new beginnings

today was my second day at The Office, and as it stands i’m glad to have left JET behind me and moved on. I havent had any real work yet - “we’ll give you a few days to settle in” – but there are still things to do, so while I havent been busy I have certainly been occupied.

My computer has been giving me problems though – i really am cursed with technology, as no one else has encountered this problem – and believe me, the most boring thing you can possibly do is stand behind the IT guy watching him try to set up or fix your computer.

I have also discovered that in the UK – or perhaps most of Europe too – typical working hours are 8-4, 9-5 or 10-6. Compare that to my 9-6.30 work day, not including the additional hours of overtime! It works out to one full day’s work per week that we Singaporeans do compared to the Europeans; I’m jealous of The Boy who gets to work less yet earn more.

However, things will be exciting at The Office – though a little scary too – with an upcoming trip in October. It turns out that there won’t be much hand-holding on this one, so some things will be more or less in my hands!

Stay tuned for more updates as they come… :)

down with commercial materialism

“Marketing, after all, is what you do to sell people things they don’t need. If people needed, say, a T-shirt with a logo on it, no one would have to market the idea to them. Marketing, advertising… What started off being, ‘Hey, we make this! Do you want it?’ turned into, ‘If you buy this, you might get laid more,’ and then mutated into, ‘If you don’t buy this, you’ll be uncool, no one will like you, everyone will laugh at you and you may as well kill yourself now. I’m telling you this because I am your friend and you have to trust me.’ Marketing is what gives value to things that do not have any actual intrinsic value. We put eyes on a bit of plastic, but it is marketing that actually bring the piece of plastic to life. It is marketing that means we can sell a 10p bit of cloth for £12.99.”

-- PopCo by Scarlett Thomas

randoms

there was some art installation at orchard central featuring local artists:

Antz and Zero are two of the artists featured.

  i took a wander up peranakan place for the first time in my life, and was particularly taken with this building in particular:

i really liked the figures adorning the entranceway

Orchard road looks really different with all its new developments, especially the view of Centrepoint’s new facade and beyond while taking the escalators up Orchard Central. It forms quite a nice sight from Peranakan Place though:

 

here’s another change along orchard road – for the longest time this restaurant opposite the Istana was called Brasserie and now it’s something else:

 

one chance too many

i used Maybelline’s mascaras many years ago when i first started wearing makeup, but gave up fairly quickly as Maybelline’s mascaras smudged, didn’t hold the curl and in general just weren’t very good.

i experimented with several higher-end brands like Elizabeth Arden (holds the curl, volumises), Estee Lauder (overrated), YSL (lengthens, volumises and smudges like water on ink) and Dior (nice smell, volumises but smudges), before going for and staying with Majolica Majorca (downright awesome and cheap to boot) for about 3 to 4 years.

A few weeks ago, Urban ran an article reviewing some of the new mascaras on the market, and i felt the old itch again – i was once quite obsessed about mascaras.

I immediately eliminated those that were too expensive – no point spending $45 on shu uemura when Majolica is already wonderful and $20 cheaper – and was left with Rimmel’s 3-way mascara and Maybelline’s Magnum Volume Express Super Film. A quick search online revealed that Maybelline’s had better reviews than Rimmel’s (and cheaper too); itching to buy new mascara, i decided to ignore past bad experiences with Maybelline and give it a second chance.

Alas, it was one chance too many. Despite its claims otherwise, Super Film clumped quite badly – which I attribute to the poorly designed, overly huge brush that failed to coat my lashes properly. More shockingly, not only did it fail to hold the curl in my lashes, they actually drooped (!!) because of the collagen and super film crap in the formula.

I’ve sworn off Maybelline forever – I even gave Super Film two tries - and never will I have the urge to try it out again. Thing is, I never understood why Maybelline gets such raves on mascara forums. There’s no point buying a cheap drugstore brand when it doesn’t work at all; mascaras like Fibrewig are also drugstore brands though slightly more expensive, but i’m sure one can afford the extra $5 or so to get something actually that yields results.

My absolute favourite mascara is Majolica Majorca’s Lash Expander Frame Plus.

 

It comes with a two-way wand, which is a lot less hassle than I’d initially feared. It volumises and lengthens, and holds the curl the entire day without smudging. To me, the ability to maintain the curl is very important in a mascara as my lashes slope downwards; Majolica’s mascaras are the only ones that actually perform as promised. And the ‘Plus’ in this Lash Expander is that the formula is jet black, which gives ultra definition and colour to my eyelashes.

I’ve also recently tried the sample version of Clinique’s Lash Power Volumising Mascara.

This holds the curl pretty good, and although the volumising effect is less dramatic than Majolica’s, it does the job and feels lightweight and barely there. It’s good for girls who like to feel as if they’re not wearing any mascara, and the brush does an excellent job of evenly coating all the lashes – you can actually feel your lashes being coated nicely as you move the brush in a zigzag motion!

I’m not sure of the retail price for this one, but I have another brand new sample sized (3ml) tube for anyone who’d like it :)

bukit timah hill

i haven’t been up this hill in the longest time – the last visit was perhaps on a school excursion in secondary school – and I think i’ve satisfied my curiosity about climbing this hill for the rest of my life.

the climb started well enough, with a really steep slope – the steepest you’ll encounter – and it was indeed slightly scary going downhill on the way back:

we were the youngest people at the nature reserve – there was this couple that was walking at a pretty fast pace:

most of the trails go along the same route, but when we reached the second rest stop, the path diverged towards a quarry. we went down that trail, hoping to catch a glimpse of some granite, but saw only this:

See all the vegetation behind the sign below? That was basically whatever that was between us and a view of the quarry. In short, we saw nothing of the quarry!

Some nice things were spotted along the way, like super small fungi and pinkish lingzhi-like ones:

as well as a steep, steep climbing path, a cool tree and nice roots:

 

unfortunately the summit was a huge, huge letdown, as this was basically all there was:

 

didn’t help that there were those power towers that spoil the view. still, one has to smile for the camera, but i’m not going up that hill again in a long long while i think!

Eats, Shoots and Leaves

i spotted this book in the library the other day and immediately grabbed it. i’d always intended to read it partly because of its interesting title and partly because there has been a lot of press coverage of this book, although having read it now i’m not sure what the fuss is all about.

The book interestingly enough – until the end of Truss’s preface, that is. A couple of pages into the introduction and i was already bored by her needlessly lengthy elaboration on how much of a stickler for punctuation she is – i’d got that by the first page of the book! I started to scan through the pages looking out for her more useful, and at times funny, explanations on the usage of various forms of punctuation.

Truss tries to be interesting and humourous but doesn’t always succeed – I found her pushing the point a bit too much and slightly long winded – so I’m not sure if this book would appeal to people who aren’t already some kind of grammar or punctuation Nazi: the very people who are least in need of this book actually.

Still, I learned a few things from this book:

1. The usage of the apostrophe with names

“Modern names ending in ‘s’ (including biblicical names, and any foreign name with a unpronounced ‘s’), the ‘s’ is required after the apostrophe:

Keats’s poems, Philippa Jones’s book"

However, the extra ‘s’ is unnecessary when it comes to ancient names, like “Archimedes’ screw” and “Achilles’ heel”. Jesus is exempt too: “Jesus’ disciples”, as well as those names that end with an “iz” sound (whatever that is): “Bridges’ score”, “Moses’ tablets”.

2. The usage of pairs of commas

I never knew that the pair of commas in the sentence below are unnecessary:

“The leading stage director, Nicholas Hytner, has been appointed to the Royal National Theatre.”

This is because “Nicholas Hytner” is a defining clause, and commas are not used for them. However, if the clause is non-defining and only serves to offer more information about the noun, commas are necessary.

3. bracket terminology

Round brackets are called brackets in British English, but Americans refer to them as parentheses; for the longest time i was wondering why what I’d been taught from a young age had suddenly become wrong – turns out it was just American English taking over the globe. However, the Americans call square brackets [ ] just brackets; those we use in maths { } are brace brackets and these things < > are angle brackets and were actually the first brackets to appear!

Lake Toya, Hokkaido

Lake Toya is a volcanic lake, and is one of my favourite places in Hokkaido because it’s peaceful and beautiful. i love it in summer as the sky and the lake are a brilliant blue, and there’s a short 20min display of fireworks every night over the lake.

due to its depth, Lake Toya never freezes over; the 3 small islands in its centre are a popular (but slightly pricey) ferry ride away from the shore where the many hotels and japanese ryokans are:

Lake Toya is a great place to chill out and relax, although there are only a few attractions in the vicinity. One of them is the Volcano Science Museum, which details the volcanic activity of Mt. Usu, with a free exhibition of the wildlife around in the area. Outside the museum are many solar panels:

The museum is right next to the Konpira Crater Hazard Area – it features the preserved  remains of buildings that were destroyed when Mt Usu erupted in 2000.

I love Toya too :) 

 This is a little small, but if you look closely, you can see the shattered windows and crumbling walls of the building

We wanted to visit the Nishiyama Crater Promenade, a walking trail that’s meant to bring visitors close to the crater created when Mt Usu erupted most recently. I thought it was near the Konpira Crater Hazard Area – there was a walking trail nearby too – but that only led us on a long walk up till a dead end in the hot sun. At least we got some nice views though:

A view of Lake Toya and the Toyako Onsen town. That’s me in the picture below – the road we’re on is the former highway linking Toyako Onsen and Sapporo that was cut off and put out of use by the 2000 eruption.

The sad state of the road we were on – we had doubts as to where we were going once we got on this road, and those doubts were confirmed soon after:

The Nishiyama Crater Promenade was actually a bus ride away from Toyako Onsen to the foot of the hiking trail. I was really tired by then as we’d been walking for much of the morning, and it was a steep climb uphill. The view was good, but pity about the branches though:

The Konpira Crater Hazard Area below:

And here is the elusive Konpira Crater Lake – i love the colour of the crater lake. I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t steaming like it was on the tourism website though:

 

 

we stayed at Toya Sansui Hotel Kafu [洞爺山水ホテル　和風（かふう)], a smallish hotel slightly off the edge of the lake. That makes it cheaper too. In fact, our hotel was really cheap, at only 5800yen per night, inclusive of dinner and breakfast – most places charge at least 7000-8000yen. Our room had a view of the lake – and hence the fireworks – and was a typical tatami room with shower, tv, fridge, kettle and tea.

Breakfast was so-so only, but dinner was really good. We calculated how much such a dinner would cost at a restaurant outside, and concluded that we were paying perhaps less than 2000yen for the room itself. Here’s breakfast – there was tofu, fish, egg, toro, a boiled vegetable dish and rice:

 

and here’s dinner – it was amazingly delicious with pork shabu with delicious goma (sesame) sauce, sashimi, fish, a small crab claw, 3 small dishes of savoury food (one was mushrooms, another had fatty pork!) and super sweet yubari melon:

I’d recommend this hotel to everyone wanting to visit Lake Toya! Prices do not increase on weekends too – we were there on a Saturday – which makes it extra extra worth it :)

scrapbooks and being accosted

i’ve been on the lookout for a scrapbook these couple of days. what i want is a simple book with thick pages that can withstand things like polariods and ticket stubs stuck to them, yet light coloured enough for me to scribble things down with a pen or marker.

unfortunately, all i’ve been seeing are those photo album things with black adhesive pages and a peel-off film, and lots and lots of notebooks with pretty covers but really thin pages. Or scrapbook kits that help you assemble a scrapbook in 10 easy steps with handy slots to insert photos and jot memories – that kind of thing.

all those but no plain scrapbook. i don’t even understand the need for scrapbook kits, when the whole point of scrapbooks is to let you exercise your creativity, or at the very least offer you the freedom to express your creativity. In my case, it’s the expression of the lack thereof, but at least a simple fuss-free book allows me full control of how much – or how little – effort i want to put in. at the moment i just want something to stick my ticket stubs and photos in, but it’s proving difficult to find in Singapore.

that’s the good old book i bought from Shinsaibashi’s Loft. I haven’t checked out the scrapbook store at Raffles City, but if they don’t have what I want I’m gonna have to look for some other alternative..

*  *  *  * 

i get accosted every time i head out, between tampines mrt and the bus interchange. in the short distance between them, i’ll be approached by a bank (standard chartered, sometimes UOB too), insurance (Prudential), one or two flier distributors, the occasional person asking for donations and whichever company has rented the space at the interchange for a roadshow (recently it was KPN Investments).

today was exceptionally bad. i went from the station to tampines mall, and encountered 4 flyer distributors and UOB credit card promoters. then, i crossed back from tampines mall to tampines one via the MRT station, and between the latter met with yet another flyer distributor and someone from the Singapore Cancer Society (SCS).

Now, i’m so tired of of the many people who accost me between Point A and Point B that I generally just tell them “No, thank you” the moment they try to approach me. I’ve been seeing the same Prudential and Stanchart people every day, and i’m just annoyed that I can’t go from one place to another on this island without all this unwanted soliciting. So I did the same as usual today, and the person from the Singapore Cancer Society actually had the cheek to get annoyed with me for being unwilling to stop and listen.

*fumes*

I know they’re out there for a good cause, but really, with all those bank/insurance/flyer people out there, I don’t see how I can be blamed for assuming that the SCS people were yet more of those. Come on, even their lanyard is red with white letters: the same as Prudential. They don’t wear a special t-shirt with the SCS logo either – in that fraction of a second where they’re approaching me and i have to decide whether to stop or not, if in doubt I will not stop. I made the mistake – more than once in fact - of stopping before and it was always yet another pushy insurance agent who wanted only “a minute” but took at least five.

I walked past another one of the SCS people later, and he was approaching people while holding up a clipboard that had a poster emblazoned with the words “SINGAPORE CANCER SOCIETY” in big white letters – i’m sure he was a lot more successful than that person with the nerve to get pissed with me. Young lady, if you’re given such a clipboard, then you should be using it - and you only have yourself to blame for not applying your brain to your job, regardless of whether it’s for a good cause or not.

*grrrr*

my brother commented that flyer distribution is a rather demeaning job – i suppose i do agree with him, as they have to deal with a lot of rejection. but i feel that a lot of those jobs shouldn’t exist in the first place, as the distribution of flyers is, in most cases, unnecessary. except for flyers from fast-food outlets or eateries with a promotional voucher, i’ve never once received a useful or relevant flyer in the years between secondary school and graduation from uni when i took flyers that were handed to me.

there was a period of time when my motto was to take whatever flyer given to me to help the distributor finish his/her work faster, but it has come to a point where i find flyer distribution useless to me and a waste of resources. with demand comes supply; me not taking a flyer sends a small signal that i don’t need one and am not interested in the product being advertised. hopefully more people will start doing so, and one day contribute to the presence of less flyer distributors.

it’s a bit of a stretch, but i’d like to think of it as being something similar to the idea where if you stop eating shark’s fin, there’ll be less hunting of sharks eventually. either way it means that I no longer have to find a bin to chuck that unwanted flyer after taking it, which suits me just fine.

Selamat Hari Raya :)

There has been a makeshift prayer area at my block’s void deck during Ramadan for as long as I can remember. The area is always ‘fenced’ up with blue tarp, and I’ve never had more than a little peek at how it looks on the inside.

I came home late yesterday - the eve of Hari Raya - and was surprised to see the prayer area expand in preparation for the Hari Raya morning prayers. This section of the void deck is usually never part of the prayer hall; my staircase landing is right at where i took the shot!:

the area even spilled onto the walkway along the void deck, with extra mats on standby:

a rare glimpse of Hari Raya’s eve. too bad it’s raining today, but a Happy Hari Raya nonetheless! :)

haji lane

surprisingly i’ve never really checked out the boutiques at haji lane, although there’re far fewer than i thought there were. quite a few nice things there, although my favourite shop Pluck – i love their ice creams - was closed :(

i saw this on the wall though. note to self, that on a bright sunny day i should choose the ‘dark’ setting as this came out over exposed:

and this was my find of the day – a pink bicycle with the centre bar covered by what seemed to me at first to be a feather duster. you know, the fluffy kind that’s meant to attract dust by static electricity? i ventured a feel, and it seemed exactly like a feather duster! i have no idea why it’s there, but it was a hilarious sight:

thoughts on the JET Programme

news reports on the abolishing of the JET Programme* are not new, but have definitely increased in the past year or so, especially since the DPJ came into power. while I occasionally read the Japan Times, these two articles were brought to my attention via a friend on facebook:

Don’t blame JET for Japan’s poor English

Readers offer their thoughts on jettisoning JET

while I certainly agree that the JET Programme is by no means responsible for the lack of english proficiency in Japan, that is not to say that JET has contributed significantly to raising the standards of english in the country. In fact, my main gripes about my time on JET were that i struggled to find meaning in my job and was highly doubtful that i had any impact whatsoever on the english standards of most of my students**. also, there are JETs out there who don’t have english that’s good enough (especially grammar-wise) to teach (or edit, or whatever else ALTs are asked to do) and their presence can cast doubt on the selection process.

but the qualifications and quality of JETs aside, how they’re used has to change: JETs wouldn’t be a waste of money if they were used more efficiently. i mean, only a maximum of 4 classes (i had less) a day in an 8 hour working day? having nothing to do during the term holidays and test periods (of which there are many)? not being able to help with scoring tests and entrance exams even though the Japanese teachers always complain about it and struggle to finish marking in time? no doubt JET salaries are high – that could easily be reduced without scraping the programme*** – but i think one major reason for the complaints about their fat salaries is because those in the know are aware of just how little JETs have to do.

i’m not sure an english-teaching cum cultural exchange programme should be ceased, as it theoretically is a good idea. the problem is that theory, of course, differs from practice – JET needs an overhaul (like much of the Japanese system in fact) but perhaps not complete removal.

 

*: these tend to refer to and address the ALT aspect which forms the bulk of the JET Programme.

**: perhaps my junior high students in the english course were the sole exception, but that’s just 20-40 students out of the many whom i’ve taught.

***: according to David L. McConnell, author of the illuminating book “Importing Diversity: Inside Japan’s JET Programme”, JET offers a high salary due to the belief that a lower salary will not attract quality applicants. my opinion is that a lot of people apply to JET due to personal desires to experience Japan or Asia and that they’ll still apply as it offers precisely the paid opportunity to do so. it also makes sure that the people who apply primarily to get a paid holiday – there are quite a few and usually they’re those who’re the biggest waste of money on JET – will no longer to so.

Sapporo, Hokkaido

Jalan.net is a great website for booking accommodation in Japan.

It has a really good search system where you can look for accommodation in specific parts of Japan (e.g. Asakusa area in Tokyo) which is something most websites don’t offer, as well as narrow down your choices according to room type, budget, with meals etc. You also earn points for all the bookings made through the site, which can be redeemed on your next booking in most cases. The only drawback is that the site is in Japanese only, but it’s so easy to use if you know enough Japanese to navigate around.

it was through Jalan that i booked my accommodation for Hokkaido. Our first hotel in Sapporo was the Weekly Sapporo 2000 in Susukino, the entertainment district of Sapporo. It was a business hotel and cheap at 2500yen, with all the amenities of a business hotel (shower and ofuro, towels, bathrobe, etc) and even a microwave, sink and stove, cooking utensils and cutlery.

Our second hotel was Hotel Tokeidai (clock tower) and was even cheaper at about 2100yen per night. It’s within 5min walk from Sapporo station, has really friendly receptionists and all the amenities of a business hotel too, plus an electric kettle and green tea. It’s so cheap and good that i’d recommend it to everyone who’s thinking of visiting Sapporo.

nearby our first hotel is this really cool building:

check out the crazy detail on the facade of the human’s face – i think there was a claw somewhere too. i like the spanish-style building opposite too.

we didnt do much in sapporo, except go for breakfast at Nijo market. All the food seemed really expensive, and we finally went into this store that promised crab soup with every set meal ordered – an empty promise by the way. this stall has been patronised by many famous people, but i didnt really like the food there. seafood dons are usually served with sushi rice – cold and seasoned with sweet vinegar. but this was just regular rice, warm and bland. needless to say i was a little disappointed.

 

there was also this funny sign in the ladies’ toilet at Nijo market. i’m just wondering how anyone could use a sitting toilet incorrectly. I understand that lots of places in Japan – Hokkaido especially – have a problem with tourists from China throwing the used toilet paper into the wastepaper basket as they do in their own country, but i’ve never seen a how-to poster for a sitting toilet – the signs are in English too, and as far as i know most English-speaking people have a problem with squat toilets but not sitting ones:

we also went to the Sapporo Beer Festival. it was cool because each major beer company in Japan occupied one spot of Odori Park; you can ‘bar hop’ from Asahi to Kirin to Sapporo and so on by just walking down the length of the park. Unlike beer gardens in Osaka, the food and drink aren’t free flow, so if you want to drink and eat lots it’ll come up to quite a lot.

it’s nice though, for a mid-day drink and relax, which is what most people there were doing. being in Sapporo, we had to try the local beer, but i ended up having the Yebisu premium dark instead – Yebisu, by the way, is the best beer in Japan. The larger mug below is 1.5 litres if i remember correctly, but surprisingly it wasn’t very popular with the crowd that was there.

the Ishiya factory is one must-see in Sapporo, as it’s the manufacturer of the famous Shiroi Koibito cookies and is housed in a beautiful Tudor-style building:

its interior is gorgeous:

 

it was very random, but i liked this exhibit – part of a feature section on japanese toys over the years:

and proof that calpis is quite an old drink and no recent invention – this section was featuring things from the 1950s i think:

the production of shiroi koibito requires more manpower than i thought it would, and check out the many discarded biscuits that didnt meet production standards because they’re either too charred or under-baked:

 

at the start of every hour, the clock tower and the area surrounding the rose garden outside the factory building will have a musical performance. my favourite part is where bubbles are released into the air. again, it’s best to visit Hokkaido in mid-july – the Ishiya factory has a rose-festival that was from 11th to 19th july this year where its garden’s huge, gorgeous roses are in full bloom.

 

 

on this visit, i even managed to take a ride on the train – it was quite a lame ride (most were children :P) but it’s fun to do this kind of silly stuff on holiday:

when in hokkaido, you have to eat seafood. nearing the end of our trip, we splurged on crabs at the restaurant with the famous moving crab signboard – it’s a photo-op on the dotonburi in osaka, but we had to go all the way to Hokkaido to eat at their restaurant. there was a lot of food involved, like tofu with crab meat, and this really really delicious porridge with egg and crabmeat. the porridge was the last dish, and i was really stuffed by then, but it was so tasty and i ended up finishing almost all of it:

and the rest of our crab feast. the hairy crab was boiled – it’s apparently in season now – while the snow crab came in sashimi form. i dont think the snow crab was very fresh though, but the hairy crab was delicious!:

i want more of that crab porridge…