casual". I also bought myself some towels and some... soap thing to clean the tub. I hope it's okay to use for the toilet too.
Before I got home I found myself at Mikasa park where all of the military stuff are. I followed a bunch of old men (probably a tour??). There's not much to see but a nice place to relax and have a picnic I guess. I was pretty tired at that point, and I was really warm.. wearing jeans and a cardigan. I didnt want to remove my cardigan because I only had a tank on. -- I like to be as conservative as I can.
OOOh I also found out that I had a long mirror on the closet door so I have a better idea of how I look when I go out. Anyway, I better get myself a fridge soon because I can't eat rice balls for the rest of my workterm here.. Later I plan on making a trip to Livin and getting myself some fruit for dinner or something. and toilet paper. ahh... I feel like doing nothing again... I want internet... Oh, I watched tangled after I got back. good movie. Wish I downloaded some more before I came. I should study more japanese anyway. My first day of work is on Monday... I feel realllllly nervous about it. My supervisor said that the boss is looking forward to meeting me.. oh mah gahd... My supervisor also showed me what I was going to be working on.. I hope i'll be able to understand the code when I see it. He wants me to improve on it and write a paper for it afterwards. freak krjeslfe. Good thing I sorta have experience from working with Dr. Khan. I'm thinking that I'm going to be given a lot of independence... so I better not slack off.. Note about Yokosuka, it's really windy!!! At night even when I close the window, the wind makes really loud noises which sorta freaks me out. I'm at the corner fo the apartment here, and I have one neighbour... I've never seen her before and I dont really hear any sound from next door.. Actually whenever I go out I never really see anyone. I bought some of that calpis drink.. The ones I see everywhere in the vending machines, they're pretty tasty. haaaaaa I just wrote a blob of disorganized text. I wonder if I should post this. Anywhooo I'm going to rest a bit then head out and see what type of convenient food I should get for din. ssseeeeeee ya!
Bess
Sunday, May 22 2011
Last night, I headed out to checkout the department store near my dorm called Livin. Before I reached it though, I discovered a daiso! 200yen store. Before I visited daiso, I went and bought essentials for my dorm. Livin is amazing, sells everything. I got myself some pink, fruit smelling toilet paper, detergent for washing clothes, clear plastic bags for garbage (they didnt want non clear bags for some reason..), some instant noodles!, a random box of curry... (i was thinking I may have a chance to cook some rice sometime later), and breakfast - a discounted bun for the next morning. Oh also, I had my dinner at Livin too. They had a small food court so I ordered some cold udon. Actually I wanted it warm but I think I chose cold when the guy asked me at the counter. I pointed to the menu item at the top and there were these two characters one was red and the other blue, at that time I had no idea that the udon came in cold or hot... so I randomly chose the blue character =_= Low and behold! I chose the cold one. It wasn't bad.. since it was hot that day anyway. But the thing is.. with the udon came this weird white paste and a RAW egg... When I mixed it up it started bubbling weirdly X_X. But I chugged it down anyway.
Lol. It smells really good. Right now, it's making my closet smell great. I also bought a hair dryer for around 10 dollars =D.
After that the sky was dark, and I checked daiso out briefly but left cus my hands were full and I was tired. But it looked like the typical daiso stuff you can find in the daiso in Richmond. Was tired, so I slept at 9pm lol.
Ima, totemo tired desu. shichiji gozen goro okimashita. Woke up around 7am this morning. Ate the discount bun that I bought at Livin yesterday night. My stomache wasn't feeling all that great, I think it was the raw egg with cold udon X_X. I had... non solid fecal matter. hahahaha.. Yeah. Soo I felt so non-genki desu. Laid around my bed feeling crappy and after a while, I felt better from going to the washroom a few more times. Reviewed a few vocabs and grammar in my Genki textbook and finally felt hungry. I decided to cook myself some instant noodles before I left the dorm to meet my supervisor. I was supposed to meet my supervisor at 3:00pm but left around 1:30pm cus it was really boring in my room. So it turns out the stalls of food and stuff around Yokosuka-chuo eki/station is not an everyday thing but it was actually a festival. My supervior told me this. Totemo nigiyaki desu! Very lively. There were many people around the time I reached the streets. This time I brought a fully charged camera so I'll upload some videos and pictures too. :D Oh my gosh for 200 or 300 yen (That's around $3!!!!) you can get a turtle as a pet!!! ahhh. You know, the ones I have at my house in Vancouver... Anyway, I took a short video of that too. There were also street performers, games and a lot of food. I kinda wish I tried the chocolate dipped bananas they seemed popular. Sooo at 3pm I met my supervisor and his fiance/wife(?) NOt sure, but I think he mentioned on my first day in Japan that I was invited to their wedding party? hahaa I hope sooo!!! I love weddings. =D. She was super nice and cool looking. So today my supervisor came out especially after his dance practice (not sure what type of dance it is..) with is wife to help me finish setting up my phone with softbank and getting my refrigerator!! I got a good deal!!! Super happy since it looks like I can fit a lot in it. I think it was on sale and my supervisor helped me get them to lower the price on the shipping cost from 2000Yen to 630Yen! It's going to arrive next week May 25th. Can't wait, it means I can buy my eggs, milk and groceries. Soo we found the fridge at this electronic shop in Kamiooka eki station. The cost of going there and back by train was 540Yen. Not bad but wish I had a chance to explore the place more, just that I didn't want to impose on my supervisor and his wife. I did feel a little poor after paying for the fridge but it was a good investment. I'll be here for 7months lah. Today was also the first day that it rained since I got here. I didn't have my umbrella but it was fine.. Good thing it wasn't pouring. OH... so I was starving by the time they left so I bought some street food for home. First I got this waffle for 120Yen with red bean - oishi desu but was it because I was hungry? Then I got this huge box of noodles for 400Yen. I only finished half of it and now I'm wishing I have my fridge because I'm probably having that for breakfast tomorrow :P. Speaking of tomorrow, it's my first day!! AHHH so nervousss. I gotta read this paper then think up of some questions. doushiyoooooo. Ooh also, I was finally able to contact Natsuko :D she called me and she got my mailing address. She's going to send me some maps, yay that's going to be useful. Not sure how detailed they are tho. Anywhooo exhausted again. Need to wake up early and genki so that I wont fall asleep at work! GANBATTE bess you can doo it!
P.S. my funds are running low. :S Need some salary asap!
Bess
Thursday, May 26th 2011
Hellooo, so I've been to work for 4 days now... might I say it wasnt stress free at all. Soo I began the research immediately, supervisor tells me to look up problems with our research and look up solutions. So far he has been really patient with me... I'm not sure how he thinks of me now but I better study Opencv at home or else I'm dead meat! Also, I've been using the japanese keyboard at work. And the keyboard is slightly different from the english keyboard... I think I've gotten used to it, and now it's awkward using my english keyboard. @_@ Anyways, I am learning lots. I'm glad I got hired for this specific position because the things I'm going to be doing is really interesting. Also, I realize that if I become good at using the OpenCV library, so much can be done! If this work term is successful, I may even consider grad school afterwards. :D -- that's a big if. My supervisor finally helped me call for internet and he managed to get me an extremely good deal... 6000 YEN for 7 months whollyyy. Apparently it's promotion period or something and I get some kinda cash back and 3 months free. Is it too good to be true? Yay. But the bad news is I have to wait till June 2 until I get to use the internet... Oohh and I also received my refrigerator delivered to my room yesterday! WAoohoo I don't need to go out and buy food for dinner anymore. I had a few ramens and they were quite salty. For lunch, my team and I go down to the cafeteria and eat together. They have a variety of different types of meals you can order. Around 400 - 550 yen a meal. Sooo I guess most of my salary will be going towards meals. At least I wont have to think about making my own lunch. That was a pain when I did it back in vancouver. Actually I write a journal - like report to my supervisor everyday. Saying what I did and if I had any questions, write them down and he'll respond. So I wont write any of that here.. probably confidential anyways. As for my team, they're all suppppppppperr nicee!! *sigh* I reallyyy really hope I don't disappoint my supervisor. Everyone here is so intelligent. At least there is one girl in my team, she's cute and nice. :D Bad side is, they know enough english to converse with me so it's hard for me to improve my japanese unless I ask them myself. A lot of conversation goes on in Japanese and I feel so clueless. So on top of OpenCV, I hope to study a bit of japanese too. I think I have my greetings down though. Otsukaresama desu! Osakinishitsureishimasu! Yeah they're tongue twisters so I still stumble in the middle sometimes. On my first day I met soo many people but I totally forgot their names 5 seconds after they tell me. I also introduced myself to the whole floor. This is where the japanese I learned in japan coop training week came in handy. It was successful! sorta. mmhm. Also, the team gave me a welcome party at their favourite japanese izakaya - which is a ... bar type restaurant. Man! that restaurant was pricey but the food was excellent. Took a lot of pictures. I didn't have to pay and each member of my team had to pay around 4000 yen.. which comes out to about 40 bucks canadian. Also, my supervisor ordered me two drinks which were... ume-something (plum) and some brown sugar drink. lol. Alcoholic of course. Everyone else drank more than me I think. They ordered a lot of drinks. hehe anyways, it was a really fun night.
So today, I was invited to play valleyball with my supervisor, a guy from my team, and another researcher from another team but same floor. (he's super nice too!!!) No, that's not a typo. It's vAlleyball not volleyball. It's just like volleyball only the ball's like.. a beach ball. lol. Excellent, because it didnt hurt my arms. The guys were super competitive and I think I was just dead weight. >_> Our team won 2/3 games! wahooo! There are three more games, but I wont go for the second one since I'll be back in my dorm waiting for my internet.. router i think. I hope I get to play for the next game though!
Oh, Natsuko called me again on monday night... Gooossh how in the world do I repay her, she's being soo helpful :(. She's coming to visit me this saturday I believe. Coming from Saitama which is a 2-3 hour train ride! My town isnt even particularily interesting and she offered to go shopping with me for cheap second hand things for my dorm room. (I think i might need a microwave soon?) My funds are really depleting but I think i'll survive. I'm going to get my alien registration card on June 2 and my bank account. Hopefully my company will reimburse my plane tickets and I will have money to survive again. ha. Getting late, need to study a bit and .. hopefully not disappoint at work. (My supervisor told me to modify the sample program at work and I was totally clueless. - i think he sensed that from me and he started to tell me some simple concepts. GAH, study study study!!!! give me my internet soon onegaishimasu T_T). Jaa, ashita aimashou. Maybe.
Bess
Friday, May 27, 2011
YAYY!!! TGIF TGIF! The day was long, but not very stressful. Most of the day I was trying to understand this simple program written in C++. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was. But now I'm assigned a new task. Not sure how that's going to turn out but I really want my internet soon so I can do some googling at my dorm instead of at work. (I sit right next to my supervisor...) And It's not very comfortable at work. I have two computers at my desk and one of them is like a heater when you turn it on. Seriously. So I have this heat constantly blasting off into my face from under the desk. Very raging.
Yatta! Today I'm having instant noodles for dinner with veggies and an egg. Actually I had an egg this morning too. And half an egg during lunch time. @_@ I wonder if that's too much cholesterol. For lunch I had something called "tsukamen" I think that's what they said. Anyway, it was like.. plain noodles on the side and in a separate bowl all of the soup and various... ramen ingredients. I guess it's called tsukamen for the method of eating. You're supposed to mix in your noodies in with the soup a bit at a time i suppose. The taste was great. I like how I can control how much soup I dip in ect. The other times I had ramen, I felt the soup made it too salty. Too bad I didn't take a picture. I'm wondering when I get to visit Tokyo. I'm so excited! I definately wont be going this weekend. Reasons why: 1. I will get lost since I have no sense of direction. 2. If I get lost I cannot ask anyone since my japanese is next to none. 3. I have no internet to help me decide what train to take etc. 3. I'd rather wait for someone so I can have a travel buddy. *sigh* I wonder where everyone is. About 1 more week till I get to communicate on the internetz again. I dont think I should be browsing fb at work :P.
I wonder what I should do tonight. Relax and sleep early? I kinda wanna go out and buy some groceries.. There are soo many different types of food I wanna try out at the grocery market. I should take some pics. I have a whole bunch of random pictures of the street because I don't want to get lost, so I take pics of my road to work. Hahah. I'm really terrible. I think Natsuko's coming tomorrow. I hope! Can't wait to see herrr. So anyway, back to the supermarket - Livin, I saw some flats for... 950 yen or something. They look much more flexible and comfortable than my hard flats that make clickety clackety noises when I walk. Uncomfortable and loud. Maybe some new clothes too. Livin is like.. a japanese walmart. You can buy clothes upstairs.
Okay, time to sign off, and read some openCV.
Bess
Rain Season has started - tsuyu
Saturday, May 28th, 2011.
Weather: Rain, humid
Mood: accomplished
Yosh! So last night, instead of studying, I passed out on my bed until Natsuko called me at 9ish. Told me she couldnt come because she had a cold. =( Oh well. For sure, when I get used to the train system and everything else, I'll zettai (definately) go and visit her in Saitama. :D. No idea why I've been so tired. I've been having around 7 hours of sleep a night. =/ Anywhos Today!
I was woken up by my alarm at 6:30am as usual but I felt like sleeping in. It was raining outside so it's natural to want to stay in bed ne?
I woke up at 11am and started my list of things to do. Clean up!! A whole lotta dust bunnies were appearing everywhere and I had a feeling it was coming from under my bed. It was nastttttty.. Soo dusty and dirty. Shoulda taken a pic of before and after. Yeah! Now my room is nice and sparkly. (It'll probably only last a few days..) I also got to wash a whole bunch of my clothes. I punched some random numbers on the washing machine and off it went! One problem I encountered was where to put the washing clothes powder... I think I put it in the place where you're supposed to put bleach or something.. (because I checked the manual -- which was also in japanese, and looked at the pictures I found out later where to put the powder) HOohoho. Yeah. I think it turned out okay. There was no explosion of bubbles. Next was the dryer. It said 15 minutes but it took longer than that. I got impatient because I went to the laundary room twice to check and it was still not done. =_= So I just pulled out my clothes even if they were still a bit wet. Sooo after cleaning my washroom and everything else I was sorta hungry but there was noo food at my place. Only instant noodles which I did not want.
I went out to the mall next to yokosuka chuo eki and spent 4 hours there. Mannn there are sooo many things to buy and seee. I think there's like another shopping center nearby too when I was heading back home. I really wanted to stop by but I was carrying too many groceries. Most of the shops I visited were for clothes and shoes. And I made great purchases! I bought a cute tan-coloured cardigan for 980 yen, a white shirt with some design for 500 yen (which turned out to be a bit shorter than I expected..) and flats for 990 yen. Ooh and then I was still a bit hungry so I purchased green tea waffle icecream! Yum. I didnt take a picture though, didn't have my camera, but these waffle icecreams are quite common here. So they're like... waffers and inside is icecream... Yah. Then I went downstairs and bought food for tonight and the next few nights. Got some veggies, snacks and noodles. (the freshish types found in the fridge sections because instant noodles just isn't that appetizing. Like if you cook it, and you look at the water it was boiled in, you'll see soo much oil - not the packaged oil that comes with the noodle but oil from the actual noodles. My mom told me to cook it once and wash it through cold water and then boil it again to get rid of the 'plastics' so that's how I found out how greasy it was..) Yah. So from now on, instant noodles is only for emergencies. =P. Ahh I gotta get myself a water boiler. So far the cheapest one I found was 2000 yen. Not bad, maybe I should get that one before it's gone because I think it was on sale. ><. Also, I found a 315 yen store that sold really cute stuff. Tshirts, crocs(?), bags, mirrors, stationary etc.
Today, I also received Natsuko's care package. She's wayyy too kind I have no idea how to repay her now (of course I'm going to be sending her back most of the things here). The box was ginormous there were many useful things inside:
Necklace holder
Two pairs of chopsticks, food place mats
floor mat
Aroma lamp
can
Maps
iron,
brown foldable polka dot box
two skirts, white shirt with golden bow,
ac adapter for laptop,
white towels,
sifter
measuring cup
rice scooper
soup scooper
pot
non-slip sheet for mat
pasta maker
floor mop
door entrance way fabric sheet
flowery fabric bag - for washing clothes? not sure..
towel
bento box
clips
tools - measuring tape, mini screw drivers, clips, thumb tacks
Ya. There maybe some things I missed, but that's the gist of it! Still have a few things I want to get, like boots since rainy season has arrived. Apparently the raining season lasts for a month and a half. *sigh* at least it's not cold like Vancouver. Maybe I could buy some cheap boots from Livin tomorrow. Also, according to Natsuko, typhoons are coming too. This coming monday and tuesday. Lol. Hope I dont get blown away. I live near the .. shore(?) and sooo I'm in danger of tsunami too. WAhoo. Lets not think about that.
Bess
Sunday, May 29 2011
weather: rain
time: noon
This morning I had a random breakfast.
I ate a boiled egg, two raisin breads, grapefruit juice and... pudding!!! It was yum yum. Here, have some pictures:
Today I shall do some more exploring in the rain and shopping. Then it's back to work...
time: 20:00
weather: crappy
mood: full, tired
Left around 16:00 and with only a gut feeling of where the shopping plaza I found last week was, I set off. Actually it wasn't hard to find. It was just one straight route to... xx direction. lol. I do not know where north is without the mountains. Anyway, turns out the shopping plaza didn't have as many clothes shop as the one at Yokosukachuo eki. Actually, a lady asked me where the station was (in nihongo of course!) and I pointed towards the direction I thought (or was pretty certain, yokosukachuo eki..) I dont think she believed me so she asked some other guys after :P. Soo I was searching for my rain shoes but couldn't find anything cheap and water-proofy and fashionable at the same time. Gave up and bought some necessary appliances for my washroom (toilet cleaner and soap holder at the hyaku-en store!). Went grocery shopping at Daiei, there was some type of shopping anniversary week going on, and some things were on sale i guess? Not sure. Yah, and I bought some fruits and more junk food. I was soo tempted to buy more pudding and some cake but my fridge is getting full. But I did get some more wafer icecream! only 98 yen! wahahh. I also bought myself some chicken cus I was craving meat. Oh mah gah. I couldn't believe what I saw them selling. They were selling live huge ginormous living beetles!!! (at the zellars like store) whollyy and they were quite expensive. Like 60 bucks canadian for the huge one. At first I thought they were fake but... they were moving....
And also in the grocery shop, you can conveniently find a fried foods section where you select what you want, put it in a box and off you go. (like.. the pastery section) But I didn't get anything because I rarely eat fried foods like that.. Maybe I should try one day, and maybe I'll get addicted to it.
Yah, I just finished eating dinner and I think I cooked too much. Rather I bought too much food. I didn't want anything to go bad cus they're all fresh... so I ate as much as I could.
YEH. time to study - I always say that but I actually only read like.. one paragraph and then fall asleep =_=.
Ceeya - Bess
Monday, March 30 2011
weather: cloudy, cold, windy
mood: eh.
Surprised it didnt rain as much as I thought it would. It was actually clear most of the day! Anyway. Usual day.. got up, had some breakfast - raisin bread, egg, water. Got to work and started to code. But the computer was driving me crazy. Sorta. It's the same one I mentioned earlier... the one that's a heater hybrid. =_= Anywho, I don't like it much because it has a japanese keyboard and I dont know where all the keys are, and I keep getting the blue screen of death. I must've had at least 3 of them until noon. Also, visual studio was in japanese too, so I had no idea what was going on with the errors. Supervisor realized this so he told me to install VS eng version. So I did, but I had to install openCV and configure it myself. Took nearly the whole afternoon and I couldn't fix this configuration issue with the camera... and my supervisor probably didnt want me to waste all day trying to figure it out so he told me to do something else. Hahh.. glad I got to turn off the heater though. I hope that we will be able to use my other computer instead of this chunk of useless thang. lol. Yeap. Spent rest of the day researching about the algorithm I'm supposed to write later on (ohh man, looks really complicated.. please wish me luck) At the end of the day I asked my supervisor and the girl in my team how long do they stay for after I leave and they didn't really know. But they talked about how they enjoyed this type of work so I assume what they're saying is that it doesnt really matter how long they stay, as long as they liked what they were doing. Also at the same time they are able to have a balance of physical and mental health. Very insightful. I feel really honoured to be working with such passionate researchers. How do I feel about what I'm working on right now? I'm going to be honest to say that even though the stuff I'm doing now is really difficult.. and I have never taken a math course or compsci course related to this (machine learning) I'm glad I got hired for this position. I think it's an extremely interesting field to study in and it's going to be a great way for me to learn about whether or not I want to take more courses to extend my knowledge in this field. My original plan was to take the rest of my 5 random courses to fufill my requirements but if machine learning appeals to me and I get some good experience from this position, I'd definately take an extra year to fill in the gaps in my knowledge. I.e. take the required math courses and take that machine learning course that I sorta wanted to take earlier but lacked requirements for.
Aside from work, today for dinner, I made myself the same thing as last night but with udon noodles. I also cut myself half an apple to eat. I had a fail session of making apple bunnies, it's harder than it looks!!! I also ate some dericious cheap rice crakers harhrha.
After I took a shower/bath (that's another story...) turns out I missed Natsuko's call and she emailed me. It was such a cute text message :D She's so cute!!! <3 I replied to her in japanese. I felt so accomplished afterwards because it took me around 15 minutes to write "gomenasai! ofuronihairundeshita, oyasumi!" lol. (actually I even spelt gomenasai as "gome n a sai" instead of "gome na sa i") It was my first time texting in japanese, I kept trying to type in romaji, but it's different. :( And it takes soo long to text in english because it doesn't have T9. Sigh. lol. That is all. I need to do some reading then pass out and it's another day for me tomorrow. Wish me luck!!!
I get my router tomorrow but I don't get internet till June 2. So till then, matta ne!
Oh another note, my supervisor asked me for the second time today whether or not I felt the small earthquake last night at around 9? lol, I had no idea.
Sunday, June 1, 2011
time: 11:13 pm
mood: frustrated, mendokusai
weather: cloudy
Grr!! stupid internet!!! and stupid set up! Why do they have to make connecting to the internet so complicated?!?! I have to install some application to connect to the internet and it's giving me stupid application errors. Am I doing something wrong or is there something wrong with my laptop? Aguhjfdkl! I hate setup. =_= I give up. I'm sleepy and nothing is working. I guess I'll just have to ask my co-workers tomorrow. *sigh* internet not coming as soon as I planned :( Also because of this setting up, it made me rage so I binge ate junk food. The rice crackers and my wafer ice cream. Sigh I'm going to be fat fat.
Anywaysss today I finally checked my email and I found one of the co-ops emailed me and I emailed back.. and tada! I am no longer alone and disconnected. I hope to go to Yokohama with them this weekend yey! Yah, so we went to the shopping plaza near the navy street and ate okonomiyaki! the type of restaurant where you cook your own japanese pancake like food. It was good, paid 1028 yen each. Not bad I guess. but it was really cool =D wanted to try it since I read it on parfaitic lolz. ya.
So tomorrow I get to sleep in because I'm getting my alien registration card and my bank set up. I estimate I will get to work around 1:30 or 2 depending on how long it takes to set up my bank account..
Oh yesterday I went grocery shopping again after I got my modem. I finally bought an electric water kettle for 1770 yen. Yeah it's plastic and crappy :P Also I bought rice and milk. I tried the milk and it tasted different. It tasted creamy. :S Maybe I've been having 1% milk in Canada... I had no idea if 1% milk even exists here in Japan. Anyway, not sure if i can get used to the taste. I was thinking of getting matcha powder and mixing it in hahahah.
K almost 12 so gotta shower and sleep - without internet sighs.
-Bess
