Of reuse and space utilization

Today I made a small extension to my kitchen! .. or what's called a "kitchen area" according to the lodge terminology lol
Now I will call this the hot drinks area.
I am very happy with it that I took a memorial picture :D

This following picture is for my dish washing liquid. I bought this during my first week here..which means half a year ago~

The used amount is much less than the half!

This would happen under 2 possibilities ->
A) I rarely wash my dishes
B) I don't have much dishes to start with.

The answer is a mix of the two above reasons :p
What I do is "Dish Washing on-Demand"..which means I wash a dish when I need it.

The last picture is for something that I saw today in the place that my neighbor Ocha san once referred to as a "Visual Crime".
I really wanted to laugh when I saw it. See and judge~!

That's all for today~

Wonderful fall-colored sunset

Today was my first lab meeting presentation. Thank God, It went way too smoothly.
Now its 4:20AM . You might wonder why am I still awake until now. But the truth is that I woke up 1 hour ago ^^;
Today I came back home at 5:00PM and slept all the time until now. I was very busy preparing for my presentation so last night I only slept 2 hours.. that's why I allowed my poor self to sleep until now.

Soon it will be the time for 紅葉(もみじ/こうよう = Autumn Leaves) .. I would love it if I can do some 紅葉見（？）ｗ .
Actually these are times of the year that one wishes to go to Kyoto!!

Anyway, here are some pictures I took for today's sunset. It was really nice beyond words..

それでは！

人生の目標進む君へ

Introducing one of my favorite J-pop songs.
Singing along with songs can always be a good practice to improve your pronunciation skills.
This is how I started actually. In my high school days I used to sing Japanese songs reading lyrics written in Romaji without understanding a single word! w
Enjoy!

Tabidachi by Greeeen

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Lyrics:

作詩：GReeeeN 作曲：GReeeeN
午前0時　明日　旅立つ君ヘ
僕の気持ち　手紙に託すよ
朝焼け　いつもの駅で　ただ「気をつけて」と
笑えるように　yeah

※人生の目標進む君へ　後ずさりなんか出来ないリレー
泣いて帰ったら許さねー!　踏ん張れ!頑張れ!まだ知らない地で
人生の1ページ刻む旅路『不安』と『孤独』で少し寂しい
でもそれは僕も同じだから　笑顔で送り出すと決めたから※

あれは去年　春の出来事で
駅のホームで　君にぶつかって
スゴイ法則　見つけ出せたんだよ
『恋に落ちる=時間じゃない』

夕暮れ色染まる君の自転車を　2人乗りで駅まで
笑い　走れたのは　今じゃ昔

明日　旅立つ君へ
僕の気持ち　手紙に託すよ
朝焼け　いつもの駅で　ただ「気をつけて」と
笑えるように

あの日　君が　いつものデートで
僕に「あのね、言いづらいんだけど、、、、」
夢を求めて　旅立つと言ったね
君の涙と共に

夕暮れ色染まる君の横で　肩を落とすのは　もう止めた!
「行っておいで!」と　涙こらえ

2人の距離を　埋める言葉を　探し　選んで　君に送るよ
隣でいつも　笑ってた君　でも大丈夫
わかっているよ　君が好きだから

小さな手に　大きなカバンを　抱え君は
「少しの間、、、」と
朝焼け　いつもの駅にホラ　桜の花びらが舞い降りた

午前0時　明日　旅立つ君へ
僕の気持ち　手紙に託すよ
朝焼け　いつもの駅で　ただ「気をつけて」と
笑えるように　「またね」と言えるように

(※くり返し)

Step by step into a busy life

This is a fresh picture that I took minutes ago of my desk in the lab. It's 8:40 PM and it's still VERY EARLY to go back home..
Recently life is becoming very busy for me and I spend looooong times in the lab. Most of the time I come here at 10:00AM and leave near 11:00PM.
In other words, I use my home for sleeping only!

I have to submit my research topic (only the title)during the coming 2 days and I need to do a lot of reading before I decide~!

I forgot to blog about the fact that I was allowed to take the Japanese language intensive course level 4 !
I am really glad, even though I know this is going to make me much busier but improving my Japanese is also one of my goals.
Actually the selection was very strict because people are not usually allowed to take the intensive course twice, to give chances for new students. (We can apply but whether we are allowed to take it or not depends on #1: Number of new students, #2: result at a placement exam #3: result of an interview)...at last I was the only student of class3 who was allowed to take level 4 ^^; I am gonna miss my nice class 3 friends~

By the way, the "summer memories" series is still incomplete. I think I still have 2 or 3 more posts about it..will hopefully do them soon, but with the current commenting statistics I dont feel encouraged to write them any time soon :p
ganbarimasu!

I ate Nattou

先ほど初めて納豆を食べちゃった！全然大丈夫だった！
Believe it or not, I ate nattou for the first time in my life a while ago! It was totally ok! I don't know why its considered the ultimate challenge for foreigners regarding eating Japanese food... :D some times its said that its an indicator on how much you are used to Japan.

Read about Nattou on wikipedia here

My latest digital work

Do these faces look familiar?! :D
Apparently some 4 students of TOUDAI chose to be characters of the hit anime that I am going to make.......if I have the chance to live another life! :D

(c)2008 K-chan All rights reserved!

光速電神アルベガス ラスト話

! لن نسمح لكم ابدا" باحتلال أرضنا الجميلة! السيف القاطع

Hearing this line again really brought back so many memories.
It might be funny but I was really emotionally moved!w
This is one of the most memorable anime of my childhood, and this episode in particular is the most memorable one.
I wonder if anyone of this blog visitors have the same experience.

It's the last episode of 光速電神アルベガス、الشجعان الثلاثة
I watched it now and I was like:（T。T） ..felt exactly the same way I did more than 12 years ago! Voices, music, script, names,Alpha,Beta,Gamma..everything!! ..and that DAILAN thing that used to freak me out! :D
I also had my own السيف القاطع which was a plastic toy sword.
...which makes me realize for the 100th time that I was raised with Japanese Anime...w


Highly recommended to watch!!!!　（Video in 2 parts）

4649!

日本語コースの成果 :: 「最後の作文」

「最後の作文」はクラス３の皆さんが選んだ最後の作文の題目です。
なんて変な題目だなーと思う人がいるかもしれませんが、この題目にはちょっと寂しい気持ちが入ってます。

この作文「プロジェクトｗ」の目標は皆それぞれの国の有名なことについて作文を書くことでした。
私はぺトラについて書きました。
それは比較的に難しかったけど非常に勉強になりました。それに、自分の国について作文を書けるようになって本当に嬉しかったです。
「最後の作文」を楽しんでください～

＊＊＊＊＊＊ぺトラ遺跡＊＊＊＊＊＊

「エル．ハズネ」ぺトラの一番有名な建物。

ヨルダンと言うと、青いアカバの海や月の地面に似ている美しいワーディラムや地方で最も低い場所として有名な死海などの観光地を必ず思い浮かべます。しかし、その中で一番人気なのはぺトラの遺跡なのではないかと思います。
ぺトラはバラ色の町として知られていて、もともと紀元前400年ごろに、ナバテア人という砂漠の遊牧民に作られて、彼らの首都になったそうです。

ナバテア人たちは、商業の盛んな民族だったので、敵に攻撃されないように首都を安全なところに建てるのは重要でした。それで、ヨルダンの南の巨岩や奇岩がたくさんある砂漠を選んで、見つからないようにぺトラをそこに建てました。その結果、ぺトラは周りの砂漠からまったく見えません。

ぺトラの遺跡が発見されたのは19世紀ごろで、スイス人のイスラム学者によってです。
それは比較的最近なので、ぺトラは上手くかくされた町の代表として考えられています。
ぺトラは発見されたときから、人気がどんどん出てきて、1985年に世界遺産に最も古い時代の遺跡の一つとして登録されて、2007年に新世界七不思議にも登録されました。
さて、ぺトラはほかの遺跡に対して特別なところだとおもわれています。どうしてかというと、理由がたくさんありますが、その中での一番主要なのはぺトラの建造物です。
具体的に言うと、町には入口が一つしかありません。それは、「シーク」と呼ばれている細長い岩の谷にある道です。

シーク

高さ100メートルで、はば２メートルのところもあります。長さ1.5キロメートルのシークを進んで行くとそこの暗さが突然(とつぜん)消えて、明るくて高い「エル．ハズネ」というぺトラの一番有名な建物のすがたが現れます。

シークを歩き続けると明るいバラ色のぺトラが突然現れます。

不思議なことにぺトラの建物は基本的に全部岩が削られてできています。しかも建てられた時代は昔だったのにそのようなりっぱな建物ができたのはとても難しくてすばらしいのです。また、この突然の色や景色の変化は他の世界中の遺跡にはありません。
現代は観光客がいろいろな国からぺトラに来て、馬やラクダに楽しく乗ってシークを通ります。そしてシークを出たら、エル．ハズネだけではなくていろいろなことも楽しむことができます。例えば、たくさんのおみやげの売店では砂漠の砂から作られた砂ボトルも買えます。しかも最も有名なアラブコーヒーが伝統的なテントで体験できます。

砂ボトル。人気のあるペトラで買えるおみやげ。

ぺトラは２０００年以上の間ずっと変わらないままで、まるで時間の流れにちょうせんしているみたいです。それはナバテア人の優秀な文化を表すのではないかと思います。このようにヨルダンで観光する人にとって、ぺトラはとても人気のある観光地です。あなたもいかがでしょうか？

Kちゃん10景ｗ 10 views of K-chan

It has been a long time since I last did some anime-style drawing..
This time let me introduce the infamous 10 views of k-chan ww
今日は久々に絵を描きました。
とっても有名な「Kちゃん１０景」を紹介したいと思いますｗｗ

ではでは！

2 years of Blogging ブログの記念日

I totally forgot about it! ^^;
It's 4 days late but..

☆Happy anniversary my blog☆
「天日の世界」の記念日

Garbage separation and disposal

I found this poster in the lodge elevator the other day.
Since the new semester is starting, new students start to arrive to the lodge(which makes me a senpai!iyey!) and you can find a number of instructions about life in the lodge here and there.
This one shows the correct way to separate and dispose garbage.
I took a picture to keep as a reference, and I found out that I have a couple of small mistakes in the way I dispose my garbage^^;
Click on the picture for a larger version.

As everyone -hopefully- knows, garbage separation in Japan is very important. As a participant in the Environment Course of the Tokyo Discussion Session 2007 and as an environment enthusiastic, let me talk a bit about it.

Why separate?
Because garbage is recycled here.

What is recycling?
It means that garbage is taken to factories in order to process and re-make them into useful products.

Why recycle?
In countries with large populations like Japan, imagine what happens if you keep disposing garbage. Eventually, it will not be possible for disposal sites to accommodate the large amounts.. So recycling them and turning them into usable items instead of just disposing them helps a lot.

Then, again why separate?
To recycle waste, separation is needed. Take paper recycling for example. Paper is recycled to produce less-quality-but-still paper. If it was mixed with plastic for example, this process can't be done.

Why don't factories separate waste?
Factories receive your garbage in addition to the garbage of tens of millions of people other than you. This makes this process impossible on the factory side. That's why, a small effort in garbage separation on the individual side makes a great difference and benefits everyone.

Jordan?
There are recycling factories in Jordan. But I think paper and cans are the most recycled items. (Just a thought based on what I see, no information).
I brought samples of environmental brochures printed on Jordanian recycled paper to the discussion last year.
There is also this active Bio-gas project. (In short using the gases produced by wastes in landfills to produce energy).
Although there are separation activities and projects here and there(And there is one in J.U.S.T.), waste separation is still not imposed in Jordan.
Maybe recycling industry is still not advanced enough to benefit from the full separation process.
(For computer engineers to understand this : Imagine running a threaded process on a processor that doesn't support threads) :D

Why did I write this much? lol
At first I just wanted to post the picture above, but before I knew it I found myself writing this much...

Now after you read this much, as a reward this is a video made by Kouki san about last year Environment Course.

I haven't seen this in a while so it brought back many memories..
I saw the professor(Kojima sensei) who was responsible about our course on a TV interview a week ago! I was surprised~

Anyway I hope somebody learns something new reading this post and not just DISPOSE it :)
4649!

Another post on garbage separation by Blue Rose san

Summer Memories 2 :ターマヤ～！隅田川花火大会

Sumidagawa Fireworks Display July 26th 2008

As I mentioned before, summer is the festivals season in Japan.
After the last Japanese language course lecture, we(class 3) decided to go to the fireworks display of Sumida River; which is considered one of the biggest and the most amazing firework displays in Japan.
花火（はなび= HANABI） means fireworks in Japanese.
The literal translation means "fire flowers".

＊＊

Usually people go to such fireworks displays in traditional Japanese Yukata and Jinbei . But you can also find a lot of people going in casual clothes.
In this festival, Firework manufacturers compete to display it's best products.
You can see fireworks shaped as Smiley, Micky mouse, Heart, Cat, Planet..etc. It was really a nice display.

＊＊

Someone we all know is being very noisy behind the camera =p

And it was a good opportunity for us as foreign students to have an all-class-go-out in traditional clothes!

Proudly introducing Class 3 members in Yukata and Jinbei.
This picture doesn't show everyone, since 2 members couldn't come that day.
And I know we do look like a group of Japanese but no one is! ^^;

Sumida River in the background

It was very very hard to find a place to sit! We arrived at 3:00 pm thinking that we were "smart" coming this early but we found out -late- that normally people come to the place very early in the morning of that day, reserve their space by marking it's boarders and writing their names by sticking tape on the ground and come back later at the display time to find their space waiting for them as they left it.

Also the stations close to the display place were very very crowded before the show. Streets near the river are closed and no cars are allowed in.
This is to accommodate the large number of people attending. You would really feel that some 2 or 3 million people were gathering in the area around the river. (2 or 3 million are nothing compared to the population of 12 million in Tokyo city alone)

I was wondering why were all these people sitting under the bridge where they can barely see anything...But when the street was closed..I understood.
I saw people holding their picnic mats and waiting VERY carefully for the policemen to give them the OK sign to advance to the street..then when the policemen gave the OK, you suddenly see them run all at once to reserve a sitting place on the street...
I was really amazed. It was truely like a scene of AL-HOSON (Takeshi's castle) Japanese game show!!（^▽^）
I wish I could have taken it on video!! But it just happened in the blink of an eye.

＊＊

It was also my first time to see "PORTABLE TOILET ROOMs" （＾▽＾） Alot of them are placed in the display area for the convenience of people.

When it was time to go back, we were stuck in the station for some time before we could finally arrive to the platform and ride the train.
And I arrived home dead tired but happy for enjoying a nice Japanese summer experience~

Pictures with ＊＊　are provided by V!W! チュウさん.

See you next post~!

Summer Memories 1 : Tanabata

Here I will start a series of posts about the events that were worth posting while I was away from my blog. I will try to finish them asap before I drown into the business of the toudaisei life.

Tanabata the star festival is an occasion based on an old Chinese story about 2 stars that are separated by the milky way but are only allowed to meet once in a year.
In this occasion people hang their wishes on a tree hoping that they will come true.
See Tanabata on wikipedia here.
The Tanabata season starts around a week before the actual day that the story refers to.
In Tokyo, this day is the 7th day of the 7th month. (July 7th)
By the beginning of July, you start to see many bamboo trees in public places waiting for people to hang wishes on.
We had a tree in the International center of the university where I used to take the Japanese classes.

The tree in the International Center.
It was still new, only a few number of hanged wishes and other decorations..including "Fanoos Ramadan" if you notice well =p


My very smart wish=p
It says “I hope all my dreams come true “
You can hang any wish you can think of.."I want to be a panda" is also valid （＾▽＾）

The tree in the summer party of the Faculty of Engineering

In some shop I passed by

In a building in Shinjuku.
I had a reunion with my environment course friends I met last year.

The best part about it is writing with the brush on the tanzaku..I love writing kanji with brushes and if I get a chance I want to take shodou (calligraphy) lessons!!≧ω≦

That's all for today. See you next post.

Upgrading from a Research student to a Master student

Just got my new student ID which makes me an official master student starting today.　Alhamdulellah~
It will also give me the right to get a student discount on the Tokyo metro commuter pass which I couldn't get as a research student! iYeY!!（≧ω≦）V