(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>-
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 plane
Travelling on the travellator in the direction of immigration
7.45 am is the time we disembarked from the plane
Signboard 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 terminal
We loading our luggages onto the bus
Our 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
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 stop
Look 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 stop
The 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 sign
MaxValu supermarket building
Some sign that I don't understand
I 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...?
The food stand in the middle of the carpark. It's closed that day. So I don't know what they sell
We 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
Paddy fields like these exist in abundance in the rural country side
A fast flowing river - such a river cannot be found in S'pore
Entrance to our hotel
The 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 Kurikoma
Hot 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 corridor
My room, 221
The futon mattresses we slept on. It was surprisingly more comfortable than we expected
The view from the 2nd storey of our room - looking down to the 1st storey
The list of television channels
Our room's key
Fire 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!
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Ms Leong and Ms Annie Tan in the Yukata
Mr 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.
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After 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!
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 waterfall
Fun 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 overhead
Their streets are quite narrow by any standards
Even 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 position
You may find this familiar, the Initial D petrol station - Eneos
How can I neglect cars? The fabulous Nissan 300SX (old Fairlady) without licence plate
Toyota Supra
And lastly, a Mazda RX-7
Mr Gary & Ms Annie Tan
Beautiful flowers by the side of the street
After 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 water
A group photo at the park+of+606141883l.jpg)
A signboard indicating that there are lots of parks/garden in this area
Next 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 house
A 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 equipment
2nd step: Dip the wooden frame into the solution
3rd step: Squeeze the bag dry (what for?)
4th step: Flatten the paper
5th step: Let it dry
6th step: Remove the bamboo covering
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 Tan
I 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 man
Next, we visited the archaeology museum. It was quite boring, there’s nothing much to see.A statue of someone 'great'
An ancient pot or vase
Our 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 porcelain
Then 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 2007
I 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 instead
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 language
Some 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 hands
We 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 duets
Ms 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 =0
Yellow 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 chatting
We 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 room
This 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 explanation
The 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 cutter
Fire trucks
Me in the driver's seat! 
The view outside
Posing with the crews of Miyagi fire department
After 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 rice
Me together with the father pounding the rice
Now, I am pounding the rice on my own! Ferrari power!
Jun Hou managed to pound the rice without much help
After 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 upon
By 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 easier
I 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 bowl
The built in sink which will activate after flushing
The 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 control
I 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 tripA 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 stop
A cute sign, don't understand what it means though
Shinoya Town
Train tracks
Our 2nd rest stop
132KM more to Tokyo
Our final rest stop at Fukushima
Guess 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 drive
And 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 drive
At 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 me
Now 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 again
500m 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 Kurihara
Due 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 luggages
Aryani 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 class
My ticket - Row 37 seat G, A window seat!!!! Yeah! Finally, a window seat
Our plane departs at 17:40, we still have time to shop
And 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 Japan
I bought the yet to be released Boeing 787-800 ANA
And the Japan Airlines Boeing 777-300ER
Here are the actual models
It cost a whooping 11 300 Yen! That's around SGD 140
I also bought 2 key chains - one of ANA airline and another Singapore Airline
Later 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 grille
It 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 leaving
Immigration and customs
Our plane waiting for us at the gate
A United Airline Boeing 777-200 getting pushed back
We took a short walk to our gate - Gate 52
Then, 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 seat
Then, 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 25mins
Our very own SIA in Narita
The safety booklet of our plane - Boeing 767-300
Finally, 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 like
It 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 cake
WOW! We are travelling at 874 km/h above the South China Sea heading towards Singapore
At an altitude of 34 000 feet
I browsed through the duty free catalogue. They sold lots of unnecessary things though
Then, when the plane was very cold, they served ice cream to us. Quality ice cream - Haagen-Dazz
The 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 picture
We 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! =)
