26th October 2009
Geez! Seems like there isn’t anything interesting to blog about! It was raining today and we woke up early for breakfast.. Well, right after breakfast, I went straight to bathe and got ready for school! Our professor wanted to meet us at 9am so yea, we had to rush!

By 9am, we were outside her staff room but she was not in. Waited awhile and after 1hour, it seemed like she had somehow forgotten about our meeting! Well, coincidentally we met up with Hiroki and he wrote a note on our professor’s dashboard saying we’re waiting for her in our laboratory instead.

So yea! We went up to our lab and waited. Our professor finally came and wanted to see our progress of what we are learning from the red book. However! We did not bring our laptops with us as and had to go back to our dormitory to get them. As we hurried back with our laptops, our professor began explaining snippets of code to us. We were also briefed to come up with an image processing application! In other words, we had to code a photoshop from scratch! ><

27th October 2009
Ahh! I had breakfast this morning like every other mornings but! I went back to bed right after! Lunch was next and after lunch. Jia Hao and I brought our laptops to the common room and continued to work on our project.

Oh yea! Today is Tuesday so we’re having sadobu today! As 4, Jia Bao and I were already there and it kinda seemed like we were really early.. Well, the students were getting ready the equipments, utensils etc and cleaning the place. As for us, we’re just messing around, standing at a spot doing nothing. Lesson soon begun and once again we were offered tea! Next we were taught the techniques as to how to fold the handkerchief. Ahh.. I forgot what the handkerchief is called! It was confusing at first and not being able to understand Japanese didn’t make things any better! I was very lost and the sensei was really fast! I was already lagging behind by 3-4 steps! But thank god! A student came and kindly guided me through.

After lesson, Jia Bao and I were mingling around with the students and yep! Showed card tricks once again!

28th October 2009
Ahhhhhhh! This morning I woke up had breakfast and did I mention? My hair was in a mess! God knows how I slept through the night and ended up with my hair all messed up! Anyways, after breakfast, I went back up to take a nap all the way to 11!

Oh! Wei Quan and Jia Bao were suggesting we check out their Chinese lesson today so yep! Bathed and got ready for school! So there we were, walking down the corridor to the Chinese lesson when, we bumped into our professor! -.- She told us to follow her to her staff room so yea, I guess no Chinese lesson for me! In her staff room, she briefed us on a study trip that we were going and the destination was TOKYO!! WOOOHOOO we’re finally gonna check out tokyo! Well, I’d give you guys more details on it when it’s confirmed and stuff! So yea, right after, we had a briefing with the 4th year students and after that, it was back to our photoshop application..

Hmm.. right before dinner, we headed for HalloDay and wei quan was sleeping once again. Bought a marker and a shampoo and yep! Headed back for dinner!

29th October 2009
Woke up early this morning, had breakfast and went to bathe! Got ready for school and when packing my laptop into my laptop case, one of the zippers broke off!! Damn! Guess I’d be needing a new laptop case soon. So yea, went to school and worked on our project.. Lunch was great! Udon! And I think I took a photo of it with my handphone.. it’s not like everyday where we get nice meals!

Back to work after lunch and we knocked off at around 4 plus. Jia Hao and I were game to head off to Hikari no mori so yea! We hopped onto our bicycles and headed there. I needed a tie to go with the uniqlo shirt I bought few weeks ago but damn! There was no suitable tie I could find! Guess I’d have to check out the city some time soon. Well, as night begun to fall, we headed back and checked out MacDonald which was on the way back! Bought a mc pork burger for 100yen and it was YUM YUM!!! Mc pork!! LOL. Well, also on the way back, we stopped by maxvalue and I bought a big 1.5litre grape juice while Jia Hao stocked up on snacks! Well, headed back to school for dinner and yep! Here I am blogging!

30th October 2009
Ah damn! I totally forgot what happened today! -.- aint got a clue at all. Shucks. Let’s see, first things first! We didn’t wake up for breakfast! Yep. Everyone practically slept through breakfast.. It is a school holiday today if i’m not wrong.. ahh!! I REMEMBERED! It was Friday and since it was a school holiday, we were meeting Shimakawa sensei at 1300. Yep. We’re going to Tokyo next month so the school wanted us to setup a Japanese bank account. Yep! So at 1300, we met with Shimakawa sensei and he drove us to nearest bank. After filling up the forms and handling over our passports, we were given a bank book each!

After which, it was back to the school, dinner and stuff and oh yea! We had a meeting at the common room regarding tomorrow’s school festival!

31th October 2009
Woke up at 6 this morning! Today, the school is having a festival and we’re gonna help out at the foreign exchange students’ booth! Morning was cold! Really cold! I was freezing! Right after waking up, we began bringing stuff out from the common room’s kitchen to the other cafeteria in the school.

Well my role this morning, was as a transporter, bringing stuff in and out of the kitchen to the cafeteria while Jia Hao and Jia Bao were suited up with hair nets, aprons, gloves and were helping out with the preparation of the food itself. Peeling onions, making the dough, frying etc..

When all the preparations were done, we had breakfast, bathed and got changed. Jia Bao and I brought our DSLR along to the festival and before you know it, it started! Yep! Our booth was selling foreign food, prata with curry, salmosa from Indonesia and some Mongolian puff. So yea, I was helping to advertise our store, while the rest were either cooking, or helping out at the reception. Well! Then came this “promotional” idea from one of the guys who wanted me to perform card tricks to attract a crowd! -.- what the hell eh? Well, I did it anyway.

Alright enough about our booth. The festival itself was great! Well, it is Halloween so many students came dressed in costumes! There were Pikachus, Stitch, anime characters but most were witches and pumpkins! It was really cool! The booths around generally sold finger food and snacks.. Tako yaki, dumplings, bubble tea etc.. There were also a few ‘games’ booth! You know the shooting game where you had to shoot cups with a rifle? Yep! They had that too! There was also a haunted house! Ahh! Here is something interesting! At the entrance of the carnival, there is a bulletin for a Miss Universe Contest! The board had the participants’ photos and the public would have to vote! What’s cool is, THEY ARE ALL GUYS IN DISGUISED! LOL! Yep yep!

So basically! Thats it! The day was generally, helping out at the store, snapping pictures and I was playing with my cards! (:

1St October 2009
Eh! 1st October! Its been 1 MONTH since I’ve left Singapore! Wooohooo! =.= alright today was raining and everyone slept through to 8am! We had breakfast, bathed and got changed.. I pulled on my new shirt I bought from uniqlo few weeks ago and jb lent me his black tie (:

It was still raining and dempasai was cancelled!! =.= DAMN! Guess we can’t visit the haunted house! Well, at around noon? We met with Nickolas. He’s the engineering student that was gonna join us from TP. So yea, had lunch and headed to the school. Well, dempasai was cancelled but a friend told us Sadobu was not! So yea! Off we went with our DSLR to the sadobu club. Didnt manage to take any pictures and the tea was bitter! LOL! But oiishi! :D

After which, we met up with hiroki and he drove us to youme. Well, Nick needed to get a few stuffs and Hiroki suggested we check out youme which was slightly further down hikari no mori. When we finally arrived, the shopping centre was way bigger than the one we previously went! The shops inside were different too! So yea, nick got his stuff and we ate Mc pork for tea break! LOL! Damn I love Mc Pork!!

2nd October 2009
Geez! I was too tired to blog the previous day so yea! Am chionging the previous day’s posts! Alright! Breakfast in the morning.. and oh! Today and tomorrow is school vacation! A rest day for dempasai and guess what I did after breakfast? SLEEP! Yep! plonked right into bed after breakfast and slept till lunch! Lunch today was great! Spaghetti! Woot! (:

Ahh! Fast track! The whole afternoon we were practically doing nothing. I was in my room the entire day watching movies and blogging.. Well! When it was 1820, we met up with the rest of the foreign exchanged students at the dormitory’s entrance. Ahh! Missed out something! Since morning, TODAY HAS BEEN FREEZING COLD! Like seriously! Very very very very cold. =.= I mean yesterday’s weather was still quite okay. But today.. It’s just crazy! Alright. We were going to a nearby cafe for dinner to celebrate the success of the Dempasai festival which we all helped out in. So yea! We knew it was gonna be cold outside so I wore my sweater and a cardigan as well! When we stepped out of the dormitory, the first thing I said was #$%#%#%#! LOL. It’s was so damn freaking cold! Kinda regretted not bringing my scarf and gloves along! Everyone was freezing! LOL. Well, we then headed for the bus stop and waited for the bus.

The bus, well it was much similar to the train. I mean, before boarding the bus, we had to take a ticket with the current stop number and pay accordingly when we alight. So yea! Off we were to Joyfull! Alright! We alighted a few stops later and guess what! The cafe was right beside the tako yaki store we went earlier last week! Yep! So yea, ordered a meal which had beef, steak, salad, potatoes, top with a bowl of creamy soup! It was delicious! Oh! And as for drinks, it was free flow as we had some kinda “coupons”. So yea! Tried a few drinks, green milk tea? Well ya.. It tasted like green tea with milk tea! Also drank strawberry milk and a sip of coffee latte from one of the foreign students! (: Dinner was great! Delicious as well!

So yea, we headed back to the dormitory, bathed and here I am blogging! Ahh! It’s so damn freaking cold right now! My window’s tightly shut and it’s still so cold! One of the foreign exchanged students said the temperature’s gonna drop to 1°C at 0600 tomorrow! Ahhh! We’ll see how that goes!

20th October 2009
ZzZ.zzZ.zZzZ.. Slept through breakfast this morning! Wah. Not that we deliberately missed breakfast, but it just so happened that we woke up sometime after it has already been served. So yea! Dozed right back into yet another dream..

Well, Jia Bao and Wei Quan wanted to head for their lab at 1100 and I was already ready by then.. but guess what? Jia Hao was still sleeping -.- so yea, I waited for him while the rest carried on first. When he’s done, we headed to school and started going through the examples from the red book.

At noon, lunch was back at the dorm’s cafeteria so we headed back! Dang! Lunch kinda wasn’t my cup of tea. I didn’t wanna eat it but, I was already starving from missing breakfast! So yea. Had lunch, and back to the lab.. Our professor was there and she told us that we should be tapping onto the internet wirelessly instead of the LAN cables we’re using. A student would also be coming at 1400 to help us out with the wireless settings. Ahh. Not to forget, we were also informed of the seminar we had to attend at 1300 on Wednesday and we have a discussion with her next Monday, first thing in the morning at 0900! Dang! Not sure how thats gonna turn out.. its 9am! So damn early! Well, let’s see how it goes on next week!

Anyways, we were back doing our work and at 1400 and a student came in.. well, we didn’t know who that student would be when he comes to help us with our wireless settings so we didn’t really bother about him. Then! It started to get awkward when the Japanese students in the room started looking at us! We then realised he was here to help us with our wireless settings!

Fast track, we got the internet settings done and have been struggling with boredom! I mean, after a few hours of hardcore programming, it starts to get tiring! It was finally 1700, so we headed down to Jia Bao’s lab and met with Hiroki.

Hiroki wanted us to join the sadobu club again! We attended their tea ceremony last week and since its every Tuesday.. and today happened to be a Tuesday -.- we had to go! Well! I had fun though! So yea, the others weren’t interested so Jia Bao and I went to their club house! Well, it was awkward, but we nailed a few techniques, the greetings before drinking the tea, the words to say.. yea. That sorta thing.. overall it was fun! Yea! Really fun. We made a few friends too! The students there are very very friendly and some of them stayed in the school dormitory! A common topic was them telling us they’ve been to Singapore before.. yep! So all in all! Tanoshi!

Well, we headed back for dinner after and decided to check out Superkid after our meal. Hopped onto our bicycles and we were off! And DAMN!!! IT WAS FREEZIIING COLD! Damn damn damn cold! Crazily cold in the night! Ahh! We were literally screaming down the slope to Lawson! The wind was chilling! Well, we got to superkid and I bought a marker and some chocolates! So yea! Thats that!

21th October 2009
Ahhh! I hate this morning’s breakfast! Some fishy thingy with eggs inside! ): The rest love it though, but as for me.. uhh uhh.. As a result, I ate rice with seasoning and a little of the side dishes that came with that dumb fish!

Jia Hao and I have a briefing today at 1300. Since it was after lunch, I went back to bed! Woke up at 11, bathed, packed up and then went down for lunch. After which, we headed for our professor’s staff room and were briefed on the subsequent learning areas we would be undertaking. The year 4 students then came in and we were introduced to them. We were also told that we would be working alongside them! The second part of the briefing was in another school building, a somewhat AVA kinda room and it’s in JAPANESE! -.-

After the briefing, we headed for weiquan’s and jiabao’s lab (Shimakawa sensei’s Lab) and chilled out. Once again, my hands got itchy and I performed a couple of card tricks.. Their response was overwhelming! I mean, I’ve been doing it so many times and it doesn’t seem impressive to me as I know the mechanics behind how it all worked but! For a lay man having no clue how 2 aces magically morphing into 2 queens.. it was amazing! (: ahh! Showed their professor a trick too! LOL!

22th October 2009
Today is Jia Hao’s birthday! LOL! And we didn’t go to our lab today -.- yea, his birthday == holiday! LOL. So yea, I’d skipped the usual, after lunch, we took our newly handed books from yesterday’s briefing to Shimakawa sensei’s lab. Yep! We were chilling out again! The entire day wasn’t much to talk about cause I was reading the Java Threads book, looking at Japanese texts and playing with my cards! Nothing much if you ask me.

So!! At 1700, we left the lab for our dormitory. Jia Hao and Jia Bao played table tennis while wei quan went back to sleep! -.- As for me, I was watching them play from outside the room. Why you ask? That’s because they weren’t FREAKING playing table tennis! IT WAS MORE OF ROOM TENNIS !-.- using the ceilings, walls and whatever they can find to their advantage, they were smacking the ping pong ball around the room like nobody’s business! It was like a WAR in there! Dangerous if you ask me! So yea.. I watched from outside the room (:

As planned we were going to the nearby sushi restaurant for dinner but we still ate in the dormitory’s cafeteria anyway! Showed a couple of tricks to a group of students and boy, I think I’ve craved a name for myself in the dormitory.. =.=

Fast tracked! We borrowed our bicycles and cycled down to the sushi restaurant at 20:00 and damn! It was COLD! Really freezing cold! So anyways, we arrived and the sushi was great! Apart from the usual conveyer belt that rotates the sushi from table to table, ordering is somewhat different from the sushi restaurants in Singapore. First off, there is a button to press to call for the staff. When she arrives, place your order with her, and it would be delivered to your table in an “interesting” way! Interesting? I heard you say! Well, above the conveyer belt is a track for a shinkansen! Stretching out from the kitchen, the chef would place the plates on this toy train which rides along the track to your table! Cool? YEA! LOL.

So yea! Thats that! My first sushi dinner in JAPAN! WOOHOO! (:

23 october 2009
Breakfast early in the morning! After which, I didn’t go back to sleep and instead, played with my cards a little and blogged too! Yea, I was rushing posts from the previous days! At noon, we went for Lunch.. Showed tricks to Jia Hao and guess what? 2 girls came over to our table and wanted to see me perform.

So yea, I did a couple few leaving them confused! Lol. Next we headed to school, but since Jia hao and I didn’t have any lesson, we decided to check out hikari no mori! Went down to Shimakawa’s sensei lab and asked Jiabao and wq along but they didn’t wanna come.. -.-

Back to the dorm, we borrowed bicycles and damn! The weather was scorching hot!!
It was a tough ride there but we knew the return trip would be twice as torturing! Anyway, we got to Youme and combed the entire shopping centre! However, nothing seemed really appealing to me so we headed out.. Jia Hao then had this crazy idea to explore the vicinity! I was reluctant because of the freaking hot weather but who cares.. We still went anyway.. Ironically, the route we were exploring was somehow leading back to the school!

Checked out a super big supermarket on the way back and I finally bought my chopsticks, 2 cup noodles and a Qoo drink! Jia Hao on the other hand bought some snacks, washing detergent and a refill.

Long story cut short, we headed back the treacherous uphill and eventually made our way back to the school. After placing our stuff in the dorm, we went to meet up with the rest at their lab. At 1700, we went back to the dorm for dinner but before that the guys were table tennising again.

After dinner, it was tricks time again! Their response was overwhelming! And I’m kinda getting used to their reactions.. “nani? Nande? Wushou! Sugei!” LOL! Basically they all meant something along the line of “how? Why? Amazing! etc.” Ahh.. One incident was a girl running off to her friends freaked out and explaining what just happened! This only attracted a bigger crowd and more came to see me perform. With so many people glaring down my hands, I was pretty conscious of the angles I was dealing with. However, upon succession of a trick, the reaction from a bigger crowd was amazing! They were shocked, screaming and the rest of us were practically laughing away! It was fun and I enjoyed it!

When it was closing 2000, it was basketball time so a quick introduction of each of us and we headed off to the sports hall.. Ahh, I forgot to mention that I brought my DSLR along as I didn’t intend to play basketball today.. However! They were short of 1 more player so it was a bo bian kinda thing! -.-

Ahh! Remember the card that I threw last week that ended up on the ledge in the sports hall? Well, there was a soccer goal post in the sports hall and with the help of wei quan and the rest of the guys, we repositioned it to where I remember last seeing my 10 of diamonds making a weird manoeuvre.. As the goal post was kinda high, being able to stand on it would probably allow me to reach for the ledge. Jia Bao supported me up and before you know it, I was standing on the goal post! Searched around the ledge but my card was nowhere to be found! ):

Disappointed, I came down with dust all over my hands, arms and even my shirt was dirty! The rest continued their basketball game and something caught my attention. A Japanese boy playing as a reserve was sitting all alone looking at the rest play 5 on 5. So yea, I went over a pulled out some tricks to entertain him. He was dumbfounded! LOL. Another foreign exchange student also playing as a reserve joined us and helped me with translating what I was saying to the Japanese boy. After over a dozen of tricks, I was tired and I blurted out my missing card. And guess what?! The Japanese boy wanted to help me find it! I mean, he’s kinda small size and what?! He wanna find it for me?! I told him to not worry about it but he persisted. However, as he soon realised he could not get up the goal post alone, he gave up. Jia Hao then came over and with the help of jia bao once again, he was lifted up the goal post! He is way taller than me and after searching around for awhile, he suddenly said “Gerald! See my magic!” he threw a card down from the ledge and it was MY 10 OF DIAMONDS!!! WOOOOTTTTT!!! I was so damn damn happy! LOL! YAY! It was back! LOL!

In the sports hall, we also played street soccer! I’m a totally noob at sports but at one time, the ball somehow landed in front of me and I started dribbling it down the right flank towards the goal post.. Just when I took a shot at the goal, Jia Hao came in a slide me! Guess what?! I scored an acute angle shot! But I didn’t witness my goal as the last thing I saw after kicking the ball was falling and looking up at the ceiling! Bloody Jia Hao has to dive in and slide me eh?! -.-

Anyways! That’s it! It just gets better ain’t it? :DD

24th October 2009
Alright! Saturday! Let’s see, it was definitely the usual breakfast and bla bla.. After lunch, Jia Bao and Wei Quan headed for Hikari no mori to get a Japanese textbook while Jia Hao and I slacked in our room! Yep! I was practically rotting my weekend away! Hmm. I can remember meddling around with my desktop widgets, aligning and repositioning them to properly display more information. For instance, I have the weather/temperature of Kumamoto now displayed on my samurize instance and a calendar that’s displayed vertically as well! How cool is that eh? Alright, you don’t seem impressed! Oh well, thats that! Let me know if you wanna see a screenshot of my desktop and I’d post it!

25th October 2009
AHHH! This weekend is boring! I didn’t go out because of the freaking rain and it’s still so cold in my room right now! Yep! My window is opened slightly and my hands are already frozen as I type! Oh well! I’m feeling hungry since 4pm and dinner isn’t till another 1 hour!!! Ahhh.. boring boring boring!

Hopefully I’d bring you more interesting stuff next week! Ciaoz! (:

13th October 2009
Ah! This morning, I was struggling to get out of bed! So damn tired! But yea, dragged myself outta bed and had my jacket on before going down for breakfast. Damn! Its always so damn cold in the morning! After breakfast, bathed and started to pack my laptop into my bag with the books necessary for my “1st day” at work! Yep!

Went to the lab and started setting up my laptop. Ah, i forgot to mention the table i’m using in the lab is shaky -.- yea. You know how it sucks when you’re typing and the table is rocking back and forth. Anyways, to hell with it! I struggled with it for awhile and realised I couldn’t do much but just live with it so yea! #$%# it! After which, Jia Hao and I started to find a long LAN cable to wire it to the hub that’s pretty far away from where we were sitting. After rampaging through some of the stuff in the lab, we managed to find 1 LAN cable which was long enough to stretch from our laptop to the hub. Noticing one of PC had a cable which was also long enough and since it was pretty close to the hub itself, we swapped that cable for a shorter one. So we hooked our laptops to the hub but damn! The hub needed some password and the login screen is in Japanese! Ah! Guess we had to wait for the Japanese students to return and help us out. Since there wasn’t internet, we started work right away. So far, I covered 5 chapters today practising over 20+ examples! When the Japanese students came back from their lesson, they helped us with the connection!

When noon approaches, we went back to our dormitory’s cafeteria and had lunch! And wow! There were many students having lunch in the cafeteria today! Long story cut short, after lunch, we were back to the lab and continued our work. As we were halfway into our research, the professor came in and gave us a LCD monitor each. The professor thought it would be more efficient for us to work on Dual Displays. So yea, immediately, we sync our laptops with the monitors and was playing around the new settings for awhile. We were dragging applications from one screen to another etc. I had my iTunes, msn, facebook displayed on the monitor while I worked on netbeans on my laptop’s screen! AHHHH! I have been coding java for almost the whole day and I need a break now!

As 5pm approaches, we packed up and met the others on the ground floor. Well thats because Jia Bao and Wei Quan’s lab is at the ground floor. As we were leaving the school back to the dormitory, Hiroki came and invited us to go visit the tea ceremony’s club in the school. As we were all carrying our laptops, we decided it was best to return to our room, put down our stuff and then head to the club. So we did just that! After which, we were shown into a room where the Japanese students were practising tea ceremony! It was an eye opener and we actually got to try the green tea! Ahh! Oiishi! And the Japanese students actually added lesser tea powder so that we would not find it too bitter! LOL. Yep! All in all great experience!

14th October 2009
LOL! Seems like I’m blogging everyday! Since school begun, the stuff I actually get to blog about is so damn little! Well, studying in the labs from 1030 to 1700 also mean we can’t go out as often as we did last week! Nevertheless, there is more time for me to blog! Alright. Its the usual! 7:30, there was a knock on my door and Jia Hao came to wake me up. We had this routine that the first person that wake up knocks everyone’s door so yea! I was the sleepy head today! Best part was I found my blanket on the floor!! -.-

Aright! Washed up and had breakfast. Today’s breakfast was erm.. let’s just say a few pieces of veg and a bowl of rice -.- after breakfast, went back to bathe and headed to school! We were there at 1000 and no one was in till after lunch! Started doing the examples in the red Japanese book and yea, it was tiring! Went for lunch at noon and wow! Unagi rice for lunch! Woot! And the unagi serving was really big! Almost 20X the size of the unagi in the sakae. So yea. Enjoyed lunch today! Ironically, Jia Hao was the first person I ever known to not like unagi! =.=

During lunch, a foreign exchange student whom i showed a card trick yesterday told me to perform to his Japanese friend. So yea! Showed him a series of tricks and he was confused! LOL!
Rest of the day was pretty mundane! Nothing really interesting to blog about.. Ahh! And we each took a carpet to our room as suggested by a foreign student. So yea, I won’t be waking up to a cold floor from tomorrow onwards!

15th October 2009
Hmm.. The usual. 7:30 up. Washed up and had breakfast. However, I was so tired this morning that I had to go back to sleep! So yea, after breakfast, Jia Hao and i decided to go to our lab after lunch with Jia Bao and Wei Quan. As we were not given a specific schedule as to what time to reach and when we can knock off, it’s pretty much our call. So yea! Went back to sleep! Just before lunch, took a shower, changed and packed my bag. Had lunch in the cafeteria and yea, we were off to our labs right after.

Still copying and trying out examples from the red book, it was starting to get a little mundane. There were lines and lines of java codes that kept repeating in each example and it those many lines hardly contributed to a very impressive output. As 1600 started to approach, we decided to knock off and head to Hikari no mori. This time, wei quan came along.

Took our bicycles and headed out! Jia Bao took the lead, Jia Hao was next, then me and finally wei quan was tagging along behind me. Halfway throughout our journey, when we stopped to wait for the pedestrian crossing light to turn green, Wei Quan was nowhere behind us!! Jia Bao then headed back from the direction we came from and eventually found wei quan lost as he took a wrong turn. -.- Anyway, we got to YOUME shopping centre in Hikari no mori and they checked out Kino. When JiaBao and Wei Quan finally settled on buying a Japanese textbook, the two wanted to check out electronic dictionaries from Best Denki. However, Jia Hao and I decided to head for Uniqlo which was a block away. As we agreed on meeting before the sky turns dark, Jia Hao and I took our bicycles and headed for Uniqlo.

To our disappointment, the stuff they had in the Uniqlo was almost the same as the one we went earlier last week. There wasn’t much of a variety but I managed to get a grey long sleeve shirt at 3000yen. When we were done, we joined the rest and headed back to the dormitory. Woah! The trip back was pitch black! Like BLACK! Totally no light at all unless a car drove by! Last time we came to Hikari no mori, we took a ridiculous turn and reached LAWSON. However, the route from LAWSON to the school was uphill and very tiring! As such, we decided to take a longer route which would be less tiring with more slopes. Eventually we managed to make our way back just in time for dinner!

16th October 2009
Ahhh.. today, I was awaken by the cold hard floor -.- guess the carpet wasn’t of really much use but hey! Its better than nothing! So yea, had breakfast and geez! There was no student in the cafeteria other than us! We started to wonder if today was a school holiday or something.. its the usual time we’re down for breakfast but there’s no one here! Recalling for a moment, we realised there wasn’t school today for the Japanese students as the entire school faculty had to attend a ceremony somewhere else.

After lunch, we checked out the notice board and there it was! The announcement in Japanese that read something like breakfast was postponed to 9 and lunch was brought forward to 11 as the students had to leave the school by noon. So yea, went back to bed! At 11, we had lunch and almost everyone was dressed in formal wear and even the foreign exchanged students were attending the event!

So the whole day, I was slacking in my room! Wei quan went to play the piano somewhere in the school alone while Jia hao made his way to hikari no mori -.- when they got back, I learnt that Jia Hao actually went to catch a movie! =.= WTH! LOL. It was 1500yen! 20 over bucks -.- he said the seat was comfortable though and the show was in English with Japanese subs.. so yea.. but 1500yen? Hmm..

At around 4, I was already starving and dinner is not ready until another 3hours! -.- so yea, I starved! Resorted to eating pocky i bought from Superkids last week and boy! The chocolate tasted much richer than the one we had in Singapore! Its like kit kat kinda chocolate on a stick! (: anyways, when the bell finally rang for dinner, I devoured the entire plate and headed back upstairs.

Then, a foreign exchanged student invited us to play basketball at the sports hall with them. So yea, we decided to go for it but wei quan stayed behind. As we made our way outside the dormitory, IT WAS COLD!!!! Yea really cold! So yea, we had a few games and I didn’t really do much, i mean, i don’t even like sports! But hey! I managed to score a 3 pointer! :D showed the guys a card trick too but guess what, I lost a card! My freaking Bicycle Centurions was GONE! ): When trying to do a boomerang card toss, my 10 of diamonds made a weird manoeuvre and landed somewhere on a ledge upstairs the sports hall. Worst part was I couldn’t get it back! T.T After a few more games, we headed back to our dormitory and I had a shower.

Next, we were invited to the foreign exchanged students’ common room where they were whipping supper for us! The food was delicious and one of them actually made plata! I didn’t try it though but it sure looked tasty! Stayed a little longer and chatted a bit before coming back up and here I am! Sitting in front of my laptop typing this as the internet in the whole dormitory was somewhat cut off -.- no one can access the NET! So that’s about it, until next time, I’m off to bed!

17th October 2009
Geez! Can hardly remember what happened on Saturday even though its just 2 days ago! -.- well, it should be the usual. Breakfast somewhat at 8am! Since its a weekend we didn’t had to wake up so early! After breakfast.. I think I went back to sleep! Yea. Pretty sure about it! Am really tired these few days.. anyways, woke up for lunch, bathed and we had decided to go the city! Jia Hao was too tired from the previous day’s cycling so he took a train while Jia Bao and I cycled there. Ah! Before we set off, I had asked a foreign exchanged student the location of a particular shop in the city called donkey something and he drew a map for me (:

So yea, we headed off, and damn! cycling was terrible. I almost forgot how long the journey was and how long since we had our last trip on bicycles to the city! Anyways, Ji Hao was obviously there before us and off we went, searching for that donkey shop -.- following the hand drawn map, it was very difficult and luck definitely wasn’t on our side! As a last resort, Jia Hao asked a bystander for clearer directions. And guess what?! He gave us the directions in Japanese! Damn! All we could understand was we had to walk forward and make a left. How much forward and when to turn left, we don’t know! So yea, walking aimlessly, a shop suddenly caught our attention.. As we read the katagana characters of the shop name.. We could make out d..on...ki... ahh! We had arrived! Finally! Headed in and bought 2 regular bicycles decks and headed out.. Jia Bao wanted to get chocolates a foreign exchanged student once treated us and so we went to the food section of yet another departmental store and yep.. He bought his chocolates. Next, Jia Bao wanted to check out kino and yet again, we aint got a clue where the hell that was but only there was one in the city!

While walking out of the departmental store, 2 high school girls were entering and I thought to myself, “they should know English.. I mean, they’re in high school so.. They should be taught eh?” so yea, i turned to them and said, “sumimasen, eigo wakarimasu ka?” (Excuse me, do you know English?) And the girls replied “eh? gome”(sorry!) -.- but guess what! I decided to push my luck a little further and continued, “Kino doko desu ka? Hon ya..” (where is kino, the book store) ahh! This time I got a response, “chotto matte..” she said and asked a Japanese guy that was standing around. What happened next was, WOAH!! They actually offered to take us there! So yea, there we were, 3 guys following 2 small girls around the city.. When we finally entered a building, she led us to an elevator and waited for it. Right then, I was thinking, “are they even going the extra mile to bring us right outside that bookshop?! I mean, we just wanna know where it is roughly so we can narrow down our search” So yea, I turned to her and said “daijoubu” and I guess she got the hint, “ro kai”(6 floor) she smiled and we thanked them. (: Woah. seems like Japanese people are pretty helpful! :D

Anyways, when the elevator door opened at 6th floor, we were like WTH?! It was the exact same bookstore saika and yuki brought us to the first week we went to the city -.- well, the guys didn’t get anything and off we were walking around aimlessly. Checked out another bookstore and this time Jia Hao bought a Japanese textbook. =.= well, afterwards, we were hungry and sushi seemed a good idea. We had pretty much combed the entire city, the alleys and such and still couldn’t find a sushi store -.- i mean, here we are in Japan for almost 3 weeks and damn! We haven’t even had sushi! -.-

Ahh.. i forgot to mention, there was a arts festival going on in the city and there was pretty much a lot of events going around! There were break dancing, bands, singers, guitarist and even artists! And yea, I kinda regretted not bringing my DSLR along, but cycling with my camera for almost 10km+ on a bumpy main road? I don’t think so. Maybe some other time! So yea, when it was dark, we headed back by bicycles and Jia Hao took the train yet again! -.-

18th October 2009
This is a boring day. Like seriously. I hardly did anything since morning but heres it. Breakfast was as usual and as usual, I plonked right into bed right after! Woke up at noon for lunch and yea, decided to take a shower somewhat after.. Then, Jia Bao said he was gonna go exploring on his OWN! -.- yea, I wanted to tag along and take capture some photos but he said he wanted to go ALONE! So yea, he left! -.- anyways, at that time it was scorching hot outside so I told myself, if I had wanted to go out, it’d probably be when it gets a little cooler..

So there I was, lazying my day away and Jia Bao came back at around 3 plus! First thing he said was “Forgot to bring my memory card” -.- well that meant he didn’t take any pictures after all=.= decided to head out to superkid to get some papers for practising my Japanese, a notebook or something so I asked the rest if they wanted to come along.. Jia Hao was game, Jia Bao just came back and didn’t wanna go out, and as for wei quan, let’s just say he’s been in dreamland since after lunch. So yea! Rented our bicycles and headed off! I found my notebooks in the store, a 30sheet notebook in a pack of 10 for around 200-300yen. Anyways, I bought it together with a Dove body shower. Jia Hao wanted to check out HalloDay so yea, we went there as well! He bought some chicken ball thingy on a stick and we headed back to the dormitory! After which, was the usual.. dinner and bla bla bla..

19th October 2009
Ahh.. today is.. Monday. -.- wasn’t as sleepy as I was as compared to the last few days but I hardly had any appetite for breakfast.. Nevertheless, I ate anyways! After that, bathed and headed for school. Went to the lab and did a few examples and boy! How come the examples are getting harder and harder -.- so many java syntax I had hardly came across! Anyways, Lunch was at noon so we headed back to the dorm’s cafeteria and back to school once we’re done -.-

As planned, the 4 of us met up at 3pm at the dormitory’s entrance as we had to go collect our “alien pass” -.- dun ask me why they call it alien, it’s probably gotta do with.... hmmm.. i dunno. So anyways, back to the story.. WEI QUAN WAS LATE! Yea like really late.. 30-40minutes at least! Anyways, we brought our passports along and Jia Bao and I brought our DSLR for what reason? I dunno. WE DIDNT EVEN TOOK A PICTURE OF ANYTHING! So yea.. Headed out in bicycles once again!

We arrived at the building to collect our passes.. got them and then.. Jia Bao asked, “wanna get tako yaki?” and we’re like “why not?” so yea.. off we were.. Cycling down slopes to what seemed a treacherous route back -.- yea.. If its breezy and effortless to cycle down a slope.. Its gonna be a hell of a way back up when we’re get back. So anyways.. We bought tako yaki. Ate them and headed back to the dormitory.

7th October 2009
Blogging this on the 10th so.. here goes.. hmm Wednesday, I can’t really remember any major stuff that we did that day but it should be the usual, 7:30 wake up, wash up then breakfast. After which, I think we went to find the professors and have our labs and tasks allocated to us. When asked what i wanna learn and the kinda projects I wanna undertake, I voiced out my desires to learn something new and here I am, thrown beside Jia Hao to work on Games Development.

With weiquan and Jiabao working on the usual java programming, web applications, database kinda stuff, Jia hao and i went with the professor to be briefed on the scope of our project, the technology we needed to pick up and what we can expect when working side by the side with the Japanese students. We were shown to the many projects that were currently been undertaken by the Japanese students, and I realised the area we are working on was more focused on user and computer interaction rather than the game itself. We were also given 2 books to read up on. Both books are java based, covering Java2D, Swing, Java3D etc. Basically, one book is frequently used by the Japanese students, and you guessed it! ITS IN JAPANESE! -.- The other book is in English to help us build a solid foundation on the theory of what we’re learning. After which, we were then brought to the lab and introduced to the Japanese students that we will be joining them in their research from next week onwards.

Lunch was back at the cafeteria and I can’t remember anything else that we did!!! ): It should be along the line that we went cycling again to pick up some snacks and such.

8th October 2009
Hmm. I’d skipped the usual. So geared up and today we’re attending some lesson! First off we headed to L.L room. It was a somewhat AVA room that was located in the library. Unlike the other classes and labs, we had to exchange our shoes with those “room slippers” when entering. Each of us was seated beside a Japanese student so that we could share their textbooks. So what was the lesson like you must have asked! Hmm.. First off, it is still a Japanese lesson so the teacher generally spoke in Japanese, explaining the English vocabularies, sentence structure etc. So, a quick glance at the textbook, I would say the comprehension was comparable to the passages we would receive in secondary 2. Nevertheless, the determination in the Japanese student is what inspires me. Alright! So, basically, the teacher would play a CD of a narrator reading through the entire passage, then have a Japanese student read aloud paragraph by paragraph and explaining the entire content in Japanese. Each table also had a headphone with a speaker and that was used by each Japanese student that was reciting the passage in front of the entire class.

All in all, it was a great experience!

9th October 2009
Alright, Friday, hmm.. Woke up at 7:30, had breakfast. Washed up and bathed once again. Today, we had to attend some kinda briefing in the classroom at 1320 so we were there at 1300. Promptly at 1320, the briefing begun and aside from Wei quan, the three of us were like clueless of what’s going on the entire time! The professor spoke in Japanese and I could hardly make heads and tails of what she’s saying. After which, Jia Hao and I had to attend another briefing regarding the area we’re studying on. And YET AGAIN! IT’S IN JAPANESE!!!!!! Can you imagine being in a briefing where you don’t understand anything for almost and 1hr plus -.- Jia Hao turned to practising his hiragana while I snatched a paper from him and started drawing. When the ordeal finally ended, we were brought to our laboratory where we were assigned a seat. In the lab, there are a few sofas and tables, and those were slightly rearranged so that we could fit into the class. Also, we had to carry tables and chairs from a storeroom to our level 3 lab. When all’s good, the professor spoke to the Japanese students about something along the line of helping us with our studies!

10th October 2009
Hmm, let’s see, it’s the usual! 7:30, up, breakfast, bathe. However, today we were supposed to be brought out to Nagasaki by a Japanese student but he had fallen sick So yea, we didn’t have any plans for the weekends. Since it was a Saturday, we did not have school! Wooohoo! Alright. Nevertheless, we were changed and had lunch. Ahh, I haven mention something that’s killing me since day 2! Remember the time we went out in the rain to Kumamoto city? When we got back, the white shoe I wore out in the rain returned with some brown stains! And since then, I had tried scrubbing off the stains in every possible way I could think of! From soaking it in water overnight, to even resorting to scrubbing the dirt off in the bathtub! :X Alright. From a previous conversation with a foreign exchanged student the night before, I was told there was a laundry shop near superkid. So yea, today we went to give it a shot!

Alright, let’s continue! After lunch, we headed off to collect our bicycles and damn! There wasn’t much of a choice for me to choose from! One had flat tyres and the other was a nest for spiders -.- like what Jia Bao always said, “this school has spiders bigger and much more than an entire neighbourhood.” But seriously! There’s so many spiders around and their almost the size of my palm! Alright. With neither bicycles appropriate for riding, the guys suggest I sat behind someone -.- DAMN! Obviously I turned down that offer! I don’t wanna be seen hugging another guy from behind! LOL! So after much thought, I went back into the office to lend keys for another set of bicycles which requires the borrowers to sign on a record book. When that’s done, off we went to superkid in search for that laundry shop.

When we finally found the shop that said laundry, there wasn’t anyone in the shop. No staff, no customers, no nothing just automated machines. A quick look at the signage in the shop and one had a cross over a shoe! So basically I can’t wash my SHOES in the washing machine! Disappointed the rest suggested we headed to BEST DENKI which was located somewhat further than UNIQLO. As it was around 1pm to 2, the sun was scorching hot and I was darn thirsty! Adding on, I was carrying my stained shoes all around! I rejected their suggestion and asked them to carry on ahead but eventually, was convinced to come along -.- bought a coke from a 7 eleven store on the way there and off we were cycling down a route we were a little more familiar with. As we passed Uniqlo, it was still a long way to Best Denki! >< when we finally reached, I wanted to bring my shoes into the store with me but the rest told me to leave it behind in my bicycle as no one would steal it! So yea, left it in my bicycle basket and headed in. Checked out some earpieces and eventually bought one. And damn! I saw the audio technical headphones I recently bought in Singapore costing only 1980Yen! That’s like 30SGD! Almost 30% cheaper than what I paid for in Singapore! -.- Jia Bao looked at some electronic dictionary that translate Japanese characters to English and vice versa.. When all’s good, I paid for my earpieces and headed out the shop.

And WOW! My shoes were still there! LOL! So, hopped back onto my bike and suddenly there was a BANG! Jia Hao got hit by a car while riding off first! -.- He stared at the driver and guess what? The driver stared back! Lol. When reality finally hit the driver knowing that he knocked someone down, he immediately rushed out of his car and started to attend to Jia Hao. “daijoubu desu ka?” “honto daijoubu?” is what the driver kept repeating and Jia Hao replied “daijoubu!” LOL. And thank god, all Jia Hao walked away from that mini accident was a scratch. I mean someone who got KNOCKED DOWN to the ground on his bike, cheated death with just a scratch on his leg?! =.= lucky him. So anyway, off we went cycling to Kumamoto City. Yea the city.. Ambitious? YEP!

When we finally reached Kumamoto City, we were like, wtf? We actually made it. It was actually possible to cycle all the way from our school to the city! We parked our bicycles at the train station but this time I felt that it was safer to bring my shoes along. =P Basically we didn’t do anything in the city, just walking around. When it was almost dark, we cycled back.

11th October 2009
Skipped breakfast! Yep. Was too tired this morning! Washed up, bathed and had lunch instead. After which, we checked out google maps to find directions to yet another shopping area called hikari no something. I can’t remember the name of the place -.- it’s the direction away from Lawson, and this time, wei quan came along! Lol. Finally you must have said! So yea, jia bao and I geared up with our DSLR and headed out in search for the place.

I must say, out of all the times, ALL! All the times we went out exploring, we get LOST! -.- yea. And everyone was relying on jia bao’s hand drawn map =.= wait. He just said it was a set of instructions! That means it wasn’t even a MAP TO BEGIN WITH! We were practically riding blind. After making a few detours, we eventually managed to find the place! I dun know how, but we did. Headed into the shopping centres and looked around. And guess what? I saw macdonalds! Was craving so much for double cheese burger ever since I left but we ordered something else instead. Shaka shaka cheese! It’s a meat patty with cheese seasoning. Something like the shaker fries we have in Singapore but this time you’re shaking the meat patty in cheese flakes. It was delicious! Yep! Oiishi! Ah. Jia hao just came and said about wanting to eat mac pork! Lol. And the place we went was Hikari no mori (:

As it started to get darker, we headed back. On the way back, there were routes where there was no lights at all! So all we had was the light from our bikes and off we were cycling in pitch dark. Half way throughout the journey, it became like, “eh, ni dong zhe me hui ma?” lol. “do you know how to go back?” LOL! We were lost again. And this time, it was getting dark! =.= still relying on jia bao’s notes, we just headed in one direction until, we saw... LAWSON! Finally familiar grounds! Headed back to the dormitory and had dinner! (:

12th October 2009
Bah! Yet another 7:30 wash up breakfast kinda start. It was really cold this morning! Had my sweater on and went down for breakfast. Headed back and the four of us played civilization. Well, we didn’t go out today, all we did was eat play eat play. Yep. Nothing much today.. ah! I showed a little card trick to a few foreign exchange students in the dorm as well and some of their reaction was overwhelming! LOL! Alright! Thats all! Hopefully i can bring you something more entertaining tomorrow! (:

1st Oct 2009
Wahhoo! Finally got the time to blog and here it is! Gerald bringing you his latest all the way from Japan! At 22:00 on Wednesday night, I was still tugging around my luggage, trying to pack and squeeze stuff into it. I was putting too many stuffs “on hold” telling myself I’d pack it in later. And on boy, I had forgotten to pack something in! -.-

Alright long story cut short, met the rest at Terminal 3 in Changi Airport and checked in my HEAVY luggage. In the plane, we sat at the left side of the plane, Weiquan took the window seat and I sat at the middle seat beside him with Jiabao behind Weiquan and the GET student, Jia Hao behind me. We had a mini pillow, blanket and even long socks which were given to us by the air hostess. After awhile, Weiquan gave up his window seat complaining it was stuffy and sat on my right. Just when I thought I could “kio” two seats to relax, Jia Bao shifted infront to take up his seat. -.- Alright! Enough of the seating arrangement already..

The flight itself was erm.. bumpy. Many a times, the captain would broadcast of approaching air turbulence and we all had to buckle up our seat belts. Once, the airplane rocked so hard that Jia Bao and I looked at each other and went “what the *#$@%?” -.- That aside, the food was okay.. It was teriyaki udon or something.

When we finally touched down in Fukuoka, man! The airport was really stuffy. Or at least the immigration checkpoint was. The queue was really long for foreigners and the airport had only 2 counters available to serve us! When it was finally my turn, I walked up and handed my passport. 2 buttons were on the counter desk and the staff instructed me to press them with both my index fingers. I did so but for some reason, the light did not turn green. Guess what the staff said? “More press” -.- lol. Depressed it harder and yep. It worked! But, “more press”? Hmm..

Got our luggage and wei quan’s bak kua tio stopped at customs -.- wth man. Anyways, we then carried on to buy our bus tickets to Kumamoto. The bus ride was long, like really really long. To top that, it was hot and stuffy in the bus and we were sweating a whole lot. The bus made many U turns and a few bus stops were situated in the middle of nowhere. Towards our final destination, we realised the air con was on but there was a switch to unblock the air.. -.- Anyways, we finally alighted at the last stop and a professor from the school came with a minibus to pick us up.

After exchanging conversations with the professor, he drove us to a ramen shop near the school for lunch. The ramen was really nice considering it was our first meal in Japan and better yet, it was a treat by the professor himself! Unfortunately I did not have my DSLR on hand and couldn’t take a picture with it. ): We were then drove to the school’s dormitory where we had to place our shoes in a locker in exchange for a “house slipper” that has to be worn at all times in the dormitory. Next, we were briefed on the rules and procedures that we had to abide by so as not to be kicked out! Our keys were then handed to us and oh boy! 5th floor! Oh and did I mention? There was no lift!! Thank god the professor offered to carry my heavy luggage up the stairs while I struggled alone with my other cabin luggage.

Settled down, took a shower and started vacuuming my room! It was very very dusty! Unlike the rest, the room I was assigned was facing the other side of the building. Well as compared to the rest, my room was more “room” like, with the floor layout being a square instead of the narrow rectangle the others are staying in. I had a mini balcony outside my window and the light in my room was enough to light the whole room at it dimmest strength. However, on the down side, my room is very dusty, stuffy as the wind was blowing from their direction and the balcony was kinda blocking air ventilation. Not to mention, it had a weird “vacant room smell” ): Oh! And the pillow we have is rock hard! Flat and hard -.- Jia Bao described it as a bigger sized bean bag! Next, I started off vacuuming my room, mopping the table, cupboards and finally setting up my bed. Then we headed down to the dormitory cafeteria to have dinner. On the way down the stairs, Japanese students who saw us shouted “wuchom!” with a stern look! As we all did not understand the meaning of what they are saying, we felt discriminated and as if we were not welcomed! Just imagine, 50 over Japanese suddenly look at you, with a deep and stern voice shouting WUCHOM! -.- creepy.

In the cafeteria, everyone was looking at us right from the time we stepped through the door. As we walked around clueless as to how we were supposed to receive our dinner, we were practically inviting more attention from our dumb doings. Finally, we managed to grab our food and find a seat. The Japanese students still glaring at us start talking and laughing but we didn’t know what the commotion was about. Half way through our dinner, a foreign exchange student came to our table and said, “You’re sitting at the girl’s table!” -.- Oh well, so much for being clueless.

After dinner a foreign exchange student brought us to a room specially for us where we were introduced to the other exchanged student. They are VERY friendly! And better yet, they speak English! LOL!

2nd Oct 2009
Second day! Hmm.. let me see if I can recall.. Typing this on the 5th Oct -.- Ahh.. Woke up as early as 7:30. Washed up and had breakfast in the cafeteria. Hmm.. I can’t remember much until after lunch. Wait! I just remembered! LOL. Okay, we were told to meet a teacher which would take us to have our “alien” pass done. Yea! We were laughing when we saw the application we were applying for, alien -.- actually the application is meant for foreign student residing in Japan for a longer period of time. As me and Jia Hao did not have our passport photos, we had to make a trip to the nearest convenience shop called “LAWSON” to have out photos taken. After which we were drove to a building where we filled up application forms and had our student cards issued to us. When all was done, we headed back to the cafeteria and had lunch!

So, after lunch, it was drizzling! However, We decided to head to Kumamoto City via a train. Yes! It was raining, Wei Quan backed out and stayed in school while the three of us pulled out our hoodie and headed to the “train stop” right outside our school. The train in Japan is very different! Basically before boarding the train, you would have to take a ticket from a machine at each train stop. The ticket is just a paper with the number of that train stop. However, as this was the first time for the three of us, we didn’t know about this procedure and simply boarded the train. At the front of the train lies a panel with the all the train stops. Each has a “cost” which tells us how much to pay. For instance, we got on stop 17 so when alighting at Kumamoto city, we had to pay the amount that was displayed in the “17” box. When we finally reached the last stop, to pay up, we had to walk to the front of the train. At the front lies a machine that accepts only coins but there is an inbuilt “money changer” that breaks down notes into coins and coins into smaller denominations.

Alright! So we reached Kumamoto city and it was raining very heavily! Pulled up our hoodie and we headed to what seemed like the wrong direction. Imagine all the attention we got from the Japanese when they saw three guys walking around with hoodies under the rain when everyone else was using an umbrella! LOL. Oh! The night before, we also asked for directions from a foreign exchange student and he said we should walk right then up, right again then up! -,- so once outta the train station we walked right! As the buildings in front started to appear more run down, we decided that it was no way that the route we were on would lead us the city. So we walked back and headed the other direction. I can remember it being very rainy! Like very! And we were three boozos walking around aimlessly with our hoodies in the rain. As wei quan did not come along, we could hardly read any signage as they were all in Japanese!

After much deliberation, the guys pushed me to ask for directions from a Japanese guy. Hence, I went up and said “sumimasen,” and guess what? HE WALKED AWAY! Wth! Turning towards another guy, I tried again, “departo wa doko desu ka?” Thank god this time he pointed out the direction and better yet, showed and walked us all the way there! As we reached the shopping centre, we headed to daiso where everything was 100yen! In daiso, I bought a few daily living tools such as hangers, a flask, LAN cable, titbits and much more which I can’t remember. Oh and we bought umbrellas as well. As we headed back to the train station, my leg was about to break! It was wet, cold and tiring. Plus we had to carry all the stuff we just bought!

Fastforward.. took a train and headed back to the school. Had dinner and went to sleep! Wahahhaha.. lazy me. =.=

3rd October 2009
Alright woke up at 7:30 again -.- seems like I would be waking up early at this time for breakfast for the next 6 months =.= okay, today we would be meeting our Japanese friends that would take us out! Met them outside the school dorm at 10? Yep. Saika and Yuki which I met from last year’s exchange program was gonna bring us around with 2 other guys. We were introduced to the guys and yep, off we were on the train to Kumamoto City! As we exited the train station, they walked towards the right direction -.- walked right and cut through a path way. After awhile we realised we had walked the CIRCUMFRENCE of the city yesterday when we could just cut through! -.- Headed to a department store to buy a more comfortable pillow and we went for lunch. Lunch was at an udon shop and you must be wondering how I took my order? Well, weiquan was queuing infront of me so he made his order and when it was my turn, I simply said “watashi mo” which means “same for me”. LOL! The Udon was delicious!

Next we walked around the city and they brought us to an arcade. One of the guys was very good at drums and wad hitting each beat flawlessly. Weiquan played his “press press” arcade game where there were 9 buttons and he had to hit them according to the beat. So much for those arcade brats! Hmm.. Next, we were brought to have a neoprint taken with the group for remembrance. Following that, they brought us to karaoke -.-I didnt really sing and instead was showing the guys card tricks in the lounge. Next, we shopped a little longer in the city and the guys bought stuff at yet another 100yen shop. As evening started to approach, we headed back via train and had dinner at the cafeteria.

4th October 2009
Woot! Let me see, 4th is a Sunday and we were invited by the foreign exchanged students to a carnival near the school. Yep, so woke up at 7:30, had breakfast, washed up, bathed and headed to the dorm’s entrance where we met the rest. We were each given a bicycle that we would use to cycle to the carnival. Ah! Forget to mention, I brought my DSLR. Alright! Headed to the carnival and straight up! I was ushered to a “lottery” draw. Pulled out a ticket but it wasn’t of any value. Guess I wasn’t so lucky after all! The rest didn’t win either and the foreign exchanged students said we Singaporeans are unlucky! LOL. Well, 2 of the foreign exchanged students managed to win something! Right after, we walked to a booth that sold popcorns and candy floss. Sat awhile under the tent, (The carnival is like a big gigantic pasa malam except it is hosted during the day, on a wide grass field and had bands performing onstage) Alright. So we walked around, bought tako yaki, a pepper chicken thingy and ice kachang! I prefer the “ice kachang” in Japan as compared to the ones from Singapore because it did not have coconut milk, red beans and stuff, just blended ice and syrup! YUM!! Alright walked around a little more and the owner of the popcorn shop suddenly came to us and gave us 1000yen -.- we didn’t know we were supposed to help sell popcorns and the 1000yen was a token or something! As we didn’t wanna take the 1000yen without doing anything, we immediately started to help sell popcorns! “irashaimase!” “popcorn ka ga something something deshuoka!” yea. I can’t remember what I said! But it basically meant, “welcome, please try a popcorn!”

As the carnival was about to end at 2, we headed back to our dorm. As we cycled back, we stopped by a 7 eleven where I bought a can of drink and PINO! Pino’s a ice-cream which is coated with chocolate and had cream inside. Continued to cycled back to the school and I had my pino in my room! Whee!

Suddenly, Jia Bao asked if we wanna go and explore the area near the school. As everyone was game, we hopped back onto our bicycles and headed off ourselves! Basically we were cycling blindly, following the main road in one direction. Passed by LAWSON, and we kept cycling on till we reached a BIG convenience shop called SuperKid. =.= yea. LOL. Alright! Headed in and stocked up on some snacks, bought a wax that a friend of mine once used which had a green apple smell and yea, more snacks! In SuperKid, we also met another foreign exchange student and he asked if we wanna go to another BIGGER convenience shop which is further down called “HelloDay” or something. Wei quan backed out and headed back to school alone while the three of us pressed on and eventually reached HelloDay. It is a BIG convenience shop, selling a variety of foods, snacks, beverages to home appliances and even bicycles! Shopped around and we were so tempted to have our hands on snacks costing 100yen! Yes, when you’re holding 100yen, u think its 1 dollar or something but its actually $1.60 SGD! So even that small little ice cream lying in that freezer at 100yen aint cheap at all! After which, we headed back to the dorm and had dinner in the cafeteria.

5th October 2009
Ahh! 5th! Hmm, it’s Monday and we were thinking if the teachers would start calling us up to start work but no news since the last night’s roll call. Ahh! I forgot to mention, every night at 10:30pm, a teacher would come up and start roll calling to make sure we are all in the dorm. It is usually at this time where the teacher would tell us news about the following day.

Alright back to Monday, so we had breakfast, went back and I was lazying in my bed when suddenly the PA system in the dorm called for us to be in the office immediately. Headed down and we were told that we were going to the school! WOOT THE SCHOOL! Lol. So went back, bathed and dressed up and headed to the school where we were introduced to the professors that would be supervising our projects. After which, we were introduced to the 5th year students, the class that attended the exchange program in Temasek Polytechnic last year! So yes, we saw many familiar faces!

Next, we were brought to the many different labs and have a brief view of projects that the students are currently undertaking. When all was done, the professor told us that the next 2 days would be free time and we have to come up with our decision of joining which lab by Wednesday. As each lab focuses on a different area, we had to let the professors know what we want to learn during our stay and which lab we would want to be assigned to. As lunch time started to approach, we headed back to the cafeteria to have lunch!

Yea, then it was another crazy idea from Jia Bao to go out cycling again. This time, they wanted to get an ice cream from HelloDay. And wei quan backed out yet again -.- Alright. Story cut short, we cycled there, bought our ice creams, walked around a little and headed back.

6th October 2009
Ahhh! I finally reached 6th oct! Been blogging on the past day’s events and I finally am blogging about today! Alright!!! LOL. Okay, last night at approximated 5am, there was this loud bell ringing outside our rooms and it woke everyone up! When I opened my door hoping to find out what was going on, I realised the bell was situated a room away from mine and it gave out a LOUD SCREACHING NOISE. Yea, it was very irritating and painful imagine being waken up from your beauty sleep to what happened to be a electrical failure. -.- As some students tried to meddle with the bell hoping to turn it off, I simply went back into bed.

7:30, woke up, had my breakfast, washed up and changed. Today, we were going to attend a lesson in the Japanese 5th year students’ classroom! As we were too lazy to wake up earlier to attend their first lesson at 8:30, we decided to crash their 10:30 lesson instead. So yea, at 10:25, we were already standing outside their classroom. As the classroom was already packed, we sat at the back of the class with chairs borrowed from the next class! The subject was Physics and like Physics in Japanese? Wow. It was really really tough! Apart from being clueless about what the teacher was preaching about, the drawings and formulas the teacher wrote on the chalkboard was too complex! However, it was a good experience being able to attend a lesson conducted in a Japanese classroom and the teaching style is way different! The teacher would point out questions and start to explain everything on the board. There was no Q&A or anything, simply the teacher, drawing diagrams and formulas and speaking to the class. There was much less interaction between students and teachers unlike the teaching style in Singapore.

As the lesson ended, we headed back to the cafeteria and had our lunch. Guess what? This time the guys wanted to check out Uniqlo and Wei Quan didn’t wanna go again!!! So the three of us, hoped onto our bicycles and cycled in the direction of LAWSON. According to google maps, the nearest Uniqlo was 6km away and further down from HelloDay. So off us three “nihon go wakarimasen” guys embarked on an exploration to find Uniqlo! Yes you guessed it, we were lost. We were cycling further and further away that it doesn’t seem like we were gonna expect a Uniqlo building to pop out right in front of the route we were going. Furthermore, it seemed like we were almost reaching Kumamoto city. LOL! Disappointed, we turned around and headed back to the direction we came from. As the route grew tougher with steep slopes and uneven paths, we resorted to getting off our bicycles and pushing them uphill.

Suddenly, Jia Bao had this crazy idea of cutting though a different route thinking it would take us to Uniqlo. Still exhausted, we thought, “why not?” So off we were trying our luck again. When it seemed that all hope was lost, we FOUND UNIQLO! Haha. It was a great feeling knowing we managed to find our way! So headed in and yea, checked out some clothes! Alike those we have in Singapore, the one in Japan offered a wider variety of pullovers, hoodies, cardigans, denims, .... all the way to even beanies. As we started to try on cardigans, shirts and hoodies in shop, I noticed the Japanese doesn’t try on clothes the way we did. They would simply put a shirt over themselves and simply look in the mirror instead of wearing them on. Hmm, maybe they would only try on clothes in the changing rooms or perhaps I haven’t caught one putting it on the way we do. Anyway, I found a grey cardigan that was a collection of last season’s summer wear, thus it was thinner and better yet on sale! LOL. I realised Uniqlo “S” size fits me perfectly unlike most brands in Singapore and Jia Bao have been blabbering all day long since we got off the plane that Japan is “tailor made” for short people like me. -.- Well, from the low sink in our dorm to the low ceiling of certain Japanese shops, it started to seem that Japan does have many short people! LOL. alright. I bought my cardigan at 20SGD! What a steal right?(:

Headed back the treacherous and tiring road back to the dorm, had dinner, bathed and here I am blogging this! YAY! I’m done! On a short note, I’m doing really fine and if you ask, it is getting COLDER! (:

gerald
temasek poly
080790


October 04, 2009
October 11, 2009
October 18, 2009
October 25, 2009
November 01, 2009