my japanese occupation (part 3)

Our Sunday morning started with a picnic breakfast with Gardenia bread and Ayam Brand tuna at Ueno park, which is the most crowded and happening on Sunday mornings. True enough, we were treated to spectacles of busking, musical performances, groups of teenagers playing baseball, and a couple of celebrity photoshoots. What we were looking forward to more, was what they call 'Harajuku girls', at a bridge outside of the park.








'Harajuku girls' actually refers to these girls (you see in the photos) who purposely dress up as cartoon characters or in gothic syle. They do not do it for charity; they do it for popularity. And boy, do they attract much attention, especially from tourists like us. These girls are actually victims of bully in schools or treated as outcasts. Doing this actually serves as an avenue for them to boost their sense of popularity.









Doesn't the girl on the right look like a mannequin? =D




















After the morning at Ueno Park, we set out to search for another mosque, Masjid Jamae Tokyo. Fortunately, it was so much easier looking for this mosque because it was just 20 minutes walk all the way straight down the road from the park.
















The architecture of this building, we thought, was very European, more specifically Italian. It was very beautiful on the interior and never would I have expected to find such a place in a country where Muslim population is so small. Alhamdulilah.





This was my lunch! Favourite Nasi Bryani!
We managed to find an Indian (halal) restaurant in Takashimaya Times Square on our way to Shinjuku, another busy shopping district you'll see below. Again, it was an expensive meal, but at least it was worth the experience of experiencing how globalisation benefits me. Haha.













Shinjuku!
Another busy shopping district in Tokyo.












Just thought this was a nice picture, showing the colourful night lights of the shopping arena against the backdrop of young night, with the foreground depicting the strength of the Shinjuku crowd.

my japanese occupation (part 2)

This was a 'pseudo' statue of liberty, situated at the waterfront of the Odaiba city, where it boasts many futuristic buildings with impressive architectural designs, or so we heard. Actually, we realised that Odaiba wasn't really what we expected it to be. We were expecting to see a glimpse of what the world would be like in 2050, but we were treated to something more current. Falling short of our expectations was also the fact that there was nothing much we can do there except to take pictures and wait for the shopping malls to open at 11am.

I'm not very sure, but this could be one of the major junctions of another busy shopping district in Tokyo called Shibuya, a place which we were supposed to go the evening before but decided not to. Ironic thing is, the time I took this picture was the first time during my trip that I realised there're actually many people in Tokyo. Duh, you may think. But the impression we got from the first two days was that Tokyo was a very sparse city, and I'm glad we're soon proven to be wrong. :)

FC TOKYO! Adventurous as we were, we decided to include a Japanese League soccer game in our itinerary. It was a home game for FC Tokyo, at Ajinomoto Stadium, against Kawasaki Frontale. You could imagine them like Everton vs Aston Villa of the J-League.

This is the main facade of Ajinomoto Stadium. From this picture, it doesn't really reflect the majesty of the stadium, but once you see the inside, you'll definitely be wowed! Anyway, the tickets cost around S$27, which I thought was well worth the money and experience.

Ardent supporters of FC Tokyo!

That guy on the left, with the dark blue shirt over grey long sleeves, reminded me of Mr Chow Siew Foong from VJ, the ever enthusiastic teacher who turns up at every VJ soccer games and cheers his heart out.

From far, it looks like a Barcelona crowd. And indeed, we spotted a flag of Barcelona emblem rather than FC Tokyo but who cares! The atmosphere prior to kick-off all the way to the full-time whistle was electric. These people could cheer all the way and there was also this row of supporters who never stop jumping up and down through the game. Where can you find this in Singapore? Not even at Tiger Cup finals!

FC Tokyo vs Kawasaki Frontale

19 April 2008

Final Score: 4 - 2

Den was initially reluctant and in his words, 'not looking forward' to watching this game, but I guess he changed his mind after the game. (I hope!)

Anyway, this was to be one of the highlights of the entire Tokyo experience, and one to be really unprecedented, unless I mysteriously get a golden opportunity to an live EPL match or something. Haha. For now, this will remain as one of the best games I've watched, justified by the dyanamics of the crowd and beauty of the goals.

my japanese occupation (part 1)

*bows head and says, "Konichiwa!"

What was going through my mind then was whether what had been planned will actually be carried out. It is always exciting to see your plans translate into reality, especially when these plans are made purely on the available resources, and about a totally unfamiliar theme. Then again, if they don't, it will be something that I can learn from. :)
This advertisement board at Changi Airport probably simplified mix of feelings inside me, apprehension of foreign land, missing my family, anticipation of an exciting week ahead.
Cathay Pacific!

We were killing some time at the transit Hong Kong International Airport. Hoho! But then we realised we had to literally run for our gate because it was like gazellion miles away.

This is one of Tokyo's subway lines called the Keisei Line, which runs between various small towns and the Narita Airport. The perplexing thing is, the train actually went past the station in one direction and a few minutes later, came back on the same track in the opposite direction!
An hour and a half train ride to where we were heading- Asakusa!
Den's expression aptly reflects the dampening of feeling and sense of disappointment he must be feeling due to the unforeseen overcast weather.
Cherry blossoms, where are youuuu?

It appeared that we were late for the Sakura cherry blossoms full blooming period, but there were still some very patient ones waiting for us. :)

In a foreign place like this, any signs of familiarity or universality will always bring a certain level of genuine happiness to me. Prior to the trip, research from many websites only yielded a handful number of mosques that we can visit while we are here, one of them being 'Masjid Asakusa', which is within the neighbourhood of Asakusa, where we are now staying. This afternoon, we set out in quest to find this mosque, with help from passers-by, numerous area maps and sporadic gut instincts, but with our resolve diminishing with every step we took as the rain seemed persistent in stopping us from reaching our destination. I lost count of how many times we took turns at corners and seemed like we're almost reaching it only to realise we're further away.

From what we gathered, Friday prayers start at around 11.40am today, but our search for almost two hours had us surrendering the belief that we could reach there in time. Then, our light came in the form of a non-Muslim Japanese man, whom we had approached randomly to ask for directions. I guess Singapore needs more people like him, someone who really wills himself to go the extra mile, and in this case, literally. He walked with us to the main road, where he seeked some directions from a police post, and walked further on with us for the next kilometre, until Den spotted a structure resembling that of a crescent and a moon. That feeling of sheer happiness in me was unprecedented. It only goes to show that if you put your heart into achieving a certain goal, chances are, there will be signs along the way assisting you.

By the time we reached the mosque, we all all drenched from thighs down, but instead of feeling dampened, I felt so revived and delighted that it was really worth the effort. Contrary to what we expected, the Friday prayers' were only attended by barely 10 people including us. The imam (leader) of the prayers' was a Malaysian, and then there were Saudi, Bangladeshi and a few others. The heart-warming thing is that after the prayers' had ended, we were all invited to a lunch together a floor above the prayers room. I suppose this is their normal practice, which promptly reminded me of those times when you sit together in two rows facing each other, awaiting the time of breaking fast.

Alhamdulilah, for everything.

to be continued...

konichiwa!

I'm flying off tomorrow to Tokyo! Will be back on 23 April. It was a challenge and an enjoyment planning our customised free-and-easy programme, and hopefully everything will turn out fine! :) Just a dose of suspense: experience of a live Japanese league soccer game and DisneyLand/DisneySea!

Insha-allah.

time for the next phase!

My internship has finally come to a somewhat quiet conclusion today. These three months have been quite a crawl to me, not because of the nature of the attachment but rather my anticipation for the start of school.

Contrary to my police NS experience at SOC, which presents itself as a very operation-oriented environment, this internship at Police Technology Department has broadened my outlook on how staff unit works. Here, things are very much technical, comprehensive and hypothetical, whereas ground work involves a quick, flexible and practical mind.

Perhaps the most useful thing I learned was 'IT security', which was hardly in my dictionary before. If you ask me now, I can confidently tell you how you can protect your PC. But it will never be enough to explicitly list down all the things I learned. Also, I am very thankful for everyone who made me feel like part of their family.

That said, it's time to move on to the next phase.

Perhaps I should update a little here, since I have not been updating conscientiously. Heh.

I have recently been accepted by University Scholars Programme (USP), NUS. I remember coming across the hardcopy application form in 2006, and after reading through the form thinking, "Oh man, this is tough!". I never thought I would apply for it, but just two weeks before application closed for me this year, something just compelled me to look up about it on the website. After some browsing, I decided to give it a try. With a very helpful Zhenyi, I managed to polish the essay to the best I could and submit it before the deadline.

And the interview was really really thorough. In the way they asked the questions, I could sense that the interviewers were really searching for that 'wow' thing in you. I didn't think I had done well enough for the interview, but I guess I managed to redeem my initial poor performance at the later part of the session. The day on, I prayed to Him, every day, every namaz, asking him to reward me with what is best for me. Alhamdulilah, that I got the offer. But the initial excited was almost quickly followed by a tinge of apprehension of excessive workload. However, I believe that He will always be there to help me through it.

With that in mind, I had to psych myself for the full swing of university life. But before doing so, I have this strong urge to really unwind to the max and enjoy the luxury of a free man for the last days. Yea! So I'll be travelling with my friends within this period, to Tokyo with Den and the always procastinated trip to Perth with Salman, Hakim and Hafiz. Yea! And it's very fun planning our own free-and-easy programme! Of course, exiting this comfort zone will enable me to experience the vast world outside and that's exactly what I wanna do for now. So all the loyal supporters of my blog out there, watch out for wonderful pictures and stories when I return! Haha. Cool! I'm getting so excited!!

I HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY BUT NO TIME TO WRITE!
I HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY BUT NO TIME TO WRITE!
I HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY BUT NO TIME TO WRITE!
I HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY BUT NO TIME TO WRITE!
I HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY BUT NO TIME TO WRITE!
I HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY BUT NO TIME TO WRITE!
I HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY BUT NO TIME TO WRITE!
I HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY BUT NO TIME TO WRITE!
I HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY BUT NO TIME TO WRITE!
I HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY BUT NO TIME TO WRITE!