Knowing Japan

Japanese Cultural Society (JCS) organized a series of events this year on "Knowing Japan". From what I observed, the school was pretty quiet during my first two years. So I'm glad they are organizing more events this year. 

They had two talks during February and March on "Japanese Etiquettes and Mannerism" which I didn't manage to register for. It was filled up quickly! :( 

This August they organized a talk on "How to serve tasty Green Tea." Learning from past experiences, I went to register for it the moment I saw the poster! Hahaha. And YAY! There were available slots for it still :D 

It's a session you won't regret. The master of Green Tea came all the way to Singapore for this talk! He is Mr Nobuki Mori, Japanese Tea Appraiser, Japanese Tea Instructor, President and CEO of Marumo Mori Co., Ltd (established in 1877). He came from the home of Mt Fuji, Shizuoka. Such a master, of cuz must take picture with him! 

Along with him was a government official from Shizuoka Prefectural Government Office and also the bosses and staff from Ippin (a company in Singapore which aims to promote Japan goods and help Japanese merchants (like Mr Mori) to import their goods to Singapore. 

The government official told us more about Shizuoka and their Green Tea. 

It was an interactive and hands-on session. Everybody was having fun and I believe mostly are students of JCS! 

The interpreter told us that Mr Mori was very sincere in promoting the Green Tea from Shizuoka. Everything we see on the table, from the green tea leaves to the plates, tea cups, tea pot, flask, tablespoon and even the papers underneath the okashi (to go with green tea) were all brought in by him from Shizuoka, Japan. That left me in awe.

This waste basket is for us the throw in to green tea leaves after brew, not sure if they were brought in from Japan too. 

Mori sensei told us to try brewing our first cup of tea while he observe our actions. Then he taught us the right way to brew tasty green tea: 

We learnt the three main tricks to brew tasty green tea and one of it is to pour until the very last drop! And so we all gave it a try from our second brew onwards. This is how our tea leaves look like after our mighty shake shake shake! 

And guess what, Mori sensei says, the real shake will leave the tea leaves looking like these: 

A ball!!! Ain't he amazing? A master indeed! And here's a picture of him shaking the last drop out of the tea pot: 

Awww~~ I wanna go Shizuoka too! 

Happiness - can be achieved easily

Came across this great post on happiness - excerpts could be taking off the book: happiness now. Think I wanna buy or borrow that book. 

I read this part from someone's blog: 

Instead of asking why, we should be asking what. 

For eg, instead of asking "why is this happening to me" - which makes us even more anxious and probably frustrated and pessimistic. We should be asking "what can I do in this situation / to get out of this situation? 

Coming across this now super (literally) touched my heart for I'm (as usual) feeling lost. 

Perhaps there's nothing much I can do, I shall stop wallow in "why, why, why" and just learn to be indifferent. Get paid then juz perform + behave like that kind of person. Don't think so much and don't get too affected / attached. Don't have any feelings, just keep neutral and stay strong, fight on! 

ArtScience Museum Tour

We're there finally! Previously wanted to visit ASM for the other two exhibitions but didn't manage to in the end. This time round we're there for the Mummy: Secrets of the Tomb exhibition. It's not too ex, per ticket priced at $13 for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents. However, I feel that the exhibition is rather limited, perhaps they can't bring much from The British Museum. 

The 3D film is interesting and pretty much tells us about what we are going to see in the exhibition later on. It shows how they brought the mummy in cartonnage coffin to CT and by using modern technology, they were able to show us how that particular Egyptian looks like. For me, it's amazing enough to be able to get up close to these historic pieces. Imagine how they managed to "survive" for 3,000 years and let us study and understand about them.

P.S. No photography is allowed in the Mummy: exhibition. 

Visiting ASM between 9 - 11 August gained us a complimentary entry to the other exhibition - Essential Eames: A Herman Miller Exhibition. 

It showcases the life and work of the most famous couple in design: Charles and Ray Eames. 

This is how them + us looks like. Hahaha

This is a rectangle made up of squares! We measured using our pamphlets. Rectangle indeed!!! Awesome.

Idea came from marshmallows

I remember seeing something similar in courts and took a picture with Dear on it.

See! It's the same!! Ok, it's either by them or infringement of copyright!!

Dear's house of cards

Unsatisfied, still wanna build further

Still shorter than me

Ok, now it's taller than me. Satisfied!

We went up Level 4 to view the concept behind ArtScience Museum and saw this quote:

Beautiful sky-ful of clouds to end our outing :)

日本語の授業

今日の授業で、先生はゲームをしようと言いました。

下のカードを見るとストーリーを創る。

そして、答えのビデオをみました。

 面白かった！

The Phantom of the Opera

The musical is finally here!! Nut and I once mentioned we must catch it live and of course we're not giving it a miss! Nut treated me to the show as my birthday present! Thanks Nut! :D 

We were overly excited, bought and collected the tickets in April! Hahaha. 

We reached there not very ahead of starting time but still have time to take a few pictures before entering the theatre. 

Nut bought category 2 tickets and we were pretty near to the stage! 

All ready to watch the show!

However, I was slightly blocked by the person in front of me and I don't dare to move too much in fear I might disturb the person behind me :( 

The show was awesome!!! Hearing them live (so perfect that I was thinking if it could be pre-recorded!). The show is very quite well casted from my pov, and I love Phantom's voice!! I'm not that pro to comment using technical terms but it's breathtaking! Hehehe. 

The songs are still playing in my head and I wish I can watch it again and again and again!