summer vacation 2009

This summer I only had 2 weeks of, last year I had 1.5 month off (I didn't get paid for it, now I do get paid), and it was a very nice one... so nice that I am not looking forward to go back to work tomorrow. Go go Davey!

My brother came over for 2 weeks and we have done a lot of things together... a small list of the things that we have done:


*Barbeque and Sukiyaki at the parents-in-law
*Shabu Shabu and gaming with Fred in Harborland

*Tokyo for 3 days
---Shopping in Ginza (I could finally go to H&M again... next year there will maybe come one in Osaka)
---Gaming in Akihabara and enjoying a maid cafe (the games were pretty cool... Street fighter 4 and Half life... We also enjoyed the maid cafe, although some of the guys whom were walking around there were pretty... weird)
---Roppongi hills (We went to Mori tower for the City view at night... which was amazing! We had a great view over the city and Tokyo Tower looked sweet at night as well)
---Shinjuku and Shibuya (We saw Hachiko, bought some CD's at Tower records, enjoyed the view from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, saw some crazy kids in Yoyogi Park, and went to a sword museum that should have been a lot more interesting)
---Odaiba ( Joypolis a small but very cool indoor attraction park together with Yuka and Takeshi, saw THE 15 meter tall Gundam, and had dinner at an Indian restaurant at 1.30 A.M.
--- Chiba... visiting a friends house, Disney resort (just to take a picture lol), Tsukiji market (we were to late, so there wasn't anything interesting besides the very nice Sushi restaurant), Asakusa (which wasn't very interesting, because I've already been to Kyoto 5 times), and Akihabara again (street fighter)

*Making a TV shelf for the bedroom (my brother is a carpenter ;) )
*Enjoying fireworks with too many people at Yodogawa firework festival
*Nara for 2 days to stay over at Mayuko her friend's place and to visit Kasuga Taisha, Todai-ji, and the beautifal horyu-ji
*Batting center with the sister-in-law to become number 2 ... meaning my brother and I needed to pay for Baskin Robbins 31 ice cream for the whole family
*Visiting graves in Kita-ku and Ashiya
*Going to the city farm on top of Rokko-san
*Shopping in Sannomiya and having a a lovely lunch at Triton Cafe in Kitano
*Going to World Buffet, and to do some game horse ridding (I thought I would die)
*Watching several movies; Hush, Bittersweet life, Wasabi, Banlieu 13 (part 2), and G.I. Joe (which wasn't too bad)

This is my last day off, and all I am going to do today is to relax with my family and sleep ...


Here are some photos






















Extra
This holiday a good friend from my wife and I whom we met in Australia committed suicide... Not sure why she did it, because we haven't seen her for a while... but it's just soo unrealistic, especially because she was the only person I have met in my life whom really seemed to enjoy her life to the fullest... We will miss you, but your smile will continue. Let's enjoy life to the fullest

An interesting Sunday, and a new challenge

Last Sunday I went to my first Karate tournament... No I didn't participate (I am not sure if I want to with those punches one guy got on his chest for 9 minutes long), but a friend of mine, Boukje, did. She didn't expect to win at all, but she won twice and because of that she got a shared 3rd place. WOEHOEEE GO GO BOUKJE!!!!

Her husband had 2 fights as well later on the afternoon. He won both of them, which made him champion!!!



Bronze medal Taekwondo fighter Yoriko Okamoto was there as well, so I managed to get a sign (with my name spelled wrong), and a nice picture.


New Challenge

From August I will start my new study: Bachelor Communication & multimedia design.
This study will probably take me about 2-3 years, but I am sure it will be worth it. I love working with computers, and I am very interested in learning more about management.

Someday... I want to have my own company.

JLPT 2 2009 .... it's over...

After having studied for weeks for the JLPT, the day was finally there yesterday...



I arrived at Kwansei Gakuin (関西学院) where I met this guy I used to go to KCC with. The first test (Kanji - Vocabulary) started at 9.45 which went pretty good (except for the part that they only said ; 5 more minutes to go.... and where you expect them to say last 1 minute it is suddenly: Time is up, put your pencil down.... aaa I still need to do 5 more questions... check check check check check)... Maybe around 75 points

The second test (listening) went really well, I made a lot of notes in the second parts. maybe 85 points...

The 3rd test (reading - grammar) went very well except for the reading part... which I just didn't get because of stress, tiredness, or just because my reading skills suck (probably the last one)... maybe 90 points

Meaning, 75 + 85+ 90 = 250 points.... I need 240 points...

I have to wait until September to hear the result ( please think of me :) )

I kinda feel empty now, having studied Japanese for months and prepared for the test for weeks... and now I don't have to do anything anymore... Setting new goals: LOI Bachelor Communication and Multimedia Design ....

JLPT 2 2009

One more week to go and then I am going to take the Japanese language proficiency test (JLPT) again.

Although I have far more confidence than the previous time, there are still a lot of things that I have to review in the upcoming week.... 4 card sets, and 1 grammar book.

I practiced the test today, and the kanji part went very well... but I forgot a lot of vocabulary, and saw a lot of grammar rules that I have seen last week, but forgot how and what.

GO GO GO PAPA...

superman is sleeping

It's here....... Swine flu in Kobe

It's here.....

The Mexican flu (aka Swine influenza). It has been confirmed that 12 High school students, whom have no record of travelling abroad, have the Mexican flu. The students are from different schools in the Kobe area, and one of those schools is actually not too far from my place.

All the public pre/elementary/junior-high/high schools in the area are closed for at least 7 days... Including my school. Yesterday the head office was still thinking if we should close or not, and they actually told us that the parents can decide if they want to let their kids go to the school or not... But because the sport centre (our school is part of that sport centre) decided to close last night, we will also close our door for the upcoming week (although we , staff, do have to work).

"Recommendations to prevent spread of the virus among humans include using standard infection control against influenza."

Let's hope that everyone will recover soon, so that all the kids can go back to school again... although I don't think that it's just going go fly over that fast.

News about the Zwine flu in Japan:
9 in Osaka confirmed to have new flu, total domestic cases rise to 17+
Japan reports three domestic swine flu cases
Japan records first cases of swine flu

Spring and Golden week

The weather is getting warmer, and the flowers are blooming (although the cherry blossom has transfered into green leaves).

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a hanami party with the Dutch society next to the Ashiyagawa (river), we were supposed to go with the 3 of us, but Reo got fever so I went alone.

After that I had 2 more hanami parties, one with my work, and one with my family in Tarumi, kenkouundoukoen.






Besides the Hanami parties we also had a Tulip party. North of Osaka there is Expo park (were the 70's expo was held), from April 11th until the 29th there was a tulip festival , a dutch tulip festival with dutch food, beer and Japanese ladies in traditional dutch costumes. We went there together with Boukje and her husband, Rick, Frederic and his wife and brother in law and of course with Mayuko and the little one.... REO







If you want to read a bit more about the tulip festival, then check out Boukje's blog, or Rick's blog.

Saturday the 25th was the day that my GOLDEN WEEK started. And because May the 5th is Children's day, or actually Boy's day (there is a girls day the 3rd of the 3rd, march 3rd. They don't have months as January, February here, but they just have 12 months. １月、　２月、　３月, etc), for this day we received a kabuto specially for boy's day from Mayuko her parents:




Kii-Katsuura
For our golden week holiday (Reo's first holiday), we went to Kii-Katsuura. Kii-Katsuura is a small onsen/fishing place south of Wakayama ken (which is about 4,5 hours by train south of Osaka ). We stayed there for 2 nights, and had a great time.

We left Monday morning around 9.30 and had a very nice ride to Kii-katsuura, Reo did great as well. Arrived at the hotel, Mayuko went to 1 of the 7 onsen that the hotel has (the hotel is located on a peninsula so we needed to take a boat). For dinner we had a buffet, with a lot of Maguro (Tuna). The food was nice but not too special. In the evening I also went to one of the onsen (the first time for me to go alone, the other time that we went to a hotel with onsen I was a bit chicken-shit to go naked with other man.... I know everyone has a trunk, but still... I wasn't used to show my body to strangers... But surprisingly I had no problems with being naked together with other man this time...), after this I really enjoyed going to onsen; I went to 5 of the onsen in the hotel in the following days.

The next day we woke up early for breakfast and for onsen, this time Reo went in the onsen as well together with Mayuko. He was a bit scared so he hold Mayuko tightly the whole time, but he wasn't crying at all.


Later in the morning we went to Nachi no taki, a beautiful place where the tallest waterfall of Japan is (133 meter) but before that we went up the Daimonzaka a 600m long stone-paved stairway with 200 cedar trees that are about 800 years old.

When we came back to the hotel we had a short nap, and then went back to Kii-katsuura for a lovely Maguro dinner at Playboy where we almost ordered a whale dish, but the oksan (the chef's wife) told us that the taste is a difficult to eat for us so we decided not to eat it. Coming back in the the hotel we went to the onsen again, I took Reo with me this time. I really enjoy going to onsen, but I had some skin problems on my chest these days so the salt in the water wasn't very nice for my skin...

The last day I went to the Tuna market, to see all the big fish... and they were indeed big. What a great time that was haha.

We left the hotel, bought some souveniers, plus a Tuna and Whale bento(lunch box) (which didn't taste very nice) and left Kii-katsuura around 1 to be home again before dinner.

In overall we had a great holiday and hope to go again somewhere during the summer holiday.

Here are some photo's;

Reo Dancing

Overwork

I don't mind to overwork so now and then... but when I am also overworking in my mind it's getting a bit too much I think.

On March 20th we had a mini presentation, and graduation ceremony for 3 of our students. We practiced for about 3 weeks everyday for the mini presentation (the 3 little pigs) and the kids were amazing. The days before I told them that they needed to stop playing around and think about their last day, but on the day itself... WOW. After the presentation there was a small graduation ceremony witch went fine although it was very sad to say goodbye to 3 of the kids... last week 2 others decided to stop this school due to certain reasons.

Due to certain reasons we have had a lot of meetings the last couple of weeks, and actually 4 of my co-workers will stop working there (there only work 5 persons, so I will be the only one left... and I just work there 2 months :( ) So it's been pretty busy the last couple of weeks, and it probably will stay like that until my new co-workers will known what they have to know.

Besides work, everything is doing fine. Reo is doing well, and Mayuko is very happy with her Nanocare that I gave her for her 31st birthday. Tomorrow we will probably go to Akashi koen, to have a hanami party (cherry blossom viewing party).

New season, new challenges, new chances

Hiking Mt. Maya

Because there was no Futsall today, neither there was last week though, I decided to do some exercise; Hiking.

I have already hiked up Mt. Maya twice but both of them were with friends, this time I decided to go by myself... why? Because sometimes it can be very annoying when you want to continue and your friends want to stop every 10 minutes to take a break. It was a very nice hike today, although it was a bit difficult because it rained the whole day yesterday the paths turned into water streams, and everything was very slippery. Owww... and I took the wrong road haha.

If anybody want to join me next time, then please contact me... but do know that I do not want to stop every 10 minutes.


The Mountain wasn't so high, but when you go off the main road it's pretty hard I think.


Jumping over rivers was fun.


Can you see the red line in the middle... well I was supposed to take that road, but I took the one north of it.

Wireless Internet (hehehe part 2)

Well, here is the second part of the mission called; Wireless Internet.

My wife received a phone call from the modem's company, but I wasn't there and also Reo was jumping around in the room, so he gave us a call back today. We were on the phone for about 1.5 hour, but he couldn't help us :( . The information he gave us was so different than the explanation we got from the paper, so I couldn't understand too much of it anymore, and my wife isn't a computer freak at all.... so she got a bit pissed off as well.

After the call, my wife and I had a small discussion about it, and she even said I shouldn't play around with things that I don't know... which of course pissed me off again so I started trying it by myself again.... and then....



IT WORKED!!!!

I don't know what I have done... but it doesn't matter anymore. After F##king around for about 9 hours I can finally use wireless internet.

Red Cliff

Yesterday I watched the movie "Red Cliff", an interesting movie that looks like it comes straight out of a video game (Dynasty Warriors from the Playstation). I don't know anything about Chinese history, so it was even more interesting to see it... (I do want to know more about Chinese history, though).

In the movie there are 3 actors that I really enjoy watching at; Takeshi Kaneshiro, Nakamura Shido, and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai. The first actor Takeshi Kaneshiro is of both Japanese and Taiwanese (Hoklo) ancestry. Kaneshiro can speak with varying degrees of fluency in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Japanese, and is probably most know of his part in the movies; Returner, House of Flying Daggers, and The Warlords.

Nakamura Shido is from orign a Kabuki actor, but started acting in movies when he was 30 years old. A couple of movies that he acted in are: Ping pong, Neighbour No. 13 (my favorite), Fearless, Letters from Iwo Jima, and Death note.

I don't think Tony Leung needs in introduction, does he? Anyway, if you don't know who he is please have a look on his page on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Leung_Chiu-Wai

So if you have the time, I would recommend watching this movie especially if you like to watch sword fighting bloody movie.

Trailer:

Kanji DS game

As you could have read in a couple of posts ago... I failed to pass the JLPT 2 test last December, so I am going to take it again upcoming July.

I really have to work on my Kanji, and after searching for a kanji game for months... I have finally have found the perfect learning game (IMO); Zaidan Houjin Nippon Kanji Nouryoku Kentei Kyoukai Koushiki Soft.



You will start from level 10, which is basic kanji (so basic, that I had forgotten a lot of them) and you can do tests from 10, 20 or 40 minutes. I think that if I will practice this game everyday for about 20 minutes, I should be able to increase my kanji knowledge a lot before July. (here is a full review of the game)

My Japanese teacher (sensei) also made a schedule for me, what to work on and how.

今から本当に頑張ろう！！！

p.s. what reminds me... It would be nice to do the JTEST as well in may... for a level check. Boukje? are you in? can you bring me a pamphlet from school for me? :D

Wireless Internet (ahum part 1)

Reo is starting to put everything in his mouth, and is pulling every cord that he sees... including the one from my precious MAC.
So we had decided to buy a wireless router the other day. We bought one yesterday, a Planex MZK-WO4N...

I followed the instructions, I change some stuff that I needed to change, I searched for advice on the internet, but after trying to connected it for 4 hours last night, and 3 hours today... I failed to let it work.

Meaning, we need to call the "give me your money, I will do it for you in 30 minutes... sometimes 2 hours if they have nothing to do" guy. The sales woman told us, it's going to be around 20.000 yen... grrr

So yeah, this is what I did in my weekend! How about you guys