[Mood: Okay] [Mentally: Fine] [Physically: Feeling Fit] [State of Mind: Mess]
This is gonna be a short entry, mainly because I had a long and rough week, and I'm tired. Picture speaks a thousand words, so enjoy them below.
Last Sunday, heavy snow stated to fall upon us. In a span of 5 hours, the level of snow has gone up to my knees. And the cold was unforgiving.
Left: That Sunday night. Heavy snow.
Center: Knee-deep snow.
Right: In the wee hours of Monday morning.
Got a couple of nice pictures too.
Just to show how bad the snowing was, here are some more pictures of the bridge railings and MVP you see above on Monday night. Just compare both pictures. Also included are the snow collector bicycles.
I have also taken a video of walking in the snowy dark. Might wanna take a look at that one on my link of movies on the left of this site.
On Tuesday, we had our Japanese class again. This time, Richard (Biolab scientist from Slovakia) came too. He needed to brush up on his basics. When we were almost done with our class, Akiko-san came with a group of foreigners. Below are some pictures of the encounter.
The Japanese lady in yellow in the middle picture is our
sensei, Yoko Akazawa. The foreigners, I heard, were from a place called New Guatamala, or something like that, and they speak French. Akiko-san told me the country is near Singapore. I'm not so sure. I have a video of them trying to speak Japanese, and yes, it's in my link of movies.
Later, we were introduced to Nic, who is from Germany, and will be working in the Biolab. For the time being, he will be staying in the apartment above Yaomin's and Chin Ho's. Cool. Another member for our activities. Lolz...
That night, we went to a sumo sushi place. Pictures are below.
From left: Gabor, Chin Ho, Yaomin, Rui, Likai, Me, Sakae, Endo, a secretary of Biolab.
On Thursday, Likai brought Yaomin and I to play soccer. He said it was indoor soccer, but one look at the goalposts, I know this is Futsal. Yeah, some of you guys might have heard of it. There have been futsal competitions such as the Tiger 5's. There were quite a number of players, around 20+, and their age ranges between 15 to 50. But man, the old people can really play.
We splited into 4 teams, and my team and Yaomin's were up against each other. The game was very unlike what I feel in Singapore, fast and furious passing, and almost a telephatic reading of moves from team-mates. It was like a video game. I tried to settle in, and the team I was in signalled our intention after just a few minutes with me giving a through pass and one of the strikers tap in for a goal. We won that match, and we had a rest before our next one.
The round robin format continued, and in our last match, I volunteered to play goalkeeper. They have this understanding that everyone in the team must play as goalkeeper at least once, and that person must volunteer. So I did, for the last one, and the gloves they gave me were one size bigger than my hands. I didn't really make a good impression after a few minutes, when trying to save a low shot with my legs, the ball rebounded off my shin and lobbed over me. But the team gave some encouragement, and I managed to pull off one save from a striker who managed to dodge my defenders. Then it was a switch of goalkeepers, and I went in to play.
In the end of 4 of our matches, we won 3 and drew 1. Pretty good for my debut. But I was so tired out. One factor was the cold, another was the intensity of the matches. But I will work on my fitness, and hopefully come back next week, a fitter player. I got a video of one of the matches in my link of movies.
On Saturday, Likai, Yaomin, Chin Ho and I went to S-Mall. Yes, that place where we got lost last time. We went there to walk around, play some arcade. Managed to complete Time Crisis 2. Not that difficult though. But one credit was 100 yen. Lolz. After some time there, we had some ice cream. Mine is the one in cone with a cheery.
The journey back was very dangerous, as there was a snow storm, and everytime I tried to cycle at the side of the road, the wind will blow me to the centre of the lane. Yes, very risky, but it was fun.
Yesterday, there was an Internation Charity Event held at an exhibition centre which was near the end of Tsuruoka. Yaomin and Nic followed Akiko-san in her car, while Gabor, Chin Ho and me cycled there. It took us around 20 minutes of cycle. Below are some pictures. There were some performance by Japanese, Americans, Slovakians, Koreans, all over the world. And Gabor was caught talking to one of the performers with Nic looking on. Also got a picture of a lady with her cute baby. I saw the child running around the whole place, so I wanted to take a picture of her. She was transformed into a quiet one when I took it. Lolz.
I have this cool video during a tea demonstration. They poured tea on one small structure, and the structure actually pee-ed the tea out. Better watch this one. It's in my link of movies.
On the way back, I got a picture of popcicles (or is it icicles?) on the top of our hostel. How do you spell it anyway? The picture is below.
Yup, it's very dangerous to leave without looking above now. Ha ha.
Ok, time to do some work.
(Note: The movies will be uploaded soon.)