English Village in the Mountainous Fukushima

Rey Lasano 10:14:00 PM
Hey there everyone! I know it has been like ages since the last post. It is quite hard to keep up with the blog since there are million things to do around. Luckily most of those things involving eating super yummy foods, travelling to nice places around and having fun with friends here in Japan.

My seniors were serious when they literally commanded us to go have fun and explore Japan till drop on our spring break. The weather was quite nice, mild and not as cold as winter. Although sometimes rain pouring all day long, it was still nice. :D

Anyways the girls from the dorm wanted so badly to visit this English village called the British Hills so we went there from March 10th to March 12th. The Hills was located in Fukushima, yes, the place where the quake destroyed the nuclear plant a year ago. It was a place designed as a model of Highlands of Scotland on Victorian period in Britain. For short, it looked like Britain in Middle Age. And it was super wonderful. I feel like staying there FOREVER.

It was still snowing - A LOT in Fukushima. When I stepped my feet there, I was like, "you called this spring??" xD xD

but it was really pretty, almost feel like going back to Hokkaido (i know, i know, i haven't report anything about that, either) but with a slightly warmer temperature. This picture was taken soon after we arrived there (around 1 pm and we were walking around because the room would not be ready before 3 pm.) And luckily these girls I went to British Hills with was so excited with taking a lot of pictures, so we literally went here and there and take pictures at every place.



Okay, so we took 4 hours trip from Chiba to Fukushima, it involved changing the trains for around 3 times but was not that troublesome, because there were 7 of us and you can't gather 7 girls without chit-chatting for hours. So the journey didn't feel THAT long and it was quite fun. When we entered the Manor House, where the reception desk was located we were greeted by this statue (look to your left).
I'll give you three guesses, go on and see if you recognize this person
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All the girls reaction was like:
"Who's that?"
"It's Snape."
"Who?"
"Snape. You know, the character on that popular movie."
"Oh, that guy."

So we agreed (and laughing endlessly) that this guy is Snape from that popular movie and we went around for three days calling him the Snape until on the last day, I found out the harsh truth. He was, actually, ladies and gentlemen, is William Shakespeare. He was SHAKESPEARE, for crying out loud. I felt half amused, half embarrassed. Amused, because we went around for three amazing days with the joke of calling him professor Snape and half embarrased because how couldn't we recognize Mr. Shakespeare?? lol

Anyways, this is how the front door looked like and we spent quite a long time taking pictures here.


The lobby was also had a breathtaking atmosphere because we were like "Woooow" and "Whoaaaaa" and "Wooooow" all the time. I don't know if it was just me or what, but the rooms were quite........ dark. No, not dark as in pitch black but it was dimly lit, with
red and brown sofas and small lamps and a grand staircase.... and although i seriously admired the design, it was sort of.....it feels like coming to a very oldish building where you can meet witch cooking some weird poision in a dark place with the fireplace also dimly lit and........

well, it was not like it was scary, it was just ......old.
The chairs were empty when I took the picture below, but when we came in, a woman was sitting there, reading something. Thank goodness she was reading something normal like The Daily Yomiuri (English newspaper in Japan, one of my main source of knowing what is happening in the world since Japanese news and TV- AND commercials are subject to my low-level of understanding either maybe i am still too stupid to understand the language, or I simply don't under
stand the concept, seriously.), and not something scary like Witch Daily or something.

Because------------

British Hills was nothing like a ghost house, but, but, but, I couldn't help to get that kind of impression on the very first time because they decided not to turn on brighter lights. But then again if it was not a deliberate action mainly to re-create the atmosphere of Middle Ages manors in Britain, then it probably have something to do with energy saving program. As I said earlier, British Hills was located in Fukushima, one of the area that suffered a great deal from the big earthquake last year. So they probably trying to use the electricity as efficient as they could.
After walking around the Hills complex, we went for some late lunch at the pub, which was not really lunch because I ordered this delicious cake set, and you don't eat cake for lunch. :D

But it was really really delicious and i really liked it. They let me chose what drink I would like to order, and they have selection of tea, coffee and juices and I ordered some warm tea - I forgot the name of the tea but it was indeed delicious. The cake has some sort of sweet and mint flavor, and I really liked it. Rini ordered the Chicken Basket and it came with two pieces of chicken breast and french fries. I didn't take the picture of the Chicken Basket (was too hungry) but I did snapped a picture of the cake set!


After eating the so-called-lunch we decided to come back to the reception desk and ask for our keys. There were 7 of us and we booked 2 rooms, one for 4 persons and the other for 3 persons. We did a little lottery at the pub to determine who sleeps where and I join the other three girls in the room of 211. It was........ a quite big room with a big closet which............ housed the winter coat that could be used freely by the guests. They looked more like robe than coat, in my opinion. Somehow we picture ourselves like witches from, again, that popular movie and couldn't help but feel so happy about this.



Yep, yep. That is the robe I have been blabbering about. See how Rini's look shorter than mine..? Exactly. Because she got the size of 72, whatever it meant, and mine is 110. But later I was kinda grateful for the length of the robe because when we went out for dinner, gee, the snow was uber thick. The robe helped save my leg! :D

Speaking about dinner, they got this awesome refectory, or the dining hall, that has this four long table in a grand hall. Kind of reminds u, again, of that popular wizards' movie, isn't it?


And since you need to dressed properly (smart casual), Rini was real excited about everyone's gonna dressed up nicely and why don't put make up on everyone so the night would be a special night. So Estela and Marina ended up putting the make up on everyone else, since we were less experienced than they were on make up department and ta-raaaa... I seriously surprised with the results and was like, no waaay, this is not my face.



But it felt quite nice because everybody puts on the make up and everybody looked different because of those make ups and I do think that sometimes we do need the skill of doing the make up on our own. By the way they served us appetizer first before we headed to our private buffet section (long live KANDA, by being its student we got all the privileges!). The food was really really delicious, and complete with fruits and desserts.
I came from a tropical land where you can find fruits easily and of course, cheap in every street in the town. And upon coming to Japan I realized that fruit is a LUXURY. So I was real happy when they served pineapples and strawberries and other fruits and that is one major point why I would like to live there forever. :D :D There were rice and pastas, beef, chicken, scrambled eggs and other delicious food. I was grateful for our two nights and three days stay, because it was like being in a COMPLETELY different world. Like, literally, I was not in Japan.


This is the full team of British Hills explorer. The nice waitress there caught our pleading eyes of PUHLEEASEE-take-our-picture-together and so she took the pictures for us. Behind us were senior high school students who apparently staying at the Hills for an English learning camp (since they don't speak Japanese at all at the Hills, and which was the other reason why it was literally not Japan there). We then realized that actually the British Hills was an educational-based resort to learn English and while people are struggling learning we were playing and having fun there. :P But it was okay, since all we did here in Japan is learning Japanese and there were a lot of not so good things happening in the dorm, so it was nice because it feels like for just a moment you leave all the Japan world with all the struggling and hide in a perfectly fun place. Everyone did realize that it will be cruel jungle once we came back to our residence in Chiba and we better make it as fun as possible here in British Hills.

So after dinner we went for a little tour at the library. This library the British Hills had was amazing! There were a lot of nice and old books and I was happy. Although they seemed to provide little care to the books, which is too bad because some of the antiques are really starting to show that they need more appropriate care, but I did enjoy the library. They got a huge book on the Windsor Castle, the complete Shakespeare (laughing) and Edgar Allan Poe's, all the classics and children books and everything. I was expecting those kinds of books in the library since we realized that the Hills was an educational based resort, but they
caught me off guard with these books. They had a complete series of cooking books from English cooking to Spain cooking, and Italian and everything and those books were quite old but I was really surprised. So I asked one of my beautiful friend to take a picture of me holding this Spain cooking's book with the delicious Paella on its cover.

No, I still don't know how to cook Paella.. :D

but Marina (the Spain girl) swore that before we get back to our own countries, she would cook us some Paella. (yaay!!) and we took A LOT of pictures in the library. The library was also quite spacious, so we did a little "fashion show" runway and recorded it. *giggles* but the girls are going to kill me if I dare posted it anywhere in the internet so I could only tell you that it was a fun moment with them.

The library also had several nice sofas and chess game, which no one played because we couldn't find the chess pieces anywhere. The library also had this little folding ladder that looked as old as the other things in the library and we had some photo shoot using that ladder. Now that I think about it, it was strange because you got the impression of antique, and Middle Ages, and oldish atmosphere but I can guarantee you that all the properties (sofas, tables, flowers, lamp decorations, ladder) and everything is....... fairly new, I think. These people at the Hills are uber smart on shaping the look and setting the lamps because we did feel like we were in the old times of Britain.

From the library we strolled to the Queen and King's room, with this "Her Majesty" writings on top of the door. It was said to be the duplicate of the Queen's and King's room but I am not 100% sure that it was. Nevertheless, the room was beautiful and the bed and the sofas are nice and actually I liked it. Even if it was not really the room I would like to be my own room, it was beautiful in its own ways. The girls were also quite excited at this place because the room was big enough and had a lot of things to be looked at. I opened one of the closet in the Queen's room and find a wedding dress inside. Why, exactly, a wedding dress is stuffed at the closet, I really can't think of the reason. One of the girls asked if we could try it on but later realized it will be too much of a trouble trying to put that beautiful white thing on and then put it off and arrange it at the closet again so she didn't try it on.

The Queen's room had all the feminine side of a room. The crystal glass, the grand lamps and fireplace, the big mirror, flowers - like, everywhere, and sofas and feminine bed and everything. The King's room is definitely more masculine, with big work desk and simple sofas. There were not much of flowers inside but it had a decoration of a bear skin on top of the bed. And I was like, Uh-huh. Like anyone would sleep on a bed like that. I'm a kind of strict animal pro and if i have to look at the bear skin on top of my bed every night I will definitely never sleep there. I wonder if the King really DID use that bear skin as a decoration on top of his bed.
Anyway did I tell you that the King and the Queen's room is united as one? They had this door that connects the King and the Queen's room. The funniest thing happened when one of the girls asked, "So the King and the Queen sleep in a separate bed?"
This could not be the real duplicate of King and Queen's room. :P

So then after looking on those beautiful rooms, everyone was already in this photo-shoot-mood and Estela (the Brazilian) made me posed like this:


Which supposed to be a sexy pose and turns out to be not sexy at all. xD

It WAS a sexy pose when Estela did it though, but when I did it it is nowhere near sexy. Maybe it was because I smiled too wide. You dont smile that wide when you're trying to be sexy... lol.

But it was quite fun and I enjoyed every seconds with those girls, from eating to doing this photo-shoot thing, from trying to read the books in the library and discuss the possibility of the King and the Queen's sleeping in separate beds and everything. It was a moment to remember, the British Hills trip. :)


Oh, and before I forgot! The outside view was as amazing as the Houses and the Manors view! There was this famous England's red box public telephone and the girls happened to took a picture of me and Rini with that little red box.
This picture is one of my favorite because it was just funny, looking at Rini's expression and me being locked down in the box. I guess even if we had certain troubles before finally arrived there at the British Hills, it really did worth it to visit. And I wonder how the place would look like in summer, when there were no snow and the colors are not merely white. Because in the end, at night it was too cold to stay outside longer and we decided to come back to our rooms and take this sweet picture.


So guys, if you happened to visit Japan someday, please do give this place a visit. It is amazing, and I assure you will get that "England" feeling upon your arrival here. You can easily access the information here:


Thanks for visiting the blog even when I'm on hiatus for some time. Hug your loved ones tonight, I'll see you soon!

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Fall for 700 Times, Rise Up for 701 Times!

Rey Lasano 10:35:00 AM
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
It's a bit slow (ahem), I know. I'm sorry about that folks. You cant believe how many things and works I so have to do by the time I was home in Chiba. There are final tests and reports waiting, and a lot of things to do and I found it really really hard to update the blog. The stories I want to share now is like a mountain of stories and seriously I dont know where to start. Mwahahahahahha....

Well since there is still a New Year atmosphere around I'll start with my resolution this year. Speaking of resolution, for me new year's resolution is not a mere trend I followed because everyone else doing it. For me a resolution is like a.... a spirit booster! It contains my determination to reach what I wanted to. Yet, I cant deny that life is too much full of surprises, and sometimes it leads me to places that is totally out of my expectation. :D

Last year, i wrote my new year's resolution like this:

1. To be a better J's disciples, and leaning closer to HIM, and finding more surprises and blessings and finding HIM bigger in my heart.
(.............ummmm....... i think i havent succeeded in this one. T.T)

2. To be a better girlfriend for A, a more easy going one, a deeper understanding, a better supporter, wise with words and emotion.
(Uh-huh. Exactly. -.-" we are still good friends, though.)

3. To be a better friend for my precious besties out there. To be a comfortable shelter for Jude, Tyaz, Fly, Aloince, Rinane, Bombina, Dee and for Wiramiharja, wherever he is.
(I do think everyone have closer relationship and stronger bound now. With the fact that i'm away, they are still the same. still crazy friends, still make me feel loved, they are still..... them. :) i do love them.)

4. I wanna be ON TIME! And, please, please, reduce that last-minute habit of mine! It's 2011, for goodness' sake.
(WELL.............. not done! ahahahhaa. but improved, since i've been in Japan it has been so much better. I really learn to put the discipline even stricter on myself)

5. I so have to start saving money. For everything.
(.... cant say anything about this. I did start saving though, not a regular ones but.......)

6. To Vietnam with Jude! More saving. ouch.
(cancelled, we changed it to local travels: Jogjakarta-Surabaya with additional member: Iin.)

7. Massive hair make over! nyaa....~
(I DID it! Yaaay...~~)

8. I want that scholarship to Japan. Yum.
(This is a total God's work because there is no way I could get accepted on my own. :3)

9. To be more organized, neat (Jude please dont pass out), and discipline!
(It's not that PERFECT yet, but I think i'm improved a bit)

10. And at last, to stay true to myself wherever these resolutions and the efforts to accomplished them take me, to stand for what i believe and what i dream for, coz i'm amazing just the way i am!
(i got the chance to do this since Japan is so much different and often i felt like i'm losing my own identity but thanks for helps God sent to me, i think i know now where to stand, and how to stay to be myself).

That's the last year's evaluation. By the way, earlier this year, i got a daruma doll from a friend of mine. She is Brazilian, her name is Estela and she bought it at Fushimi Inari, a temple in Kyoto.

Daruma is like.............. it's something like this:


The picture of the daruma is taken from here

He is said to be a..... rather "cute" duplication of father of Zen Buddhism, the Bodidharma. The tradition is you received this from another people, with both of the daruma's eyes are blank. Upon receiving this, you think of something, your goal, thing you want to achieve. After deciding that you paint one eye for the daruma. Later when you accomplished your goal, your dream or your wish, you give the daruma another eye and completing his sight. The daruma doll was made in such a way that when you throw him, knock him down or let him fall, he would stand back to his actual position again. This become your spirit, for no matter how many times you fall when you are chasing your dream, you would stand again, and run once again to reach your dreams.
It's like if you fall 700 times, you rise up 701 times, untill you complete your goal. The daruma doesnt have arms and legs because it pictures the Bodhidharma who lost the use of his own arms and legs after sitting for 9 years in a cave, meditating. Thus, it reminds you to have the same self discipline and positive outlook in reaching your dreams.
This picture of daruma i put here has a kanji character on his chest, and it reads "yume". "yume" means "dream". Not every doll has writings in his chest, though.

Anyway, that's the spirit of daruma and I have painted my daruma's eye some time after I got back home from Kyoto. Everytime i see him standing in my desk I am reminded of the wish i painted his eye with and got excited in the morning. :3

So this is my 2012 resolution!

1. To become a better disciple of J
2. To be a better friends for my besties, and to prove to Loince that friendship could go through the ocean.
3. To be more discipline, organized and neat
4. To finish college at Atma Jaya University and get my bachelor's degree
5. I want to see England and New York
6. Actually, I want to study in New York
7. Travelling to Vietnam and Kamboja with Jude and Iin
8. Go to Larc'en'ciel concerts
9. Participate with organizations that gives me opportunities to do field work and community services. :3
10. Take my youngest brother and mom to travel somewhere they could have total fun and (especially for my brother) where he could learn a lot of new things.

Basically, that's all. I dont think they are easy to do and if Jude sees this she might be giving me her "flat" look and ask me if I know i dont sound realistic by writing this. hahahhaa... still, these are things I do want to achieve and i'm running to my dreams. So, what about you folks? :) whether you are writing resolution or not, I wish you all have a wonderful year ahead!

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Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Rey Lasano 4:29:00 PM
Dear folks...
guess where I am right now! ...................... Correct!!
I'm in Osaka, which is freakin cold ad winter and freakin uh-may-zing and I am happy!!! So i'm spending my first ever winter holiday with my friends at Osaka and Kyoto. Just dont ask for the updates right now, I'll do it by the time I'm home. ;P

This could be my last post of this year, since I dont know when I will be able to write again here. I just want to wish you all a merry little christmas.. :)
and I hope God's joy stay with you all, and He is reborn once agin in your hearts and that you all have a warm and sweet Christmas, with loved ones around you.

One thing I could say right now, this year my Christmas is full of emotion. I'm not quite sure how to name all those emotion but i know for sure that this year it is different. Dad is gone and I'm not home and Thank God my stubborn brother made it to came home and celebrate Christmas together.

I cant write long right now but i will fill you all with details later, okay?
enjoy your Christmas and see you soon!

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Dear Friend

Rey Lasano 7:28:00 PM
Dear friend,

I know more than anyone else how scared you are. I know that in each day you would wish you still can go to a new place all along together with your friends. And I know saying goodbye never get any easier and I know you have been wondering when you will ever see us again.
I know that learning language is hard. I know you would choose not to endure that if you could. Or, you would bargain that it will be not a problem if only you could take us all with you and learn together.
I know theses is difficult and you have to give it your all and sometimes you just want to quit when even your "all" is not good enough. I know your Academic Advisor acts like he does not understand at all the condition you are faced with.
I know you love your dad so much and you dont want to make him worried, not when he needs your full support right now.
I know you hate to realize that you are going to be so faraway from your closest friends and your most comfort zone.
I know, that this time you have no idea how long it will take before we could see each other again.

.....You are more experienced than i ever was in this kind of thing. But I do think that God let me go first so that I could fully understand what you feel. And it ain't easy, to be so very far from people you are so used to share your days. From people's laugh you always hear every single day. From people's smile and stories and hugs you always see and got everyday. It ain't easy and it will take a long time before you finally get used to it.

Me, I so easily got lonely here. I really can not say that I am already get used to be far from you girls. I dont think I ever will get used to that.
But I met amazing people who teach me amazing things. I was given the opportunity to learn more about life, even if for me, it is more like the hard way to do it. I learn to grow. And I learn to value friendship more than ever.

At least there will be your family with you. And your heart will stay with us forever and our hearts will go with you forever. Believe me, my dear, there are certain connections that let you know your best friend is in trouble and need your help. That connection show you that no matter how far you go, you will never be forgotten.

I know exactly how you fear to be forgotten because i was there in that place. I have been there and I know nothing other people say will fully assure you that you will not. But I will not forget you in any way. You know there is this magic people called "internet" and there is this magic i called "bound". We have been through so many things together, we share the good in life and we share the bad things. and we still do it, don't we? Sure, time sometimes prevent us to do so. Sure, the place you are heading to is like on the other pole of the earth from here and sure skype-ing maybe become even harder. But dont you forget that as long as you believe we will always be together. Some says that the core of a friendship is you dont need to talk that much. We are connected to each other and I do believe that someday we will meet again. We will definitely find each other again.
Let's see the other part of the world together. Let's visit world's amazing places every year! Let's make a travel plan! Let's send a shared scrapbook. Let's pray for each other every night. Let's study and work as good as we can do and let's meet up after that.

My dear friend,
whenever you are in doubt, just believe that true friendship always, always, always stays in your heart. we will never be away.
Sometimes letting things out of control is okay. Then you can see from the outside and slowly take your control back. Fill your thoughts with positive things, sings out your heart and dont worry too much.

It is okay to be scared, just don't let it rule your heart, your mind and your days.

I believe amazing days line up in front of us. We might walk different paths in different places, but we are housed under the same sky and step under the same planet. We can't be that far, can we?

stay strong there, stay strong. and have faith. You will be all right.

Love and prayer,
Your friend
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A Statement of Will

Rey Lasano 4:53:00 PM
Rey's Statement of Will
(You are not forced to read this, if you are part of people who might be easily got angry for what i write, there is always a 'close' button on your browser. Use it well and proceed on your own understanding)

I have a project of enjoying my time here in Japan, stop or at least less complaining and completely have a fun life here. Turns out, the very first step to do that is to literally be back to my own self.
It happened at some moment here in Japan that I start fooling myself by not acting as the real me. By worrying too much, way too much about what other people think, relating it to the reputation of my home university and how my actions would affect the hard work my seniors did and affect the welfare of my junior in the coming years.

For real man, I aint living for myself here. I live for other people, for justice's sake. I live for my university and my seniors' reputation, right now I can't think of any even more stupid way of living a life than what I'm doing right now.

And, at some other point, which is literally just now, I realized that I can not achieve my goals if I dont stop being a pathetic one, who keep pitying myself and grow even more miserable in a place where I should kiss the stars, wake the sun and touch the sky since literally I should HAVE living MY dream right now. Instead i'm acting like i am not living my dream.
and this is enough. I have been so really silent for most of the time, when dirty politics and people who are not related to me, people who should mind their own business and people who dont know me at all judging me, keeping me on the edge and somehow MANAGED to change me, to follow their thoughts, adapt their behavior and act like everything they say is right.

The hell with it.

I am no longer going to do this. When people touched my PRINCIPAL values and they don't stop bugging my very own comfort zone, hell back off. back off now before i really bite you. If you think my life so sucks that you need to lend a hand in a way you think would fix everything out, go screw your own life. People got their own life to be cursed on. There is this barrier that keep certain pieces of my whole identity, existence and core of a self i could called "Rey" and this barrier is my own. Things here starting to slowly reaching my barrier and I have had enough.

From now on I am not gonna stay silent when they start bugging my own life.
Screw all the dirty politics, screw all the authority.
i am living my own live right now, i will keep my responsibility as best as i could but when it comes to things that are against my very own principal values, uh-uh, wait just a minute. I aint living here to be praised and well liked, i aint being here to say yes to everything people say.

I am me. for what i do, what i think, and what i say.
if they dont like me for who i am, i have no reason to change me so they will like me.
i am not letting this going any farther, i am not letting people and society robbed my personality, killing my views and even tough it's not always easy to speak out, at least i show what i think.
i am going to live myself like i always do and should anyone have problem with that, i should not even care.
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A Teacher

Rey Lasano 6:06:00 PM
I always got amazed on how teachers could have so much influence on us. I remember I wrote about a teacher called Mas GG back then at Atma Jaya and how i was fascinated by his passion of teaching, how he found happiness and joy in teaching his students, and how he treated us as equal, as colleagues and as students.

Never did i thought i will also be fascinated by a sensei here in Japan. I have seen my senseis' passions here in Japan. How they worked so hard to make everything is easily understood by us, who really, are beginners in learning Japanese. I have seen them downloading Portuguese dictionary to help student who does not speak English so well and I have seen them inviting a native speaker of Portuguese from the higher level to help in class. I have seen them using so many pictures and easy summary, flashcards and tools to teach. I have seen them tried their best to create a fun activity that makes it possible for us to interact with native Japanese students in classes. I have seen them patiently listen to our messed up grammar and weird pronunciation. I have seen them listening eagerly to our stories in classes, even tough we always had problems in explaining things, mostly because we don't know the words, or we do know the words but we just dont know how to put them together in a sentence.

Today, I saw a side of a sensei that surprised me so much, a side of him that I never thought I would ever seen. It was to discover that maybe, all this time I have been looking at my teachers, all of them, in Indonesia and in Japan, with only one eye. :)
Turns out that them, being a teacher, being a sensei somehow always have their way to connect with you, to touch you, to teach you, and that by choosing to teach, they have given their all for the sake of their students.

I am amazed to see that through my education years, formally and informally, I have met the teachers that have taught me from their heart. Teachers who found that their student is as important as their choice of job for living. Teachers who found happiness and joy in listening to their students, in watching they grew smarter, and in advising them to be a better person.

Today, one of my sensei here in Japan surprised me by his wide knowledge of another cultures as well as his deep understanding of his students' condition. Being a ryuugakusei, or a foreign student, you got all the fun, but you dont miss all the flaws and hardship you have to endure. It was all in one package and by receiving all the exciting things and advantages you could get, you were also sworn to take the down side respectfully, with a high sense of responsibility. I was kinda surprised because somehow he acknowledged the condition in my dorm, which was really really strict, controlling and limiting you acting as your own self, that as a very normal person you would most likely first react with refusal, anger, and too many 'whys' and 'they cant do thats' in your mind.
it is not like it was THAT bad in the dorm. Everything is nice as long as you understand that you have to give yourself time to adjust and give other people time too, to adjust with you. New things never got easier, seriously. But when the adjustment things are through, as long as you stay true to yourself while learning the important values of living together, then you're gonna be all right.

This sensei, somehow pointed out to me things that I did not see before. He did not pick side, neither 'foreign students' side nor 'the dorm's' side, yet he tried to show me what he thought was wrong, where the problem really rooted from.

He also shared his views of teachings, how he perceived students and how he sees himself as a teacher. In classes, we usually do all the talks and he would correct us when we do mistakes or help us when we are struggling with grammars and vocabularies. He let us speak so often and I rarely heard him speak about himself or his thoughts. But today I listened a lot to his thoughts, his interest, his experience, some of his habits, and his points of view. It was really amazing, concerning that being a teacher he knows the basic things of me and my classmates since all we do is talk about ourselves, our experiences and things in our home countries, but me and the others rarely know things about his life, beside his full name and that he ever taught in a university in Singapore for around 8 years. I dont even know where did he live or how he get to the university until yesterday!

From our rather long but easy chat yesterday, I learned a lot of things. I began to see that he really love to teach, more than I ever realized. I also see that he put a lot of attention to his students, even into little things that I did not even remember I tell him in classes.
His insights and his determination somehow makes me reflects back on those teachers I have ever had through my life. And truly, they inspired me. Inspired me to be a better person, inspired me to have the same determination, the same passion, the same attention in everything I do. Right now I am not at all thinking of being a teacher, for I think I need to experience more and more and more first before I could consider myself as one, but seriously, I would be happy to give my all to things that I really want to do, just like they give their all to teach.

Ever since I came to Japan, I often complaint on so many things. Things that are not working as I want them to, things that are different, things that in my opinion is not good at all and things that somehow make it harder to live in Japan. But because of this particular sensei's insight I realized that in living my life in Japan, I havent yet give it my all. I havent yet do my best and I havent yet work the hardest.
I havent yet put my passion, my determination in learning the language and completing the dream I've been chasing all this years. This is just halfway and I havent give it my all.

From now on, I want to live to even happier in Japan. I want to see things from a different side. I want to give it my all, to feel more thankful and to enjoy my time here, to fill it with my best memories and to learn things more and more.

By the waym I got a feeling that maybe, just maybe, there are other teachers that are also passionate, determined, and nice in KANDA, but maybe I just havent got the chance to know that 'side' of those teachers, since they have been act so unselfishly that their students become their first priority.

There are still a lot of things in my mind but Kanji books began to scream to me to start studying since I got this test tomorrow and I haven't memorize anything. :D
I was about to complaint, but, well, I have promised i will try my best first!
I think this is also what my father wants me to do. :)

I'll catch ya all very soon folks.
Kisses from the stars!
Hug your loved ones tonight. :D
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Random Thoughts

Rey Lasano 7:58:00 PM
Some of my friends have been so much in love lately. Among them, there are also people who were broken hearted, who were unbelievably happy, who were without any reason feel like smiling everyday, also there are people who questioned if what they are doing is right, people who feel sad because they were rejected for a non sense reason, and people who were wondering if they should just give it up or keep chasing the pavements even if it doesnt lead anywhere (hell yeah Adele, i love ya! xD )

To those people, right now I really have nothing to say. for me myself have been trying to arrange my own heart slowly and neatly. for the next time i dont want to be wrong. for the next time i wish it would be forever and for the next time i wish it will last as long as God let me live.
somehow sounds cheesy, or evenmore, silly. childish? yes, maybe.

But someday maybe you will understand why you feel like smiling all day.
Someday maybe you will understand why you wake up hoping he will drop you a message.
Someday maybe you will understand why you have to choose between letting it go or chasing t through
Someday maybe you will understand why you have to be rejected

Then after everything is through, someday you maybe finally find your someone.
Sometimes I wonder, should we grew up someday, do we still look at love the same way we do right now...?
When we grew up someday, will we look back and laugh at how we think about little things like we do now?

for everyone of you out there, who happened to understand that your journey is still so far away,
be strong. stay through. have faith. dont stop believing. trust your dreams. fight for them. most of all..... be happy.
wherever you are, whatever you do, whoever you want to be.
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