Jin's Birthday

September 20, 2008 I treated Jin to a dinner on his 26th birthday. It was a great day. I wore a skirt that day. (I can't remember the last time I wore a skirt, maybe around 5 years ago? hehehe :P) I met Jin at the central exit of JR station around 5:30 in the afternoon and gave him his birthday gift there. My reservation in Bali Lax was for 6PM but we got there a little earlier than 6, around 5:40 maybe.
Luckily they were still able to accommodate us. They placed us in a little room above a small flight of stairs. It had a great ambiance and a sense of privacy. The lights were great too.(It was dark enough to vanish all my blemishes! (hahahaha)
We were given a time limit of two hours for the place.(I've never experience time limits before, in my country there's no such thing unless it's an eat-all-you-can place.) We started off with a salad, then we ordered a few recommended dishes. One was marked with 3 bell peppers but wasn't so hot. Another one was marked with only 2 but it came out hotter than the one with 3 bell pepper mark. (Talk about inconsistency! Menus can lie!) But to be fair, most of the dishes tasted fantastic for me.(I was high, so maybe you shouldn't take that as a logical judgment. hehehehe) I loved the way Jin's face looked when the lights went out and happy birthday song was played. A female staff brought the dessert birthday set with candles. He looked like he was about to bolt and run but he was smiling as the staff was climbing the stairs.(What a sweet shy boy he is and what a BADASS I am for making this comment! hehehehe.) After dinner we strolled around the streets near the restaurant and then checked Softmap for a short while. After which we were disappointingly going to the station. He said he wanted to see what was inside the gift. The truth is I was a little disappointed that he was more interested in opening the gift than talking to me. In fact, of all the dates that I have been to, this one is the shortest. On the way home, we parted towards the platform. He didn't try to give me a kiss goodbye. I couldn't let it end that way, so I asked for it. It was the first time for me to ask a guy for a kiss. But I didn't tell him that. After I kissed his cheeks and said happy birthday I felt awkward and embarrassed so without glancing back I headed out to the platform.
I guess with him there'll be a lot of first times stuff that I will experience.(Maybe later, a first rejection too. :( ) That night I sent him an email asking if the gift was of the right size.(I bought him a soccer shirt) He replied (which rarely happens, mind you!) that he was very happy and that he will cherish the picture taken during the dinner and also the gift. He reasoned he wasn't a playboy so he hasn't been kissed for quite a long time. This made me feel a little better after asking him for the kiss.
And so the day ended like that.

Dinner with Addtech People

From left to right : Kawai-san, Sugawara-san, Nishino-san, Me, Jin, Mizugai-san, Morohashi-san
The night of September 10, 2008 we went out to dinner at a place called Watami.
It was located on the upper floor of the McDonald's near the office.The event was graced by 7 people including me. At the beginning of the event I didn't know the name of the guest of honor(the new Addtech employee), at the end of the dinner, I still didn't.(I'm such a badass, really!) It was only after I ask Jin when we were heading home that I learned his name(Kawai-san). I felt funny the first time I heard the name because I thought it was the same word that meant "cute" in english. It wasn't, thank God! (nyahahahaha) This guy made a weird comment or was it a joke? I'm not really sure, but he told me if it was possible not to include his face or cut him out when I post our group picture on the net because some agents are after him. At first I really thought it was a joke so I asked him if it was. He said it wasn't with a really serious face. So I got serious too and said OK. But my mind was saying stuff like "dude, are you for real?! C'mon! If you're so scared of these agents why are you even out to dinner with us?!". And then another half of my brain is thinking, maybe he's just a really good joker, poker faced joker. ahihihihihi. :)
That night during dinner I asked the guys a few stuff and they replied.
A few facts I learned that night:
Misugai-san is a very amiable guy, he is cheerful and very jolly. His hobbies are reading novels(Higashino Keigo) and playing the piano. He said he has been trying to learn since 2 years ago but he still can't play until now. (I think it's a joke, I think he's just being humble.)He was the liveliest guy there during the
entire dinner. His refreshing personality put the crowd in a merry mood. He recommended a few places for sightseeing which I asked Jin to remember for me(Japanese names are always hard to remember for me) but sadly, the next morning when I asked him he couldn't remember them too. His favorite actress is Winona Ryder from Alien 4.(She happens to be one of my favorite actress too. We have the same taste in women Misugai-san! hahahaha). He recommended me to watch Tegami[手紙] movie.
Morohashi-san said his hobby is playing soccer. He is Jin's teammate in soccer. He also loves rock and roll. He mentioned many bands that he liked but I only remembered 3 which are Sum41, L'Arc en ciel and Hoobastank. He was there last year during Hoobastank concert so I said I was there too! It would have been nice if this guy and I were close friends. I could have a concert buddy, someone I can go bang my head with during concerts. He said his favorite actress was the girl in Beverly Hills 90210, but he couldn't remember her name. At that time, I couldn't remember either. But now I do, she's Jennie Garth. I think I've seen her recently in "Dancing with the Stars". She's a contestant there but she got eliminated.(too bad!)
Kawai-san's hobby is playing PC network games. I forgot the title of the game that he mentioned he was playing. His favorite actress is the girl in Full House(the American TV series) This is pretty much all I remembered about him since he didn't talk much during the entire dinner.
Sugawara-san's hobby is reading novels. He likes science fiction type of books. He said he like Lord of the Rings!(Me too, COOL!) Every morning meeting that I make a speech, I think he is the only guy who understands me. When I was asking them about movies that they can recommend, I also shared that I have watched Hutaru no Haka[ホタルの墓] which was a really sad movie. I don't know what the Japanese title of that movie was, he was the only one who was able to properly translate it. This guy is probably an English genius. :)
Nishino-san is my Project Leader. He is a genius and a saint! His hobby is photography, I learned this from way before, during Tanaka-san's welcome party. Lately he didn't have much time to indulge in his hobbies though. He mentioned before that his favorite actress is Meg Ryan(I love Meg Ryan too!) He recommended the movie "Spider". I remembered he mentioned before that he likes suspense movies.
Jin's hobby is playing soccer and printing CD/DVD labels. He said he doesn't have a particular favorite actress but since he liked the movie Bio-Hazard, I assumed he likes Milla Jovovich(Sugiura-san and I like her too!) Although he didn't talk much during the dinner, I know more about him than the rest of the people there since we sit beside each other. If I were to write all the things I know, perhaps one blog won't be enough. hehehehe. :P One particular phrase that I couldn't forget among all the things that he told me is "hitori ga suki" which means I like being alone. (He has spoken this phrase so many times that it makes it hard to forget them!)
I hope he doesn't mind having me as a friend though even if he likes to be alone.
I also learned that night that Sakakibara-san's wife just gave birth to their first child. Congratulations, Sakakibara-san! I've known for a long time that Sakakibara-san is very caring and dedicated to his wife. I often see him softly talking to the phone during the end of the working day. I'm pretty sure that he was talking to his wife then. :)
All of us except Misugai-san headed out to the station. We parted before the ramp towards the station with Sugawara-san and Morohashi-san heading towards Hankyu and us(Jin, Kawai-san, Nishino-san and me) towards JR. Nishino-san lives only around the area so he didn't need to ride the train.

Photo Fun

I was bored out of my mind and decided to have fun with the picture editing website that Lu shared to us during the yakisoba party. I didn't upload my picture. I uploaded his instead.

Yakisoba Party

animageek.com - make animated picture
September 6 , 2008 - Just like the week before I started this Saturday by going to the hospital. This time Mars went with me instead of Kay. When the results came, it was all normal. Thank God! But the doctor advised me to continue drinking the medicine and not to hurry when I said I wanted to stop taking the medicine because I want to get pregnant. :P
Mars and I went to an Indian restaurant in Sannomiya for lunch and had curry lunch set which made us really sleepy after that it made me momentarily think that we were food poisoned! We then headed out to Kobe for a light gift shopping for him. (He who loves to be alone and doesn't know shit about how I feel! He has rejected me quite a number of times already with "hitori ga suki" and I haven't even made definitive move on him yet. Talking about rejection, this definitely tops the list in mine. :P)

We then bought a few groceries at tamade and went to Shiera's mansion for the yakisoba party. We enjoyed eating while watching "Seigi no Mikata"[正義の味方]. I feel asleep around the 4th episode though, I guess eating too much in a day can really take its toll on a frail body like mine.

The party ended around 2am. I'm glad the neighborhood streets of Shin Osaka and Minamikata are still relatively safe during these early morning hours so the walk home was ok. There were still many leftovers so we continued the party the next day at Jay's. This time it became a takoyaki party.

Busy Saturday

August 30, 2008 was quite a busy day. In the morning Kay and I went to Kobe Kaisei Hospital for a consultation and blood test. I was grateful for the fact that the hospital had an International Internal Medicine department. Moreso because the doctor speaks English!(He's a guy and he touched my throat during the examination, nyahahahahah!). By the time we finished at the hospital it was already past lunch time so we ate around the area near Rokkomichi station. It was a pasta place and there were a lot of manga on the sorrounding shelves in it for people to read while enjoying the great food.

After that we went to Umeda to look for the salon that was recommended by the ex-girlfriend of one osakapinoy who was very talented in looking for cheap but quality services. I won't say she was a miser because that'll be too rude. After all, I did benefit from her patience in looking for that place. I had my hair done and the results were absolutely fantastic! Kay had a hair cut too, but her hair didn't really look much different to me. I met up with Kay again in Yodobashi camera because she went ahead of me out of the salon. She introduced me to her close friend Joseph.
Then we had ramen for dinner at Umeda. We queued in the line for quite a while.(There are always a lot of people lining up for this particular ramen shop). It was a good thing that they were able to put us together in one table.(Actually it's half of a table, half of it was occupied by other people :P). We concluded the night playing archade games at the top of Hep Five and taking some shots at perikura.(Kim was really cool, she played Time Crisis the longest!)

Jinnouchi-san

He is my seatmate since August 18. Finally, I have someone to talk to in this awfully quiet place! He's turning 26 this coming September 20. He is very kind. I'm very grateful that he is willing to talk to me despite my very bad Japanese speaking and hearing ability.
We talk everyday and usually I am the one asking him questions. He answers them quite diligently and honestly so I'm pretty glad about that. Nowadays, I don't worry anymore when I get sleepy. He makes each conversation interesting and fun that I always end up laughing afterwards. During the first day that he sat beside me, he helped me with my Fedex package delivery problem. Fedex required some document to be faxed and he went with me to the manager's room and pleaded for me so that I can send them.
As I got to know him more and more each day, I realized how kind, hardworking and responsible he is.
Jinouchi-san, for all the help you have given me, THANK YOU.
May you have the best in life!
Stay cool, dude!

Summer Sonic 2008

I woke up early the morning of August 9, 2008, all for the glory of Summer Sonic Festival (I've never done this for work though :P).
I was pretty excited as I went to the Shin-Osaka station and lined up at McDonalds to buy my breakfast. I met Dio at the platform and we headed out to Maishima (Shin-Oska->Osaka, Osaka-Nishikujo, Nishikujo->Sakurajima). We arrived at around 9:00am at the registration area. I saw Shoku-chan at the beginning of the line. She was waiting for Tomo-chan
who was probably still parking their car.
We lined up for the shop because I wanted to buy an official T-shirt.(Last year I wasn't able to so I made it a point to get one this year). I was disappointed with the lack of giveaways this year.
We had lunch together with Tomo-chan, his wife came later. We didn't linger much in the Oasis area and started out to the Sonic Stage. (The alternative bands were placed in the Sonic Stage this year, last year they were in the Sky Stage).
We were able to get a small glimpse of MGMT band in their last performance and they sounded ok. The next performers was MUTEMATH. Technically the band was excellent. Also the song variety and sequence was good, they had fast-beat, heavy beat, and also slow ballad type songs. The vocalist was an epitome of energy as he sometimes stands on top of the piano rocking the crowd. He was also very tall, or maybe he looked tall because he was wearing a suit!

After MUTEMATH we tried to go to the Ocean Stage to catch 311. I didn't like 311 vocalist's body movement. He had a great bod I agree to that, but more than that, his movements are totally uncoordinated. Like what I said to Dio, he's like a body builder trying hard to ballroom dance!And his vocal range is not that great either. We only stuck around for 3 songs because it was suffocatingly hot. We then went back to the Sonic Stage(a closed coliseum type stage) to cool ourselves off. We got to see BIFFY CLYRO for a few seconds in their last song. They were only consist of 3 people but they sounded powerful. They were also very choreographed in their outfit of red leg fit pants with no top!

Next to perform were AGAINST ME! This band is probably the worst one I've heard for the whole day. They got sound balance right, but their performance and song sequence/selection suck! I don't call that music, I call it NOISE. Plain, annoying, no remarkable display of technical skills, no soul NOISE! We stayed a little longer in the Sonic Stage to cool ourselves from the
disappointment we got from the last performers. Next in line were the SUPER FURRY ANIMALS. Although we didn't stay for the whole performance, they were slightly better than the last band. But I think they had some technical problems because there was a lot of extra noise coming out. The songs did not come out clean.
We then got out of the Sonic Stage and went back to Ocean Stage to prepare for ALICIA KEYS. By this time RADWIMPS were still playing. RADWIMPS is a japanese band with a really skinny vocalist (I think he is also in love with Alicia Keys, hehehehe). They sounded really good their performance was remarkable and I think they are all technically excellent. But I think their adlibs are all scripted and not exactly spontaneous. ALICIA KEYS is an angel! She is an embodiment of perfect beauty and excellent physique, endowed with the vocal range of a diva!
For me, she is the best performer! I love her spanish version of Karma. Everytime her face is focused on that big TV near us playing the piano I could have swoon at how beautiful she is, how talented, how graceful! We ended the day with watching the first 3 songs of Fatboy Slim.
I've never seen his face before since it was never shown in any of his famous videos. He is a little older than I thought but he is a very cool old guy. It would probably feel nice to have a grandpa
like him. hehehhe.

Summer Sonic 2008 felt great, ALICIA KEYS made it all WORTH IT!
ALICIA KEYS, I LOVE YOU, my superwoman!
Note: Couldn't take any pictures of the performers because it wasn't allowed.

Kobe Hanabi 2008

20080802 The afternoon Dio and I went to Kobe to watch the Hanabi. We started walking from the Sannomiya station. It was a gruelling 45min walk and the air was saturated and hot.
I felt like all the grease were in my hair and all over my body by the time we arrived at Kobe Port. We met Idel and Kay there. It was a waste that Mars couldn't join us. The only thing that made the fireworks acceptable to me (I was never that enamored about fireworks!) was the presence of music that was choreographed together with the fireworks. It was funny and it made the event a little memorable. On this same day I got a new phone. I bought a Nokia N95 from Yodobashi Camera's Softbank. It cost me roughly 45K++ and although I'm poor right now, I'm happily poor. hehehe :)

I still have a lot of stuff to setup for my new phone like the address book as well as some applications. I'm pretty excited about it.