Attachments, none?

"Test's over, right? But how come there has been no news from you recently?"
"Uh, busy..."
Silence.
"Anything else?"
"Uh, no..."

It feels bad to be homesick. But it feels even worse when you realize that you're not homesick - because that means there's nothing much, back home, that you miss.

It must have been hurtful... But, sorry though I feel, there's nothing much to say. As if the gap in between is more than a physical distance.

Frankly, I feel more at ease to be all by myself... To put it bluntly, is that probably because I no longer feel any strong attachment to anything or anyone else?

Selfish bastard.

Moon Phase: Waning Crescent 34%

Subject: Waning Crescent (34% of full)
Date: 16 October 2006
Time: 0103, GMT+9
Location: Fuchu-shi, Tokyo (34.34N, 133.14E)
Optical Zoom: x12
Digital Zoom: x4

My Japanese Blog

My previous post was the second one I wrote in Japanese and already, I've received complaints from Down Under.

Dan: Udon sushi sashimi! Hibachi benibana teriyaki soba?
(Translation: What the heck! How are we supposed to understand when you blog in Japanese?)

Me: Nagasaki Okinawa Hokkaido Yokohama.
(Translation: I just want to practise my Japanese.)

Matthew: Tsunami kamikaze banzai, karate judo sumo samurai.
(Translation: Yeah, good place to practise when we don't understand at all.)

*Romanised transcript for the sake of "unjapanised" people... to put it in Dan's words.

Okay, okay! That's it. I've signed up for a new blog, for the sake of practising Japanese writing. It's hosted on Goo. (Most probably a name derived from Google...)

心境の吐露 - この空虚な心は…　何か満たされていないんだ…

Kuso hentai baka yaro!
(Translation: Have a nice day!)

人生って

もう２０年だ。この人生は、どうすればうまく生きていくことができるか、まだわかろうはずがない。人生って、罰だろう。意味のある人生なんて夢に限られているんじゃないか。これは真実だ。

一つの努力から一つの得ることができる。これは世間の原則と考えられる。何かを犠牲して、必ず何かを得られるにちがいないのは、当たり前のことだ。けど、これはたった単純な理想しかではない。

では、人間は何のために生きてるのか。金、地位、名、幸せ、愛...それらのために、しっかり努力していく。でも、必ずしも等価の成果を得るとは限らない。唇をかむまで、苦難に耐えて、ついに何も得ない者もいる。もちろん、やっと夢が叶うのもいるが、人生という旅の終点に着くと、だれでも勝利者にならない。だってこの物質界のものの全ては、幻だもの。人間はこの世に来るとき、何も持ってないで。この世を去るときも、同様で何も持たないで。これは、この世の原則だ。

現実では、人生って、ただこの世の流れのちっぽけな存在だ。一人ぐらいは、この大きな流れから消していっても、この世はまだ何事もないみたいで回り続けていく。

さあ、人生の意味は、何。

別に。ただ生きるために生きてるんだ。あの見知らぬ向こうへ行くのは、嫌だからだ。

Meticulous Japanese

This, is a pack of pasta sauce. But it is not an ordinary one, because it's made in Japan. Can you spot anything special?

Ignore the Japanese but look carefully at this part.

Yup. That's right. "Food for ages 0-100". Yeah, Japanese do always come up with weird ideas. Remember the "Please take it! You taste just delicious." printed on the label of a can of oranges? (Refer to: Japanese Sense of Humour, May 19, 2006.)

But that's not all. See this small, punched hole?

That, is not done without purpose. As shown in the instruction, it comes in handy when you're heating up the pasta sauce in a pot - stick a chopstick through that hole to get it out from the boiling water.

Who could have thought of such an idea? Only a Japanese would. Because Japanese are usually meticulous to the smallest details.

There's a joke about the stereotypical view on Japanese meticulousness:

Two factories - one in Russia and one in Japan - are given the same instructions to make a particular product. The condition, though, is that at least 99% of the products must be up to a certain quality.

Upon accepting the job, the Russian engineers set off fixing their machines in order to meet the requirement. The Japanese engineers however, scratch their heads, wondering how they're supposed to do that without given "the instructions for making the 1% of defective goods".

Well, compare this with the Malaysian "tidak apa (nevermind)" attitude... No wonder we're so behind... And yet, we're still wondering what's wrong with the nation.