April Report (continued)
19 (tuesday) : yes, today is the day i go skating, but i want to mention something about my surveying class today. today, we were separated into 8 groups of around 7 ppl each and were instructed to draw a plan of a building in the university grounds with a some sort of tool where you look through a hole to align the drawn line with a pole. it was kind of fun, actually. XD
before i get started, let me say beforehand that today is Coincidence Day. i'll get back to that later. anyways, onto the skating. i called Kana after i finished the surveying class. she said to meet her in front of the university train station around 6 pm. i came early and boom, coincidence #1 came.1. Most of the senior figure skating club members are also IFA members.
but Kana wasn't there. so i waited patiently while the senior skating club members made small talk with the freshmen. it was around 6.10 when Kana finally came along with a friend. boom, coincidence #2.2. Her friend was the japanese student who was assigned to my japanese language class as my group's 'partner'. Her name? Katsube.
well, Kana came, but since she was late, i had no time to make small talk with her. T.T then, something odd caught my eye. there was an american in the group!
figuring that almost no one in the group will have the courage to talk to a gaijin, i approached him. his name was Alex, a russian-born American, who was on a 14-month-almost-around-the-world trip. we talked all the way to the skating rink in the train, sardine-can packed between japanese highschoolers (who were cute XD) and the equally cute Kana and her friends.
it seems that during his trip to Korea, Alex had met and befriended Ikami-san, another member of the IFA and was also joining the outing. Since Alex was planning to visit Japan after Korea, he decided to let Ikami-san plan his Japan trip for him, figuring that who would know japan better than a japanese. he started his japan trip in hiroshima early this month, and then stopped by tottori just earlier this week. later he will be visiting kobe, kyoto, nagoya, and a lot of other places on his way to tokyo, where he will be meeting another japanese friend of his. anyways, while we were walking towards the rink, he caught a glimpse of my keitai's wallpaper, which was an art of a Magic: the gathering card [Uyo if any of u are wondering (to masa, if ur reading: it's the art i drew as ur bday gift)]. so, onto #3:3. He has friends in the US who sells magic cards.
tonikaku, we reached the skating rink after a 10 minutes walk from the tottori main station. so onto the skating part of the night. most of the newcomers were around my level, and there were a few who could even do a simple spin, so the night wasn't wasted on skating lessons. thank god. after seeing our skating level, the senpais decided to let us skate while giving us some tips to skate much properly. alex was amazingly good (good as in not falling) since he did tell me he never skated in the last 10 years. >.>
oh yeah, i forgot to mention one thing. before we went skating, me and alex met the teacher in charge of the skating club. and u guessed it, it leads to koinkidink numero quatro.4. She teaches Russian at my university.
see what i meant by coincidence day? <.< anyways, after the skating session the senpais did a little performance for us newcomers. they were quite good, if u ignore the one fall by Kana. ^^
afterwards, the skating club held a party on university grounds. it was quite fun, except for one thing; they served japan curry, which i cant eat. in the end, the senior members went to a shop nearby to buy me some bread to eat. needless to say i was touched. ^^ the party ended around 10 pm, and just when i thot coincidence day has ended, BAM!5. Kana lives VERY near to our apato.
5 coincidences in one day. wtf? oh well, it did make today a very interesting day, so ;)
23 (saturday) : heh. i went to Universal Studios Japan (which will be referred to as USJ) today. we woke around 4.30 am today, and left for Osaka (a 4 hours drive from tottori) at 6.30 am in the morning. we arrived at USJ at 10.30 am, as planned, and though there was a line, it was "surprisingly short", according to my senpais. we stepped on USJ grounds immediately afterwards to find a tired Najmi, a student of Osakadai whom we promised to meet at 9.30. janji melayu la katakan~ XPXP
anyways, we made our way to the funnest ride in USJ (senpai's words), the Amazing Spiderman 3D ride. the queue was 1 hour long, but what made it an interesting wait was that they fashioned the line as if we were taking a tour of the daily bugle. interesting, to say the least. as for the ride itself, it was major fun. we had to wear these 3d goggles and ride this machine that made it feel that we were actually moving. coolness.
the 2nd ride was the back to the future ride. the qait was amazingly short, kinda like 15 minutes. the ride itself was okay, with us watching a 3d imax movie on a moving dalorean machine. but what made it interesting is the fact that i saw a fma cosplayer in the queue. i knew something was up, but since i was with my senpais, i had to follow their plans. oh well.
the next ride we went on was actually a show called Backdraft. it features the pyrotechnics involved in making fires in movies, and ends with an amazing "chemical plant getting burned" scenario. too bad we had to stand the whole time. heck, i even missed part of the show because i was standing behind someone. and he wasnt even as tall as i am! ><
afterwards, we went on the jurassic park ride. at first i thought "oh, just a slow water ride with moving dinosaurs on the sidelines". how wrong i was. i dont wanna spoil the ending, but let me just say it WILL leave you breathless, and WET. XD
by this time our tummies were grumbling, so we made our way to the only restaurant in the whole of USJ with edible food, the Peanuts Fast Food Joint. not only was it the only place where we could eat, there was only one MEAL we could eat. this meant 14 ppl eating the same fillet-o-fish set. >.>
after rediscussing our plans, we decided to go watch the Waterworld live-action show. its kinda funny watching a live action english show being done by japanese actors in japanese. nevertheless, the show had its fair share of fighting, gunplay, jetskis and explosions. all in all, the perfect show to showcase what Universal Studios is all about.
next up on our itinery was the Shrek 4D movie. the wait rivalled that of spiderman's, so i knew it would be worth it. and it was! the story focuses on what happened after shrek 1, and would have been fun even without the 4d factor! that said, the 4d factor just sells it. imagine, watching shrek sneeze and feeling water sprayed onto your face. EEW. oh yeah, i forgot to mention. while waiting for the shrek show, i finally found out the mystery of the fma cosplayer: there was a fma movie studio tour next door to the shrek theater. there were national alchemist cosplayers, and even a statue of ed and al. i wanted to go, but as i stated earlier, have to stick to my senpai's plans. T.T
next stop, terminator! before the show, we were treated to a 'ceramah' of sorts from a hyper emo secretary of cyberdyne (the company that makes them terminators in the movie) she asked questions like "where are you from?" which made us make Adam, a visiting cousin of a senpai to answer "Malaysia!" she proceeded to ask more questions to Adam, but we were so busy laughing at the way he answered that we didnt catch the question, to translate for him. poor kid. XD the show was pretty much the same "what happens after the movie" scenario, but the i enjoyed the ending. XD
with USJ closing in an hour's time, the group was split into two. one wanted to go on the spiderman ride one more time, and the other wanted to do somthing else. i opted for the somthing else group, hoping to get to go on the fma studio tour, but the senpais wanted to go on the jaws ride, so jaws it was. the ride had us going on a boat ride of amityville before getting attacked by, u guessed it, a great white shark. me and najmie spent most of the time dodging the water sprays rather than enjoying the ride, so yeah, it was fun XD
after the ride ended, i ran to the fma studio building only to find the tour has alrady stopped. DANG. at least i got to take pictures with the alchemist coaplyers, who were on their way home when i chanced upon them near the exit.
10.30pm. most of the rides have already closed, and we were VERY hungry. so, we headed to the nearest restaurant, Hard Rock Cafe. XD it was my first time, and since i ran to the studio building earlier, i had to sit at a different table than the guys. this meant i didnt have a clue what to order. i guessed ordering a simple fish and chips wont hurt, and since i was doubly hungry today, i decided an ice cream sundae wont hurt either. let's just say today my intuition took a day off. the fish and chips was like designed for 2 people, and the sundae? the waitress gave me 4 plates along with the it. ==;;; i had to tapau half of the fish and chips to make way for the sundae, since the others were already full when it arrived on my table.
we left after i ganbatte-ed eating that monstrosity of a sundae. at first i thot i planend to stay up the whole ride as i slept halfway coming to USJ. but my senpai just had to play ciara's album (which to me was dead sleepy to listen to) and slept before we even left osaka. heh.
we reached tottori around 4am sunday, and i got back to sleep before i even landed on my futon. XD;;
okay. now that we're up-to-date, let me just say that we will be going to Saga (8 hours from tottori from what i heard) for a soccer tournament among AAJ students tonight, so expect the report around next week. and yes, ill be playing defender for tottori, so any good luck wishes are welcomed. XD
p/s : i've uploaded the pictures ive took so far into my photobucket account, so if any of you are interested, hop on by to http://photobucket.com/albums/v108/cyberkal for a look-see, ne. ^^/
# find a feather | 13:55 | kaos theorem #
shoji is a guy, born on
15 feb, who's from
shah alam, selangor, malaysia but is now studying at
tottori, japan. he likes watching
anime, reading
manga, listening to
music and
drawing. he also likes to
cosplay and play
magic: the gathering. wierd guy, huh >_>
boku
