さよなら

僕が生きる今日は、
もっと生きたかった誰かの明日かもしれないから。
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　－かりゆし５８

相づち

ちなみに、私の得意の相づちは「なるほどねぇ～」。

The News

The news came in the mail.

My recruitment exam with 469 other people? I didn't make it.

Dang.

Good Enough

He doesn't put my friends down in front of me. I know he respects me when he respects my friends.

now that i'm temporarily back home, i have had to rely on my old nokia to stay in touch. i stumbled upon a folder of his messages that i saved during the year and a half when we were dating long-distance and i realised he told me he loved me every day that we were apart.

i dont know that many men who can do the chicken dance and play the air guitar while prancing around the living room half-naked.

he believes in me more than i believe in myself. and i can do the things i do because he places his trust in me.

he is honest with me when something goes wrong; and for that i am growing to become a better person.

he keeps me real and grounds me to the things that really matter.

for all the things i say he doesn't do, he could be good enough.

and there can be no one else because i only ever want to be loved by him.

Signs

How do we find love?
If only we knew how to look for the signs.

A very heartwarming short film. Do find the time to watch this.

Part One


Part Two

Rain On Your Parade

I guess everyone has a rain soundtrack.

Sam listens to Sakamoto Ryuichi, and I have Keith Jarrett. This album features a solo Jarrett on the piano reworking jazz classics. Every song is a gem, but this one goes especially well with the sound of rain falling on the window panes.

Shoe String Budget

What do you do when times are bad and you find yourself cash-strapped?

fashionistas in japan arent about to sacrifice on shopping, they're just making sure that their money goes a longer way.

enter g.u., a new fashion retailer whose main marketing strategy is to provide clothing that is cheaper than uniqlo's. while uniqlo's entry into singapore is probably rocking some boats over at home, the japanese seem to have already moved on to this new kid on the block.

this summer g.u. aims to arm-wrestle a good part of uniqlo's lion share of the budget fashion market by releasing a entire range of coordinates that cost a mere 990 yen. imagine jeans that cost just about as much as a movie ticket in singapore.

now if only they'd expand into okinawa as well.

The Black Tide

For the past year I have been attending lessons that are designed to turn an alien species like me into something suitable for the host environment, better known by its popular name, the Japanese Business Corporation.

After weekly lessons in business japanese and ettiquette, i am just about ready to be released into the wild. can i hold a proper telephone conversation in fluent business japanese? maybe. do i know how to do a polite (read: self-deprecatingly humble) self-introduction in japanese upon request? yes. can i bow like a true japanese salaryman? hell YES.

does this mean the alien shall soon be allowed into the native population with little fear that its natural instinct to speak its mind and ignorance for the honne/tatemae divide might very well upset the balance so painstakingly preserved within the japanese office?

on sunday this alien found herself in an environment that defied almost all of her expectations. 470 undergraduates disguised as competent job seekers complete with dark suits and stiff white shirts thronged the ballrooms of a downtown hotel in what was a recruitment examination for a popular homegrown tour agency.

i thought getting shortlisted was an honour, or least an affirmation that the people at HR liked what they saw in my resume, but the mere sight of the black mass climbing the stairs to the exam venue put an end to my wishful thinking.

whoever thought that job searching in japan would turn into such a carnival? the test paper was full of questions about names of rivers and forests in japan, in addition to specific settings of japanese literature classics.

im not particularly proud to admit this, but my GK is probably close to zero and despite having studied for the test i was at a painful loss. i ended up trying my luck in the multiple choice section and filling up the empty brackets with random kanji, and getting shortlisted for the interview round would probably be a miracle since my 469 other competitors would have known the name of that darn forest up north in the tohoku area.

results shall be out on june 20th so i shall posting updates.