Studying Japanese

I have been on and off studying Japanese since college. I took actual lessons once (~2011) at Nihongo Foundation (Elem 3), but stopped attending because work was hectic back then. After that, I only picked up further knowledge from watching anime and Jdrama. I mentally matched the words and grammar structure to the subtitles I am seeing on screen. It’s not the perfect way to learn, I know, but it kept me immersed.

Fast forward to more than 10 years later, my Japanese is not significantly better than it was maybe 3 years ago. I have forgotten all of the Kanji I learned in preparation for N4 back then. So I decided to try pushing for N4 again this July and will do my best to learn enough within the next 4 months.

If I’m really serious about Japan, I will aim to make it to N3 within this year. I hate myself for not putting in enough effort in the past years but there’s no use regretting over what was. I just need to move forward this time around.

I’ll try to share some of my resources, some tips or even some lessons in future posts. We’ll see how it goes!

これからがんばります！

Tokyo Subway Ticket Pass – Travel Cheap

Going around Tokyo can be expensive. Train tickets can cost from around 200-400 JPY for a one-way trip (depending on your destination), and for tourists who are basically commuting the entire day, this can easily go up to 1,000 JPY a day.

The Tokyo Subway Ticket 72-hour pass costs only 1,500 JPY per adult – and that puts your train ticket costs to only 500 JPY a day. You can use it on all Tokyo Metro and Toei Lines.

Tokyo Subway Lines; source: http://www.tokyometro.jp/en/ticket/value/travel/

To easily identify these lines, these are the ones that have letters enclosed in a circle when you look for routes on Google Maps. Net – if you have this ticket, avoid those lines that don’t have a similar logo!

JR line vs. Subway line; Fukutoshin Line is a Subway Line (Circle with the letter F)

Where to buy?

Before you leave the airport, you can get these Tokyo Subway passes from the Keisei Bus counter, near the exit of Narita Airport Terminal 2. For other airports, you can ask Information where you can get them. You can show them this picture and they’ll point you in the right direction!

Using the Tokyo Subway Ticket

You simply need to insert this ticket in the slot at the entrance of the different subway stations. Make sure you get it back since you will need it to exit, and for your future trips. On your first use, the ticket will be stamped with an expiry date/time. You can use your ticket as long as it is within this time stamp.

In the above example, if you rode a train at 10:50 AM on February 19, you can still use the same ticket to get out even if it’s at past 10:55 AM (expiry on the ticket).

Can I use the Tokyo Subway Ticket to go to Tokyo from Narita?

The answer is no. You can purchase one-time use tickets from ticket counters in the airport as there is no Subway Line directly connected to the airport.

You can learn more about the Tokyo Subway Ticket here.

Tokyo in 4 Days – Itinerary

Tokyo is for me, what New York is for others. It’s my ideal city! There’s so many things to do, that you can’t possibly fit it all in a month! But, given the circumstances of a working adult, where you can’t really leave work that long, we have to settle with shorter trips. I am sharing with you my 4-Day Tokyo itinerary which my friends and I used just this February.

We took the 12:50 AM flight from Manila, arriving in Narita at around 7AM. Our flight back was at 7:30 PM on the fourth day, so we were able to utilize these days for activities. It’s important to book flights that do not take up most of the day especially on short trips.

Time	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4
7:00 AM	Arrive in Narita	Airbnb (preps)	Airbnb (preps)	Pack up
10:00 AM	Brunch in Nihonbashi	Shibuya (Breakfast at Sukiya, Tokyu Hands, Dotour Coffee)	Meiji Jingu	Airbnb Check-out
12:00 NN	Shibuya (Hachiko, Shibuya Crossing)	Shibuya (Breakfast at Sukiya, Tokyu Hands, Dotour Coffee)	Meiji Jingu	Akihabara (Lunch at another Ramen place)
2:00 PM	Sangenjaya (Check in to Airbnb)	Shinjukugyoen (plum blossoms)	Tsukiji Market (late lunch)	Shopping at BIC Camera; Anime coffee shop
4:00 PM	Sangenjaya area	Harajuku Takeshita Street	Sensjo-ji Temple	Travel to Narita Airport
6:00 PM	Dinner	Ramen Dinner	Asakusa Shopping	Dinner at the airport
8:00 PM	Tokyo Tower	Omotesando	Shibuya Shopping	Fly back to Manila
10:00 PM	Home	Drinks in Sangenjaya	Don Quijote (Sangenjaya)

I will post the details of each day in the next posts.

Roses are red, horses are too…

Valentines Day. The day when a clear line is drawn between people who are single and those who are taken. Social media is infested with photos of flowers, chocolates and dinner dates. But, that’s not the only way to celebrate Valentines. While some of us have dates, some of us get drunk.

After 6 1-liter bottles of Red Horse, we were wiped. Wasted. We tortured ourselves by watching romance happen in Terrace House: Boys and Girls in the City. And when they failed, we sighed, but deep inside we celebrated. It’s not because we’re bitter, but because we found ourselves a comrade. When Misaki and Byrnes got together though, I was happy for Misaki. One shouldn’t suffer for too long. And I wish for that kind of relationship, built on total acceptance of each other’s flaws.

Roses are red, horses are too. I don’t give a f***, so f*** you.

Anyhow, it was a fun night. By 4AM, we were having breakfast at Rufo’s (with another bucket of Red Horse), and speaking in broken Japanese.

Who says Valentines are only for couples?

Ohayou to you, Oyasumi to me

Ohayou in Japanese means Good Morning, while Oyasumi means Good Night. This is my tagline because my body clock is so messed up that I go to sleep when most people are already getting up from their beds. The word play just fits!

I wish I could do something about my body clock. I don’t want to rely on sleeping pills to get me to sleep – but I’ve tried several things like:

Keeping my phone away when I’m about to sleep
Turning off all of the lights
Diffusing essential oils, paired with spa music to relax my brain
Drinking a glass of warm milk
Drinking enough alcohol to put me to sleep

These worked for a while, but my body clock just resets itself eventually. This is particularly hard for me because I do work a morning shift. If my company didn’t have flexible time, I don’t know how I would manage.

Looking deeper into this, this could stem from anxiety. I’m not clinically diagnosed, but I know anxiety keeps me up at night. The moment I lie in bed, my brain revs up its engine and conjures up a million thoughts – and they’re not happy ones. I go over my frustrations – career, personal goals, failed relationships and disappointments – and panic and worry about the future.

It’s not a windmill, but a ferris wheel in my mind. Taken at SM MOA.

I have to get out of bed to stop these thoughts from making me go crazy. So I waste my time watching anime, or other people’s lives through YouTube, read a book, or do the laundry (yes, at 3 in the morning).

Maybe I should see a therapist, but I’m scared of opening up to someone. I’m the type to deal with my problems by myself. These aren’t really problems to begin with – but it does keep me up at night and affects my day. I am hoping that doing this daily blog will help me out somehow. Having a venue to pour my thoughts into can take some of the load off my brain for a night. If this still doesn’t work, then I’ll seek professional help.

Until then, it’s Ohayou to You, and Oyasumi to Me! Time check – 3:33 AM.

Get me out of this slump

I know, I am here again, trying to start something I probably won’t finish. I have been blogging on and off (but it’s really more off than on) the past few years and I’ve only been good at the start.

I’ve always had problems with blogging consistently and these are my major challenges:

I’m always tired. I know I have enough time, but I never have enough energy to do something productive.
There’s too many things I want to write about. And because there’s too many of them, just thinking about it makes me want to just sleep instead.
Life has been boring. I wake up, go to work, come back home, watch a few anime or some YouTube videos, then go back to sleep. Repeat.

I know I have to push myself harder. If there’s nothing interesting, I’ll make an effort to try something new, or go somewhere – just find something that I can write about. I had a hard time defining the purpose of this blog so I’m making it a daily blog. This makes it easier for me to talk about anything and everything, without feeling restricted by categories. Hopefully, this will get me out of this slump, not just with blogging, but with life in general.

Hoping for better things. Taken at Ayala Triangle Lights Show (December 2016)

This blog will also be a journey to finding what I really want to accomplish in life. I ask myself, if someone mentions my name – what would people associate it with? What would they remember first? I want to look for that which makes me me. I don’t want to be just an average person anymore. This will become the fuel to my dying fire!

That’s all for now! Please help get me out of this slump by leaving your comments – knowing that there are people reading this will add that pressure to keep posting daily. It’s not easy, but I’ll give it my best this time around.

Journal / 2016.11.03

Last night as I was about to sleep, I felt a mild pain on the same toe that caused me a lot of suffering during a gout attack 2 weeks ago. I got so scared that I drank 2 liters of water with apple cider vinegar in one sitting, forced myself to pee all of the uric acid out, and drank some more water again before finally hitting the bed. It took me almost three hours before I fell asleep.

That explains why I was not able to go to work today. I woke up late from having slept very late! The good thing is that apple cider vinegar and water seems to be very effective in preventing gout flare ups! I swear, I will watch my diet more strictly moving forward. I already bought some vegetables to cook for my meals in the coming days.

Other than that, nothing much happened today. Tonight, I visited Nuat Thai after almost 2 months of no massage (I was saving some money). I had to get one to loosen up my bones and joints from being stuck in bed the entire week last week. After the very good massage, I treated myself to my favorite Green Tea Cheese Froth from Teaberi. My alcohol substitute.

Now off to do some online lessons (I need to ensure I don’t skip one day) before I hit the sack again. I really hope I wake up early tomorrow.

Good night!

Journal / 2016.11.02

Hey guys! You know how daily Vlogs are popular on YouTube nowadays – I want to make the same, but I can never have the confidence to put my face in front of a camera. So instead of a vlog, I’ll do a daily blog instead – just like I used to back in college!

Today, I woke up a little past 10, so I decided to work from home instead. Around lunch time, I accompanied my brother to Mckinley Hill – he just got accepted at a company he applied for (actually, I did the applying for him, he just went and attended the exams and interviews). Good news! I went with him mainly because I wanted to hatch the rest of my Pokemon eggs while the Halloween Event is (surprisingly) still on going.

While there, I went to see the famous Venice Grand Canal Mall, which has a canal inside, just like Venice (what).

The mall is still pretty empty, there’s not a lot of stores open yet – but you can view the canal anyway, and it looks good, even when the skies were gloomy! You can also ride a gondola around the canal for a fee, although I don’t have the details.

I had a quick lunch at the Food Hall, Latin Chicken was good. And then my brother got back and we had to hurry home because I was technically still at work. I managed to hatch 2 5 KM eggs, but got disappointed with what came out of those eggs, Krabby and Growlithe, which I already have a ton of.

After I finished work at around 7PM, I took a nap and fell asleep. When I woke up, it was already 10:45 PM! My brother and I had dinner at Izakaya Hideyoshi, because it was raining and I was craving for some ramen.

Now it’s time for my online Japanese lessons, after which I will try to go back to sleep! I have visitors from Cebu arriving tomorrow! Always good to have visitors from home, I like showing them around.

That’s all for now. Till tomorrow! I hope I keep this daily blog up. Good luck to me!

Late Night Ramen in Makati

Have you ever had that craving for ramen, let’s say at 12 midnight, especially when it’s raining? Here are two ramen places in Makati that’s open to accommodate your cravings.

Izakaya Hideyoshi

Located along Makati Avenue, right across A. Venue Mall, this new Japanese restaurant is actually a sister restaurant of the famous Nihonbashitei along Arnaiz Avenue. For 200 pesos, you can already enjoy a big bowl of Shoyu Ramen! They are currently on soft opening – they are open until 2AM and for now, only accepts cash.

Ohsama Ramen

This ramen place is open until 6 in the morning! This is the best place for a ramen fix after a long night of partying, or really when you need the comfort a heartwarming bowl at the most vulnerable time of the day. I mean, why dwell in many thoughts when you can’t sleep – have some ramen instead, right? This Shoyu Ramen is also only at 200 pesos, you can even add 100 for a serving of chahan (Japanese fried rice) and 3 pieces of gyoza! Now that’s a deal. Eat your sorrow away!

Both restaurants are actually from the same owners. So the menu are similar, but also different per store. The original restaurant, Izakaya Nihonbashitei along Arnaiz (Pasay Road) is also open until 2 AM, and they have a much wider selection of Japanese food you can try like Takoyaki, Omurice, among others.

What are you waiting for? Head there NOW and enjoy! Don’t forget to say Itadakimasu!

Apocalypse Child

I am not “yet” a big fan of Filipino movies. I normally skip out on the mushy Filipino rom-coms produced by high-budget production companies like Star Cinema. But, I do know that there is much more potential and talent in the indie scene. That’s where they win awards internationally – but oddly, these are almost never shown in the cinema because at the end of the day, it’s all about the money.

When an artist I respect (Armi of Up Dharma Down) tweeted about a movie she sang on, talked about how it’s shown in limited cinemas only, and how it’s at risk of being discontinued because a bunch of Hollywood movies are on the way – it made me want to support the movie. So, I took my brother with me to see the last full show at the nearest mall.

Apocalypse Child is a story set in Baler, one of 2 major surfing sites in Luzon. But, it isn’t a surfing movie, despite surfing taking up almost half of the scenes. The story revolves around a surf instructor, his mother, his girlfriend/student, his childhood bestfriend, his childhood best friend’s fiancee, and their complicated relationships. Cinematography is good, I wish we had the same kind of quality for our more popular films. It made me want to visit Baler to take photos, or even try surfing. The movie, like most indie movies, come off very raw, a little bit dragging, and sometimes confusing. I think you need to be patient with movies like this and appreciate the artistry – versus just waiting to know what happens next.

If the movie is still in cinemas by tomorrow, please do catch it. I now believe that if we want the state of our film industry to improve, we need to support the talents behind independent films in order for them to get the chance to move on to bigger projects in the future. And really, I think we have enough cheesy rom coms with song titles as movie titles, if you get what I mean. So yes, please catch this if you can!

I will leave you with the video of the soundtrack that made me want to watch the movie.

Did I like the movie? I did. My brother didn’t enjoy it as much, though. If you’ve seen it, let me know your feedback via the comments below (but please avoid any spoilers).

Photo credit: Apocalypse Child Facebook Page