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.