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Japan, Kyushu
Learning Journey |
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Contents
Introduction Go to my blog!
By Gao Guangyan
Last Updated 1st Jan 2009 |
████ Introduction
In 2002, when I was in Secondary 1, Raffles Institution, I went for a Learning Journey (organized by my secondary school Raffles Institution) to Southern Kyushu, Japan, from 11th to 16th November. The group consisted of 2 teachers, Ms. Elaine Quah and Mr. Jee Jia Woei, and a handful of students from Secondary 1 GEP and Secondary 3 GEP. When I went for this trip, I decided to spend some effort in keeping a log-book/notebook, and try to record all the events down. I bought a small A-zone spring wire bound note-book and printed some nice covers for this purpose. I had tried to keep some logs for my previous holidays but I never actually managed to write more than 1 or 2 days before giving up. Fortunately, I tried hard and succeeded, writing a total of almost 7000 words. I attribute this to the fact that we actually spent quite a bit of time on long bus journeys, so I most of my time spent on writing this log was during the bus-rides or in the hotel rooms at night, though I carried the book and pen with me all the time, so I could record any interesting events down. Exactly 3 years from the day I got to the airport on 10th November (plus a day if you count leap years, 2004 was a leap year), I decided to get down and type out the entire log-book. I never really had a time to do this, until now. School has been ever-increasingly busy since Sec 1, but time flies and my Higher Chinese O levels (as well as all my other examinations) are over. I have graduated from Raffles Institution, and am no longer a Secondary school student. I decided to waste no opportunity and spent the whole of today (10th November 2005) typing out the entire journal. It wasn't an easy task. Also, I decided to preserve my writing style back then. Hence, only some spelling and grammatical mistakes have been corrected. Other problems in sentence structure will not be corrected to preserve accuracy in writing style. If any sentence is unclear, I will insert a bracket to correct / explain it, and it is colored in fuchsia (looks like pink). The original text was written with a blue ball-point pen so I typed the text out in blue. At some points in time I used a red pen to write, hence these are typed in red. You might notice some spelling and grammatical errors, as well as some strange punctuations; this is intentional. - Mistakes are intentional. I might have made some small error in transferring from text to computer, but most of the strange spellings and sentence structures etc are intentional, to keep it as close as possible to the original text. At some parts I might not understand what was actually written; it has after all been 3 years. Hence I mark these with ??? to signify that I don't really know what I was talking about. I frown upon my terrible English (though it hasn't improved much) and spelling in the original text but one must take note that I had to write everything as quickly as possible (most of the time) as I had to enjoy my holiday and see the attractions. What is a log without photos? If it were all text, it would be very boring. Hence I've included some photos from myself, as well as my friends. They will be credited appropriately. I decided to use many photos from Timothy Chow (with his permission) because he brought a digital camera (while I used a film camera) so this makes it easier for me to put the photos there. Thanks Tim. *Update: I have scanned my negatives and now present the new 2008 version with updated photographs of my own, as well as slight edits! (1st Jan 2009)* I have photo-shopped all photos to make them look better :-). As time passes, I will add more photos when I get more from other people, or scan more of my own. Some of the people who went with me include: Shawn Tan, Chua Xian Bin, Benjamin Tan, Choo Ee Sin, Timothy Chow, Jonathan Poh, Hyqel, Pay Leon Khee (all these are my Sec 1 batch mates) and Andy (my Sec 3 CCA senior), among many others. Below is a photo taken by a teacher (I think, was a on tripod) of the entire group. So here is the entire log-book digitized. Oh and the lines behind are formatted to fit the paragraph spacing perfectly when view with MS Internet Explorer! It might look a bit messy when viewed using other browsers! Disclaimer: By proceeding downwards, you agree that anything that I write, that you find offensive, is not intentional, and should not be taken seriously. All content copyright Gao Guangyan. If you wish to borrow any information from below, please ask me. Thank you and enjoy! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ████ Basic Information (~100+) Educational Learning Journey 11 - 16 Nov Flight Details:
GMT+8:00 Mr Dong Xue ( ? ? )
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ████ Japan Trip LogBook GMT+9:00JP * All time & dates in GMT+9:00 time. Take note. ►Day 0. (or 1, whatever) :p 10Nov Sunday (~1.4k) Haha! Tis finally the day to go to Japan. Flight's at 2.10 am, still a long way to go. I'm at home now. Oh well. I'll try to write as much as I can in here. Hope it's at least a million words long... :P. I'll try to catalog every picture I take with my camera. All 6 rolls of 36 film ready. I'll continue later on. (10:01.07pm). 10:29.17, time to leave the house! My dad's drivin' me there. :-) Reached the airport, and its 10:57. I'm gathered, and there are lots of people there already. Time is 11:18 now. Bored :p. Time flies. We've checked in luggage at row 10. We're waiting to go in. We have to meet again @1am, and board at 1.40am. BORED!! I am sitting with Shawn @ Burger King, and it's 12:20.25 now. [Day 1, Monday 11 Nov begins now, passed 12am GMT+9] My parents have gone back, but they have forced me to carry this huge jacket which I will put back once I reach Japan! > Photo @ 12.51am: Me, Shawn, Xian Bin at airport. They finally let us in at 1am, and we are still waiting. Anyway, Shawn is complaining, and he wants to watch Hell in the Cell at WWF! We're at Gate E4, and they want to take a group photo. 1:24.40 and the teachers are giving us a talk... oh well. We can't change seats! :( It's around 1:35am! We are inside, and Shawn can finally watch WWF! We're waiting... 1:45.55 and we can board now! I don't know how to fill up the form. 1:49... we're walking... 1:53 I'm in the plane now! There's PC there, COOL! (5:47 to Osaka, 12:57am GTM+8, 25C). >Channel 22 for stats. Its 1:03.36 and the plane is moving! 5km/h 7m! (46kmph 2:10.40). 5:48 time 44kmph) 6h well... it's a log book right. On the runway, 320kmph. 324... 2:13.35am. 4898???... 453kmph... 2:15.10. Fast man! ... 670kph. 1937m, 15C 1,'18.10...??? I'm a long man! 709kmph 3218m 7C 2:20am. I shall not record so much now, my friend is excited about the games :P... My seat is 58k... :) I'm watching Men in Black II! Cya later! It's 3:48.20, MIBII is over, I'm sleepin', cya! Should use restrooms now, else it'll be VERY crowded. Haha, I had 'steamed' rice during the show. Ee Sin is playing games. It's 3:55. I'm sleeping! (911kmph, it's -40C! around 110km 3,58)??? It's 5:50 and I'm awake! I can see the horizon! Nice Blue... kind dim now... It's minus 55 outside... :P We've crossed the south china sea, and we have 1711km more to go. I can see the red and blue horizon now, nice :D 5:54.32. 6:06.45, Took a photo of the Nice Horizon, but there's Flash... oh well... It's 6.39, I'm having Jap Breakfast! 6:50! 1001kmph! Finally broke the 1000kmph barrier! Ee Sin went crazy after dinking coffee. He's mixing butter, sugar, salt, pepper, orange juice, veg etc with coffee. He has recently look a shaver set and started shaving the chair. We have attained a speed of 1009kmph, oops, its 1011kmph. How fun! Breakfast was fun! We have began descending. It's around 7:25 now. Land Ahoy @7:29. We're landing soon... hee. We have 2 more min! 7:43am! The turned off the TUS. We're dropping! Over Ocean! We have landed! 7:46am! Woohoo! Kansai is Koool. Parking at 7:51am. Stopped at 7:52am! Yay! We are now @ Japan. It's 12C outside. We are at immigration. Boring. We have checked in, collecting Baggage! 8:40am, we're at the airport. Luggage was collected for us already.
8:48 And I am on a super cramped bus.8.53, it's head count time. The Bus is very hot! We are going to Universal Studios! The Guide is talking so I can't write. (he's Dong). Yay! Teacher gave me a video camera, I'm a film man! :D It's a 40min Ride and many people are sleeping. We're here! 9:34! I'll be busy videoing! Big carpark! We are inside! 9:45am, Not so cold, but dry. > Took a universal studio foto, 8:58. Have to be back @5! We are on our own! > Random fotos > Busy! We took 2 rides, with super long queues. Jaws and Blackdraft. Jaws was a boat ride, with fake sharks and real HOT fire. Blackdraft was real HOT fire again. Both quite cool. (I mean, warm) It's 11:51.22 and we are q-ing for "Back to the Future" Oh well... 12:15 pm now! We are still in the queue!
1:36pm now. "Back to the future" was a cool simulator ride, and we went to the wild wild wild west stunt show. We are at... Some burger restaurant. Food here's really expensive. 1 meal is 770¥, which includes a... burger, decently sized, a pudding, curly fries :) and egg salad?. A packet drink, 250ml of orange juice is 200¥, adding 5% GST... oh gosh! But food is nice. (Japan straws are fun! They are extendable!) Following that, we went to the Jurassic Park for a log ride... but we decided not to when queuing and exited illegally through a 'forest path', which we found blacked by chains at the end, however, we crawled under them and made our getaway. We learned 1 thing from this; Ponchos cost ¥200. Me bought a 'human bone' [It's a cinnamon stick; they are chocolate ones too.] and our famous DOG BONE! Actually a turkey drumstick. [I've been to Disney World in Orlando, Florida USA (2004) and they too sell the cinnamon sticks and turkey drumsticks. The turkey drumsticks taste the same and kind of make you feel 'hot'. Ee Sin commented on this too] At around 2:50pm, we proceeded to a 'water show' with lots of Fire & Water, Funnn! Anyway, we found a cool shark car and shot fotos. It's 3:42.59 now and we are queuing (again) for a terminator II 3D show, & XB and shawn wants to watch ET instead, then shopping because the Q is Really Long! But we are moving now. heh. (Bad handwriting) Excuse..) (Cyberdyne-skynet) It was a good 3D show, very fun & lots of smoke. 4:47.54 now, and tis getting colder, but I still don't feel cold (yea, no jackets!) The sky is darkening. We are relaxing at the benches near Terminator II. X'mas music is playing, my friends are playing cards (hee?) and CES is singing along! (Well.. now he's not) Very nice place, with excellent weather. X'mas decors all over the place and I learnt that a video camera gets heavy and irritating after carrying for a long distance. The second thing I learnt was that all those are fun! [I believe I was referring to all the rides and the entire park experience] It's 4:51.14 now, I'm supposed to have Gym training back in Singapore. It's a really lovely & wonderfully nice place here. Haha, G2G back! Almost 5pm :) 5:10pm and we are waiting outside... oh well.. 5:18pm, but looks like 7:30pm [like the 7:30pm sky in Singapore]. I saw 6 spotlights which shone to the clouds.
We are walking to the bus now. It's 5:23.03 and I'm on the bus. The bus'
exhaust is worse than horrible bus exhaust, I almost died, and fled from
the bus. We are how 1/2 hr from the port. Oh well.. :P La La La ♪ Time to
rest on the bus.
Oh yah, it' 5:40 and looks like 9pm. 5:42.. it's drizzling. 5:44pm! We're reached there! Waiting at the terminal... 5:%7. It's 6:51, The ship is disgusting. 10 people in a space. I shall describe in detail later. We are meeting at the 'lobby' for dinner. Temperature's sky high and I'm melting. 7pm now. I have to concentrate now so I can't write for now... :P The ship is quite big. When we first entered, it was indeed quite hot. There are many toilets but no showers, except public HOT baths. Dinner was good. Ben, Sin and me had a 'fun' time making a 'minstrel' soup. There was chicken, soup, rice, prawn, tofu etc. We finished at 7:49. We also went to the deck to take fotos, it was much cooler when we got back. The mist and cold air on the deck was nice. We are now back to our cramped quarters, and it's 8:30. We have been shown where to get water. I learnt that soy sauce fish bottles make good squirt bottles. We have to wake up at 7am tomorrow. I'll go brush teeth! 8:48.40, we are all in bed. Most are sleeping, but I'm not sleepy. I'm sleeping at 10pm latest. It has been a great day. Hope I don't fall sick and everything will be even better tomorrow :). Lets see what I can do... It's 9:10.56pm.. I guess I'm going now. Nite! ►Day 2 - Tuesday, 12 Nov 2002 (~900)
Good Morning!! 6:08.59, and I'm awake. We left Osaka Port yesterday; and we are on our way to Miyazaki Port. Then, we would take a chartered bus to Miyazaki Phoenix Zoo, where we would have our lunch. We would then go to Sakurajima where we would spend the night at our first hotel, Kagoshima Sun Royal hotel. Some people are awake... Also, I discovered that cataloging photos is not easy at all, and the boat is swaying more now. 7:18am. We are at Breakfast!... 8:13.47, time to pack up. We are gathered at the 'lobby'... and waiting.. The boat was extremely shaky and as swaying for left to right. The food, as usual, was good. After breakfast, we went to the VERY windy deck. We also discovered that soy sauce, when squirted from "fish bottles" will disintegrate into small droplets, when in contact with extremely strong wind. [The wind was very strong especially at the sides of the ship, near the railings] Temperature was not that cold... back to the lobby. 8:27 and waiting. 8:29.38..We left the boat.
We are now on the bus. 8:37.17, we are at Miyazaki. (tsk, I found that a 40¢ equivalent drink cost 170¥.. $2.55!) We will take around 10 min to reach there, but it opens at 9pm, so we may have to wait. 8:45, we are given maps. We are here! 8:5655. Time to take pix! 9:13, we are going in! The guide showed us where we were having lunch, and we had to meet there at 11:30pm. So time to walk around. Teacher forced me to wear my jacket. It's a nice place with nice surroundings. We saw many (smelly) animals, (including the giraffe which bent down).. we walked & walked until we reached an amusement park! I rode Go-Kart twice and a coool rollercoaster. 250 & 350¥.
Anyway, we continued our journey, and started lunch at 11:30pm. It was good [I distinctively remember the yellow corn soup, and the red London bus] :). XB treated me to a gormball, which turned out to be bubblegum. We ended lunch at 1:12, and walked back to bus at 12:24, for a 3hr bus ride to Sakurajima. I have finally finished 1 whole roll [of camera film] time to change.
Boring bus ride. My fun things happened. I did not know how to charge my cam, my friend did not too. So we had to ask the teacher. [We didn't know how to charge the video camera, but in actual fact, it was already charging, but very slowly] I found an empty phone card! Oh yah my friend didn't know how to either, so he bought another battery. [Timothy couldn't charge his Nikon Camera battery] So he didn't need to charge it. (Cost him 1800¥). Some friends went to a 'SPA' and a guy (adult) fainted there. [I was there; the guy didn't actually faint, he seemed to collapse to the ground on his knees and seemed to be giddy or something; an elderly hotel staff woman had to help him up] Choo Ee Sin left his room and found that Shawn lowered the temp, and bullied him. He was crying (now he's not) Choo Ee Sin also tricked Shawn that he lost his card key to their room (615).
Oh well. I'm back at my room writing this and it's 10:18.51 now. So many other things happened (like my friends learning Japanese and attempting to order 'human meat' [ひとのにくください, I think or also written as 人の肉ください, please correct me if I'm wrong] at the restaurant, and we found out that our guide would always say "hi guys" or "hi everyone" before saying anything to us. The weather again was great. I found out that battery charging is very slow, and blah.... Haha there's a Moz Burger in front of the hotel, and we can see the sea from here. We have to wake up at 6:45am tomorrow, breakfast is at 7:10. Anyway, the cardboard matches here are cool, and my battery is charging very slowly. 10:50. I should be sleeping soon. Cardboard matches are lousy. Oh yes, another guy left their keys in the room so now they're stuck. Time to brush my teeth. It's 11:16.25pm... The small battery is at 204min, and is still charging. I think I will charge the big one overnight instead. The toilet bowl's warm seat is very useful. :-) 11:19.58, I'm sleeping! Nite! (#). ►Day 3 - Wed, 13 Nov 2002 (~1.2k)
I have awoke at 6:13am... It's 6:38 now. The water bottle experiment work!
The cap has contracted and I can't open it. (oops?) Our hotel faces the
volcano, and it nice. A big battery is 496min. I am charging the small one
now. My throat is feeling awful. Hope I can find water. Today we are going
to Sendai Nuclear Power Station, and Fukuda Farm for lunch. There we are
going to Minamata Disease Museum, and Environmental Education and
Intelligence Centre. We are sleeping at Kikunan Osen Kanko hotel.
Temp's nice and chilly. I have brushed my teeth and I should start packing
now. 6:51.21... Went for Breakfast. Very very good again. :-). Anyway, the
small battery has charged to 205min (full). It's times to go. 7:15am! The
Hotel people even waved to us. We are going the nuclear power station. It
will take around 1hr. :) La La La... It's 7:19.14 now. The willow trees
around are nice.[ I'm on the bus. Tim & Pay Leon Khee are sharing their
sleeping adventures. 8:57.28. [PLK cancelled that (yeah the red ink) [U can still read it]. Jon Poh is sleeping. Ee Sin is yawning. I am bored. 9:45.07. Most are sleeping. We have reached! He said "Hi Boys" 9:46.48! 10:15, and we have finished watching a 30min video. We went to a 'showcase' and there was this cool tug-of-war machine. It's a control panel with 6 wheels with handles. 3 vs 3, people spin the wheels to generate electricity, which pulls a rope. I have a 42 round record, beaten only by a Sec 3 who got 43, and 2 hand record of 64 [Yes this was set by me]. :) Anyway, I filled up my bottle, and we were on our way to the farm. (tsk. Jerome left the video bag.. hee!) The guide went to buy oranges, and me and Shawn took 3.5 oranges, so small and cute! ^_^. 12:28, we have reached the farm for lunch! "Welcome Raffles Institution" is even pasted on the door! Nice. Even oranges served! I am squirming with delight. Anyway, lunch was good. We had oranges, and some of us are playing with the oranges (i.e. sticking straws into oranges and attempting to suck juice from them :P We were then taken for a guide around there. We got to see all the recycled stuff they use to build their building. We then had a tal'k and learnt (1) (もったいない, mot tai nai), which basically means don't waste things. We went to a souvenir shop there too. (They sell friendship bands for ¥600, which I can make!) We got up the bus at 2:15. Now it's 2:40.04 and we are on our way. Oops we're there but we have to walk 10min. bleah.
Kay it's just a museum, and we saw a rock with fossils there. Man there were MANY huge spiders & webs there. We got on the bus at 3:48 and headed for the educational centre. Nice scenery, and we got in we had 2 long lectures, which ended at 4:47pm.[I remember that the lectures weren't very interesting, and I was trying really hard not to fall asleep, but I did nod off a few times] Now, it was too late to visit the complex, so we had to go to the hotel. Starting at 5pm, it would take 1.5 hours. I am talking to Ben Tan now. It's 5:55.51, and the bus is really hot! Even S'pore is better. "At least the aircon in the bus works.." - Ben Tan. 6:05, and we are on a highway, and the bus will move fast... bah. The highway has 2 lanes! Cool! 7:09.53, we have reached! Okay, our room number is 1508. We have to meet for dinner at 7:30pm. Dinner was... goood as usual. There was a Pot and a flame above it. [I think I meant the pot was above the flame] There was meat inside and veg etc. Obviously not cooked yet. Anyway, there was steamed egg, sashimi, etc. Eat and Eat. Then, I played with the glass, and music out of it. Then, dog bone (sorry) said something. The school exchange will be shifted to the morning, and we will have to wear our uniform and tie. We will have to wake up at 6:45am tomorrow. Breakfast is at 7:30 and we will have to leave by 8:30. The dining room light is scary, like spikes hanging from the ceiling. Oh well. Let's see... there's a hot spa. HOT (oh gosh) Should I go? Lets describe the hotel [room] first. It is big (5 people) with 2 beds. There is also a Japanese style bedding with 3 mattresses and pillows. Very nice, but not as high class as sun royal hotel. Nice nonetheless, It's 8:43 and I cannot find the spa. Sigh. I just have to wait for them. Can't find any one around. [They were all playing cards in their room] Hmph. Where were we supposed to meet? Argh. Changed for nothing. Yawn... Hey I am writing too much. Bad. There is little space left. (Maybe not). What shall we do now? So I didn't go in the end.
10:33.57. Now. I have taken my shower, and I am listening to Tim's 8 Mp3's. Jon Poh is having constipation, and he just said "I give up", which made us roll with laughter (which makes me remember, rock can be replaced with roll, i.e. the Ship rolls!). We had a fun time (me) doing handstands. Tim is charging his batteries. Argh. Sigh. :( My parents have called. There is a small wooden puzzle in the room. Hyqel and XB are sleeping I believe. Oh well. Hope Tim doesn't feel hot tonight. XB and Hyqel are being sick. Sheesh. 10:47.03 Jon Poh has emerged! Yay! 11:06.18. We are back. I bought Yakult Lemorea, containing 2% 果汁. It's ¥140. Tim bought the same. Jon Poh bought C.C. Lemon (which says "Lets Get C.C.!" It's by Suntory and contains 286mg of Vitamin C, but contains only 1% Juice, and is gassy. Costs 150¥. Hyqel bought Apple Juice [In a paper packet, not a bottle], costs 100¥ but he lost the 'special' extended straw inside. XB bought the same bottle I froze. 130¥. Tim bought DARS cacao 45% Bitter. Cost 100+5%¥. Tim has discovered that there is an ID on the chocolate. (Tim is saying Oh my goodness). He as also discovered that the cookies they provide are soft. 10:20.05. Jon Poh Just dropped his shampoo in the toilet. He is washing it with soap. We had a good laugh. He is calling us evil people. He is putting his dirty sock in the laundry basket. Jon Poh is addicted to C.C. Lemon, He is sniffing them. 11:49.05. I accidentally set a match a light. My torch [It's an energizer xenon bulb professional series] can shine down 5 stories! Tim is feeling hot. So am I. 11:56.30. I have brushed my teeth. The window is open. I am sleeping. So is the rest. Jon Poh is commenting on duel watch. [His DUAL Time watch.] Bye. (#) ►Day 4 - Thur, 14 Nov (~900+) 6:34. I awoke, and went back to sleep. It's 6:43.05 now. My hair is messy. Jon Poh finally awoke when his C.C. Lemon was being attacked b XB. But he's sleeping again. My nose is blocked. 7:24. XB wants to go down. Breakfast is over at 8:05 and we are changing. Jon Poh stepped on an orange. we can blow smoke. Anyway, time to go to the school. I am on the newspaper! There will be media crew @ the school. I'm on the bus now. It's 8:47.26 now. 9:14 We have reached there! Anyway, it's kinda cold, and we are invited into their chapel. Its nice, and there is a guy who looks like an ACS guy. Anyway, we had a welcome ceremony at their gym (hall), and it was cold. They played some nice songs including pomp and circumstance with their band. There was a Karate show and a Jap dancing. (Speeches...) we proceeded for reception, and went to their class to see what the 15 yr olds are doing. Our class was learning Maths, algebra & Line graph. We had to introduce ourselves. The teacher made an attempt to use English. We went back to the reception area and the media was there. They interviewed my friend and I was waving behind. Hope I get seen! :p. We exchanged presents and they jumped with joy. Really. Anyway, they waved good bye to us. The girls were so attracted to Daniel Lee (Sec 3 poseur) and when he threw his tie out, the girls screamed to get it. Cool :p. Tim was jealous (PLK sources). Jon Poh sat on an orange. 12:07. We have left. 12:32. We have reached a place (I don't know) for lunch. [I remember the characteristic sweet Japanese curry we had there] We changed into CV there. I bought 2 key chains 700 + 350¥ swords. Hyqel bought a bag of oranges.
We left around 1:40, and reached the castle at 2:01.32. We had to report back by 3pm. I explored the place. I explored myself. Nobody else explored. Yay. Too bad for them. I changed my camera's battery and film :). So I didn't buy anything. Nice & Alone. Kay, I went back to the bus, but waited until 2:27. Then we left. On the bus. 4:20. Btw, that castle is the 3rd best in Japan.
We traveled to the technology centre, 3D & Robotics. We were split into 2 groups. Our group went to the 3D first. We put on the specs and watched a roller coaster ride & underwater video (3D). We then went to the robotics section. Me & Tim were selected and the robot drew us. My mouth is a line. bleah. We left @ 5 and the guide says that that centre is the biggest in Japan. We are going to Aso Farm and it's supposed to be cold. Tum Tum! ^ in the mountains. Today we are eating raw horse meat... sheesh. (and or flower soup..) DOT DOT DOT. 5:32.38. We are in the bus. It was drizzling. The road now has no lights. It Rocks. (Rolls. we are here! 5:38.41. It's a very nice place. The temperature is 3C and we can blow smoke. Lovely! We are sleeping (4 person) in this igloo like concrete house. It's beautiful. Our house is A6. Near the 'lobby house'. It is a HUGE country 'hotel', I have never seen such a huge hotel. [In terms of land area] We have to meet at 6:15 and dinner starts at 6:30pm. Man, the dining room is Lovely! We take off our shoes, and sit. It's buffet. Food for all around the world. Great! [It's kinda like Marche] There was pizza, tempura, beef, salad, chicken, too many to list. It was a good dinner. Excellent. We came back and took a rest. Everyone in my room except me went for hot SPA. We showered and played after tt. I had fun showing magic tricks to Shawn and boy was he amazed.
We are on National TV! Seriously, I think I looked like a fool. I was waving at the camera behind Tim. Horrid me. Argh. [We were so excited when we saw that we were on TV that we forgot to let Ee Sin in, who was knocking on the door like mad. The TV crew shot Shawn Tan when he was taking a photo at the school] Moving on... I am in my T-shirt& pants. It's 2C outside I think. I can blow a lot of smoke. I wanted to go to the shop @ 'Lobby Block' but it was closed. I bought a drink, Aquarius (Guide recommended this drink when we went to the zoo) for 140+5%¥ (147¥). It's like 100 plus without gas. It's cold. I stayed outside in normal wear for ... 10 min? I visited various 'rooms'. I stayed outside with Bing Li for 5 min. Nice smoke.
Anyway, I'm back in the wooden area in my room (beside toilet) and Shawn
is with me. It's 11:35.24pm now. Maybe I should sleep. Sigh. Oh yah. I'm
no the newspaper, but I look weird. Sheese. Hope I don't get a cold. I
think the guide is very nice. Ee Sin is angry because we were so excited
during the TV show, we locked him out. XB & Ee Sin are sleeping. Maybe I
will too soon. I have to pack my luggage. Very Messy. Sigh. I have
brushed my teeth. On the toothbrush package, it says: ►Day 5 - Fri, 15 Nov (~1.4k) 7:01am. I have awoke. It's quite very misty outside. I can finally take photos. (later on when the mist clears) We changed & washed up, and went for Breakfast, at the lobby. We still can blow smoke. Breakfast as usual, was gre8t. We went back to our 'hut'. I took photos. The scenery was wonderful. We went to the ‘lobby’ to gather. We were supposed to be there @ 8:15, We ended up 8:24 as Ee Sin (I suspect) hid Shawn’s Camera behind the TV [Ee Sin can't remember so I can't confirm]. Anyway, the teacher was late too, so it didn’t matter. I took a photo with Sir Guide, and cows were spotted. We made our way to the bus, and left, to some nearby place for some educational thing - to make tomato sauce. On the bus, they showed the video again. I almost freaked out. I was waving. Sheesh.
We reached there at 9:22. We had to wear slippers. So we... started making ketchup! First, we had a huge bowl of tomatoes (Me & Ben confused oranges with it and Sin called them potatoes) ??? We washed them, and using some special curved knife, dug the 'leaf' out, then, we could cut an (X) at the back of the orange [tomato] and put them in hot water after that, to get the skin away from the tomato (Peel). Of course it was Hot, and I dropped many of them into water, causing them to splash about. After that, we squashed them up! :) Meanwhile, someone would chop garlic, and grate onion. Very fun! I chopped them until the garlic was mushy. (oh yes, I taught the guide how to use the cam) [So he could film us in action] After the tomatoes were squashed, they were blended and sieved to remove seeds. The grated onion & garlic were put in cloth, and squeezed. Ben Tan 'coped' (stole) onion (grated) from the other group, and put it in ours. :P. Anyway, the onion/garlic juice was mixed with the tomato juice, and boiled. Sugar, Salt and cinnamon powder was added. We were supposed to put a 弱 rou4 (weak) fire, but had a fun time using qiang2 强 (strong) fire. However, in the end we could not finish making the tomato sauce, but they gave us each a bottle of already made sauce. (glass jar! woot!) We left at 11:04am.
There, we traveled to Aso Mountain, and the legendary (cute hill) (Guide like to call that puny volcano cute). [However, Mt Aso is far from cute! It's the largest active volcano in Japan, and one of the largest in the world!] We reached there and temperature was between 4-5C, however, there was wind. Teacher forced me to wear my jacket. We were sad that we could not climb Mt Aso, because of the wind. I bought a 'package' of 500¥. (usual price 1000) contains photos, etc... We walked around and took photos, I lost my gloves. Luckily, the teacher found them, but lent it to someone. (I got them only during lunch).
We went up the bus, and proceeded downhill to lunch. Temperature was abit warmer. It was buffet styled. It was very crowded. The was 'Korean' (from their hats) [They were Koreans. I'm not too sure about that but it appeared to be so] They are kinda disgusting. Firstly, they cut queue! (Old women esp.) and I saw a old lady drink directly from the scooping ladle of some syrup, and put it back. My My. eww.. good lunch again. We went down to a gift shop, but didn't buy anything. [Go to * in the next paragraph] We headed for Fukuoka! (Supposed to take 2.5 hours) Very boring. I slept a bitm and amazed Shawn. Most were playing Taiti. We stopped, for toilet break. I bought Pokari sweat and C.C. lemon again. (* I forgot. I think I lost it after lunch when we went across the road to a nearby land uprising (hill). We (me, Shawn and Joon Faii) were there. Fotos.. A man suddenly grabbed Shawn and knelt. He [Shawn] told him we were Singaporeans. He let us go. We back to the bus) We continued our journey. At around 3:30, we stopped our games and did some karaoke. School song, batch song, etc. We stopped at Canal City (Shopping Centre), at 3:57.
It's a big shopping centre. I walked around with Shawn, and we had about 1h 15min to explore. I took some fotos at the fountain. [Some really lovely X'mas decorations with lights] Shawn was forced to go with XB, but since XB went to the toilet, Shawn followed me instead. (Shh... we made up a story to tell him.) Firstly we walked around the front part of the complex, and found puny shops there. I wanted to buy a dream catcher, but could not make up my mind, so I didn't bother to buy it. I wasted 100¥ @ dream catcher. Walked around. I was wondering how come there were so few shops, so we walked around the building, and found tt we did not walk the other way. So there were LOTS & LOTS of shops. I head Skater Boi @ a skateboard shop [Skater Boy by Avril Lavigne, evidence of Globalization!]. We walked more ,There was a SEGA area, all arcade games. I wasted 150¥, because Shawn paid 50¥. Total 250¥ so far on catcher machines. [it's those type of machines with a mechanical arm where you're supposed to control it to pick up some soft toy] I wanted to try it because I saw a woman trying it and got the donald so easily. I met a Sec 3 there, who wasted alot of money there too. He was searching for electronic shops, but to no avail. Anyway, time flew, and it was 5:15, and we had to go back. We took a short bus ride to a supermarket called Mitsukoshi. [I cannot really remember but I recall that around this time, me and Shawn were filming fun things on the video camera, such as Shawn Tan saying "Jie Liang!" in a very amusing manner, and us filming my log-book (this one)] However, we and some others did not want to buy food, so we walked quite a long distance (Guide walks fast) to electronics store. I bought, SONY Stereo Ear receiver for ¥1780+5% since my one was spoilt. We took a long time to decide. Tim bought the same. We carried each a map of Japan, and walked back. It was rolled up and Ben Tan 'fought' with me and bent the map. (He gave tt to someone else :P). We gathered and went to 100¥ shop! Quite a long walk; the underpass and stuff. Everytime at a traffic light, when it was green man, there was music. :D The 100¥ shop was on the 8th floor. I bought a cute little seal :) soft toy. Other people bought weird things, like walking stick (Jerome for his granddad) and Ben Tan bought posters of SunFlowers and Mona Lisa. We ran back to the bus, and Andy dropped his shoe. :P
We got on the bus and headed to some place for 'barbecue' dinner. Reached there at 7:58. It's kinda like Seoul Garden. There's a gas flame under some grills and we cook food there. Me and Ee Sin played with the peach and fired it (oops?) We also played with satay sticks and chop sticks and burned them. (oops more?) We also poured soft drink, etc on it, which made the fire Big! In the end, it was roasted. Shawn does not know when to flip the food so he leaves it there to cook. When he remembers it's already black on one side. [The sushi there was really good too] We went to some miyako hotel, and it looked like a prison from outside. We carried our luggage and made our way there. Our room is 511. 2 person. Ours is right at the end of the corridor. :( We quickly met downstair for guide wanted to take us for a walk around. Kyushu's largest bullet train station is right in front of our hotel. (博多) or (Hakata. ) in Jap. I discovered that Dong has been working for a guide for 1 year, and from him, discovered that a express bullet train from here to Tokyo costs ¥23,000, takes 4.5 hr, but a plane costs ¥20,000 only. (Dong is really nice too. On our way to the dining place, he gave us each a card and a pen. - To write to him! (however, he did not pay attention to the card which says 'A new baby was born to us!') He also bought lots of sweets & snacks and oranges.) Nothing much happened. There were sick posters and adverts [stuck all over the place, including lampposts, trees, walls, etc.. even the hotel room had advertisements like these for the TV] Anyway, we also went to Yodobashi Hakata [http://www.yodobashi-hakata.com/], which is a big electronic store, but it was closed. We walked back at 12:06. I wrote this and went to sleep (didn't finish writing :P) 1:28.37am. Buhbiez! ►Last Day 16 Nov Sat (6th Day) (~400+)
I awoke at 7:33, but went back to sleep. The hotel advertises their sick channels. Bleah. [for the TV] We changed up and went for Breakfast at 8am, at level 12. This time, the restaurant has Big windows! Our hotel windows are small and lousy. [Building looks like a prison from outside!] Breakfast was good, but few choices. Buffet as usual. We have up to 9:50am to pack our luggage. I have to buy lots more prezzies. Oh dear. Oh well, 8:52.44, time to pack. XB is watching the video now. La La.. I am doing a worksheet, Review and Reflections. Oh well, Japan Shows (somo)??? are 'spastic' Bleah. 9:49.43. We are leaving soon... Sigh... Time flies.10:16.35. I lost my blue pen so I am changing to red. I finally spot Chow & Leon Khee, after their absence from breakfast. I just found my blue pen! :P. Reached, 10:27.31. We took fotos, checked in luggage etc. It's 12:00.42 now. I have finished buying gifts, food etc. 2 time pieces, and food. [One of the time pieces was a lovely silver dolphin clock, and a lovely ladybird clock for my mum. Cost 1000¥ each. Also bought 2 boxes of Japanese rice cakes (or flour cakes or something like that) etc for my relatives; though I should have bought a lot more] Our gate is 54. DFS is cool. [I remember there was one crystal shop or something like that] 12:11.17.
On the plane now, 41A. I hate this seat. Small, cramped, and Inside. It's
a window seat, but the wing is blocking. I have Hyqel sitting beside me
and Jeee! Sheesh. This is bad. Not good. I am angry, Furious. Mad. Hmph!
Totally evil. Horrible. SIGH. :(. SQ959. 5hr 45min. Fuk to Sin. 12:24.26
We are moving!.. 12:36.18.. on the runway! 11kmph... 290! 630 altitude!
Liftoff! 12:38.50 now... 4529km more to go. Rising 10m per sec. I shall
watch Stuart little 2. I have decided to watch MIB II Again. 1:49.46.
Something wrong with the screen. Bah. Interrupted. Hmph.. 1:51.47, it's
back! 2:28.32 I just eaten lunch. Chicken, Potato, veg. bread & Apple
juice. Back to the movies. 2:44.52. There's Haagen-Dazs icecream! It's
rock hard. :) 3:01.22pm Show just ended... 3hr 20min more and it's -50C
outside. Somewhere around Got offed the plane and... went to belt 32 to get our baggage.. I met my parents there.. and we went home. This is the end of this trip. Very good, and I'll miss Japan and Dong Especially. [And how we coped so many Seaweed packets from the hotel breakfast] (Ee Sin called him dog-bone or dogaerian...) Oh well.. A good trip. Sigh. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2002 (and beyond) Gao Guangyan |
