Clair de Lune
About Procrastination
Still procrastinating on this post...
#23 First-time Driving in Japan
First Time Driving in Japan
From Kiroro to Yoichi to Otaru and Back
Driving has always been my kind of thing, I enjoy driving everywhere in the car, listening to music, feeling the tires rolling on the tarmac roads, sometimes feeling the incoming wind, enjoying the views around and stuff, I really loved driving.
So, in this hotel we have a total of 3 Malaysians, as far as I know, first one would be me, another one is working at the Resort Market, and the last one works at the corporate office. I happened to know the one from the resort market and we meet each other quite often since I worked at Sheraton Hotel's front desk and I always see him around, so we would normally chit-chat and stuff. Then one day I happen to know that he owns a car, and I thought I might be able to borrow the car to go around, so I asked, and who knew, he was actually ok with it, so I actually went ahead.
Now, the legality of me driving in Japan was a definite no, as I do not have an International Driving Permit (and I regret not getting one now), but since we are in such an isolated small place, I figured that I'd most probably not get pulled over provided I do not do anything stupid and stuff, and I heard also that there's not really any checkpoints set up to do random checking and stuff, so I just went ahead with the driving plan.
Ever since the first time I came to Japan, I have always impressed with the road quality here, it's so smooth and flat, and so well maintained, unlike those in Malaysia, with filled with potholes and rough as they'd just add layers on top of old layers instead of removing it and redo everything during road maintenance (for this problem, I realize only like Malaysia does this, even the Philippines has smoother roads than Malaysia).
But of course, I am in this tiny township far away from big cities in Hokkaido, so the road quality here was of course not as good as those in Tokyo or Osaka, and to be honest, even slightly worse than those of Toyama and Fukui, but it was acceptable.
Well, I drove through mountains and valleys, the view was really breathtaking. I have never seen such a beautiful view before, it was a cherry farm, and it was under a valley, imagine seeing a huge wide field, with mountains surrounding and stuff, it really makes a great driving experience, much better than driving on country roads in Malaysia, where there are only palm oil plantations.
The driving was also a great opportunity for me to travel to the town of Yoichi though, as I wouldn't have travelled there if I do not have a car, I was too lazy to take a train there. The town was beautiful, and was quiet, with all the super old vibes going on too just like Otaru City, so I just toured around the city a little, and then there's the thing about driving in Japan is that carparks aren't everywhere, and there's really no free carparks around, but at least I found a relatively cheap carpark with the first half an hour being free, so, all in all, I only had to pay like 100 yen since I parked for about 1 hour.
I drove from Yoichi to Otaru City though, just roaming around the city by car, and then went back to the dormitory. I spent 1000 yen on petrol too though, and for that price, I only got like 7 litres of petrol, it's not to say too expensive considering petrol in the Philippines costs around that much too, needless to say, it is much more expensive than Malaysia, God I love petrol prices in Malaysia.
Really, driving in Japan is a very different experience for me, as a person who loves to drive, the roads are quiet, even though it's a city, and people generally are very law-abiding, not much speeding occurs even though the speed limits are generally lower than I'd like, if it's not for the cost of driving in Japan, I'd love to make road trips around Japan one day.
#22 Second Week on Internship
Second Week on Internship
At Kiroro Resort Hotels
To be honest, I think I am kind of loving this job right now, not sure it is the novelty of it or something else, but I am really enjoying doing this job and looking forward to going to work every day.
The second week into the internship, I am already starting to get closer to the workmates over there, I now felt like I am actually part of the team and actually doing something, and I have made closer acquaintance with a few of the workmates over there, and we would sometimes have lunch break together and stuff, and I really kind of having fun working over there. The people there are generally very fun to be working with, and I'd proactively help out with what they are doing right there as I'm just an intern, I really do not have many things to do.
Most of the time, I'd just be walking, roaming around the lobby hall and see if I can be of any help to the guests, but then, there aren't really many guests so I'd be really really free. So, normally I'd offer my help to workmates that looked busy doing things, and I guess sometimes they themselves really have nothing for me to do because I do not know anything - do not know how to check-in/check-out guests, do not know how to use the management system, and do not know how to verify documents and stuff.
After several days of trying to offer my help, some workmates started to teach me how to do stuff, while we would chat around a little to get to know each other more, and so to get easier to work together and stuff. After two weeks working with the Front Office, I am starting to get a gist of what they do there and how they do things, and to be really really honest, I really did notice the difference when a 100% Japanese people are taking charge of the office and when a foreigner or when a foreign-born Japanese is taking charge of the office, the atmosphere is so much different. This might give me some points of consideration when I choose my workplace after graduation. I realised that it is actually very fun to work in a working environment with many foreigners, I find it more interesting and less dull than working in an office where everyone, or at least when the person in charge is a Japanese.
Well, overall the second week went fine for me, felt like I am an empty sponge sucking up all everything there is for me to learn and stuff, and I'm probably really am enjoying the novelty of it. I've heard of how busy it could get during the winter season though, they told me that it's Hell, and I do believe that it is nothing less than they described, but, I am kind of tempted to experience that, to be honest, not really sure why, but I am just here till end of August, so I guess no luck for that LOL.
Here's to 6 more weeks of internship!
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| The chapel right next to the hotel building |
#21 Summer Internship in Japan
Summer Internship in Japan
At Kiroro Resort Hotels
Well, finally, no matter how nervous I was and stuff, the time has finally come that I am here in Hokkaido, more specifically Yoichi-gun, or Yoichi County of Hokkaido. After almost one year of a hassle applying for it, preparing all the documents while being scolded by the teacher for not having the sense of a Taiwanese/Japanese when handling documentation and stuff, after spending so much money for the application process and air tickets and stuff, finally now, I am here at Kiroro Resort Hotels, working as an intern.
It has been about two years since I last step foot in Japan, and in between the two years, I did have quite a craving of Japan and sometimes really wanted to come back here and stuff, who knew two years later I would finally be back, but this time working, which is a totally different experience in on itself.
So I actually arrived here two days ago on the 4th of July, now thinking of it, that was actually independence day in the United States, no wonder it sounded so familiar to me. Well, the first thing I arrived at Japan is that I had Ramen, which in the future I think is going to be my ceremony arriving at Japan in the future - have a Ramen as the first meal. Speaking of which, Ramen here is really nice no matter where I went and eat, it was so much better than a lot of those in Taiwan claiming that they are selling Japanese ramen, which I beg to differ. The broth was so good, the noodle was so bouncy, the flavours are so rich that I drool every time I talk about it, even as I was saying it right now, and I am not even hungry right now.
Well, so I arrived at this place on the 4th of July, and work immediately started on the 5th, also today. We were given an orientation of about 2 hours, where the HR person gave us some introduction about the company as well as giving us a tour of the hotel resort.
The hotel can actually be more accurately be described as a resort, which has a huge footprint, and it's actually a ski resort, and it's famous for that. So, the fact that we are having our internship during summertime means that it is not going to be a lot of things to do. Sure enough, the carparks are mostly empty, the lobby, lounge, restaurants are also mostly empty.
The resort itself has two hotels actually, The Kiroro Tribute Portfolio hotel as well as Sheraton Hotel, both are under Marriott International, something like the biggest hotel franchise in the world or something like that, I am not very familiar with the hospitality industry so I didn't bother the hassle to check that up, anyways, that's what the HR person told me.
So I was first assigned to the Front Desk department as a bell attendant, which basically means I have to attend to arriving guests as well as attend to their needs when they have something they need during their stay. Then, we (me and one more senior from the Japanese department) would exchange departments (he is in the F&B department) after a month, so that we would be able to understand more about what they do in a hotel.
The one thing that I am quite surprised is that in the Front Desk Department, more than half of the people here are actually foreigners. Actually, there are a lot of foreign workers working in this hotel, they are from all over the world really, there are Indians, Caucasians, Indonesians, Vietnamese, Thai, basically everywhere, have I mentioned that the HR person who gave us the orientation was I think Korean with fluent English? Because of this, during the first two days, I think I have actually spoken more English than Japanese.
I think because of the composition of the employees here, working here is actually quite fun and relatively stress-free than working in an all-Japanese environment. My department manager is a Thai, and she is so friendly with everyone in the office, and people actually make jokes while working and stuff, making the whole office and workplace quite merry, which really makes me even happier and enjoy working here.
These first two days were relatively free as there aren't really any guests coming in because it's the off-peak season, very very off-peak, so there are only like about 5 check-ins for my whole 8-hour shift during the two days. There are quite a lot of things to remember though, like the opening times of facilities and restaurants and stuff. Because it's the off-peak season, the hotel that I am currently stationed in - Sheraton Hotel, is like half-closed. The mountain centre connecting beside it is fully closed except for the public bath, and many restaurants on the other hotel are also closed. It's a ski resort, and there isn't any snow, that's why.
Well, I guess I had a great start at the job, and I kinda look forward to going to work every day though, maybe because of the novelty of it or maybe I am really enjoying the work, I don't really know yet. I can't really say the same for the F&B department where I am going to be assigned to next month though. Yet, good or bad, I think I am going to just take it in and learn as much as I can.
Good luck with me.
#20 Start of Summer
Start of Summer
It's summer-time again! This is my second summer and marks the end of my sophomore year at this university. Who knew I'd have lasted two years in this place called Taiwan, that I have disliked during most of my residency here? Ever since I quit Monash, I never really had the thought that I'd be one day a university graduate, really, never even once it came across my mind, though I really wish that I could graduate, get a college degree and start working, this is a story for another time I guess.
My summer job which is due to start this week has been delayed because my Certificate of Eligibility application was approved late so my application for the visa was also delayed. That said, I had one whole week of an actual holiday of not needing to do anything, which is quite good because I really needed some rests.
For the whole week, I was just doing my own stuff, minding my own business, sleeping really late at night and waking up whenever I feel like it, procrastinating on my bed like nobody's business, really felt like paradise for me.
Also, since everyone was so free with nothing else to do, I always make dinner and everyone would actually come over and eat, and then we'd have movie (they preferred horror) and sometimes beer, everyone was just chilling and enjoying life, God, I hope this could actually last longer, preferably a month or something.
One more thing is that my friend lent me his gaming laptop for this whole week, so I have actually been gaming for almost the whole week now, that is really quenching my long-chronic thirst for some good quality gaming. Sometimes I really regret that I bought this shit of a laptop like it can't really do much except like document processing and shit (which to be honest, the whole point when I bought this laptop), then the battery decided to not last for more than 2 hours, even on super power saving mode in which the performance was cut in half, and then the keyboard started to not working as well, which really frustrated me because my parents have really spent a fortune on this laptop for me.
Well, I guess I could say that the first week of summer started really great for me like really gave me some time to charge myself back up before going to Japan for my summer internship. Well, I do wish that the internship will go well because I am, to be honest, quite nervous about it. First thing is considering I have to stand for 8 hours a day, I am afraid that my back would be pain again from my old sport injuries, and then there's this fear about not being able to cope up with the Japanese style of work, I've heard so much about how Japanese work and how stressful they are, not only because of work but because of all the rules and the way the Japanese socialise.
That said, even though I know more or less from how the Japanese works, I still get quite nervous really. So, I spent quite some time during this week to have some conversations with myself and try to adjust and orient myself to try to open myself to the Japanese society and the brand new environment, with so much isolation from what I have been comfortable with and stuff, I even Googled on how to adapt to a new working environment, Google Street Viewed a lot on the vicinity where I will be spending the next two months on, looking up the profile of the hotel that I will be working in and stuff, so to minimize the shock that I might get when I arrived there.
Well, this post should've been quite a happy and relaxing one, and I guess it took quite a gloomy turn. But, I think I am still optimistic that I would be able to cope and adapt to the new environment there. I wish myself best of luck there!
#19 End of Semester
End of Semester
Semester Review
End of the semester came so quickly, it felt like #1 has just started and now it's already a few more weeks towards half of #53, really, time flies.
This semester was overall quite hectic that I have had so many things to do and deal with, well, most of them association work and stuff, and because of that, I have neglected quite many things, especially in my studies. Of course, neglection to my studies wasn't solely because of association work, another big reason was because of good-old procrastination.
Remember during #1 I have set up a few goals to achieve during this semester? Well, almost none of them has been realised. For the income part, I think I have achieved almost NT$8,000 a month, still around NT$1,000 to reach the goal, but I think for the next semester I am going to be able to well exceed that goal as I am getting part-time employment. I am going to have so much more time to myself next semester, and I think I am going to focus more on working and saving up money.
For the other goals, none of them has been achieved really, so looking back, I feel like I haven't been achieving anything that I wanted to achieve, only giving time to studies and association work, plus procrastination. Not to say that studies and association work isn't important, but I felt like these two combined have already taken a huge piece of my time pie, and I feel like I don't really have any other time for anything else.
Still, another thing that I am still having a hard time to overcome is my habit of procrastination. The fact is, most of the time I know it damn well that I really have a lot of things queuing up waiting for me to finish, but somehow I just couldn't make myself start really doing it, until the last moment, when panic strikes. I really do not understand how this happens, although I really try to focus and do, sitting in front of my desks, removing the distraction, somehow I just couldn't focus and just unconsciously going to do some other things thinking I am being productive.
Well, that day I watched this video talking about procrastination and how the mind of a procrastinator works, and I found the description really accurate, so I thought I might want to share it here.
Well, I have been having a lot of fun during this semester and I really enjoyed life. Every day was a busy day but maybe because of that, I didn't bother about many other things, like the semester goals and things like that. I didn't save any money for this semester, and I didn't achieve much of my goals this semester, and I stopped doing Spanish on Duolingo and stuff, I was only focusing on association work as well as studies. But it was really a happy one, probably the one semester that I enjoyed the most and the most stress-free one.
Well, hopefully, I'll be able to meet my goals next semester while I think of what kinds of goals I should achieve, and this time really put my effort into achieving it.
#18 Birthday Week
Birthday Week
It's my birthday week this week!
Well, I am officially 23 this week and to be honest, I don't really feel anything much. There was one big surprise for me this birthday though, Joyce came all the way from the Philippines secretly to give me a big, huge birthday surprise. Well, she did what I couldn't, really. I love you so much, Joyce.
Well, Happy 23rd Birthday to me now. Don't really have anything to wish for except for the happiness and wellbeing to everyone around me, friends and family. Had a blessed year though, everything went quite well, although still, procrastination is always on me, it was a good year otherwise.
Well, Happy 23rd birthday to myself! It has been a really good and blessed year, and I really appreciate all the celebrations that everyone has done for me, especially to Joyce who travelled across an ocean just to celebrate my birthday. Thank you, Joyce, and I love you so much.
#17 Trip to Kaohsiung!
Trip to Kaohsiung
After a year-long work together with the ex-cos of the Malaysian Student Association, we actually planned a trip to Kaohsiung, a southern city in Taiwan, sometimes more seen as a southern rival of the northern Taipei City, as you really do see a lot of people from Kaohsiung comparing themselves with Taipei and vice versa.
I have been to Kaohsiung once, though not really of a tourism nature, I went there during my first few days in Taiwan as I have left some important documents back in Malaysia and I went there to retrieve it from my brother. Back then I only had a few hours in Kaohsiung, not really able to explore the city much, and finally, after two years of confining myself in Taipei and New Taipei City, I finally flew out of the cage and travelled.
To be honest, I wasn't really enthusiastic about travelling inside Taiwan because I thought that everywhere in Taiwan is more or less the same, and I am not really a nature kind of guy so most of my travel happens in city bounds, and to me, cities looks the same inside the same country, more or less. If it wasn't because I take this trip as a trip to strengthen bonds between my fellows that worked our ass out for one whole year, I really would not want to go.
Well, we've are in Kaohsiung City while we speak, and although it is a city, with a population of about one-third of my residence New Taipei City, it was much less crowded gave me a serene vibe in an urban setting. The roads are considerably wide even for alleys, those super-tight alleys that are very common in Taipei are less of a view here in Kaohsiung, in fact, I have never seen those during the times I am here, and I thought, this is how a planned-city looks like!
But urban-planning wise, there is one thing about Kaohsiung that is kind of annoying to me - the climate. I have long heard stories about how Kaohsiung is very hot especially during summertime, almost unbearable kind of hot. Well, I am here during times when it's not really summer yet but it's not really spring, and it got hot, really hot. Well, just to keep it simple, all of us got sunburnt quite bad after only two days under the sun, some even with sunscreen on, which really says something about Kaohsiung's sun.
The trip was planned as our "consolation" or something as such after one year being together working on and going through so much together as a team, although the attendance wasn't 100%, but at least most of us are here already, which I don't think after this we can gather together like this anymore since everything will be caught up with their future planning and stuff, of course, it is impossible to have everyone coming together again, well, sounds really familiar.
The trip was really fun, we got our first-time stay at a backpacker's hostel, and lucky our group has just enough number of people to occupy two full rooms all for ourselves, at least for our first-time experience, we don't have to be stuffed with strangers. But overall, the hostel was quite acceptable, equipped with a common room that has tables to take to people, or we can enjoy 24/7 movies at the lounge, or we can have games and beer and stuff at the rooftop lounge, although a little hot. We had quite some beer as well as games together on the first night since we were still energetic enough. The hotel itself is really cosy enough that we really enjoyed our stay there.
For food, Kaohsiung City really does have some good offering for food. We went to Ruifeng night market there, which is quite well-known, considering that when we got there, it was cramped as hell, like it was totally the first time in my life where I really experience people cramping like sardines trying to walk, it's really like a full-scale grid-lock traffic jam, except replacing cars with people; and we came across this presumably Filipino woman (I caught her Filipino accent) pushing her way out of the crowd without considering the fact that it was so packed literally no one could move. I almost fell down because of her pushing, well, that was a little bit of bad experience but back to the food, the night market was really different from what they have back in Taipei.
Night market in Taipei although much more spacious with much more stalls, a lot of the stalls sells the exact same thing, even having identical stall banner and design, so to me, Taipei's night market offering is really lacking in terms of variety, and I got sick of it real quick for the fact that they sell the same thing every freaking where; if you'd try taking away all the identical stalls leaving only one left in the night market, I'd say half of the night market would now be empty. But, this isn't the case for Kaohsiung, there was just so much more variety inside, although still with some repetition, I was really spoiled with choices! Considering the prices aren't really too high there, I had a ton of food really, especially with those sweet sweet oysters which I couldn't really find in night markets in Taipei, I really enjoyed it. I ate like 20 plus oysters in one night and I'd say that I really, really enjoyed food and night market in Kaohsiung.
We went to quite a few places of interest though, in Kaohsiung, we actually made plans for the trip, due to some delays and the weather, we skipped quite some of the plans for good. We visited Ruifeng Night Market, Qijin Old Street and places around Qijin as there are quite some popular tourist spots there. We rented 3 4-seated, electrical-powered bicycles to go around the old street, it was fun, the weather is so good that despite getting sunburn, we got to travel freely around the old street, and took quite some nice group photos, it was really fun, especially when we were on the bicycle, we talked and laughed, having the time of our lives after a hectic year together.
Overall, the trip was really a successful one to me as everything went very well. Yes, it is the last time that most of us are able to come together and do something as one, to come together and talk, play, laugh and really have fun and bond together. Really, to me, this is the best kind of ending for this team that got together for only a year. Although from this on, at least for me, the team has been officially dissolved.
Anyhow, for the first time travelling out of Taipei and actually have a trip in Taiwan, the trip has been really unforgettable, it's been so long since I had a road trip with friends and I really was enjoying the experience again, let's hope we would have more time together in the future! Here's to our friendship and more trips together!
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#15 #16 End of Another Chapter
End of Another Chapter
...where to go next?
#16 marks the official end of my term as exco for the Malaysian Students' Association in my university. Time really flies, it felt like one month ago when I first started taking up the post of treasurer for the association.
To be honest, taking up the post of treasurer came as a bit of surprise to me as I wasn't really told that I will be the treasurer for the association, especially when I have absolutely no idea about how to do journal entries as well as all those financial report thingies. Initially, I was going to be the vice-president for the association, which I was actually asked to take up, but then because of reasons, as well as considering that I might not have what it takes to take up such heavy responsibility, I declined the offer and opted to take up another post instead, but not expecting anything really in fact, so, when I was contacted by the president, I was told straight that I was going to be taking up the post of the treasurer.
Well, being in the position for one whole year, besides getting some chronic lack of sleep and, I actually managed to learn quite a bit about money management in an organisation, and more than anything, being able to work in a team, and able to learn and practice more on how to communicate in a team.
Well, as of now, all these association work finally came to an end with a super extravaganza party, together with many other associations and societies, we did had a hell of a last day when we were rushing to get all the documents ready for inspection during the annual report day for all the association and societies in the university, but although it's very tiring, I didn't feel too happy that it is going to end, but in fact, I started to feel a little empty.
Indeed. Whenever you are freed up from the busy schedule, you will empty inside, having no idea what to do next. I did give some thoughts into what am I going to do after all these have finished though, I thought of continuing to focus on my Spanish studies, and learning some programming, like overall, I wanted to learn stuff that prepares me for the future, like practical skills, as well as spending more time working so that I can meet my goal of earning at least $8000 a month.
Well, no matter what the next step is, I'd say this year was very fulfilling for me, like work hard play hard kind fo fulfilling. It really did remind me of the days I work in an association during my high school days, having a great team working together towards the same goal, that feeling is the best.
I only hope that the friendship we fostered during this one year will see its continuity in the future. Great job everyone.
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