KIT-IJST '10 6th Week [Food Rulez!]
Tuesday, July 13, 2010

After class, we went to Strawberry Café again! This time, it’s not an all-girl trip anymore. John, Taylor, Rohit, and James joined me, Diya, Sam, Sarah, Tiana, and Jackie. Now it’s the hungry dudes+dudettes dinner trip! As usual, 15min walk and there we were. The restaurant was quite full when we arrived, but the waiters managed to combine 3 tables together to fit us 10 ppl.

The 1st time, I had veggie pizza and matchan waffles. This time, I ordered banana chocolate waffles, and omurice (omelet fried rice – more like pattaya but different taste). Urmmm, honestly, I so much prefer nasi pattaya laa. Waffles kat kedai ni sgt sedap ok! Since we’re 10-ppl group, we had to wait diligently for each meal. I literally stared at each waffle in the making, in case it’s mine. Seriously, drooling giler tgk diorg buat…. yummmmmm…..


The overall dinner time was really havoc – in a good way. We had a good time bonding together. Eventhough tak dapat share food (macam makan dgn Malaysians lain), I could tell each of us was enjoying the food and gibberish talk once in a while J


Thursday, July 15, 2010

In one of JST classes, we watched a video of a Japanese variety show introducing Kanazawa and its specialties. There’s this 1 sushi shop famous with a special dish, white fat tuna. Very oishii, very expensive. Dgr kata sepinggan 2 slices kat Tokyo boleh cecah 10dolar! So, alkisahnya, we went to the same sushi shop right after class ended for the day. I was really excited! Sam, Jackie, Tiana, and Sarah had been there once; Sam did show me pictures of the piling sushi plates, she got 5 plates, Tiana got 6!

The restaurant was half full. We got 2 tables at the far back. Then we started eyeing delicious plates on the conveyor belt. I think Sam was the 1st at our table to grab a plate. She’s really a fast eater. I got my eyes on a salmon sushi with tomato and cheese on top. Certainly, it’s amazinggggg! Diya liked a tuna sushi or something, I forgot its name. By the way, I didn’t see the expensive white fat tuna rolling around, customers need to ask from the chef. Very the special eyh? Sarah bought it, and she told me, “it’s AweSoMeeeee!” I forgot to snap a pic of the dish, it was served on a golden-colored plate, priced ¥890. My sushi plates ranged only from ¥250 - ¥470, xde duit to afford more than that, but the overall bill I had to pay was quite high considering the amount of plates :p

my piling plates - 4 jahh
we went to Baskin Robbins again, i got the awesome Triple Shots! ngaaaa~

Friday, July 16, 2010

A week from today would be the closing ceremony of KIT-IJST 2010. OMG, how times flies….

Anyway, It’s an entry about Food again! Japanese food rulez! The others had discovered Tonkun, an awesome restaurant near Nishikawa Heights. I saw it once (when we’re walking in the rain during the long weekend) but it was closed that day. John, Sam, Sarah, me and Diya went there together, but it would be opened only after 3pm! Terpaksalah menunggu menonggeng kat depan anonymous shop across the street. Bila masuk jer, there’re actually customers inside! I dunno why it was closed earlier *geleng2 kepala*. Anyway, we sat down and analyzed the menu. Ada a pink pig as 'mascot' on the menu, very cute though, haha. The restaurant itself is small, maximum limit should be no more than 25 ppl. The other 3 ordered tonkatsu and some meaty dishes. I asked for a salmon with rice since it’s cheaper than other fish meals and I do LOVE salmon. Same goes for Diya. It came out to be too good to be true! Whenever I see the picture, I could still feel the crispiness and lemony taste of the salmon lingered on my tongue……….nak pegi lagi!!! (>.<)

see that "pink pig" on the menu?
my salmon dish! ^.^

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KIT-IJST '10 5th Week [2nd Half: Continuation...]
P/S: Since I’ve diligently abandoned this blog right after I returned from Japan, I couldn’t retrieve all memories very well, so I have to rely on the pictures taken (T___T). So sorry for not being able to share everything I did in Japan, one of the awesomest experiences in my life!

Friday, July 9, 2010

As usual, we had the weekly Art Club meeting in the Art Room in Building 14. Today, they suggested to do something interesting – involving both Japanese & ‘gaijin’ (as they called us) – which was drawing portraits in 10mins using the utensils in front of you. They arranged drawing utensils (watercolors, pencil colors, oil pastel, crayons, etc.) in a circle. Each of us took a seat anywhere they like. Someone would pose as the model in the middle of the circle, and the rest of us would draw him/her. John was the 1st to come out. Next, the e-board Japanese kids, Sam, and including ME! Yes, me! Haha! Diya drew my peace-signed hand longerrrrrr than necessary. Oh yea I forgot, we had to change our seats each time the  models changed. I got pencil colors (2x), watercolors, pencil (?), couldn’t remember much (T___T)

that's me, LOL
Sam
Display on the floor
Jackie's (on left) and mine (on right)

After we’re done, we had snack dinner together at the Platz café.  I got myself THE Van Houten Cocoa drink like always, so goooood – substitution for Minum Milo Anda Jadi Sihat dan Kuat! Tonight was really fun! The e-board said they would post the drawings later in the North Campus area, I couldn’t wait!

the ultimate drink ever!


Sunday, July 11, 2010

Ertl-sensei invited us for a social gathering at Rakutei restaurant in downtown Kanazawa. Unlimited drinks (alcohol, unfortunately) and a few food servings available with ¥2000 fee per person. I contemplated at first, to go or not to go, yelah nama pun bar Jepun. But then, it’s for the sake of mingling around, so why not? Movie “Tampopo” was supposed to be shown during the first half of the gathering (1-3pm), but I’m gonna skip it!

I met Tim at 1pm, he’s doing the research paper HW (really Tim?). he said he wanted to go together with us, and the bus was at 3pm. But he didn’t show up at 3pm, so we had to blah dulu. We arrived quite late actually, but better late than never~ Rakutei is a small, hidden bar/restaurant in the back alley of Korinbo 109. The arrangement is pretty neat, but crowded with 30++ people from our cultural class and Kanazawa Todai. I sat at a table with the RIT girls (Sam, Sarah, Tiana), Matt, Rohit, and a cute-looking Todai Japanese girl whose name Tomoko. I’ve never talked really close with Matt before; I found out he’s actually pretty friendly. Just start a dialogue, he may go along with it. Matt and Tomoko-chan talked most of the time, about his 2-month biking trip across USA continent, and mountain bikes. Not my expertise, so I wasn’t included :p. Tomoko-chan’s very cute, very friendly and polite. When most people around her (excluding me and Diya) gulped down beer and sake, she only took sips each time. Oh, talking about the drinks, there was this fruit cocktail looking so deliciously yummy! But well, not my rezeki…and I was satisfied with just ocha, lemonade, and water. The food? It’s not bad. We were served with eggrolls, seafood, fish, and an unknown dumpling – apparently it was a chicken dumpling! Oh mai….


What else? While I was having a ‘great’ time talking and eating away anything I could, the rest of the party was having REAL FUN. They drank, laughed, drank again, patted each other, and then….BAM!! Someone fell down…too drunk to balance himself. I had to hide my smiling face, hey that’s a LOL moment for me okay! The Tim brothers had arrived sometime after us - Taiwanese Tim told me he had to wake Korean Tim up, that’s why they’re late – and they were drunk. It’s my first time seeing my friends being drunk, with red flushed cheeks and sloppy walking. It’s weird, and I’m glad that I’m not a drinker, ever.

At 6pm, we had to leave the space. Some of us, the non-drunken ones, decided to hang out at Mister Donuts across the main street. John and Ainaa - pretty drunk with hiccups, even - and Tomoko, tagged along. Ainaa, a Malaysian freshman girl in Todai, speaks Japanese fluently. We talked some more, both in JPN and Malay. How I wish I could live in Japan longer…. And, that’s how my weekend ended. Wasted? Not really….I had fun with them J


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Updating my life
...In the Name of ALLAH...


It's already past the V-day - meaning it's been almost 2months since my last update (o___O)


Since I have nothing to do before my last final on NEXT FRIDAY (hantu betul!!)...updating blog seems to be a good idea, at least for now. My writing class has ended rather successfully, and I will be missing writing essays from now on. So yeah, why don't we write blog entries!? 


This is just an introduction. I'll be back.

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........
i just plainly HATE myself.
when will i update this blog???

11:28 AM | Category: | 2 cookies for me!

2011!


HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011! 

New Year, New You!
(adapted from Mustela, 2011)

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ASMAA's Day!

Maa-chan!
H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y !!

Special dedicated to my lovely lady, Asmaa Nafeesa Razmi
Sweet 24! Such a sweet number ^_____^

I'm happy that I got to know you, as a friend, as an unnie, as a fellow fangirl...
and I'm more than happy to treasure our relationship forever and ever...
Nothing can describe the picture of you...ayyy girl~


3:34 AM | Category: | 1 cookies for me!

*bricking myself*
oh i HATE myself.
heck, i have tonnes of stuff to update in this blog, and i haven't start writing any yet!
after i'm done with midterms this week, for sure this stuff will go up to the top of my To-Do list!

*_______*

3:30 AM | Category: | 0 cookies for me!

bubble thoughts
...In the Name of ALLAH S.W.T...

Out of sudden, I feel like writing something useful after a babbling entry I just wrote below this one. Well, maybe not really useful, but at least it should be more meaningful.

You see, I'm been keeping my blog out of my sight for months, as well as my interest in blog jumping. So I can say, I'm quite lost of others' updates, especially those whom are already graduated and left this 'land of luck' called America. Several days ago, I received a pleasant surprise in my mailbox, which was a nice kad raya from a dear friend, envelope pasted with 10 stamps of 30¢!! No wonder, she included 2 cards for other 2 friends in one envelope.

Anyhow, in my card, she wrote such touching words, bla bla bla...and something about 'please update your blog'. Oppsie, yes, she's the very reason that I come back to my blog after such a period. In the meantime, I started to click on others' blogs, posted comments here and there...until I noticed this particular blog owned by a friend of my dear friend. His blog was updated 1 hour ago, thus triggered my urge to click on his name. There are...entries of train of events revolving his life as a m****** student, and they gripped my heart in a weird sense. Apparently, he's active in many things, organizing this and that for the sake of friends and local community living around him. His entries are mostly advices in life...something that we can actually practice to better our life. I'm not saying there are specific rules to be followed in writing blogs, but I've always wanted to write things that would grip hearts in a good way. I feel like I should make changes in my storytelling...

How do you feel when you read my entries?
Excited? Disgusted? *oh I just inserted this word for fun, please don't agree* Or...nothing?
You decide your own feeling, but I hope I can deliver the emotions I clipped together whenever I write something...to you my readers...

~Till we meet again in near future~

1:39 AM | Category: | 1 cookies for me!

update
Yeah yeah...I know, I'm being such a procrastinating loser for my own blog. It's been 2 months since I left Japan, so it's quite a big task to remember nice little details about the events I've had there. I'll try my best, okay?

Please bear with my 'twinkle twinkle little stars' moments. Sometimes, my stars prefer to hide behind dark clouds of lonely nights...

1:17 AM | Category: | 0 cookies for me!

KIT-IJST 4th Week Classes [1st Half]
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
It's 4th week already. We had Cultural & JST classes today. The former was like usual, without an article presentation. In JST, we learnt Japanese mimetic expressions - gitaigo & giongo (words that mimic states & sounds). These are very abundant here, and whoever reads manga a lot would certainly know this.

Examples:
Water running = ざーざー　(zaa zaa)
Cat meow = ニャーニャー (nya nya)
Twirling around = くるくる (kuru kuru)
Shining object = きらきら (kira kira)
Totally cute. Sensei gave us stuff to touch & see, and let us guess the appropriate expressions. I saw nattou for the 1st time, it's really gross-looking. I also tried eating wasabi & umeboshi (pickled plum)-flavored potato chips. Japanese really has literally everything huh... I spent the night mostly at room, listening to songs & doing homeworks. All boring stuff...


Wednesday, July 7, 2010

I learnt to write a Japanese resume in JPN class, it's harder than American one, given the crazy kanji here and there. No other class after that. I went to Segway session. We tried riding on it, it's really fun! I'd no idea it would be this awesome. A little dangerous, but that's what makes things more challenging, right?


Today is Tanabata festival day, but no real festival being held since it's sort of a family thing. Some of us have bought their own yukata to wear during Tanabata, but oh well, they're gonna wear it tonight! I had to walk very fast to get my very 1st yukata at Bookoff. Not much choices left, so I had to consider buying an expensive one. At first, I chose blue and red yukata, red's cheaper since it's a secondhand. The blue one was good, but looked weird when I was wearing it. The salesgirl got me another one, a purple yukata. Very nice color & design, but far more expensive than the other two. So, I'd rather get my hands on a new yukata than old one, so I bought the purple. Total purchase of yukata, obi, geta sandal, tabi: SECRET! It's quite costly for me, but I'm happy getting it by myself ^___^


9 of us (me, diya, sam, tiana, sarah, jackie, taylor, rohit, john) wore yukata and took pictures together. Jackie's still sick so she didn't join us for dinner at Katsuya. Ebi fried set for me! Then, we had Baskin Robbins ice-cream, umm ummm so good! Funny thing, Japanese people couldn't stop staring at us wearing yukata. I might feel the same way if I see a foreigner wearing baju kurung/baju melayu. They thought we were cute, I supposed? Haha... So, we're gonna do this again, with fireworks beside the river, and much more! Yay, I can't wait!

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