In Hotel...

Friday, 19 Sep 08, 10.43am in hotel room

Morning diary..
Last night I couldn't sleep well again. Maybe because I'm not used sleeping in other place. I never imagined the hotel would be that great! I was kind of embarrassed last night. You know, I didn't take shower for the whole one day, I didn't put any make-up on my face, not even powder, so my face was kind of oily and the dark spots on my cheeks were so clear! I didn't comb my hair, not even once yesterday. I was wearing blue T-shirt, 3/4 jeans, and gray (the original color was white) shoes with one hole near my smallest toe. I was hugging a big paper bag of the leftover food from my apartment with my both hands. Can you imagine that? I was with Ron too but he was wearing his business outfit; long sleeves shirt and black pants and black shoes. I didn't realize that my appearance was that bad till I entered the lift and saw my own shadow on the mirror inside the lift. The lift was so elegant, so shining, so bright, but it got uglier suddenly because there was me in the lift! I looked so dirty, so ugly, so old, so ahjumma, so kampung! Two gentlemen took us to our room. I was even too ugly to be even standing beside the bell boys.. *_*#

Once I entered the room, I was so amazed! The bathroom is as big as my apartment's bedroom. I put the pictures here because this is the first time I stay in this kind of great hotel in my life! I didn't expect it because the hotel is arranged by the company. Perhaps this is also one of the reasons why I couldn't sleep well last night. I think I'm really being too kampungan now.


Before turning to bed, as usual, I took my contactlens off then suddenly I remembered something very very important. I forgot where I put my glasses! My thick grandma-like glasses!! With one contactlens still on, I was searching my bag, my luggages, everywhere but I couldn't find it. This morning, I just found out that my two SIM cards (Indonesia's and Singapore's SIM cards) were in my passport cover after searching them for like half day yesterday. So, I hoped that I could find my glasses in my food paper bag or in my soap/tooth paste bag but it was not in any of those. I have to go back to my apartment today to check. Hopefully it's still there. Or, is my glasses on the way to HK now? Oh please.. I thought I was smarter now that everything went smoothly this time. Hiks..

-Abbie-

Remembrance of Shinkawa Apartment

Thursday, 18 Sep 08, 5.41pm at home

Hiii again diary!
That was not my last diary in Japan, I'm writing diary again now. I just finished my packing, cleaned my whole apartment, settled some changing address matters, bought tickets for my sofa disposal because nobody wants to take my sofa even for free, and here I'm now, writing diary again, in my empty apartment, with no table, and no chair. I only need internet connection and computer to write diary. Now I'm sitting on the floor, leaning on my spoiled sofa (yang giginya tinggal satu sekarang, aku tunggu giginya yang tinggal satu kok nggak copot2 juga), I put my laptop on a box in front of me.

Honestly, I have not taken shower since yesterday night. I planned to take shower after everything's been packed but I forgot one theory; once everything's been packed, that means my soap and towel have also already been packed. So I decided to take shower later in the hotel. What am I doing now? I'm waiting for the buyers of my washing machine, microwave, rice cooker, and curtains to come at 7pm.


Now I'm enjoying the last moment in this apartment. Apartment which has been a mute witness of my happy and sad days in the last 14 months. Apartment which has been our first home since we got married. Many stories happened in this apartment. Now I'm looking at my empty apartment, I remembered the first moment when I came into this apartment. It was as empty as now, it was as clean as now, it was as quiet as now. Only one big difference, my feeling! One year ago, I was so excited when I first came into this apartment, I was so excited to unpack my things, to arrange my photos here and there, and most importantly, I was so ready to experience my first year of my marriage life. Now, one year has passed, I had to pack all of my things again. There is always sad and happy feeling when we leave one place to go to another place, rite? I'm sad now that I'm leaving this place, this apartment especially. I don't know if I'll be able to go to Japan anymore for the rest of my life. Will I get excited after my arrival in my next apartment?

Anyway, bye bye my Shinkawa Apartment..

-Abbie-

Moving Day

Thursday, 18 Sep 08, 9.48am at home

Hello again diary,
This morning is drizzling. The weather outside is quite cold, it's about 22C. My day yesterday was very tiring, I took some medicine and had a good sleep finally last nite. This morning I woke up with a fresh body and fresh mind. Good! Because today is my moving day so I have to keep my body fit.

Now, behind me, there are two men who are helping me packing. I've done my part yesterday, ok! So now is their turn to pack. I'm looking at them, they are very amazing! They work so fast, clean, neat, professional lah! My cheap items suddenly look precious if I look at how careful they wrap each of the item and put it nicely inside the box. I took picture of my home, the last picture before moving out, well, of course when those two men were out. Now, I'm sitting on my computer table, typing this diary again, utak-utiking the picture secretly without their notice. Since they are walking around behind me, I have to minimize and maximize my computer screen, of course I'm shy if they know that I praise them this much. ^_^

Tonight I'll stay in a provided hotel till Monday. My schedule is so packed till Monday so this might be my last writing when I'm still in Japan. On Monday, I will fly to HK first for transit, then Singapore for 2 night, then Jakarta for transit, then Jogjakarta, then Solo (by car of course). Phew, it will be such a long trip for us. There are reasons why we fly around like lalat, it's not that we like to fly that much.

Soon I'll have to give up my table, so bye diary..
See you again when I see you again..

-Abbie-

Packing Day

Wednesday 17 Sep 08, 12.17pm at home

Hi diary,
This week I'm busy with packing and settling all the relocation matters. I can't sleep well last night and the days before and I think I will not have a good sleep for the next few days too. My mind keeps thinking, my brain can't stop thinking! I don't know what's my real problem. Is it because deep inside my heart I'm actually sad that I'm leaving Japan although I've been praying to be out of Japan all the times? Is it because of lots of things that need to be done regarding my moving to HK? Is it because of my fears of some uncertainties and all of the new things that I'll have to experience in HK? I guess, all of those are what I've been thinking about recently.

If you can peek what's inside my head now, it's a total mess! It's as messy as my house now. Yes, today is my packing day. The clothes, the books, the boxes, everything are all over the place. Just now I was 'pet-petan' (lil bit of black out), so I had to sit down for moments, drink water, and.. end up writing this diary! That's what usually happens when I don't have enough sleep at night. I have low blood pressure. People say that I need to eat more meat and drink more sugar, that's the things I like to be a low-blood-pressure-patient. So, I enjoy being 'pet-petan', a lil bit of black out is not a problem at all as long as I can eat more fattening food without feeling so sinful.

Anyway, today I'm packing my personal stuffs. Tomorrow, the mover will come to help me packing my other stuffs and doing dismantlement of my furniture, and get them all delivered to HK. Tomorrow is also the day when my buyers will come to pick up my appliances. Starting tomorrow, I'll have to stay in a hotel till Monday so I'll have to pack my belongings that I wanna carry in my suitcases since I'm going back to Singapore and Indonesia first for 10 days. Everything has to be finished by tomorrow and see what I'm doing now. I'm writing this stupid diary with my weak hands and my 'pet-petan' eyes.

Tonight will be my last night sleeping in this apartment. There is a sad feeling leaving this mini-mouse-apartment. I washed the bed sheet and the quilt cover this morning, a day before my official moving. There's nothing superstitious, ok! I washed it today so that I can put them in the box to be delivered by sea tomorrow, so I don't have to carry them in my luggage. *So, how will you sleep tonite?* Just sleep without bed sheet la, is it a big problem? I will get the curtains down too since I'm selling it to someone. I have no problem sleeping in a bedroom with no bed sheet, no blanket, and no curtains. What I need to do are just wear my contact lens off and turn the light off and I can't see anything.

I think I need to eat now.. yes, food is the source of my energy. I'm not really hungry now but I need to eat now and sleep. No, no, don't sleep, I still have so many things to do, aja aja! Fighting, Abbie!

-Abbie-

Time to Move On

Saturday, 13 Sep 08, 3.06pm at home

Dear diary,
Recently I've been busy with many things, yes, I'm still busy learning my new laptop and I'm still busy doing my own business, and many more things like; I'm busy taking pictures of my furniture and my home appliances, and photoshopping the pictures, and uploading them on the Internet, then waiting for the emails to come, and replying the emails one by one, and making appointments for them to come to my home to see and pick my furniture up. Yes, I'm selling my furniture and all the electronic appliances!

We'll be going. We'll be leaving Japan on 22 Sep. We'll be moving to Hong Kong for good! My husband got a job there. I really hope, I really pray that this will be the best decision for us. It had been uncertain for many months, finally it's been confirmed. It's not that we like to move around, ok? Honestly, I really want to go back home, diary! I really miss home. I really miss my family. I really miss my home country. I really want to settle down, build a family, and have a happy simple life! But, I guess, now is not the time for me yet. I'm not sure what God's planning in my life. What I'm very sure is, our moving to Hong Kong is in HIS plan. This is the very first time I really heard God spoke to me, not audibly, but in my heart! Even until now, my heart is still heavy to go to Hong Kong, but I wanna try trusting in HIM!

Diary, please help me praying that everything will be alright. I'm really scared now. Again, new country, new environment, new language, new friends, and new home! I'll have a new life all over again. I guess, this time won't be as bad as last year when I came to Japan; last year I even had a new husband! This time, at least there's one thing that is not new so I don't need to adapt to so many new things at the same time. Phew, that relieves me.

-Abbie-

p.s Will I still be able to see the color autumn leaves in Japan before I leave?

New Laptop!!

Monday, 8 Sep 08, 3.28pm at home

Hi little diary!
You know what? Surprise surprise! I bought new laptop! Last weekend I went to Akihabara with my hubby, the same electronic shop that I usually go, yes, the shop with the 'Pak Dengkek' song! I love that shop because the options are a lot, the price is low, there is pointo kado (point card) for every purchase of product, and because of their song! I feel like going back to my past, going back to my kampoeng, every time I hear that song. But, last Saturday was kind of weird, I didn't hear that song anymore, is it because they already changed the song? Or is it because I too concentrated on choosing laptop so I couldn't hear anything around me?

Anyway, after careful consideration of the product specs, and the designs, and the price, I chose this laptop! The N type of Sony Vaio! I like this model because it looks like Mac, but somebody said it doesn't look like Mac at all! It's ok, maybe my eyes have already been blinded by love. Fyi, I used to see my car in Australia as BMW, I told everyone that my car resembled so much like BMW, I bragged around saying that my car's eyes are exactly like BMW's eyes. You know what my car was? Well, ehemm.. *cekikik cekikik* it's Mitsubishi Lancer. :P

This is my first laptop that I bought with my own money, you know! The reason why I bought this laptop is to support my own business. The other reason is to use internet and watch movie all I want without any disturbance as I don't need to use my hubby's laptop anymore. I want to remember the first moment when I opened my laptop so I took pictures of the opening process. Please be considerate if I'm too overreacting. I'm too happy now ^_^

I purposely bought this Sony laptop here in Japan because people say that it's cheap to buy Japan local products in Japan. And, it's really cheap! The price is only 50% or less if compared to those available in countries outside Japan. But, now, I have a little problem here. Not a little, it's BIG problem for me! The operating system is in Japanese, the manual is in Japanese, the keyboard is the Japanese keyboard, everything is in Japanese! Now I'm trying my best to understand my laptop. We need to understand each other well to be falling in love, rite? For the Japanese keyboard, I guess what I need is just time to get used to it. For the manual book, I think I can roughly guess what it is since many computer terms are adopted from English, like kibodo (keyboard), maidokyumento (my document), konteropaneru (control panel), herupu supoto (help support), baku apu (back-up), deta rikafuri (data recovery), etc etc. For the OS, I'm now trying to get help from my friend to install the English OS, let's see if it's going to be successful. Otherwise, I'll diligently take my Japanese course again. Is there any Japanese course that will only teach me how to use konpyuta (computer)?

-Abbie-

Trip Okutama & Nippara

Saturday, 6 Sep 08, 2.45pm at home

Dear my diary,
Last Tuesday, me and my hubby went to Okutama lake again and Nippara with our good friends. Yes, the last time we went to Okutama is almost one year ago. This has nothing to do with any annual ritual or what.

My friends in this photo are our good friends in church, here in Tokyo. They are leaving Japan this week for Indonesia, for good, to get married and to build a family there. They are very cute and funny couple. I'll really miss you! Although it's sad to part with you, but I'm happy for you. Congrats for both of you, and selamat menempuh hidup baru yah, beranak pinaklah dan penuhilah bumi ini..

Actually there are many photos that I want to put here and there are fun stories that I want to share here during our trip to Okutama and Nippara, but now I'm not in the mood of telling you anything and doing anything. You may just see my pictures during this trip here. You see, more and more friends are leaving me. I don't want to be left behind. Hiks.. hiks.. *sentrupp*

-Abbie-

Another Friends Had Left

Wednesday, 3 Sep 08, 10.22am at home

Diary,

Two more persons had left Japan again. These are the members in my Saturday fellowship. This is the last picture that we took before they left for Philippines. One by one, my friends here are leaving me. Hiks..

-Abbie-

Gunma Egg

Wednesday, 3 Sep 08, 9.47am at home

Hi my little diary,


Can you see these two pictures? It's egg! Yes, it's chicken egg! You see picture on the left, the egg on my hand is sooo big compared to the normal egg on the table, isn't it? I got this egg from my pastor's wife. She said that it's chicken egg from Gunma (a city near Tokyo). Eggs from Gunma are very big because each egg has two yolks and it's natural! I couldn't believe it, so I brought home one egg from her and opened it myself. You see, it really has two yolks in it! I'm wondering if the mothers of chicken in Gunma have twin genetics? Will the egg with two yolks can become two little chickens? Or will it become one little chicken with two heads? Or just one fat little chicken? Or can the egg become little chicken? Or it's just an egg with two yolks?

-Abbie-