END OF BLOG (JUN-17)

Today is my last day in Japan, and this is my last BLOG entry here, unless I will do some editing or revision.

Anyway, my flight is at 6:20pm, and I practically woke up about 12 hours before that. The sun was shining then but it wasn't like so for the whole day. Danny and I left his apartment at a little past 8am, I think, and he accompanied me through two stations. From then on, I took a train, transferred, and took another train going straight to the airport. Wow, eto talaga ang astig. Mas nakatipid pati ako sa pamasahe.

Arriving at Narita, I checked in immediately (it was around 11am pa lang). Anyway, Narita airport (Terminal 2) is quite big, they have quite so many flights, and there are a lot of things that could be done here, like typing my e-mails, reading some journal articles, shopping, eating at McDonald's. I did all those.

So, it is around 2 hours before my flight, and I will say goodbye here now.

I thank God for the opportunity, Dr Pacheco for recommending me, Prof Tamura and the COE-TPU program for accepting and accomodating me, and to Japan and all my friends there (whether I know their name or not), this has been absolutely the greatest, most memorable experience of my life.

Rainy day part 2 (JUN-16)

It's a rainy day again today, and again, I practically stayed at Danny's apartment the whole day. Except that I went again to the nearby Tajima grocery store for my lunch, and to the Shopping Street leading to the Higashi-Jujo Station to buy something for one of my bosses. It was again a so nakakatamad day! Hehe. Well, I did my final, final packing today. We had Sinigang na isda for dinner. Sarap! :-)

Rainy day (JUN-15)

It's a rainy day today, and I practically stayed at Danny's apartment the whole day. Except that I went to the nearby Tajima grocery store for my lunch, and to the Shopping Street leading to the Higashi-Jujo Station to look for something for one of my bosses. It was so nakakatamad! Hehe. I think I was too tired as I was quite busy from Friday until yesterday, Tuesday. I had dinner with Danny and ate some Filipino food: fried dried squid (Sarap!).

Bai-bai, Atsugi! (JUN-14)

Quite a sad day today.  Got to the school before 9am.  I got a seat on the school-bound bus that stops directly in front of the hotel, and I think it was because "rush hour" at the school is around 9:30am, which I think is the start time of the first class on weekdays, and I was very early.

So a little more packing I did.  Now I got a box, and it was around 12kg.  So by EMS it went...

Prof Yukio Tamura was kind enough to offer a farewell luncheon for me.  We ate at this western (not exactly American) style restaurant near the school.  They had pretty nice food there.  We also drank two kinds of beer, one is a regular draft kind of beer, and the other is non-alcoholic...  Prof Tamura presented to me my Certificate of Completion just before eating, and then we had a group picture taken outside the restaurant.

Did I mention that this Japan trip is so far the most memorable experience for me?

Anyway, 230pm came, and Koizumi-san then fetched me from my office, I said goodbye to the guys there, and we went na to the Hon-Atsugi station.  I had a little trouble there pa, as I tried to pull my suitcase thru the ticket gate, and while doing that, the ticket gate ate my ticket.  Well, it's no problem.  Had a little more relaxed trip from there on going to my friend's (Danny's) apartment.  Had to pull up or pull down the big suitcase though through stairs.  I don't know why there are stations where there are no escalators (nor elevators) for the disabled.  Of course I am not disabled, but I just wonder...

Anyway, going down the Namboku subway line (which was around five stories below), a Nihonjin was so kind enough to help me carry my suitcase down two stories.

I arrived at the Oji-kamiya station at around 5:30pm, and I met with Danny's wife and son, Silahis and Dalan at one of the playgrounds near their apartment building.

That's practically the end of all my Japan experience...

Bai-bai, Apaato! (JUN-13)

Woke up at a fairly normal time this morning, had my breakfast, took a shower (my last shower), packed the last few things I haven't packed (e.g. soap, etc), and folded up the futon bed and the beddings. Actually I bought some hot coffee in can from a vending machine and sandwich from the convenience store. First time I tried either one of those, and one or both of them caused me a little stomach problem. I didn't have any appetite come lunch time.

Sachi arrived to pick me up from the apartment just before 11am, and then we brought all my stuff to the school, where I left my luggage for the evening.

Anyway, at a little past 1pm, Masuyama-san and Pillai-san and I went to this Yamada electronics store. Pillai was supposed to buy a Sony Clie, but unfortunately, it was only in Japanese. He bought a Japanese-English dictionary instead. Unfortunately, it is also for Japanese, but he could use it nonetheless.

At around 4pm, I ate my lunch, and I regained my appetite after taking two bottles of this sports drink, Pocari Sweat, which has the similar effects as Gatorade.

I learned only today that I could actually send some books and documents home via EMS (a kind of fast postal service), and the school will take care of the expense. So I was practically re-packing after lunch. The books and documents were around 5 kilos only. After weighing, I found out that I could actually send other things along with my books, and that the school will take care of the expense upto a 20kg weight. So re-packing I did again, until around 6pm, when we were supposed to go already to the Chinese restaurant near the school.

Anyway, so we went to the Chinese restaurant, and Yoshida-san and the master's students were there already. We had Chinese food of course, and beer and sake. Yoshida-san took care of the bill! Thanks again Yoshida-san! Pictures are available at http://ronjie.com/photos. We left the restaurant at around 8:30. Quite early? I was surprised also. But it was just the right time as I still had to go to downtown Atsugi to check-in at the Atsugi Urban Hotel for the evening, plus I had to catch the last bus. I actually got the 3rd or 2nd to the last bus.

Atsugi Urban Hotel is not as nice (maybe because it is not as new) as the El Inn Kyoto hotel, but it is practically the same. Slept well there, although being at the topmost floor, I always am concerned for the possibility of an earthquake happening. Of course, I believe that we are safe inside the hotel, but of course, the hotel management would ask us to evacuate. I was concerned that I might be in the Yukata (something like a bathrobe that looks like a simpler and lighter type of kimono). Hehe