It has been almost 2 weeks since the new trimester started. I went back to Malacca on November 8 and stayed over night at my grandaunt’s place at Banting. There is always a lot of food in her house. We had chicken rice for breakfast the next morning before heading to Malacca. We reached Malacca on November 9 and were busy packing, moving and buying some necessities after that.
The new trimester started on November 14 and it was nice to see my friends, lecturers and tutors again. We have not seen each other for about 6 months. Many of them change their hairstyle or image. I felt a bit weird about attending lectures and tutorials again. But, I am able to get use to it. After all, I have been attending lectures for the past 3.5 years. It is not a very long period, but not too short as well to forget about everything. I attended my first Japanese class of the trimester on Friday and it is great to see everyone again. There is around 3 weeks before the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) and everyone is anxious about it. I will be taking my Level 2 this year. But, I do not feel much tension as I did not have high hopes for this year’s exam. I have not being attending classes for the past 6 months; things must have been a bit rusty. I am glad that I am still able to read “hiragana” and “katakana” fluently and understand my sensei’s lessons. In addition, Level 2 test is quite difficult. I will just have to try my best for this one.
(p/s: “hiragana” and “katakana” are the Japanese characters. “sensei” means teacher in Japanese.)
Week 2 is not very relaxing but not very busy as well. I was doing some work for my final year project, doing some research, revising my notes etc. I was not very keen on doing my more than 50 pages of homework for my Japanese class but did some in the end as practice. Grammar sure is something tough for any language.
Today, Kevin, my Japanese class’s classmate passed me the photos that they took during their stay in Japan for a week. I was not able to attend that homestay because of my industrial training in Korea. I would not have enough money to spend for both trips.
The venue of the expo that they attended caught my attention. It was a really huge area with each country having their own buildings for exhibitions. The architecture and decorations for each building varies, but they were all very grand and artistic. I like the 2 green mascots for the “AiChi” EXPO. It is an exhibition to promote love to the environment. Their homestay took place in Nagoya. Nagoya is a state in Japan, famous for its ancient castles.
What attracts me more were the beautiful flowers and the shrines. It was spring when they visited Japan. The gardens were all decorated beautifully by the flowers and trees. The shrines in Japan sure are different from those in Korea and Malaysia, even though they all share some similarities. I like the way how the Japanese make their wishes at the shrines. It's special and cute. The temples that they visited during the homestay were located in Kyoto. Kyoto is the previous capital of Japan. Many of the traditional customs are still practice here. It is possible to see girls in “yukata” or “kimono” around.
(p/s: “yukata” and “kimono” are the Japanese traditional clothes. “yukata” is the thinner version of “kimono”, normally wear during summer because it is very hot. “kimono” consists of a few layers and it is much thicker than “yukata”.)
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