PHILIPPINES 2

The Second Day In Philippines

We had breakfast at closest restaurant from Shangri-La hotel in Manila.
It was pretty good Philippine breakfast, but the problem is that servers and we can’t communicate well…
During this trip, I asked Ryan to speak with people in Philippines most of the time.
It was very difficult for me to understand their English, and was hard for them to understand my English.
Since I relied on Ryan too much, and finally my English became really bad.
Ryan asked me, “Are you tired? Your English is getting bad”
I was laughing because I knew that I was not trying hard to speak well.
He started talking with me in Japanese, and we communicated in Japanese when we were by ourselves.

It was Ryan’s idea to go to Borocay.
He got a flight tickets for us to fly to Borocay, which is 1hour away from Manila by jet.
Somehow he booked a flight for us to go to Borocay separately.
I was fine with that, but after I he left me at the airport and I was not sure when my flight would leave, I was getting nervous.
Finally I got on a jet, and fell in a sleep.
When I got up, the door of the pilot’s space, and saw him reading newspaper.
I saw the flight attendant was struggling with her headache.
Some white stuff from outside came into the jet.
I got scared and started getting upset.
When I finally got to Borocay, I was so tired and upset.
However, after I saw this beautiful beach, I became soooo happy.
How could I keep being upset after I saw this!
We headed to our hotel by jet boat.
Kids who came to pick us up from the airport helped us carrying stuff.
We assume that they were under 18 or so, but they worked really hard.
I felt people in Manila are quite different from people in Borocay.
After I spent half a day in Borocay, I thought a lot about my work in Japan.
Anyway, the second day in Philippines was a good day.

PHILIPPINES 1

1st day in Philippines

I was in Philippines last week with Ryan.
It was my first time in Philippines, and I was a little nervous before I got there.
Everyone scared me saying that I might get kidnap or get something stolen.
However, it never happened!
But it was good ting to be careful wherever I would be, right?
I had a chance to go to Philippines when I was a high school student, and I was looking forward to going there.
I was going to go there as an exchange student for a short time.
It got canceled at the last minute, and since then, I never thought I would get another chance to go there.
It was Ryan’s idea to go there since he has his cousin there.
First impression of Philippines was hot!!
Second impression is that it was so crowed with people, motorbikes and cars.
Everything I saw from Ryan’s cousin’s car were new to me and was interesting.
It was a while since I saw Ryan since the last time, but I even could not concentrate on being happy to see him!

We stayed at Shangri-La Hotel in Manila.
There was a big grocery store near the hotel, and we decided to go check it out.
We tried to enter the place from the exit door without knowing the system.
A guard man with a gun stopped us strictly.
I was surprised because it is just a grocery store, and they had to check my bag!
Before we went to a grocery area, we had some snack in front of the area.
There was a lot of people and I got hit by a big shopping cart.
I did not see who hit me since it hurts so much!
It was as big as American grocery store, but less variety of stuff.
This meat section on the picture above amazed me.
There was really stinky part, and I found bigger fish section.
I think they were not happy to see us taking pictures, plus I saw a lot of guard men with gun, so did not take many pictures not to got shot.

Anyway, the first say in Manila was very exciting.
I had already been glad to go to Philippines on the first day there.

SOY MILK FOOD

Soy Milk Pot

Last Saturday, after work, my friend came over to my apt and stayed one night.
I decided to cook for dinner, and I cooked Soy Milk Pot, which sounds gross, but really good taste.
This menu is one of my best cooking, although it is really easy to cook.
We ate too much, so we skipped desert and walked to a video store.
I really wanted to watch “Saw 3” but have been scared to watch it by myself.
I had watched “Saw1” and “Saw2” with my movie friend who loves scary movies.
I always denied his selection, so one day I decided to watch them and I really liked them.
But I was still scared to watch it by myself, and asked my friend to watch it with me.
I thought “Saw 3” was the best out of three.
We watched it till late at night, and chatted after that for a while.
We slept in till noon, and cooked again, and ate.
I went to Tokyo for business on the next day, but I was not tired at all.
The friend was not my closest friend ever, but I had a really good time.
I realized it is nice to hang out with friend whom I had not hung out much.
I found many things from my friend.

She is going to get married soon, but she will move to the place which is close to my apt.
I wish I can hang out with her much more.

MORNING SPEECH

How to Feel about Holidays

In our office, we have a short meeting every morning.
At the meeting, one of us has to give a morning speech for a few minutes to get used to speak in front of a decent amount of people.
Today one of my co-workers from sale department gave a speech about holidays.
It was a comparison of Japanese workers and American workers.
He said that majority of Japanese workers listen to the radio or watch TV on holidays, 30% of them use holidays to take a rest from their daily hard work.
And the rest of Japanese workers use holidays just for fun.
He mentioned an interesting point the Americans work for holidays but Japanese take holidays for work.
I have never thought about it, but it might be true.
If it is true, I am more American way to think about holidays.
Actually, I get nervous on a Sunday when I hang out with my friends till late at night because I get worried about my new week to go.
However, when I have a fun plan for my day off, I feel really happy and get more energy to work.
I think myself that I am a type of person who can work hard by looking forward to my holidays.

In Japan, there is a vacation time, which is called “Golden Week”, from the end of April to the beginning of May.
Since there are many national holidays during the time, we can get a one-week straight vacation if we are lucky.
This year, I only get vacation time for four days.
But I decided to go to Philippines with my boyfriend.
Since my vacation in Philippines will be a week to go, I am very motivated to work.

My sister asked me which is the reason why I am excited about this vacation.

1.To see my boyfriend, who lives far away from Japan
2.To go on a vacation with my boyfriend
3.To getaway from work
4.To getaway from Japan

Of course because of all the above!
Can’t wait to go to Philippines!!

FRIENDS

Time with Friends

When I was a kid, I always get excited to stay at my friend’s house.
I also liked to have my friends at home.
Lately, I stayed at two different friend’s house.
I went to stay at my friend whom I went to school together.
She is from Yamagata, which is countryside of Japan.
She got married three years ago, and now they built a new house, and she has a rabbit and likes to play with her, as you can see from the picture above.
My other friend from school and I visited her house to practice for a performance at our friend’s wedding in May.
We stayed up till 2 in the morning, which was the time her husband comes home.
We all were in the same class at university, and we were in a group in 8.
Eight of us held a party every two months, we went to trip together, we went parties together and we had lunch together most of the time.
Anyway, after we graduated from school, we could not get to see each other much.
However, whenever we see each other, we can go back to our school time and update our life story each other.

On another day, I spent a night at my childhood friend’s who also just got married.
Her husband is my friend too, and I have known them for a long time.
Their new lifestyle is so cute, and I did not feel they are married but they are roommates.
We all lied down and talk about many things with drinking till early in the morning.

The other day, I had my friend at apt.
He is my boyfriend’s roommate, and he visited his family in Japan.
Whenever I see friends from outside of Osaka, I don’t know what to do, but feel really happy.
I saw his sister who works in Tokyo too.
They were very cute brother and sister, and both of them can speak Japanese and English.
We talked a lot by speaking both languages.

I am lucky that I have much variety of friends from many places.
We share a lot of stories, and we learn a lot from each other.
My friend is coming to stay at my apt this weekend.
This time will be a weekend stay, so I have to cook for dinner and breakfast.
I am excited but a little nervous…

SILLY THOUGHTS

Bullet Train Trip

These are our new sweets we are going to start selling from next month.
I take pictures, write about them, make HP and stuff.
That is one of my favorite parts of work.
I went to conference about deserts and sweets in Tokyo.
There were lots to learn from it.
When I go on a business trip to Tokyo, I usually take Bullet Train and it takes 2 and a half hour to get there from Osaka.
I rather taking airplane, because it is much easier and take less time.
However, the two and a half hour is sometimes very useful time.
I sleep, read a business magazine, work with my PC, or thinking about stuff.

I was planning to go on a trip this weekend.
I was looking forward to getting relaxed with my friend at the trip straight after my business trip.
However, I had to cancel it because of my work.
When I had a meeting on Thursday, my boss told me that he is planning to have all members of my department to come to work on Saturday.
I asked him the reason why, and he said “To get together is important, and it helps to motivate members”.
I am like “What??” Having Saturday off motivates people much more than being together on holiday!!
What made me upset was that he told me three days before!!
I don’t understand why all other people will come to work without complaining.
I am a kind of person who does not mind to go to work on holidays if there is a certain reason for that.
I got depressed, and when I was in a bullet train coming back from the business trip, I was thinking what to do next and which made me a little bit happy.
Should I go back to school?
Should I quit my current job and start traveling all over the world for a while?
Should I work for travel agency? Etc, etc…
They are my nonsense thoughts.
Isn’t this a useful way to spend time in bullet train?

OPENING BUSINESS

My Friend’s Business

I have some friends who open their business or who are going to open a business.
Last month, I attended one of my friend’s birthday and engagement party.
They are my friends from college in Japan.
I went to Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, and my major was English.
Some of them from the same major, and most of their major were Brazil Protégées, and one of their major was French.
I don’t have so many friends from other major, but I became friends with them at café in campus I always killed my time.
Most of my friends lived in apt close to college, but I went to college from my parent’s house by one and a half hour train ride every day.
So when I had one class break, I usually spent my time at café with other students.
When we saw at the party, we exchanged our business cards, and felt weird that we are now working.
I had not seen one of the boys for 8 years since he quite school when he was junior.
We were quite good friends, but lost in touch, so we were so surprised to see each other at the party.
And more than that, I was very surprised that he became a president of a company.
I was thinking we would never know what would happen, because he was not a president type of person.

These are kids who are trying to open a noodle restaurant.
They rent a small apt to study noodle and eat noodle everyday there.
I have known one of the boys since I was a leader of YMCA which is 10 years ago.
He was one year older but I used to teach English.
The other boy is from Westin Hotel who was a main chef at a Japanese restaurant there.
Since they rent apt close to my place, they sometimes call me to ask me to taste their noodle.
At first time, I could not believe that the boy was a main chef, since they tasted pretty bad…
I gave them strict comments because I wanted to be honest, so I thought they would never invite me.
But they call me again and again, and each time, they get better and I got impressed.

Whenever I see those friends from old days change a lot, I am so happy for them, and also I get more energy.
I think I am lucky that I have lots of friends whom I can share or learn about many things in many fields.