日本風パーティー

日本語コースのパーティーは楽しかった。
お寿司、お好み焼き、おにぎりを作って食べた。
お茶を飲んだ。
また、あるおじちゃんのおかげで、日本酒を飲んだ。

お好み焼き

今日しばらくお好み焼き作った！★　　（^.^)v 日本のお母さんのは同じ材料なのに違う味わいになるのは、なぜ？ うーん。。。でも、食べられる。ひひひ。 二人分。
I was supposed to be mugging, but i decided to cook okonomiyaki (Japanese pizza) instead...haha.
Verdict: ★★☆ Edible. The underside was not cooked enough.




シェフ志望者　(Chef-wannabe)：

4th Anniversary.

pause and breathe

Watched a charity program on tv earlier. As always, I get rather affected when I see the plight of the disabled, handicapped, abandoned... Truth is, it's just a 5-minute-pity for me as I watch the footage. I feel for them and in my heart, I wish can help them in some way. But it'll be over that 5 minutes. There was this 71 years old lady who have been looking after the handicapped children for almost twenty years and she worries about the day when she has to leave this world and will have to leave the children. It was obvious that she has thyroids or something like that as her neck was so swollen. Is she a saint? Why would anyone have so much patience and love to give to people totally unrelated to her? Makes someone like me feel so small and selfish. I am so sure I will be directed to hell.

Then i came across this article from the Japan Times on discrimination. It's an issue that frequents my research papers:
"Restricting some words and gestures in the media is necessary. But curtailing freedom of expression to feign sympathy with the disadvantaged is a feature of Japan's conspiracy of silence that perpetuates inequality."

The Japanese media is reported to censor any word that will have a tiny weenie connotation of discrimination. But it can border on the extreme:
In discussion with a TV producer of another show, I held up four fingers when telling him that I had four children.
"Oh, for goodness sake, don't hold up four fingers on TV!"
"OK. Can I say I have four children?"
"Sure. Having four children is fine."
Holding up four fingers is banned because Japanese bigots used to refer to social outcastes as "animals with four legs" (四つ足).
日本のメディアは何も検閲するので、皆は差別の問題が存在するのに気がづかないそうだ。

I think the media is really useful in broadcasting social messages. Silence will cause ignorance. Surely many who have not watched charity programs do not realise that there are many unfortunate people out there. Is Singapore really a majority middle-class society like how Japanese people always perceive themselves as?

バーテンダー

週末にバーテンダーになった！二日間だけ。
「シンガポールセブンズ」というラグビーイベントでバーテンをした。
バーテンは初めてから、ちょっと大変だった。

シンガポールはガンバレーよ！
Japan54 - 0Singapore

最後に、日本は負けてしまった。
Japan 0-14 Kenya

Did bartendering for a beer company over the weekend at the Singapore Sevens rugby event. Pretty tiring, it's the standing.
Plenty of outstanding school work...

よし。

本日、日本語の発表をいたしました。
お別れの時期になりました。（泣）

Feels like...

do you know how it feels to be a class below others?
how intimidating it feels to be in a room full of rich souls?
all decked in designer togs, speaking in impeccable English.
and the smell of money chokes you.
u actually wish to be like one of them, even more than them.
like Sayuri, i smiled daintily, in my heart a dream ablazes.

Coming to an end...

The semester is coming to an end...
End of my 2nd year in uni.

earlier, a friend advised:
"Some of my Japanese Studies major friends could not find a good job after graduation, so be prepared."

I am not the least prepared, for now. But this can't be.