I shall not be responsible if you choose to read this while eating.

Its about the toilet in my host family’s place.

Well, its not the toilet actually.

Its the bathroom.

2 separate places – toilet and bathroom.

No small or big business can be done in the bathroom.

No place to clean you see…..

The shower head on the right hand side is the shower.

It is water heated.

I tried once to off the water heater and shower during summer time.

The water was freezing!

Japanese water….

The pool of water is REAL hot spring water.

Sit on the floor, shower and clean your body real good then go sit in the pool or also known as ONSEN.

I never go into the onsen during summer (its hot outside and going into the onsen will burn me! )

But, the onsen is very very great during winter.

It heats up the body to the level where even a 2 degrees celcius wind feels cooling and not cold!

Look at the fog.

Its water vapour from the heat of the bath.

Taken during winter.

This is a room before entering the main bathroom.

Here is where you get undressed and dressed back.

Holy ****!!

Look at the size of the spider!

Its a common spider in Japan!

O M G !!

Kiong

Ta da! This is my host brother’s room.

I won’t tell you his name cause I do not want anyone stalking him.

He is 37 this year.

Still single.

Eldest in the family of 3 boys guys.

The youngest got married when I was there.

Anyway,

Just look at how clean it is!

Well, my room is not much different than that. . .

Just so you know, I’m lying down on my bed taking this photo.

Its summer time.

How do I know from the picture?

Cause the futon is open.

Means its hot.

Means its SUMMER!

Okay, time to introduce the areas around my room for 10 months and12 days.

The big chair with a racket on top of it is where I put all my clothing.

Usually…

The table is where I do my work.

If there WAS any at all . . .

Just in front of where the shoes are facing is a big big carpet.

Its this messy cause we just came back from Tokyo from my youngest host brother’s wedding.

Anyway, the window on the right hand side of the picture is facing 2 sides.

The right window opens to the warehouse.

The left window open to outside (though the outside is facing another house’s back wall.

Oh, the house I stay in is a shop house by the way.

This is what I do when it gets too darn boring!

Take picture of the ceiling.

Oh! The air conditioner is not functioning.

Killing me at night!

Why?

Cause I’m using a small stand fan which is not higher than my bed as my cooling system in the room!

Don’t bother my sexy leg.

On the left hand side of the chair, is a drawer. I put things I never use in there.

And, since I’m the number 17th exchange student this family had hosts, there are some of their things in there too.

Trash, I guess?

And just behind that drawer is the door to enter the room.

There.

Sorry you can’t see my handsome face.

I do not want anyone vomiting blood till they die while reading my blog!

Anyway, saw the carpet?

Saw my bed?

Saw the BIG fan??

And, best of all, there are books available in the room!

Don’t believe?

I’ll show you!

That cupboard is DIRECTLY on top of where I sleep.

The window faces outside. No netting at all. If not, it’ll be at least cooling at night.

Ah… this is before I clean them up.

See that little bottle in front of the fan?

Its one of my favourite drinks in Japan!

Mitsuya Cider!

Great drink.

Cheap too!

Lastly, below is how I hang my clothes that I need to use the next day to dry.

What a big room eh?

Bigger than my house’s (in Malaysia) kitchen!

OMG!

Well, it was one heck of a room to stay in for 10 months and 12 days.

I miss it.

A lot!

And, before I disappear, allow me to wish you guys and gals out there Happy New Year!

Wait.

Its new year’s EVE now right?

Oh, okay.

Happy New Year’s eve

Good luck and have fun welcoming the new year!

Out!

Kiong 

This brings back memories. . .

The street above is in front of my host family’s house and was taken at about 8pm.

Sooo quiet! Well, that’s life in a rural area in Japan!

Where’s my house you ask? see the picture above. The first building on the left.

It is a shop house. I’ll show you the interior of my house later on.

Now, lets see about the surroundings of the place I am going to have to stay for 10 months 12 days!

Its called Shirahama – cho ( Shirahama city ) by the way. . .

Located in Wakayama – ken ( Wakayama Prefecture ) somewhere in Osaka

Okay. First off, my place is about 5 minutes walk to the beach.

It is one fine bitch beach!

Thats why it is very popular with tourists during summer time.

Not a good scene at tat time.

Now, I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Oh, all the pictures that follows are taken at the beach during winter time.

Enjoy . . .

Sun setting at 5.20 pm! Well, its winter after all.

And the below is a scene from an apartment on a cliff

No offense but these are just how it is in rural area in Japan.

Compare it to what we have in Malaysia!

Look at the bitches beaches!

Look at the cleanliness!

*Speechless. . .

. . .

Kiong

Its been a long time since I last posted. Things were up. Anyhow and anyway, here is the 2nd post from Japan!

Continue from Arrival Orientation I….

After all the tours I made personally around the orientation site, I went inside the building.

The orientation was for about 3 days 2 nights.

The first day itself, we were placed into teams and separated according to groups.

Plus, we had to bath right?

We had public bath. All guys together.

Too bad they forbid mixed bathing….

We did team activities (although lame but… ).

I remembered this activity we did which was how to write your name in Japanese.

That was the first time I found out my name was  キイオング(kiongu).

Later on though, I found out that was not how I write my name in Japanese. ><!

And, the last interesting activity we did was the night time activity.

There were 5 Malaysian in our area.

We were splitted into 2 different groups.

I was with these 2 girls while the other guy was with another guy.

We are supposed to do a presentation to introduce our country!

And, I have no material!

Thank God this was a team presentation.

We did a rough presentation on what Malaysia is.

Then, it was our turn to sit and watch presentations from other countries!

This girl above is not Indian! She’s a Nepali.

From Nepal. Soon to be one of my good friends while being in Japan since we hang out a lot.

Don’t ask me where these two came from. I forgot. XD

All I remember was that the guy on the right, is very special!

Why?

Because, I have been thinking he was a lady when I see him from the back!

Wait, I’ve been looking at him only from the back! Gave me a surprise when “she” turned around and became a “he”.

Special eh?

And this guy above is a Japanese guy. His name, Shef (a nickname he gave himself. Too bad I forgot his real name).

He is one of the volunteers who help out in that camp. Why his picture was taken? Cause he is funny.

Here, he is waving his paper to stop the presentation (since we were given a specific amount of time only to present due to the time constraint).

He would keep wave his paper like a mad fellow with the presenters ignoring him.

FOREIGNERS! Respectless to his effort. Such a pity to him.

And here we have another interesting character!

This white guy was groupless (we were grouped according to which country we came from).

Therefore, he decided to somehow be a patriotic Thai.

It was funny see-ing him up there supporting the Thais when he know NOTHING about Thailand. Probably just except the red district section. Wait, who don’t know about that?

And here we have our beloved MCs.

Wait, not so much beloved since I find the right hand side guy very very annoying. He was trying to play the role of the ONLY MC on stage.

The girl didn’t talk really much since the guyS did most of the talking.

By the way, all 3 of them voluntarily became MCs.

Anyone care to translate what the above means in what language?

0.0!

Kiong

Once again…

No matter how hard I try, I still can’t deny the sight in front of me. Hundreds. No, thousands. No, MILLIONS! This year’s participation of The Great Mitochondria Race has exceeded 400 million participants. Damn…more participants mean more competition. Nevertheless, I shall do my best! PEET!! “ ALL PARTICIPANTS PLEASE GET INTO LINE. THE RACE IS ABOUT TO START!” ( I am still wondering who said that). Anyway, into line we go. Get set, ready, GO!

I have been in this race for about three hours and I am still wondering what in the world was I thinking in joining this race! Every participant can be seen squeezing through every empty space available in this “delivery” canal. Luckily for us, we are racing in liquid and our specially designed tail helps us to propel forward at an unbelievable speed. Oops… there goes one participant. Although our speeds are constant and the same, it is our stamina and will power that will determine the victor of this race.

We have been racing for about twenty hours now and I am beginning to feel the stress around my tail. Hundreds or perhaps thousands have perished in this battlefield. Oh, no…here is where the real challenge begins, the last stage! We have to choose between either path on this forked-tunnel. All we know is that either or on rare occasions, both has the egg. Plus, we do not have enough stamina to return from the chosen path and enter the other path. Anyway, no time to think! I chose the right turn with about 1500 of us. I have lost track of time through this dark watery canal. The thought of choosing the wrong path crossed my mind just when I saw it. The mighty egg! Only one participant is allowed to penetrate it before it seals itself, killing anyone who tries to enter. However, on some occasions, double penetration at almost or at the same time can happen. The final stretch of this race has begun!

The supersonic speed almost everyone portrayed at this last stage made me worried of losing. I had not accelerated once in this whole race and lucky for me, I did not. If not, I would not be able to penetrate the egg this far. It was quite humorous though to see them speeding towards the egg and bouncing back, never getting up again. Some even started drilling as fast as they can trying to penetrate which in the end, remain motionless with their head half-way in the egg shell and its tail resting on its surface. I did my best throughout this race and my energy is almost out just as I am penetrating half-way through its shell. Just when my motor was about to stop, I decided to ram my way through! I reversed and with all my strength left, I propelled myself forward towards the hole I made. Fortunately I did not miss and perhaps it is my size or what but my momentum was great enough for my head to enter the egg. Yuck! More liquid! I felt the shield was being set up around the egg.

As the shield enclosed the egg, I saw I was the only one who had penetrated the egg and many were falling down as they touched that shield. Plus, my neck and tail were also being detached and everything went black. The funny thing is that I did not feel any pain at all losing my limbs. Yet, I somehow felt myself being fused with the surrounding liquid and my brain is being forced out! The last thing I remember is that I was being split over and over for God knows how many times.

P/S : This is a re-post of my last last last last time post. Enjoy.

Kiong