Category Life Happenings

Must…. Use…. Computer….

2 comments By ahbonk Filed in Life Happenings February 3rd, 2009 @ 8:43 pm

Woohoo, I got my computer back. Just kidding, I can’t be *that* lucky right? Speaking of which, my lucky streak continues. The repair shop said they don’t have the spare parts, so they refunded all my money (yay!) and asked me to go to a proper Sony Service Centre.

Done that and left my Vaio there, yet to know the outcome but I saw their price list… “Notebook hardware repair and replacement: minimum 30,000 yen”. That’s 1,200 freaking ringgit man *thumbs up* Looking forward to the “great news” tomorrow.

Anyhow, being the anime and Internet addict that I am, I came over to Dzaid’s house to blog and watch some nice *cough*downloaded*cough* anime. His room is real nice and comfy, and very Japanese. Let me show you around.

Here he is enjoying his brand-spanking new PSP-3000. Unlike my room, his floor has cool tatami mats, so not much furniture is needed. You can’t see it, but the access to this room and to the house itself are by wooden sliding doors. Very Japanese!

And this is his WoW playing area, keke. He even bought a nice little table and low chair that fits right in with the interior. Reminds me of my room back in Malaysia. His favourite colour is green, apparent from his choice of curtains.

And for no apparent reason whatsoever, I want to show you his kitchen.

Vaio, be well. *sob*

Hazmer + Digital Stuff = Fail

0 comments By ahbonk Filed in Life Happenings January 31st, 2009 @ 12:27 pm

Continuing my recent lucky streak with anything digital, my laptop broke down with nice horizontal and vertical lines swooping across the screen. Diagnosed to be some sort of graphics card problem. _orz

The beautiful part is that the shop with the *cheapest* repair fee charges 25,000 yen. Yes, that’s more than freaking 1000 ringgit. I’m already so broke due to the recent move and the clinic visit due to my high fever. And now this.

The other wonderful news is that it takes 1 week MINIMUM to repair the laptop. That said, I won’t be blogging till the laptop comes home.

Woooo, I wonder what’s next on my %&$#ing lucky streak…

The Internet is Back! (And so is Winter)

1 comment By ahbonk Filed in Life Happenings December 6th, 2008 @ 10:23 pm

Hey everyone, my Internet is back! *sob* how I missed thee~! Gotta catch up on all that lost time playing WoW and surfing NicoNicoDouga XD

But first, update my blog!

This is where I spent my miserable time without the Internet… in a Manga Kissa. For an hourly rate, you are given a cubicle where you get to read all the manga, drink all the juice and use all the Internet that you want. The manga library and drink machines are outside of coz.

And that’s our new classmate kaki, Go-san from Korea! He follows us to the game center every now and then, and I’m telling you he’s damn bloody good in UFO catcher: he can get five plushies using 10-15 tries! He alternates between using the claw to push the prize down and to grab the prize up. Didn’t know the strategy was that deep!

I showed him the blog too. Every time he saw an anime-related picture, he’d go “Aa~ Yappari Akiba-kei/Otaku desu ne~” (Ah, as expected you’re an akihabara/anime addict). Oi oi Akiba-kei janeee~!

Isn’t this beautiful? I was thinking the sunset hitting the leaves truly brought out their colors.

Wah, it’s like watching a Japanese drama, but in real life! … That’s actually a stupid statement, with me being in Japan and all… but you get what I mean.

If it ain’t obvious enough, winter is coming real soon. It’s freezing! The highest temperature these days is always below 10 degrees celcius. Went to Harajuku today with Daim and Dzaid, and got myself some nice coat and scarf.

When I reached home, I saw someone freezing to death. She was so cute, all cuddled up and vulnerable. I just had to do something.

That’s my new scarf, Miyako-chan. Should be warmer now, right?

…

I am NOT an anime addict!

The Internet Hatez Me TT_TT

1 comment By ahbonk Filed in Life Happenings November 30th, 2008 @ 2:29 pm

There are 2 reasons why the Internet and I aren’t compatible right now:

#1: The internet is down and the STUPID landlord is taking his own sweet time fixing it. Now we’re just stealing the neighbour’s wireless signal, but it’s super slow. So much for Japan being technologically advanced, what with the landlord being incredibly stupid.

#2: My server provider in Malaysia (for easyonlygames.com) just emailed me, saying that half of my emails in November, whether it goes in or out, just disappeared in thin air ==;; What the hell! Now everything’s ok, so if you’re expecting any emails from me, or if the email you sent was important, please resend or let me know!

The Internet hates me for sure. But I still love you, so please come back!

Uniqlo Style!

1 comment By ahbonk Filed in Life Happenings November 6th, 2008 @ 11:59 pm

The winter season is coming soon, but I’m ready! I only have one or two thick shirts so I bought another one at Uniqlo. A screensaver can do that to you.

The beanie cap is also courtesy of Uniqlo.

Usually I’m in my t-shirt and jeans, but just like the seasons, it’s time for change! I’m quite the fashion idiot, so please let me know if this is, uh, “in”, or whatever you trendy people call it.

Now I’m a little bit closer to this guy’s awesomeness:

I want that badge.

Hachimanyama Apartment

7 comments By ahbonk Filed in Life Happenings November 1st, 2008 @ 4:30 pm

You already know that the top banner shows my apartment. But do you know how it’s like inside it?

Hai, douzo…

Jitensha

2 comments By ahbonk Filed in Life Happenings October 21st, 2008 @ 10:39 pm

Jitensha koi de *kring kring* umi no mi ni yuku,
Yoake no sora ni taiyou wo megake…

Jitensha means bicycle in Japanese.

I basically grew up with the bicycle. There was one time when I stayed in Kelana Jaya SS7 and my school was at Damansara Jaya. No school bus wanted to pick me up, so had to cycle around 45 minutes to school and another 45 minutes back.

As I grew up and places I wanted to go got more far apart, I depended more on the car and abandoned my bike. But no longer! It’s time to go back to whence I came!

Bought a nice little bike at Don-Kihote, a super store that has, like, everything! Bought a lot of stuff in the apartment from there. It’s all over Tokyo too. The damage this time is 13,800 yen (~ RM 450), but it’s all worth it!

Like the great Kintaro said in Golden Boy, when you have a bicycle your world just got wider. Just cycled around the neighbourhood, and it felt good! The cool autumn breeze hitting my face as I hear the chains crackle when I stop pedaling. It’s great to be back… on a bike!

Oh and guess what? I can write jitensha in kanji already! Did it in last week’s test, and I aced it ;)

Still no internet >_<

1 comment By ahbonk Filed in Life Happenings October 5th, 2008 @ 6:08 pm

I know the whole Tokyo is wifi-enabled, but looking for a free wifi spot in Japan is difficult. Had to google with my J-phone for the place. Only a few Starbucks here have free wifi! Grrr…

Finally I found one, in Ginza, a little nice cafe called Pronto. Ginza is quite the high-class place, but managed to find a place for a low-class guy like me :P The above is the view from outside the window I’m facing, a nice little quiet corner of otherwise busy Ginza.

Soooo… the internet in my apartment is still down X( Today the guy came, looked over some stuff, then mentioned that the modem was spoilt. Waited a whole week for that report! Tomorrow, some engineer would come over and look at the thing, hope I’ll get the Internet some time this week!

Otherwise, am enjoying my life in Tokyo now, though I really miss the PEOPLE and YAMCHA SESSIONS of Malaysia (yea that’s all). Trying my best to save money, though I did buy the complete series of ARIA manga, ehek. It’s for learning Japanese, I’m telling you!

Ok lah that’s all. Will update with MANY MORE photos with a REVAMPED layout once the Internet is up *sigh* Meanwhile enjoy a picture of me camwhoring in the cafe…

Konnichiwa from Tokyo!

2 comments By ahbonk Filed in Life Happenings October 1st, 2008 @ 4:38 pm

I am now in some super canggih Internet cafe in Shibuya. Argh so hard to type on this Japanese keyboard. It’s challenging to even press the spacebar!

Anyway, I have safely arrived in tokyo and am now enjoying myself before the school term starts, trying my best not to splurge on anything >_< The apartment is VERY NICE, but I can't show you guys anything... bｅｃｏｚ it takes one whole week to install the Internet grrrrrrrrr... that's why we're in an Internet cafe now. Dzaid and I just went to the City Hall yesterday to register for our alien registration card. Anyone who lives in Japan for more than 90 days need to apply for that. With the card, you don't need to carry the passport around!

And, we just bought our J-phones! You can email me, and it will be sent straight as an SMS to my phone! Ain’t that neat? My email is hazmer{at}softbank{dot}ne{dot}jp.

anyhow, until the Internet is fixed, I can’t update my blog with pics nor revamp my blog, so you guys just have to wait.

Watch out for the first REAL Japan blog post next week!

Crap, my half an hour is almost up. Mata ne! And keep in touch!

Big Move Finale: I’m moving to Japan!

9 comments By ahbonk Filed in Life Happenings, Travel/Events September 10th, 2008 @ 6:37 am

This was taken back in 2006. Since my trip to Tokyo in 2004, I swore to myself that I will go to Japan every 2 years. I guess all good things come in threes. ^_^

Some of you already know it, and some of you don’t. The previous three “Big Move Announcements” were a build up to this one, coz this is the biggest move I have ever made in my life. I’ll be flying off to Tokyo this coming 28th September. Yup, you heard me right. I’ll be in Malaysia for another 3 weeks before the great flight.

And no, it’s not just a holiday trip. I’ll be studying in a Japanese language institute, together with my cousin Dzaid, for one and a half years. And apart from my one-year experience in a hostel during Form One, this is the first time I’ll be living independently *nervous*

Why learn Japanese, you ask? You see, I have two life-long dreams:

Create a game with a one million purchase/subscription mark. Need A LOT of experience for this to happen.
To obtain Japanese PR. (this is subject to change in case of culture shock, etc)

With this trip, I plan to kill both birds with one stone. The bigger picture of this journey is that I could join their independent game-making community, aka the doujin game culture.

Twice every year, they have a convention called Comiket, where tens of thousands of people visit booths opened by doujin enterpreneurs to sell their own manga, games, etc. Zun, creator of Touhou, also opens a booth once in a while to promote his product. Even Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, which started as a doujin game, had a lot of exposure through this convention.

So my short term goal is to join an independent game circle and open a booth to sell my games at a dirt cheap price. To some who are concerned, don’t worry, I will still market myself as a Malaysian game developer ;) I just wanna have this booth-at-Comiket experience at least once.

But to do this, I need to perfect my Japanese.

I’ve been studying Japanese for two years, but I stopped coz I just didn’t practice enough. You know, since we’re in Malaysia. My JLPT Level 3 certificate means nothing if I can’t even speak smoothly. And that’s why I’m going to the source of it all: Tokyo!

As with anyone who plans to stay in Japan to work or to study, I had to obtain the Certificate of Eligibility (CoE) from the Japanese government 6 months earlier. I’m telling you, it ain’t easy. They needed A WHOLE LOT of documents, so I drove to and fro to my former Japanese institute in KL Plaza. But it was all worth it, coz with the CoE it’s easy to get my visa done, since a lot of background checks have been done already.

And of course, the flight ticket. Man, this is where I directly felt the impact of the fuel price hike. A one-way ticket to Japan cost me a freaking RM 2,600! _orz

Yup, that’s the time of the flight. 28th September, 10:50 pm. I’m still in my numb state, I just couldn’t believe that I’ll be flying off so soon :S

This is where a whole lot of my money will go to. Apartments in Tokyo are small and expensive. Dzaid and I will be sharing an apartment, and it really looks similar to Sato’s place in Welcome to the NHK: a staircase leading up to the room, with a ladder inside leading to the bed (though Sato used it to throw all his rubbish!)

It’s a very decent apartment, and feedback from Malaysians who lived there before were great. It comes with a fridge, kitchen, microwave, an attached bathroom, and most importantly, an internet line! The price, though comparable with other Tokyo apartments, is really crazy by Malaysian standards: A freaking 53,000 yen/month, or RM 1696/month! And that’s the price PER PERSON! Yaaaahooooo!

I will keep everyone posted about the trip. The blog will be revamped (about time!). To my dear close friends, let’s yamcha more often! And my humble apologies to the classes that I’m teaching now, coz you’ll be getting a new lecturer 3 weeks from now. You might get a more interesting one, so no worries! And to the students whom I taught before, don’t be surprised if I come in with a camera yea ;)

Oh before I close this post, 6 months ago I had to xerox my passport to get my Certificate of Eligibility. The stewpid photostat machine in the shop had their toner set to high, so I asked them to do it again. Just to let you all know, this is the first result: