♥ a dream come true :)

Friday, December 14, 2007Y

whee back from japan! kinda miss japan now. haha. i read a few band members' blogs and found out stuffs. sigh. all i can think of now is not the super duper happy parts of the trip but rather the aftermath of the trip.

fine. i aint those optimistic kind of person so i always emo everywhere. let me be alone for a mere 1 minute and i can come to a conclusion that i should just jump off the building and die. this trip has caused disputes which not all of them can be resolved. i felt like isolating myself away from this cruel world. it was only recently that i really realized that i am that biased. seriously no lie about it. i dont feel anything at all until ppl start showing me attitude and talk to me with words that stings. and the greatest impact of all comes from a blog i came across. suddenly i understood her signs she showed in japan. thus now after being totally deeply stung by her cruelty, i shall sort out my thoughts once again.

the happy trip.
osaka - hiroshima - okayama - tokyo - singapore!

22 november, Thursday
hmm we went from changi airport to kansai airport and we waited for a bullet train there to shin-osaka. our first stay was at shin-osaka youth hostel. the hostel is nice & spacious.
the sleepers: daphne, jill, linying, miaoting, xiaohui & me.
miaoting & linying took the upper bunk, xiaohui & jill took the lower bunk while daph & me took the tatami platform. haha. the hot bathe was super funny. everybody dont dare to go in coz we must be naked before going into the main bath. by right no towels are allowed inside but we dont care. ehh shy mah. but it was really a fun experience. daph, jill, miao, ying & me bathed in the morning i think. haha. that day we went to visit the nara deer park but kinda didnt see much deers around so we ended up talking to mr tan.

23 november, Friday
today was a full day of fun out at osaka universal studio! the fun-riders are daphne, jill, linying, miaoting & me. the rides there are super long Q. at some rides we might even have to wait for 3 hours. thus we didnt took a lot of rides. slightly sad but the rides were really fun. we also went to Backdraft to see the fire burning the studio. lol.
rides taken: Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Jaws & Hollywood Dream

24 november, Saturday
we left the hostel early in the morning and went to take a bullet train from Shinkansen to Hiroshima. next we board a coach which drove us to Hiroshima Castle. the castle is quite tall thus the view from the top was quite a pretty sight. there is this coin machine inside the castel which we could have our names punched onto a coin and the reverse side of the coin is the picture of the castle itself. after the walk, we took the coach to the Hiroshima University of Economics Training Center and stayed overnight there. all of us girls slept together in a huge room while all the boys together in another smaller room. there was a welcome party held by Akitakata City that night and we had japanese delights for dinner.

25 november, Sunday
we had a band practice in the morning and we sound totally screwed. sigh. but we went on to Akitakata City's Junior High and performed. we had a short practice time but we still sound screwed. we heard Yoshida Junior High's band performed and it is a WOW.
songs performed: The Singapore Experience, Postcard from Singapore, A Pretty Island & Singapure Suite (1st movement) after the performance we went back to the room to pack up and meet our host families. the band was divided to visit 3 schools and me&linying were going to Mukaihara Junior High. my host is Natumi-chan and her sister is Ayaka-chan. we stayed over at her grandparents' house and pack our stuffs in her house. that night we went to a welcome party organised by Mukaihara Junior High. we had japanese delights and we played a few games.
* and there is this super duper kawaii boy named TAKAHIKO! ^0^
(the kawaii boy standing on the far left)

26 november, Monday
me&linying had a super heavy breakfast of gohan and many many dishes. then we went to school with Natumi-chan and we were almost late for school. haha. gomenasai! oh ya. daph&jill went to the same school as us too. (:

today's lessons: science, english, national language & social study
science was experimenting on producing hydrogen. we played Fruit Basket during english class and interacted with the third-grade students. we did sth like calligraphy(jap) during NL and we were to name the countries during SS.

school lunch: bread, soup, vegetables & milk.
after lessons was the performance. we sang Singapore Town for the japanese students and they performed a dance. next was an introductory to their school's activities. after that we each went with our host to their sports and see them practice. natumi-chan is from volleyball. me & brenda were taking photo madly of this super duper kawaii boy, TAKAHIKO! he is in the soccer team and he's 11 years old. haha. that night dinner was with bjorn, hong wei, jyn harng & winston's hosts. and a few others' hosts together in this udon shop. next we went to shopping together too. we met with daph&jill, again! haha. we took neoprints with Natumi-chan & Ayaka-chan before heading back home to try on kimonos.

27 november, Tuesday
sigh today is the farewell day to our first host family. natumi-chan has to go to school so her mother drove us to Akitakata's City Hall for us to meet up with the rest of the band. ying & our host mother cried. we bid farewell and the coach drove us to the port. we then took a 30minutes boat ride to Miyajima Island. deers roam about freely there and we too had our time to roam freely too. i bought this chocolate&vanilla flavored icecream after tasting cassandra's. haha. we took the boat back to shore and went to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. i took jolene's glasses and try on. haha. they say i look very serious. we went around finding answers to our journal as NE lessons. next kelly & me chiong to the end of the walk to get the stamps. haha. linying almost got lost inside the building despite the directed signs. -_- haha.

after that we went back to the coach and to the Hachebore Chante Hotel for a overnight. mr lam claims that it is a first-class hotel. me & ying frightened ourselves while opening the door into our room. haha. daph, jill, ying & me took videos before dinner and we went crazy. hahaha. after dinner daoying, daph, jill, jolene, kelly came into our room and we took photos and watch an "exciting" channel. oops...

28 november, Wednesday
we checked out of the hotel after breakfast and took a train from Hiroshima to Okayama and then a coach to Kagamino. haha. the poster that welcomed us was kinda cute with the mayor wearing our MF school tie. today was shopping @ Eon shopping centre.
the shoppers: daphne, jill, linying, yiok an & me

lunch was omelette with fried noodles & squid inside. during lunch mr tan asked us to take a look at the music store he saw. the super nice yamaha festival clarinet costs about 530 000yen and he wants me to get one. ex but really nice. :D looking forward to the day that i can get one. after lunch we went to the arcade and played this drum hitting game before rushing our way to the coach. next was a tour brought around by chris in a new library. after that was the meeting with our 2nd host families. me&linying were freaked out by the sight of our host. she looks really fierce. but luckily her husband is nice. haha.
host family: 2 grandparents, 2 parents & 2 girls (11yrs & 2 yrs old)

the promise - given by the host family

29 november, Thursday
visited Ueno Temple which is up on the hills. we had meditation session first. it numbed many legs. haha. then we had calligraphy session. the temple gave us this board which we all wrote "zhao fu" and we got the temple stamp on it. mr shoo & ms mok drew really nice wordings. lunch was a nice bento set. after that we went to vist the old people's home. we sang singapore songs for them with mr shoo playing the piano. he is talented! the old ppl are kinda touched and we all cried tgt. next stop was at the Fairywood Glass Museum. things start glowing in the dark there. haha. after that our host families fetched us home. dinner was nice. after dinner nana-chan taught us to fold origamis. after that me&ying practiced our instruments for the next day's performance. the whole family sat next to us and listened. so nice of them. (:

30 november, Friday
today was school visits. first school visited was Okutsu Junior High School. the school has a small number of only 45 students. they performed a recorder piece for us while we performed a few band songs for them. we interacted with them with this piece of paper whereby we exchange our signatures after introducing ourselves to each other.

the next school visit was to Kagamino JHS. we went to the hall and had a short rehearsal before having lunch together with the whole school. after lunch was performance in the hall.
songs performed: Singapura Suite, Postcard from Singapore, Abram's Pursuit
after the performace, we took a group photo. while taking, we saw the jap students leaving the school...by bicycles! that's cool. and i saw the super duper kawaii KETAI! woohoo. ^.^ we then had a tour around the school. it's huge and super nice. we watched their band video and was amazed by how this 24-members strong band can play so superbly. 0.o

today's dinner was chestnut rice. me&ying played some japanese games which was introduced by our host's wife (grandma) after dinner. grandpa is super enthu! he cheered and boo really loud at each turns. haha. the game was made fun by him. (:

1 december, Saturday
today we woke up at 6am, had breakfast and played with nana-chan. after that we changed into yugata - the summer kimono. this host family has a tradition of having tea ceremonies thus the yugata. wah the tea is bitter and adding on the fact that i hate tea makes it worst. ): haha. but it's an experience gained. after that we had more japanese games with nana-chan before we went to make mochi. after mochi making we had lunch outdoors at a cafe before heading to the bowling arena! haha. this is my first time bowling and it's fun. we took neoprints with nana-chan there and had ice-cream. while on our way home, i was talking to ying about ketai when nana-chan says that she knows him! haha. ketai & nana's fathers are good friends. so coincidence...

that night we had a farewell dinner at Kagamino Culture Center and buffet was for dinner. grandpa did sth funny today. his car is a 8-seater car and he actually climbed into the car through the back opening! haha. after dinner was speech. mr lam once again sang that sad farewell song. sigh. after that was a song performed by 3 japanese. haha. that guy was in a girl's costume. lol. after that we went back home. on our way out, chris passed me&ying a gift which was from Hirokazu & Mitani. so nice of them! while on our way home, nana-chan pointed our hiro's house to us. it's big and nice.

a gift from hirokazu

2 december, Sunday

today was another farewell day to our 2nd host family. sigh. grandpa drove us to the meeting place for us to meet up with the rest of the band. nana-chan told us to write back to her. we waved goodbye to them and cried on the coach. throughout these 5 days, the family took photos of us and gave them to us at the end of each day. so nice of them! (: we went to the train station and took a 4hours train ride from Okayama to Tokyo. 6 of us sat facing each other - yiok an, jill, daphne, linying, me & cassandra. during the ride we saw Mt. Fuji and it's really nice. after that we took some train rides to Tokyo International Youth Hostel. we did a little shopping before dinner. the room here is smaller but still nice. the common bath are curtained so we managed to bathe faster. haha.
the sleepers: daphne, jill, linying & me

3 december, Monday
whee TOKYO DISNEY SEA!!! we took a train to DisneyLand and a Mickey Mouse monorail to DisneySea. haha. the monorail has handles in the shape of mickey which is so cool.
fun-riders: daphne, jill, linying, yiok an & me.
we had a whole day there thus managing to take almost all the riders. haha. the Flounder's Flying Fish Coaster is super fun. haha. kiddy ride but still fun. in here we met some friends around unlike Universal Studio which we met almost none. the popcorns here have many flavors. weird flavors but the box is nice so i bought one. haha.
popcorn flavors: strawberry, chocolate, caramel, cappucino, black pepper, sea salt...
rides taken: Journey to the Center of the Earth, Tower of Terror, StormRider, 20 000 Leagues Under the Sea, Aquatopia, Indiana Jones Adventure, Flounder's Flying Fish Coaster, Triton's Kingdom rides - Jumpin' Jellyfish, Blowfish Balloon Race, The Whirlpool

we shopped a bit and watched the fireworks - Christmas Wishes in the Sky. while going there we saw this performance by the disney characters. they sang their songs on stage. but the speeches are in jap thus we left. haha. after the fireworks, we took train rides till we reach back the hostel. it was quite late already so we rushed our dinner and the 4 of us decided to bathe the next morning instead in case the lights off while bathing. lol.

4 december, Tuesday
today is a shopping day. we started off at Ueno where we were discouraged to buy stuffs coz mr lam claims that Canon Temple has more things to shop. fine. but many things at Ueno were really cheap and many of us bought bags and jackets. we had lunch ourselves and the 4 of us went to this shop that sells food through ordering from the vending machine. after that we went to hard rock cafe and looked around. next stop was shopping at Canon Temple which has nothing nice to shop. ): we went to the temple and drew lots. haha. then we went shopping around for food to bring home. we then came to this arcade and went inside to play. we saw belle & friends and yiok an joined them while we went upstairs. we were searching for toilet but ended up finding the upstairs full of neoprint machines. haha. we took neoprints and almost freaked out when we clicked the wrong button. we almost lost the neoprints coz ying accidentally pressed the "bluetooth" function. haha. but luckily nth bad happened. after that we meet back together and went back to the hostel. ninnart was being weird during dinner by giving out vitamin C for free. lol. but still it's a thanks to her! (:

BLEACH - The DiamondDust Rebellion

5 december, Wednesday
the happy trip. we woke up as early as 5.30am and left the hostel at 6am to avoid the morning crowd. we were given sandwiches for breakfast which was to be eaten on our way. we took a train to Narita Airport and checked in. we were left with no time to shop! ): we boarded the plane and my partners were Chu Ying & Josiah. during the take-off, the captain found some technical problems with the plane thus the plane was delayed for about an hour. i practically slept through the whole trip. the lunch provided was japanese international style. smoked salmon & soba were included. i didnt eat much coz i wanted to sleep. haha. the whole trip back was quite a shaky one due to the weather conditions. when the plane was about to land, the weather caused the plane needing to stay flying in the air for a while more before it could land. sigh. thus the plane was delayed again. but at least we landed safely. HOME SWEET HOME! :D

these are some characters of the "nai cha story"

Labels: Japan Exchange Programme 2007

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