Welcoming Our Third Year

Short note: This entry is inspired by a text message I got from Amalina at midnight which reads, "celebrating the 2nd year in Japan, welcome 3rd year."

It is April 3rd today.

Remember this scene?

This date has some significant to my batch because it was exactly two years ago, we stepped to Japan to begin yet another journey of ours in this land of rising sun. I'm pretty sure there have been lots new things we had learned, valuable experiences and encounters we had gone through within this period of time.

Today, it is the start of our third year in Japan.

One group photo before we leave for Japan in April 2007.

Rewinding the clock back, KLIA was flooded with family members and friends on that night.; the night before we flew. That escalator which leads to the departing gate remains vivid in my memory. We were given one final briefings before we went through the immigration counter. After a seven-hour flight, we touched down at Narita and what happened after that, both memorable and pain memories shall be treasured for a long time to come.

Though we are all scattered all over Japan, those short messages and calls at times make sure that we still remember each other and remind us that we came from under one same roof.

Look at the change on everyone after more than a year (picture taken during Golden Week Gathering 2008).

Fifth year in college means everyone will be busy with their university entrance exam (juken).This is one of the final hurdle for each of us and all the best to everyone.

Ganbatte kudasai!

One Big Shock

Farking crap! I came back from my Korea trip only to make a shocking discovery.

Shot # 1 at crime scene (Room 202).

Shot # 2 at crime scene (Room 202).

WTF! My room was ransacked!

Shot # 3 at crime scene (Room 202).

I found out all this mess inside my room when I pushed the door open, which is something I totally didn't expect to happen in a country where the people put so much stress on behaving in a proper manner. Someone must have broken into my room and did all this when I was away. I didn't find any of my stuff went missing, it looked as if the thief just wanted to make the whole room to be messy because I don't know what the thief was looking for; all my electrical devices were not in my room as I took them with me to Korea. My laptop, my digital camera, my cell phone, I didn't leave any of them behind and now I'm wondering what was the motive of this break-in.

Perhaps they watched too much of Prison Break already.

But hey, hold on a second. Guess what's the day today?

It's April Fools =D

Yes, gotcha! Haha, how lame was my April Fool's prank? Definitely better than my attempt last year, I guess.

Here is the true fact. Don't worry, this time I won't bluff anymore, like that boy who cried wolf lol. If you do read my updates at my Facebook profile, then you might have seen that I said I was busy shifting to a new place a couple of days ago. Yes, I was kept occupied with packing my stuff to be moved to the new place; in fact, I was doing that for the past two days since I was back from Korea and only finished with everything by late evening yesterday.

Here is how the old double room looked like after everything was cleaned and shifted out.

Double-decker bed.

Two studying tables.

Locker and the door.

Locker and the window.

I have been staying in a double room for the past two years. But beginning this schooling year which is my final college year, I'm finally given a single room. To be fair, this supposed to happen last year but due to the large number of seniors one batch above me, they were shortage of single rooms and hence, we had to settle with double room last year.

Even though I'm moving into a new room, I guess I had the least headache among my batch mates when I think about carrying my stuff from my old room to my new one simply because of one reason - my new single room is just opposite the old room.

New room on the left, while the old room is on the right.

Look how shiny the floor is; they actually just polished it a couple of weeks ago.

The new room is meant for one person, so common sense tells you that it is half the size of a double-room. But I have no complain because given a choice, who will not prefer a single room, right? My senior left two days ago and I only started the cleaning and moving-in task a day after he left. First thing I did was to vacuum, mop and wipe away all the dusty furniture and shelves. Next, I made a rough plan on how the furniture arrangements I want them to look like.

The condition of the room before I do anything on the new room.

My senior left his guitar as well and within a night, I've learn the three basic chords already =)

The shifting process was indeed a long and boring one. My stuff keep on appearing from everywhere like a never-ending process. Those are my treasures I have collected for the past two years. Anyway, I still think that my stuff are among the least compared to the rest, especially the girls (ehem to someone xD).

This is just the provisional positions and layout of my new room, as I haven't started to think of the right, suitable theme yet.

What thing is the most obvious from this picture? "BOH, ada umphh!"!

Small pillows on the shelves were stolen from the plane - blue (MAS), white (Northwest Airlines) and yellow (Korean Air).

I hide seven little bunnies under that thick blanket (futon).

I'm still using the old towel I got from National Service, and my "mata terbeliak" cartoon on the locker.

To make sure I didn't die from boredom, I went online as I clean and shift my stuff. Finally, after almost two full days doing the same thing, all my stuff were shifted and sorted accordingly. Through that process, I managed to throw away one big plastic bag full of unwanted stuff.

On something unrelated, the new juniors will be reaching the hostel by late afternoon today. There will be seven international students, including five from Malaysia. The other two are from Bangladesh and Gabon. Yes, this is the first time a student from outside Asia is coming to our college and Joann seems to be the most excited among us.

I saw that Gabon guy already yesterday and surprisingly, he was so small sized; I estimate his height is less than 165 cm. That is something so rare to see in an African, isn't it? Initially, I thought he might come close as my height but it was the opposite lol. Anyway, just a quick fact here; Gabon is located on the western coast of Africa and their national language is French. Sounds cool, eh? Maybe I can learn up a few pick up lines from him in the future.

On the contrary, not that I'm trying to bad-mouth him, but I can detect his BO even when I am walking three rooms away from his room, even without possessing a dog's smelling ability. Get what I'm trying to say here? The smell was super strong; it's even stronger than durian's smell. Try to imagine that. But I advise you not to do so lol.

The interesting part is that one of my Malaysian junior will be his roommate. I'm sure he will get the biggest April Fool's joke of the day when he finds it out later haha.