The Soul that Regrets in Silence

Well… It’s 7:30 am and I’ve been just writing reports and stuff non-stop since yesterday. It’s not like I’m being enslaved by the reports or anything. Actually I could’ve finished the reports several days ago already, is just that these reports are particularly… fun (yeah… call me weird ), and I feel like making them as good as possible. Anyway, no matter how much I like my reports, it’s also important to take a break every once in a while. So I’m taking this chance to get some stuff that has been bugging me for a while out of my head.

I’m in Japan as you know already, and life is great here; got lots of good friends, got a nice apartment near the university, have enough money to survive, etc… In other words, so far so good. If you were to ask me, I would say that this country is just awesome. Some stuff could be better of course, but… it’s awesome still. Yet, even though life is so much fun… there are a couple of things that make me regret the fact I ever came here.

One of the things I regret… are weddings. No, I’m not getting married or anything, and there’re no plans for that… at least not for now that is (don’t worry mom, I’m just teasing you a bit ). But, since I came here, I’ve already missed five weddings of friends/relatives. It’s like… everybody was just waiting for me to leave, so that they could get married once and for all or something. It’s not like it’s such a big deal or anything to miss 5 or 10 weddings while I’m here, but it would’ve been nice to share those moments with family and friends on such unique occasions you know? Those moments will never come back… and I just missed them.

There are many other things I regret… failing the entrance exam the first time, not being able to see or talk with my family and friends in my country, etc… But probably the one I regret the most is not having been able to be at my grandpa’s funeral. It’s been almost one year since that day… and I still haven’t paid my respects. With all that was going on with the entrance exams and the high price of the plane tickets, I just couldn’t afford to go… and still can’t. My grandpa was a very special person to me… He would often complain about things, like most old men do, but would always help you if you asked him. Harsh… but gentle, that’s probably the best way to describe him. Yet, for such a person who helped me and taught me so much, I still haven’t gone to his grave even once… as if I was being oblivious to his death.

There are so many words I wish I had said… so many things I wish I had done… so many moments I wish I could’ve shared… and I just couldn’t… Will God ever forgive such impotence?

Even so… after one whole year… I still remember you grandpa… in every single day… and every single smile. Even though you are no longer around… I’ll make sure I make it up to you somehow… someday… I promise.

Rene’s Boat Party Thing…

Rene’s birthday was a few days ago, and to celebrate it, we had a nice trip around Tokyo Bay in his yacht (yeah sure :P). The evening was full of nice sights, lots of people in yukata and horrible-tasting beer (I didn’t drink any, but was told it sucked as hell).

We all met at Hamamatsucho station and then walked for about 10 minutes to the harbor.

Here’s the guy in person at the station. He came awfully late by the way.

Survivor: Mt. Fuji

About two or three weeks ago, Hui told me about the idea of climbing Mt. Fuji, one of Japan’s most famous symbols. This is a feat that not even 1/4 of the Japanese population has actually done.

Since it sounded like a really nice idea, I decided to go for it. (Actually I had been wanting to do that for quite a while already)

Here we are at the fifth station in Mt. Fuji, where the bus left us. We arrived at around 7:00 pm more or less.

The idea: climb the damn mountain for 9 hours before sunrise.

Happy Birthday @ Paulo’s

It was that time of the year… The day of my birthday, and incidentally Hui’s, Hoon’s and Toh’s birthday as well, so we decided to celebrate them all together!!! (like last year) Then some stuff happened and we ended up celebrating it along with Paulo’s housewarming party as well (the more excuses we have to celebrate, the better… I guess).

We could even watch some hanabi (fireworks) over there.

So here we are at the beginning of the party.

From left to right: Paulo, Hande (is it written that way?), Toh, Luke, Fernando (me), Hui and Ahn.

A Day at Onjuku Beach!!

It’s summer and I had been dying to go to the beach but didn’t have the time. That is, until I got invited by Thiago, Ahn and Eliza around two weeks ago (thanks a lot guys!!).

The day was not really that sunny, which is great because otherwise I would’ve suffered some serious burns without any sunblock cream (I hate when that happens).

Eliza and Ahn getting themselves prepared.

Naoki’s Return to the Land of the Rising Sun

Last month we got a small visit from our friend Naoki, who came to visit Japan for a while. It had been about one year since he left, so it was a really nice surprise.

• Front: Sourav, Ahn, Hui, Eliza, Willy, Mark and Thiago.
• Back: Hoon, Florian, Naoki and Fernando (me).

After having some “sort of” pizza, we went all together to karaoke like in the “old times”. (read previous posts to see what I mean)

Stupidity…

I’ve got no additional comments for this…

Japanese Class: Summer 2007 - Graduation Picture

OK… here’s a picture that I forgot to post for about a year or so….

It’s not so strange at all… coming from me (my memory is pretty crappy).

Try and see if you can find me (or yourselves… whatever).

I’ll give you a hint: I’m not on the first row.

Blog Maintenance in Progress…

Sorry for not writing for so long, but since I have been pretty much busy these days I just haven’t had the time to come here and post anything new.

In the next few days (hopefully), I’ll be doing some maintenance on the blog (removing stuff, adding stuff, etc…), especially on the photos section.

You might have noticed that if you go to the Photos page there’s several photo pages missing. Also, some photo pages have no pictures at all because my previous online storage service, MediaMax, changed its service from free storage to monthly paid (first was extremely bad service and now this… damn you bastards!! DAMN YOU!!!).

I’ve managed to upload several picture sets to Flickr instead (thank God I switched before it was too late… friggin’ MediaMax bastards ), but there’s still lots of stuff to do. There are even some pictures I won’t be able to reupload because I don’t have a backup of them at the moment (Screw you MEDIAMAX!!!!).

You Suck at Photoshop

Best way to learn Photoshop ever!!

http://www.mydamnchannel.com/Big_Fat_Brain/You_Suck_at_Photoshop__Season_1/YouSuckatPhotoshop1_398.aspx

I personally like numbers 3 and 4.

Hope you don’t suck too much at Photoshop anymore after watching this

Sorrow and Sadness (Sayonara Party)

Well, since most of us are moving out of the dorm this month (our period of stay was of only one year sadly), someone decided to throw a party for the occasion.

The party itself was pretty much fun, but filled with really emotional moments as you can see.

I guess I will miss these strange parties.

Natasha was trying to hide the tears (oddly enough, with a potato chip). She is only covering her right eye because Moldavians have been trained to cry in that way, and thus, using body liquids more efficiently.

How to Wake Up Without Feeling Like Crap Every Single Morning

The Problem

I have always had a problem ever since I was in high school, for some reason I always woke up extremely tired and feeling like my head would blow anytime.

The consequences were that I would always end up sleeping in the middle of classes, even when I was sitting in the front of the whole class so the teachers could even see me clearly, and most of my ex-classmates can account for that, they called it “falling into trance“.

So, I spent the rest of my high school life, university life and even professional life falling into unexpected trances every once in a while. Nobody really complained that much since my grades were really good and my performance in work was actually pretty good.

Also, I felt I couldn’t think properly and had problems to concentrate properly while studying or having conversations.

Sometimes I even felt like life was a complete pain because of this. I wasn’t feeling depressed or anything at all but certainly I wasn’t the happiest person in the world.

So It Got Even Worse…

The situation worsened when I got a job at one of these computer technical support call centers (that job was hell itself, if you have the opportunity to work in a call center just do it if you are enough a masochist). With completely irregular schedules that changed every month and having to work until 1:00 or 2:00 am I was feeling like crap even more. The situation continued even after I quit working at that hellhole.

Then I came to Japan, and I noticed that, even though I wasn’t feeling homesick or anything, I was feeling like crap even more and it looked like this would just get worse over the time and I didn’t know why.

Eliza’s Birthday

Just a few days ago was the birthday of our friend Eliza, so, in order to celebrate, we all went to T.G.I. Friday’s in Shibuya (渋谷), just to experience what the Japanese believe is “American Tradition”.

I was actually quite shocked to see this on the menu. The picture is not so clear but essentially is the price for “Chicken Caesar Salad”, below it says “Without Chicken”. I wonder… isn’t it Chicken Caesar Salad without chicken… just Caesar Salad?

Anyway, I ordered the Chicken Caesar Salad… WITH chicken of course.

The Day of Darkness (Felipe’s Birthday)

So, a few weeks ago was the birthday party of our evil Colombian friend Felipe. Even though he is a pretty much… “special” person, the party was actually quite normal, except for the occasional evil invocations, bizarre stuff and the sort.

Felipe, the main reason for performing holding this insane ritual party. Don’t be fooled by that harmless-looking face, he is actually quite the psychopath.

Let it Snow!!!

These pictures are quite old actually (about a month or so). People say that usually snow doesn’t fall in Tokyo. This year was different.

Since I had been living in a tropical country until last year, seeing snow for the first time was actually quite nice, I loved it.

Akira’s Birthday Party

The first post of 2008!!

By the way, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you!!!

Sorry, it’s been more than a month since the last time I wrote anything here. I’ve been really busy lately, that’s why.

Well, on Saturday, we celebrated Akira’s birthday in the multipurpose hall.

To add some kind of secrecy to the party, these guys decided to create a kind of maze in front of the door. I wonder how many people got lost inside… Did they ever come out alive??

Another Party…

Bueno, parece que últimamente estamos haciendo fiestas cada semana. Esta vez fue para celebrar la admisión de Sarah a Waseda y el cumpleaños de su amiga Ayumi.

Well, it seems like lately we are just throwing parties every week. This time was to celebrate Sarah’s acceptance into Waseda and her friend Ayumi’s birthday.

Antti, Sophia, Kazumi, Felipe, León, Sarah y Paulo.

Mt. Takao - 高尾山

A la gente aquí en Japón le encanta ir a escalar montañas, así que yo también estaba un poco curioso al respecto, y decidí ir el Sábado a el Monte Takao con Kazumi, Luke y Mathias.

People here in Japan love to go hiking, so I too was a little bit curious, and went to Mount Takao on Saturday with Kazumi, Luke and Mathias.

Como pueden apreciar, los japoneses son gente muy organizada. Para todo tienen una fila, incluso para subir una montaña.

As you can see, the japanese are very organized people. The have queues for everything, even to go to a mountain.

Welcome!!!… Again…

So, on Friday night we had another welcome party (the official one) for the new people that came to the lodge. Like in the previous one, I didn’t get to meet so many people, since I was busy trying to get my stomach full.

Anyways, it was a funny night filled with moments of “Passion” of some sorts.

Some girl, Eliza and Luke.

Halloween Party @ Komaba Lodge

Last Saturday, in order to celebrate Halloween and also Luke’s birthday, we had one of those costume parties as is customary in most other parts of the world.

Luke filled the whole room with candles for this occasion… I wonder how much time did it take to lit all those candles.

A japanese catgirl (Kazumi), an… evil looking… something (Luke), a Shibuya girl (Eliza), the Scream guy (Rene) and… a ghost maybe?? (Sophia).

Rene looks scarier without the mask though.