So I guess we're really leaving OED for good.

*starts tearing up*

This blog contains a lot of memories, rants, and just plain randomness from all three of us, and as much as it pains us to leave these behind, we have to. But hey, the journey to Japan hasn't even started, so if you had the patience to read on our blabbings, then you might want to visit our new 'homes':

Megane's blog: Megane~kun
KaiSu's blog: Sweet Anxiousness
Jenny's blog: My Strawberry Days

*waves*

Please look forward on our Japanese adventures! Soon!

This post is long way past its due. I'm glad kai managed to post something about the great and wonderful news of the realization of our dreams. Yes my friends, it has been confirmed. Kaisu, meganekodomo, and Jenny are going to Yokohama, Japan this June/July.

Sorry for my long absence, I think I owe you guys an explanation... So let me tell you my side of the story (warning, this might get long and nasty... prepare a pillow, eye drops, and lots of drinks):

A great tragedy has befallen me, and it started last February 15. It was a Friday and as I was getting ready for work, I suddenly felt an onset of chills. A teeth-chattering coldness that seemed to have seeped into my bones.

I decided not to go to work~ Woo~!

Saturday came and a fever started thawing my body, as my mom restricted me from attending my Nihongo class. I probably would've fainted halfway the journey there anyway~ Then Sunday woke me up with the fever still reaching the height of allowable human temperature...

The deciding factor announced itself on Monday when rashes began to creep through-out my body, starting with my face. Oh the horror I felt when my smooth skin slowly crumbled into pockmarked redness. But when we went to the hospital, the doctor said not to worry for it seems to be only a case of viral rash.

The next day, the rash invaded my chest and arms, my back and even my mouth! Ulcers started swelling inside my lips, gums and even inside my throat. My eyes began to swell as my fever reached an all-time high. My parents agreed that it's time for me to experience a hospital confinement.

I wasn't given a room until 10 PM, but it was worth it. It could've been a hotel room for all I know, if not for the tell-tale IV rack and the hospital logo plastered all over the bedsheets. It was soft, inviting and cozy. Warm lights, lounge chairs, and a floor to ceiling window with a great view of the metropolis. And a large bathroom too! I could've enjoyed the stay luxuriously if only there wasn't a 2-inch needle stuck up inside my vein.

The week dragged on as I spent the days asleep. Drifting into consciousness once in a while to either go to the bathroom or to slurp some of the hospital food. Tossing and turning, I was in so much agony. Mostly it's because of the mouth ulcers and the terrible tonsilitis, and the dextrose made my arm to swell so much that they had to transfer the IV to the other arm... ouch.

Then by Saturday, I was discharged. The fever's gone and I can eat well again, but the spots were still there. Obviously I wasn't able to go to the interview scheduled that same day. Actually while I was in the hospital, I dreamt that everyone got accepted and that I was the only one left... that really made me depressed...

Fortunately, the recruiter managed to move my interview schedule for Monday. And apparently, kai also got sick that day so she was scheduled to get interviewed on the same day with me. But come Monday, the marks were still there. I had to go to the interview wearing make-up (concealer actually, kai said I looked like a corpse... Better deathly than deadly).

Kai went in first then came out bearing the good news. I was next and was routinely questioned just like what Jenny said. Good thing we did some mock-up interview practices, so I was well-prepared for my answers. It went well, I even had the chance to talk to the company president in Japanese~ Hee hee!

I came out light-headed. All of us got accepted. We just had to wait for a couple of minutes before the orientation started. It was so surreal, here we are in a Japanese-styled Nihongo classroom (the interview and orientation were held in my Nihongo school) being oriented to our Japan job. Holding our contracts and salary breakdown documents, I was shivering not only from the cold aircon, but from giddy-ness as well. I don't care if the concealer wore-off, looking like a vassal of viruses. Our dream finally came true, and here we are being told that we might get a field-trip to Tokyo Disneyland! Woah!!

All-in-all it was a very hectic week for all of us. It was difficult coming back to work and picking up the tasks that I left off, especially if it was already partially done by someone else (thank you someone else!). Much so because I also had to give my resignation letter, because it's our company's policy to allot a month's allowance for proper transitioning of work.

I handed my resignation letter this February 28th, 2008 with a termination date effective as of March 28th, 2008. It was an experience I never want to experience again... I was shaking the whole time I was with our manager. Jenny already handed hers, only kai is the only one left to resign (ganbatte kaisu~!).

The Intensive Nihongo Training is scheduled to start by April 7th, and we are also expected to submit all the necessary documents before that date. We were warned that we might not get any chance to work on our documents during classes, so it's very much advisable to finish them up before we get chained up with our studies. I've almost completed mine, just a few more government offices to visit and forms to fill up, then I'm done.

*whew~*

If that wasn't a long story, I don't know what is. I'm not sure if anyone survived reading all those rantings, but I'm thankful you're even reading this part.

The countdown has began, it'd be March starting this weekend. We have a scheduled group pictorial this Saturday, and the first payment of our tuition is set on that date too. Things are finally rolling into place, I just hope we don't get squished flat!

See you in Japan minna~ Watch out for our new blogs! ^___^

Dear friends and fellow readers,

I'm pleased to tell you that our wish finally came true.

The first eye drawn, a wish is born,
then it came true, so now there's two.

Now there is two.


Our journey to Japan begins soon. Join us in our year-long adventure there.

And watch out for the two-eyed daruma!

We Japanophiliacs were thinking whether we should create a new blog for our new adventures, and while it's still under deliberation, we are glad to share such good news with everyone. Yes, Jenny, Megane and yours truly are finally one step closer to our dream, Japan.

Yo-yo-yo-yokohama! HERE WE COME!

Wow, this place is half-dead. ^_^V

I was super busy with a lot of stuff (had a lot to do). I was thinking of making a new Media Box article, or a Hawt Seat feature perhaps, but decided against it. Instead...

In spirit of Megane-kun's sickness (WTH?!) I shall share my own experience about being so darn sick I was stuck in the hospital. For 6 days actually (and darn proud of it?!). Now that I think about it (this has nothing to do with Japan, so gomen ne ^^) I was on the verge of dying back then?

I was sick for two days, plagued with fever and rashes and mind-shattering headache. I thought it was one of those stupid cases of my anti-bodies not doing their job and letting me get sick, but by the third day I can barely eat anything, let alone get up from bed. So I was brought to the clinic, had my blood checked, and guess what?

I HAVE DENGUE.

And since yours truly was super stubborn, (and afraid of hospitals) I refused to be confined for the next 12 hours until I was forced by mom and dragged to the hospital. Wait, I puked the first hour I was at the E.R. waiting to be admitted, with the I.V. stuck in my hand. I had to suffer for how many times being pricked countless of times for blood samples. (The normal platelet count is 150 to 500, 150 being the extreme LOW. When I went for the checkup my platelet count went down to 140, and when I was finally admitted to the hospital, it reached 42. HOORAH! My older brother told me if the count were to go down, my sickness will be incurable and I'd probably die. I was laughing at him that time. XD I had 4 bags of 'blood' transfused to me. It HURTS to get a BLOOD TRANSFUSION! Oh right, add to that, I also had UTI. =p)

I won't go into much more details but yeah, I was stuck there for 6 darn days (add to that the 3 days I was at home). Until now I'm thinking where I encountered the darn mosquito carrying dengue. So I'm a bit cautious about going to places which are not so clean, in fact I freak out whenever I see mosquitos. It was so hard spending 6 days in the hospital, without internet, without any entertainment, anything to pass time. Plus I had to settle for noodles and crackers in the duration of my stay there (because hospital food sucks).

Did that scare you? Because my medical bill sure did scare me. XD

And ohh...

Once upon a time, when I was sick, there was this one person so very important to me who told me to take care of myself (I had a super high fever back then, and still I was working). "Kiwotsukete ne". That phrase sure did wonders to me. Made my heart warm and all that cheesy stuff~

So Megane. Take care! Kiwotsukete ne! (I have no idea if that's the right spelling, but yeah) I hope you get well soon~! <3

He's sick..and he's in the hospital right now. I think he got measles.






GET WELL SOON MEG-CHAN!!!

I was cupid for a day!

Well I'd like to call myself that even though technically I was a "messenger", or maybe you can even call me a "delivery girl", but anyway, I was busy for quite a while, bringing happiness to people, single or not! this Valentines Day! I was on a mission! Har~

Ok, so as part of the IBM Club, yours truly, together with some officemates and friends alike, distributed roses to selected people for Valentines! Greeting them, leaving notes along with the flowers, it actually feels weird. It's good to see them having big smile on their faces and seeing their happy reactions when they receive the flower, but then not everyone received something today (including me *cough), and as much as I want to give them something, I can't. Too bad. I know how they feel. XD

Though I've yet to see those romantic "ohhhh~" and "uyyyy~" from my fellow IBM-ers so far, its still the 14th, who knows? But so far the most romantic I've seen for the acitivity we did today was a guy, sending a bouquet of flowers for 3 times, at certain hours (the first one at 11 am, the second one at 2 in the afternoon, the third one at around 5 pm) and along with it comes a piece of note, a specially composed message for his wife. I find that really really sweet. *hopes she'd have the chance to experience that someday*

I now feel itchy all over (especially my face), with gold dust, glitters and other stuff from the roses I've been holding for hours now rubbing off me. At least they don't have thorns. ^^ Being around a huddle room full of roses, red white and pink, and bouquets gives me that overwhelming feeling.

MY FEET HURTS!

Q: What IS the Japan job?
A: Programming/Systems Engineering

I won't give much details because of personal reasons (to not have some competition during the job application hehe). But once we do get accepted, I can refer anyone out there who wants to try and get the job too~

Here are the qualifications that you must have in order to be even considered for the job (found on their website).

With following skills and conditions:

• OS: WINDOWS, UNIX, LINUX, RTOS (VxWorks, TRON, REX, etc.)
• DB: Oracle, PL/SQL
• Language: C, C++, JAVA, C#, etc.
• Development and/or testing of cellphones, car electronics system and Business Applications
• Age: Below 35 years old
• Sex: Male / Female
  Hiring on “Single Status”
• Embedded software and Programmable Logic
• Japanese Language skills is very advantageous
• Working Place: Tokyo / Osaka
• Employment Contract: 1 year / renewable
• VISA status: Engineer
• Salary: ¥220,000 / month (after first 6 months, salary adjustment depends on performance)
• Transportation expenses distinction

I actually saw this ad before I applied for my first job but deemed that I still need more experience. Although when my aunt referred me back to this company, I did a more in-depth Internet scourging for any info concerning this offer and found out that:

"Experience is preferred but not required"

^^^THAT have set my hopes soaring high above the standard soaring height for human souls. And thus started the legacy of our 2 weeks agony of waiting till February 23rd.

We're currently studying again previous lessons we had back in college; a refresher, so to speak. Good thing we have a bit of reading materials left from different points of our lives... just waiting to be dusted off and its pages opened. It's also a nice thing to point out that whatever we haven't understood back at our computer labs are now quite easily understandable given the experience we've accumulated during our short stay at our current companies.

We now know a lot more than we did back then, and that's what's important. Because from what I've heard is that this job requires dedication and passion; from its steep learning curve to the demanding conditions.

We have no qualms (that I know of) regarding these facts. We just need a chance to prove ourselves, to show that we can do what those Jap programmers can do... or better! Computer Science and Information Technology evolves every day, we're aware of that. And because of such, we're ready to evolve along with it.

Writing this entry, I've assured myself that I am ready and that I am worthy of this job. I deserve to be selected (of course, along with Jenny and Kai) and be a programmer for embedded software. I admit that the reason I applied for this job is that because it's set in Japan. Well that may be, but another reason is because I want to learn~

Yeah, corny as it may seem, being an I.T. professional demands constant growth and experience; thus the many-tongued programmers speaking different kinds of programming languages. I remember back when we were in our 1st years, a prof told us that if you know and have mastered 3 (programming) languages, then that would have been impressive by itself. And considering that C++ is the first major programming language taught to us during college, it certainly is a nice little treat that we'll be doing the exact same thing in Japan. Of course, I expect that 'that' won't be the only language that we'll use~

So yes, I'm ready. We're ready. Yet we're still getting ready, because I still haven't realized just how 'surprising' life's surprises can be... until now.

Just wow... imagine, Japan?! @__@;

 

I am back with yet another recommendation! *throws confetti all over the place*

No, its not the drama. Totally nothing like the korean drama with the same name. Well, maybe the basic premise of lying, but aside from that the storyline is totally different! Yup, I'm reading a Korean Manhwa this time. This is probably the most interesting manhwa I've read in a while. I have another recommendation but I have to re-read it (title is The Kidnapping of Minja Jo's Boyfriend) coz its been a while and I've forgotten what it was really about.


My Girl (Mai Geol) by Baek Jeong Won

Summary:
Jinny is a very pretty and popular idol/model in Korea, but she has a secret. She actually is AhJin, who, behind the makeup and the wig, is a plain girl with short hair, boyish features and is a sports maniac that everyone thinks she's like one of the boys. She has the biggest crush on her classmate, DoHoon (who is the president of her sports fanclub in school XD) but the problem is...DoHoon LIKES JINNY! The real trouble begins when AhJin found out that she and DoHoon lives in the same apartment! How will she be able to keep her secret? AhJin is confused, she likes DoHoon, but DoHoon likes Jinny, how can she tell him she and Jinny are the same person?

Hey I made the summary myself!

The thing I like the most about Korean manhwas would be the art. That overly excessive eyelashes, really big eyes and small pouty lips, and how they really draw guys to be extremely uhljjang-ish. Really really pretty. The downside, of course, would be is that Korean manhwas are notorious for having HUGE SFX that are really a pain in the butt to edit, especially when you are the editor and the scanlation group asks you to remove the SFX, Korean manhwas have them all over one page and most of the time you have to re-draw a lot of parts. Take it from my experience as a manga/manhwa editor. Which is why I admire editors who can clean and edit Korean manhwas neatly.

Anyway, the manhwa is still ongoing, scanlated by the group that first scanlated Goong [Korean Manhwa]. The first volume is really really interesting. You can probably think of Tenshi Janai for the idol part plot! ^^ There's this distinctive Korean quality in their manhwas that I can't put my finger on, but it makes the manhwas enjoyable to read. I'm hooked after reading the first volume (3 volumes are out right now! ^^).

P.S. Suggestion! ^_^V While you're reading the manhwa, try playing Beyond's My Girl. (Yes, a song of the same title!) It makes the reading more enjoyable because of the music.

Pfft.

So...let's see...Megane asked me to post about something really really interesting, but there's really nothing interesting to post about today...except that I have a splitting headache, I have to finish one darn technical training, and work, to top it all off. What a great Friday.

Apparently, eating Mongo hopia and sipping Chuckie will not help cure your headache unless you drink medicine. I know that now. XD

AHA!

(Wow, the GazettE's Nausea and Shudder woke up my sleeping brain cells!)

I just remembered (and was suddenly rejuvinated) how I was spazzing last night because I was reading this very cute manga. Yeah, these days I've been reading manga whenever I can, I have no idea why.


FASTER THAN A KISS by Meca Tanaka (I also have no idea if it was a play of words or the name was a typo. XD)

キスよりも早く (Kiss Yori mo Hayaku) is a really cute story of a 24 year old "plain" teacher marrying his 16 year old student secretly. It all happened in a spur of the moment when Kazuma Ojiru, the sensei, took responsibility and agreed to the demanding request of his student, Fumino Kaji, of marrying and taking care of her and her four year old brother, Teppei.

So what would happen if a girl, bringing her own sense of justice to her school mates and was labeled as a delinquent, lived with the plain looking English teacher? LOL.

I was laughing my head off last night because it was too cute! There actually is a reason why I had to quote the word plain, you'll find out once you read the manga. Think, Onizuka. Muhahahaha. That's all I can say, you'd probably figure it out yourself. Hahahahaha.

It was cute in the sense that the girl, actually finding that she already likes her sensei/husband, was finding ways on how he'd notice her, and at least get a kiss. The ideas she get from their neighbour, who was an "ex-host", Ryuu and a good friend of Kazuma, are really strange (especially the costumes). Well Kazuma is strange, how he wants to be greeted by Fumino while she's cosplaying as a young wife. OMG.

Just when they were on the verge of doing "it", or when they almost kiss, something unfortunate always happens, and they're both frustrated in the end. ROFL. It was also cute how Fumino always gets jealous of her younger brother, Teppei, because he'd always be hugged and praised by Kazuma and she's not.

"Try growing it to a cup C first." (I flipped when Kazuma told that to Fumino XD)

And the fact that they have to hide that they were married when they were in school. There are extra romantic scenes too, I love the art. And how the "plain" teacher becomes like "someone else" when he removes his glasses.

The manga is still incomplete (darn it!) but you can read the first volume if you want. ^^ Highly recommended!

P.S. This actually is a manga made very recently, just this January 2008. Wooh~

What to do after running, screaming, drooling, admiring Japan's breathtaking scenery..of course....EAT





Since i'm a health nut..i'll start off with the Japanese secrets to must-have skin and long healthy life..




Japanese cuisine consists basically of seafood, rice, vegetables, soya bean products and fruit...

Rice (Gohan)
A meal is not a meal without Japan sticky rice. Here are just some of the rice dishes;gomokumeshi (rice boiled with veggies), sushi (yes it's a rice) and yaki meshi (fried).


Fish
Japanese diet often centers around seafood, mainly because the country is surrounded with water. Samlon and Tuna are just some, and both can be eaten raw or cooked.




Sushi
Ok just a trivia, sushi is actually rice flavored with vinegar whereas the raw fish is sashimi and is often used as a topping for sushi.




Seaweed
Considered as one of the healthiest foods because it's an excellent source of minerals and vitamins. No wonder Japanese eat seaweed everyday.




Miso
A paste made from soya beans which is the basic ingredient in misoshiru, the most common type of Japanese soup.




TARA TAN TAN DAN DA!! Japan's Best-Kept secret to staying young!!



Magic Potatoes - Yes, the potatoes of youth! These striped and slightly hairy potatoes are Japanese ultimate secret to healthy body and wrinkle free skin..waahhh..i'm definitely going to eat this everyday!

Green Tea
Green refers to variety, as there are several. Some are light green, some black, some golden brown. Sencha is the most popular tea in Japan, it's clear, light green with delicate taste. Personally, i've been drinking this for a month now. It promotes relaxation without drowsiness. Really, a good substitute for coffee.




Tofu
Soya bean curd- rich in protein but low in calories. Japanese don't usually eat red meat, and this is where they get their protein supply. I think i'm going to become a vegan..hahahaha




Shiitake
Probably the most effective and widely available among mushrooms. They are dark brown in color and have a unique taste. It is common ingredient in Japanese cooking.




Japanese people don’t eat cheese or drink milk, so Where do they get their calcium?
Aside form leafy veggies, seaweed, soya, nuts and seeds, they get it from Coral Calcium...whatever that is..

Fruits
A popular dessert and snack. Lots of fruits in Japan tend to be bigger than any any other country due to the climate.


Some other good-to-know stuff:

*Food should appeal to as many senses as possible:, you should appreciate the sight, smell, texture and taste.

*Chopsticks (o-hashi) should be placed horizontally, across the bottom of the place-setting.

*it is OK to ‘slurp’ your soup - which is drunk from the bowl, so no spoons.

~So, how did i know all about this..hahaha..from another website of course..hihihihi

Bon appetit!!