I'm supposed to be filling out my internal application and updating my resume for the new vacant position in our company, but brain's not up to it this evening so...(making Wed my deadline)...so I'm doing some productive procrastination (hopefully helpful).

In an attempt to help out a friend, been searching the web for a courier/door-to-door parcel/luggage service from Australia to Japan. Australia Post is an idiot and has removed their Seamail service to Japan, so have to look for an alternative. Unfortunately, there's barely any other alternative. The Japanese one's I've found are 90% moving overseas even after and the one I found previously during my exchange - http://www.economovejapan.com/ barely has any info for stuff TO JAPAN.

Only two AUS companies came out of my 1.5 hour-long search: (Japanese ones weren't helpful and focused more on moving OUT of Japan
http://www.cubeit.com.au/cubeit/city_melbourne_en/freight/to-japana.php
http://www.discountfreight.com.au/index.php
The only other I can think off would be DHL - http://www.dhl.com.au/publish/au/en/services/mail_services/globalmail_parcel.high.html

*@ 12:23am - Note to Self: Have now booked the last 6 nights at Chisun Hotel Shin-Osaka*

Enjoyed the night out with a 焼肉 dinner at an authentic Japanese restaurant called TAKUMI in Melbourne CBD. Got an invitation from a friend who's off to Japan in less than 2 weeks and enjoyed it with others who came.

The atmosphere was great, the food was perfect for the price paid - excellent Wagyu beef. Service was top notch as if in Japan. The only draw back was the time limit of 2 hours as they seem to be always completely booked out with their limited tables. We're the type to take 3 hours when eating out with an additional 2 hours in some cafe later on to continue our catch ups. A shame there weren't any cafes open at night in the area we're at.

どうしても触れたくない had me joining yoneda_kou community and had me near to ordering the manga online (thought to wait since I'll be in K-books in 2 months). I adored the story, the characters and the angst, and am looking forward but also dreading to listen to the drama CD. Very excited and satisfied that Shima is being voiced by Nojiken, Ishikawa Hideo-san should be fine as Togawa... but I don't think my heart's yet prepared for the heavy angst Nojiken will be sounding out of my earphones.
Doushitemo & her other works had lured me to her story-telling and art, but the real clincher would be her doujinshi sequel to Doushitemo with the side character Onoda and Deguchi ...I lament that they didn't have someone else younger voice Onoda (but you're still my 帝王, 森川さん... .
Page 22 of her doujin After 9 hours totally just broke my *heart* *sob* *sob*...
Yoneda-sensei's work doesn't rely on dramatic language or ostentatious aesthetics. Her dialogues like her art is deceptively simple. But with her masterful execution of view angles and exceptional paneling, she takes your breath away and has you unconsciously riding a whirlwind of emotions.
Yoneda-sensei's works will definitely be proudly occupying my bookshelves very soon.
ヨウネダコウ's ｂlog：　http://dororororo.blog92.fc2.com/

Fickle, fickle, fickle ... in the space of two or so months, I've had affairs with 5 different fandoms.
Started with Spirited Away which lasted for 2 weeks of re-watching the movie, HakuxChihiro fanfics & listening to Joe Hisaishi pieces (actually renewed my interest in piano and got me to purchase an online piano course).
My affections then moved on to Howl's Moving Castle - movie then the original book & fanfics for 3.5 weeks - a dangerous affair which almost had me collecting Diana Wynne Jone's other books.
Decided to raid my sis's anime and watched Slayers Revolution - which got me back to my XelxFilia fanfic hunting for a week. Ran out of fics to read so decided to finish my Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days DS game which had me fangirling over Riku & scourging the net for RikuxSora doujinshi. KH affair was cut short when I finally couldn't resist the urge to watch the new season of Darker than Black.
After 4 episodes of the new season, all I can say is: "Dearest Hei, I *really* miss your clean shaven, sober and non-abusive self. I'm hoping that Misaki will *very* soon be taking your booze away, get you showered, shaven and fed which hopefully will cut down on your child beating actions". Re-watched the later half of the first season and now I'm hunting down HeixMisaki fanworks. Wondering if this affair with DTB will last until we get to Japan, which might get me in trouble of spending $$$ on doujinshi - IF there is HeixMisaki pairing to be found.

BUT I'm really hoping to get back to my BL drama interest for the sake of picking-up my Japanese speaking & comprehension skills again. There's less than 2 months left and I also need to spend some of that time improving my physical strength and endurance for those day trips to mountainous areas we've got planned for the trip.

...sigh... as a fulltime worker, the thing I'm most wishing for now is time. LOT's of time ... a 36-hour day perhaps?

It's not my first winter trip to Japan (my very first being 2004-05) but this is twin's first time to Japan in winter. Actually, Part Two of our earlier holiday in Aug 2007 where plans got ruined 'coz of the heatwave at the time.

We learned our lesson the first time and are now planning every excruciating where? what? how? for each day. Booked the flight all the way back in July and hotel's been booked for the first 10 days (the remaining ones will be done this month). Main base will be Osaka where I'm most familiar with from my exchange. The main highlights for this trip will be Onsen hopping and stay at a ryokan.

Spent the majority of last weekend planning and researching ryokans that we might book. As my next trip to Japan won't be for another 1.5-2 years... we're making the most of it by enjoying onsen as much as possible.

Plans:
22 Dec - arrive and remain in Osaka for shopping
23 Dec/24 Dec - proposed trip to Gero Onsen in Gifu Prefecture to meet up with a good friend. Possibly meeting up in Nagoya, with us from Osaka and friend from Tokyo. Should be able to time our arrivals close to each other with this site on Japanese rail & aviation timetables http://www.hyperdia.com
Onsen/ryokan in our mind is YUNOSHIMAKAN --> http://www.yunoshimakan.co.jp/index.html
And the room that I'm looking at is 深山荘 (miyamasou) --> http://www.yunoshimakan.co.jp/rooms/miyama.html ||
With 3 people cost is 16,850円 each, covering night stay and 2 meals --> http://www.yunoshimakan.co.jp/yunoshimakan/show.cgi?_detail=on&plan=13&ymd=.

To see their onsen: (both indoor and rotenburo)
http://www.yunoshimakan.co.jp/bath/
http://www.japaneseguesthouses.com/db/gifu/yunoshimakan.htm

Other onsen we're planning on enjoying (if possible) will be Kinosaki Onsen in northern Hyogo Prefecture, with particular interest in - NISHIMURAYA HONKAN -> http://www.nishimuraya.ne.jp/honkan/english/index.html ... then if permitting, instead of just a day trip to Arima Onsen (again Hyogo Prefecture) maybe a stay in Negiya Ryofukaku -> http://www.negiya.jp/yokujyo.html .

We've got a few other places lined up for day trips. Our definite one will be Koyasan (up the mountain we go) in Wakayama Prefecture - lovely prefecture whose seaside onsen and beach I enjoyed in 2007. Also in the itinerary will be day trips to the more northern side of Gifu Prefecture to Takayama & Shirakawa-go （ちょう）田舎なところだ。 Sis wants to also visit Kenrokuen in Kanazawa Prefecture.

Since we're thinking to get a JR Pass, we might also be taking a day trip to Tokyo. Ikebukuro will be the destination - to assuage the fujoushi side of self. This one's pending though as our main interest this time isn't to shop or enjoy Japanese metropolitan life - it's more our long-awaited trip to the rural and mountainous regions of 日本. A kind of Mushishi-like experience in terms of surroundings.

Cramming all this and a few other things from arrival in Japan on 22 Dec until 6 Jan when we fly back to AUS the following morning　and say goodbye to Japan once again.

Posting with my mobile right now during lunch break. Usually would be working while eating but i've simply no energy today. Thinking I might pop out ...(just got interrupted with the phone again) ... get some air and maybe get a red bull or something.:-(

Many thanks to my surgeon, nurses and anaesthetist for the afternoon's day surgery to get my three impacted wisdom teeth out. Gotta say, it was some fast and painless surgery with me being out cold five minutes after they'd administed the anaesthesia which seems to still be working in keeping the pain at bay tonight. I've still got my wrist and ankle bands from the hospital - thing cost me a fortune, as my mom said... I'm wearing my most expensive bracelets yet.

Thankfully, everything was a success. My surgeon was able to extract the whole wisdom tooth growing horizontal in my lower right mouth. The CT scan I had gotten previously showed that one of my nerves was growing in-between its roots. Taking the whole thing out had a high risk of nerve damage. Plan was, to remove the crown and the upper root then leave the other root to hopefully grow and pop out sometime when I'm older - risk of this was that if the root died and doesn't get removed, it could cause bacterial infection. Luckily, during operation the surgeon found that affecting the nerve could be avoided. He cut my tooth in four sections and extracted the roots one by one with barely no bleeding or swelling. Gotta hand it to him, he admitted that the case of my horizontal tooth with a nerve growing between the roots was a first for him. Very young surgeon... fortunately he's really good and keeps up with latest techniques - he teaches tertiary and does research.

Now, my med certificate says i've got till Wednesday next week, but I did plan to be back to work on Monday. Heck, by Thursday I'm probably well enough to do my work (except phones). It's tempting ... I've probably turned workaholic by now... but I gonna take it easy. Been working so much lately, I've neglected my health and am forgetting some important stuff (-.-;; left some docs i got for the surgery at work...fortunately, they weren't mandatory).

Still waiting for the Mersyndol and Nurofen tablets to knock me out to sleep, but 'coz I use mersyndol so regularly as my substitute to panadol, my tolerance for it's codeine has probably increased. By tomorrow the anaesthesia will wear off, hoping this combination will keep most of the pain at bay. Was hoping i'd get a prescription for panadine forte, but 4 painkiller tablets should hopefully be substitute enough.

But for now, stuck with soups and soft food diet. ...=_= I miss chewing.

Had to take annual leave this past Friday to get my wisdom teeth checked out. Had already gone to my GP the previous Friday to get some antibiotics 'coz my neck had been swelling as a result of bacterial infection from my upper left wisdom tooth.
Australia sure knows how to make money out of you when it comes to health matters. I had to visit my dentist twice on Friday and almost had to lodged another annual leave just to get an X-ray done for my teeth. Fortunately, the Imaging facility the dentist referred me to had an opening Friday afternoon - got my X-ray done.
And...in getting my X-ray done, I almost could've been a victim of medical negligence. According to my nursing-student sis and to common sense, when you undergo procedures like this involving medical equipment, especially one that uses radiation - the medical professional should do a checklist as to how the procedure works, what you should and shouldn't wear, if you have any pre-existing conditions that should be taken into consideration. Sure, the *girl doctor* asked if I was pregnant...but that was it. No checklist. I even had to ask her if I should take off my glasses, to which she answered: "Oh! I didn't notice you were even wearing them." (...wow...) Even worse, the machine was already 3/4 done when she suddenly asks me, "Are you wearing earrings?" o.O!!! Say What?! you just ask me now?!
Fortunately, I'd forgotten the habit to wear them again.

So back to the dentist with my X-ray and I've got three impacted wisdom teeth that need to come out. Both top ones, she could easily take out at her clinic, but the one and only bottom left is growing horizontally (as can be seen on the pic I took of the X-ray) which is more complicated and needs an oral surgeon for the extraction procedure - they might even do a CT scan to check if any nerves are affected. The dentist was fascinated by my bottom wisdom, saying it was the first time she'd seen one in that position. Theoretically, they're normal but seems, she never encountered a patient before me that had it.

She then gave me two options: 1) She can remove the top two with Local anesthetic, but I'll have to get the bottom one taken out later by the oral surgeon OR 2) I get gased and have all three out by the oral surgeon . Option 2 of course! I don't have time to deal with this - even if it's more expensive to go to the oral surgeon to get the top two done.
Got referred to three possible oral surgeons, quickly booked a Friday appointment with anyone that's available. Again, I'll have to lodge annual leave and hopefully the day surgery can take place at the same time. Us working people, especially in my department - that's always been understaffed, just don't have the luxury of time.

Curse you wisdom teeth!!! You should be named something else...useless things. You're gonna cost me at least $2K AUD which was supposed to go to my Yamaha Clavinova Piano planned for next year.

NOTE OF WARNING to all my contemporaries: get your teeth checked ASAP, especially your wisdom teeth. You won't notice anything is wrong until it starts hurting and could be too late. Get them out before you turn 30 'coz extraction gets extremely painful and complicated by then.

Kuroshitsuji 黒執事 was my sanity's saviour this time.
Marathoned through the episodes I hadn't seen yet on Saturday night with my BL filters on, of course. But then again, the filters weren't really needed since the mangaka for this series was a previous BL doujinka. This time around, I'm allowing myself to indulge in a somewhat shota pair, though I can't really think of it like that considering Ciel's mental capabilities are far too mature for his 12-year old self. (...hmm...I wonder if all that stress has finally sent me over the edge of moral, rational thinking into enjoying the delights of depravity and corruption LoL...only in fiction!)

Have to say that this anime series had one of the best *ever* endings! (...especially for us with *wild* immaginations.)
Toboso Yana sure did an excellent work with the characters - there's so much to enjoy and explore. And the ART - just wonderful.
I've already DL'd some doujinshi for this (from Aarinfantasy) and with Pink no Koneko's art, there's a very likely chance my bank account will be suffering even more after going through a 90% probable KHR pillaging while in Japan this X'mas holidays (pending sis's nursing placement and my annual leave approval).
But note to self: try to control the spending urges while in Japan - there's still the Clavinova scheduled for next year's big expense & possible trip to Singapore & Phil in Dec 2010.

Was absolutely ecstatic last week end and the friday night then. Finally saw my uncle and auntie from Singapore, again after 13? 14? years! Spent the nights catching and chatting about the years passed, airing out the dirty laundry of our cousins who couldn't make the trip (and at some point it was even literal laundry) LoL!!!
Took them to Sovereign Hill in Ballarat on Saturday, then lunch at Southgate, Victoria Market and the Eureka Skydeck on Sunday (+ Crown Casino later that evening, but siblings and I went home earlier). Damn shame they couldn't stay longer... but they did tell us to come to Singapore whenever...
...we got time.

Which brings me to my crappiest time at my company in the whole of my 1 year working for them (I officially started in the company today last year).
My partner/other team member has been away almost 2 weeks now. We were already heading for crisis mode then due to continuous increased volumes in our work, even moreso now that I'm having to cover for her as much as I can, while team leader takes on what's left that I simply do not have the time to do, even after nearly 10 hours at work...and straight work.
I don't take lunch or any other breaks (except for the toilet when I can squeeze it in) nor do I even step out of the office until I'm off home. It's dark as night when I enter and exit the that building.

My patience has almost run out and I'm at the stage of near to losing my sanity.
If my team member's not back sometime next week... i'm probably gonna have some sort of break down soon if it's not my health that'll fail first.