I was bored yesterday and wrote a little summary of my thoughts for the future. This was partially inspired by the upcoming Singapore General Election taking place tomorrow and a certain online conservation I had with someone. After I finished writing it, I realized that it bears some similarities to the Dune timeline, so perhaps I was just agreeing with Frank Herbert.

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Post tags: capitalism, dystopia, future, marxism, sci-fi, wtf

So not too long ago, I was in Kagoshima, the southernmost prefecture on Japan’s four main islands. It is a rather backwater place despite the abnormally large role it played in Japan’s contemporary history, but it is very beautiful.

Kagoshima is also the location of Nishi-oyama Station, Japan Railways’ (JR) southernmost train station.

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Post tags: japan, japan railways, kagoshima, kyushu, trains, trip

So I am finally back in Singapore. Experiencing post-trip lethargy as usual. I figure I should get started on blogging now before it becomes impossible for me to return to my usual weekly schedule and I fall into the eternal dark void of procrastination.

Nagasaki was the first city in Kyushu I really visited, not counting a short transit at Fukuoka, and it was pretty awesome.

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Post tags: atomic, japan, nagasaki, night view, peace, trip

Gunkanjima, officially “Hashima”, is a tiny island just outside Nagasaki Bay. Consisting mostly of man-made concrete-covered landfills, the island was a coal-mining operation run by Mitsubishi Heavy Industry and once boasted the highest population density in the world. Today, the only way to land on the island is by forking out 4,300 yen for a cruise tour that departs twice everyday from Nagasaki Ferry Terminal.

I was there a few days ago and took some pictures.

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Post tags: gunkanjima, hashima, japan, nagasaki, trip

It seems like I’ve been going to Japan every year for the past few years due to various reasons, so I guess this should not come as a huge surprise. Yes, I am flying to Japan again. Yes, I will be there for Maaya’s “You can’t catch me” 2011 tour, specifically the one in Osaka.

Come to think of it, this trip makes my waxing lyrical last year seem a lot less meaningful. Heh.

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Post tags: japan, japan rail pass, kansai, kyushu, shinkansen, tokyo, travel, trip

あけましておめでとうございます！ Happy new year! Actually by my timezone it’s already almost the end of the first day of 2011 (actually exactly 1 minute left), but a huge chunk of my day mysteriously disappeared in a time slip, so I can only post this now.

Hopefully 2011 is a great year for me because I’m finally heading back to school after two years. Woohoo, California here I come!

My resolution for this year shall be to write more. I feel the quality of my writing has been abysmal of late and I am quite out of touch.

On another note, I will most probably be in Japan from late March to mid April to catch the Osaka leg of Maaya’s “You can’t catch me” live tour and hopefully visit some of the places that I’ve always wanted to see but was too lazy to. And I know that I say this every time, but I think this will really be my last trip to Japan. Ever. Or at least until I graduate from college.

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Post tags: 2011, new year

It’s finally here.

A few months ago, I spent 13 hours in an oversized aluminium alloy tube to get to Japan and back so that I could attend Maaya Sakamoto’s 15th anniversary concert at Budokan. A few days ago, the DVD and Blu-ray recordings arrived at my door step. A few hours ago, I finished encoding them into H264 MKV files and went out for ramen.

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Post tags: blu ray, budoukan, concert, dvd, gift, maaya sakamoto

Hello, it’s been a while.

Some people have been emailing me asking if I am still alive. Yes, I am. Life has been uneventful and empty recently. The mundane tedium left me somewhat creatively challenged and unable to write. In the meantime, I’ve been thinking about life and my future, and I most certainly have not been wasting my time away farming Icecrown Citadel for loot in World of Warcraft. Derp.

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Post tags: life

Tomorrow, 6th of January 2010, is YouTube Porn Day. Yes, 4chan’s Anonymous has once again declared war on YouTube as a reaction against perceived injustice in YouTube’s ban policies. YouTube junkies can look forward to stumbling upon some titillating surprises tomorrow.

Just don’t do it at work.

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Read the rest of A Tribute to Anonymous (510 words)

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Post tags: 4chan, anonymous, youtube, youtube porn day

I just woke up with a throbbing headache. I feel like I’ve spent the past two days walking. Of course, this comes nowhere close to the time when I queued overnight in the winter rain for Comiket 73 and fell asleep on Big Sight’s ice-cold wet concrete floor. That was just crazy.

AFA 09 has finally come and gone. I went for both days of the event and managed to get a decent feel of the whole thing, though I did end up spending most of that time chatting with people and taking pictures of cosplayers outside the event hall. I also managed to catch the concert by May’n and Yoshiki Fukuyama, a pretty worthy climax for my AFA experience.

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Post tags: afa, afa09, danny choo, may'n, singapore, suntec city, yoshiki fukuyama