Yes, I'm leaving for Tokyo in a month and I literally have no idea when I will be back in Singapore again. It could be in 3 months, half a year, a year, I don't know.

Despite this short notice, I'd really love to take the opportunity and catch up with all my close friends past and present. That's the one thing I'll miss the most while I'm there, people, (and then followed by food).

For those who don't know what I've been up to and why I'm going to Tokyo for an unknown duration, I've secured an internship at a rather famous (in Japanese sub-culture scene) website and content development company in Tokyo, and depending on my initial performance, this may or may not turn into a full time position there. If it doesn't, I'll be back by the end of March, but so far the boss seems to really like my style of work so chances are I'm not going to be able to come back until he lets me take an extended holiday. Of course, whoever plans to travel to Tokyo can come visit me though ^^.

So right now here's my calendar and the people who've already "booked" me. It would be great if you guys could help me out a little by telling me what's a good day for you for us to catch up.

Dec 2 - Dinner with OG43 
Dec 3, 4 (next weekend) - Free

Dec 5 - ORD
Dec 6 to 9 - Free
Dec 10 (Sat) - Family & Family friends christmas gathering
Dec 11 (Sun) - Free

Dec 12 to 15 - Free
Dec 16 - YUILovers/ScandalHeaven/LiSA-Lab Annual BBQ // Platoon-mates BBQ (omg clash -.-)
Dec 17, 18 (weekend) - Free

Dec 19 to 23 (Weekdays) - Free
Dec 24,25,26(mon) - Extended Family trip to Melaka for Christmas celebrations

Dec 27 - Free
Dec 28 - Lunch with E-hui (Laiweng wanna join?)
Dec 29 - Last day in Singapore

Dec 30 (Fri) - Depart SIN on Delta Airlines DL0280, 6:00am (I'll be at the airport from 4:00am if anyone bothers >_>)

So yes, I really really want to catch up with as many people as I can, so please tell me when is a good day for all of you~

Taken from my blog entry on animize.wordpress.com

Nothing always leads to nothing. Something always leads to something. -Danny Choo

In this post, I'd like to talk about seeking and creating opportunities.

If you've been following my Operation: Japan series, you probably know by now that my dream is to live and work in Japan. Despite being held back a couple of years due to mandatory National Service in Singapore, I've still been actively working toward that goal. Now that I am a mere 19 days from the end of my service, I've recently starting being a lot more aggressive in seeking and creating opportunities for myself.

I lost count of the number of job sites I've looked up and the number of times I sent out my portfolio and resume indicating my interest in an internship, and I must say I've been surprised; by how many companies don't even bother replying with a letter of rejection. Well in retrospect I guess it was to be expected, since I wrote e-mails in English to some Japanese companies, and most of my e-mails were sent to companies that didn't even indicate that they were recruiting.

But not all of it was in vain. I heard about a company in Singapore called SOZO, the organizers of Anime Festival Asia (AFA), from a friend, and decided to try my luck there. I figured that even though it was based in Singapore, it had way more than enough affiliation with Japanese companies and might open some new doors for me. I wrote in to enquire about their policy on internships together with my resume, and like most other applications I kind of expected it to disappear without being noticed after a few days without a reply.

Surprisingly though, on Thursday, Ms. Aiko Obayashi of SOZO got back to me thanking me for accepting a part-time offer at AFA11. I had no idea what job that was and that I had accepted it, but in any case, it seemed like a great opportunity so after some deliberation (the working hours originally clashed with the AniSong concert at night, which I really wanted to go to), I accepted the offer and the next day I found myself speaking with a couple of promoters from Dwango, Japan.

It turned out to be one of the best experiences in a really long time, and so much happened in the span of those 2 short days at AFA. Dwango is the company behind popular Japanese video cum live-streaming service Nico Nico Douga , and my job was to man the Nico Nico Douga booth at AFA11, which included a little area with cameras streaming onto Nico Nico Live.

The job seemed simple, I just had to get people to know more about Nico Nico Douga, and invite interesting people (read Cosplayers) to the booth to participate in a short live interview for viewers on NND.

What I didn't expect was that I had to emcee in Japanese on the live broadcast!! It was quite nerve-wrecking considering that I'm not exactly fluent in Japanese, though i felt that I wasn't doing too horribly after a little warm up (think I did much better on the second day though).

Interestingly, I hosted a Haruhi cosplayer who came up to sing AND dance Hare Hare Yukai, and then proceeded to speak in unbelievably fluent Japanese. The viewers commenting live (see those words flying across the screen, those are live comments) were wowed and requested for her to emcee (yea it kinda hurt at first to be replaced by a guest), to which she accepted. She ended up emceeing quite a bit for both days, and I got to know her a little as well. Turns out she's only 15. (What was I doing when I was 15....?)

(Image by Cutheard on figure.fm)

Also, I'd never expected to receive an Artiste pass on top of the Exhibitor pass, which granted me access backstage (basically I could go to any area of the event, for free too). NND had a little room backstage as they were manning the live stream of the concerts and stage events as well, so that's where we put our stuff and got briefed. And because we close the booth at 7pm, I managed to watch all three nights of the I<3AniSong Concert from the VIP area!!

I even got to walk around the artiste holding areas, and managed to speak with LiSA a couple of times, get an autograph, a photo with her (I won't post it as it might get her into trouble, the manager didn't allow her to take an unofficial photo at first, but when I caught her alone, she looked around to make sure her manager wasn't there and gestured for me to take a quick one xD). I also managed to pass her a little souvenir and let her know that I am the person behind her first international Fansite LiSA-Lab.com 

At the end of the second night, after packing up, I managed to catch Danny Choo himself. I've sent him my resume three or four times now, but because I never had his e-mail address, I could only contact him via commenting on his site or on social media sites. Obviously, that got me nowhere, he probably missed all of my posts. Now that he was right there in front of me, I knew I had to make a move, and went straight up to him telling him that I was very keen on interning with Mirai Inc. He's a really nice guy, heard me out even though he was really busy, gave me his namecard with his e-mail on it, and told me to send him my online profile.

Even though I got home at almost 1am, I stayed up to make some updates and amendments to my portfolio website to ensure that it was exactly what I wanted him to see. By the time I sent out the e-mail, it was 430am ^^;

By now, I've learnt my lesson about e-mails and how seldomly they get noticed and replied to. Danny Choo hosted Culture Japan Night last night, and I saw it as my golden opportunity to sit down with him and take him through my work (despite having had less than 4 hours of sleep and a dental surgery in the morning).

After watching him get mobbed by fans for autographs and photos for hours, I finally had a chance to speak with him properly after the event. Even if nothing comes out of this, I am really grateful that he bothered to spend a good 5 minutes looking at my stuff and commenting on it. He noted my vector design skills and said he looks forward to it, and I gave him my contact details (the one thing I regret is not having a namecard, I had to pass him a slip of paper with crude handwriting), so I have my fingers crossed as I wait for him to reply to my e-mail.

While waiting, I also managed to get to know a whole load of like minded people, and Culture Japan Night was a great success.

All in all, the past three days have been filled with making new friends, meeting key people, and many opportunities. I was really lucky to have an opportunity to see AFA from the other side, but I guess it wouldn't have happened had I not tried relentlessly in landing and internship with a Japanese affiliated company.

It would be great to have the opportunity to work for the person who has been a great source of inspiration and guidance in my journey.
Hopefully, my efforts in reaching Danny Choo will lead to something as well.

It's been awhile since post #7, and well, there wasn't a nice part 2 to write in the end.

I failed the entry examinations, but I've decided to wait another year.

Next year will be the last year I'm eligible for the undergraduate scholarship, and if I miss it again, I will continue to study architecture at NUS and seek other opportunities from within the school. 

---

Disappointment aside, today I look into how my obsession with Japanese musicians has affected my journey.

It began as just another past-time, following artists whose music I thoroughly enjoyed. And grew into an obsession so great I was willing to travel to Hong Kong just to catch a concert. While my senseless pursuit of music idols, CDs, and limited edition merchandise and tour goods has been, well, senseless, this obsession has surprisingly helped me in a few significant ways that I've only noticed in retrospect.

It mostly revolves around the community I've built around me, on and offline.

In my previous social circles, there were only very few who could identify with my strong interest for Japan, its language, and its culture. In the J-Pop music community it's as if everyone knows everyone else; a positive result of the sad reality that J-Pop is in decline in most of Asia. Since I've "entered the scene" back in November 2010, I've experimented with countless artists and met fans of various bands and singers. They all shared one thing in common: an almost maniacal obsession for a particular artist. And that passion shows, and carries through to other things that they do. Some of them learn Japanese just so that they can understand the song lyrics better, or translate blog entries from their favourite singers, or even communicate with them on twitter. I've even managed to get to know a couple of native Japanese who have been very helpful in guiding me along as I learn Japanese, as well as sharing with me various things I never knew about Japan.

I've also found a much more interesting avenue to learn and practice my Japanese, in the form of translating. Whenever I'm free, I head over to the forums to see if there's anything to translate. Each piece takes me anywhere between 5 minutes and two hours, but regardless of it's difficulty, I'm always made to use the dictionary. Above that, more than a third of the people I follow on twitter post in Japanese, and being a twitter addict, reading these posts every day has done wonders for my reading (can't say the same for my conversational skills though, I feel like I only ever make progress during my Japanese classes, and not much at that ;_; )

It's almost as if theres some way to apply all of my interests and hobbies under the great umbrella that is fandom. I've already contributed a few pieces of fan-art, maintaining my graphic design and illustration interest, and I've even learnt a few things about site management, social media manipulation and search engine optimisation in attempting to create a fansite for an up and coming artist. Not to mention, there's always a reason to pick up my guitar and play my favourite songs.

All this will culminate in a personal journey to Japan next year as I wait for uni to start in August (I will be studying Architecture in NUS for at least the first Semester, until I know the results of my MEXT Scholarship attempt for 2013)

Many people have warned me that Japan might not be what I have always imagined it to be, and I completely agree with their concerns. So to make sure I know what I'm doing, I plan to travel across Japan over 3 months, the maximum duration of a single-entry visa, to experience the land of the rising sun myself.



And when I'm there, in between performance venues and hometowns of my favourite musicians, I'm sure I'll run into a good number of fellow fans whom will connect with me immediately and help me along my journey.

---

While I'm at it, here's a new song from my favourite of favourites that was written for the victims of the Tohoku earthquake and disaster.

Taken from my post on YUI-Lovers

Hi guys,

A couple of friends in camp just got me into the world of Bushiroad's Weiss Schwarz Trading Card Game
Rationally, this is a poor move on my part, and I really shouldn't be having new avenues of expenditure...

...

BUT THE PICTURES!









 

1. It is not cheap.
Trial Decks go at about $23-25 (50 cards, immediately playable and reasonably strong without modifcations)
Boosters go at $6-6.50 for 8 cards including one rare
Booster boxes (20 packs) go at $110-120
That Kanade card up there is a Double-Rare card that costs $20-25, I'm looking for 2 to include in my deck ^^;

2. Yes, I am building an Angel Beats deck, specifically a Girls Dead Monster x Kanade deck. SO DON'T BUILD THE SAME THING TOO BAD IF YOU LIKE THE SAME SERIES xP



fun fun la la la fun fun love~

The split keyboard feature is shown at 2:50

----

Q: Wait what the fuck is this Radial you're talking about?

A: Available on the App Store since January 15th 2011. Check it out here.

Oh and by the way, this was the description written by us, well, 5 months ago.

"Radial is an innovative custom keyboard app for the iPad. Built specifically for use with only your two thumbs, Radial allows you to type on your iPad in a whole new way.

If you’re the kind of user who holds his/her iPad upright with both palms in the horizontal orientation, you’ll definitely recognize how difficult it is to reach the center alphabets on the standard keyboard. Radial was created to help you with that."

Sounds familiar? *hint: scroll to the first two paragraphs of this post*


Q: Ok... so if Radial was so awesome why didn't anyone use it?

A: The trouble is, Apple's app developers simply cannot affect anything outside of their own app, meaning that Radial just could NOT work outside of itself, when you launch other apps, your keyboard will still be Apple's fat unusable keyboard, not Radial. 

We tried to streamline it as much as possible, offering in-built tools for more commonly used apps, such as an in-built "mail", and in-built "notes", even an in-built web search and in-built status update poster (that could post to both your twitter and Facebook accounts). When you switch to another app, Radial also automatically copies whatever you wrote onto your clipboard, so you can paste your text with one-tap.

But obviously, it was still way too much trouble for that little bit of comfort while typing even though it made so much sense. Unfortunately, to READ your mail, you still have to go to the original Mail app. Same goes for your twitter feeds and Facebook updates, it was way too much trouble for us to write an in-built twitter, Facebook, AND mail app all in one.

So, why doesn't anyone use Radial? Because we are indie developers, and not working for Apple.

Q: Yea big deal, how do you know they copied you? It does look kinda different!

A: Never said they did, maybe they already had this in the works for awhile now. I just said that it now renders my barely 5 month old app completely obsolete, and unfortunately because I am neither working for Apple nor Microsoft, my foresight and spark of genius was unable to get me anywhere and I will continue to remain anonymous and unrecognised. I guess that's life.

----

I have a feeling that the exact same thing will happen for the project I'm working on right now. I'm 100% positively sure that it's going to be something that EVERYONE will use, but whether or not that something that everyone is using is made by me, or something similar made by a big ass company right after I made it, is the big question. If the former is true, you're probably going to see me a lot in the news, but because this is reality, it's probably going to be the latter, and a year from now, you will see me post something like this again :)

Ah... Life

Edit: But, if they DID copy radial, I guess it is pretty damn flattering to know that two of the world's largest IT giants took an idea from me, though I really doubt that (*^ - ^*)