scary dreams influenced by waking thoughts

Saturday night I watched a parody of the popular korean drama DOTS (descendents of the sun for those who have no idea), and it's hilarious! I also talked to my friend about a mutual friend who's getting married (let's call her A), and I also thought about the orlando shooting because it's gay pride weekend. I read a story about how one of the victims ran to the bathroom and was trapped there, scared while texting his mum. Eventually, the shooter came in and killed them all.

All these waking thoughts I had right before I went to bed definitely influenced my dreams the next morning, and here's my account of the dream. Believe it or not, I do have pretty wild dreams that sound just like a teenage drama lol...

I dreamt about a guy who was super hot and tall and looked like he's a Korean star (duh) but it turned out he was a bad guy pretending to be a good guy. My friend A was in the dream as a pregnant woman (guess it's the next logical step after her marriage), and she's carrying out a mission as part of my team. Unfortunately on the way there, she went into labor in the cab and they rushed her to the hospital. At the hospital, the doctor was so useless and told her it only takes an hour. He then made her lie on the gurney for an hour, then discharged her. The baby wasn't delivered yet lol...

In the meantime, the rest of the team (me included) went to a house and accidentally scattered lots of stuff under the bed. When I crawled through the mess under the bed, I found all kinds of incriminating evidence and we realized that the bad guy was actually bad.

Fast forward, we rushed to the school and ended up in the school bathrooms. For some unknown reason we were all unarmed, probably because we didn't expect the bad guy to be armed. In the bathrooms, we saw blood splatter round the corner with a ringing gunshot, and quickly pressed ourselves against the wall. It was too late.

The bad guy walked round the corner and as he saw us, he shot around 5-8 times near us but missed deliberately. I was so scared I was shaking and I closed my eyes, certain I'd be dead if I looked at him. Then he stopped and when I opened my eyes, he was staring at me. His eyes were wild and he was smiling maniacally with a look that said you guys are doomed, but he gave me a special look, like you've got to understand...I felt so disappointed because I was in love with him, and finding out he's such a bad guy made me feel so dumb and anguished. What were we thinking, coming here unarmed to confront him? We probably thought he's still got good in him.

While he got distracted by the rest asking him why, I bolted for the door. I was certain he wouldn't kill me, he loved me too...right? Maybe he would shoot my leg but not to kill....

The moment I opened the door, I had a flash of uncertainty but I shook off any hesitation and ran for my life. I ran to the PE storeroom and locked the door. A friend/ally was in the room and I explained the situation to her. She was horrified and agreed to help, though she's like "You locked us in! How are we going to get out and help!!!"

I said there, pointing to the back of the storeroom. It's covered in blinds but once you open them it leads to the gym. We jumped down the ledge into the gym, and went round back to the bathrooms. The dream skipped a few more frames and we both ended up in schoolgirl uniforms going up stairs, and I'm no longer seeing this from first person perspective. It's back to 3rd person and I'm looking down on a girl who's supposed to be "me" but really looks like a redhead white girl.

The hot bad guy saw the white girl who is "me" at the top of the stairs, and smiled happily. He said, "I knew you'd come back!" kind of thing, and she/me pretended to be on his side but would later try kill him.

At this point, the dream skipped to the end, which looked like the end of a play. It was a dark room with a black backdrop (must be influenced by the Sleep No More play lol), and the she/me girl was sitting in a chair in the middle of the room, with the friend/ally standing behind her. The friend was holding the white girl's hair up and started snipping horizontally with a pair of metal scissors, all the while looking straight at the "camera"/audience while saying her lines. Something poetic about revenge is sweet and he never saw it coming, and I assumed that meant the guy was dead and the mission succeeded!

However, the bad guy appeared at that moment and smiled at the audience, as if to say hey I'm not dead! It turned out that maybe the white girl was dead instead because her hair was getting cut off (as a symbolic analogy to her head getting cut off). So the mission failed after all and he must have found out the girl betrayed him and killed her off...

Anyhow I woke up at this point, feeling absolutely anguished and pained because it hurt to be betrayed by someone you love, it's tormenting to have to kill someone you love, and it's even more painful for him to show no mercy towards you and try to kill you. It felt awful, and it was so terrifying having a gun pointed at me and shooting at me in the bathroom scene! My brain could still feel the pain as though the bullets were tearing through my flesh (even though they all missed thanks to my brain's self-preservation and desire to keep the dream "me" alive). I was wincing and shaking so hard with fear and my heart was pounding so fast, it definitely felt all too real.

Gosh my brain is too hyperactive!! It's making me live through scary moments and experiences in dreamworld!!

inspired by music :D

I'm getting unsolicited compliments on my singing, thank you all! It's really making my day :D

I really enjoy making music and singing, so here's a rendition of A-Lin's Wo Hen Mang (direct translation: "I'm Very Busy"). It's a super emo song and if you recall, I posted that song earlier this year. I thought it was very good to describe my feelings post-breakup and telling everyone around me how busy I am when I'm actually just trying to forget...

Life is no longer like that now so no worries haha! I'm busy because I'm legitly busy and being very productive, but I clearly liked it so much I made a cover of the song. Please enjoy!

First trip to Japan

I’ve finally found some time to blog about my first trip to Japan…I’ve been wanting to go since I was 13, so this is really a dream come true. I ended up doing everything I wanted to do – and more! Definitely did all the activities that a quintessential Japanese teen would have done, so I’m super happy! The only problem was that I didn’t have enough time/luggage space to do shopping properly, so I definitely have to return and shop all I want xD

Here are some of my thoughts on what I did/see/observe in Japan:

Japanese Fashion / Culture

• Black and white suits everywhere on weekdays!! Mostly because they are office workers and Japan has such a homogeneous culture that it is frowned upon to stand out in the corporate world…so everyone wears that same black and white suit combination. At first I was quite sad that I couldn’t see more of Japanese fashion, but if you wait till the weekends/go to the cool places like Harajuku…:D definitely love the fashion on the weekends and how they differ when you visit different parts of Japan!
• P.S. Guys look really good in those suits, though I wish they would spice up the colors so it’s more colorful (e.g. blue shirt, purple, pink, etc) haha
• This is odd, but in Ikebukuro we saw people (mostly guys) lining up before the arcade opens…we never quite figured out why they went so early in the morning, even on weekdays to wait for the arcades to open! There was also a line of all females at a different arcade, not sure why…?
• This is somewhat a repeat from my previous post, but elaborating on it further - One thing I noticed was how oxymoronic Japanese people are. They are actually pretty rude / impolite in ignoring people and just keeping to their own devices (literally), while their language and culture forces them to be super polite. They may bow to you and say all these polite honorifics, but their body language and expressions clearly show they don’t like you very much (especially if you are a foreigner and stand out). They aren’t a very friendly bunch after all, and I could feel the hostility…

Japanese technology and efficiency

• I love Japanese technology!! We had kaiten sushi (conveyer belt sushi), and it was completely automated! We can pick sushi off the belt or order through the tablet, food would appear on an automated cart on a separate belt and stopped at our table, and at the end the waiter just needed to wave this device over all our plates to note how much everything cost (different plates cost different amounts haha)
• Another thing I noticed was how all the bread items I bought had their packages completely vacuum packed, which means there is a constant bubble of air that surrounded the bread, which means it was impossible for me to squash my bread (which is usually a constant problem for me, since I like to leave bread in my bag which unfortunately leads to squashed bread…)
• At Osaka Castle, one entire floor had around 12 – 16 boxes that had 3D video projections on a 2D set to narrate the story of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s life. It looked amazing and I have no idea how they did it (other than using projectors/screens/mirrors), but it’s such a creative way of using technology to portray stories in a lifelike manner. Other museums should definitely make use of this idea
• Bidet toilets everywhere!! Enough said ;)

Friends old and new in Japan

• I caught up with my classmate from kindergarten (yes, I’ve known him since we were 5!!!) and he brought us around Tokyo, definitely nice to have someone more local who knows his way around/knows Japanese! We got to meet his parents for dinner and had such a great meal that locals usually have. He also introduced us to a new friend who is a kabuki actor, so we learnt a lot about kabuki and how you have to be born into the family to become a kabuki actor...
• Met up with 3 other friends - my college classmate who is now working in Japan, a Singaporean friend who is now studying in Japan, and another Singaporean friend who just so happened to be travelling in Japan at the same time we were! That’s why it’s a good thing to post where you are on facebook so people can say Hey! We’re there too, let’s meet up! J I haven’t seen these friends in anywhere between 4 to 7 years, so it’s definitely great to catch up with all of them haha

Fun Activities

•  Did the fun teenage activities I’ve always wanted to do – we took Puri Kura (photobooth pictures i.e. neoprints), played arcade games (DDR, Jubeat and Mai Mai anyone?) and went for Japanese karaoke! Did you know, you can get free curlers at the Puri Kura booth area so you can style your hair and look pretty for the photo? There are even rentals of maid costumes and other costumes for the Puri Kura! I got to practice my Japanese everywhere, so that was quite fun too J
• We went to Tokyo DisneySea, which was wayyy better than I expected. It’s a great place for couples/dating (gosh everywhere in Japan is great for dating lol), and the food was cheap and delicious compared to all the other theme parks I’ve been to!! I was especially impressed with their service – I accidentally dropped my gyoza bun on the ground as I was unwrapping it, because it was too hot. I was brushing off the dirt and going to eat it anyway, but one of the staff saw it and immediately came over and offered to switch for a new gyoza bun for me. She even came back with a box so I wouldn’t drop it because it was too hot! Definitely made my day there…
• I didn’t plan to do a kimono rental, but it turned out to be so much fun and totally worth it! I would never have done it if not for my friend’s enthusiasm, haha so I’ll have to thank her for my pretty kimono photos and the great experience of feeling “Japanese”
• Went to Nara and played with deer…they are definitely too aggressive and used to getting food whenever they wanted. They smell though, and peed/pooped EVERYWHERE.
• Schoolchildren were everywhere too! I think it’s the season for their school fieldtrips, so they went to different touristy places like Disneysea/Disneyland, Nara, Kyoto, Osaka for their trips. So lucky…I wish I got to travel to touristy places as part of school L
• We went for a traditional Japanese hotspring experience! Went to Minoo Onsen, where most of the people were elderly Japanese and the serving staff didn’t know how to speak English, so that’s how we know we were really at a traditional place that locals frequent. There was karaoke, funfair games, delicious food and massage/spa services, almost like a theme park but just for onsen. There were multiple onsen tubs with varying temperatures of hot spring pools, and an outdoor pool as well as a room temperature pool (that’s absolutely freezing coming from the hot pools) + a sauna! They provided all the needed products like shampoo, conditioner, body wash, makeup remover, facewash and collagen peeling gel for free! We discovered the power of collagen peeling gel hahaha (thank you obasan for telling us to give it a try!), and all those products were for sale outside the onsen, so it’s a great way to advertise and get people to buy these products if they liked it

Clubbing in Japan

• We went clubbing in Osaka, and learnt a lot about the clubbing culture in Japan. Turns out there are laws that restrict how late the clubs open until (at least in Kyoto and Osaka), so a lot of the clubs open at 7 or 8pm and close at 1am or 2am! This is perfect for those who want to catch the last train home/who have work the next day haha
• We also learnt that guys in Japan approach girls by grabbing their hands – they don’t do grinding the way Americans do, and they don’t do the shyly approach and chitchat method that Singaporeans use. They do a modest hand grabbing and if you don’t pull away, they start to dance with you / touch your waist and back. It’s quite interesting to see the differences between cultures, and to see that Japanese guys are really quite bold despite their usual conservativeness
• All of them asked for my Line, and I was like – we don’t use Line! (in Japanese). Because of that experience, we downloaded Line just to see what it’s all about, and now I know why it’s so popular in Asia. Again this is a repeat from my previous post, but i just have to say this again - the stickers are so much fun, and they have more features than whatsapp/wechat/fb messenger do! Amazing app hahaha
• On a sidenote, I also discovered the emoji keyboard that comes with the Japanese keyboard… (*^o^*)

Themed cafes

• Japan has a thing for themed cafes/izakayas. I had a great time going to a butler café, maid café, as well as a haunted café (part of the Lockup chain). They were definitely the best experiences I’ve had and totally worth my time and $$ hahaha
•  Other cafes include animal cafes and a ninja-themed café, Alice in Wonderland café, etc. We weren’t so interested in those, but definitely an option for others visiting Japan in the future

Food

• We took an okonomiyaki class where we learnt not just how to make okonomiyaki from scratch, but also how to make dashi stock and miso soup from scratch, how to make onigiri (both normal and grilled), as well as pickled cucumbers. It was one of the best meals I’ve ever made, and it easily tops my list as one of the best memories I had of Japan :D In that class, we learnt that there were two types of okonomiyaki – Kansai style and Hiroshima style. Kansai style is the typical okonomiyaki that we know of, whereas Hiroshima style is more like a pancake where they pile all the ingredients on top of the batter instead of having the ingredients mixed into the batter. If I ever to go Hiroshima, I’ll definitely give it a try haha. We also noticed that food in the Kansai area tends to be saltier and more saucy/flavorful, I guess people in the region just likes to have stronger flavor in their food…
• At the class, we also found out about the cooking instructor’s lifestyle. She and her husband loves to travel, so they are now running guesthouses in Kyoto while teaching cooking and renting bicycles/motorbikes, and travelling during down periods in the tourism season. It’s quite interesting how they achieved their dreams of traveling while working – guess it’s always easier to do that if you run your own business
• We also went to Kobe just to have Kobe beef for dinner – it was the most expensive meal we had in Japan, but then again it was totally worth it. We were only going to be in Kobe once in our lifetimes (maybe not), but we went straight for the most expensive grade A5 Kobe beef with the highest level of marbling 10-12, and took the set meal. It was also at a top 10 restaurant in Kobe haha, and we got to watch the chef prepare and cook all the food on the teppan right in front of us! We also got to observe Japanese business etiquette at the same time, as we were seated next to a bunch of Japanese/Korean business people. Turns out the most junior person pays for the meal if it’s company expense, and the most senior person pays if it’s personal expense. Super interesting hahaha
• Tried all kinds of Japanese food, including mentaiko tsukemen, sushi/sashimi, delicious burnt shoyu ramen, onigiri, traditional kaiseki, etc. All oishii!

This was definitely an unforgettable experience. I’ll be back again Japan, and next time I’ll be prepared with luggage space to go shopping hahaha ;)