Thursday, December 8, 2011

Christmas at Philippines...

In Philippines we usually hang Star Shape symbols these symbolizes the star of Bethlehem. The Star that Guided the Three Magi on their way to the Manger where baby Jesus is born.


 
A Star in one of the Homes in Smoky Mountain 2 Tondo



Another Star At the ACCESS office in Tondo

Christmas Decorations at Enchanted Kingdom, Sta. Rosa Laguna
A large Christmas Tree At Gateway Mall Cubao

Cubao Xmas Tree

Cubao Xmas Tree

The Big Xmas Tree at Cubao, Gateway
Xmas Lights at Green Belt Makati

A Xmas Tree inside a Coffee Shop at Makati

Santa ^^
East Wood City Christmas Decor

Big Xmas Tree at Eastwood City. Libis

A big Xmas Tree at Eastwood City

Stars hanging along Eastwood Mall^^

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Giant Lantern Festival of the Philippines

This Year the Pampanga Giant Lantern Festival (Ligligan Parul) will be held on December 17, 2011 at Robinsons Starmills at City of San Fernando, Pampanga.

How to get there? Ride Buses going to Subic or Bataan. Buses going to Subic and Bataan will have a stop at Robinsons Starmills. You can Ride Bataan Transit at Fivestar Bus Terminal at Cubao along EDSA. Travel is around 1 hour because going to Pampanga from Manila you will pass along the North Luzon Expresess Way. If it is hard to get a Bus going to Subic or Bataan Try riding on Bus Going to Dagupan or Dau, This will bring you farther north. At Dau, Mabalacat ride a Jeep going to SM Pampanga, travel time from Manila to Dau is around 1.5 hours then jeepney going to SM Pampanga is around 15 minutes. Take Caution there are Two SM in Pampanga one in San Fernando which is fronting the Robinson Starmills and the other in Clark which is SM Clark. If you are a student please bring your Student ID because buses in Philippines give students' discounts in fare.



These are the pictures I took of  Giant Lantern Festival in  2009.

パンパンガの巨大な ランタン祭り

フィリピンはクリスチャン国なのでクリスマスは一番大切な時期です。
毎年12月に、フェスティバルが私の故郷であります。
フェスティバルは”リグリグガング・パロル”と呼ばれます。
ランタンの直径は5.5mぐらいです。
ランタンの中に沢山電球があります。
クリスマスソングとともに電球は瞬きます。
その大きなランタンはいろいろなデザインで、暗闇で虹色に輝きます。

Pampanga's Giant Lantern Festival

The Philippines is a Christian nation, that is why Christmas is the most important season.
Every December every year, there is a festival held in my hometowm.
The Festival is called "Ligligan parol".
The lantern's diameter is about 5.5 meters (18 Feet) .
There are lots of electric bulbs inside the lanterns.
The light bulbs blink on and off in sync with Christmas songs.
These giant lanterns features lots of different designs that glows like rainbow in the dark.




















Monday, December 5, 2011

Just my Lucky Day

This morning the weather is rainy. This is the day I will go to La Salle to take my N3 level Japanese Language Proficiency Test. Cook Rice the brown rice with my rice cooker, search for the Japanese word for it which is ご飯を炊く. Ate the nicely cooked rice with my salted egg mixed with 4 pieces tomatoes and 1 cheese hotdog I placed in the rice cooker as I cooked the rice, Well as the rice cooker cooks the rice. I felt maybe this will be my lucky day.  While the rain is pouring I went to go to Jollibee just outside Eastwood City to have a sip of coffee while waiting for my office mates to go to La Salle.

Black Coffee, no sugar and cream


My office mate brought his car, so I got a free ride to go to my exam venue, I still think I am lucky.
At La Salle, the exam venue, I never felt any nervousness even during the exam, I believe in the saying "Come What May"  In Japanese it is "何とかなるさ~ Nan toka naru sa" and in Tagalog " Bahala na si Batman." The reason I am prepare to accept the consequence of my action, I never placed an ample time to review my Japanese Skill. How I was surprised the first part of the exam I think I mostly got it, not bad, then on the second part well I came to realized it was more difficult than last year but somehow manage to produce some answers , the third part which is listening, I think I did well. So until the end of the exam I felt maybe it is my lucky day just hoping for a nice result next year. During the exam I contemplate, why do I study Japanese? I am taking the exam because with certification equates an increase in allowance? Well I am studying Japanese to talk with my Japanese friends in to join in instant conversations and arguments, but recently It is not a problem because all of my friends are genius they can also speak English and Tagalog at the same time so no language barrier existing. My contemplation is I have to learn the language because it's been 6 years and I am still feeling a beginner in conversation.

After the exam  I saw a friend who also took JLPT but with different level, higher than me. He never been to Japan only step on it during the terminating flight in Narita going to Tokyo. He study diligently I admire him because I think he is better than me now. So my contemplation again cross my mind, I have to improve.

We went to Little Tokyo to eat. It was a nice conversation between us so we continued our talking to a coffee shop in Makati.


Manila Rock,,, coffee with Bailey's



Many topics were talked about, from War, Economics, Politics, Religion, Business and many more.  The rain is still pouring  we bid goodbye around 10 PM, walked around Green Belt. Green Belt will be one of the places I will show my friends if they ever visit my beloved country Philippines. This is Christmas month so many decoration. I decided to get my camera and took pictures. Some how I tried to take pictures but the output were bad, almost 8 times take, still bad. I wonder why maybe something is wrong, I stayed on that spot for too long.


After taking some pictures, We rode on a Cab, me and one friend also an office mate. I suddenly got an urge to look for my wallet in my sling bag :(, Yabai!!!!!!!!!!! it was nowhere in sight. The taxi just ran a couple of kilometers so we ask it again to go back to the coffee shop where we've been.I get off and search, Sorry no wallet there, then I ran towards another coffee shop where I use toilet break to Pee. Waah my wallet was nowhere in sight. I went back to the taxi but not that worried, just irritated to myself for being so clumsy. It was my 2nd time to loose that wallet. First was last year when somebody stole it, dump it in the trash bin, someone called me to retrieve it because they found one calling card inside it. Then today I drop it, but no more calling card. I hope people will try to contact me using Facebook because I did not left any contact details inside my wallet.  Good thing I am still calm, Instead of going home directly I decided to proceed to my second home , where I spent almost my waking hours ( The office :P ) I kept all my records in my desk. I dialed the phone to cancel all of my cards and  because last year one of my stolen cards were illegally swiped :(.  Good thing they are still no unauthorized usage, I got all my cards canceled. Then I went home. :P

December 4, 2011 the day I relearned I will never bring all my cards with me. I hope in exchange of this situation something good will happen, like passing the JLPT for example. ^^, Merry Christmas to the one who found my wallet. I hope that cursed wallet be returned to me again because of the government ID's  I need to reprocessed again . Well, welcome 2012. "BAHALA NA SI BATMAN"

Sunday, December 4, 2011

It's time to pass it on

I just woke up from a very strange dream.

I am one of the three great artist, yet us three were not chosen to represent the country in an international contest.
It has been three years we keep on proving our worth yet the organizers seems to be blind on our potential.
The organizers chosen 3 kids who hardly do not have experience in the field.
One of my comrades keeps on telling sarcastically that all of the 3 kids lacks experience like they never traveled and what they lack experience on the things to draw. He was questioning  if the kids are really ready, what if they were asked to draw certain monuments, how can they draw it if they have not seen it. One kid told he lacks experience in travel so he must read books and thank my other comrade for the advise he seems to be giving, although my comrade was actually complaining. Since my comrade was thanked by the kid, all the people thought he was actually giving advise for the children's sake. Because of this they were able to create a poster, adding the symbol of the us three artist that we are in support of the kids who will be representing the country. Then one of my comrade felt sorry he suddenly confessed that for three years the kids are always writing to him to coach them yet he did not reply because of the bitterness he got for not being selected.

So I woke up, then begun to write this on my blog.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Jomalig Island

One of the Beach of Jomalig

Philippines has 7,107 islands. I am fortunate enough to reach one of the furthest island by hitching on a Cessna plane piloted by my friends.

Philippine Map Posted at the Wall of ATO Jomalig



From Clark, Pampanga I rode a Cessna  plane piloted by my two Japanese friends flying to Jomalig an island near Polilio Islands group . They keep on telling me that place before, I am fortunate enough to be able to see the place and take pictures of it.


Our Navigators ^^

We left Clark around 10 am then landed on Jomalig around 12 noon. We are four inside the small plane. 2 Pilots and 2 passengers. I think we flown slowly because of our weight I have to really lessen my weight ^^. We are all big in terms of body mass ^^,

I am the only Filipino on board, three of them are Japanese, we all shared the same AWE as we view the beautiful island.

An Island in Polilio

 
High about the sky, you can see the blue sea, and many corral reefs, not just patches but big island shapes underneath the waves, no wonder the color of the sand is different, orange.

We landed on a grass airstrip were cows, goats and horses grazes. As we touch down I look at the faces of the animals they seem surprised like the ones I saw in TV featuring Savannah animals when they saw planes passing by.

We were greeted by an old Auntie who works in the ATO (Air Transportation Office) and introduced us to Tatay..., I forgot the name ( Maybe Randy) I think he is the husband of the Auntie working at ATO.

I had the impression that there is only few happenings on that place, I happen to have a glimpsed of their bulletin board. We arrived there Nov 2011, but their latest post was around 2009.

Auntie called Kuya to show us the beach.. We rode a tricycle use to carry, pigs, cattle and people ^^,


  
Kuya send us to the beach, too bad the weather was rainy that is why I was not able to take many pictures. I swam and enjoyed the view ^^.

JOMALIG オニン I tried to write the date but the waves caught my writing :(



The Beach
The Fishing Boat Docking


Us ^^



Like many  fishing villages in the Philippines you will see houses near the seashore. Many fishing boats are also seen dock at the beach. The Pacific Ocean is clear blue, touching the orange shore of Jomalig.

I'm saddened by the way local people treat the area. They place their garbage on the shore. I tried to talked to Tatay regarding this situation and told him that they should be taking care of their area. I tried to explained to him about eco tourism. If the place is beautiful tourist will go and it will generated income to local people. I shared to him my experience at Dasol, Pangasinan,  where I stayed for three days and two nights. We did a homestay at the local fisherman house. We gave money to our host like a rental fee for using a portion of their place and for feeding us. I told tatay that the people in Dasol, only has a little patch of beach front yet the people there take part on preserving its beauty, more of Dasol, Pangasinan on next post. Back to tatay, all I can do is to give my view and hoping I might influence a little.



Open area Garbage on the Beach

Tatay also showed us another part of the Island, this time the residents are far from the beach line. Going there is an adventure in itself. We traveled on very narrow dirt road while the rain is pouring. Since the road is not cemented there are times we need to push the tricycle :P
We were like children soaking in the rain, riding a tricycle and avoiding the vegetation that we run on too.  The final destination of beach with orange sand but this time no houses in site which are very near the beach, so the beach is clean ^^,

The road less traveled




Century Old Balete Tree







Jomalig can be reached by boat too. From Atimonan Port  according to Tatay it takes 7 hours travel, If you ride from Real Quezon it will only take you 5 hours.