Categories: Friendship, Japanese related, Personal life
This work week has finally ended. Wow, this week is like so busy for me. I think I had 3 interviews on one of the days along with vendor calls and work meetings. It’s quite crazy. Lol. I also visited Google office and Krislab Innovation Centre this week for work too.
I had my 1-1 with my Japanese mentor, Ryuji, and I asked him about my Japanese name. He took 15 mins to give me a crash course of Japanese language and the 3 types of writing. I showed him the Wikipedia page and we went through the 3 different characters and confirmed the meaning of my Japanese name. I also showed my Chinese characters of my name and he confirmed that it is the correct translation. Wah, not bad for my friend to tell me and it turned out to be correct. ๐ He is probably more Japanese than Taiwanese. Lol…
So yes, now my online name has a second part to it. I’m now known as Sakura Reika. Can call me Sakura or Reika haha. ๐ I have been using Sakura for more than 2 decades so it’s kind of too late to change it now so I am just going to append Reika to it. My mentor, Ryuji, told me I should use the first character on Wikipedia as that’s the most common way for Japanese natives to communicate. Looks quite difficult to write. I’m going to ask my violin teacher, Mrs Masako, to teach me how to write it before/after my violin class this Sunday. Hehe. I need to ask the equivalent for my surname too.
I told Gulabi about it and she added “Sakura Reika” in front of my real name and sent me a screenshot of it. LOL!
Categories: Friendship, Insights, Japanese related, New stuff, Personal life, Rants
I feel like recently I am blossoming more into a flower. Especially with my new Pleats Mama cherry blossom bag. Sakura is carrying her new sakura bag and dressed in sakura colours today. ๐ Well, I wore my cream pleats blouse from Uniqlo with my pink linen shorts from Muji today. Oh I picked my black merino wool cardigan from Sezane as well. So it definitely matches the bag colours that I got. You can see a photo of the bag in here. I matched it with my VCA Sweet Alhambra necklace in rose gold and it is a perfect addition to the entire outfit. ๐ I’m definitely blossoming well and beautifully! I took a selfie of my outfit of the day and all of my friends (probably biased haha) praised my outfit choice. Whee!
Okay, except for Alex who commented that I look like an auntie who is going to wet market to buy vegetables (all in Chinese). Rude! -.-
I used to be a dehydrated flower but now that I am refocusing everything on myself, I’m definitely blossoming well. A flower needs water to grow well. The same for grass too. I should always focus on myself and direct the water to myself to grow well.
That reminded me of something that a friend told me. My real Chinese name can be translated to Japanese name “Reika”. I just checked and whoa, Google translate did translate it accurately.
YJ*: Sakura actually fits you well because hua means flower
* Not going to put the name of my friend because he is listed as a public figure on Google and I don’t want my blog to appear when his students googled for his name…
Me: yessssssss
Me: not bad, you are smart
Me: your PhD has come in handy hahahahaha
YJ: also btw your Chinese name can pass as a Japanese name
Me: eh is it???
YJ: yes
YJ: rei ka
It was an old conversation but as I am blogging about blossoming more into a flower, I decided to google about “rei ka”. Apparently it means “beautiful, lovely, flower, petal”.
Perfecto lah. All these glowing up is actually inline with my name. *acts out a pretty pose* I’m vain and I’m not even going to deny it. Hahaha. ๐ If I knew my Chinese name can be translated to such a beautiful Japanese name, I would have called myself Reika instead of Sakura. Lol…
No idea why no one ever told me about “Reika” name… Not even my friends, who knew both Chinese and Japanese. I am not exactly sure how to write it in Japanese characters though and my friend didn’t type it for me. Luckily I got a Japanese mentor and I have my 1-1 meeting with him tomorrow so I will definitely ask him about it. Otherwise, I have to ask my Japanese violin teacher this Sunday during my violin class. If I like how the characters looks like, then I might add it into my online name. Haha.
On a side note, will I recommend anyone to buy Pleats Mama bag? Probably no. I already see some design and quality issues on my first day of use. To be honest, I haven’t had a bag brand which I do not complain, except Hermes. LOL. I also have complaints about my Hermes bags but Hermes after sales is always able to address every single concern I have. So no complaints about it. No wonder I have the most number of bags from this brand so far. I don’t think I ever bought so many bags from a single brand/shop before in my life…
Categories: Friendship, Lihotography, Personal life, Pictures, With my NEX
I went to Gardens by the Bay Cherry Blossom festival (“Sakura Blossom into the night”) with my friends, Alex and Jin Quan, over the weekends. We all brought our camera equipment and I even brought my new Leica Sofort 2 to pose for a particular photo which Jin Quan found that I love it a lot. Jin Quan found the concept, Alex helped me took it after I found a perfect spot for the photo. Now the photo has become my profile picture on WhatsApp. ๐
Haha, I wonder how my friend is going to recognise me when we meet at his office tomorrow when the new profile picture doesn’t show my face. Well, I have glow up quite a bit over the last few months so he better have something good to say. HAHA. If not, he can just keep quiet. LOL. ๐
I’m literally the sakura that blossom into the night… and day.
So cringing hahaha. Anyway, I’m just sharing some of the nice photos I took and posted on both of my Instagram accounts here…
Well, the outing is inspired because Alex and Jin Quan both got their new Instagram accounts that features the photos taken by them. It all started when Alex is like idling away and decided to create an Instagram account for Jin Quan. Then he renamed his account to lifeandplanes so Alex followed suit and created another account – flowersandlife9. Such bromance and even their Instagram account names are so similar. Well, I kept my usual thetreblestory and lihotography.
Categories: Fashion, Friendship, Korean related, New stuff, Shopping
I ordered another bag recently. This time it is from Pleats Mama! Actually I wanted to visit it when I was in Seoul last May and October/November. I didn’t manage to visit and didn’t get to see the pleated tote bag. I was able to try it out when Pleats Mama have a popup shop at TANGS Orchard. The quality seems pretty good and I decided to get it online – because the design I wanted is limited edition and is only available in Seoul and online.
Can’t wait to get it soon haha. I have been thinking about it for some time and was even discussing with some of my friends about it. The new Sakura is so much smarter with spending money now. Well, because I spent a lot last year in getting assets so yeah, need to save money now. ๐ Haha.
In fact, the entire discussion I had with one of my friends is like lowkey funny.
Me: Serious topic. Even more serious than other stuff. Is to decided whether should I add more clutter and spend money hahahaha. (I’m supposed to declutter)
Gulabi: (rofl emoticon x4) It’s cute but do you think this is giving value for money?
Me: Like tote bag for work. I actually got backpack for work. Then another tote bag (green) too.
Gulabi: (sends a photo of her new sunscreen and also her new manicure)
Me: Wah got flower de!!!!! [I’m referring to her new manicure]
….
Gulabi: So do you need this? It’s cute but not very cute tbh
Me: It’s never a need.
Gulabi: Yes, to celebrate spring [referring to her new manicure design]
Me: I like this reason. Going to use this reason for the bag too. Hahahaha.
Gulabi: Your mind was always set, Sakura.
Hahaha. So that’s how I convinced Gulabi that I need the new cherry blossom bag from Pleats Mama. Going to take photo of it when it arrives! I got the bag insert for the bag too. I’m excited now!
My favourite luxury jewellery brand has opened a new store at Raffles Hotel and they have a new exhibition space. Itโs quite small but the pieces on display are eye-opening. I went for their first exhibition which they mentioned is the first one in Asia. I really like the exhibition space and it has the floral feel like what I saw in the Seoul maison.
The entire exhibition space is designed by Jean Baptiste Auvray. Iโm in the era of interior design these days so definitely taking inspiration from the space.
Iโm still considering if gold finishing is worth the extra costโฆ I think a few IDs kind of think I am into gold finishing. Haha. May God bless and protect my wallet. ๐
Here are some of the pieces that I like. My favourite has got to be the bouquet of daises. I love daises! It is also especially special because it is made of platinum, yellow gold and diamonds. I have never seen a jewellery with both platinum and gold combined together. Itโs like so rare and so difficult to make.
The second favourite is the sapphire leaf. Iโm very impressed by their mystery setting. Itโs VCA specialty and I am really happy to see it in person. I also learned how it is achieved during the guided tour.
I went with Evelyn and we both dressed up for it. She asked about my dating app journey and reviewed my profile. Then she told me she will take better photos for me and asked me to remove 2 of the photos. ๐ฎ
Anyway, I did get a very nice photo that she took and edited for me so it became part of my pictures in the profile. Lol! I really need to work on my posing. Iโm just so awkward. Will probably need some time to get back my posing skills before 2018.
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