after all

june 29, 2005, sawarabi hall

let now the pictures speak for me. it's not in the diploma, sir, it's in the day to day experiences and the company i was, am and will be with.

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a little later...


NPO farewell BS, June 29, 2005, shiozawa

and more experiences... i am blessed with a good company while i have my sojourn in japan.

congratulations to my friends!

packing and eating and more eating

the good thing about leaving is that goes with it is the fare-you-well dinner invitations. in between packing my things, i don't need to think twice to go for free dinner. (this is one sure antithesis of economic belief that in this world "there is no free lunch.")

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fishing park, echigo yuzawa, 6/27/05 photos by daniel and leah

together with leah and daniel, we got to fellowship with the takahashi family (and their friends) in a fishing park in yuzawa town. barbecue for lunch, plus the chance to go fishing in a river, there is no need for me to proceed to PhD. (hey they paid around 2,100yen for the equipment, what can my fisherman friend in the phil say about this?)

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alpo no sato, echigo yuzawa, 6/27/05

the bonus for this time-to-say-goodbye was the chance to climb (hehehe gondola de) the alpo-no-sato of more than 2,000 meters high. it was raining but it was great. a cone of ice cream in the rain and in the mountain at that gave me a different high.


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beside the river, yonuma, 6/26/05

the church also gave us (graduating christian students) a nice barbecue party near the river. (this river is my haven in times of loneliness and celebration, often come here, but still the name of this river remains 'anonymous'.) we rendered our last song (as a BS group) during the sunday service. the song was timely for all of us as it tells us to "dare to run with our eyes fixed on Jesus." i am starting to miss my church here. God has been wonderful to us.

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well, a dinner like this in uonuma murakami (muikamachi) after the bbq party won't do us harm, so off we went in the evening. thanks to our church pianist who knew where to find a nice place to hang out and eat. salamat sa donor.

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6/25/05

this was in kita no yada, famous among iuj for its okunomiyaki, yamato style. dinner courtesy of channa from cambodia.

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6/25/05, photo by daniel

and this one was in cafe west in muikamachi. ah this time i paid.

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thanks also to the countless dinners with leah and daniel, hai from brunei, yusril from indonesia, mirzo from tajikistan, soib from uzbekistan, prof. nakamura, prof. kuroda, filipino parties, aoki sensei, isahaya san (oh thanks a million) and all those patilaw dinner by cambodia and vietnam. my decision for the month of june to stop cooking (tipid and diet) served me right. almost everyday, i get a free meal from either one of them. kahit wala nang diet basta libre...

mga tawo, mga pato, ngan mga isda

zenibuchi park, muikamachi, june 22, 2005

pagkatapos han akon pinakalast nga exam ha iuj, nadesisyonan namon lumakat ngan kumadto ha muikamachi, pasyada la. usa na naman ini nga kabatunan han akon hingyap nga pumara hini nga park ngan magpicture picture. sobra tulo na ini kabulan nga akon hingyap. kada miyerkules, gin-aagian ini namon everytime nakadto ak ha shiozawa, kaso waray time pag-undang dinhi kay may appointment ko man, ngan an pagbalik ko ha dorm, gab-i na liwat. salit kada agi ko hini nga lugar, pirme ko ginsisigngan ak kalugaringon, "someday..." timing gud duro ini nga amon kalakat, natuman na it akon pangarap.

(it ak title marisyo, ambot kon paano ko ini irelate ha akon pangarap hehehe)

an bukatkat

bukatkat iton, pero an right pix mga lanterns iton ha may mga bukatkat

gindul-ong ak yana ni sekiya san pag-uli kay busy hi sensei para iya meeting yana nga weekend ha tokyo. pero kay nakaschedule man ha am kalendaryo it pagkita hit mga bukatkat ha kabukiran yana nga gab-i, tapos di man maaram hi sekiya san kon hain ito, so drive ghap hi sensei iya sarakyan pagguide ha amon kadto hini nga mga bukatkat. 2 cars, just to see these bukatkat. bisan hya busy. (hayy pinas, kay ano ba nga dire man sugad ini ak life...)

masirom na it paligid. harani gad la udog ha balay nira sensei ini nga lugar kon hain may bukatkat. nasurprise pa ngani ako pag abot nam hini nga lugar kon hain may bukatkat kay napulo la siguro nga bukatkat it ak nakit-an. dire pa gud nagpurondok. waray ko nala hira sumati hit mga bukatkat didto ha culaba hadton bata pa ako. salit hi sekiya san nala ak ginpicturan ngan ini nga mga lanterns (bagan dagko nga bukatkat). pero marisyo ghap ini nga experience yana nga gab-i. nakakadto ak ha kabukiran han japan.

journal ko

journal ko to ngayon araw na to, linggo. galing ako ng yokohama. mapalad akong naimbitahan ng program coordinator ng trip na to ni isayaha san na may anak na magandang dalaga, cute ang mukha, simple manamit (pero wow), ang ganda ng legs, kahit parang nakatsinelas lang sya, swabe pa rin tingnan at inggles speaking. sayang lang di kami nkapapicture na dalawa, busy kasi sya sa pgguide sa kin sa loob ng hall, pgkuha ng tiket, at inihatid pa ako sa special na upuan for nonjapanese speakers. Bago kami nghiwalay, sinabihan ko sya na maganda sya. at sabi nya gwapo rin daw ako. ngiti sya. ouch. banat uli ako. you look simply stunning today. sabi nya: you have a nice polo. wow, iba na to. hirit pa ako. everytime i see you, you look more beautiful. iba na ang sagot nya...iniba na ang usapan. nahalata na. hehehe

yon lang....

deep sleep

in economics, the law of diminishing returns applies in economic activities. i am not sure if this also applies in this blogging-blogging. but when i visited my blog neighbors, i found out that their entries have long been dated. waning interests? winning boredom? and we simply diminished to occasional blogging. as the need arises.

wala lang siguro inspirasyon. or just maybe we fell into a deep sleep. and tomorrow, another entry to think about. hope it will be.

remembering ginza

ginza, tokyo, may 6, 2005

i've been to ginza many times while i was staying in tokyo for my first 2 and a half months in japan. then, ginza did not appeal to me as a must place to visit since i found the place too vain for a street boy like me. when i say street, i mean it as a place where the street children are. ginza sells items with brand names, not a tiangge, and therefore you expect prices which can cause headaches for a salary man. it is just too much a place for me.

however, during the golden week, i was invited by my host family to spend a 4-day holiday, all expense paid, with them. one night in a hotel around this place. now the place became memorable to me, not because i could now afford to shop in this area, but because once in my life, i had spent a good memory with my host family. what with the oysters in 4 different courses in one dinner which were ordered for me to consume. blurp!

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remembering the family


tsurumaki family plus me, saitama home (pic taken using kohei's fon)

i have known them through jice which organized a homestay during our nihonggo class in 2003. since then, we continue to communicate as we share the same interest in photography. kohei san, the father, holds a wide range of interests from IT to philosophy, he is also a street boy like me in his university days. (he spent 8 years for his undergrad studies). he seems to have an unconventional mindset, uncommon among japanese (di sya bagay sa iuj), but perhaps he could be passed on as a true blooded UPian. other than that, i also share the same interest with the boy, tatsufumi kun, as he talks too much, likes to sing (he taught me one japanese song) and very lively. during my stay in their house, he served as my waiter, assistant, playmate and he taught me 300 types of car which he identified by memory. at the age of 3, he already read hiragana. when his father asked him for a shinkansen look, he gamely formed his face to look like it. kohei's wife, yumi san, is a japanese literature major.

they are a wonderful family. this is the same family who surprised me by sending a dozen of 1-liter pineapple juice, del monte at that, and 8 bottles of 1.5-liter coke, after the earthquake. why del monte? because they had remembered i told them once that i like del monte pineapple juice. wow.

thanks a million to them for the opportunity.

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remembering the house



the archi-design of their house suits me well as i am planning now to build a house of my own in a very small residential area i have in my country. it maximizes the small land area they have, giving attention to functions and colors. however, the price doesn't suit me well --- 45mil yen, and that was 1o years ago.

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remembering the hotel


annex daichi hotel, tokyo, and view from the room window

a wide room like that and in tokyo at that, i felt like solomon in modern times. i am used to sleeping in a bench in a sidewalk, or in a train station, and having a hotel room is not something i desire for, but staying overnight in a place like this for free, i felt like an heir of the kingdom of bill gates and queen elizabeth combined together [exageration supplied]. this was a gift, and that gesture made my stay unforgettable.

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remembering other things

i do still remember the song tatsufumi painstakingly wrote in a piece of old paper which afterward he gave to me. at 5, he could now write well. i remember the italian restaurant for my last dinner and the never ending order of pizza and pasta, coffee and juice and cakes. i thought then that it was my last day on earth for i had eaten the most and the best. i can't forget the long walk from akihabara to ueno station, stopping at every shop we passed by (not literally, of course). i do remember the never ending talks and the long talk in the platform while waiting for the shinkansen. when i get back to my home country, i shall always remember.

this piece is written to tell that if there is one thing i am proud of, it is never of having a certificate for master's degree, but having a friend like kohei san and his family.

untitled

til now, i still dont know the name of this river park. i ate my lunch here today, june 7, 2005

this is iuj in real life. simple world can be so much wonderful. just take a walk around (in my case i took my bike), open your eyes wide, and don't analyse. don't simply look at the lily in the pond, see it; don't simply hear the sounds of the natural wind, rushing river, and the bird, listen to them. in doing so, it is certain that you shall experience the 'awe' of nature. and don't be in a hurry, lest you miss a lot of happenings around. enjoy.

kiss

along the street, near the river, iuj, june 5, 2005

beautiful world, really. sweet. kilig. charming. this was my world yesterday. and the rest of the story is mine.

food disaster and other events

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yakisoba

i cooked the main dish for our lunch today

when aoki sensei arrived in NPO hotel a few minutes after i arrived, he excitedly announced that i, yes i, me, myself, would be cooking yakisoba. (what?!!!) oh well, yes i know yakisoba, it is like yakitori. (that comment was uttered under a delirious situation.) of course, i have to impress them that i am not only good in eating, but in cooking as well. (oh mom, please help me!) under his guidance, sweat and all (hehe), i managed to do well until i placed the soba into the mixture. i thought of how good the relationship was among the soba because they were sticking to one another. they were just sticking and refused to glide, soften, like the way i saw them in "real life". some were formed like balls, others like a group of telephone wires, the likes. i had to use a wooden laddle to mix them until the soba were refined, broken, cut into pieces. oh my! some were cooked, some were not, some were halfcooked. oh well, i served them anyway, and sprinkled nori all over. it looked delicious. it really LOOKED delicious, until i actually placed a chopstick-full into my mouth. that was it, i waved my white flag and said sorry for messing up. i could not eat the soba except the meat and the vegetables. then aoki sensei told me it was his mistake, he forgot to tell me that i needed to boil the soba first. oh well... he and sekiya san had to eat them all, which they did. thank you.
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goldfish in a pond


while aoki sensei prepared the dessert and sekiya san washed the strawberries, i consoled myself by looking at the pond with lots of gold fish in it. in my mind i was imagining this goldfish being grilled or barbecued. i'm sure it would have tasted better for a lunch.
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playtime


the kids came after we ate our lunch. i ended up watching them play gundam in the playstation. there is a special girl named mahu-chan, 14 years old, who is so makulit. she could not get the vibes of the others because she has a world of her own. there is also another kid named taira-kun, who kept on walking here and there, and teasing and testing mahu-chan's patience until world war III broke out. atsuya-kun didnt mind the commotion, he just played his gundam while kohei-kun kept on 'cheering', referring to the enemy as "mahu san hahahaha dead! dead! hahahah" hayy buhay... bagan marisyo man la.
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this is a store, even if it is not


sekiya san drove me back home. while waiting for the green light, i saw this building and wondered if this is a house, a store, or an office. only if i could read the sign. i don't know why this got my curiousity. and i hate it for wondering this way. what is it to me, anyway? green light, please, green light.
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nin-gyou


when i arrived in my room, i immediately took this japanese doll from my bag, and had it posed in my table for its first pictorial. i bought this today in a flea market in iuj, costing me 800yen. nice omiyage (present) for my family.

nice day...

all about tooth and toothache

prayer partners and friends,

i'm out here in NPO "hotel". after our bible study last night in shiozawa, we decided that i should spend my night here because my tooth, which could not wait until july, was having a tooth day. that means i have a terrible toothache. my sensei called immediately a dentist for appointment, and had me scheduled today at 9:30, too early for them to fetch me at iuj. so after our discussion last night, we went back to iuj to get my things, shirts and all, then back to the hotel. of course, i was smiling. aside from sleeping again in my old baby crib, that would also mean -smile smile smile- eating superb japanese food, and, fyi, it's home cooked.

i was hesitant though to visit a dentist at this time. first, the expenses. consultation alone is already 2000 yen (1thou pesos), much more the treatment. the assurance of my sensei that he would pay did not help me ease up my concern of shelling out more than 1 month of my salary back home, and, second, to think in 1 month time i'm already home. but pray still i did, because my tooth is really having its day. and it is showing no sign of slowing down.

the dentist clinic is located far from my place, though we have one near iuj. but this dentist is the father of the little boy i play with almost every saturday. so the connection helped a lot in my decision to go. truth to tell, i was praying that he would do it for free. no harm in praying anyway. (in times like this, i could no longer afford for any extra expenses. im going home soon, and that means financial insecurity now.)

aoki sensei took time from his work, and brought me to the clinic. when we arrived there, the dentist was polite enough to welcome us. he was unusually alone, had no staff so he apologized for messing up in filling up info sheets of whatever kind. he's not used doing it. he was alone and no staff because today is a holiday for his clinic, so his secretary is on holiday. and the dentist was kind enough to open the clinic for me! when i wrote my name on the sheet, the dentist made mention like: "ah boris san, itsumo kohei..." i understood it as kohei, his only son, always talks about me. that made me smile. at least i know i have touched one soul while i lost my way in this land of the rising sun.

my tooth was x-rayed. my, i was thinking again of the cost. i was feeling sorry for my father for that means the little amount- and i mean a litlte amount- i spared for him would be spent for this tooth. i joked to aoki sensei before i went to the xray room if i should smile while the dentist took a "picture" of my tooth. that eased my burden.

in our broken language, the dentist made me understand the situation, and the things to be done. and that means more than one visit. and that means more than 2000 yen, consultation alone. my tooth needs root canal something (i dont know the exact term), and replacing the tooth crown with a metal something. since we dont have enough time (be home in july), so he will only treat my tooth by cleaning it, injecting something, and what more. in 3 weeks, 1 visit per week.

and so in 1 hour i was done, just for today`s visit. another one next week which he told me would take more than 1 hour. he gave me medicine as pain reliever, no too cold too hot drinks, and i should use only the other side of my teeth for eating.

the bill shows a 2,867 yen amount (and this is only the beginning), insurance already considered. i shelled out 3,000 yen. the moment i placed the yen bills into the tray, the dentist took it, and gave it back to me, smiling and saying something i only understood one word, and it was a name: kohei. whatever that meant, i suddenly realized that the dentist was no longer a dentist to me, i saw him now as the father of kohei who looks up to me as his big friend. and kohei's father's name is nakajima san.

"a man reaps what he sows." a bible verse (galatians 6:7) i will never forget. thanks to my God who made all things possible.

in christ,
boris

(thanks to nakajima san. thanks also to my church in urasa who started it all for me. then to aoki sensei who broadened my japan experience.)

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post note:


kohei kun and his butteflies (with s KL, with s) in his house

after lunch, sekiya san took me back to urasa church because sato sensei and i planned to distribute tracts in muikamachi. while i was walking from house to house in muika, i saw kohei kun walking from school to his home. he was surprised to see me and he brought me to his house. he refused to let me go without me having a coffee for a few minutes. i said yes, and i was glad i said so. this time, i went inside their house, really a big house, very modern the interior. i gave one tract to his mother, who seemed to understand what i was doing. (btw, this morning i was in their clinic, adjacent to where they live.) though surprised to see me back, his mother was happy to see me with her son from school and gave me a warm accommodation. it must have been very lonely for the boy to live in a big house alone. nakajima san joined us after a while. kohei showed me his butterfly collections, one from malaysia (the name was morpho something, a big butterfly, royal blue in color) and the ones he's holding (in the picture) are from the philippines. (his mother's father went to the philippines way back.) i promised kohei if he goes to the philippines, the only thing that we do is to catch butterflies and beetles (another of his favorites). [to KL: if kohei will go there next year, as a sidetrip, i will catch too my own 'butterfly'. but whether kohei will go there or not, i will still catch my own butterfly.]

i have a very wonderful day. God is good. i'm glad Jesus paid all my shortcomings in life.

boredom breaker

i got a good audience tonight, and a good laugh. imagine the pencil sticking to my hand. could david copperfield do that? i learned the trick when i was still in my elementary. and i got to do it again during my master's. it happened during coffee break. the lecture in my international comparative management class bored some of us. so while we were in the corridor having our time out, i got to perform this pen-sticking-to-my-hand in a group of captured audience. it amazed me to know that it amazed them. of course, i didn't tell them my secret. i wonder if one of them tonight would dream of doing it on his own. gambatte!