Note: this is a sarcastic way of telling you what to do or not to do when you’re going to or in Japan, especially if it’s your first time.
Based on bloopers and experiences of several of our very own officemates. We know who we are 
1) If it's your first time to go to Japan, make sure you pack as much of every possible necessity as you possibly can in your luggage. (mainly because you've heard about how expensive it is in Japan, and you think you might not be able to buy that laptop or PSP or Nintendo DS if you spend most of your first allowance on commodities) So yeah, don't mind if you have to carry 30 kilos worth of luggage all the way to your apartment 2 kilometers away from the station. It doesn't matter as long as you GET YOUR GADGET AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! Right?
2) You don't need to study Nihongo! The nihonjins in your office will be the one to learn your own language. After all, you learn Nihongo so you can speak to them when they visit the Philippines. Now that you're coming here, it's their turn to learn! (But then again, you need to buy something here sooner or later so yeah, the Nihongo might prove useful)
3) If an earthquake occurs while you are busy programming, debugging, testing, or writing a report (or at least pretending to be), look around first at your officemates' reactions for 1 or 2 minutes before you decide to run for your life to the nearest emergency exit or hide under the table. You might only be making a fool of yourself. Chances are, they are still happily continuing their work. You should do the same. This time for real.
4) Before you go off to some new places in Japan, make sure you've checked out and verified that yes, they do have a 24-hour-open McDonalds. Or a cheap karaoke place. Even if you're with veteran Japan assignees who know where to go, you still can't control the fate of last-trip trains and of whoever decides to jump in front of them, thus delaying the train and causing you to get stranded somewhere. If you enjoy bars, then go ahead; indulge yourself if you find one. But if you don't, the 24-hour McDonald's will do.
5) One of the most important things (or maybe even THE most important thing) you should learn before coming to Japan is (no, not Nihongo. See number 2) DotA or World of Warcraft. But then again, if you're from AWS Cebu, there's a 99% chance that you already have either of these skills, so no need to worry. But if you're not familiar with this, then practice, baby, practice! You might ask, “Why is this important?” Do you seriously not know the answer to that?!
6) Whatever you do, do not play with the washlets (read: toilet bowls with these fancy-schmancy buttons for Spray, Bidet, Toilet Flushing Sound, Whatever)! I don't exactly know why you shouldn't. You just shouldn't. And don't get too used to them. You'll miss them when you return dear old Philippines.
7) Learn to cook. Or at least learn to follow recipe instructions. Soon you'll get tired of Matsuya, Yoshinoya, KFC and McDonald's and would just want to taste the goodness of authentic Filipino food again. But it's too expensive to order in restaurants (if you're lucky to find one that serves Filipino dishes). So yeah, learn to cook, bud. Or you could just forget about your cravings by distracting yourself with DotA or WoW. (Told you it was important.)
8) Here's a list of the most important things you need to bring with you all the time (hence, if your bag is too small, buy a new, bigger one):
a. Umbrella. You can find those really small ones that are about as big as 5 pencils tied together. In that case you really don't need a bigger bag. You can just put it in you pocket. Unless you don't have any pocket, in which case, you really need the bag.
b. Passport. Seriously. Unless your mission in life is to get detained by the police for a longer time than necessary.
c. ARC. Seriously, too. If you already have one.
d. Money. Or credit card. Whatever you feel like. If you buy stuff, they really don't mind what you pay with. As long as you pay. That's all there is to it.
e. A cell phone (or at least people's contact numbers). That way, if you get arrested for looking suspicious, you can easily call Sir Pete when you get in trouble in Harajuku or wherever you are. Or if you're feeling bored (because there's no one to play DotA with, or it's WoW's maintenance time), you can always take advantage of the free Softbank to Softbank calls between 1am till 9pm and call other people (this is not a paid advertisement, though I wish it was), even if they're just in the next room. This only works for post-paid Softbank phones though.
f. A fresh, clean pair of no-holes socks. You never know when it'll be your very unlucky day: you get invited to dinner at a Japanese restaurant by your bosses, you take off your shoes only to find out that your big toe is peeking out, and you can't take off your socks because your feet unexplainably stink on that particular night.
9) When ordering from McDonald’s or KFC or any other fast food place, the first thing the lady or guy behind the counter will ask you is if you will be eating your order there. He/She will not ask you right away what you are ordering so don’t answer her first question with a “number 3, upsize”.
10) Do not go jogging early in the morning. It will cause you to lose all sense of direction and common sense, and will make you enter the wrong apartment number upon returning to your building.
There are so much more bloopers/experiences I could possibly warn you all against, but what would be the fun in warning you about all of them? One of the things that make a Japan experience THE ultimate Japan experience is your own share of bloopers to share with the world, or at least as a chance for us to laugh at you once in a while. I’m sure all of us have had at least one of them on the way or during our stay here. You wouldn’t want me spoiling it all, would you?
(Save me now lest I go completely over the edge)
It's been a while since I've had a long rational chat with myself. I wouldn't say I'm schizophrenic, although that seems to be what this looks like. I'd like to see it as a conversation between me and a wiser me.
We (myself and I) had a long conversation this evening, as I was making my way towards a grocery store alone. It somehow gave me a chance to get to know my recent self better, since I haven't exactly been getting acquainted with myself lately, and instead chose to spend my time in the company of friends or losing myself in movies and series and anime.
I realized that so much has changed. I miss philosophizing. I miss just being my wacky self without getting judged by the people around me. I miss my old friends.
(Friendship. Something I already know a lot about yet still have a lot to learn about.)
I've told Lorselle that it's been a while since I've philosophized with someone, and I thought I never really missed it all that much. The last time I remember philosophizing was back in my college days, with Lorselle and Jeist during our boulevard moments. Since then, I haven't been able to talk out loud about my thoughts, and only managed to share it in my blogs, or in my mind, whenever I read thought-provoking pieces. I realized early tonight that no, I haven't really stopped philosophizing, but that my philosophies have just changed since college. I no longer philosophize the way Lorselle does, no longer philosophize the way I did back in college, which made me think I stopped it altogether.
It just so happens that graduating from college meant going out into the real world and experiencing it. We were no longer trapped in the confines of an academic institution as students, hence we no longer philosophized about life after college, about getting a job outside the city, about making it big, earning our keep, establishing ourselves and providing a good future for us and our future families. Now Lorselle has her new family - a husband and 2 kids, while I'm away from my own family - parents and siblings - living in a different land with only a few other people I can turn to immediately. And our jobs? Different from each others'.
Of course our philosophies then would no longer exist now. For what else is there to philosophize about when we are already living it? Back then we were walking along the same path - the path of IT students not quite sure where to land after getting the diploma. We were looking at the same direction, dreaming the same dreams of success in life and career.
Now we may still have our own philosophies but they are geared towards two very different paths in the future. We are still thinking about what our own futures would bring, but we can no longer say that we are looking down a similar path, because the events of the past two years have caused our paths to veer so far away from each others'.
So yes, I still do philosophize once in a while. I think about this, I think about that, I think about the what ifs, and the whens. But it doesn't seem so great when there's no one to tell it to who'll also say "I completely understand", and will say the rest of the words that have been at the tip of your tongue for so long but can't seem to say out loud. Having someone like this is different from having someone saying "I understand" yet you know they really don't.
Back to friendship.
I never really did a lot of philosophizing with my high school barkada. My memories of them are of name-calling, laughters from witty comebacks, tears from open forums, swallowed pride, and overcoming my pagka-pikon. And of course who could forget the fiestas and the outings?
College friends meant philosophizing - discussing about books, about movies, about people, about other friends, about computers, about the future, about life and how there is much more to it than what we had back then, about potentials, about getting away from the family, about first loves, and first foolishnesses, about sleepless nights and sachets of coffee. I don't remember sidesplitting laughter, or uber corny jokes. I don't remember tears on my part, nor of open forums and swallowed prides. I remember a bit about physical changes, of how I carried myself in public, but emotional changes I can't remember much.
Friends now make me recall corny jokes and my pagka-maldita. I did manage to overcome the maldita part (or so I'd like to think) but the corny-ness has only gotten worse. I've gotten more vocal about my thoughts and emotions, some people know the real deal between me and my father dearest, I've learned to confront and to not to always expect the worst when having such confrontations (because things will eventually turn out better than you had originally expected, and you would have only worried over nothing).
But I truly miss the philosophizing which some might call quarter-life crisis at my age, because although I've found people who will listen, they won't always tell me the words I need to hear in reply. I miss the deep discussions about nothing and everything, I miss how talking about one's choice of clothing can evolve into discussion about his potential future, I miss discussions of people, of Sophie's World, I miss how everything would seem to have a deeper purpose and meaning than what is obvious from their current existence.
Friends now have also made me realize that there's a reason why we have more than one friend - some will have to complement what is lacking in us, and some will act as reflections of ourselves, those who'll be there when what we need is a mirror and not a missing body part. We can never really get the "all-in-one" because there is no such thing. It's why even people with best friends still have other friends, because best is not synonymous with complete.
I think I may have made this mistake recently, thinking that there could be an "all-in-one" but time and people have proven me wrong.
Now I'm trying to extricate myself from the tangles I've unknowingly gotten myself into, and am now learning to stand on my own legs again after leaning for support for so long.
At least, after all of this, I walk away with lessons learned and the knowledge that there'll be a lot of hands to choose from to hold on to and pull me out, for every different pit that I might fall into.
Technology has advanced so quickly over the years that I can't seem to blink my eyes without having anything advance in that short span of time.
It has advanced so quickly that I, despite working in the IT industry, can't help but feel overwhelmed, and even technophobic, at times.
I don't know if I should feel embarrassed or if this is something normal. God knows I'm only human. I can't keep up with the pace of computers, even in just knowing what technologies exist and what don't are about to.
One can't help but miss the good ol' days when everything was simpler.
Wow. Wow!
Thanks to me making a new (bisaya) blog on blogspot (my first), I just realized how amazing it actually is.
I love the ease with which I can change my layout and add sections and links on the side menu, plus its auto-saving feature, plus just about everything else -- unlike here in tabulas where I have to hard-code the links and stuff.
Now I actually have more than half a mind to transfer to another home(page). I feel I might actually like it better there, and feel more comfortable. But I would definitely miss my friends here in tabulas...
So.. I don't know... I'm still contemplating.
Will it really be a big deal if I go? You (loyal friends and readers) can still visit me there anyway (You WILL visit, won't you?).
Sigh... decisions, decisions.
{ mood } confused
I don't usually do. I know they're mostly general stuff about people but I can't help but notice how some of the horoscopes I've read in the past few days (on friendster and one in a magazine) really described my situation.
My horoscope on friendster last friday said that I would be full of energy and would be smiling a lot the whole day, which was so true. Somebody even commented that I was too hyper that day. And I kept smiling/laughing to myself on the train, in the corridors, on my desk, whenever I recalled certain events.
And then yesterday my friendster horoscope was again, somewhat telling my life for that day.
What really creeped me out though was my horoscope for this month on Philippine Digest July 2007 (which I picked up outside the church in Minami-rinkan after the mass this afternoon). If I hadn't known better, I would have thought they'd looked into my July 2007 before printing that horoscope in the magazine.
Here's what it said:
Libra (Sept 24/Oct 23)
Ang samahan ng pagka-kaibigan ay masusubukan sa panahong ito. Ihanda ang sarili. Isang pagkakamali ng iyong kaibigan ang lubos na magbibigay sa iyo ng sama ng loob. Alalahanin na walang perfect na kaibigan o tao. Lahat ay magkakamali. Kaya maging malawak ang isipan at maging magpatawad sa kapwa at sa sarili mismo. Kapag nalampasan ang pagsubok na ito, lalong titibay ang inyong samahan.
Now I don't know if all Librans are experiencing this or have experienced this month, which means horoscopes don't exactly hold true for everybody. But it freaks me out that it holds true to my situation.
I find it kinda funny, too, though. 
And thankfully, my horoscope for today doesn't hold true. At least I don't have enough reason to start getting paranoid again and start living my life based on horoscopes 