It's Finally Here!

What's here? My TP enrolment package that is! It's about time, I have seen almost everybody get their package since 2 weeks ago. But whatever, the most important thing is it arrived and, my god there's lots of forms to fill in + going for medical checkup. I am also pondering whether to buy my notebook from the upcoming IT Show in March or to wait until April for the TP notebook fair. Well, at least it keeps me busy, rather than to rot at home doing nothing but stare at the computer/TV screen.

So last saturday, I went to the Singapore flyer hoping to get free tickets. The flyer opens at 8.30am and I arrived at 7am hoping not to end up at the back of a very long queue later on. But I was wrong, even at 7am, there is THOUSANDS of people queueing, it made 2 loops around the flyer! There were only 2009 tickets avavailable. My mum was still so naive as to believe that we will get tickets if we tried to queue. My dad and I were not so naive and decided to walk off for breakfast while my mum had no choice and left with a grumpy face =.="

Met Justina at the National Library later for our study session. I was having a bad cough that day and at 1 moment, I almost vomited while coughing, luckily I did not vomit out my light breakfast on the fabric sofa. =) She was doing H2 maths, what about me? Haha, I was being such an uncle by taking almost 2 hours to read finish The Straits Times! I love the ST on saturday, the most interesting edition of the week, partly because "Life" has car reviews, but mostly it is usually the thickest edition of the week.

She's really studying leh! I thought she would fall asleep (which she admitted later on, but I was so engrossed in my uncle newspaper, I did not notice =.=")After spending 3hrs + at the Library, Justina introduced me to her new friend from SRJC, his name is Faid and he's a friendly and fun guy to talk with. We instantly clicked and talk like we were long time friends. They went to buy their horribly expensive graphic calculator from Bras Basah and visted Melanie at her workplace later on. I think we got Mel into trouble as her boss ANNOUNCED into the PA SYSTEM requesting her to meet him the moment we talked to her. Poor Mel! Hope you are alright with ur boss.

Drum lessons for Justina was next and Faid and me spent the next hour walking around Funan so that I could research on laptops for my poly. He told me that his acer screen cracked (so did my dad's). This is good enough reason not to buy acer anymore.

When that aunty finished her drum lessons, we went to Dhoby Gaught MRT to meet that Diva, he took a long time to arrive and so we 'considerately' camped at a corner of the busy linkway interchange.

Haha, My new friend, Faid!Went to Justina's house later while Faid took the bus to his home at Punggol. Diva brought along his acer netbook. I must say the pink is one of the better shade of pinks around, I thought it was the barbie kind of pink. The laggy Intel Atom proccessor was quite irritating but we still managed to take some spasm pics on the built in webcam. After being distracted by the camera, those 2 JC peeps went on to study while I did a different sort of studying. What kind of studying did I do? Using power ranger's street directory, I found out that Chong Pang wasn't in Serrangoon and I mixed it up with Chomp Chomp. How noob!

Just then, somebody I could not recgonise opened the door. I was about to shout 'intruder' but then, I took a closer look at the man with spectacles dressed in formal clothes, it was Power Ranger! I never knew he could look this formal, I almost could not recgonise him. Well, clothes does change a person's image I guess!

Good Scooby, that fat orange refused to meet 'strangers' as usual. We weren't exactly strangers right?Our original plan for dinner was to da bao mac, but power ranger told us that Just's ah ma knew we were coming and cooked fried rice for us! The fried rice was delicious, Diva took 4 large servings! There was so much fried rice!

Emo cheers!Aunty! Can cook faster or not?To 'enhance' the taste of the rice, we added Just's great grandma incredibly spicy chilli sauce and some pepper. Yummy!Some sapsm pics!The holy white Diva!So what made the 'holy bright diva' effect? My long lost attachable camera flash which can be used together with my camera phone.
Pizza documentary is on TV (Travel & Living) now, its making me so hungry now, gonna stuff myself with something, bye!

I Want Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream!

Yes I really doooo!!! I planned on having it after O levels finished, it was postponed becoz I thot it was not worth the $$, postpone till now when I finally tasted my 1st Ben & Jerry (B&J) ice cream (using my own $$) this year. Will talk more about B&J later.

So where do I start...? Ah yes! I met Justina and Diva last Friday at Kovan since it was near Justina's school. Diva was hopelessly late as he was coming from YJC which, by car is quite near, but by train it is an hr's ride. Contrary to my belief, Diva wasnt that bad in navigation at all. He took the shorter route by alighting at Toa Payoh and then take bus 153 to Kovan. I wonder if he took some tips from Varun o.0 Bought a bottle of Nutella as a surprise for Justina.

While waiting for that Diva, me and just walked almost the entire Kovan central, we even walked to Justina's pri sch which is nearby only to be chased out by the security guard =.=" Finally Diva arrived and I was quite shocked when I saw him, he did say he lost 6KG but I did not expect him to change in terms of size. But to my surpirse, he DID slim down abit! But after our up sized mac lunch, he would have gained back at least half of what he lost :)

Bused to SRJC coz Justina had *cannot be revealed yet* CCA in the aftnoon. SRJC was quite nice, we spent almost 3 hrs waiting for Just to complete her CCA =.=". Meanwhile, me and Diva were treated by Just's grandmother who was working there as a cafe vendor. She treated both of us pizzas and some mango ice blended drink. She's so nice! After Just came back, I revealed the Nutella and all of us started dipping into it. Justina treated it as a Valentines gift! Met Dayana later as she just finished band practice at SRJC and we saw some picture of a teacher that looks like Hai En. hahaha. Took the train to funan where justina needs to buy some music stuffs and it was sayonara! Valentines Day! Spent the day with the same people + Varun. I had free tickets for the fann wong movie 'The Wedding Game' which was incredibly boring (this was my 2nd time watching). Diva and me slept during parts of the movie while Justina did not. I'm not sure abt Varun. Before the movie, we bought 3 packs of chips and bottled drinks (to be smuggled into the movies).

Then while queueing to pay up at NTUC, this lady infront of us started talking crap to us. She was so RANDOM! I do admit her english is very good. But I'm not sure why she was worried (and I quote) that "the govt would inject something in our asses without our knowledge". I know! Its random right? I have no idea what she was talking about and everyone queueing around us was staring at our direction, how embarassing. She continued to blah blah blah and only Varun kept nodding his head. I for one could not be!bothered and started looking everywhere except at the lady. It was a random experience which caused us to be late for our movie.

After the movie, Diva and Justina fooled around at Challenger by destorying the wallpaper on the laptops on display. Varun had dinner with some others and we parted ways. Next up, dinner! I brought Diva and Just to Old Airport Rd hawker where I treated them to this super value Pasta meal! For $6, you get quite a large bowl of cream of mushroom soup, a bowl of pasta and a garlic bread. Even diva found it quite filling. The treat was our pre arranged plan - anyone of us who entered the disctinction club would have to treat the other 2 of us.

The pasta meal! Sunday was a study session for the JC peeps (Just, Varun, Diva). I came along because I was really bored. This study session is planned for every weekend. It would be a good time to keep in touch with each other too. When poly starts, I would have to study instead of slacking there.

Our original plan was to study at National Library. But Justina made last min changes and told us that her church would be also be a condusive place to study. Her church (which doesn't look like a church at all) was near Lavender MRT and was quite easy to find. When it was 12.30pm (the meeting time) only Justina and me were present. Slacked around in the baby room while Justina fell asleep while studying for her bio, like this:

Guess who is this?I, too fell asleep but somehow I managed to wake up earlier than her to snap this picture. Haha. Then, 2 hours later, Varun called to say he is reaching. We were feeling horribly hungry and decided to fetch Varun from the bus stop and then buy some bread from the confectionary. With Varun around. Things became more alive rather than the snooze session. Then Diva sent an sms telling us that he could not make it coz he was buying his new laptop. We were feeling hungry agn and I went down to the nearby 7-11 to buy the incredibly expensive cup noodles for all 3 of us.

Studied till it was almost 7pm then we bused to Vivo where Varun left us for his darling bus. Justina and me went to Giant to get our stuffs. I got my windbreaker and she got her safebox which was heavier than I expected considering the price of it. Went to my grandma hse at Sengkang after that. On the train, I read through Justina's econs notes and found out that econs is very interesting! If I went JC, I would surely take H2 econs.

On Monday, I finally met up Ary, Aishah and Xiao Dan! =) Haven't met them in a looonggg time, especially the 2 'A's. Our plan today was to walk from Alexendra to Vivo using the 2 bridges (again =.="). We spasmed and took lots of lame pictures and videos. It rained when we were within walking distance of Vivo (luckily).

Most of these pictures were taken using the self timer function. So ya, you can imgine how spasm-mie we got when the timer is counting down. Haha. So here are the spasm pics =)
Lunch was at Vivo's Banquet and XD brought a box of chocolate (most of which ended up in my stomach :P) Then, for the first time in... errr a few weeks? I had Ben's & Jerry ice cream! I just can't resist the chewy taste of B&J. I am going save up and buy a tub for myself!... Sometime!

BeforeAfterTP, I am still waiting for my enrolment letter! =( My sore throat is back again. Even more =(

My Little Adventures

I had a series of unexpected adventures recently. 1st being my planned solo cycling trip to Temasek Poly to see how is the route like from Tampinese MRT to TP. 2nd was an unexpected trip to explore the parks/forests/bridges of the southern ridges.

Part 1

So, 1st up my planned solo cycling trip to TP which ended up as a cycling trip with one of my pri sch fren instead. The original plan was to meet my pri sch frens (Jason & Abel) for breakfast at mac before I set off for my solo cycling trip to TP. We spent more than 1 hr at mac chatting and aft that Abel decided to follow me on my trip since he was really bored. Disaster struck even before we left his estate, the chain on his bike came off and luckily the problem was simple to fix, though the grease did create a mess on my hands.

We mainly used the almost excellent Park Connector Network (PCN) to cycle from ECP to TP and back. I am glad that the govt is building such PCNs for cyclist and joggers alike. It is so much easier and safer to cycle on the PCNs than on the road. Although the system is not perfect (I will explain why later), I believe that the PCN is one of the govt's better policies and I look forward to the expansion of the network.

So it was a 1 hour trip from tiong to the start of East Coast Park using roads. We took a short break at ECP mac before cycling the rest of ECP+Changi Airport runway stretch to changi village via PCN. Luckily, the wind wasn't blowing as strongly as the last time I cycled there, which helps reduce the time we took to cycle to changi village. After about 1.5 hrs of cycling we reach changi village for lunch and a break.

The next leg of the trip was to cycle to TP using the Loyang PCN and the Tampines PCN. This leg was the toughest part of the whole journey. The loyang PCN was a constant uphill climb and within minutes, our legs started to ache alot. This is the first time i felt real pain in my thigh while cycling, not the usual 'tiredness'. After a terribly long and arduous climb we reached Pasir Ris park which leads us to the Tampines PCN where the hills fortunately stopped going up and it was a relatively easy ride to Tampines MRT.

Part of the purpose of this trip is to test out the feasibility of me cycling to TP when poly starts. What I found out is that it is a very easy 10min cycle to TP from Tampines MRT. This is largely due to the PCN from Tampines MRT to the junction before TP. I also noticed that alot of TP students cycle to school too, which is apparent from the number of bikes parked inside. The only grouse I have is that pedestrains don't keep to their own pavements and sometimes walk on the PCN pathway, which is an irritant for cyclists. I would explore taking the bus and walking to TP sometime later.

After cycling the length of TP, we decided to take another (shorter) PCN back to ECP. We were quite tired by then and did not notice that there was a more straight forward Bedok PCN nearby. Instead we took the Siglap PCN which was filled with various obstacles.

The most problematic PCN I have encountered so far

It was the only PCN I got lost in. 1st, the PCN snakes through various HDB estates, which isn't a complain, but the way the signs are placed is a complaint. At various junctions, signs were non - existent or placed badly. What happened next was a series of disasters after disasters.

We crossed one of the many bridges in this PCN and found out it was leading us away from ECP instead of towards it. We backtracked and found out that we should not have crossed the bridge at all. We eventually found the correct way which leads us straight into another problem.

Usually, PCN overhead bridges has ramps for bikes to be pushed up. But when we cycled to Bedok North, we were lead by the arrows to this overheadbridge which looks like a normal pedestrain bridge, not for bikes.Just then, a burst of heavy rain started to plet down on us. It was a 5min heavy thunderstorm which made us run for cover under a tree (the nearest acceptable shelter near us) while we wait for the short thunderstorm to past. While waiting, we FINALLY figured out that we have to push our bikes up this really narrow and steep ramp at both sides of the bridge. Well, at least they provided a ramp for us to push our bikes up. But it would be better if they would build a bridge with a proper ramp instead (maybe its not built due to space contraints?) Decending was dangerous! The concrete was wet and my brakes/tyres kept locking up making the bike slide down the ramp even faster. I resorted to carrying my bike down instead.

This is how the really narrow ramp looks like A closer look at itNow for the next disaster, right after we finished crossing the flawed bridge, Abel's bike chain came off again! I had to repair the chain once again which made my hand really dirty, thankfully, I expected mechanical problems like these and brought along wet tissue towels. The weather looked really threatening and the ground was quite wet and slippery which made the next part of the PCN really dangerous as it is filled with tight/sweeping bends and various up/down hills, just like a F1 track. We rode really cautiously throughout the whole 'F1 track' until we have to cross yet another bridge (this time, with a proper ramp, not stairs!).

Upon crossing, the next disaster stuck! We looked on the words painted on the ground and sighed.So after 5.4 KM of weaving through the really crowded Eunos area, having the bike tyre splash ground water on our faces and crossing yet another bridge, we finally reached East Coast Park! There, we were given a reward by chancing upon our own Mediacorp actor Edmund Chen (Chen Zi Cai) and his son jogging. Haha, did not talk to him though, as I was on the bike. We took a well deserved rest at the mac area of ECP before setting off to Old Airport Rd hawker for dinner.

Dinner was a $6 pasta meal, complete with a bowl of cream of mushroom soup and garlic bread! Yummy! I will be having that same meal again soon with the usual peeps :P My treat! So we rode home from the hakwer and arrived home at 10pm.

It was a interesting trip, especially getting lost for a while at the Bedok North area, and only to find out (when i got home) that there was a much more straight forward path to ECP via the Bedok PCN instead of the crowded and obstacle filled Siglap PCN. Nonetheless, the experience at Siglap PCN will be a moment I would think back and laugh about :P

My next cycling trip would proabably be in the western part of the island as i haven't cycled there before, Most probabaly I would start cycling to Bt Batok park and then down to Jurong and so on. We'll see if this trip will be a reality or not.

Part 2

Now this trip will be about my totally unexpected trip through the parks of the southern ridges (eg, Kent Ridge and Mount Faber park)

It all started when Haikal and me were supposed to start working at some telemarketing company at Science Park 1 (near Bouna Vista). We met for breakfast at Ghim Moh hawker and then caught a bus to take us to our future office. At the office, the HR person told us that their call center was full that day and it was their mistake for not informing us earlier, she said she would call us back the next week to tell us if there's any more vacancies or not. We left the office angry but not disapointed (strangely). I felt a sense of relief that I could still enjoy my holidays and not be bogged down by work.

We walked out of the building and immediately stumbled upon our next problem, since it was so early (10am), what shall we do now? Then an inspiration suddenly appeared. Since we are in the middle of the Kent Ridge Park, why not we use it to walk all the way to Vivo and cross the tallest pedestrain bridge in S'pore along the way? A quick look at the map shows that we are quite a long way from Vivo. Well, that doesn't matter as we have plenty of time on our hands. So, this is how our unexpected adventure begun.

The problem is, we were in the totally wrong attire to 'hike' through the parks. We were in jeans and t shirt, which was the dress code for working in the office, not for 'parking'. The sun was incredibly hot that day. Luckily, there were rest stops on the way where toilet and drinking facilites are provided. So here are some of the pictures of places we passed by on our trip.

The long metal bridge which was quite fun to walk on as the floor was made out of metal grilles which allos you to see the ground. People with fear of heights would be better off walking with a blindfold!The bridge zig zags up the Telok Blangah HillNice view eh? (My Pri 6 teacher lives at the white HDB block on the extreme left :P)One of the star trek looking rest stops. Cool! Finally we reached the peak of Telok Blangah hill where we saw this guy driving (more like racing) a S Class Mercedes doing laps after laps on the windy and narrow roads of Telok Blangah hill. Haha, future F1 driver in the making eh?There, we had to climb up more hillsto reach...Yeah! Henderson Waves, the name of the tallest pedestrian bridge in S'pore. It is around 70+ metres above sea level and the view of and from the bridge is beautiful!Have you ever seen the road this far and small away from a pedestrian bridge in S'pore? Surely not!
Henderson Waves leads us straight to Mt Faber where we visted the cable car station which I haven't visted since errrr... god knows when. Alot has changed since, for example, the coin operated binoclulars has shifted to a less scenic spot on Mount Faber. Luckily, the original koi pond is still largely intact.Specatcular views from Mt Faber
We finally reached Seah Im food centre which is opposite Vivo. It was my 1st time having lunch there and thankfully, we managed to find a seat during the crowded lunch time hours.Nothing significant happened after that except that I downed a 1 litre bottle of Meji choc milk and had runs that evening =.="

Well, I had fun in all my unexpected adventures at Siglap PCN and Southern Ridges park. Kudos to the National Parks Board for building parks like these in land scarced S'pore.

Ok, enough of parks, my horribly ancient phone, the SE K750i needs replacing soon. The joystick has been acting up lately, dust has been accumulating in the screen which makes reading in the sunlight almost impossible. And my screen has rows of dead pixles already. But I must say that although it has faults, it has lasted a rough 3 years and 3 months with me already. It has been abused countless of times, once it dropped on a sharp small rock on the ground while I was running for the cross country in Macritchie and that caused a visible dent on the phone.

I am now planning to get this phone, the w902i for its sturdy feeling and decent camera. Although I am not a fan of walkman, I don't mind having this phone as I feel it is built to last, and reliability plays a big part for me in choosing phones. My SE K750i passed the test with flying colours and I hope this phone can do the same! The only problem is, this phone is bloody expensive. The last time I checked, it was selling at $498 with a 2 year contract :o I guess I will wait for the price to drop before I buy this phone.

Ok, now Valentines day is here already! I really want to wish all my loved friends a Happy Valentines Day! I really appreciate the happy times we spent together. Memorable moments with people like Diva, Justina, Varun, Haikal, Ary, Aishah, XD, Dan, Elsie and so on.... will always be remembered! Don't be angry with me if i never mention your name ok? :P There are just too many people to list out. Here once again, wishing everyone a Happy Valentines Day! Cherish the moments spent with your loved ones.

Please Find Me Something To Do!

Well, I did say I would update once I got my poly posting results, so here I am! I was posted to Temasek Poly's Aviation Management & Services course - My 1st choice! :P Xiao Dan was also posted into the same course as me. With that, I would probably be working in Changi Airport in the future! I am glad that quite a number of my friends are going to TP too! People I often hang out with, eg Diva, Justina, Varun have all gone to JC which leaves me with nothing to do when JC started a few days ago =.="

This could be my future workplace :P
Now I am feeling so bored, mainly relying on my computer games to keep myself entertained. Luckily, Justina the JC nerd did not go totally emo after JC started :P We still hang out once in a while, eg-to celebrate mel's birthday.

My cycling trip as gone well so far. I have completed my holiday wishes which is to go Ubin and Seletar to cycle.

I went cycling at Seletar with Justina and her dad since they were the only ones living nearby. It was a very dusty place as heavy construction is going on to redevelop the area into the future Seletar Aerospace hub. Since there were no pavements, we had to cycle on the narrow 1 lane road. It was especially scary when dozens of dump trucks just drive past you kicking up a cloud of dust while doing so. This area is one of the last remaining places where old British Colonial houses can still be found (the other place being Portsdown Rd). So, do visit while it is still around. It will be gone in no time. Now, look what I have found!

What is gay hammy doing in Seletar?A disturbing sight has been appearing on the roads of Singapore. Some disgustingly painted pink taxis with cow horns & tails on them have been spotted and one even made it onto the newspaper. I hope they would at least change the colour of the cow taxi. Not pink please!
Ubin was fun! Me, together with Haikal, Elsie, Vivek, Justina and Xiao Dan went ubin to cycle on a bright sunny morning. We rented bikes that just cost $5 per day to rent! It was a rather crap bike with all of us finding various problems with the bike. For instance, I had my chain falling off the teeth 8 times, so did Elsie and Haikal. Vivek and my bike had spoilt front suspension. The rear ones were so rusty that it did not work at all! Vivek was having the worst problem among us by far, he had his rear brakes permanently rubbing the rim of his tyre. Which means he rode the whole day with his brakes on. No wonder he has been having leg cramps the whole day!

Other than the bike problems, we also got lost for more than an hour after we decided to venture off the beaten track. It was tiring when we got lost. The 'road' wasn't really a road at all, it was just a track filled with mud/bricks/stones which made cycling on them a real headache! It was nonetheless a fun adventure. We, of course managed to find our way out of the forest. We also threw countless number of rocks into the sea for fun.

And what's an adventure without a campfire? We found an undisclosed spot on the island and made a campfire using lots of dried leaves, cardboards, newspapers, rocks and a lighter. It was not a complete success, but it was not a failure either. We managed to keep the fire alive for quite a while. Here are some pictures

Get the fire started damn it!
Finally, now pass me the cardboards
It's getting smoky, we do not want to attract attenttion right? This Justina Sun Wu Kong ah! Instead of helping out with the fire, started posing for the camera insteadThe fire taking it's last breath
While on the boat back to mainland Singapore, I caught a high fever, glad to say I have already recovered from the fever or I wouldn't be blogging now.

I need to find a job soon, and I would continue my cycling expedition around Singapore. Next up would probably a cycling trip to Pasir Ris park and back, via ECP, Changi Village. I also hope I can meet up with the JC peeps soon, I miss them already!

Hmm, when will my next update be? Your guess is as good as mine :)

O Level Results Released!

As you would have already guessed it, this post will be about my results in the 2008 O levels exam.

Well, what I can say is that i really, i mean really did not expect what I got. I was expected at best a L1R4 of 10-15 points, 10 points is being really optimistic as my real prelims was only 15 pnts (they made a mistake and put 12). The 2 A I was expecting was from D&T and Combined Humanities.

So i came to school and saw Gary Tan first. I was "Oh shit, I'm not talking to him". Then the next moment he said hi me and told me that he was very happy with my Combined Humanities marks and I guessed I scored and A1. (which I did)

At the hall, Loo Loo also said I have done well, so I was thinking, "hmm, I could have gotten a 12 or something". And then Cecilia showed the 'distinction club' members (people who have 4 A or above). I was stunned to see my name up there. I never expected myself to get 4 A, 2 being my optimistic target.

So I received my result and I can't believe I got 9 pnts for my L1R4! I was condemning people who gets single digit and goes to poly. Now I think people will condemn me instead =.=". My L1R5 was a reasonable 13.

I'm planning to go to Temasek Poly's Aviation and Mangement Services course which has a cut of point of 10 last year. So after deducting my CCA bonus points, I think my nett points shld be 8, which I hope is good enough for that course!

Ok, thats alot of talking and (maybe boasting), but such things don't come again and its ok to be ego abit, but I will not make 'ego' as my lifestyle. Ok, just for kicks, the new Ferrari F1 car named F60 is super hideously ugly, just take a look! BMW's F1 car is worse I tell you! Kids, get your blind folds on!
Going off, people, decide your JAE choices properly! Till then, good luck with your postings, may all of our JC/Poly dreams come true!

Time To Recap!

Hey peeps! The universe has changed its shape, the President of USA has been decided, stupid people with no brains just blew up buildings in Mumbai and Bangkok has turned from a land of smiles, to a land of protesting monkeys. My favourite TV show, Top Gear has already progressed 2 more series! This is what happened between now, and the time I last updated this rotting blog.

Old news, typed out in October:
As you would have already noticed, I am so in LOVE with London now. I just don't know why. Probably watching too much Top Gear can cause you to fall in love with London? My love for London was so great that I even went to the extent of writing London in most of my Social Studies answers and even putting up a 'spy' cam of London's famous Piccadilly Circus (which I have just shifted to the bottom of the page) I'm such a stalker, I know. The new Discovery Magazine that the school gave has a night time satellite picture of London. The first thing that caught my eye was the infamous London's M25 motorway. It was so damn obvious for my trained eye, I went on the read the captions for the picture and true enough, they mentioned the M25 which can be seen circling around the bright spot in central London. Enough of London already! Let's move on to Los Angeles! I shall not say much but I am also watching their traffic webcams also... o.0

While 'stalking' London, I found something very interesting, notice the yellow tractor (something like that) at the left hand side of the pic? Thats strange considering that there are no construction going on at the famous Piccadilly Circus. And this is for Varun, I spotted ur old school London Routemaster bus
M25 motorway

Fast forward to November:

Finally, O levels is finally over! No more slogging through the night, no more nagging from parents for slacking and no more SCHOOL! I'm not planning to get a job anytime soon as I think that we should not waste our youth (and our student concession pass) to go out to work. Work is an inevitable part of adult life and there's no escaping from it. However, since we have the time now, why not use it to enjoy life first. There's no more chance to enjoy such a long break next time till you retire. Thus, I'll make full use of the time now. This is a rough sketch of what I will do during the 2 months of true holidays (previous holidays were filled with end of year assignments, not this year!)

1) Explore Singapore on bus, I'll make full use of my student concession pass as it will expire in a month's time!!! I will sit random buses all around Singapore.

2) While on my Singapore expedition, I shall try out good food at various hawker centers.

3) Explore parts of Singapore that I didn't know existed before, ie, Piccadilly Circus.

4) Go Ubin cycling, and of course night cycling!

5) Hang out with friends

6) Play computer games like my Test Drive Unlimited on my G25 steering wheel and my newly bought game called Sim City 4 and Sim City Societies.

Anyway, here are some ancient pictures that has been left in my hard disk for quite sometime. These pictures are arranged in random order.

Found some funny spasm face pictures of Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear

Grrrr....

o.0Staying with Top Gear, I recently got myself a cool wall from the Top Gear Singapore magazine

The real (and original) cool wall from the Top Gear TV show My version of the cool wall If you think any car or person should not be in their respective categories, please tell me! And I will see how feasible your comments are.

Now my bedroom wall is now littered with posters =.=" Messy Something for me to celebrate about! My new lift opened in September 25th! Now I don't have to climb the staircase to get to the old lift liao!

My sparkling new lift! These buttons are very noisy! Everyone of them produces a high pitch beeeppp when pressed, except the alarm button of course, which produces a much louder sound. And for those who are curious on what I made for my O levels D&T project. Here are some pics of the finished product. It is a device which can be attactched to the car's rear windscreen and it can display messages through a rotating device. Complicated wirings
And the presentation boardMy own version of the infamous ERP
So on National Day, my family and I went to Mount Faber to watch the fireworks. So after that we drove down the one way road and there was a massive jam. I thought it was normal as there was quite a lot of people. But after 10mins, the jam barely moved at all. My dad's car was stationery for 10mins. Fed up, I went to take a look at what is happening in front. And this is what I saw: (sorry for the grainy pictures, my camera sucks)

A crowd of people gathering around a bus. Hmmm, lets walk further to find out!
So.... this red Mazda 3 is blocking the bus.... Stupid driver. Park on double yellow line. After a sharp bend somemore. No brain driver.The bus tried in vain to pass the Mazda car, but to no avail. As you can see from these pictures...A crowd of men has gathered around the car to try to lift it out of the way. Obviously their ambitious attempt failed as the Mazda 3 weigh around 1400KG.Waiting...waiting...waiting... Half an hour passed and still no sign of the bloody driver. Jams continues to form behind the bus. Horns blarring, people stuck in the bus. All these because of a single idiotic driver. By now the Police has arrived and can't do anything but wait for the driver to arrive, where a fine would be inevitable. For those hardcore 4-D beters out there. This is the number plate. For non gamblers, You could use the number to scribble on walls or use them as your lucky numbers. This driver needs to be taught a lesson. Finally, the driver arrived! Greeted the driver were many angry faces, rude insults and of course the Police. And guess who the driver was? A woman driver!!!!! Stupid china bitch. Cause so much pain and suffering to the people behind her. She promptly moved her car away to a proper parking spot where the Police interogated her. Finally, traffic was moving and I can finally leave the exhaust fume chocked Mount Faber. Hope the bitch got fined heavily!

Stupid China Bitch! Somemore woman drivers in action elsewhere...

This white Honda Civic which was driven by a woman driver (I saw it with my own eyes) crashed into the pavement at Jln Bt Merah, another classic example of how not to drive, brought to you by women drivers. By the way, sharp eyed people may have noticed that this driver has a P-Plate on the car, which may explain the foolishness.So, somewhere before the O levels, my usual group of friends hung out at Suntec City Toys'R Us, here are some spasm pics.

Swordfight/ suicide mission between our 2 manga fanatics.

Somehow, I joined in the fight too!Ok, I took a funny pic of my cousin who looks like Ruhua (is it this name?)Some funny pics from the last days of normal lessons in Queensway.

Guess who is this garbage guy?The usual clowning around by Hai Shien and gang =.="And finally, our In house entertainer/clown - Yun Keat! Performing is Soda bottle trickSo recently I've been trying out some pics modification on Picnik, which is a picture editing software which does great modifications! Here's a sample, tell me how it looks like for my first try (it may not look good though)

Picture before edit
Picture after editTiger car, bet you wouldn't find that on the roads!Recently, there's an influx or Nissan GT-R (R35) in Singapore, I'm afraid it will have a reputation of those modified Mitsubishi EVO or Subaru WRX. Here are some GT-R which I have bothered to take pics of

Tiger GT-RThe normal GT-RsNow, this is a unique car! A Lotus 340r. This picture is taken by my Dad in Singapore when he sent his car for inspection. I saw this car at Sentosa once, but it was speeding and did not manage to steal a picture of it.I like this picture, a picture of a souped up Boxter S and an old school Merc convertibleLambo frenzy!

This picture was destroyed by Diva because he changed my camera effects to Sepia =.="Aston Martin DB9, James Bond's stuffsFerrari F430
Interior of itSo, this is the end of a long overdued post. I have ommited lots of pics here as I am too lazy to drag them into place. The next update (if there's ever one) will be on my life after O levels and the last days of sec school life. Till then, don't say I haven't revived my blog ok?

Singapore Grand Prix Preview
(Special Post)

Unless you have been living in a cave somewhere in the Pacific, you should have already known that the Singapore Grand Prix is the first Formula 1 night race ever! Hosting the race doesn't come cheap though. It is reported that more than SGD100 million dollars is paid to the FIA just for the hosting rights alone! Well, the race day (28 Septemper) is drawing nearer as I speak.

To find out what the organisers has done for the S'pore Grand Prix preparations, I did a 5 hour tour round the Marina Bay Street Circuit during the June holidays. As far as I can see, the track is 3/4 done at that time. Half of the circuit's unique lighting system is already in place. Most of the roads that will be used for the track was resurfaced with a special blend of asphalt to cope with the immense power of these F1 cars. I also visited the newly opened Singapore Flyer.


The Singapore Street Circuit layout. It will run in the anti-clockwise direction with a distance of 5.067 KM per lap. Drivers will be completing 61 laps come late September. The circuit will bring the drivers past several of S'pore most interesting buildings. The old style colonial buildings around the Padang area, including the old supreme court and Victoria concert hall. Drivers will also zoom across the Singapore river on 2 occasions.

The first will be the century old Anderson Bridge, this is the narrowest part of the track, thus the drivers must be careful when speeding past here. The second bridge is the Esplanade Bridge which immediately follows the corner after Anderson Bridge. It is one of the widest part of the circuit as drivers will zoom down to the iconic Durian -shaped Esplanade. Drivers will then zoom past the National Day grandstand and, another uniquely Singapore feature, drive under the grandstand! It's a shorter version of the Monaco tunnel!

You'll get a better idea of what I've talked about by looking at the circuit plan diagram The road surface is different from normal roads as the road has to withstand the great forces applied onto the road by the powerful F1 cars.

As you can see from this picture, the darker surface is the racing track surface which is more coarse than the lighter, normal road surface.
Surface on the left is the normal road surface while the surface on the right is the racing track surface.
Many drivers have complained in the past at other venues that the white lane markings are very slippery, especially in the wet. As the track will be run on public roads, it will not be feasible to remove the road markings. Thus, the people had come out with an ingenious solution.

Notice the small dots on the painted lines? These dots are there to provide traction for the F1 cars. It has dots punched into it to mimic the road surface. It also helps to drain water away in the wet (to a small extent)
Now, for my 5 hour walk, I started off at Suntec City Convention Centre, walked up Raffles Boulevard towards Benjamin Shears Bridge and towards the Singapore Flyer Ferris Wheel. I went up the Shears Bridge and back down again to the opposite side. Walked down Raffles Avenue towards Esplanade to have a water break. Yes, my water bottle ran out halfway so I refilled it with tap water! Walked down the St Andrews road towards the Padang. Then I crossed over to Esplanade Drive where I went to the Anderson Bridge.

Now, pictures time! (Pictures are taken using my ageing Sony Erricson K750i, apologies if pictures are not of good quality)

I started off my journey here, just before Marina Square on Raffles Boulevard (between Turns 5 and 6). The F1 cars will go against the normal traffic flow here.Further up the road, I spotted the unmistakable lighting poles which supports the 1600 lights that will surround the track.
Behind me was the Pit Building! It was built in a record 8 months! Further up the road is the famous Singapore Flyer Ferris Wheel. It is one of the hot spots to catch the race! It is also a hot spot for me to take pictures of the track.

The Singapore Flyer Ferris WheelI love this picture below, I think it is very artistic. Not bad considering I was using a camera phone =) ~ Taken at the base of the Ferris Wheel.


At the flyer, I got an even better view of the Pit Building. Too bad it's vicinity is closed off to the public and this is as close as I can get to the Pit Building.
The Flyer also provided me a good spot to look at the track and the lighting system beside it.

This is the stretch of track just before the last corner of the circuit, which will lead us back to the Start/Finish line.
The lighting poles and the lights themselves!The lights close up

This, along with the other flyer picture, is one of the best pictures taken here. Heaven blessed me with beautiful skies that day. This picture is in no way edited or some people might call it, Photoshopped. I have no idea how to use photoshop and I don't have one installed in my computer. What you see here is what it looks like that day =)

Artistic right? Thanks to the beautiful sky too!

Track side!
The weather was hot hot hot! I was sweating bucket loads of water by then, took a quick rest under the comfort of the flyer and I set off again.

Turns 20 and 21 still in a big mess.Beside this corner, a new DNA shaped bridge is being built. It will link Raffles Ave to the new Marina Bay IR when it is completed in 2009 or 2010.I went up Benjamin Shears Bridge to have a better view of the circuit. It was amazing in many ways. The bridge was shaking quite a lot as vehicles zoom past me. It was quite scary standing on it. Obviously you can't feel it move in a vehicle. This was also my first time climbing the bridge on foot. The view of the city skyline was simply spectacular!

The Singapore Flyer taken from Shears BridgeRaffles Boulevard, between Turns 5 and 6. Cars will go against traffic flow on race dayBird's eye view of Turns 20 and 21Raffles Ave, just before Turn 20. F1 cars will again, go against normal traffic flow here. The Marina Bay Floating Platform. The F1 cars will zoom past here and through a tunnel underneath the Grandstand to re-emerge onto Raffles Ave.F1 cars will emerge from the tunnel here after passing the floating platform. [Turn 19]
I found this interesting electronic board that states the number of car park lots in the area so that drivers do not have to circle the area finding for lots, causing even more jam.The new 'Marina Bay DNA' Bridge I mentioned earlier is undergoing construction.I then crossed to the opposite side of the Shears Bridge to have a better view of the eastern part of the circuit.

Turn 5, F1 cars will, as usual go against normal traffic flow here
The stretch of track before the last corners, Turns 22 and 23. You can see just how close the cars will zoom past the sea. Scary!I walked to Esplanade Mall to have a drink. Here's a picture of Turn 15 beside the iconic Esplanade Theatres. I walked down to St Andrew's Rd. This is where F1 cars will zoom against traffic flow (as usual) past some of Singapore's century old buildings. This includes the Old Supreme Court, Victoria Concert Hall and Padang.

This stretch of track is between Turns 9 and 10

The F1 cars will drive over the 100 years old Anderson Bridge to meet at Turn 13

Anderson Bridge
Turn 13Light pole (without lights) at Turn 13After Turn 13, drivers will drive past some Singapore landmarks including the statue of the Merlion and past at the same time, have a great view of the floating platform and the S'pore Flyer.

Merlion

The view from Esplanade Bridge after Turn 13
Esplanade Bridge, between Turns 13 and 14Now we come to an interesting part of the circuit. It is the junction between Raffles Ave, Nicol Highway and Standford Road. As you can see from the circuit diagram, there is a part in the middle of the circuit where the track 'splits' up. From this view, F1 cars will turn right into Turn 8. It will come around in the opposite direction and then turn right again into Turn 14.

Turn 14 <<-----Left--- ----Right------->> Turn 8
This siginifies the end of my tour round the Marina Bay Circuit. Remember to watch the inagural Singapore Grand Prix from where ever you are. For Singaporeans, it will be shown 'Live' on Channel 5 on 28th Septemper (Race) and 27th September (Qualifying). Who will win the first ever night race? Stay tuned to find out!

I'm Back!
(for now)

You guys must be wondering where the hell I disappeared to for the last month? Well, I finally found the mood and the time to blog. This post is not a proper post but its more about an explanation post about my strange disappearance.

You see, my D&T O level course work is due next week and I have been busy rushing though it, the tons of homework that Loo Loo/Soon gave didn't improve matters. Due to my hectic schedule, I'm unable to blog for the past month. I won't die by not blogging but I will die for not doing my D&T work. Must prioritise time ok?

Anyway just a brief write up about what happened today. I had my English O level oral and was disappointed that there were no political questions or something that has to do with tourism. It is about some kiddos having some fun building sandcastles. The convo topic was about if I had taken part in any competition before? I wanted to shout 'No!' straight away because that's the truth, but since that 'No' will mean instant death to my English grades, I bullshitted about a swimming competition I entered in Pri 4 and I got 4th place (coincidentally, 4 and 4 o.0 - Scandalous!)

The questions they asked were not 'mature' at all. So kiddy kind of questions. Never ask about the current affairs, politics and economy... Anyway, at least they asked about the beach and not about hairstyles which they did the previous day. I tell you hor, if I kena yesterday's topic, my mouth will open wide and my mind will shut down instantly man.

The 2nd topic was about if children nowadays need to go out more. I said that we are pampered nowadays in the sense that most of us have computers at home. And stupid games like Maplestory terrorise youths by causing them to be game addicts. Haha, I did not actually say stupid games but you get the idea. I, unknowingly answered the next question they were going to ask me. They only asked me the competition question and the children going outdoors question. But AK got an extra question which I answered in my 'outdoors' question. I heard from AK that she was asked 'What are the harmful effects of computer gaming?' Cool man, I took the initiative to foresee and answer their question, hope they give me more marks =)

Then my reading I stumbled a little and I somehow managed to lose my sentence that I was reading! They must be thinking why this guy suddenly read so slowly. Stupid reflective plastic cover, I moved my paper a little bit and the reflection of the light just blinded me momentarily. Haiz, I think oral was not particularly bad neither was it good. Best I can hope is a 30/40 bah.

Ok, thats enough for this post, my next post will probably be a long time later, exams are coming, I don't study I die, I don't blog I won't die. But I guess I will be doing a special post by end of September bah. Stay tuned!

Japan Trip, (11th-17 June 2007)
(Special post)

Hey guys! This is the special post you have been waiting for. You must have guessed the subject of my special post already. Yes, it is my trip to Japan last year. As this period of time happens to be the 1st year anniversary of my first ever trip to Japan, I will commemorate that special moment by doing a write up about what me and my fellow friends who went there did. It is going to be a long long write up so be prepared! =)

Apologies for the late posting too. It is an incredibly long post and naturally, it takes and incredibly long time to type and post. *Please also note that some pictures used here does not belong to me. If you are the owner of some of these pictures and wish to have them taken down, please inform me via my Cbox! Nonetheless, 70% of the pictures here are mine!

As I do not have a blog last year, the pictures taken aren't exactly what you call entertaining or informative. So please pardon me for my quite badly taken photos. Basically, my photos aren't blog orientated. Not having a blog last year is also the reason why I chose to post about my trip now. Most of my pictures are taken using my trusty Sony Ericsson K750i camera phone, but the quality of these pictures won't be as bad as you would think. So I shall not rant on further and start narrating my adventure in Japan!

But first, let me do a short introduction about the trip. It is the first trip to Japan that the school had organised. There are 33 students and 4 teachers going. We are going to the northern part of mainland Honshu, more specifically, the Kurihara district in Miyagi prefecture. It is a 7D 7N trip and we will be staying in homes of local residents. Japan is one of my top 5 favourite countries to visit. It is only behind the first place London, England and 2nd place Germany.

Map of Japan, we are going to the 'Sendai' area about 350KM North-East of Tokyo.
Day 1: We are expected to meet at our very own Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 1 at 9pm on 11th June 2007. Our flight to Japan’s Narita Airport is set to depart at 11.25pm. We are taking All Nippon Airways (ANA) plane to Japan. I arrived rather early as I can’t hold out my excitement much longer. It has been a long time since I’ve last been on a flight out of the country. I arrived at Changi Airport at about 7.30pm, 1.5 hours early! Accompanying me was my mother, brother and my 18.5 KG luggage.

The first thing I did at the airport was to rush to the viewing mall to make sure that my plane was parking at our gate. Luckily, it was. There was still much time to spare, so we took the sky train to Terminal 2 for fun and slacked there for a while and then made our way back to T1. Yes, I have nothing better to do. But it helps in keeping myself from being so excited about the trip ahead of me.

At T1, many of my friends had arrived. Yagesh and Jun Hou were the first few people to contact me when they reached the airport and were rather surprised when I told them I had been at the airport for almost an hour. Yagesh had a bigger luggage than mine but it was considerably lighter than mine. Indeed, I had to sit on my luggage at home just to lock it. So what did I bring with me?

Actually, I brought tons of things, some of which are clearly unnecessary. This includes 9 pairs of clothing (top and bottom), some gifts for the people at Japan and errr... I can’t remember much already. So there, I basically brought stuffs that weren’t really needed, for example, the 9 pairs of clothing on a 7 day trip. Very kiasu =.=”

So it was 9pm and basically everyone was present except the (now 402) Aishah. Guess where was she? She was at Clementi Station waiting to board the MRT to Changi Airport! We waited for her to arrive and begun our check in. I was the first in line! They weighed my luggage and I was hoping that I would not have to pay for any overweight luggage fee. Thankfully, my luggage weighs 18.5kg which was lower than the maximum allowed of 20KG.

We got our tickets and I checked my seat number. It states 'Row 39, Seat E'. I've already researched on the plane we are taking and it is the Boeing 767-300. It is a medium sized plane and has 7 seats on each row with 2 aisle. In other words, the arrangement was
<2>--<3>--<2>. So seat ‘E’ will be the 5th seat from the left! This means my favourite seat in the plane, the window seat is gone! I have to seat beside the aisle. While most people prefer to seat beside the aisle for easier entry and exit, I would rather have a window seat than an aisle seat. We are seating at the back of the plane. Which means if there's turbulence, we will feel it more than the rest of the plane. Turbulence is going to be fun!

The ticket which shows my seat position, I will explain the "Restricted Item(s)" paper later on.

We were given some free time until 11pm where we had to meet just outside the glass doors that will lead us into the immigration counter. We waved goodbye to our parents and cleared immigration, I took one of their famous ‘Changi Airport Fox sweets’ on the way. Haha, nothing special about the sweet I must say. We were given some free time again =.=” and was told to meet at gate D36 at 11.20pm. So Yagesh, me and Jun Hou toured the transit mall. Jun Hou went to have his currency changed as he hadn’t done so earlier.

We took a slow stroll to gate D36, using the travellators as our mode of transport.

By passing gate D31 and D32
We arrived at gate D36 and met Xiao Dan, Aryani and Allen. I took some pictures outside the gate, take a look...

Japan Airlines (not our plane) Boeing 747-300 bound for Tokyo via Bangkok parking opposite our gate.
Our information screen with information about our flight on ANA, NH902 departing at 2325 hrs
Then, it’s time for us to enter the gate. We must go through a security check with the X ray machine first and guess what? They asked me if I have a scissors in my bag after my bag passed through the X ray machine. Indeed I have, their machine is powerful!
I brought my pencil case along and did not take out the scissors. I did not know you can’t bring a scissors onboard a flight. They told me to surrender my scissors and led me to some table where it is packed into this yellow envelope labelled as “RESTRICTED ITEM”. It was a rather scary moment because the feeling of being escorted by a security guard makes you feel like a criminal. They gave me a slip of paper and told me I could collect back my scissors when I arrive at Tokyo the next morning.

And I am not the only one from Queensway to get ‘caught’. I think 2 other people also had the same thing. Damn sad man, I have to go somewhere to collect the scissors and the problem is, they just said ‘somewhere’. How would I know where the 'somewhere' was to collect my scissors? Tokyo airport is so big! I thought that I would rather save myself the hassle of collecting my scissors back and just treat it as ‘lost’.

The yellow envelope labelled as "Restricted Item" is where my scissors had been kept after being confiscated.
We boarded to plane about 20mins late and took my seat. I was seated next to Paul and Alloy. There was trouble before the plane even moved. There was a strong stench of kerosene when the plane started its jet engine. I thought the plane was going to catch fire or something. But luckily, nothing happened and the plane was pushed back and made its way to the runway. YEAH! We are finally taking off for Tokyo!

The heavenly sound of the jet engine powering up is music to my ears. It is one of the best sounds on earth! Then, the feeling of getting pushed down into your seat when the plane takes off is almost like a roller coaster ride. We were served light snacks half an hour into the trip. They also gave us headphones so that we could use it for our movies. There was a small TV screen which can display movies, let us play games or simply listen to music. There are informative videos about Japan and how to clear customs when you arrive and stuffs like that.

The personal TV screen in every seat.
The remote control which you use to control the TV screen or play games with it.They gave out this headphone for our personal use.There was only 1 blockbuster movie and that was Ghostrider. I watched the show halfway but decided that it was boring and watched some other shows. I tried to sleep but I just feel too excited to sleep. So I carried on watching the show till dawn.

Day 2: It's dawn, more specifically, 4am. We were onboard a plane somewhere above the South China Sea and our destination, Tokyo is about 2.5 hours away. In S'pore, 4am would look no different from 10pm at night. But in this part of the world, 4am looks like 8am in S'pore, which means that the sun has risen fully. Breakfast was served at about 5am. As breakfast was being served, the inevitable happened. Turbulence! Yes, the plane was rocking in all directions, left to right, up and down. It may sound and feel frightening to some people, but I find it a joy when the plane hits turbulence.

However, I pitied the air stewardess who is serving us breakfast. They have to balance themselves and the tray they are holding in their hands when the whole plane is shaking about. So what’s for breakfast? Well, I can’t seem to remember the meal that well. But there were waffles with some sauce together with grapes and a choice of coffee or tea. I chose coffee so that I could stay away for the rest of the day. It was a challenge having breakfast as the plane was rocking about quite heavily.

Paul and Alloy, who were awake all night long watching movies fell asleep just before breakfast was served. They chose breakfast time, of all time to fall asleep. Strange =.=” I did not sleep all night too, but did not feel tired at all. Maybe the excitement has killed all of my tiredness. After breakfast, the captain of the plane spoke through the PA system with an unmistakable Japanese –English accent saying: “Ladies and Gentlemen, if you to look to your left, you would be able to see Mount Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan”.

As I was seated near the right hand side of the plane, I had to crane my neck up like a giraffe so I could see the famous mountain. It was indeed a sight to behold! The mountain is almost like a perfect cone shape and the top half of it is covered in snow! It is summer and there’s actually snow present on Mt Fuji! The sight of Mt Fuji also meant that we are very near our destination. Any minute now, we are going to touch down in Tokyo - Narita Airport and my life-long dream of going to Japan will be fulfilled! The flight attendant started distributing a immigration form for foreigners to fill in.

The plane then descended and my ears begun to pop due to the air pressure changes. The amazing thing about this plane is that they have an onboard camera mounted at the front of the plane. So you can switch the TV in front of you to the live camera mode and you will have the same view that the pilots have. Soon, we descended into the clouds and it went blurry on the screen. We emerged from the clouds soon after and I finally saw Japan for real. The runway was in sight and it was actually a fun and enlightening experience to see the plane land on the runway, through the pilot's view!

50ft...40ft...30ft...20ft...10ft... TOUCHDOWN! There was a loud thud and the jet engine’s thrust reversers sprung to life creating the unique low pitch growl. It was a slow crawl to our gates. Once the jet bridge was connected to our plane, we left the plane. But to my surprise, we have to return the headphones we used during the flight. I thought I could keep the headphone as a souvenir and for future use. Anyway, it was a rather uneventful 7 hour flight from Singapore, besides the breakfast time turbulence.

Our plane at Narita Airport after disembarking from the planeTravelling on the travellator in the direction of immigration7.45 am is the time we disembarked from the planeSignboard leading us to the arrival hall"Welcome to Japan"Baggage claim is right ahead!Clearing immigration took quite a while as there are 2 other flights that landed at the same time as ours and we have to squeeze through immigration together with them. Their immigration stamp is not exactly a stamp, but a sticker. This is the first time I have seen stickers being used as immigration stamps. Oh, one more thing! Vina left her monkey soft toy in the plane! She only found out when she is queueing at immigration. I don't know if she got her monkey back or not.

Japan's special sticker immigration stamp
After clearing immigration, we made our way to the baggage collection. I waited anxiously for my luggage because I heard cases of lost luggages before and I can't imagine what will happen if they lose my luggage. Luckily, after 5mins, I saw my luggage. I carried my luggage away from the conveyor belt. Then 'plak'! Something dropped from my luggage. I picked that item up to see what was it. To my greatest surprise, it was the yellow restricted item envelope which contained my scissors!

How on earth did they manage to locate my luggage amidst other luggages. I must say they are very efficient in terms of luggage handling. This means I don’t have to queue up at the invisible counter than I have never seen before to collect my scissors!

Unlike Singapore, there is no glass wall that separated the arrival hall and the baggage claim area. It was separated by a wall. This design is not as good as S'pore's as people 'outside' cannot see their friends or family 'inside' and vice versa. We were told to wear the Queensway Sec School blazers so that our tour guide could identify us when we entered the arrival hall.

When we emerge from tight security, there was a middle aged man standing in the middle holding a card that reads 'Welcome Queensway Sec School'. We gathered around him and he introduced himself to us. His name was Mr Ronnie Tan and he used to be a Singaporean until he emigrated to Japan some 10 years ago. It’s nice to have your fellow countryman as your tour guide in a totally unfamiliar country.

Here's our tour guide for the trip, Mr Ronnie Tan in black suit.It is 8:27am by the time we cleared immigration and stuffs. Roughly 25mins after we got down from the plane.
He led us out of the airport and towards our coach which is parked at the car park nearby. The weather was pleasant, there was a light breeze blowing, the air does not feel humid, unlike Singapore. The driver of the coach is already waiting for us by the time we got there. He helped us load our heavy luggages onto the bus and off we went!

Airport terminalWe loading our luggages onto the busOur bus number plate, 1008. Remember buy 4-D hor!The bus steering wheel =.=" I got nothing better to take pictures of. Haha!
In the airport's car park, I spotted several nice cars. Here are some of them.

Audi TT!There's a sporty red BMW Z4 amongst other nice cars.We left the airport using the North Exit. Yeah! Japan, here we come!
I was sitting next to Jun Hou in the bus. The first thing I noticed about Japan is how smooth their roads are. There are hardly any bumps. The trees are of a different shade of green compared to S’pore. Narita Airport is about 1 hour drive away from Tokyo. Their handphone network is fully 3G. This means that I cannot use my lowly 2.5G phone in Japan. I can only take pictures using the camera function. Japan is so advanced compared to S'pore! On the way to Tokyo, our tour guide introduced our bus driver to us. His name is Yamashita, he shares the same name with that infamous world war 2 Japanese general. Then he continued to talk about Japan’s geography. He later went on to explain how expensive it is to drive in Tokyo. He said our bus ride to Sendai will cost about ¥20 000 in tolls alone. ¥1000 is equals to $13 back in Singapore. Multiply that 20 times and our trip will cost $260 in tolls alone!

So what is that damn machine that is eating up our money? The tour guide explained that Japan has copied Singapore’s ERP system and renamed it into Electronic Toll Collection (ETC). It works like ERP except that the vehicle has to slow down to 20km/h to pass the barrier. The barrier will automatically lift when it senses the vehicle is approaching. At the same time, the computerised lady in your ETC transponder (placed in your vehicle) will read the amount of money deducted in Japanese. It was a joke listening the machine talk. But the tour guide explained that S’pore’s ERP is much better and cheaper. Why better? He says that we don’t have to slow down to pass the gantry, and it’s not compulsory for all vehicles to have that ETC system in their cars. Those without ETC will have to pay their tolls by cash manually, causing even more jams.

Japan's version of ERP - The money eating ETC gantry
Speaking of jams, we hit heavy traffic near Tokyo. It lasted 15mins. Tokyo's expressway are also surrounded by walls. I learnt later that these walls are sound barriers, it is designed to reflect noise away from nearby apartment blocks.

The walls beside the expressway, overlooking a residential area

More walls! Maybe we can name them as the 'Great Walls of Tokyo" =

Japanese are very enthusiastic about baseball, so its no surprise that I spotted baseball stadiums like these...
We also passed by Carefour on the way to Tokyo
Due to time constraints, we were not going to visit Tokyo itself, but we somehow manage to pass the Tokyo Disneyland. I took a picture of the most visible structure of Tokyo Disneyland - the Ferris wheel
Shortly after we passed Tokyo, we had our first toilet break at one of the service stops along the expressway. The air outside the bus was rather cold, even in summer! The sun was shinning brightly but we did not perspire at all! We were told to change into our school uniform as the Mayor made a last minute request to welcome us at his city. The rest stop is far better than the ones in M’sia. It is equipped with TONS of vending machines. Products they sell includes mash potatoes, kebab sticks, ice cream, coffee, burger, fish balls, meat balls, cigarettes, batteries and lots more! If that isn’t enough, there is a food centre, and a restaurant too! Their toilets are incredibly big!

Exiting the expressway for our first rest stopLook at the number of vending machines they have in a small area! Insane!Vending machine country! They even sell batteries in vending machines!
Our coach parking at the rest stopThe beautiful mountain behind the rest stop
Our second toilet break also happens to be our lunch time. We had our lunch at one of the service stops along the expressway again. There was there Japanese restaurant that sells, Japanese food! I ordered some curry chicken with rice. Their curry is very different to ours. Their curry is not spicy but it is very thick. I have a feeling they added lots of coconut milk in the curry. I also ordered coke float as my drink. The curry chicken rice serving was huge. I could not finish all of it thus I donated my left over food to our resident dinosaur – Ting Wei. He eats like a dinosaur man! Before I gave him my share, he already finished 3 other plates of rice + meat. Luckily, the meal was included in the package price. If we have to pay for this meal, I would be broke by the end of the trip!

The entrance to the restaurant, there are so many life-like wax figures on display!There's this beautiful tall mountain behind the rest stop. How majestic!So far the trip was very good, the only thing that disapointed me was the lack of fast cars. I have not seen a fast car zooming past us for the whole trip so far. It was another 3 hours bus ride to Kurihara. Mr Gary Tan told us that we were running late and we have to by-pass Sendai City. So sad, I was expecting to see high tech stuffs at Sendai City. We reached Kurihara town soon after. We were given some time to do some shopping at this supermarket called MaxValu. I bought some sweets and visited the game shop. The game shop sells lots of games that S’pore doesn’t have. They even sell those old Nintendo cassettes. Here are some pictures at MaxValu.

MaxValu entrance signMaxValu supermarket buildingSome sign that I don't understandI like Japan number plate design, neat and cool! (White is for cars, yellow for small cars/trucks with engine capacity below 700cc)

Wow! Subaru 4 wheel drive! Must be some fast car...?

But no! It is this Kei* truck. Wonder why such a small truck needs 4 wheel drive? *Kei stands for tiny in Japanese.The food stand in the middle of the carpark. It's closed that day. So I don't know what they sellWe arrived at our ‘welcome party’. We are greeted by many people, these includes parents, lots of students, old grandmothers and grandfathers, and last but not least, the mayor! We really felt like VIPs because lots of students stood by the walk way clapping away as they welcomed us. We entered the function room where we met our host families. Mine was a 30+ year old woman. We interacted well, she spoke a little English and we learnt that she has 2 kids. Then there’s this ang moh guy who said that he will be visiting us during our home stay to play PS2 with us. How cool!

Then, we have some rubbish formal ceremony where both national anthems were sung and there were speeches made by both countries’ representative. The speeches was quite long and I think its quite bullshitty. Whatever, the best part was the food. It was 5pm already and I’m afraid if I ate too much I would not be able to finish dinner later on. But the food was too tempting to reject. There were cakes, ice creams, cold dish such as lobsters, cherry, jelly, pudding.... and the list goes on and on. We soon left for our hotels after a warm reception by the Japanese. They were really polite and they would keep bowing to us. We boarded the bus with full stomachs.

Welcome sign for us!'Welcome party' on the stage

Our hotel was on a mountain top on Mount Kurikoma. This mountain is actually a volcano which last erupted in the 1950s. Along the way, we saw countless plots of paddy fields. The tour guide told us that this region is famous for the Japanese rice and that most of Japan’s rice comes from this area. This explains the numerous paddy fields. Going up the mountain slope was scary, the road does not have street lamps and the road was twisty and windy. It didn’t help that it started to rain halfway up the mountain. It was pitch black outside. The only thing that guided the driver was the bus's headlights. Thankfully, we arrived at our hotel in one piece.

Paddy fields like these exist in abundance in the rural country side
A fast flowing river - such a river cannot be found in S'poreEntrance to our hotelThe weather was very cold. The wind was blowing strongly and the rain was making it hard for us to unload our luggages. Once in the hotel, we were informed that we have a specially prepared dinner waiting for us. Gosh! It’s only an hour before that I ate and now we have dinner? I doubt I can finish the food. The hotel has it’s own arcade corner where there are games like Battlegear 3, some drum game and a few more. The arcade is not very big, but nonetheless, it is a good form of entertainment when we are bored.

A brochure of our hotel - Heilsam KurikomaHot spring (Onsen) in our hotel!We checked into our rooms. My room was room 211 on the 2nd floor. I shared room with Jun Hou, Alloy, Paul, Yagesh and Gary. We were expecting beds when we opened the door to our room. But instead, there are 3 futon mattresses laying on the floor. It looks like an uncomfortable place to sleep on. The mattresses looks thin.

The 2nd storey hotel corridorMy room, 221The futon mattresses we slept on. It was surprisingly more comfortable than we expectedThe view from the 2nd storey of our room - looking down to the 1st storeyThe list of television channelsOur room's keyFire escape sign in broken English. It reads: "Please confirm an emergency exit beforehand in a lower figure. If there was able to be some suspicious thing please inform the reception desk."There are 2 levels in the room, so we rushed up to the 2nd floor and found 2 normal beds there. Paul and Alloy decided to be bullies and booked their beds. Heck them. We then changed into this traditional Japanese attire called Yukata? I’m not sure what is it called. But it is really awkward wearing it. We are supposed to wear nothing but our underwear beneath it. We are supposed to tie it to our waist so it does not falls off. And, if we were to sit down normally, our crotch will be exposed! LOL!

Then we met at the dinning room where traditional items are placed on our tables. We sat on the floor and Paul accidentally exposed his crotch as he sat down. So funny! The food was just fabulous. There are 11 different bowls/plates in front of us. There was egg, steamed rice, sashimi, prawns, fish, mini style steamboat, scallops.... the lot of them. Considering that we just ate, it was rather difficult to eat all of them. I tried the Sashimi and it was quite nice. But it gave me stomach problems the next morning =.=”

The wonderful spread of food for dinner!Group photo in the dinning roomMs Leong and Ms Annie Tan in the YukataMr Tan and Mr Justin in the Yukata too! Notice the arrangement of the tables and 'chair' and the quantity of food available. That 2 people beside the teachers are me and Jun Hou wearing that horribly uncomfortable Yukata suit.The 5 Japan/Singaporean SamuraisAfter dinner, it was bathing time! Now, you may think that we have our own showers in the bedroom. But sadly, we don’t. We all bathe at this common bath area which also happens to be a hot spring. We have to strip totally naked before we can get in the hot spring. Now, before your mind starts to wonder wildly, the hot springs are gender separated. There's even a milk vending machine inside the changing area!

Milk vending machine sold at ¥100 each(SGD$1.30) Quite cheap eh?The hot spring is located at the basement. We have to strip outside the room before we enter the bath area, then we have to rinse ourselves before entering the hot spring. It was rather embarrassing entering the room for the 1st time. Seeing naked guys walking around was terrible =.=” But whatever, when you immerse yourself in the hot spring, you will forget about all the awkwardness around you. There are 3 hot spring pools, 2 indoors and 1 outdoors. The indoors water are cooler than the outside one. But the weather outside is super cold.

Entrance to the women's hot spring (Note, picture is NOT taken by me)There's even a vending machine in the changing room. Talk about vending machine madness!I prefer the outdoor pool as the temperature is balanced. Cooling on the top half of your body, warm/hot at the bottom. But I found out that staying in the hot water for more than 15mins could prove uncomfortable. I could not stand the heat after 15 mins and got out of the room. After that, I felt faint and could not think straight. Even Yagesh, Allen and Jun Hou felt the same. I can even hear my heart beating loudly. After that experience, we always reminded ourselves not to stay in the water for too long.

There's more vending machine madness too! There's countless of drinks vending machine. There's also vending machines selling Sake (Japanese rice beer), cup noodles, ice cream, milk, soft toys and tidbits! It was 11pm already but instead of sleeping, people in room 211 were playing PS2 that Paul brought along. We played games like Burnout and some guitar game.

Day 3: I woke up to a very bright, sunlit room. I panicked because Mr Gary Tan said that we are supposed to meet at the lobby at 7am in the morning. The sky that time looks more like 8am. I looked at my watch to confirm the time, thankfully its only 4.50am. Thanks to the sashimi I ate the previous night, I am having runs now. I kept making trips to the toilet. The weather was very cold too. Luckily, the toilet bowl seat was heated, or else I would be freezing. Paul and Alloy had difficulties waking up because they refused to sleep the previous night, preferring to spend their energy talking crap with each other which really annoyed the rest of us. To stop my runs, Jun Hou gave me a pill which worked! Just before 7am, my runs stopped and I can spend the day without worrying about the toilet.

At 7am, we made our way down to the lobby to have breakfast, Wary of my stomach problems, I refused to have breakfast fearing another diarrhoea outbreak. Breakfast was cooked fish, some seaweed and rice with miso soup. Somehow or rather, Mr Justin got to know about my stomach problems and the news spread to other teachers =.=” Our destination today is a nearby river where we have to do fieldwork. Before setting off, we collected our packet lunch consisting of sandwiches and a Qoo bottled drink – courtesy of our friendly hotel staffs.

Look! Those small white patches on the mountains are snow! Summer snow!We took a 15min bus ride to the nature reserve. We need to hike about 1KM into the forest before reaching the river. We have to conquer several obstacles such as broken pathways, very steep staircases, and leaps over small streams. It was almost an adventure walk. Finally, we reached the river. There is a waterfall just upstream and it was indeed a sight to behold. The waterfall is definitely much larger than the Kota Tinggi one. The river is littered with rocks and stones, some of which are as big as a van.

The narrow and steep gravel pathway heading towards the waterfallFun in the water!We were given tasks to do and to help us store our data, we were given laptops. We had to measure the velocity of the river and the shape of the riverbed and so on. This means we have to enter the river. I cautiously put one foot in the river, then all of a sudden, it seems that your leg went numb and you can’t feel anything. I immediately took my foot out of the water. The water is super icy cold. I have never felt water this cold before. By the end of 15 mins, nobody dared to enter the water. Then some braved souls lead the way and soon, others followed suit.

As you can see, balancing in the river was hard work. The current is quite strong and we relied on wooden sticks and branches to balance ourselves. But that didn't stop Hiromi from falling face first into the water! =) After our packet lunch, we had a long and steep hike back to the bus. We were all exhausted by the time we got to the bus. We headed back to the hotel for a quick wash up. By then, the room was cleaned up, and the tatami mattress has disappeared! Replacing it was a table with a tea set placed on it. we weren't in the mood for tea so we left those things alone. I have to praise the Japanese people for their honesty. We left our valuables like phones and stuffs in the open and they are left untouched! They would have probably be stolen if I were in M'sia or something. Great job!

Next destination: Kurihara town. It was a 20mins drive to the town. We arrived at the town council and were told to explore the town and meet back in 2 hours. We were divided into groups and my group consist of me, Aryani, Allen, Jun Hou, Natasha and Hiromi. The town is very quiet, we were given a map with Japanese characters scribbled all over. We got lost in no time. Thankfully, Hiromi knows how to speak a little Japanese and sought help from locals who have little knowledge of the English language.

This is the pathetic map they gave us for navigation. With all those Japanese characters, can you decipher it?
The Kurihara town council

We passed by the now defunct train station/bus terminal, the train history museum and a power station! We decided to slack a little and went shopping. I was very thirsty and bought myself some chocolates and iced coffee. The chocolates are just heavenly, it was one of the best chocolates I tasted! The ice coffee was even better! The coffee taste just lingers in your mouth even after you finish drinking. Japan do know how to make good food/beverages. The shop keepers were friendly even though they spoke Japanese all the time. We also visited the train museum to look at old things such as train tickets and pictures.

The defunct train station
The town was rather quiet as there were hardly any cars. Electrical cables dangle loosely over the streets, I wonder if there was a thunderstorm, what would happen to the whole town.

Old style Halogen traffic lights with messy electrical cables dangerously laid overheadTheir streets are quite narrow by any standardsEven drain covers are nicely decorated! This one shows 2 pony This drain cover even has colour! The Japanese are very meticulous about their image I guess?Look! In vending machine country, everything is sold in vending machines, cigarettes are no exception

It's quite cheaply priced too, only ¥300 each. This equates to SGD 4.20!

We also passed by their Police post. Nice Police car they have. I suppose it is a Toyota Rush. The Police officer is also very disciplined, standing there for hours at a time! Japanese people are very respectable!Their taxis are the same as ours - Toyota Crown. Except their engines are different and the wing mirrors are in a different positionYou may find this familiar, the Initial D petrol station - EneosHow can I neglect cars? The fabulous Nissan 300SX (old Fairlady) without licence plateToyota SupraAnd lastly, a Mazda RX-7Mr Gary & Ms Annie TanBeautiful flowers by the side of the streetAfter our explorations, we headed back to the hotel to do our last minute preparations for our first nightly presentation. It was a very rushed job as we had only 45mins to do a presentation about our activities that day. Before presentation, it was our usual grand dinner, the meal is almost the same as the day before except that the rice somehow became purple o.0 Presentation time! Each team presented their findings and I think my team performed the worse. However, there was some hilarious moment when some of the team’s laptop went flat because of the heavy usage at the river. Before each laptop went flat, there would be beeps as a warning. It was rather funny watching each laptop die one after another. The presentation was the worst part of the trip, it dragged on till 11pm and by then, nobody had the mood to bathe.

Our team decided to redo our presentation and decided to camp overnight to complete it. To keep myself awake after a very tiring day, I bought myself a 250ml can of espresso from one of the vending machines. The effect of the espresso was very strong, I just drank 2 sips and I was rejuvenated. I decided to keep the remaining espresso in the fridge for future use. We ate cup noodles to keep us awake too.

Since our hotel has 2 storeys, Natasha and Hiromi occupied the 2nd floor while the rest of us stayed downstairs. Whenever. when we need help we would shout our questions to them and they would reply us. Then Aryani said that it seems that we are talking to God and God answered our question. I decided to play along with her and climbed up the stairs to get something from them. As I was climbing up the stairs, I said “I am climbing up the stairway to heaven, God! Please receive me with grace”. LOL! It was quite funny then. By 4am, we completed our work! But by then, it was sunrise and nobody could sleep anymore. It was a long and tiring day/night.

Day 4: Thankfully, I did not have runs this morning and I ate breakfast in Japan for the first time. It was a filling breakfast. Here's what I had for breakfast.Today, our destination is the chrysanthemum flower farm and a paper making session. At the chrysanthemum farm, we were taught how to plant the seeds of the chrysanthemum plant. To make things even more scary, the local television crew will be filming us for the news that same evening. Wow, we were indeed treated like VIPs/celebrities. Maybe their town does not receive tourist regularly that’s why they are making such a big fuss about our arrival. We planted the plants and as a reward, the owner treated us to a traditional soda drink from Japan. It taste a little bit like Sprite and 7UP combined. The bottle was unique too, it is made of glass and it’s oddly shaped.

Planting the chrysanthemum plant, (note the TV crew in the background)We had lunch in a very scenic setting. It was a park that consists of a children’s playground, a very long metal slide and a natural river. So what’s on the menu for lunch? It was called Onigiri, it is basically rice wrapped in seaweed. It was surprisingly quite filling. After lunch, some of us went to play the metal slide. Sitting on the slide was a big no-no. The metal bars will give you a score butt after the trip down. We found a better way to slide down, squat on the metal rollers and it will slide you down easily! We tried sliding down together, it was great fun. We felt like children again.

The scenic river with fast flowing waterA group photo at the parkA signboard indicating that there are lots of parks/garden in this areaNext stop is the paper making 'factory'. I thought it was a factory until the bus arrived in front of a house. I thought that the driver must have made a mistake, how can paper be made in such a small place? As it turns out, that house is indeed the paper making ‘factory’ we are visiting. It is owned by a 70+ year old man. He showed us the raw materials needed to make paper and also showed us the various steps of paper making. Now, let the pictures do the talking.

The paper making houseA very big water tank for such as small house. I guess water is needed in abundance to make paper?His vehicles aren't really considered a vehicle anymore. Just look at the horrible condition of his truck and tractor =.="The 70 year old man showing us the tree barks that will be used to make paper

The paper making 'machine'1st step: Know your equipment2nd step: Dip the wooden frame into the solution 3rd step: Squeeze the bag dry (what for?) 4th step: Flatten the paper5th step: Let it dry 6th step: Remove the bamboo covering

Vola! It's done.All these while, the TV crew was filming the old man. Then after the demonstration, the TV crew interviewed some people.

Allen entering the hall of fame!Some Sec 2 girl being interviewed. The man in white on the right is our tour guide Mr Ronnie TanI was bored so I explored the field near the house and found this flower than I've never seen before. It's amazing how the macro mode in my camera phone can take such clear close up shots!Later, the old man personally gave out 2 pieces of his homemade paper to each of us. The texture is very different to normal paper. This paper is more rough compared to normal paper.

Group photo with the 70 year old manNext, we visited the archaeology museum. It was quite boring, there’s nothing much to see.

A statue of someone 'great'An ancient pot or vaseOur presentation night was much better than the previous one. So after the presentation, we all went for a bath. While walking back to the room with Jun Hou, I met with a 'ghostly' encounter. I saw this reflection of a man in ancient Japanese robe, he stood very still and was staring at something pasted onto the wall. I was scared like mad! I immediately screamed out loud and at the same time jumped. Thankfuly, the 'ghost' turned out to be Gary. He was wearing that Yukata robe thingy which made him look like those ancient samurai ghost. Jun Hou kept laughing at my over reaction to the 'ghost'. We cooled down outside the hotel. As it was night time, the air was cold and it is made even colder by the strong winds.

Day 5: We had breakfast as usual. After breakfast, I had time to spare and spent it on the Battlegear 3 game at the arcade corner, it was quite an easy game to play. I beat everybody who tried to compete with me Haha. Then there's this drum game where you beat the drum to the beat of the music. Beating the drum was tiring, but nonetheless it was a fun game.

Next destination: The town's (forgot the name) Junior High school. Remember the TV crew filmed us the day before? On the bus to their Junior High School, the tour guide told us a very amusing news. Apparently we are on the news that same evening. The bus has this very cool TV which can magically reveal itself! Then, we saw ourselves planting plants and making paper! Yeah! The whole of Japan knows that we are visiting already. I don’t know why they made such a big fuss about our visit? But whatever, it’s still cool to appear on TV.

Guess what is this? A ladder to climb out in case of an emergency?No! It's a very cool television! This is where we watched ourselves appear on TV It was a wet an rainy day. The weather was quite cold. After a short drive, we finally arrived at the school! There was no special welcome party because the whole school is already having lessons. We had to remove our shoes and wear their slippers before we can enter the school. The school is quite small. It has only 2 storeys are 7 classes. We gathered in an empty classroom where the school’s principal greeted us. His English was the most fluent of all the Japanese people I met during this trip!We were treated to a light snack consisting of a bottled of water and Hagen Daz ice cream! Ice cream during a cold and rainy day eh? Nice idea!

The school's cute looking principal

After our light snack, we headed to the hall for our last minute preparation for our performance which is a cultural dance item. There are basically 3 groups, one Malay, one Chinese and Indian dance. I so happen to be in the Indian dance group. So after our last minute preparations, we headed back to the classroom and waited for the school to gather at the hall. Speaking of the hall, their hall is quite big for the school’s population. The hall is ¾ of Queensway’s school hall but they only have 70 students while we have 1400! That’s a lot of space for 70 people!

Finally, we made a grand entrance to the hall which filled with Japanese students. We were warmly welcomed by them. Yet again, the TV crew was present to film this very 'special' event. There were a few speeches made by both parties. Then they demonstrated their baseball skills for us. It was quite entertaining watching them play baseball. They seem very enthusiastic about it. Soon, it was our turn to perform for them. We did not use their stage because it was thought that the stage would not engage the audience because it’s too far away. Instead, we performed on the ground. It was quite nerve wrecking dancing in front of a small group of people. After our performance, we exchanged gifts. I gave them a Merlion keychain while they gave me this:

It is a cup/mug made of porcelainThen the teachers from both sides presented each other with gifts of appreciation and stuffs. It’s all very formal and nothing interesting. The TV crew who is constantly filming us made us even more nervous as any dosing off situations will be caught on camera and shown on national television!!! Japan, being a polite country will definitely not like people dosing off during formal ceremonies. Thankfully, I managed to keep myself wide awake, especially when the stupid camera man go turn the camera towards us.

After that formal thingy, it GAME TIME! We formed 2 teams. The first team is called TEAM SINGAPORE! So obviously the next team is TEAM JAPAN! It is a very simple game. There is a basket and there are many balls on the floor. The team who throws in the most balls into the basket within a given time wins! It may sound lame and stuffs but it was quite interesting when you are actually playing it. We are even featured on the newspaper playing the simple ball game! Take a look!

We are being featured on the newspaper playing ball games!A more close up look of the picture =)Dated: 16 June 2007I was amazed by the utensils that they given out, it is a combination of both a fork and a spoon! This is a very good invention as it reduces the hassle of having to use both hands to eat. No wonder Japan students are so clever, they eat with one hand and read a book on the other. Haha! The food tasted quite bland, it was rice with fish cakes and vegetable soup. Drink was some yogurt drink? Or was that for dessert? It is a whole new experience of eating in a classroom formally (not those finger food like we eat in class secretly back in S’pore).

This is the almost exact same thing that I used to eat during school lunch. A combination of a a fork and a spoon. The only difference is that plastic fork/spoon are used in school insteadAfter lunch, we were divided into 3 groups. One group shall stay in school and learn traditional puppets play? The 2nd team shall leave the school to have a traditional Japanese tea ceremony and lastly the 3rd team will leave the school too to go drum beating! Thankfully, I was sorted to the 3rd team. Drum beating sounds fun! We left on the bus and headed to the tea ceremony venue first and then dumped the peeps there while we head over to the local community centre where drums of various sizes await us.

There is no pictures of the drums, sorry! The students taught us how to tighten the screws around the drums so that it would sound perfect. Communication was a big, big problem for us. They speak very little English and we spoke/understood very little Japanese. Other than that, I had great fun. We started with the smallest drums first, then followed by the biggest one. I had problems holding the drumsticks correctly at first. But I soon got the hang of it and they started to teach us how to play the drum with stylo milo actions. It was really hard! After countless of tries, nobody from S’pore got all of the actions right. Still, great fun!

On the way back, the Japanese girls seemed very attracted to Alloy. They kept calling him hentai which means ‘pervert’ in Japanese for no apparent reason. It was very funny to watch Alloy being so frustrated at his new name. He is also frustrated by the fact that he does not know word that the students spoke except for the word ‘hentai’ which was used every 3 seconds. Crazy Japanese! The craziness continued all the way until we left.

We toured their classes while they are having lessons. Their classrooms are about the same size as ours. But their tables and chairs are all wooden and very small. Their uniforms are also quite stylish. The teacher was teaching Algebra on the blackboard. It was taught in Japanese and I could hardly understand what the teacher is saying. The students are incredibly engrossed in their lessons, despite the group of us making a commotion behind them (shame on us), they still did not turn back and look. This is something we can learn from them.

The fat teacher teaching the class Algebra. He looks and speaks like Kuok Loon! =)Even though we were making a din at the back of the class, not one of the students look distracted. We must learn from them! The teacher teaching the class Japanese languageSome of them fooling around
It was time to leave. All the students and teachers stood in one line and we shake almost all 70 hands! I have never touched so many hands in my life before! They can’t bear to see us go, I kind of miss them too but I am getting really annoyed by their craziness. Even when the bus left the school, some of them tried chasing after the bus! Do they really like us that much? I guess so bah!

The goodbyes. The students in their (ugly) PE attire standing in a row to shake our handsWe headed back to our hotel for what would be our last ever night there. It was very saddening to leave the hotel because the staffs are very hospitable and very helpful. Most importantly, they did very good room service without touching our valuables. Even my espresso (which by the way, is still in the fridge after the 5th day) is not touched. To celebrate our last day at this fabulous hotel, Mr Ronnie Tan said that he’s going to treat us to a Karaoke session! I thought he was joking. I don’t see any TV anywhere (besides the bedroom) that can hold Karaoke sessions.

But I also forgot I’m in Japan and in Japan, anything is possible. We entered the dinner hall for the final time and I was shocked when I saw this robot like machine in front of the room. Upon closer inspection, it is a Karaoke machine! It has a built in TV which the singer will use as a lyrics guide and 2 sets of microphone. COOL!!!!! So, after our usual grand dinner, with stomachs bloated, we started our Karaoke session.

At first, no one wants to sing. Then some brave soul (I forgot who) went up and sang. Then Hiromi sung some Japanese song together with Natasha. It was very touching to see them sing a sad love song (I think). Then, Aryani and Arwin did a duet. And finally, the best part of the whole Karaoke session. This guy called Arwin sang ‘Uptown girl’. It was amazing. He was very lively and his actions were entertaining, though sometimes it looked rather strange and funny. Everybody was laughing their ass off. Even the teachers like Gary Tan and Annie went to join Arwin in singing. It was one of the heartiest moments of the trip! Great fun! There will not be such an experience ever again! It is very sad thinking that we cannot go back and have fun again. Sobs

Hiromi singing a Japanese song on the karaoke machine Hirmomi and Natasha 'duet-ing'Aryani and Arwin duetsMs Annie Tan doesn't want to miss the fun too!Arwin with his hilarious singing of 'Uptown Girl'It was so funny that everyone is laughing their ass off. Look at Mr Gary Tan on the right =)After that wonderful karaoke session, we headed to the hot springs for the very last time. It was very saddening to know that we will not be coming back to this place ever again. After bath, most of us played arcade because we could not bear to part with everything in the hotel, which includes the arcade too! Within just 4 days, there seems to be lots of emotions attached to this hotel. The staffs are very friendly and honest, the facilities are great and last but not least, the food is just awesome! That night, it was quite difficult to sleep and thus, I watched some late night TV. Guess what I saw? I saw a Japan news programme which was interviewing Japan's own F1 driver Takuma Sato about his chances in that week's USA Grand Prix. After that, there was Red Bull airplane racing. Yagesh and Jun Hou were quite irritated by the noise made by the TV and asked me to go upstairs.

Day 6: I woke up and found a slip of paper underneath the door. It was a bill 'demanding' payment for a 'Majong Set'! Appalled, I questioned everybody in the room to see who on earth ordered a majong set. I do not want to contribute money or owe the hotel something for the things I did not buy. As it turns out, Paul and Alloy bought the Majong Set. They said they have paid already and that slip of paper is a receipt. I was skeptical at first because the slip of paper was clearly labelled as 'BILL'. But whatever, at least I don't have to pay for something that I did not buy, I am satisfied.

We did last minute packing of our luggages and left the hotel room with a very heavy heart. We met at the lobby and had our last breakfast there. We reluctantly waved goodbye to the hotel staff who, was all standing in one line waving goodbye to us in typical Japanese hospitality.

Ms Annie Tan posing outside the hotel

Today, our destinations are the mayor's office and our highlight of our trip, a one night stay with a Japanese family at their house! We had difficulty driving down the mountain road because the road was only fit for 1/half cars and the bus would have to give way if a car passes by on the other side. But this time, our obstacle was not a car, it a freaking huge bus! We were stuck in that mountain road jam for about 15 minutes as both drivers skilfully manoeuvred their buses pass each other with millimetres to spare. It was one scary moment as our bus could have rolled down the cliffs as there are NO safety barriers.

On the way there, we spotted some amusing buildings.

A pink house that actually looks more like a doll house. Diva should consider this house as his dream home =0Yellow hat! What a cool name for a tyre shop.It was an hour drive to downtown Kurihara whereby we arrived at the mayor's office. The mayor's office, compared to the other buildings in the area is actually quite grand. There are 5 storeys in the building and the first thing we saw when we entered the building was the vending machine corner. WOW! There's like 8 vending machines in just one corner. I don't know why do they need so many vending machines =.=" There, a woman picked us up and led us to the 3rd floor by - STAIRS! So cheapskate!

Vending machines spree!Random shots of the teachers chattingWe arrived at the 3rd floor with many curious pairs of eyes starring at us. These eyes belongs to the office workers from the taxation department. These people are in charge of all the tax related matters in the district. She explained that the manager sits at the head of a row of table and then followed by his subordinates. She then pointed to the ceiling and explained that the white box (or panel) indicates weather the important people are in the building. If they are present, their names will appear, if they are not, it will go off. Now, how cool is that? If only they could implement that system in our school. Then we know which teachers will not be in school that day.

The hardworking employees of the tax department. That white box hung on the ceiling at the centre is the name display that I've just explained.After the tour round the tax department, the woman brought us to the meeting room to meet the mayor. While waiting for the mayor to arrive, she finally introduced herself. She is the mayor's secretary. The mayor arrived at greeted us warmly. We then learnt how to fold origami papers. The papers they gave out are very nice (and expensive too I guess). Then the mayor personally gave out gifts to all of us.

The meeting roomThis beautiful miniature fan given out by the mayor himself! We left the mayors office and headed to the meeting place whereby we will meet our host families for the day. On the bus, we were shown the previous night's news. And as expected, we featured again! This time, I can clearly see myself on TV! So cool! By now, the whole of Japan should already know we S'poreans are here.

Look! We are on the news!

We arrived at our meeting place and met our host families who will take us in for the night. There is an allocation of 2 people to one host family. We were all very nervous when we all met them. Communication was a BIG BIG BIG problem for most of us. They spoke very very little English while we spoke very very little Japanese. I wonder how are we going to spend the day if we can't communicate? My partner was Jun Hou and we said 'Hi' in English to our host family and they replied 'Hi' back in English.

Our host families was this 30+ year old mother with 2 sons, one is 3 years old and the older one is 5 years old. She introduced to us their names. I can only recall the older boy, his name is Kento. She led us to her car which was a navy blue Nissan X-Trail. From there, we set off for a 10 minute ride to their house. In the car Kento was very interested about us. He kept asking questions in JAPANESE! Obviously I don't understand what he is saying and I just nodded my head to whatever he said.

My constant nodding of the head made Kento look very confused as I have obviously not answer his questions. He then turn his attention to a toy which he took out from the central console of the car. It is a toy that makes some sound when you press a button. It is a very kiddy toy for kids. He seemed very keen to let me play with it. Being a good guest, I pretended to like it alot =.=" Jun Hou was all along laughing as me as I was stuck with Kento and his kiddy behaviour. Kento only focused his attention on me but not Jun Hou. Jun Hou was too quiet, Kento tried communicating with Jun Hou but Jun Hou just kept quiet. Anti social sia! Maybe I am better at handling kids bah. I have 5 cousins under the age of 7, of course I know how to handle small kids =)

Finally, after what feels like eternity, we reached their house. Their house is a 2 storey house and has a gravel garden entrance. There was no gate at all! I am very surprised at this because the house is very easily accessible. I believe they trust their neighbours so well that installing a gate was unnecessary. The house is elevated from the ground probably due to earthquake reasons. Their father at the garden and he showed us to our 'room'. It is not really a room because there is basically nothing in it. There's just a tatami bamboo floor and nothing else. I guess they must have cleared the mess for us or something.

We also met their grandmother and grandfather. They were very friendly and asked us if we needed a drink, if we are hungry or not and all the typical hospitable Japanese questions. Grandmother said that lunch would be ready in a while. Meanwhile, we have some visitors who had just arrived. It turned out to be their next door neighbour. They are a 13 year old boy and his grandfather. The neighbour's grandfather was really good and enjoyable to communicate with. Even though none of us know what we are trying to say, we just had this special 'something' for the neighbour's grandfather.

His grandson introduced himself as a 13 yr old from the same school we had visited a few days ago. Too bad I forgot his name. Then he showed us the superiority of Japan's handphone. He said that since we have a language barrier between us, why not use the translator function in his phone? I was dumbfounded when I saw the function. It is a really ingenious method of communicating. Finally I get to understand what he's trying to ask me and Jun Hou all along - our age.

The, the grandmother told us that lunch was ready, I wanted to find the dinning table but she asked us to go out to the garden. In the garden, there was this big bamboo structure.

This is the big bamboo structure. It will be clearer if you seen this picture first and then read the explanationThe grandfather then let water rundown the bamboo 'stream' - just like a river. He then placed some noodles at the top of the 'river' and let it flow down. At the bottom of the 'river', we are supposed to use chopsticks and grab the noodle. I was told that this was the traditional method of eating noodles there. It was great fun trying the catch the "runway noodle"! LOL! So, what happened if we missed? Well, there is a bucket at the end of the river to catch hold of any stray noodles. Then, out of nowhere, the small 3 yr old kid toppled the bamboo structure as he was running aimlessly around. He got a spanking by the grandfather for causing trouble.

Just then, the most dreaded moment. The BLODDY TV crew was at the entrance and is going to interview us! Bloody hell, I've never been interviewed on TV before and to be interviewed in a foreign country is worse. Luckily, if I made any blunders, most people viewing the interview would not know because their English suck. I noticed the Japanese camera man like to place their camera very very near their point of view. The camera man literally placed the camera on my face when I was being interviewed. They asked me, through an interpretator subjective questions such as "How do you find Japanese lifestyle?" I'm like OMG, what happens if I say something wrongly? What will happen to me and stuffs?

I answered cautiously, something along the line of " I think Japan has a very different culture to S'pore. The pace of life in the rural area is much slower compared to S'pore and the people here are much more polite". I guess this is the best answer I could give without embarrassing myself on national TV, or worse, offend the locals. They turned their attention to Jun Hou and he did not answer as well as me. I forgot what question they asked Jun Hou. After the interview, the filmed us catching the runaway noodle and eating them. LOL, so lame! The noodle should be eaten with a sauce which taste salty and 'rice-cy'. There's more too, there was the Japanese version of friend prawns, rice ball with sotong and much much more. There are just too many food for us to finish and we feel bad that the food are going to go to waste if we don't eat them. Thus, we forced ourselves to eat.

After lunch, the TV crew left and the neighbour's grandfather brought along some bicycles from his house and asked if we would like to ride it around the neighbourhood? We obviously agreed, cycling beats staying at home and doing nothing! He called his grandson to lead the way and off we go! The first thing I tried doing was to change gear and I am really amazed by the smoothness of the gear change. There is no rattling of cogs, no stuck gears and no jerking. The best thing of all, it changes instantly, just like a car's automatic gearbox! Japan do really know how to make good gears. It was so fun changing gears that I kept changing over and over again. Normally I don't do that on a bicycle but changing gear on this bike is just too fun. Even Jun Hou agreed!

We cycled about 2KM to the nearby community centre. Then, the grandfather brought us to the video room where we watched super kiddy shows like Tom & Jerry. I was very bored by then and suggested that we cycle around the neighbourhood some more. My request was granted and we cycled to the nearby baseball field where a game of baseball was being played. We stood there and watched for a while before cycling back to the house. Along the way, I witnessed how friendly Japanese are. They greeted one another whenever they met! Even though they are strangers, they still greet!

Back home, the father whipped out a Japanese - English translation book and flipped through the pages frantically. He then showed us a phrase - "Do you want to go for a drive?" OF COURSE! Driving in Japan, how cool is that? We waited for the father to collect his car. I was expecting the same Nissan Xtrail that we arrived in. But no, it was another car. It was a Nissan something, can't really remember, it's a MPV with 7 seats and the doors open and close automatically with a touch of a button - SO COOL! Me, Jun Hou, the mother and her 2 kids and the neighbours son got into the car. The mother did the driving. She was super cautious while going around town. She stopped at every junction even though there are obviously no cars around. Women driver - Haiz!

Our first stop was the gas station, their gas station is so cool! The gas pump will read out the price of the petrol after you've finished pumping. Japan is so high tech lor! Next, we went to the lily park. It was rather boring as I am not a fan of flowers. Nonetheless, playing with the 2 small kids were fun. I even piggy bag one of them while running around the park!

Flowers, I don't know the name of all of them but I suppose they are all lilies?

Later, we went to the ice cream stand to have ice cream. The mother took a gay picture of me eating ice cream =.=". The boy in the blue striped T-Shirt is the neighbour's 13 year old son while the small cute boy in green is Kento. Next, we drove to the district's fire station. We were told that the father works as a fireman at that station and wanted us to show us around. When we reached the fire station, Kento was already sleeping. So the mother decided to stay in the car to take care of him while me, Jun Hou, the neighbour's kid and the father left the car and explored the station. He introduced himself to his collogues. They were all very happy to meet us. Next, we entered the earthquake simulation room where a earthquake simulator is present. We entered the simulator and they set the machine to 3.0 magnitude. There was a little bit of shaking but nothing much. It was gradually increased to 7.0 where the shaking was very violent. For safety reason, we were told not to stand, but sit on the floor so that we do no fall.

The shaking was so violent that I lost my sense of direction and balance after the shaking stopped. My head was literally spinning! Then, the shaking started again, this time, there was a mixture of strong shaking and weak shaking. I was told later that the earthquake we experienced just now was a replica of the Kobe earthquake which killed thousands back in the 1990s. Next, we used a fire extinguisher to extinguish some 'flames'. Actually, we are extinguishing flames from yet another simulator. It works like this: There is a fire on the screen and we have to use a fake fire extinguisher to put out the flames. Japan is so high tech, using simulators for practically everything.

Next, we got a chance to enter one of those fire trucks. I got into the driver's seat as usual. They demonstrated what the various buttons do and stuffs. They even showed us a hydraulic cutter that can cut through thick metals.

The powerful hydraulic cutterFire trucksMe in the driver's seat! The view outside
Posing with the crews of Miyagi fire departmentAfter that, we made our way back home. By the time we reached home, there are quite a number of people in the house already. They were the relatives of my host family. We had a chat with the uncle who was incredibly friendly, partly because he can speak English and partly because he is a really funny person. He said he had been to S'pore 2 times already and asked where we stayed. He then sketched a rough shape of S'pore and drew Sentosa at the south and asked the location of our homes relative to Sentosa. The fact that he knows where is Sentosa is quite commendable already.

So, after that chat, we had a chance to prepare dinner. We were told to make rice balls in the traditional way. But first, we have to pound the rice. Grandfather demonstrated how to do it. First you pick up a heavy looking wooden mallet and start pounding it with all your force into a bucket filled with rice. He let Jun Hou and me take over. It was a really really heavy mallet. I had difficulties pounding the rice as it was really heavy. The father helped me a little and I got tired soon after and gave up. Nonetheless, it was quite an experience.

Grandfather demonstrating the right way to pound the riceMe together with the father pounding the riceNow, I am pounding the rice on my own! Ferrari power!Jun Hou managed to pound the rice without much helpAfter that tiring work, it was back into the house where the neighbour's son introduced to us an ingenious way of communicating. He showed us a software on the laptop which allows direct Japanese to English translation and vice-versa. It was much faster and easier to use than the handphone and of course, the words are much bigger too. It made our language barrier shrink from a thousand miles to only a mere centimetres. Their keyboard is a little bit different from ours as I could spot some Japanese characters on the keys.

Me typing on the translator as others look uponBy then, more people had arrived, we had more small kids joining us. How great! It was dinner time and we ate in the garden. There was lots of food. Let me name a few: Teriyaki chicken sticks, rice balls, fried prawns, green tea paste, errr.... some soft drinks, there's more but I can't really remember much. But one thing I can clearly remember was that the weather was really cold. The wind was blowing quite strongly and night time in Japan was freezing, even during summer. I took a quick glance at the thermometer inside the house, it states 17 degrees Celsius. And mind you, that's IN THE HOUSE, it's much colder outside with the howling wind and lower temperature. I reckoned it is about 13 degrees outside.

We having dinner in the garden. Look at the cute little kids and our laptop/translator which makes communication much easierI kept complaining to the neighbour's son about the freezing weather which kind of dumbfounded him. After dinner, I checked the F1 website for news about that week's USA grand prix. This is when I found out that the neighbour's son love cars too! He introduced to me a game called Test Drive Unlimited and said he really wanted to buy that game but could not. I liked that game too because of his superior graphics. Luckily I found out about his passion for cars and later during the year, through the introduction by the neighbour's son, I bought myself a copy of Test Drive Unlimited. It is a great driving game! I hope he already got his own copy of Test Drive Unlimited.

Soon, those who don't reside at the house left. That leaves me and Jun Hou quite bored. So, having not gone to the toilet for ages, we went to the toilet (not together of course!) I was utterly stunned when I stepped inside. The toilet bowl is horribly high tech. There is a motorised seat cover, motorised spray, heated seats, and a built in sink. There's a jet of water for you to wash your bottom, air dryer to dry your bottom and another strange function which I dare not press. You can even adjust the intensity and temperature of the water that is spraying at your butt! There's even an infrared sensor to sense if there is anybody there and it will automatically lift the seat cover! HOW COOL IS THAT! All these high tech gadgets are controlled by a panel of buttons at the side.

The super high tech toilet. Note the infrared sensor and the built in sink at the top of the bowlThe built in sink which will activate after flushingThe high tech control panel. The top 2 buttons are the flush button (big or small) A row below (from left to right) STOP button, jet water spray, air dryer and a mystery button which I dare not try. Then below that it is the jet water temperature and intensity controlI spent quite a while playing with those functions as I have never seen these function before. It was quite fun playing. Even Jun Hou agrees! After that we took a bath and I noticed that even their bath tub is a hot spring - heated bathtub. Japanese really love hot water! After that, our futon (mattresses) were prepared and we tried to sleep. But I somehow could not get to sleep and went back to the living room to watch some TV. I was waiting to see if F1 would be shown on TV as it was the USA grand prix that day. Too bad Japan is not so interested in F1 than their baseball. Baseball is shown continuously for the 2 hours I watched TV.

Day 7: We woke up at 5.30am the next morning so that we could meet our 7am meeting time. It was freezing cold in the morning as usual. The sun was as bright as noon. The family gave us free toothbrushes and we washed up. Breakfast was a rice and eggs with bacon. Fresh milk was served as a drink. It was a rather filling breakfast we had. We did our last minute packing and gave gifts to the family for taking time and money to attend to us. We reluctantly big goodbye to the family and left knowing that there will be hardly anymore chance in the future where we get to experience the true Japanese lifestyle.

We arrived at the meeting place just on time and we left soon after saying our last goodbyes to our families.I don't think we will see each other again, but still - See you again!
It was another 7 hour bus ride all the way back to Narita Airport. On the bus, we exchanged our experiences about our home stay. Yagesh said that he got to ride on a motorised quad bike. So good! I only got to ride on a bicycle, albeit a good one. Aryani got to go boat rowing! Compared to others, my home stay was rather boring. While we were having our home stay, the teachers went to Sendai City via bullet train! So good! They too were amazed by the toilet in the hotel. The tour guide bough DVDs for us so that we will not be bored on the way back. It was a ghost story, it was rather trilling to watch.

The ghost movie shown on TV as an entertainment
But the interesting movie did not stop me from admiring the scenery and road outside. I even saw a sports car zooming past the bus at lightning speed. I can hear the car before I can even see it coming. This is the first and the only time I saw in real life a car speeding on normal roads Here are some things I saw during the trip

A signboard showing us that the name of the river ahead
Hokigawa River
This electrical signboard shows that traffic radio frequency
182KM to go to Tokyo
We came to our first rest stopA cute sign, don't understand what it means thoughShinoya TownTrain tracksOur 2nd rest stop132KM more to TokyoOur final rest stop at FukushimaGuess what I saw at the carpark? A left hand drive Mercedes S Class! Japan allows left hand drive cars even though majority of them are right hand driveAnd I also saw a vehicle that is banned in S'pore - A Caravan! It's a mobile house on wheels if you don't know. By the way, the Caravan is also left hand driveAt Fukushima, we did last minute shopping. I bought some souvenirs for my family and I bough this for myself - A blinking key chain.

Now you see meNow you don't!
I bought strawberry mochi, chocolates and coffee too! Then this gril called Desiree dragged me to the Gachapon corner and we bought this, a toy that makes a train related sound whenever you press a button. It is the same as Kento's toy!
It is now non stop all the way to Narita. Here are some pictures on the way there.

A soaring power station tower
Train tracks again500m more to Narita Airport. Just after this photo was taken, a United Airlines Boeing 747-400 flew over our bus, which made the whole bus vibrate and awaken those who are still in the sleepy land =)Narita Airport here we come!We arrived outside the airport departure hall. It was the bus driver Yamashita's birthday. We sang him a birthday song and tipped him generously using that we donated a few days ago. It was sad that he had to celebrate his birthday without his family. But the good thing is that after sending us to the airport, he could finally take a rest and celebrate his birthday with his family. We presented both Mr Ronnie Tan and Mr Yamashita with gifts and Mr Ronnie Tan lead us to our check in counter.

We arrived at the airport at 2.45 pm, 7 hours and 45 minutes after we set off from KuriharaDue to the stupid airport rules that do not allow liquid onboard hand luggage, we had to transfer all our bottles of water into our luggages. My luggage was already packed to the brim and squeezing in more things could prove impossible. After squeezing in the bottles and stuffs, I could not close my luggage! Even after sitting on it and using my whole body weight to close the luggage, it won't close. I needed the weight of big sized Ting Wei and me combined to finally close the luggage! Phew, if I could not close the luggage, I would be stranded in Japan.

The stupid rule that does not allow liquid in hand luggagesAryani had a fragile item with her - a traditional umbrella that was gifted to her by her host family. Luckily she was allowed to bring the umbrella on the plane. Mr Ronnie Tan started giving out the plane tickets and when I looked at the cover of my plane ticket, it states : Ms Alvan Pang - WTF! Since when did I become a woman?

Anyway, while weighing my luggage, I was hoping that I won't be charged for an overweight luggage. As it turns out, my luggage is 1.5KG overweight - 21.5KG. I think I have the heaviest luggage in the group! Luckily, the counter staff either did not see the weight or they can't be bothered in charging me the overweight fee. Thank god! I am already broke after buying that 2 planes.

Our check in counter F25 - Economy classMy ticket - Row 37 seat G, A window seat!!!! Yeah! Finally, a window seatOur plane departs at 17:40, we still have time to shopAnd shop we did! Unlike S'pore Changi Airport, where most of the duty free shops are inside the transit zone, in Narita, most of the shops are outside the transit zone, which means we do not have to go through immigration early. I went to the souvenir shop to buy 2 extremely expensive aeroplane model. I have quiet a lot of money left that why I bought the planes.

Narita Airport mall is the last place we went in JapanI bought the yet to be released Boeing 787-800 ANAAnd the Japan Airlines Boeing 777-300ERHere are the actual modelsIt cost a whooping 11 300 Yen! That's around SGD 140I also bought 2 key chains - one of ANA airline and another Singapore AirlineLater when it was 5mins to our meeting time, I found out that Narita has the best viewing gallery ever! It is open air and has a direct view of the runway! You can actually hear all the airplanes engine, from the turbine powering up to the growl of the thrust reversers in action. It was such a dream to have found such a place. Too bad I only stood there for 3 minutes. It is such a waste to spend such a short time in a dream palace. Well, better late than never =(

This is so cool! A mega size BMW front grilleIt is time to go through immigration. We thanked Mr Ronnie Tan for being such a great tour guide for the past 6 days and he wished us all the best for our future. We then went through a security baggage check first and then immigration which was one level below the departure hall. Then, something really scary happened, Jun Hou found out that he can't find his passport! He got scolded by Mr Gary Tan straight away. Luckily for him and the rest of us, a very kind Japanese immigration found out that he left his passport on the baggage check area and ran to us to return the passport to him. Great job Japanese people, you guys are really honest!

It's time to go, our plane is leavingImmigration and customsOur plane waiting for us at the gateA United Airline Boeing 777-200 getting pushed backWe took a short walk to our gate - Gate 52Then, after the boarding announcement, we finally can board the plane back home to S'pore!Once on the plane, I found out that I was sitting with Allen. Allen asked me if I don't mind switching places with him because he wants the window seat. I too want the window seat and kindly rejected his request.

Fellow passengers boarding the plane
A view out of the window from my seatThen, it was announced that our departure time would be delayed because a wrong baggage was loaded onto our plane. LOL!

The ground crew reopening the cargo door to remove the misplaced baggage =.=" Delayed the plane by 25minsOur very own SIA in NaritaThe safety booklet of our plane - Boeing 767-300Finally, we are ready for take off, please buckle up!So, there was the heavenly sound of the jet engine powering up and the weird sensation of getting pushed into the seat as the plane took off. It was a sad moment as I know I would not be able to go back to Japan in the near future, I will miss Japan a lot! Once in the sky, I can even spot fishermen fishing in the sea! Then, when we went above the clouds, I can see another plane passing us, it was great to see another plane so close to us this high up in the sky.

Here are some very beautiful sky pictures for you guys to admire:

While passing above the Philippines, there was a major thunderstorm and they was heavy turbulence, bolts of lightning can be seen from the plane. It was a scary moment for us. Turbulence hit even when I was peeing in the toilet =.="

Allen watching some penguin show while I listen to music, I kept listening to the song titled 'Raindrops keep falling on my head" as it is the only song I likeIt was dinner and for dinner, it was rice with Salmon and some vegetables. The meal was not very good, but still, better than nothing. The best part was desert as it was some chocolate cakeWOW! We are travelling at 874 km/h above the South China Sea heading towards SingaporeAt an altitude of 34 000 feetI browsed through the duty free catalogue. They sold lots of unnecessary things thoughThen, when the plane was very cold, they served ice cream to us. Quality ice cream - Haagen-DazzThe everybody went back to sleep again, well not everybody but most. Talking about sleep, I am amazed that I could hold out so long. I did not sleep on the plane or the bus at all!To keep myself entertained for the last part of the journey, I played blackjack on my personal screen. And I won! - as shown in this pictureWe touched down in S'pore at 12.25am Monday (Day 8). It was a breeze clearing immigration as there was hardly anyone around at that hour. I took my luggage and found out that the handle has broken. It must be those airport handlers or is it the sheer weight of my luggage that broke the handle? I met my parents who were fetching me at the arrival hall. I reached home at 2am and slept at 4am after doing some basic unpacking. All in all, it was a really good and rewarding trip to Japan - a trip that I will remember all my life.

Things/memories that I brought back from Japan:
1. Japanese people are very hospitable, kind and honest.
2. Japan is very clean, even though rubbish bins are quite hard to come by, the streets are practically spotless!
3. Japan love hot water, especially hot springs!
4. Never drive in Tokyo without a GPS system, you will bound to get lost.
5. Japan roads are as smooth as silk, there is hardly any bumps, especially on major roads such as the expressway.
6. Japan has a very nice weather, perspiring was almost impossible
7. Japanese love nature
8. Japan ROCKS!

Sadly though, on June 14 2008 at 8.43am, exactly a year after I've been to Japan, a deadly 7.2 magnitude earthquake stuck the Miyagi prefecture. 11 people died at 250 people were injured. I do hope that my host family was unharmed during the earthquake.

I was told my Mr Gary Tan that our hotel has collapsed and the river where we did our field work has been chocked by a landslide. I was dumbfounded after hearing this bad news. I hope everything there is fine now.

A hotel in Miyagi prefecture balancing precariously at the edge of a rock as the earthquake displaced the earth underneath it.I do hope you've enjoyed my special report about my trip to Japan in 2007. I know it is a super long post and I thank you for reading. If you have any questions or need any full sized picture about the trip, please do leave a message on my cbox or contact me via MSN! =)

Splat!

Haha, so funny. Loo Loo got splatted with cream during his 'birthday celebration'. It all started on Wednesday where we have to come back for Maths remedial class. We were doing some questions when out of a sudden, Fanny, Paul and Yan Xun left the class. We did not suspect anything yet but they soon came back in a much bigger group consisting of people like Yun Keat, Nadya, Kim blah blah... They were holding a birthday cake and it suddenly dawned on me that they were celebrating Loo Loo's birthday.

Then, I noticed that Yun Keat, Yan Xun and Kim were holding a plate of cream in their hands, they hid their hands behind their backs so that Loo Loo could not see the cream which would soon end up on his face.

Yun Keat with a plate of cream
Yun Keat, Kim and Yan Xun all holding plates of creams (Circled in different colours). Naughty boys! Yan Xun could not hide his excitement - as shown by his facial expression
Nadya presented Loo Loo with his b'dae cake and that initiates the cake cutting ceremony.
Then, the moment of truth, the cream is splatted on Loo Loo's face courtesy of our 3 musketeers. (That blurry image in front of Loo Loo is Yun Keat's hand splattering Loo Loo) Yan Xun was about to strike too! (Red circle)
Creamy Loo Loo! He definitely did not expect to celebrate his birthday like this.
The clean up starts...
When Loo Loo went to the toilet to wash up, Yun Keat splashed a bucket of water onto Loo Loo. It was definitely a wet and wild birthday party for Loo Loo. The party planners were not that cruel to let Loo Loo go home with dirty clothes. So they bought him a new shirt which doubled as a birthday present.

We ate Loo Loo's birthday cake. It was creamy blue berry. Not the tastiest cake I have tasted, but it was acceptable nonetheless.

Anyway, here are some pictures that portrays Singapore's sotong side. These pictures are taken at the newly opened Smith Street hawker centre at Chinatown.

Notice the upside-down sign on the top left hand corner? LOL. I don't know how a normal construction worker who knows basic alphabets would not know it is screwed in upside-down =.="
A closer look at the flawed sign
On Thursday, me together with Aishah, Aryani, Danial, Firdaus, Haikal and Elsie went to Sentosa for a day out at the beach. We met at Vivo at about 10am. I went to my favourite hang out at Best Denki for a few rounds of Grand Turismo 5 on a G25. I met George while driving. He was supposed to come along with us to the beach but somehow, our outing clashed with his St John outing in Sentosa. Thus, sadly he could not come with us. George tried to drive the G25 and promptly crashed out at the 1st corner. Gran Turismo 5 on a G25 is indeed a hard game for beginners. So beginners, don't try driving a G25 at home!

Haikal came a while later but refused to have a go on the G25. Aryani, Aishah and Firdaus came a while later. Xiao Dan, the person who planned this outing to Sentosa was nowhere in sight. I later learnt from Aryani that Xiao Dan decided that she was 'sick' that day and did not come. Pang seh kia =.=". Aryani and Aishah had a go on G25. Oh no! Women drivers playing an incredibly hard driving game equals to disaster!

Surprisngly, Aryani can control the car much better than I expected. She was 100 times better than Diva in driving. Though both Aishah and Aryani went off the track countless of times, at least they completed the full 2 laps, 4 laps for Aryani's case. Aishah was very good at cornering while Aryani was very good in recovering the car when it spun. Although they are too scared to floor the accelerator, it's still better to be slow than crash into the wall.

Elsie was bugging us to go as it was already 12pm. We spent 2 hours at the games corner. LOL! So finally we made our way to the Sentosa Express station.

The train is arriving! Yeah!The Superstar Virgo at the docksThe big Lobang (hole) at Sentosa. The Lobang is created because of the upcoming Genting Integrated Resort.Haikal, Firdaus and me!We arrived at Sentosa's beach station and as soon as I got to the gates, I was stuck because I accidentally bent my ticket and at the same time spoiled the magnetic coil in the card. The Sentosa peeps let me out with their special card. We walked to the bike rental shop and there, we debated over which to do first, cycle or go to the beach first. Aryani and me thought that since we are already at the bike rental shop, why not we cycle first? But the others thought otherwise, so majority wins and we headed back to Beach Station again =.="

We queued up for the tram that will take us to Tanjong beach. This is when Danial arrived and we soon boarded the tram for Tanjong beach. It was a bumpy ride to Tanjong beach as the tram's suspension was bad.

We reached Tanjong beach only to find that they were doing some oil spill exercise to clean up some 'oil' at one end of the beach. We are afraid of being contaminated with 'oil', so we made our way to the other end of the beach and found a hut to settle down and put our things. We played beach soccer at first. But due to the hot sun, our feet burned whenever we stepped on the sand. So we decided to use the soccer ball and turn it into a game of water polo!

The seabed was filled with eky stuffs such as seaweed and other junks. What's worse, Aishah and me were bitten by crabs! Wth, the crab bit my fingers when I was trying to get rid of it as it was obstructing me underwater. Of course I did not know it was a crab until it bit me. The crab bit Aishah on her legs. Stupid crab. We played a game of monkey in the water too. While playing, Danial lost his glasses, we took a long time using our feet to feel the seabed until I finally found his glasses. Danial owes me a meal for that. Nah...haha joking! Here are some pictures.

Danial!
Firdaus helped us take a group photo in the water. Thanks Fi!
Then we deicded to get out of the water and built sand castles instead. I found some planks of wood by the beach and use it as a tool for our new sand castle. We were building the largest dam in the world until the waves washed it away =.="Aryani buried in sand! Haha! Haikal and me stood guard just in case anybody tries to remove the sand. Haha!After 2 hours, we went to wash up at this really small wash area made out of rectangular metal conatiners. Yes, they are the same conatiners that you see being loaded onto ships and trucks. We met some people along the way. We met Desiree and her friends, met Lionel and George together with their St John mates and met Wakadeish with his family.

So we took the tram back to Beach Station where sadly, Firdaus has to leave to settle some things. We said our goodbyes. Aryani, me and Aishah wanted to go cycling. But Danial, Elsie and Haikal wanted to play cards. So we went our seperate ways temporarily. The rental rates for the bikes were expensive! $5 per hour. Actually, everything in Sentosa is overpriced! A bottle of 500ml mineral water cost $2.50! I could buy a plate of chicken rice elsewhere with that kind of money.

While cycling, we learnt something new. We learnt that cycling in Sentosa is a complete waste of money because the beach area is the only safe place for cycling. It took us merely half an hour to complete cycling (slowly) from one end of the beach (Siloso) to the other end (Tanjong). While cycling, I received a call from Varun saying that he is coming to Sentosa to meet us. Wtf! So late then come, lols. We were ending our cycling soon and told Varun to wait for us at Vivo. At the same time, Haikal, Elsie and Danial left for Vivo to meet up with Varun.

Aishah, Aryani and me slacked at the side of the road for a while to kill time while we wait for our 1 hour to run out. This is how boring cycling at Sentosa gets! It was a complete waste of our $5!

We returned our bikes later and took the Monorail back to Vivo. As expected, I have trouble with my ticket but the friendly staff at the gates helped me. The staff at Sentosa were so friendly that we thought it was too artifical. We first thought of this when Aishah pointed out that when the Monorial leaves the station, the staff on the platform will wave to the people on the train. While I appreciate their 'friendliness', I think if they wanted to wave, they could at least do it with emotions. The staff looked like some robot when they waved at us. It was kind of scary to see them wave at us with a fake smile. I'm not complaning, but I'd rather they not wave at us. Haha.

So we arrived back at Vivo to meet up with Haikal and Elsie. Danial left already. We went to Banquet for dinner. I was so hungry that I gobbled up 2 meals. The first one was western food - Grilled fish with pasta while the 2nd meal was Chicken rice. In the time I took to finish 2 meals, it took Aryani the same time to finish 3/4 of her Yong Tau Fu meal. She's indeed very slow at eating.

Then suddenly, Aryani exclaimed out loud, she said she lost something (again) =,=" We thought it was her phone or something. But it turned out to be her camera's memory card. She said she left it in her pants and went swimming with it. What's worst, she said her pockets was filled with sand and she emptied the sand, along with her memory card into the sea! LOL! For all we know, it could have floated to Indoneisa already. It is impossible to find such a small thing under the water, unlike Danial's glasses. So, we told Aryani to accept the inconvinient truth. Haha.

So Aryani, me and Aishah went home together on bus 855. To kill time, we talked about all sorts of things such as - have we ever gotten lost before and childhood stuffs. I learnt some new things from that chat. I'm not about to reveal anything here though. Haha!

On the way home, I spotted this Nissan GT-R supercar. Damn cool!
So that's the end of my post! To add on to the excitement, the next post shall be a very special post. If you want to know what is the special post all about, please visit my blog anytime soon. Till then, make sure nothing is in your pocket before you go swimming in the sea!