EVACOMICS BLOG

Luckily the clinic opposite me opens on alternate Saturday mornings... xxx Sorry I disappeared for a week to be with my family of 6 (elderly parents, 3 young siblings a 3-yr old nephew that kept on throwing tantrums). Must be the Thursday heavy downpour that caused me to begin symptoms of cold, because my feet remained soaked throughout the day. But I continued to go on a Sunflower day tour with a friend and well, I didn't expect the weather to turn cold... so I fell very ill during the trip. I became better on Saturday but my condition worsened the next day because my nose kept on producing deep yellow um..."substance", which made my throat even more painful and difficult to sleep. I had to see a doctor in the end orz... It will take me a while to catch up with everything, but thank you very much for your encouragement and support! ^^♥

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September's theme is "Tsukimi", literally meaning moon viewing. During mid-autumn (sometime in September), the moon would be its roundest and Japanese will eat dango (sweet rice dumpling) while admiring the moon. In the original Chinese culture, we would eat mooncakes instead. Taiwanese, on the other hand, prefer to barbecue. With calendar: 320×480 , 1024×768 , 1280×800 , 1280×1024 , 1440×900 , 1920×1080 , 2560×1440 Without calendar: 320×480 , 1024×768 , 1280×800 , 1280×1024 , 1440×900 , 1920×1080 , 2560×1440 Edit: My wallpaper is featured with other great designs again at Smashing Magazine! Check them out here!

I didn't know that Waseda University was so rich to purchase a property at Karuizawa, a popular summer retreat that is around 2.5 hours car drive away from Tokyo. Temperatures there were around 16-26 degrees whereas Tokyo was around 28-35 degrees. The guys who came here last year complained about the dirty shower rooms so they had to go to spa every night. But luckily for us, they just opened two new buildings so everything was clean and new. This was so much better than staying in those youth houses that my scholarship organization had arranged...  The only complain that I had was the shower room's location, which was at the cafeteria building and not in our dorm building (duh?). The guys had 5 shower cubicles but girls only had 2 (duh duh???). My sensei joked that maybe Waseda has a lot of guys...that shower for a long time...

Elderly in Japan and Singapore are very different! 日本語バージョン：

People who read " Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps " will know that when a woman starts to whine about her problems, she doesn't need solutions. She just need someone to agree with her and support her (sorry guys, you won't understand). After posting this comic on my Facebook page, I'd been flooded with so many suggestions from readers telling me what to do and many even assured me that if I do exactly what they said, I could soar to the skies! (if it's that easy I think there'll be no more poor artists in this world!!!) Well let me look back into the instances when I did follow people's suggestions: ------------------------------------ Suggestion (2007): Why don't you open a blog at wretch.cc? (a famous blogging platform in Taiwan) There are many artists drawing about their lives there. Some got so popular that publishers signed contracts with them!!! Action: Naively opened a Chinese comic blog and persevered for 3

Based on friend's working experience in Japan, but exaggerated (he didn't play games in office :P ). While it's normal to work overtime till 7-8pm in Singapore, it's normal to work overtime till 11pm-1am in Tokyo... 日本語バージョン：

Photos of Singapore food flooded my Facebook wall last week because my school held a study trip to Singapore. So thanks to my friends, I developed a craving for our famous chicken rice so I decided to gather a few friends, who had studied in Singapore before, for a chicken rice lunch at Harajuku. But alas, we didn't know that even restaurants could close for the Obon Festival (around 15th Aug)!!! Japanese will go back to their hometown during Obon, something like hungry ghost festival of Singapore, where we go to our ancestor's grave to clean it up. Strange that all Japanese knows this but it's not on the calendar at all! (My university campus is closed for 1 week so I had to go somewhere unless I want to stay at home to meditate for a week).

That's why I only went to Comiket once ! 日本語バージョン：

Off to see Japanese baseball again but this time, it is a match between professional teams and not university players like last time .

 THEY ARE HUGE IN JAPAN!!! With that said, excuse me, I'm going to eat some snacks :P 日本語バージョン：

With calendar:  1024×768 ,  1280×800 ,  1280×1024 ,  1440×900 ,  1920×1080 ,  2560×1440 Without calendar:  1024×768 ,  1280×800 ,  1280×1024 ,  1440×900 ,  1920×1080 ,  2560×1440 This month's theme is the Hanabi (Fireworks) Festival that is held all over in Japan from late July till early August! Edit: My wallpaper is selected again at Smashing Magazine !

Actually... I prefer everybody to start first :P 今回日本語バージョンを書いてみた...

I'm very impressed that the Japanese delivery man or repair man always come on time, well, most of the time! Really good service in Japan! 中文版請點（更多）→

Well you'd heard of guys going to maid cafe and couples going to maid cafe, so I thought I'd write something special, like... "two old maids going to a maid cafe" instead... ...

During summer, many pharmacies and shops would start to sell UV-cut products like leggings, gloves, hats, stoles and even portable fans and cooling sprays. I tried their UV-cut cool leggings to cover my ugly turnips but alas, I still feel HOT! 中文版請點（更多）→

My friend and I visited a Tanabata Festival at Kanagawa prefecture to experience how Japanese celebrate this festival on 7th July (Sun). Chinese don't really celebrate this even though it originated from a Chinese myth, so I was curious how Japanese adapted this festival into their own. This place was quite far, a 100min ride from Shinjuku area.

Especially pandas, their white fur is hard to maintain... 中文版請點（更多）→

Actually, I wrote the previous post to document my journey towards my dream in case I forget the tiny details in the future. I never expected my readers to be interested to read the lengthy post and feedback. Yes, you all surprised me, so a big THANK YOU to you all! ❤     (≧ε≦  )  And yes, I do take down all the feedback to plan out my first comic book to be published in 2013 or 2014! However, as you know, I'm doing all work myself so it will take some time to develop Evacomics more. But here's what to expect this week: Mon: Weekly comic update (not cultural comparison this time, taking a short break from comparing) Tue: Tanabata Festival blog article! *Picture above is a print out for another comic competition that I submitted last month, even though the chances of winning is near zero. I just can't stop giving up... damn.

One of my professors recommended me to work for a company that he know well so he said that I should do a media kit to pitch my work. Embarrassed that I don't know what is a media kit, I quietly returned home to google about it. To my amazement, it is a booklet (sometimes with CD-rom) that explains what the company or individual do, including profile, reader demographics, work samples, etc. Basically the media kit/press kit helps the individual or company to pitch their services to another business (B2B). It's strange that art and design schools didn't teach this and I had to know this from a business school professor. I know the best software to design a booklet is Adobe InDesign, but I'd never use it before and I think it's about time I learn how to use it. So I searched youtube for a tutorial and picked it up within 30mins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaY3jWktT0w .Thanks Terry White and Youtube! So I rushed this booklet out within a week and printed it o

We all love to queue for food, well...sort of. 中文版請點（更多）→

320×480 , 1024×768 , 1280×800 , 1280×1024 , 1440×900 , 1920×1080 , 2560×1440 Special request: 1366x768 This month's desktop wallpaper features the Japanese Tanabata festival that is usually celebrated on 7th July! Edit: My wallpaper is selected again at Smashing Magazine !

In Japan, smoking seats are placed either right next to non-smoking seats or placed at another floor, which is still quite bad for non-smokers like me because the air gets ventilated (like duh?). 有些日本的吸煙區就在禁煙區的隔壁，真的覺得沒什麼分別=_=;;

Went to Toshima Park within Tokyo on 17th June (Monday) because of the rare clear weather from the rainy season!

Is it just me that the nights in Japan are too quiet? No music, no quarrels, no...love making...? 中文版請點（更多）→

I really appreciate the media freedom in other countries, at least they will not arrest a comic creator, nor insist licenses be obtained if you are a news website. We rank very low in the Press Freedom Index as well. For further reading: Wallstreet Journal:  Singapore Probes Cartoonist for Alleged Racial Insensitivity  *Actually he uses a software to make his comics, so I prefer to say that he is a comic maker/creator instead of a cartoonist or cartoon artist. BBC:  New regulations hit Singapore's online press 中文版請點（更多）→

Japan has an amazing number of products that just look great to spur those impulsive purchases! 中文版請點（更多）→

320×480 , 1024×768 , 1280×800 , 1280×1024 , 1440×900 , 1920×1080 , 2560×1440 It's going to be rainy season in Japan! This is my first time making wallpapers for my fans, do let me know what you think or if you want other resolutions! Update: My wallpaper is also featured in the Smashing Magazine calendar wallpaper collection!

Went to do some sightseeing to see spring flowers for my first and last time on 15th June at Hitachi Seaside Park in Ibaraki prefecture and Ashikaga Flower Park in Tochigi prefecture.

It's really challenging to apply for a job in Japan, especially to big corporations that only recruit once a year in big quantities and putting all candidates through written tests and countless interviews. Perhaps the reason is because companies in Japan cannot fire some one easily, so great caution must be exercised in order to get the best employees. The bad economy might also be another reason for having so many applicants applying for one job, so many elimination rounds had to be planted to narrow down the numbers. After stressing their potential employees, one can expect to stay there for life till retirement, that is unless...the company goes bankrupt... *I had witnessed someone who is not a good team player been offered many jobs, but someone who is capable and a team player were refused several times. This makes me highly doubtful whether or not filtering candidates through undifferentiated procedures result in positive aspects of the character not shown and thus hirin

I guess I am used to the Singaporean way of finding a job only after graduation and not get stressed out like my friends for a year, fighting for test slots and waiting for phone calls. 中文版請點（更多）→

This is called sakura soft cream replacing cloudy Mt. Fuji. I finally got to go up as I waited for weeks recovering from a bad cold, waiting for friend's schedule, gambling the weather and fighting for the bus tickets. But everything didn't work out so I eventually travelled up by myself on Monday (13th).

I think I don't have to draw so well after all! 中文版請點（更多）→

My friend had a last minute extra ticket so that's how I landed up watching the Opening Day of Sumo season in Tokyo. The ticket includes entry from 8.30am to see trainees but it would be kind of boring so we arrived around 2pm to see the  Juryo Division Ring Entering Ceremony (professional sumo newbies).

Facebook is now getting very desperate to make Page owners pay. First it removed the "Notifications"( the most useful feature when we check the page activity) with "Boost Post" links to suggest that we pay to get more reach. Next, it replaces the "New Likes" (where we can see who liked our page) with "Get More Likes" to make us pay for ads. Probably thats why our posts are not showing up well on News Feed and we're seeing more sponsored ads instead. This is truly worrying, will Facebook become flooded with so much ads that people begin to look for a better place? Like Google Plus? Anyway you can find me at both places now ;) https://www.facebook.com/evacomics https://plus.google.com/105397642114630854321

While I do appreciate Japanese queuing up, there are always too many people at the museums, especially seniors! Moreover, they have lots of time and money to rent the audio guides, so they tend to stand in front of the painting for a very very long time. Since then, I stopped going to famous artist exhibitions in Tokyo because I don't want to pay 700-1000yen to just see the heads of portraits. 中文版請點（更多）→

I am a small Snoopy fan so I became very interested in this exhibition. The exhibition showcased artwork in traditional Japanese style or craftsmanship inspired by Snoopy. They included marvellous wooden sculptures, lacquerware, kimono motif, paintings, etc. It was awesome but no pictures allowed as usual!

Yokohama holds an International Parade every 3rd May to celebrate its port opening. The whole parade lasts for 4-5 hours so I was only there for an hour to capture some photos.

Google prompted me to link my blog and my Google Plus account a week ago so I tried it out and seemed to work nicely. However I feel uneasy linking with a personal account so I went to create a page account: https://plus.google.com/105397642114630854321/ However, unless I have 20,000 followers, I wouldn't be able to choose my own vanity url like plus.google.com/evacomics. Ok, that is tough.  Google has been working hard to improve the graphics and integrating it with other services like Youtube and Blogger to gain an edge over Facebook. However do people login to their account as frequently as Facebook? I am not sure.

First time to see baseball match on Sunday after staying in Tokyo for 3 years! Our trip was accompanied by two Japanese friends who loves baseball and one is still playing actively in his own prefecture.

This post has nothing to do with Japan, except that I have the tendency to fall sick during long Japanese holidays like year end and golden week. So with weak Japanese medicine not working, and even with kiwis and lemon honey drink all failing, I resorted to my friend's advice: coke and ginger . It sounded unusual so I googled and found the recipe. Amazingly, many people swear that it works wonder to cure their coughs and sore throats, so I decided to try out of desperation because I had already been coughing for four days and four nights. Preparation: Put a can of coke (around 350ml) and sliced ginger into a pot and bring to boil, simmer for 10 mins. You can either add lemon when it was simmering or squeezed lemon juice after you pour into your mug. *I couldn't get old ginger from my Japanese supermarket so I used young ginger that was not so spicy. Verdict: I couldn't believe it, but it tasted rather good! Even my friend who disliked ginger said this remedy taste

Golden Week is when four Japanese festivals and weekends form a continuous long national holiday. This year is divided into the first half (27~29/4) and second half (3~6/5), so a lot of Japanese chose domestic travel over overseas travel. For me, I'd stayed at home to recuperate from my cough that had persisted for five days. Sadly, I have a tendency to fall sick whenever Japan has a long holiday season, like new year, when all clinics are closed... so iSleep. 中文版請點（更多）→

I will definitely miss the Japanese toilets when I go to other countries. It's said that bidets are more environmentally friendly than using toilet paper , but I'm still used to the old way~ 中文版請點（更多）→

Gift Money Preparation Preparing for a Japanese wedding can be quite challenging. The notes have to be brand new by changing at a bank, the facing of the notes into the envelope has to be proper and the way to fold has to be according to occasion. It is so complex that you need to refer to the attached instructions of the envelope to make sure. Even the number of notes has to be an odd number, symbolically meaning that the couple cannot be divided. The "market price" for women seems to be at least 30,000yen and guys at 40,000yen (10,000yen note x3 + 5,000yen note x2). This depends on the seniority of the attendee and the location of the ceremony. Women usually pay less because we have to buy a nice dress or pay for professional make-up and hairdo. But all these didn't deter my excitement in attending my friend's wedding reception last year on 13th Oct 2012!!!

I must say... Japanese girls really love to wear high heels or platform shoes. It's always amazing how well they could balance themselves on them. 在澀谷的一天～真是大開眼界... ... ...日本女生真的超愛高跟！

I guess we're born to complain! On the other hand, I notice that Japanese seldom complain openly about terrible food or service. Instead, they quietly go online somewhere to vent their frustration. 中文版請點（更多）→

My nose and eyes were becoming allergic to pollen at the beginning of March, so I did what a normal Japanese would, go shop for some innovative Japanese products that deals with the problem. For example, the facial spray above claimed that its substance will magically trap pollen around you. At 1680yen, I would rather not risk having any breakouts.

Some of us already knew it wasn't a good move for our government to "invest" so much money for Lucas to setup in Singapore. What they setup here is just another factory that can be easily relocated or closed down, like what is happening now. Although, many argued that it was a good experience to let Singaporean talents be exposed to world-class studio and work ethics, but I believe that Lucas would eventually close down its Singapore operations sooner or later, and relocate to a more attractive city like Hong Kong or Seoul once incentives for them runs out. Unfortunately, I didn't expect that they would be bought by Disney and their game division to be shut down completely. The major flaw of this "investment" is that there is no original title developed in Singapore nor by Singaporeans. The IP, which is the most valuable, eventually do not belong to us. IP generation is not easy but I believe it can be developed from small ideas, or seed projects that do

No make up required, because the mask will cover it  (￣∀￣)   中文版請點（更多）→