1ST MEETING WITH MY OKAASAN~~

today teman zhong ing to her church near akashi eki.. 1st time enter proper church.. well.. not exactly 1st time... i'm pretty sure tua yee brought me there several times when i was very young but i hav no memory of it so it doesn't really count? hehe yesterday i emailed my host family (who by chance live near akashi eki) telling her i'd be teman-'ing' zhong ing.. and voila! she picked up the hint pretty fast and asked if we both wanna go her house after the church thingy.

the photo below is a bit fake since i'm not really tat close with her.. yet. we just met the 2nd time.. but o well.. 1st time went in a 'japanese-style' house. her name is kodama haha... same as my chemistry teacher back at ppktj. since we don't know the way to her house we met up at the station 1st.





she didn't cook beforehand so she brought us to the super in the eki (station) and bought many many obentou and some cakes...
the halaman rumah very nice.. the pathway to the door are blocks of flat stones with small flowers growing between them.
the house.. many many decoration

the ichigo very different from malaysia's. here really really sweet and tasty.. malaysia ones sour

the park in front of the eki

after tat we went tarumi-eki. which supposedly hav a outlet store like FOS selling cheap clothes... haha we managed to get to tarumi-eki no problem.. but we couldn't find the store. serves us right for not asking senpai properly b4 going.

today 's the 1st time we rode densha by ourselves.. this pic is part of the train's schedule at the eki. not included in the pic but the left side shows the hour..

me and zhong ing were like.. eh so weird? how come same hour same minute got 2 train come at the same time?
when we realised tat the small numbers in circles means which platform we shud be waiting at.... it was too late...

when reached uozumi eki had to run all the way back to hostel again for the 930 tenko..

a birthday card we made for linh.. supposedly his birthday is today. he has 2 birthdays.. something about dunno when his real birthday is..

HANAMI #2 AT HIMEJI CASTLE

5 APRIL...

himeji-jou.. one of the prettiest castle at japan and is a world's heritage.. or something like tat...haha did hanami 2 days in a row.. this time is host family programme. akashi kousen special in tat it's foreign students hav a long history with host family.. so unlike other kousen we dun hav to apply for host families.. we automatically get one!
the feast they prepared for us... rather than host 'family' more like just host 'mum'. cos all are older ladies whose children hav gone tokyo and enjoy mixing with foreign students...

one of them brought this thing for us to play. haha i managed to master it.

oya there was this japanese kid who was nearby... he managed to play it on his second try! then in a few short minutes he began to do all sorts of tricks like tossing the plate into the air then catching it after twirling the stick... maybe japan toys like this runs in japanese blood...

dog in sailorsuit...

only 4 of us chit, tuan, me and zhong ing went in the castle.. the others went b4 and got bored with it liao.. inside really dun hav much sight-seeing to do tho...

some ppl dressed up as ninjas.... a kid cried when his dad tried to bring him near them

after tat all of us foreign students minus malaysian senpais went to 'motomachi'.. its something like chinatown. its the 1st time i saw imported stuff for sale since i set foot in japan

hehe this time we weren't late for tenko. reached hostel at 925 haha... linh brought us back while others had their dinner at motomachi.. me and zhong ing still dunno how to take train.. haihz...

1ST HANAMI

the nite b4 hanami... joyce baked banana cake, zhong ing baked butter cake and yours truly assisted them professionally.

4 april...

this hanami thingy is organised by kansai area's msaj (malaysia student association japan). all senpais and newcomers like us nearby goes to this sort of event. i even saw a few sui mu bringing their babies along!



msaj chose a park in osaka to do the hanami. it was almost a 3 hour trip with countless norikae (change of trains). i even lost count of how much i spent for the transportation. troublesome but worth it ^-^

this photo is somewhere in osaka on our way to change trains

yay!! finally reached! sorry forgot wat the park name is. something osaka kinen blablabla kouen. o well.. i'm not sure why but this statue thingy is the symbol of the park... if i'm not mistaken.

naze~! hehehe.. the students from suzuka kousen got come so got to meet up with naze, jet, arafah. really such a pity tat's all the ppl from my batch that came. nara kousen ppl din come tho quite near. kononnya my batch's students (yang chau, sabri, zamzam) studying there dun wanna come wor... as for wakayama.. haih... puisan... jiajie.. why didn't u guys come? was really looking forward to meet up one..

super shy afiq...

hehe.. finally got to use a transparent umbrella...

a pasar like thing at the park... din get to finish kaikai the park cos hav to go nanba in osaka to buy denshi jisho (electronic dictionary)...

behold the power of LOVE!!! gesi le... no promise! no contact!.. we were all walking towards the gate when rahaizal and asma strolled by us. rahaizal and asma's kousen at shikoku which is like on a totally different island from ours and is FAR from osaka...

theme park... didn't hav time to go near it... pity.. it looks very gorgeous from faraway with the sakura trees adorning the lower parts

pigeons...

btw.. u'll seldom see zhong ing in my photos cos it's owes me helping her take photos or vice versa

michael senpai. now in uni.. formerly oso studied at akashi kousen. michael and mei ching senpai have our deepest appreaciation and gratitude for leaving their bicyles for us! hehe.. okagesama de we straight hav bicycle to ride when we got there.

food...free food..everyone brought some food...hehe i haven't really start missing malaysian food yet

after tat like i said we went to nanba.. missed a train for coming back, totally late for our 930 tenko (girls' dorm got check attendance at 930 EVERYnite.. mafan) and ALMOST didn't make in time for 10pm when the alarm will sound if we open the dorm ater tat. ran all the way back from station.. running in heels wasn't any problem tho.. it was gasping the cold air tat was really difficult... throat felt very dry afterwards