Author: Liau Yun Qing

Yun Qing is a writer, improviser and curious person. She loves finding little adventures in life. In 2013, she went on a 130-day round-the-world trip. She wrote a book "Your Big Break" to help those who also want to go on a career break.

Things I’ll miss: Cheap Fruits

Another excuse to post on the blog. Here’s a new topic: Things I’ll miss while I’m in Japan.

First is: cheap fruits

Muskmelons- known as “melon” in Japan. Very expensive fruit there, because of the price, commoners cannot eat much of these so they invented the melon bun (melon pan). See the wikipedia entry here. It’s also called: buoluo bao in Cantonese.

The fruit in the photo costs only RM1.25 = 42 yen. I’ve read that one costs thousands of yen in Japan.

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See how juicy it is. It even tastes like artificial melon flavoring. Yumm

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PS The commoner part is adapted from Ouran High Host Club.
PSS I’m a BIG fan of icanhascheezburger.com

Terrible experiment: Shall I get a Japanese-sounding name?

Decided that I won’t be a prude and post this up:

My name Yun Qing in Chinese is written as 韻情. The Mandarin
pronunciation of “u” in “Yun” is not found in English and it’s not in
Japanese neither.

I found something online about the “u”: ü as the German umlauted u. Do you speak German? I don’t.

Then it’s the Qing. It isn’t pronounced “king”, in pinyin the “q” is “ch”. So it’s “ching” in Mandarin.

Oh, I forgot to add that Yun is the 4th tone and Qing is the second. Good luck!

Anyway,
I don’t feel like saying my name again and again. So, I have to come up
with something easier to pronounce. And I don’t want names like Mary,
Jane or Elizabeth.  (Wasn’t thinking about English queens when I typed
those names, I swear!)

I went online to search for pronunciations of Chinese characters (kanji) and came up with this:

Kanji: Pinyin: Japanese pronunciation
韻: Yun: in
情: Qing: jyo (from feelings: kanjyo. closest thing I can find)

So should my name in Japanese be In-jyo? Hope it doesn’t pun with anything rude. Fingers crossed.

Oh my ceiling cat, it can be written as “horny-girl”. Found it as a link of an SM hotel.

—

shit! good thing I found out before doing something that stupid. I’m sticking with Yun Qing. Thanks for the not-rude name, Mom!

Updates!

I finally have my Japanese visa and I have information on my host family!

This sticker costed me nights of worry. I finally have it!

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Another news, the travel agent here tells me that I do not need a transit visa. I will call the airlines tomorrow to double check.

I have info on my host family. I won’t post much about their private info.

My hosts are Mr J, Mrs J and K-kun (who likes games). I will be sleeping in a five-tatami room on a sofa bed.

They have a total of five animals. Yes, you’ve read right. FIVE animals. I don’t mind animals but I’ve never been around FIVE animals. And they’ve never showed a family with FIVE animals in J-dramas. Good thing I’m not allergic.

Oh, I’m expected to help walk the dogs. Perhaps I can exercise and explore the neighborhood and take lots and lots of pictures ^___^. Cool.

manga or anime?

Prologue:
I posted on Facebook that I’m now reading One Piece. A friend then asked if I’ve seen the anime. That got me thinking, why do I like manga more than anime?

I started off reading manga before watching anime. But the anime Slam Dunk is what made me fall in love with the Japanese language. It’s a lot harder to find Japanese manga here too.

I love how manga is different from novels. WIth a manga, you don’t have to have the story play out in your head, the manga-ka has drawn it all out. But I’ve also discovered that my imagination becomes rusty if I neglect novels.

I like manga because they’re much quicker to finish than an anime. In an anime, the story is usually 30 minutes, but with a book, you can zip pass it really quick and start reading another book.

With manga, the characters are usually drawn with more details. “Usually” because I *have* seen some anime characters that look better than the original manga characters.

With manga, you can turn back the pages and laugh ten more times. In an anime, it’s much harder to rewind and rewind.

I love manga. They’re portable, small and can be read anywhere.

I’ll always love manga more than anime.

I want to buy: make up ;D

I admit that I’m a beginner when it comes to make up. The most I can do (and not mess up) is brush on powder foundation, blush and swipe on mascara. But  foundation makes my skin look bumpy, my blush rusts in half a day and my eyelashes don’t curl. Ha ha ha!

BUT! I want to buy make up in Japan! Do you know that they have the cutest/ prettiest/ fantastic packaging? Just looking at it brings out the anti-girl-on-a-budget in me.

I’m usually sensible when it comes to money (yes, you can stay stingy) but when I look at the Japanese cosmetics ads, I feel the urge to get one (or ALL!) They’re so pretty!!!

A good point of getting make up in Japan is that they’re probably cheaper than buying in SG or MY. There wouldn’t be extra shipping charges. AND I get to choose newly released products, but knowing me. I might choose last season stuff if they’re cheaper.

So here’s a (boring) list of make up I would like to buy. I’m not including things that are out of my budget or it will turn into a “things I wish I have enough money to buy”.

Majorica Majolca mascara

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Yes, your lashes will reach your glasses and stain them if you use this mascara.
-I have really oily eyelids so I look like a panda by the end of the day if I use wrong mascaras. It’s  really tricky for me to buy mascaras. I now have Dejavu Fiberwig (bought on sale, of course) and as they have black fibers instead of paint, I look normal.
-MajoMajo’s mascara has positive reviews and one review says that it’s really hard to remove. Does that mean it’ll stay on my lashes? I hope!

Gel eyeliner from KATE

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KATE’s available in Singapore and Malaysia but I’ve not seen the gel eyeliner yet. And if my theory of no-shipping-charge is right, buying it from Japan will save me money. :D
My oily lids prevent me from using pencil liners and with liquid liner, I look like I used a permanent marker on my eyes. I can’t afford expensive gel liners so KATE’s a good thing to try.

I can only think of two products I want (for now, heh heh). WIll update when the spending-demon in me crawls out.   

Fingers and toes crossed

I went to the Japanese consulate today. They have very pretty dolls on exhibition, I’ll bring my camera there next time :D

I submitted my documents. The guy there was suspicious about the letters from Kyushu University (Sheesh) And he asked me, “Why didn’t you apply in Singapore?” I didn’t buy my air tickets yet AND I want to come back for my vacation, that’s why!

If everything’s smooth, they won’t call me and I can collect my visa on Tuesday at 3pm.

Ceiling cat!

Movie recommendation: Maiko haaaan!!!

Forget about <Memoirs of a Geisha> or other Hollywood movies about “another movie about mysterious Japan uncovered for you by Steven Xberg. With the leading Japanese character played by yet-another-Asian” or something along that line.

The movie I’m recommending is wacky. I laughed during the first 30 seconds of the film. The first five seconds was a lady playing a samisen (like in <Sakuran>) and I thought it would start as a semi-serious movie, but then we see a bunch of people’s feet running left and right, up and down in small lanes.

The camera then shows that they have cameras hanging off their necks. One of them screams, “Maiko haaaaan!!!!” And we see two powdered Maikos and the cameras starts flashing and the maikos pose.

It’s a movie about a man who is obsessed with maiko and geisha. The obesssion started when he was on his junior high (perhaps) graduation trip to Kyoto. His wish of living in Kyoto was fulfilled when he was demoted to Kyoto. He dumped his girlfriend before leaving for Kyoto, after finding out she’s not really from Kyoto.

The story’s a bit too long to write out, but this is a great 2-in-1 mix of comedy and Japanese culture. Great kimonos!

The poster:

Maikp

PS, I have the Chinese subtitled version.
PSS: It’s JUNE!