Lifestyle: Jim Whitaker's Rebirth

Lifestyle: Jim Whitaker's Rebirth

By: Tiffy

A bit of good news everyone: I passed my entrance examination of the Graduate Program in Sustainability Science. Starting next year April, I will now officially be a graduate school student. In the meantime, I'm doing the literature review of my research. My professor has thankfully been really supportive and has been giving me good advice. 

Student life shouldn't all be about reading and studying, however, lest I lose my mind. So recently I applied and was selected to be one of the CoFesta Student Ambassadors. CoFesta is a Japanese contents industry festival where events are connected with the different industries like games, animation, manga, characters, broadcast, music, and film. 

Aside from the Grand Ceremony, I also get invited to events related to the industry. 

Last night, I attended the US-Japan Film Academy Talk and Screening Event held in Roppongi Academyhills which was really cool because we got to attend it for free and registered at the press table.

It was a screening of Rebirth, directed by Jim Whitaker. Rebirth is a documentary about the people affected by the 911 tragedy.

Rebirth

Jim Whitaker talking about how he got into the film industry 

Also there was Rachel Gandin Mark, a former student of USC School of Cinematic Arts, who talked some more about the film industry and the pathways you can take if you want to be a certain type of film major.

The audience were also able to ask Jim Whitaker questions about his career and his film.

Six months before 911, Jim Whitaker's mother passed away. And this grief was part of the impetus of doing this documentary. 

When he was considering the people to include in the film, he looked into the firefighters, people who lost someone, people who were directly affected, and so on. When he approached them, he initially told them that he intends to interview them once a year for 10 years. After the 4th and 5th year, however, he realized that there was significant changes in his subjects' lives: one of the subjects who lost her fiance got married, the boy who lost his mother graduated, and so on. So that was when he knew that he was nearing the end. 

According to Whitaker, it wasn't easy deciding the final subjects: a subject pulled out during the initial interviews, some people that he contacted stopped responding to his calls, he had to cut out some people from the final film...

While filming, the final subjects weren't allowed to see the footage of their interviews until the final product so as not to affect how they act during interviews. 

It is a very emotional film and a lot of us in the audience were sniffling as we listened to what the people in the documentary had to say. 

 CoFesta Student Ambassadors with Jim Whitaker

Tiffy: Picnic at Odaiba

Remember back in August 2009 when Gundam was in Odaiba, an artificial island in Tokyo Bay? 

Back then, my friends and I were pretty lucky to be able to see it before they took it down. But guess what? They put it back up again, this time in DiverCity Tokyo, a new shopping mall. 

The rainbow bridge looks amazing.

I went back to Odaiba this time with my new friends--schoolmates from the University of Tokyo. This time, however, we didn't get to see the Gundam. 

Spot the lady in the wedding kimono under the replica of the Statue of Liberty.

Coca Cola Store at Aqua City Odaiba

I was supposed to buy something for Bong but didn't know which one and I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to give it to him anyway this year! Sorry buddy. 

 

We also saw this street performer who would change his position if you changed the position of the doll in front of him. My friend was mischievous and he made both of the doll's legs extend out in front of it. No worries--I put it back in a comfy position before we left. And one of my friends left some change for him. He gave us a thumbs up when we left. 

The beach in Odaiba

We then bought some food from the convenience store--cheapskates that we are

And had a picnic in a hill with an awesome view of the beach

Tiffy in Japan: Tokyo DisneySea

Tokyo DisneySea
October 27, 2011
Tiffy in Japan

Now I've always wanted to go to Disneyland since I was a little girl watching the Disney channel. I don't know why: is it fun?

Last year, I was supposed to go to Disneyland but ended up in Sanrio Puroland instead. This year, I still didn't end up in Tokyo Disneyland but I ended up in Tokyo DisneySea. When we were trying to decide where to go, my boyfriend asked his friends which one's a better place to go to and they said that DisneySea is more romantic while Disneyland is more family-oriented.

That, and one of my friends playfully warned me about the Disneyland curse. She said that couples who go to Disneyland break up because of the long lines--they run out of things to talk about. She wasn't sure if that was only during summer or if it happens all throughout the year. The existence of this curse was echoed by my boyfriend's friend when I asked him if it were true.

So off we went to Tokyo DisneySea.

Thank you, boyfriend's dad, for the tickets! 

We were there a few minutes before it opened and already, there was a long line. I was told that the line would be much much much longer had it been a weekend and had it been Disneyland. 

Trying to figure out where to go to first.

In DisneySea, as with Disneyland, there are two lines: the normal one and the fast pass one. So usually what is done is, you go to a ride you want to go to (that probably has a long line), go to the fast pass ticket booth beside it, put your ticket beneath the scanner and let it read the bar code and then get a fast pass ticket for the ride a couple of hours after you get the fast pass ticket. 

For example, we got a fast pass for Journey to the Center of the Earth at 10 AM and we can go through the fast pass lane at 11:15 AM--going ahead of everyone else lined up in the normal lane. I didn't know all this until I was already there to which my boyfriend asked, "Why didn't you check it out online before we got here?!"

We did have breakfast before we got here but already I wanted something to eat. There are various stalls all around and it's easy to find in the map. 

We got the Black Pepper Pork Rib (¥420, Php 231) and Mickey Churro (Maple) (¥300, Php 165) and coffee (¥270, Php 149). They have different-flavored churros at different areas. We also had the pumpkin-flavored one. There are also different-flavored popcorn (we had chocolate and strawberry, although he wanted to have the milktea one--I tried milktea ice cream in Korea and I wasn't impressed).

Black Pepper Pork Rib

Mickey Churro

Pocahontas--her face was pretty scary since it seemed frozen that way.

Shinjuku: Blue Lotus

Shinjuku: Blue Lotus
Tokyo, Japan
A review by Tiffy

I just got back from Tokyo a couple of weeks ago and jumped right into trying to enroll for classes at UP Diliman. For those of you who study there, you'd understand the horror. Going to the different buildings in the awful heat! Ack.

I was invited to the final interviews for Uniqlo in Tokyo, Japan a couple of weeks ago. It was 9-days of learning about Uniqlo, being an intern, and just being awesome.

And even though I didn't get the job offer, I was pretty happy about being able to go there (for free!) and meet all the awesome people from Ateneo (I was the only one from UP during that batch), Singapore, and Hong Kong.

We always get free food, too!

We had lunch during the 3rd day at the Shinjuku Takashimaya store at a Thai restaurant, Blue Lotus.

Yam Woonsen ヤム・ウンセン (Php 535, US$ 12.25)

It was spicy and I loved it.

Photo Credit: Lloyd Besin 

Tiffy in Japan: Sanrio Puroland

Sanrio Puroland
December 25, 2010
Tiffy in Japan

When I was in Japan last year, I didn't really get to enjoy Christmas since I was waitressing at the sushi restaurant I part-timed for the whole holiday season. So it's no surprise that Christmas in Japan doesn't really bring a lot of fond memories.

This year, however, I was determined to change it. I headed to Tokyo with my boyfriend to initially visit Tokyo Disneyland. But since it's the holiday season, the number of people in Disneyland would be so overwhelming that we (actually, I) opted to go to Sanrio Puroland.

I've been a fan of Hello Kitty since I worked as a part-time content support staff for sanriotown.com. It's no surprise, really, that I would go there.

We reached Tokyo from Nagoya at around 11 am. And on that day, if you get in after 3 pm, you only have to pay ¥1000 if you show them the coupon you got on their website (print it out or just go to their website via your phone's browser).

I got in and saw this adorable Hello Kitty waffle and decided I wanna have one! So yes, I ate Hello Kitty in Sanrio Puroland, some meters away from Hello Kitty's house.

It was a toss between Cinnamoroll and Hello Kitty so of course...

I chose the kitty.

 
A lot of people keep telling me that they want to go to Japan but that it's too expensive. It is expensive. But if you plan your trip really well, it's not as unimaginable as you might think.

Yes, the subway is expensive. But you might want to try walking around Tokyo. It's not a big city and just walking around is a tourist-y thing to do in itself.

As for accommodations? There are internet/manga cafes where you can stay at for 8-12 hours. It will only cost you around ¥1500 for 8 hours, I believe. You have your own cubicle with a couch--and, depending on the internet cafe you end up in, they might even have shower rooms where you can take a shower (I think they even provide towels).

Planning that next trip? Enjoy!