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: