Be right back

Good evening. I apologise for neglecting this space even though I told myself to write at least once a month. The past two months were rather busy. I couldn’t find the time to sit down and do self-reflection like I hoped to. I had the ‘honour’ of experiencing how it was like living in the countryside and living out of a luggage. I never thought I’d be travelling this much but I made several trips back to Tokyo and to Kansai in just these two months. I guess I was also homesick and thus I’d jump at any chance I get to go back to Tokyo even if it would be tiring. Anyways, now that I am here and a little bit better rested, I will fill you in with what went on in the past two months.

I only received information during my first week of work that I will be posted to Mie Prefecture for three months for my job training. I barely had time to prepare or do anything since work has begun. For the first two weeks there was a lot of moving around to visit various offices in the country. It was done so that we can formally introduce ourselves and be introduced to the company that we would work in. That was a tiring two weeks of new employee general job training. After which, I had to prepare to leave for Mie Prefecture. That’s when my three months of job training formally begun. I was busy trying not to screw up on my Japanese business etiquette while trying my best to learn as much as I could on my job. That, for sure, took up most of my energy so all I am looking forward at the end of the day was just to wash up, listening to some comforting tunes and head to bed. Don’t get me wrong though, the people here were really kind and friendly. I was simply being my old potato self, afraid that I’d say something strange and be labelled as the strange foreigner in the office (though I don’t stand out at all since I am also very much Asian like everyone else).

Soon, it was golden week in Japan. I was excited to go back to Tokyo. A city-kid like myself simply cannot be apart from the busy, noisy, dirty streets of the city for too long. I was counting down the days to when can go hope on the Shinkansen to go back to Tokyo once my schedule was approved. I spent the first half of my week in Tokyo, Toyama. I wanted to go back to Tokyo first because I wanted to spend time with my man before all of us went on a trip together with his mates to Toyama to visit the famous Tateyama Kurobe Alpines. The whole trip was us doing a lot of travelling to see the Alpines. It was a great view but I was exhausted by the time we reached back to our ryokan, I’m not sure if I remembered clearly what I saw that day. Haha. The latter of the week, was spent in Osaka. It was great to visit Osaka again because I got to explore and enjoy Universal Studio Japan more than the last trip alongside a great travelling companion. It was an enjoyable trip but travelling always tires me out so sometimes I’d wish to have a more relaxing holiday. Maybe I’ll do something relaxing on the next long break.

When June begun, I went back to Tokyo over the weekend for my graduation ceremony. Yes. After six long months after graduating from university, I finally walked the stage! It was great being able to see familiar faces again and to be back in crowded busy Tokyo. Unfortunately, I had to leave Tokyo shortly after the ceremony because I had to catch the Shinkansen back to Nagoya. I am so used to taking the Shinkansen now that if I was given an assignment by my company to be travelling this far every weekend, I probably won’t complain about it. Lol.

Graduation class of 2018!

I’m currently at my final month of job training over in Mie Prefecture and will be heading back to Tokyo for work soon. It will be another round of packing, moving all over again. Very much dreaded adult stuff but I think I can handle it better on my own right now. I’m just hoping it will be smooth and lesser mental breakdowns. Pray for me.

I’ll write again once everything has settled down. xoxo

January: A month of non-stop gaming

My favourite photo from P5!

Heya. I can't believe it is already the end of the month of January! Ever since graduation, I have been embracing the NEET life and going full-on gaming mode while handling other adult errands like a  responsible adult that I am.

January started fairly slow for me as I did not have anything exciting planned out for the new year. I was only excited to finish all the games I've been wanting to play since I got a PS4 console. I've never had a console that I can call my own but now that I do, I want to use it to its full potential! I am fulfilling that promise very well this month. I have completed 2 games so far and I'm onto my third game.

This is my short review/comment of the two PS4 games I've proudly completed in January. I know I know, I'm a year late with the games but I can't help it. School and real life responsibilities are just more important. Nonetheless, I am looking forward to the game releases this year since no more homework from uni! I just hope work responsibilities don't get in the way.

Persona 5
The first game that I've completed this month is Persona 5. This game is by far the most time consuming one so far. I've spent close to 100 hours trying to completed it. I would say that the game is very well done. I really liked the gameplay in Persona 5, the story and the character designs. They aced the protagonist design because he is cute af! I also really liked that the whole game was set in Tokyo. Especially because I'm living in Tokyo, it was fairly easy to relate to the game. Now, I don't think I can ever walk around Shibuya and look at it the same way as before. However, I don't think this story was my favourite out of Persona series. I'm still a P3 fan but that's probably because it was my first Persona series I laid my hands.

My favourite character in P5 besides the Protagonist? Morgana.
My least favourite character? Ryuuji. Hands down. I don't think I'll ever like him. lol.
Rating: 9/10

I can't give it a full ten points like I hoped to because I wasn't able to relate that much with the characters this time for some reason. Maybe my approach to the game was different or that I've grown out of the high school fantasy or that because I'm actually living here the spark of 'Oh Japan!' and died down quite a lot.

Hoever, for any first timers, this is still an awesome game because I managed to get B to get hooked onto it. He loves this game so much that he is playing it everyday after work and during the weekends. I've never seen him so dedicated to something until I introduced this game to him. lol.

NieR: Automata
This by far is the BEST game I've ever played so far. I went on to youtube/google to search on more things about this game because this game has taken over my life. I just didn't know what to do anymore if I didn't understand the world of the series thoroughly. The game doesn't simply explain everything. It requires fairly bit of analysing and theorising. (Thank goodness of fan theories.) I think partly why I didn't understand a lot of things in story was because I have never played the NieR series at all so trying to piece everything together was a little difficult. But thanks to the loyal fans to the series, I managed to learn about the previous series and piece it all together. From my research, this game is an indirect sequel from the previous game, NieR RepliCant. It is an extension from one of the endings in the game so technically, you don't have to play previous series to enjoy this one but of course to understand the world of the NieR/Darkengard, it is recommended(?).

This game is fairly short if compared to Persona5. This game took about 50 hours of game play including trying to finish all the side quests. But I thoroughly enjoyed myself and still think about this game once in a while. Yes, I'm  still having withdrawals from this game. What made this game so good is the story and the awesome soundtrack. Just when I thought "Kingdom Hearts and FF has the best soundtrack", I was so wrong. I'm not even sure how to put it in words. The creator of this game made the story and music so well together that just listening to the music itself brings back so much memories and scenes of the game.

As I was making my way through the game and finding out so much of the NieR: Automata world, it broke me. When I was near the ending, I know I felt this ache in my heart. The same feeling I get when I am heartbroken. I swear, it was so difficult to finish the game because of the emotions I was feeling at that point. I've never been so attached to a character in game before and neither had I been so immersed in a game until now. So when I finished the game, I just didn't know how to live any more. It left me depress and empty. Most would say, 'Aren't most games like that?" Well, yeah, I don't deny that but this time though it was another level. I'd say I wasn't mentally or emotionally prepared for what was coming.

This game is highly and without a doubt recommended for the awesome story and soundtrack. i never regretted playing and would play it again once my emotions are more stable. The only regret is probably not playing it sooner and that I didn't join this cryptic NieR cult.

Favourite character: 9S
Rating: 10/10
Awesome story and soundtrack. A game created by a genius!


******

This month is a lot of gaming be it on console or on PC so I don't really have a lot of exciting things I could really write down besides me expressing my love for games. But, I do have good news that totally don't deserve a post on its own. Ha!

Firstly, I managed to get my work visa; a rather lengthy one too. Secondly, I'll be heading back to Singapore in February for Chinese New Year. I am excited for all the local goodies I get to have. My dad started cooking again and my mom has officially retired so that means more stay-in and more family time. So, if I happen to not do as much meet up, please try to understand that this time round is more about family and pet dog, BB, time for me. Also, since I have become more introverted than before, I really value my time indoors oh so very much. My best friends understand that side of me and I am thankful.

May February be kind to us.

Will write again.
C.

Looking back at 2017

Hello. Since it is the new year, I want to do a wrap-up of 2017. I want to look back in 2017 and recall the events that made me who I am today. And, share a little bit of my insecurities and how I overcome them last year.

At the beginning of 2017, I got a chance to do an internship with an embassy. It was the best decision I made to kick start the year.  I also met some of the most amazing people. Taking up this internship gave me a huge boost in confidence in my Japanese skills, interpersonal and creative skills.

After the internship officially ended, I focused on the dreaded Japanese-style job hunting. This job-hunting is the most mentally stressful thing I ever had to experience throughout my entire 4-5 years in Japan. This was one of the most difficult hurdles I have had to face so far. And I thought settling in and university was difficult. My Japanese language had been stagnant for about two years now and there was hardly any improvements even though I had no problem with everyday conversations. But the series of interviews and re-write of my Japanese resume helped improved my Japanese to the point where I am a lot better at conveying my opinions and in general, things that I want to say without feeling like I half-assed it. Nevertheless, I feel like this experience really helped improved my Japanese language a lot. Overall, I felt that this experience was really eye-opening. Overcoming this really made me feel a lot more confident and that there is nothing I can't overcome as long as I keep working hard on it. I am really thankful to my university's career adviser for helping me with the whole job-hunting process because I couldn't have done it by myself without him.

At the end of summer, I had two unexpected news and opportunity presented to me. Firstly, I received two job offers. I was so happy when I got the news as it was completely unexpected. After months of getting rejected from interviews, I thought this would have the same ending. Initially, I struggled to decide which company I decided to go for because both had their strengths. Eventually, I had to make a decision, so I did. And, so far attending newcomer get-together parties had been quite enjoyable.

Secondly, I received a part-time job offer that was completely unexpected. It was like as if god made this possible so I will be ready when the real deal comes in 2018. So, I begun my part-time job working in a Japanese office for one of their side projects as a social media coordinator. Everyone was so kind and friendly that I did not want to leave this job after graduation but due to some visa regulations, I had to. Nevertheless, the few months in the company was a good learning experience for me and I will take all the things I've learnt to my new job starting in a few months. I will forever be thankful to the opportunity given to me.

Finally, I managed to graduate from university with a Bachelors in International Affairs, minoring in Japanese. I struggled with three writing intensive classes during my final semester because my motivation levels was close to nothing. All I wanted to do was graduate since I already settled my job-hunting. The biggest take-away from the semester was my Japanese capstone class (Basically, a class that Japanese majors need to graduate, kinda like a final thesis class if you will?). The class wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be but the real worry was doing a full-on presentation and a 5000 words essay in Japanese for the first time. Despite living in Japan for close to five years, my writing skills had been the worst and I haven't done presentations in Japanese at all. All these while, it had been one of the reasons why when people compliment my Japanese skills, I'd flat out say "no, I'm not good at it." It wasn't even tatemae, it was what I really feel deep down inside. So knowing that I need to overcome this before i actually start work, I took on this challenge (though it was unintended) while I am still in a protected school environment and pushed through the semester. By the end of the semester, I can confidently say that all the insecurities about my lack of skills in presentation and writing (or typing if you will) in Japanese has been debunk! I'm still not 100% perfect in my language but I don't think it is a huge hurdle for me anymore since there isn't a huge mental block in me anymore.

To sum-up, 2017 was a intense but a very fulfilling and enriching year. This is one of those years that I felt that I overcame a lot my uncertainties and grew a lot as a person. I am very extremely lucky to be given these opportunities and I am forever thankful. x

With Love,
C.


PS: I begun writing short records of my days on my Instagram because I don't have the time to write a blog post all the time. I am glad I did because it was an alternative for me to share my days and life in Japan. I hope to continue to do so in 2018 and share more things about my life in Japan. Of course, I am not saying goodbye to this space.

PPS: I am reaching my 5th year anniversary in a few months time and I want to do something memorable about it. I'm not sure what I want to do yet but I want to make it something I can look back on and feel proud about my journey thus far.