The Graduation I Can't Attend

Tomorrow is the day my friends from the class I was in will be graduating. While I feel happy for them, I can't help but to feel sorry for myself because I can't graduate with the people I spent my years with in college. Being dropped down a semester in a classroom full of people I don't know well is lonely, and I feel even more lonely when I think about how lonely I will be when I graduate with these people. I might have made some friends in this class but we are not so close to the point of being comfortable monkeying around with each other. I'm always the awkward outsider like a foreign tourist hanging around locals. Though such issue does not bother me so much, I just feel sad that I can't graduate with the people I call my true classmates. Happy graduation DG1001-1.

Oh Oh Oh Wo Oh O-Oh!

Last Saturday some of my classmates from DG1001-1 got together at the photography studio in college to take some final class photos. There were few of us but it worked out nice. The best shot I believe would be our take on the famous painting, The Last Supper. We had lunch after the session and part our ways. While everyone went home, some of us gathered again at Emmanuel's house.

37th Bon Odori
After lunch, Ann Nee and I met up with Yumi and JL at Emma's house where we spent some time relaxing a little before getting changed into our yukatas. I had bought a yukata from an online shop Ann Nee found on Facebook because they were selling it cheap. After Ann Nee, Yumi and I got changed, we headed out to the Matsushita Stadium. Surprisingly Bon Odori wasn't as crowded and had more Japanese people there compared to previous years. I wore the tengu geta my cousin, Zhen Rong bought for me when she went to Japan. The first thing we did there was take a look at all the stores before buying some food. I manage to spend only RM30 on a yakiniku bento and a can of Asahi beer. The Asahi beer was super dry, which was not to my taste but the beer definitely tastes better than Carlsberg or Tiger. Because my obi was tied pretty tight on me, I didn't have much of an appetite.

After my meal, I went to look for Vincent and Mun Kay. The day before, Vincent had marked where he would set his mat at on a map and so I found them there along with Denise and Andrea. It was a great short reunion. I also saw Alex, Sarah and Elie there. It was the first time got to meet up with so many friends at Bon Odori, usually it would be so packed that I would hardly be able to spot anyone. Wee and Andrea came later and we went to see Charmaine who was with some of her highschool friends. I didn't see Jun Ee, Atticus and Kuui that day even though they were there too. As usual, I joined in on the ondo dances. It's the same every year but I always have to relearn the steps. Together with Ann Nee, Jian Leng, Yumi, Emmanuel and his younger brother and sister, we dance one round and then spent the rest of the evening waiting for the fireworks. We bought some kakigori right after the dance.

This year was the first time Bon Odori Selangor has fireworks display. I heard that the one in Penang always has fireworks. Our wait was not in vain because the fireworks display was the most beautiful performance I've seen in my life. There were some firework patterns I've never seen before and they had the biggest I've ever seen as well. The sky was literally filled with fireworks of many colors. The huge ones were so big it felt like I was watching a 3D movie. It was absolutely spectacular.

We went back to Emma's house as soon as the festival comes to a close. My dad picked me up from Emma's house later at night. I have another event to attend that will drain my energy.

HaKU Live in Kuala Lumpur
About two months back, posters about HaKU's second concert in Malaysia was flowing about in Facebook. I was an instant fan when I first saw their performance at JRock no Tamashii last year but due to some financial planning I did beforehand, I thought I wouldn't be able to go to their concert this year. At C2AGE however, Jun Ee manage to confirm my decision and I got the concert ticket. I was excited.

The concert venue was at The Pavilion. I've never been to the mall before so I had no idea where the place was. All I knew was that I was late thanks to my sisters and the location is called The Venue. After running around the mall a couple of times, asking information counters twice and calling Jun Ee, I found out that The Venue is a pub and manage to get in just in time before the opening band, The Flying Pan play their first song. The Flying Pan played four songs, 3 of their singles and a cover of Deeper Deeper by ONE OK ROCK. I manage to spot Jun Ee and I joined him but he was with his group of Taylor's Lakeside friends so I just stood around. Atticus came pretty late but in time for most of HaKU's performance.

HaKU really rocked the stage. Everyone was constantly on hype. Jun Ee was obviously the happiest, singing along to the songs and getting into the moment. It was a long and exciting night of constant fist pumping and jumping. After the encore, I met with Yun Han who was at the front. We went to Tokyo Street for the next part of the concert. There I bought 2 albums, astronautS for me and Wonderland for Amanda, who had asked me to help her buy HaKU's latest album, and I got both the booklets of the album autographed by the members of the band. I also got to shake hands with them. I was excited, joyous and nervous at the same time. I wonder if my hands were sweaty. Anyway, it was the best feeling ever. I was at a lost of words when I met the members of HaKU, all I said was 'hello' and 'arigatou' and I kept bowing. I met up with my sisters later and we took the LRT back to Kelana Jaya where my dad was waiting for us. I feel like keeping the autographed Wonderland booklet but that wouldn't be nice for Amanda wouldn't it? Hehehe.

When HaKU did their second encore, the crowd asked for Hikari.

That encore was the best feeling of all with everyone singing the song together.

Four Strings

Couple of months back I got a ukulele and I only learned the basic chords and then left it to collect dust. Because of my recent episode of nothing to do, I picked up my uke and learned some easy songs to play. After a few weeks of watching tutorials and ukulele covers, I learned three songs, Melancholy Will by Gorillaz, Get Lucky by Daft Punk and Viva la Vida by Coldplay. I still can't play without looking at my drawings of chords on my notebook though. While learning, I tried to look for chords of my favorite songs but to no avail. There are very few ukulele chords and tabs out there, most of them are for guitars and pianos and since I can't read music, I don't know how to change the chords from other instruments to ukulele format. There are a few chords I find really hard to play because I don't use my left hand a lot and my fingers are stiff, especially my ring finger and pinky. Besides chords I also have two tabs jotted down in my notebook, the Pokemon Center theme and the Imperial March song. I can't get used to playing tabs, it feels strange to strum each string separately. I guess I will be practicing mainly on the three chords I've learned until I get better before I learn more.