EVACOMICS BLOG

Kumamoto Castle was constructed between 1601-1607 but the entire castle above the stone platform had been destroyed by fire in 1877. A rebuilt of the castle was carried out in 1960 and was completed in 2008, based on remaining old photographs and written accounts about the castle. As you can see, the stone platform has two different colored stones, marking the original charred ones from the newly added ones. The curve on the wall was meant to trick samurais into climbing them, only to find out later that it's impossible and unfortunately became easy targets to be shot. 熊本城建於1601-1607年，但是整座城在1877年的大火中被燒毀。日本政府在1960年時，根據舊照片和紀錄開始重建這座國寶。從照片中可以看到基礎的石頭有兩種顏色。下面是較深色，被燒過的大石，上面則是後來蓋上的。牆壁的傾斜是為了誤導武士攀越攻城。武士爬到上端時才發現不可能前進，並成為箭下目標。

You may have remembered when I just moved into my international dorm , it was shockingly dirty. Then, there were the dirty sinks . But what I didn't mention earlier, was that either 1 or 2 girls in my floor, out of nearly 30 tenants, has been constantly dirtying the toilets by leaving her sh*t and urine around the toilet bowl! 你們可能記得當我 剛搬進這國際宿舍 時，有多麼的骯髒吧？結果， 洗手盆也是髒髒的 。不過我沒提到的是，連廁所也是髒的！在我這樓近30名住戶中，可能有一兩位一直把她們的尿和屎留在馬桶周圍，噁心死了！ I am particular about hygiene and this drives me insane. Complains to the admin office proved futile, so I finally resorted to draw a poster in hope to attract the culprit's attention into changing her inconsiderate habits. 因為我少許潔癖，所以這點常讓我抓狂。去事務所投訴也沒用，所以最後畫了一張海報貼在廁所外面，希望犯人改掉她的壞習慣。 Even with numerous posters pasted inside the cubicles, the culprit had ignored them. I am not sure if my poster would work, but I'd done my best. I hope all tenants be trained into keeping public places clean! 可惜，即使廁所裡面貼滿了如何正確使用的告示，犯人還是無動於衷。因此我不確定我的海報會不會有效，但是我已經盡力而為了

It's getting really cold in Tokyo now with everyday temperatures below 10 degrees.  What is a better food for winter than hot pot!? As expected, my smarty supermarket had already pumped up their shelves with lots of hot pot ingredients and soup base to embrace this demand. I soon joined in this delight with my multi-purpose rice cooker. 最近的東京每天氣溫都維持在攝氏10度以下。冬天的食物有什麼比火鍋更適合呢!? 當然，我附近的超市已經擺好了火鍋所需的湯底和材料了。 我和我的萬能飯鍋也因此加入了這個火鍋熱。

I came back to my tiny 9 sq meter Japan dorm only to find out that our floor's toilets had broken down and pipes in the washroom are leaking. On top of that, I have flu and sore-throat from too much unhealthy spicy and fried Singapore goodies. But, nothing,  NOTHING can stop me from scoring a L'occitane "Lucky Bag" which I had ordered 3 weeks ago from Hankyu online shopping mall and delivered today. This item was sold out within the first day. Muah-hahaha. 我回到我的小小日本9平方米房間，竟然發現這樓的廁所壞掉，洗手間的水管也漏水。不止這樣，我還因為吃太多油炸的新加坡美食而導致傷風喉嚨痛。可是！沒有任何東西能阻止我買到L'occitane的福袋!!! 這福袋是我3週前從Hankyu網購回來的，今天送到。福袋當天就售完了，可是我搶到了喔！哇哈哈哈～～～

The only place that I would like to check out during my short holiday back home was the newly opened Marina Bay Sands hotel. 在我短暫的回家假期裡，我只想去剛開始營業的濱海灣金沙酒店看看。

Finally free to check out the Christmas Illumination in Tokyo! My friend and I decided to visit the one at Tokyo Midtown since it's said to be quite nice. We caught a nice view with Tokyo Tower as the backdrop :P Check out my youtube video below! 終於有空看聖誕燈飾了！聽說東京中城的聖誕燈飾蠻不錯，所以我們決定去那裡看看。我們的視野剛好對准東京鐵塔，所以還挺不錯的 :P 看看我的youtube影像吧！

I went to catch the Van Gogh exhibition today. Although it is a Friday, the exhibition was packed with many retirees, housewives and tourists! I forgot that Japan, with an aging population, has a lot of  retirees with lots of free time and money to spend. I didn't have a great time there because people were hogging in front of apparently hit paintings with their hearing guides (costing 500yen rental each, only available in Japanese). 今天去看了一下Van Gogh的展覽。雖然是星期五，但是展覽擠滿了退休人士，家庭主婦和觀光客！我忘了日本現在人口老化中，有很多老人有大壩的時間和金錢可以花。因為他們有花500yen租只有日文版的hearing guide（聲音機？），所以都卡在熱門作品的前面不動，氣死我了。

Oura Cathedral, located in Nagasaki at Kyushu prefecture, is the oldest church in Japan completed in December 1864. It was designated as a National Treasure on 23 Jan 1933. This church is also named as "Church of the 26 Japanese Martyrs". 大浦天主堂位於九州的長崎。建於1864年，是日本最古老的一棟教堂。1933年時被認定為國寶，正式名字為“26聖殉教者天主堂”。 How Christianity spread in Japan was largely credited to a Spanish missionary, Francis Xavier, who arrived on Kagoshima island in 1549. However it was later banned in 1587 due to feudal lord, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's fear that Christianity was a barrier to his plan of uniting the whole of Japan. Centuries after his death, the country was re-opened and Christians, who went into hiding, came out. Nagasaki, which was the heart of Christianity activity, still remains as a prefecture with majority of its population as Christians. －中文省略 XD －

The scholarship organization held a talk and sponsored us a trip to watch the traditional Japanese puppet show at the National Theatre today. Our ticket costs 3600yen/each between the 5~7th rows. 今天獎學金集團又辦了一個講座，和一起去日本國立劇場來觀賞日本傳統木偶劇。 我們在第5~7排，票價3600yen。

Sorry I'd been very busy. Now that I finally have a bit of time before my Japanese school exam (exams again!?), it's time to show off my recent online shopping loot :P 真是抱歉最近實在是太忙了。在日語學校的期末考之前，抽出一點時間來炫耀一下我最近的網購大收穫:P