Happy 2009 !!!

It's time to wish everyone ' Happy 2009' ! May year 2009 brings you happiness, good health and prosperity !

Time flies and if I flash back, I had wonderful 2008 in Japan. I hope this happiness will continue and have a great 2009 too ! I met many kind people this year and make many good friends ( You know who you are :D ). Although I am living alone in Japan and facing challenge of not knowing Japanese but I am surrounded by all my kind friends which make my stay in Japan a pleasant and unforgettable chapter in my life. Many thanks for your kind support !! ( hehe also your support of visiting my blog, I am awared some of you are my blog's frequent visitors.

In terms of career, I also learnt many new skills which I never got a chance to pick up before. Having a good boss is another 2008 present to me . Job was challenging but fruitful experience !

Another achievement in 2008 is I started my blog. From singing, gym, body combat, travel, eating, shopping, now + Blogging !

I pray that 2009 will be a smooth sailing year and I will work hard towards my 2009 resolutions ! The same goes to you , may all your dreams come true !

Specially to my friends in Japan ' Shin nen akemashite omedeto gozaimasu ' !

My Kit Kat Collection

'Have a break, have a kit kat !' I guess most of us is familiar with this Kit kat's slogan. I used to remember this slogan although I hardly eat Kit Kat. Not a Junkfood nor chocolate lover. I will not purposely go and buy Kit Kat in Malaysia. hahaha BUT ...............

Original Kit Kat

I became a Kit Kat collector in Japan !!!! I saw that there are many different types of Kit Kat in Japan. Lot of varieties ! Each time, I saw a new product, I will buy and took picture. Every season, I can get different types of Kit Kat from AM PM convenient store . It took me sometimes to gather all my Kit Kat pictures, sharing with you collection of Kit Kat eaten throughout my stay in Japan.

Pudding flavour

Caramel Mocha flavour

Red tea flavour

White chocolate flavour

Watermelon flavour eheheh ( actually is very funny taste)

Black sugar flavour

Strawberry flavour


Blueberry flavour

Green tea flavour ( this is one of my favourite !) haha some of you know , watashi wa Macha Ice cream ga Dai suki desu!)


White chocolate ( I forgot what is the difference from the previous one but this is latest release of white chocolate flavour)

Mango flavour but in not in bar type ! it is like mango ball !

Red Bean flavour . When I bought this in Spring time , I am not sure what is this as it doesn't have picture which will indicate flavour. I brought back and asked my friend next cubicle what is this and gave him half of it . I don't really like red bean ( Azuki ) for the reason , it is too sweet. I like red bean but not too sweet. Nihon no azuki wa totemo amai desu ! Azuki in Japan is very very sweet .

Kyoto Limited Edition found in Kansai Airport . Macha flavour

Hahaha you might be thinking, I ate so much kit kat for the sake of blogging ? kekeke, I just find those kit kat pretty interesting ! Different time , different season , there are different kit kat ! Life is so interesting in Japan ! Even Kit kat there are also many types !! Small small little thing like even ' Kit Kat' explained why I was so fascinated by Japan!

Image

I suddenly have this thought in my mind. Have you ever wonder if image is important in giving an impression ?

We have a new gym instructor came for 2 weeks, sometimes the gym rotates the instructors across countries. A friend in the gym told me next 2 weeks classes will be boring. She got this impression because she told me the instructor does not look fit. Most of the time, most of the instructors have very well toned and fit body, especially the brazillian instructors (lady and man instructors). Somehow I agree, a gym instructor need to have well toned body , an image to convince people joining their class. But I don't care, I still go to the class. I like my combat class so I never choose which instructor class to attend.

Likewise, a hair stylist need to have a nice hair style and present a stylish and creative looks then people have confident in them . Talk about hair style , this reminded me of a IT consultant I met in Japan. One day, my boss asked me to meet a IT consultant from another firm to discuss issue for our customer. The consultant has very interesting hair style, the style is a messy hairstyle, very " IN". Since I also couldn't understand much of the Japanese conversation, what caught my attention most is his hair style . kekeke.. in fact my boss felt the same. I remembered he told , for his position, he can only have decent hair cut because image need to match position and also giving professional impression to customer.

Most of my friends working in sales positions also dress very professionally, more formal because they are meeting customer most of the times. Typically, I also wear in a suits for important meetings and dress more nicely in weekly customer meeting. Now that I am on holidays, very casual everyday. hahaha I will be bored soon ! I like to dress nice nice everyday to work !

Body Combat

What have I been doing most of the time since I came back ?
Everyday , I spend sometimes in my second home = GYM . There is a gym near my house ( less than 5 minute drive) called ' Celebrity Fitness ' http://www.celebrityfitness.com/.

My favourite activity in the gym is BODY COMBAT.
BODY COMBAT is a non-combat, martial arts-based fitness program with moves drawn from Karate, Tae Kwan Do, Kung Fu, kickboxing, Muay Thai and Tai Chi. http://www.lesmills.com/global/en/members/bodycombat/about-bodycombat.aspx .

Benefits of Body combat as follow:

• Improves heart and lung function and reduces the risk of heart disease
• Tones and shapes key muscle groups
• Burns calories for a leaner
• bodyImproves co-ordination and agility
• Improves bone density
• Improves posture and core strength and stability
• Builds self-confidence

Since I joined the gym in 2006, I have started joining body combat class. Since then, body combat has became my hobby ( actually is body combat addict !!!)

For those people who are addicted, they are all the frequent members of body combat class. One of the member who joined the class together has became a instructor today. Due to his strong passion in body combat , he took the training and passed the test to be a Lesmil certified body combat trainer today. John is also my instructor and friend. I like John's class because his class is very high impact , full of power ! I also like Fabi's class , Fabi is another instructor from Brazil. Fabi 's class is very fun and interactive, most people will shout in the fighting positions.

Every 3 months, Lesmil (international distributor of exercise program) will release a new body combat release. At present, it is at release 37 and release 38 is coming soon ! I was in Japan when release 37 was launched. Release 37 is a very tough class , very very high impact. I tried it once !!! upon my request, John did it one time of full 10 tracks of release 37. .... a killing class ! but fun indeed because all the music tracks are nice.

Sample video / demo of body combat:

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=hVw5s8G0Jww&feature=related

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-kOMA9ul4o&feature=related

I just Love Body combat !!

Present from customer

This is a special gift from my customer ' Panasonic' . It is Nanocare hairstyler. This model is not sold in Malaysia, we can only find Nanocare hair dryer. Actually this hairstyler is 100 v, I can't use it in Malaysia. Unless I get a voltage converter, I saw in the airport but it is extremely heavy, weight like a brick so I dind't buy. haha , ok if i go back to Japan, I will bring it back to use. I used it once on last night in Japan before travelling back. The next day I travelled to airport and I did find my hair was so soft.

Nanocare has the following features :

• Generates Nano sized moisture ion
• Remove excess sebum with nano sized moisture ions
• Protect hair cuticles with nano sized moisture ions
  

My Japanese customers gave me a thank you note with the gift. And it is a English thank you note :) I was so touched ! I was very surprised when they suddenly presented this gift to me in the meeting.

On my last day was also my weekly meeting day with customer, we had a farewell lunch together too.

My boss said we should take a picture so all of us took a picture , our team with customer and me and my hairstyler !

Collection of farewell gifts from friends

Almost a month back from Japan........ Time flies ...I miss Japan ! Watasiwa Nihon ga Dai seiki ! Until yesterday, I just finished unpack all my things from Japan. I got to clear my old things to find space to store all my things. Not forgetting about showing you all my farewell gifts from my friends.

Can you guess what is this from the packing ?

Blueberry jam and rose jam from Harue ! Very delicious jam ! The rose jam is very unique with all the rose petals.

Flower tea from Naoko , tea for relaxation .

Handmade embroidery small bag from Naoko too !

Japanese rice craker from Somi .

4 presents from Chieko, Iimaya san and Yuusei !!

This present is from Yuusei ! he selected this gift for me. He also presented the gift to me himself calling me 'Li Mei-san' with both hands handing over the present. He is always so cute ! I miss him !Chieko chose this yukata accessory ' Azisai' flower . She introduced this flower to me before, it is a flower we can see in summer season.

Hair clip can match yukata / kimono.

Socks which can match yukata / kimono. Thanks to chieko, now I have a complete set from top to botton to wear my yukata.

Interesting Comments!

I received various interesting comments of my Signature picture ! Personally, I am very satisfied with this photo because I like the apperance very much , thanks to make up artist, hair stylist, photographer , photo assistant ! and of course mum who passed this free photo shot to me.

All kind of interesting comments I got for this photo.

• The most classic one came from my good guy friend , also my childhood friend.'Better don't give this photo to matchmaker, after 货不对版 !' hahahaha , let me explain in English ( for my Jap friends and also for friends who can't read chinese, not sure it meant the same to my jap friends though) , it means 'Good does not match the catalog' , you think I should hit my friend or not ? kekeke.. , if he is next to me , I sure hit him, stick him to the wall ! :P Luckily he is working in China now. haha of course he knew I won't angry or offended haha but if is not because he knew me for 22 years, he dare not joke like this, else stick him to the wall !

• I displayed the photo in my living room. 2 guys came to fix the Astro player ( Astro is Malaysia 's satelite TV service provider). They asked my dad, ' Your daughter is a film star ?"kekeke ! When my dad first saw the photo , he said look like '佘詩曼' . hehe I don't agree though !

• Brother 's comment is 'Over touch up' , I also disagree ! Must defend ! I was next to the photo assistant when she touched up the photo, basically is normal photo touch up, touch up the complexion so that you can't see the facial pores clearly and she did it in 30 seconds, I was very impressed and of course became flawless kekeke, very basic studio photo touch up what ! No any other touch up performed !

• One day, a Yahoo message pop out ' Very distracting' ! I was wondering...... ????I asked ' what's distracting?' , ' Your photo, if you always display such photo is very distracting ' hahahaha...... I am sorry to cause such distraction ! kekeke

• Other comments..---> ' Doesn't look like you ..' hahaha. with make up and little touch up and the photographer taken a good angle mah.. 'Can tell is you what , the face feature same also' Thank you thank you !!!

Happy day with Signature Photo !

Today is a very relax and happy day for me after a hectic schedule ! and I did something which is first time in my life ! Guess what I did ?


Taking studio photo in the public ! including make-up , hair-do

Mum bought Christine Dior perfume and Dior is having promotion of giving free makeup, hairdo and 2 photos for purchase of 200 RM ( 6000 yen). Later , mum decided to let me take instead as she said I am photogenic kekeke ! Luckily it was this week , I really looked so' chan' (tired) last week after all the travelling of Osaka to Penang, Penang to KL, KL to Australia, Australia to Penang. I was in 4 airports within a week.

Here come my signature photo of the year ! Quality is not as good because I do not have softcopy, I actually took photo of my hardcopy.

I am very very satisfied with this photo ! I like it so much ! It has the elegance and personality which I wanted ! hehehe...

hahaha I am so happy ! I paid extra for another 4 photos to be developed but only get to collect after Christmas. I told the photographer to give me the rest in the softcopy ... haha after nego and nego, both of them agree hehehe and we started casual friendly chat too, talked about Penang food ! The photographer and the lady who touched up the photo using pc software are very efficient, they can act so fast , impressive ! The photographer took so many photos in 10 min for me. If the rest of the photos turn out nice , I will show you later.

This is the 5 R photo. The promotion came with 1 big and 1 small photos. Oh ya, I did one more first time event ! The photo assistant asked me to submit form for the photo competition keke so I did, never participate before, just for fun ! photo ok ehhehe ,not qualify in person kekekeke

Dance show in Osaka Hall

On September 5th , I went to watch a dance show in Osaka Festival Hall. First live dance show in my life ! It was a wonderful show !! Some nice shots I took to share with you. The dance group is called ' Floor Play' and the show name is ' BURN THE FLOOR " !

Precious farewell web card from Support team friends!

Today I was given another suprise ! I just realised support team friends in Tokyo sent me a farewell webcard. But I was too blur , I dind't realise till I was told today. Sorry for my late response ! and many many thanks for your wonderful card....... I read through every single word and repeat and repeat :) The joy of reading all your kind words !

My previous card

http://www161.123greetings.com/card/11/09/08/31/MG31109083136700.html

I shall print it and laminate it , keep as memorable gift !

A small thank you card from me., specially dedicted to all my friends in Tokyo support team ! Many thanks to you for a lovely card and your cooperation and support throughout panasonic project ! I also greatly appreciated your help in supporting me so that I can overcome my challenge of not knowing Japanese in order to carry out my task. Without your help, the project will not go this far. Together we as a team , we make it !! So we should share the success together !

Most unforgettable Big Farewell party !

This post is specially dedicated to all my good friends in Oracle office. Many thanks for the gift ! I love it so much ! I also enjoyed so much in the farewell party and singing session !

My precious card and present from you.

Designer Business card case. Such a beautiful and stylist design ! Thanks to all of you again ! and special thanks to my boss who chose this present , I trust his stylish taste , it's a wondeful gift .

Designer of the case

Farewell party in Izakaya

The memorable part was not only the gift, I remembered all the kind words from you. It was all recorded in my mind and thanks for all your wishes. I hope my wish to work with you again will come true too.

Oracle Kansai office singers! Rap star ! Japanese Avril, Animation star ! 'Baby' singer full of energy ! Professional romantic singer "lady killer" , pop star .....

Hey ! I am surprised that I made this discovery ! you guys main job is singing, part time Oracle !!

Everyday Famous !

Oh no ! Addicted to day dreaming as STAR ! But I really like this photo a lot so I made a few creativities with this recent photo. Mum said is like spectacle advertisement...kekeke so now I have camera, beer and spectacle advertisements hehehe, Oakley sunglass need to pay me for doing free advertisement in my blog !
haha. I made star photos for my pretty gal friend and handsome guy friend too ! hehehe must spread the being star feeling around !! Glad that they like it too ! Let's all be STAR !

Some other new additions

Mum suggested I print all the photos and keep in a nice album :) hehehe ! Ok I will have a collection !