Long time no sketching..

It has been a looong time since I last drew a sketch(like more than one year).. here is what I drew last week.

The shading might not be so good but I like the resulting character in general!

はーやく来い来いお正月～♪

JLPT1 next July!!

I took the JLPT2 exam today!
I did well in the vocabulary/kanji and listening parts but had some difficulty with the reading part.
But in general I did good! Results will be out in mid February .. aa long time to wait..

Next year will go for level1 !

美しい東大：：Beautiful TOUDAI

@三四郎池
Today's best shots at SANSHIROU pond!
It was late afternoon when I took the pictures that's why they look a little dark.
I should have gone earlier today when it was still sunny. Anyway, hope you'll enjoy today's shots!

See you next post~

Welcome a new blogger!

Ichigo chan started her own blog!

http://ichigo-mi-chan.blogspot.com/

ganbare! big sis is rooting for you!!

The count down to the JLPT2

Sorry for the long silence!!

One week is left for the JLPT.
I chose to take level 2 this time.

Last week I was invited to take a mock exam for the NEW JLPT.
People who follow the JLPT news know that starting 2010 the test will have 5 levels instead of 4, with a new level between the original 3 and 2 levels.
I was assigned to take this new level in the mock exam. Completed all the sections and at last filled a newspaper large questionnaire , got 2000 yen for my cooperation in taking the exam and filling the questionnaire and went back home.

My feedback about this new level(called N3) : You can get the feeling it is between L3 and L2 .. but it's kind of closer to L3.
As an L2 taker for this year, it felt really easy.. in the sense that I don't expect my mistaken answers to exceed 3 questions.

Anyway, back to the real exam talk.
Two days ago I tried to solve the last year questions from the official 2008 L2 Questions&their answers compilation.
I set a timer for each section and tried to solve the questions as if in the real exam.
... so at last I scored my answers and figured out that I got [337/400] which means84% ...
Very UNSATISFIED..!!

..but the good thing is, while looking at my mistakes and their correct answers I could learn a couple of new grammar patterns that I've never heard of before.
Will do my best in the remaining one week to get a high score!!

Small notice

It has been a long time!
Sorry for the lack of posts recently but I have been extremely .... yes you guessed it!
As you can see the blog became a whole mess.. no posts no updates, even the banner is missing due to the cancellation of the yahoo geocities service.. yes geocities is gone forever~ I used to rely much on it for my file hosting,, including the banner files.

Will try to fix and update the blog some time soon.. so until then!

I'm back!

So finally I'm back to Tokyo.. New battles and challenges much bigger than they ever were are waiting ahead with the start of my 2nd year of the Masters course..Will do my best!

On the way down to Petra a month ago..

I totally forgot about these pictures! I took these pictures during my trip to southern Jordan last month and was planning to include them with the trip post.

These were taken on the road down to Petra. It was very nice to see some Japanese language there! makes me wonder-happily-, why Japanese??

光 by BREAKERZ

Now this is really old!

I lived that time.. anybody shares the same experience?

First MS Windows I ever dealt with. It was installed on the first computer my father had when he was a new engineer

A very old version of MS paint.. It was called Paintbrush

One of the earliest 3D games.. Wolf (?)
This game used to freak me out .. when I grew up a little, I could clear it all..the final boss was really something!

Lemmings any body??
I was taught how to run it from the floppy disk by entering commands to DOS.. I remember I was very young at that time.
Kids these days have easy technology!

This game was installed on the school computers when I was in 1st grade!!

The very first version of Prince of Persia.. I loooved this game

Street fighter!!! Ryu was my favorite!


OK! not very old...maybe I was 9, but this is one of my earliest contacts with the Japanese language. I memorized how to write つばさ from this game..of course not knowing how to read it!

Oh~ nice old days!

JLPTにチャレンジしてみよっかな！

I'm taking the JLPT in December this year!
For the time being I'm planning to take the 2kyuu but feel that the 1kyuu is not impossible either.
Will study hard until the time of application and decide which level I will take by that time.

Special thanks to M川さん who could secure an application form for me while I'm here! It's shown in the picture above.. ありがとうございます！！
More information about JLPT here!

Adventure in South Jordan

Went on a 4 day trip/adventure with my family to the south of Jordan.

Stayed in WadiRum for the first night where time seemed to be stopping while watching the amazing starry night sky in the middle of dessert with hundreds of shooting stars showing every now and then.
It was my first time to stay in WadiRum, such an unforgettable experience!

ご来光＠ワーディ．ラム
Sunrise @ WadiRum

Rum mountains in the horizon and the camp where we stayed(down)

Spent the next 2 days in Aqaba enjoying the nice blue sea.

Relax relax rela~x @Aqaba
ヾ(〃^∇^)ノわぁい♪　＠　アカバ

Sunset @ Aqaba

In the last day, dropped by Petra on the way back.

Finally reaching the SIQ

Hot noon sun @ Petra
ぺトラ。以前作ったぺトラについてのポストはこちら。

It was such a great trip! I enjoyed every moment of it.

しばらく圏外

Leaving in a few hours.. to Jordan!　Looking forward for a nice summer vacation with my beloved family!! .. and of course looking forward to meet my friends! ... and.. and.. looking forward to play DDR again on my brother's PS2! ww

This was supposed to be a present to my sister..she is not an otaku but she likes "kawaii" stuff.
BUT! It's so cute that I couldn't help but making it mine!..so seems that kagami chan is not destined to go to Jordan..she will stay in my room in Tokyo! w

Will miss Japan and my friends in A田研!
Wish me a smooth safe trip!!
K-chan logs out!

SOS団の活動として...

Let's hope I wont be shot by a beam rifle by some sensei we all know for writing this post!XD

I'm not a Gundam fan actually, but what I saw today made me "re-consider"!
As an activity to the new made SOS-dan (short for Sごい日本の文化　wO　Siるための団), today I went with two lab mates to Odaiba and met a real-life size Gundam!
The incredible detail level on this 1:1 model left me speechless!!!
It was built on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Gundam anime.
Pictures would have been much more nice if the weather was sunny...

SOS団 members

No comment


I wish I can ride on top of it

Makes me think if Japan really wants to build a real operational Gundam, nothing will stop it!
Here is the official website : http://www.gundam30th.net/event/real-g.html

We also went to a game center and I played 太鼓の達人to my heart's content!
I proudly won easily over the DAN members but was disastrously defeated by this little cute genius we met there !

Playing the ONI mode with an "uh, a piece of cake" face!

It was such a great day!!

RADIO のボリュームを ちょっと あげて！♪

もうはまりすぎ！この歌！！
WiFiかWiMAXか分からないけどRADIOの電波ならどうでもいい！ｗ
突然研究の話ですみません！（汗）
Enjoy!　↓↓

※Uh Can you hear me?
Can you hear my RADIO?※

声は電波にノッテ あなたの街に
あたしの想いを届けに 旅にでる
恋は電波にノッテ 遠くの街に
あたしの想いを届けに 旅をする

RADIO のボリュームを ちょっと あげて
恋する声が 届くはず…

今夜 デンパにノッテ 眠る街ぬけて…
夜行列車より光よりも 速く
ひざをかかえてても 恋にやぶれても
ぬくもりのガラスケースに いられない

RADIO のボリュームを ちょっとあげて
ゆううつな シュールDAYS こえるわ

FANTASTIC!! RADIO から 聞こえる…RADIO から…
JUST SWEET!! RADIO から 聞こえる…RADIO から…
OH〜!! JUSTSEE!!

(※くり返し)

Uh Can you hear me
Oh yeah, Can you,
Can you hear me?

RADIO のボリュームを ちょっとあげて
ゆううつなシュールDAYS ぬけるわ こえるわ

FANTASTIC!! RADIO から 聞こえる…
RADIO から JUST SEE!! RADIO から 聞こえる…
RADIO から Ho
Yeah yeah Ho
JUST SEE!! RADIO から 聞こえる…
RADIO から Ho JUST SEE!!

The semester is officially over

Today was the end of a very long and busy semester.
I finished my Rinko presentation on 17th, finally submitted all the required 6 reports yesterday and attended the looooong poster presentation sessions (9:00AM~5:20PM) today, in which 2nd year master students present their progress in research.
This means I finished my first year of the master course.. It's time to switch my brain to the power-save mode and relaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaxxxxxx.
お疲れ様自分！お疲れ様Ａ田研の皆さん！

K-chan on the summit of Fuji san

So here comes the long waited post!
What do you do after finishing a killing semester?
Ofcourse, GO ON A BIG ADVENTURE!!

Finally I had the honor to stand on the top of my beloved Fuji san, 3776m of elevation, the ultimate highest point in Japan!
Fujisan on Wikipedia

Nice shot taken from the bus

Sunday July 19th 7:45 am -> Assembly at Shinjuku station
Then move by bus to the Fuji san 5th station (富士山五合目) .. around 4 to 5 hours (?). Highways were crowded that day so it took a long time to arrive.
So reaching the 5th station, what are you waiting for? LET'S GO!!!

Participants : It's easy to find me, the most Japan enthusiastic even among Japanese! The girls are from OCHA NO MIZU women's university, the man to the left in the background is their professor (a TOP athelete! and was a student of my professor some years ago), the guy in the front is from the same lab as mine. There were also other participants from a 3rd university and an OB from our lab..so total around 17 people 80%of which are girls.

It is said that you can experience the 4 seasons while you are climbing Fujisan. And that was totally true! .. The more you climb, the more clothes you start putting on. The weather on the top was officially winter! many layers of sweaters, 3 pairs of trousers, gloves, scarf and a warm hat...all of this and I was trembling in cold.

After the 6th station by around 1 hour

I didn't realise how much was hidden in the clouds at that time.. Still near the 6th station!
Toooo many people made moving forward a slow process.. It was dangerously crowded at steep places..I was imagining if only one person slips down, he will take hundreds with him!


The amazing sunrays from whithn the clouds..about to reach the 7th sation

The climbing process was divided into 2 parts:
First day we keep moving until sunset time.. reaching around the 7th station and rest for about 4 hours in one of the mountain huts (..which looked to me rather like a war shelter! ).
Then at around 11PM the night of that same day we move again to reach the top by sunrise.

View from the front of the mountain hut at sunset

When we were about to reach the 7th station (when we started entering that big cloud above), it started to rain. Oops, I didn't prepare myself for rain! If you get wet, you will freeze before reaching the top and it was already getting chilly!
..But luckily, it took less than an hour to reach the mountain hut. And when we moved again that night, rain had stopped, no more clouds at that elevation, but instead very very strong wind was blowing!
The night view of the surrounding cities was amazing.
What's more amazing was the starry sky view! I've never seen stars as clear and as DENSE as that day. I was also lucky to see 2 shooting stars.

Hard times ~ SURVIVAL

I could not sleep well in the mountain hut..I think it was the same for everyone, so when we moved again I started to feel REALLY sleepy..which was REALLY dangerous..

Also as you move up, oxygen level gets low so it becomes hard to breath and you get tired and dizzy easily..luckily many members brought oxygen spray cans.. I think no body would have been able to go on without them. Personally I needed it tens of times.
We were literaly on a survival trip..
You really get dead tired.. so you stop by and relax there on the freezing ground in the raging wind..then you start to chill so you know you need to move to get warm eventhough you are dead tired...and so on..

Wind was getting stronger and stronger, and in each blow you get stinged in the face by the volcanic ashes it carries.
We also had to pass by many narrow and steep areas where one mistake would cost you your life.
Actually, It was scary to see some people condition getting bad along the way.. After we left the hut, I looked back at the distance we moved so far and looked up at the enormous remaining distance, I realised there was NO GO BACK.. You just have to move forward.
I was praying all the time to stay healthy at least until we reach the top since I was reaching my limits!

Amazing Reward ご来光

Thank God, everybody reached the top with no serious illness!
We were rewarded by the most beautiful scene I've ever seen in my life.
The view of the rising sun from the top of Fuji san in the country of the rising sun （T▽T）

People still arriving all with sleepy and tired faces
This is not the actual summit. There was still around 200 meters to the top, but this was a good point to stop and enjoy the rising sun.


Pro photographers getting ready!


Alright everyone, sit down and get ready!

Here it comes!! The very first "Piece" of sun

Thinking of this, weren't we the first people on the planet to see the sun of July 20th? (^_^)

On the way DOWN ~ REVIVAL

Everybody started to get better and got revived after the sun rise .. I really felt very good as we went down, eventhough it was really tough to walk the ash covered path down the mountain...but still easier than the way up.
I was really looking forward to feel the summer heat again!

The path down the mountain

Trying different angles

Going back to the cloud level. An interesting hole in the clouds

The after math

With all the hardships, risks and tough times we went through, I don't regret going in this trip for a second. I'm glad I decided to go and more glad that I came back safe to enjoy summer again! To tell the truth I was never such happy to hear the sounds of cicada again!
I SURVIVED and I am a much stronger person now!!(≧▽≦)

This post is brought to you by : K-chan(c)
All rights reserved!

See you next post! And don't forget to COMMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!