japan night

had an awesome time at japan night event! they really threw a great party.. lots of people and many fun activities/shows.. i loved the cold soba, and tosh also mixed us some plum wine which was really good.. we got to see some kendo which was performed by professionals.. they screamed a lot (besides the guy behind me who also wanted to participate).. then judo by takuya and yuta.. very entertaining (not that i love violence - don't get the wrong msg hehe).. and more with koto which is the japanese harp performance.. beautifully played :) the closing dance was fun and so hilarious - story & karaoke show.. hideto was the shogun, haruna the innocent princess, and aya the jealous lady.. all my friends are so talented! haha.. a great fun night ineed! sugoy!

one of the game stations: here i'm feeding hideto from behind.. yumm :9


after i won my takoyaki flag (sort-of).. now its already my bedroom decoration


dean jain was there too


p'nut posing with the (cardboard) yukata


card game: you're supposed to throw it real hard to flip the other card


the plum wine.. really good stuff!


kendo performance: the sword fight. yaaaa~~~ (when the lady fought, she said sth like wazzup~ hehe.. i guess whazaa or close to that.. maybe somebody can enlighten me on that one)


and here, takuya throwing yuta down to the floor.. we're talking about black belt judo!

mini cancun

tonight's cancun get-together was a result of saturday's bday party for kruti.. we couldn't finish our yummy indian food then, so decided we to take care of that today at janhavi's.. it was really nice to catch up and gossip.. we did a lot of 'facebooking' too.. this is probably another kellogg term.. you wanna find someone on our database, just facebook him/her :) i just realised there are tons of people i haven't even seen (or at least i don't recognise).. it was kinda fun listening different opinions from the guys' and the girls' sides.. oh, and they had a surprise cake for my belated bday too~ so nice of them.. was gonna head home after that but our friends successfully talked us into going for a couple drinks..hehe ended up at prarie moon and met up with more kellogg crowd.. met a girl who actually worked at bbl for a while.. small world indeed! and she said she loved bkk.. eating and shopping is just awesome.. of course! who wouldn't love bkk for those reasons ;)

TGIF

i guess god must be pretty bored hearing all those thank you's on every friday :) but gotta admit friday is great.. or at least after the whole busy friday and weekend arrives, then.. it becomes great.. when i say great, i mean greater than usual weekdays.. weekends aren't that free and basically it's the time to catch up on the readings and stuff.. exciting isn't it? student life, what do i expect..

anyways, just a quick happy birthday to my dear Mai of kyoto! must be celebrating and enjoying the birthday kind of friday.. dunno when we'll get to celebrate together again sa tee ner~~ kid teung~~

celebrating love?

so here we are on feb 14.. thinking back to the old days when i was still in school.. we used to give friends little heart-shaped stickers, stuck them onto our bags, purses, pencil boxes, shirts and all sorts of things.. some of them, as i recall, i stuck onto the back of my shirt collar and so people wouldn't see unless i show them.. was that because they were special friends, i cannot remember.. but anyways, later on you no longer give (and receive) stickers.. it became valentine cards, roses, chocolates, teddybears, etc.. well, not that i always got those but in general people give those type of gifts, right? never had i seriously wondered about the origin of the celebration on such day.. so i was browsing online, and not surprisingly found many stories related to the root of this.. one is related to ancient Rome's Lupercalia festival when girls' names were drawn to become the companion of a guy, i presume in marriage.. but then later on the emperor decided to ban marriage because he wanted men in the army.. valentine was a priest who secretly wed couples, and was later caught and beheaded.. tragic story isn't it? and the festival transformed into a celebration for gods and saints, and st. valentine was chosen.. and there you go, valentine's day.. but what do you know.. it's just a story.. (i think there's more to it but i'm just too lazy hehe)

so why is it a special occasion? some question the rationale of this celebration.. is it important that we need to show 'special' love on this day, when we should be giving love every day? putting it that way, then of course nothing makes this day different from any other day.. but then i wonder why you celebrate other occasions.. birthdays for example.. why does it matter that exactly X years ago you were born and so it makes that day more special than every day that you have lived and will live? or why do you go to church or temples on religious occasions when you should do good deeds and pray without a reason? father's day, mother's day, even 'wan dek' or children's day.. why do people make a big deal out of them? my kind of answer is, because it creates a sense of recognition and importance, and not just within you but showing it to the public.. we celebrate many occasions because those people involved actually feel happy and fulfilled to give as well as receive.. i will not argue that there are people who do that every day, but having these special days make it known to others that these things are important to you.. will we love others less without a valentine's day? of course not. yet, having it does bring smiles and joy to millions of people all around.. so why bother searching for a reason to celebrate, when sometimes the rationale does not matter but rather the outcome..

all in all, happy valentine's anyway!