home sweet home… but wait…

Finally back in Singapore. The trip was great, Japan is cold right now. Everything was smooth until the last day where I really messed up.

I missed my flight, NWA wouldn’t arrange me on another, so I had to buy a new ticket with Singapore Airlines which costs VERY FUCKING expensive.

And now, I have with me, a luggage which is the SAME MODEL as the one I have AND THE SAME COLOR as the one I chose AND THE SAME WEIGHT because of all my shopping but IT DOESN’T BELONG TO ME.

A friend said "I thought this shit only happens on TV".

What are the chances of this happening in a single day?

I don’t feel like travelling anywhere for the next 5 years…

Update:

I got my luggage back, the guy who took mine had the same surname as me, and he was just behind me at the taxi area and he noticed me because we both had the same luggage, lolwtf. I guess I paid for an expensive ticket for this fateful coincidence. 

[Japan] – Day 1

Well, couldn’t sleep for obvious reasons. (50% excited, 50% panicking)

At 12am, my usual sleep time, I did my usual thing which is to play Phoenix Wright 3 on my NDS. When I started to feel a little sleepy, I turned it off and closed my eyes. Then I began thinking about my trip and suddenly, wasn’t sleepy anymore. >_>

Woke up at 2.45am to the sound of the alarm clock on my handphone. Don’t know how much sleep I had. Probably 2 hours? Washed up, dressed up, double checked everything and left my home.

Didn’t have to wait very long for a taxi. And the ride to the air port was very fast. Of course, it’s 3.40am in the morning and there’s very little traffic.

Checked in my luggage at the counter, went through the immigrations, grabbed some food, and then started blogging here using the lousy computers Changi airport provides freely for everyone.

And thanks to the lack of sleep, I’m like 60% blur.

Gonna go play Monster Hunter 2 on my PSP till boarding time!


Boarded my plane on time, the sky is still dark. But as we took off, the view slowly brightened as we travelled north. I was sitting on the left side of the plane, window seat. A minor brainfart made me change the window seat from the right side to the left side of the plane. I had originally wanted to see the sunrise. :(

About an hour into the sky, the view was very very bright, I had to keep the shades down. We’re flying above clouds and everyone knows how white clouds are.

I couldn’t sleep comfortably throughout the flight, so I ended up with a mild aching neck as we landed. At this point, I couldn’t "feel" Japan yet.

Taking a Japanese friend’s advice, I took the Keisei line to Ueno. Since I had some time, I took the normal train which takes 20 minutes longer to reach Ueno than the express train but about 900 yen cheaper.

At Ueno, I took the Metro line to Asakusa. The place where my hotel’s located. It was a short ride. Climbing up the stairs out of the underground station, I was greeted by a view of the Asahi Beer Hall.

Making my way to the hotel, dragging my luggage, I stopped to check my compass(yea, I know it’s silly) then headed north towards my destination. It took about 15 minutes. Along the way, I went past many shops that sell shoes/slippers/sandals.

It’s cold. Around 12~14 degrees celcius? The sun has begun setting. And it’s only 3pm(JST)! I certainly wasn’t used to this as in Singapore, the sun sets around 8pm(JST).

Found my hotel effortlessly. No problems checking in as the hotel staff speaks English well.

Got into my room, unpacked, geared up and went straight out to explore the nearby areas. First, the Kaminarimon(雷門) area where it’s famous for it’s giant lantern.


Nakamise(仲見世), a long stretch of shops

Had dinner at McDonald’s. As I ate slowly, I observed how the locals bring their trays to the rubbish bin and sort out their rubbish. It has seperate containers for paper, plastic, cigarette ashes, liquids/ice. Recycling is actively practiced over here.

Next, I decided to go to Akihabara since it’s near and I want to locate the meeting point so I wouldn’t be late for the meetup with J and Z the next day.

Being able to recognize kanji(a system of Japanese writing using Chinese-derived characters) easily because of my mandarin education since I was young, I had no problems taking the train to Akihabara.

Lots of people in Akiba (Akihabara) :o

Found the meeting point in an instant, so the next thing was exploring the area. Visited game centers, a few book stores and Gamers. Bought lots of stuff at gamers. A visual-novel game, random products like a plastic evangelion postcard which I’m currently using as a bookmark for my mangas, and a few anime related T-shirts.

A lot (perhaps all?) of the salarymen in Japan wear long sleeve shirts with a black jacket over. You know, the standard attire for office people, which is uncommon in Singapore unless you work at a high position. I saw a lot of these salarymen in ero-manga floors in some of the bookstores, which makes it not so awkward for me to browse around, hahaha.

I can’t remember what time I left Akiba. I think it was around 10 to 11pm. I went to the wrong exit of the station so I got lost for a moment.

Ended the day with sore feet.

All my bags are packed…

I’m ready to go…

Starting to feel anxious, feel like cancelling the trip. Happens to me a few days before I depart Singapore to places very far away.

"I’ll get used to it.", that’s what I tell myself.

Upon arriving in Japan, my life in Singapore and Vana’diel would feel like a dream. And when I get back to Singapore, my days spent in Japan would then feel like a dream.

For the past few days, I’ve been busy preparing my schedule and looking up the places I want to visit. An advice for those planning to go to Japan too, look up the places you want to visit first and the distance from that place to your hotel.

Because Japan is sooooooo huge, you probably won’t be able to visit them all in a week. If you’re going to somewhere far, check up train schedules so you’ll know how long it will take to get there and what time you need to wake up.

I’ve been living in Singapore (Area: 704 km2) most of my life so I didn’t expect Japan(Area: 377,873 km2) to be so huge. I thought one could easily go from Tokyo to Okinawa anytime. But it seems that these 2 places are so far apart, you have to take a plane.

Here’s what I have planned so far for myself.

9th: Wake up at 3, check in at the airport at 5, depart at 6am, arrive at noon, probably check in to my hotel by 4pm. I’ll use the remaining time to visit the shrines in Asakusa which is near my hotel.

10th: Meeting 2 Japanese friends (J & Z) whom I’ve met in FFXI, in Akihabara. We’ll be visiting a maid cafe!

11th: Meeting Z, we’ll be going to Tokyo’s Big Sight. Tokyo International Exhibition Centre. There’s a cosplay event over there. And perhaps Meiji Shrine after that followed by dinner at Shinjuku.

12th: I’ll be alone, going to visit Nakano Broadway. Heard this is the 2nd Otaku Heaven. Number 1 being Akihabara. Then if I have time, I’ll go to Sunshine 60 at Ikebukuro. And Shinjuku.

13th: To Fuji Mountain! Actually, I don’t know how close I can get to it. But first, I’ll be heading to Fujiyoshida city. The nearest city to Fuji mountain.

14th: Meeting Z again. Going to Nikko. It’s about 2 hours of train ride towards north.

15th: To Kyoto! I’m going to visit Heian Jingu, Nanzenji and Kiyomizudera. I think I’ll be walking. Estimated 8 kilometres.

16th: Going to Saitama to visit a shrine that appeared in Lucky Star. The Washinomiya jinja. It’s about an hour’s travel by train. I don’t think I’ll be spending a lot of time there so I might visit Akihabara again in the evening.

17th: Maybe explore Ueno in the morning before I pack up and leave for the airport. My flight’s at 6pm and I’ll be back home by 1~2am.

I’ll write up more travelling advice when I get back. Of course, I’ll also blog about this trip.

I’ve prepared maps, which are actually screenshots pieced together from Google Maps, and put them in JPG form into my PSP.

Got my Joyeuse :D

When window was up, I headed down to Sea Serpent Grotto to my friend who was already there, watching TOD for me. First we killed some sahagins outside Charybdis’ room and we got Zuug the Shoreleaper to spawn. Nothing expensive dropped. :/

Then we started killing PHs and Mr Charybdis spawned!

Panicking, I scanned my friendlist looking for friends to help. Managed to get hold of a RDM. A second BRD friend came to help too. So our setup was NIN/WAR PLD/DRK BRDx2 RDM/DRK BLM/WHM. I was to spam Flash and Stun to help tank with shadow timer.

Didn’t take long, and the fight went very smooth. Apparently, it was a low level one, according to my tank, because he had an easy time with it.

I never expected to get this sword so fast. Very happy. :D

Next is getting my 9th merit point and spending it on my 3rd STR merit. 6 of these merit points are earned from besieged while the other 3 was from my last merit PT which I blogged about, the healing breath setup PT.

Doesn’t seem it will take long to finish the remaining 2.

Besides besieged, there’s nothing else I do now except crafting. Can’t find the motivation to level my WHM or MNK to 75. :(

2nd New WotG Job is Scholar!

The AF looks decent. The looks of it makes me want to make it my next 75 job!

Everyone’s gossiping that the JAs might allow you to view a monster’s stats and weaknesses.

Source

More new updates!

Gobbiebag increased to 70.

Macros increased to 4000 buttons. Currently we have 10 sets of 20. Assuming we have 1 set for each job, does this mean the new expansion will only give us 2 new jobs? Since we currently have 18 jobs.

Players can now invite other people into their mog houses. Lots of cybersex jokes about this already. D:

Scholars have knowledge of both White and Black magic, as well their own exclusive set of spells. They are not exceptional mages, but rather combine abilities from various schools. Scholars also appear to have some use as a support job to other magic-using classes.

By the way, Scholars will not be hitting anything with books. Their basic abilities are “White Grimoire” and “Black Grimoire.” They function similar to a Samurai’s Hasso and Seigan, in that the Scholar chooses between wielding White Magic and Black Magic, but not both at once. There is no time limit on this ability, so technically you could remain on one set of magic forever.

“White Grimoire” lets one specialize in White Magic by lowering cast times and reducing MP cost. In addition, Healing, Divine, and Enhancing skills are all raised, and unique abilities are unlocked. Conversely, Black Magic spells have their MP cost increased and casting time lengthened. However, you are free to switch back and forth at any time.

With Scholar as a support job, using the Black Grimoire will boost those respective skills, perhaps allowing White Mages to net better results with Drain and Aspir, or land the oft-resisted Paralyze on an enemy.

Scholar brings with it a number of abilities to help one skillfully manipulate magic. There are a set of abilities that can only be used with either the White or Black Grimoire. Similar to a Summoner’s Blood Pacts, these abilities are tied to the same recast timer. However, a Scholar has the ability to store up uses of these abilities. For example, say you have an ability with a recast timer of 4 minutes. Normally you would activate it and then have to wait 4 minutes to use it once again. However, a Scholar is able to store up these recasts to a maximum of 3 consecutive activations.

There are also various spells that come unique to Scholar. One allows you to change the designated weather for a target party member. Another causes a great amount of DoT damage. Weather changing magic may not seem like much, but it is great for accommodating preferred spells in battle. Not only does it enhance magic accuracy and damage, but can activate certain pieces of armor.

That’s all about scholar. There’s more info on the expansion if you check the source links below. And to end this entry, here’s a picture of a male bearded dancer! lol

Source – FFXI Creator’s Voice Z – Breaking News

Source – FFXI Creator’s Voice Z – Altana Festival Report

Source – Order of the Blue Gartr Forums – Altana Festival Report (Translated)