Universal Studio Japan @ Osaka

5 July 2010

I made my first step into the ever-popular Universal Studio, not in U.S but in Japan!
It was a real fun experience riding roller coasters, taking pictures with cartoon characters, taking exciting rides, watching 4D movie and 'endangered' myself by involving a fight with the shark on the boat.

The weather that day was also excellent and I had a fun time over there.

Thai Dinner Gathering

3 July 2010

We had a gathering with Pichaporn, See kei, Yap, Darren, Nurmah, Handoko and few more people at Suita Dorm.
We were all having fun eating and talking! Feel so enjoyable eating and talking and playing games together, I want to thank Pichaporn who invited us to her place and thank you for the delicious takoyaki and foods. =)

A Video tribute to all. =)

First Baseball Match in Japan (Hanshin Tigers vs Chuunichi)

On 1 July 2010:

Went to watch my first baseball match in Japan (Koshien 甲子園 @ Osaka)!

Hanshin Tigers (an official baseball team representing Osaka) versus Chuunichi (Nagoya Team).

Of course I was supporting Osaka! =)

It was a really fun time shouting and cheering together, it was truly an unforgattable experience!

Mount Fuji Climbing

School semesters have been very interesting and excited although I am in foreign environments with foreign languages. But nevertheless I really had good time here.

Weather is getting warmer and warmer now, from 7 degC on April to 30 degC now. It is more and more like Malaysia and Singapore now except for the humidity.

With the change of season, the Mount Fuji entrance will be opened soon and of course I will be going to climb it! =)
Morgan will be joining us for the climb and I will be having my first experience in the most famous mountain Mt. Fuji! I will be going on 9 July tentatively. So let's pray for good weather! I also hope to settle my camera before this.



All the best and hope I could get a fairly nice camera!

Re-offered to Stay at NUS for Year 4

Today, I was so surprise to get the email about NUS accommodation offer. They told me due to someone who cancelled or did not accept the offer, there is a room in RVR for me to stay in Year 4! I was so happy and surprised that God still can work even if I am not in Singapore! 


The even greater thing I got to know is that I actually checked the rate of the room and NUS has announced their rise of accommodation fee in this coming academic year from SGD75 to SGD90. BUT! When I checked the rate, RVR single still remains at SGD75!!!! I was so happy that God listened to my prayer and now I hope my friends Shawn, Tom and Joe could find a place to stay off-campus. 


Thank God!


Franco

Tokyo: 5 days Trip

I am back from Tokyo, the Metropolis of Japan to spend our Golden Week.
In Japan, there is a week at the end of April till the beginning of May (29 April - 5 May) of public holiday and weekend, which makes a whole week holiday.
Not too much from my expectation, Tokyo is a very busy and `city` place.

During these 5 days, we went to various places like Harajuku, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ueno, etc and I have taken an amount of 400+ photos and videos.
Will update to everyone of you with my photos and videos soon!

Now I am catching up with my works which was left behind last week due to the trip planning.
Stay tuned with me!

Franco

I have conquered!!

So sorry for the slow update guys! Actually I have just recovered from my cold, I was having sore throat and I think I ate too much heaty things recently. I will start to regulate my diet and my lifestyle well as the school starts on next week.

Yes! My semester finally starts on next Monday! =) This semester, I will be taking 3 ESP modules, 1 Engin Module and 1 GEM module. On top of those modules, I also signed up for the Japanese Class which will be held in Osaka University to brush up my Japanese skills, especially in technical Japanese.

Well, in sum, my timetable is as shown below:

Today I also managed to cook a whole meal myself, I cooked egg plant, boiled the ABC soup (Carrot, Potato and Onion) for lunch. I felt so happy that my food was actually quite tasty, only that I did a wrong step for the egg plant. I should have fried it first before I added into the other ingredients. I will be working hard next time!

In the dinner, I also fried rice with minced beef and pork. It was not bad too, I feel that I could have more space to improve and I believe that in the end of the SEP I will have developed a good cooking skill. Haha!!! Darren also very good in cooking, he cooked the lunch and dinner too, I like the egg he prepares especially! Yummy!

As you know, I got my new bicycle and I am still working hard to improve my bicycle riding skill and there is always an ascending slope on the way from our home to school. At this slope, I always could not cycle up and it would end up that I must come down push the bicycle up the slope. But today... Today...... I managed to cycle up all the way on the slope!! I am so happy! Though it might seem quite normal to most people, yet I still feel that with the bicycle that is of no gear and a slope of around 20 deg for the length of about 200m, I have overcome my limit!

I will continue to work hard soon!
I will be going to church tomorrow, I am so excited to find the church and see how a Japan church is like. The name is J-house:
http://www.jhouse.tv/english/

Sleeping soon!
Good night.

Franco

Illegal parking of Bicycle, 2500 Yen??! Phew..

Today I woke up at 7.30am and started to wash my bed sheets for the first time. The weather became cold again today (about 16 degC) and we made our morning trip to Harlos  9am in the morning to do some shopping for breakfast + lunch + dinner.

We parked our bicycle around the supermarket and thought that there would not be anyone to catch us for illegal parking of bicycle. Who knows when we came out, there was a warning paper stating that we were illegally parking on the place and told us to get our bicycle away or they will charge us for 2500 Yen to take the bicycle back.
Thank God that it was just a warning letter, we changed to another parking space at the underground of Hotarugaike Station which could enable us to park there from 8am to 11pm for free. (Yes, it is free!)

After breakfast, I started to prepare for lunch and dinner. After that we went to school to get our student ID account and we are now able to access to the KOAN system and online student portal of Osaka University, of course we can start using their wireless internet! =) I also took our library access card and we are now allowed to use library facilities freely! The library brings me back to the NUS style one.. Pictures will be out soon! =)

Before we left the campus, we were invited to BBQ by Prof. Kawahara and his lab students, I had fun talking with them and knew some Japanese students there, we stayed there for a while and we head back to our home after we went to the library.

I have decided to take Japanese class which could enhance me in my Technical Japanese skills and I have worked out my timetable for next monday. It will be a good time studying in Osaka University and I am now studying hard to improve my Japanese skills even more, till then, I hope I could understand the lecture which will be delivered in Japanese soon.

Sleeping soon.
Good Night.

Franco

Hiking + Ohanami

We went to Hiking today at Ikeda City with Ms. Usunami.
She invited us to go for O-hanami (An activity of Japan at which people gather together to enjoy the scenery of Full-blooming sakuras) on Tuesday.

I woke up 7am this morning and started to prepare the breakfast for this morning. We ate instant noodles + vegetables + eggs. A simple yet filling breakfast (but not healthy! T_T) then we went to Ms. Usunami's house.

We walked to Ishibashi and took train to Ikeda for 150 Yen. After we reached the place, we took a 15 -minute walk to Satsukiyama (五月山) [I had a tendency to say "Gogatsuyama" Five month mountain ^_^).

After a few minute walk, I saw a magnificent view of sakura! =)

Following after that, we went on a climb to the mountain and listen to different cultures of Japan Religion such as a stone which will protect children (so-called earth god, お地蔵様), culture of daimoji (大文字) when we walked there. When we reached almost the top, we saw a magnificent view of Ikeda city and Nishikawa City.

We proceeded to the mountain and saw many sakuras blooming, and eventually came to a hanging bridge (吊橋,つりばし) and Ms. Usunami took photo for us.

After that we bumped into a botanical garden at which there is many colourful flowers blooming:

Our trip ended here and we proceeded to our lunch with Ms. Usunami, we order a bento set for 1200 Yen. We wanted to pay for Ms. Usunami but she refused and we thanked her for her kindness and she really treat us as mother to son. So I will not bless her by the means of 'giving back' her something, but will treat it as a son giving his mother present. So with this heart, we bought fruits for the dinner. She invited us to her home for dinner with 3 other friends: Wilman, Carlos & Du Hang.

We had fun time over there and I really got very full.

I managed to study Japanese today and I felt very fulfilled today. Tomorrow I will need to go back to school to settle student account matters, library card and subject choosing.
Will be a great day tomorrow and I am looking forward to it!

Franco

* My photos of today:

Neighbour and Friends in Osaka

25 March

Long time no see.
It has been so many days that we have reached Osaka and so far so good with the experiences. We finally got our cell phones in Japan (yaay!)

I got a Samsung Softbank 740sc, it is really good enough for my daily life, though not as good as Darren’s one but will make good use of it.

We actually went to different places around Hotarugaike by ourselves, we had our first experiences of getting on Hankyu, Monorail and walking to and fro one station twice. We figured out shortcuts to go back our home and we really enjoy the experience there.

It is really cold outside (even reached 1 degC!) there and we always want to stay at home and turn on our air-conditioner (which blows warm air of course +_+). Despite the temperature, I still manage to exercise to build up myself, after those exercise, my body always could cope with the cold and continue the rest of the day. =)

Ah.. Forgot to mention this. We actually moved into a quite nice room, the unit we live in has 3 rooms, 2 Japanese style room and one western kitchen + toilet. The address is:

3-13-10, I room, Hotarugaike, Kitamachi, Takahashi Bunka, Toyonaka City, Osaka.
豊中市，蛍池北町3丁目13-10，I室，高橋文化，大阪。


So for whoever want to send me something, please.. Haha! =)

Our bedroom, left: Darren; right: Franco

Window at our bedroom, nice view

Fusuma (a sliding door) between the bedroom and the middle room.

Entrance

Recently, around our place, we actually knew a few nice people and it is really the culture that newly moved in people to greet the neighbours and chat around. We actually did that and we got to know some kind people. First of all, we managed to meet Wilman Septina , who helped us with the room and took care of our affairs. He then introduced two Malaysian to us, Xi Kei and Yap. They are very nice people and they taught us to go around Japan and showed us some cheap supermarkets and different ways of living in Osaka. Yap offered us into his room (which is VERY Warm!) and we chit-chat at his room for about 30 to 45 minutes. He was also very kind to offer us his WiFi internet for us to surf and that saves us a much money for the internet subscription. I must thank God for all the arrangements, they are not just merely coincidence.

Through Koji and also by friends, we also managed to know that there is a International Student Room at the School of Engineering Science at Osaka University. Koji said that this place is a place to have snacks! Many international students will be gathering there during free time and according to our friends, we managed to know that the head of the international student centre, Ms. Tasaka Emiko (田坂恵美子), who is a VERY Kind and Friendly people, she could really help us in our life in campus, we could also register for Japanese lesson from her, which we need THE MOST! The class will be starting on 5 April 2010. Finally we have an official teacher to learn Japanese and I finally could have a teacher to help me study for my Intermediate level of Japanese. We felt so excited and we had a photo with Ms. Tasaka:

Photos with Ms. Tasaka

After the meeting, we had our very first lunch at Toyonaka Campus! I was quite unfamiliar with the system but eventually we managed to make an order and got it all settled for 490 Yen.

Lunch at La fore

I would want to thank Koji especially for helping us to settle so many things, I know that Koji was constantly busy with his research works and yet he was willing to take time for us, wiling to eat lunch with us, went to 100 yen shop with us, helped us with the mobile phone. I really appreciate his effort and we hope that we can adapt to the life in Osaka soon.

Now, in this environment that everything is Japanese, I believe that I could improve my Japanese further, listen to more Japanese speaking, I could improve myself with the language.
Experiences in Japanese environment:

1. Buying things in Supermarket
   
2. Asking about international card at Convenient store
   
3. Going to City Hall and listen to the instruction
   
4. Opening bank accounts at Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ Bank (They do not understand English at all, I think…)
   

I am really enjoying the experience and I hope for more!

Tommorow (26 March) we will be going to Kyoto for 5 days, will be coming back on 31 March. Will update you all more on that! See ya!

Updates in Osaka

March 23:

We went to the Toyonaka City Hall to settle our Alien Foreigner's registration (外国人登録証), we spent a 3 minutes on the Hankyuu (阪急) Train to travel from Hotarugaike (蛍池) to Okamachi (岡町). This was the first time I am stepping on the platform of Japan's train station after watching and seeing so many TV and Minna No Nihongo videos. Really excited, as you may know, there are different types of train in Japan, 普通、準急、急行、特急 etc. All will be arriving on the same platform at different times. We will have to check the time properly and the train arrives PUNCTUALLY on the dot!

3 minutes have passed and we found ourselves at Okamachi Station Entrance. We walked our way to the City Hall and during the journey we stumbled upon a mini shopping street. There I also found a Shrine and took plenty of photos there.

Finally we arrived at the City Hall, the friendly staffs assisted us with the Foreigner's registration process and gave us useful information packs. The lady at the counter was also very considerate that she spoke so slowly so that we could understand. We took our temporary pass in about 5 to 10 minutes and we left for Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ Bank (三菱東京UFJ銀行) to open our accounts.

Here comes a 'mini adventure' with the Japanese.

The people at the counter was not able to speak English, well it was more or less expected. So I tried my very best to speak with them in my lack-of-practice Japanese, with my barely adequate listening skills to follow their procedures. There was some hindrance here, they need a document to certify that we are really living at the place we are living at. We didn't have that, so we were directed to the counter and told that we should get a form of certification from the City Hall again and come back. Well, WE WALKED BACK TO CITY HALL and took bought the documents and walked back to the bank. All the things sort of went well after that, the only thing is that I did not have an inkan (印鑑) which is compulsory for Japanese to replace their signatures. The banker is kind enough to accept my signature and told me to get an inkan next time when we come. All things settled and we went to settle our lunch. It was already 3:50pm.

After that we made our way to a shopping street at Ishibashi (Walk near to Hotarugaike) and had our late lunch over there. We went into a food shop named Matsumise.

The food ordering system was quite cute there, the workers do not take orders but we order using the food-ordering machine:

After that, we were given a receipt and we will pass the receipt to them and they will prepare the food for us. It is quite efficient and fast and it could really manage large crowd. =) In less than 5 minutes, the food is ready red hot on the table:

Well, within 10 minutes, the meal became:

After that, we went back to our home and had a nice rest.

Journey to Japan

945am: On the car to airport. Later, will have friends coming to send us off.
10pm: reached airport. Took photos talked to Darren's parents.
10.30pm: shawn and tom came for us. Saved me from being alone while Darren is with his 'WonderGirls' :)
11.10pm:They left. Darren still with his friends. I'm talking phone with my dear parents and my dear dear:)
12.20am: rushing in departure gate. First time meeting so many Japanese at a time. Excited.
1.10am: flight departed punctually.
1.30am: Feeling so excited abt the flight tv in front of me. :)
2am: Can't fight against the Z monster.
5am: Woke up for bfast. Enjoyed the in-flight sunrise.

7.11am: Reached kansai airport safely

Proceeding to the Immigration @ Kansai Airport (Not allowed to take photo further inside)

Photos Outside the Airport (Temperature = 10 degC)

A Japanese waiting for his flight.. T_T (I wonder why his hand like this...)

All Ready to Fly

Yesterday we (Me and Darren) were successfully obtained the Japan Student Visa. It is eligible for us to stay for one year in Japan. It is really faster than expected..

Tada! Our visas.

Straight after the collection of visa, I went to China Town to change another sum of SGD to JPY. I am all ready for the flight to Japan in 14 more hours time. It was really a good experience.

Today I will finalize everything I had and I am ready to go.

Confirmed Itinerary

Yesterday, myself and Darren went to Japanese Embassy at Nassim Road to apply for our visa. We went out early in the morning to find the way, and worried that if we go later we will have long queue.

We arrived at the embassy at around 10am and the guard gave us the pass, and took queue numbers, and I was quite impressed by their efficiency. This is Singapore. =) The happiest news that I knew is that, Our Visas will be ready on 18 March (Thurs)! Wow! It is totally unexpected! Thank God for his arrangement.

Now, finally, and finally.. The itinerary is confirmed:
Flight SQ618
Venue: Changi Airport (T3)
Time: 1.10am - 7.20am

Now travelling documents are ready, now what I have to do is to pack things up. Ready for Japan!

Documents arrived!

As stated in Darren's blog, we have received our CESR certificate and we are ready to apply for the visa. We are all ready now and when I arrived at SG on Monday, we could go apply for it on Tuesday.

When we go there, we will take our flight tickets and try to negotiate with the Embassy people to process slightly faster in view of our situations. Hopefully all go well.

Koji has also agreed to accommodate us with the possible change of flight dates. Now we are not so worry about the time constraints already.

Prepare for the adventure and excitement after those mundane stuffs in Singapore!

Finally...

As stated.. FINALLY..... the CESR documents were received by Osaka University!
Ms. Sasaki Yoko has made a call to Darren on Wednesday (10 March) morning told him that she will be sending us the CESR to Singapore and it will take ideally 2 days.

If the letter really reached in 2 days, that means, it will arrive today (Friday, 12 March). Latest will be arriving on Monday. I will be reaching SG on Monday evening, which means we will be going to apply visa on Tuesday morning (16 March), 3 days for visa = 19 March.

However, we will try to ask for special consideration due to our flight ticket, I hope we could really get special attention by the Embassy.

Really want to appreciate Darren who is all the way helping me during the process and also willing to offer his place for me in these few days.

I truly hope after this, we will ENJOY our SEP over there at Osaka!!

Travel plan: 26 - 30 May @ Kyoto!
Remaining days to Osaka: 7 days

Franco

Remaining days to wait before do something...

I have counted the remaining days.
We have 13 days left to Osaka.
If we subtract the 2 days needed for the COE to arrive Singapore (EMS), we have 11 days left;
If we subtract the 3 days of visa application, we have 8 days left;
If we consider the 4 weekends (Sat and Sun), which are the non-working days for issuing of Visa and posting of COE, we have 4 more days left;

Provided that the COE really takes 2 days to arrive SG, if we allow 1 or 2 days offset for both COE and Visa. We have 1 or 2 days left to wait.

We can only wait at most until Next Monday（三月八日） for the CESR..
IF NOT..... SIAO LIAO LA!!!!!!!!
えらいごっちゃや～

The end.

Written with pissed condition,
Franco

New Blog by Darren Siow

I am so glad to announce the long-waited blog set up by Darren Siow (my exchange partner to Osaka University).

The link is:
http://sushilandexchange.blogspot.com

Hope our blogs could not only inspire you, enlighten you, but transform and change your life!

Well, I have returned to my hometown (Malaysia) as a result of unable to wait for the CoE (As mentioned in Darren's blog). Somehow, got very pissed anxious about the Visa. Well, in short, the thing I am doing now is WAIT.

以上です。
フランコ

Accommodation

After much effort in finding accommodation both on-campus and off-campus, we finally decided to stay in the house recommended by Koji.

The house is of Japanese-style （和室）. I will be sharing room with Darren, with an acceptable range of rent (~25000 Yen/month).
The address is:

3-13-10 Hotarugaike,
Kitamachi, Toyonaka, Osaka
Takahashi Bunka

地図リンク

According to Google Map, it is situated 1 km from Toyonaka Campus. Which is quite near and can go campus by foot.

I have failed to obtain the JASSO Scholarship from Japan. However, we have already made preparation for this. So should not be a major problem. Just that I need to plan my finances more carefully, which I ought to learn.

The remaining issues now are internet, phone numbers, bank accounts, immigration documents, visa.

I have yet to receive CESR document from Japan.
I am somehow quite disappointed by their efficiency.

See you soon Japan!
Franco

日本語学習ペース

最近、マレーシアで毎日日本語を勉強しているんだ。
先ほど「みんなの日本語初級」を終わった！

でも、これからがチャレンジです。

初級を終わったあと、もっとわからないことがどんどん上がってきた。

今から、「科学技術日本語案内」という本で科学の言葉を習う。一生懸命勉強する！

今、できるだけ、大阪大学の係員や部屋探しの係と日本語で通信するようにしている。

僕は２月２５日にシンガポールへ行く予定だ。その後、シンガポールでいろいろ事をして、大阪のこともやってしまって。住宅は探せて、JASSO賞金を与えさせて、大阪の経験を楽しみにしています。



フランコ

When to go Singapore?

I have decided to plan my trip to Singapore around 25 February 2010 till 3 March 2010. However, today I have sent an email to ask about available of the CESR certificate to reach Singapore for me to apply for Japan Visa. The staff told me that they are still not sure of the period that will be taken to complete the issuance of CESR. So I am still not very sure of when to go Singapore now as it will not be convenient for me to stay in others' room for too long.

Choice now:
1) 25 Feb 2010 (Thurs) - Tawau to Singapore
2) 27 Feb 2010 (Sat) - Tawau to Singapore

Hope all things will go fine.

As for accommodation, I am still working hard to request for a room which is around 20000 to 30000 yen /month. Really hope that I will get it soon. I am also planning to rent a bicycle to travel around for an amount of money since it is a culture in Japan.

Everything is gonna be alright!
Stay tuned... For an exciting Japan experience!

ぜひお楽しみください。
エキサイチングな旅を…！

以上です
フランコ　Franco

CESR Application

Just checked the post tracking today and knew that the my photographs and forms were successfully delivered to Osaka University.

It is now left to decide the date for which I will go to Singapore to do the Visa. All have to wait is to receive the successfully applied CESR Form in Singapore.

Tentatively, the date is 25 February to 6 March 2010. Let's see how it goes...

On 10 March 2010, I will have to check the KOAN System for module timetable, but have to tell Prof. Kawahara so that I could register it manually.

As for accommodation, I am still waiting for a great place with reasonable price, hope I could get it done as soon as possible.

JASSO Scholarship, I am going to get you! You better watch out!


Franco

Waiting for Letters

Finally, the exchange student status is confirmed in Osaka University and now what I have to do is wait for the acceptance letter to arrive in my home! Will need to make another trip back to Singapore to complete my registration of visa. During the times in Malaysia, I was able to finish off 3 chapters of Minna No Nihongo and able to study some technical Japanese. I am going to conquer Japanese as my second language!

日本語のヤツ、怖くねぇ！

では、また！

Franco

フランコ