To break the monotony of my Kyoto observations (there’s more to come), I’m going to post pictures of toys I bought from Japan, and a comic sorta thing. Be aware though, it’s not safe for work. Lo and behold:

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Hmm, this is the second post about my trip to Kyoto recently. You can read the first part of my Kyoto trip here. In this article, I’ll talk about various issues and thoughts I have about Kyouto. I’ll talk about the language, the people, and their culture of wanting everything fast. Also, I’m asking your opinion as a reader, whether I should pursue a relationship with a Japanese girl I met there.
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Let me ask you a question: do you know of someone who is busy doing assignments, and then out of the blue, buys a plane ticket to a country which speaks a language of which he has only a small grasp of, and then 3 days later, flies there for a brief, 5 day visit? No? Well, now you do. And that person is… Chewxy!

Yep, that’s right, folks, I was in Kyouto for the last 5 days, resulting in the dearth of posts and comments. In my previous post, I mentioned that I was going to post something about impulsive purchases, and this is the post. It was a very very impulsive purchase. I was doing my assignments till past midnight last wednesday, when suddenly my housemate told me that Jetstar was having a sale. And so I bought tickets to fly to Osaka - to and fro : $150. Also, I pressured a friend into following me.

We were set to fly on Saturday. After we’ve bought and paid for the tickets, only did we realize we needed a Japanese visa. So the following morning (still Wednesday) was a mad rush to get our visa done. The Japanese Consulate told us that it was a minimum of 3 working days before we could get our visa, but the Japanese consul was a nice man, and told us we could pick it up on Friday instead.

I had booked the return ticket so I would return on the following Thursday (today, that is), as I had work. But then after the crazy good fortune of us getting the visas by friday, I got fired the next day. If I knew I were going to be fired, I’d have booked more days in Japan. Blah.

So, late on Saturday night, we arrived at Osaka (10 hours flight was really unbearable, luckily I had my friend to disturb). We spent the night there in a youth hostel, and that’s where the interesting things started. One of the first things you notice in Japan is the amount of vending machines available. It was practically impossible to walk 5 minutes without finding a vending machine. You even find a vending machine out of nowhere at times. And the selection available… oh my god. To sum up the vending machines, both my friend and I spent about $70 on vending machines alone. On drinks and snacks alone.

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Aha! Long time since I last posted. That’s because I had 2 very crazy assignments. I finished the last one in less than 12 hours, when most people take a month to do. Hah, beat that folks.

Anyways, I’ve long wanted to write on this topic, since the last incarnation of my blog actually, but never got round to writing it. But since Hangmen so graciously rickroll’d me in one of my previous posts, I thought I’d sit down and write an article about this.

Well, I’ll start off with a question a blog commenter once asked me: what do I think about love?

Nothing much really. I admit its an important part of my life. Very, but I don’t think very much of it. What is love to me then?

Personally, I don’t think my idea of love is the same as most people’s. Then again, with each unique intepretation of the concept of love, I doubt if anyone’s is the same. I think when you love a person, you don’t want that person to go thru bad things, and you try as much as possible to prevent bad things from happening to that person. You want the best for that person, you want that person to be genuinely happy. There is no reason, no motive for it, except that care for that person.

There is a girl I really really love. Let’s call her PS for now. We went through a very great time together, PS and I. Then there was a fall out. She and I had different concepts of what it means to care for her. She requested I leave and denied to herself that we ever had anything. And so I did. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love her. I gave her what she wanted - if my presence or memory of me makes her unhappy, best leave her to make her happy. But any time she ever needs me, I’ll always be there for her. It can be 100 years into the future, but I’ll still be there.

At this point, people usually go ‘dude… move on‘. Well, thats where most people got it wrong I suppose. I moved on :). My rule is simple: I am there only when she wants me. A word, and I’m there by her side. Otherwise, I go along doing my stuff.

It’s that simple. Love is without attachment. Only when you can let someone go, and yet you still sincerely care about the person’s well being, can you say you’re in love without attachment. Otherwise, its just tainted with selfish attachment.

To me, love is incorruptible. It can be mixed with feelings of attachment (you know, the “I so want xxx to be here right now” or the “I miss xxx…” ), but it cannot be corrupted. True love always prevails. It’s like a marathon, not a hundren metre sprint. You can’t corrupt that feeling of love for a person - the feeling that you want that person to be happy, even if it means its to your own disadvantage. That feeling that says “I want xxx to feel the best of her life, be the happiest she can be”. Even if it kills you to make her happy, you’d do it on your own. That’s true love, and that’s incorruptible. That’s how I feel about some peoples in my life (think my family members, PS, Xingyi, etc).

Personally, I think that many people’s idea of love is somewhat distorted by their sense of personal want (for a lack of batter words). Open your hearts and open your minds. And this is looking at you, guy-living-upstairs. Give her space.

I won’t admit that I haven’t been through phases of attachment to PS. I did. Way too many times. But after a series of introspection (I do that quite a lot), I realized that my attachment to her will not give her peace of mind, neither will it give her happiness, so I took off. Yes, even I am susceptible to that occasional attachment (which quite often leads to a few impulse purchases - one of which I will talk about in the next blog post). But yes. I still love PS, and my stance is as stated as above - as soon as she needs me and voices it, I’ll be there. Otherwise, I stay away.

Ah well, move along now - I’ve gotta pack some stuff. Tell me what you think about love ya?

HOLY SHIT! I saw Indiana Jones last night and I loved every moment of it. Its a very different Indiana Jones, but it’s still him all right.

spoiler warning: From hereonin, there will be a lot of spoilers. Continue Reading »

In effort to pop back from the horrible horrible writer’s block I am facing now, I’m going to write on my favourite cooking utensils. No, I’m not mad, just need to get back in the habit of writing. Ugh.

So, I’ll begin a countdown.

5. The Pot
   The pot is good for cooking large amounts of liquids, such as soups. I use the pot to cook curries mostly. Because of its deep walls, you can fry things (which are mostly requisites of making curries) without them sputtering out. Also, the pot is useful when cooking large amounts of things, like rice. I’ve used the soup pot to make rice (for 10 people), curries, and soup.
4. The rice cooker
   The rice cooker does what it says - cooks rice. It cooks rice by means of steaming your rice. This also means that its an excellent steamer for those who need one. Most rice cookers come with steaming legs. You add water, lay down the steaming legs, and put your platter on top of the steaming legs, and steam your food. In my house, we have a basic rice cooker/steamer, but you can get really really fancy ones (ahem, Japan), with options like fuzzy logic (to control how moist you want your rice to be, etc).
3. The Saucepan
   The saucepan is often mistaken for a small pot. Well, basically, a saucepan is the bastard child of a pot and a normal pan/skillet. I use the saucepan a lot since I cook instant noodles quite often. But also, the saucepan is a very useful utensil to say, boil eggs, or cook small portions of liquids (like your Campbell soup). Here’s a protip: when you want to cook things quickly, put the lid down. Why? You’ll basically create a pressure system inside the pot, and while not as powerful as a proper pressure cooker, cooks things faster. I’ve used the saucepan to cook rice in it too.
2. The Non-stick Pan.
   All props go to DuPont for inventing Teflon. The non-stick pan is a life-saver. I fry my eggs, and basically anything that can be fried in it. Bacon sticks to the pan? No problems. With the teflon coating, it also means less oil is used to fry things, and also means healthier food. The non-stick pan is my second most used cookware.
1. The Wok
   Anyone who cooks would have to agree with me that the wok is amongst if not the most flexible cookware ever. It’s like a frying pan, but with a higher wall. The wall is high, but not steep, which allows a lot of breathing space for the foods in the wok, and also, because it has a high wall, oil will not sputter when you fry things. Also, the wok has many uses. Because of its large capacity, you can cook a lot in it. I’ve cooked curries with a wok, stir-fried vegetables as well as steamed things in a wok. Yes, I’ve basically described all the functionalities of the above cookware, and they can all be done using a wok. So why don’t I use it all the time? For one, there is only one wok in the house, and I don’t cook only one dish. So, go figure.

Now, tell me, whats your favourite cookware?

This article started as a review of Iron Man, but I had a writer’s block midway through, and couldn’t complete the review. So I’m gonna talk about a few things as well. Continue Reading »