I am a tropical girl. And I love it! I love the sun, the heat, the tan you get from walking from your car to the mall entrance. I love everything about the tropics. Okay, maybe not everything, because I do hate the flies and mosquitoes and the smell of dried sweat. But still, I am happy with the muggy temperature of my homeland. I was thrown into a whirlwind of events when I decided to go for my dream of going to study in Japan . And to add the cherry on top of my ice cream sundae, I was set to fly and arrive right smack in the middle of autumn. Not bad, cool weather, red leaves and all. And then the temperature starts dropping. And dropping. And... now, daily, we get -7 degrees Celsius every morning. Quick disclaimer...I am by no means an expert in surviving the freezer-like temperatures but this is a memoir on how I am currently surviving the sub-zero temperatures. So, how will a girl, who loves the sun and the heat so much, survive winter in a coastal town with a sub-zer...

Atarashii Kotoba Kirei - beautiful ~ja arimasen - negative form (this is appended to an adjective, noun, or adverb indicative of the negative version of said word) hai - yes iie - no kudasai - please arigatou gozaimasu - thank you very much sumimasen - excuse me gomenasai - I'm sorry ohayou gozaimasu - Good morning konnichiwa - Hello/good day Kirei ja arimasen! This is a side story of an on-going joke we have amongst the group. The next episode is still in the works. ;p Upon landing in Japan, we were armed with our very, VERY limited vocabulary of the Japanese language. Of course we know the basics such as: hai, iie, kudasai, arigatou gozaimasu, ohayou gozaimasu, sumimasen, gomenasai  and konnichiwa. We also know a few descriptors here and there, some we've heard from anime, some from friends and some from family members who have settled here in Japan. Kirei is an adjective used to describe something beautiful, clean, and pristine. But mostly, when re...

The Legend of the 711 Crew After arriving in Oarai and initially settling down in our respective apartments, one major problem hit us like a ton of bricks. We were hopelessly and totally disconnected from the net and have no way of communicating with loved ones, friends, families, enemies, and whoever else in the world. Now, I for one, was overly excited to share everything I'm seeing and experiencing with my family and my best friend. But since our phones don't have sim cards,don't work and were not really compatible with Japanese networks, (we haven't actually tried since prepaid sim cards are not really a thing here and they are not really big on selling just sim cards. I'll probably make a post regarding that as well...maybe soon.) we were, in a word, screwed. We had hoped that the apartments we were to be provided will have had internet set up for us, but unfortunately, they didn't. So here we were, miles and an ocean away from home, stranded in a sma...

Atarashii Kotoba (New Words) From this post forward, I will start the post with the  Atarashii Kotoba  section to introduce a few basic Japanese phrases, words, and expressions to help you with learning a little bit of Japanese while being entertained with the colorful life of Silak. Jiko shoukai - self- introduction The 711 Crew I arrived in Japan on the 9th of October 2016. I arrived here on an early morning plane with 6 other Filipinos for the commencement of our life as students in Japan . We were part of a program that allowed us to study and work part-time in an international language exchange school for the next year and a half. Now, before the trip, none of these 7 people (myself included) have ever met in person. We may have chatted online via Facebook once or twice, but we were complete strangers to each other. So to make sure everybody is on the same page with the subsequent posts of the future, we will be doing a quick jiko-shoukai  of the 711-cr...

 Our flight left Manila at around 12:30 in the early morning and we were provided with one hot meal prior to our arrival to Japan. We arrived at Narita airport at around 5 in the morning. We then waited for our van to pick us up and we proceeded with our 2-hour drive to the town of Oarai in Ibaraki-ken. The first day was a flurry of events that I may have forgotten a lot of already. But let me try to reconstruct as much of what I can remember. We arrived in Oarai at roughly around 10 in the morning. The first stop was at the school's office to pick up some provisions that we will be given. We were provided with futons, dishes, basic household items, etc. After which we were shown to our respective apartments. We were dropped off and told to be ready in an hour, we will be picked up at around 1 pm. So we hurriedly unloaded our stuff and picked rooms. At around 1 indeed our teacher picked us up from the apartment for lunch. This was the first encounter I had with a Japanese s...

Around October or November of 2014, I was mindlessly scrolling around Facebook when I came across a page offering a study and work program in Japan. And, like so many times before, I just gave it a mindless try, thinking that it was going to end up like most of my failed endeavors of going to the Land of the Rising Sun. As far back as I can remember, Japanese animation has been part of the Philippine airwaves. With Voltes V and Daimos at the helm, not counting Bioman, Shaider, Ultraman and a few other shows I have forgotten, the Japanese influence can really be felt. But, it was with the early 90's animania that really left a mark in my young brain that I subconsciously pursued up until now. A little bit of history regarding my childhood: I became hooked with Japanese anime with the dawn of Sailormoon. Growing up, I was actually not allowed to watch TV except Friday nights and throughout the weekend. Screen time ends on Sundays, 8 pm. So fortunately for me, Sailormoon a...

This post is long overdue. About, a little over 2 years overdue. I have changed my blog's name to integrate it with my new blog that is more centered and I would say more of the real ME. I started this blog to document my journey supposedly to being someone I wished to be. But as what always happens with me, I keep changing my mind. In my head I think, "all this time and you still don't know yourself well enough to know that at one point you will have to accept the fact that you are just dreaming?" The impossible dream is as what it claims to be... An impossible dream. Despite the decision to give up, deep in my heart I still have that longing to be a doctor. But, let's face it... I'm too old to start with this and I do have my little angel to care for. Maybe this journey isn't about who I want to be, but who I'm meant to be. February of 2011, I gave up my job teaching English online to go back to a job I really did not want to be in s...