Day: Day 7, Saturday
I missed my breakfast..Lack of slp due to the previous night.
7.15am : Met up with my sight-seeing group, namely Kelly, Ymei, Prof Pr, Kazu (Information guide), Kim, Jun & Misa (Tour guide)
7.25am: Everyone arrived & off to bus-stop. (The bus tik costs 1600 yen i tink) 1600 yen per person, 1.5 hrs journey to Tokyo train station. (do some math and u will know how exp it is)
1.5 hrs..................................... to Tokyo (Jun was my bus companion - we even drew a sketch of our own country)
He told me that bus schedule & timing is fixed in Japan, unlike Singapore. I wonder how Japanese bus driver can be so punctual? So amazing..(ya, he said Japan bus is punctual.)
First stop: ASAKUSA.
It is definitely a tourism spot in Tokyo (Been listening to Jenny & Linda talking abt this place in the office). So over there, you will not only see Japanese but ppl from all ard the world. A Buddhist temple.. 2 stretch of stalls lead the way to the temple. Stalls that sell souvenirs, food, kimono, toys, accessories etc...... and this:
(Photo from Kelly, thanks.)
Hmm.. i put it as my Msn pic and has successfully attracted several guys that came to ask me:" What is it?"
It is Purin (Japanese Pronouciation). Go check it out urself. =P
Our Sight-seeing Group
It was great to visit such a place with Japanese in our group. They taught us how to draw lots, tie up bad lot and keep good lot, to throw coins into a well before entering the temple etc...
TEPPANYAKI LUNCH!! SLURP SLURP........
The restaurant is really a traditional Japanese restaurant!
Everyone of us knelt and gathered around the Teppanyaki iron plate.
We cooked every dishes by ourselves..needless to say, every dish was delicious.
The waitress gave us bowls of erm... mixture? (it looks like watery flour mixture with egg)
Mr Kim Chef
Oishii~
One was seafood with egg, one was just veggie and one was like Mua Chee (the one we had at pasar malam).. cant remember the rest.
Once again, i was amazed with the toilet........
You need to wear slippers in the toilet.
马桶的贮水箱和洗手盘连为一体，每次抽水时，水龙头自然就会流出自来水，用来洗手。用来洗手的水接着再流进水箱，用于下一次抽水时
After a discussion on the next place to venture, we decided on Odaiba.
2nd Stop: Odaiba
To go to Odaiba..
by bus? NO..
By train? No...
By plane? OF COS No....
Yah.. by Ferry...
It is like an island linked to Tokyo.. well, i think it is still part of Tokyo.
You can take ferry all the way from Asakusa to Odaiba..
Along the journey, you will see 14 beautifully & differently designed bridges.
I will love to take photos of all 14 bridges but.. hard la.. i didnt try also cos the ferry is not really of open concept.
The last bridge (Rainbow bridge) is the most beautiful bridge of all i feel.
Okie.. photo is not tt nice.. you see, it's misty..
On the ferry.. (which costs 1220 Yen = ~$15)
Fuji TV building is situated on Odaiba. There is a mini statue of liberty on Odaiba too. From Odaiba, you are able to see half of Tokyo Tower as well.
Fuji TV is a pretty building. The icon of Fuji TV is Laugh, a blue dog that looks like Snoopy. After paying for the entrance fee, we are allowed to tour 5 floors of Fuji TV. Each floor has its own theme..
On each floor, we are supposed to find a stamp machine and stamp on the brochure we obtained on the 1st floor we visited. After 5 stamps, Laugh will be formed!
Smart idea........ all of us were having fun doing that.
Hmm.. actually Fuji TV is not really a great place to visit if you dun know much abt Japanese hosts, programs, artists etc..
Nothing much to see.. the only thing i enjoyed is stamping on my brochure,hahaha
Kazu & Me reporting news live from JBC =P
After snooping & stamping on 5 flrs of Fuji TV building, we went to a shopping mall for a short shopping trip. Yah.. it was really really SHORT shopping trip.
Dinner............
Beautiful, romantic dinner......
We had a room to ourselves! Furthermore, the view...... wow... gosh...... gorgeous!
From our dinner room, I could see the orange Tokyo Tower (Orange in the Winter & White in the summer), Rainbow Bridge, the whole view across Odaiba. Shoik! It was definitely memorable.
Okok.. back to the food..
There was a dish which i particularly love it a lot.
I didnt take note of the dish name but it was meat immersed in melting cheese in a bowl....... Bagus! Their cheese dishes are always so delicious.
Dinner was of cos great, needless to say. Photos are in dvd so.. ya, sorry
But... here's a night scene across Odaiba from the outdoor area of the restaurant.
The last program of the day - Ferris Wheel!! (^_^)
900 Yen for a ride..or rather for one full round. Amongst the gals, i was the lucky one to actually sit with the 3 guys in our group. (Well, i can just say it was purposely arranged). Photos was taken... maybe i will just show it to pk. *gleeful smile*
End of my Tokyo trip..(Passed by Ginza b4 we took the bus back to Kashima.. as told by Jun, Ginza is the most expensive area in Japan)
We managed to get a 10.30bus back to Kashima. So by the time we reached Kashima, it was midnight. (The bus driver overshot our bus-stop and sut sut U-turn back for all of us)
Kashima Sweet Kashima.
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Date: 4th March 2007
Day: Day 8, Sunday
YAWN. You can imagine how tired I am after the previous day of touring Tokyo.
It was a 'no energy' day for me.
Woke up at 8am (slightly later than usual)
Reached office at 8.30am.
Nothing much to say about this day because it was a working day.
Hmm.. i lunched with Yuichiro (the not bad guy) and chatted with him on his racing hobby. Oh ya, he loves to race and get married at a super young age of 24. Not bad-looking but married at such a young age.. sigh.. hahaha
My cycling itch came again.
Eric & Jeff rode with me to Jusco. Hmm.. terrible mistake.
Why?
I fell down -___-"
... and injured my knee. Heng, 皮外伤. But... bleeding. (I knew it only wen i came back from cycling.. no wonder knee was painful)
We took 30mins from SMTC to Jusco. It should not take tt long at all......
Me again.
I was riding on an electronic bike but.......
I didnt know I must switch on a button to activate it.
There was a stupid LONG upward SLOPE along the way to Jusco.
I had to rest twice...
When I reached the top of the slope, Jeff discovered both Eric & I didnt switch on the button.
Pengz. . . .
No wonder so kan kor for me.
Anyway, thanks to Jeff & Eric for taking care of me. If i went alone, who knows what will happen. I might still be lost in Japan now,hahaha
Dinner was a fun chat with Kazu, Kei ito & Ichiro. I mistaken Ichiro to be a Korean and made them all laugh at me =(
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Date: 5th March 2007
Day: Day 9, Monday
Shit! I overslept & PP called my room... tot will be meeting her at office instead so my alert mode was off.
Oh ya, it was PP's Birthday!
Upon reaching the office, all of us (Tak, Takiko, me) wished her Happy Birthday and presented our gifts to her. My gift was chocolate & Takiko's gift was a pretty candle ornament. It was not that simple.. the students had also planned a surprise for her and Takiko helped to buy the cake. (是我大嘴巴告诉每个人的,haha)
After class, the plan started. Yuichiro and ymei carried the cake in & Takiko and I was the video-women. Stupidly, i did not press the record button hard enough and nothing was recorded from my video cam....
She does look happy I think..
She said she always kept her bdae as a secret.. (Sorry, i peeked at your p/p when i was photocopy it) Opps!
You know, it can be sad being in another country where no one knows abt ur bdae and therefore did not celebrate for you..so i just spread ard!~ That's all.
Lunch was with Tak San (everyday i have meal with different people.. gosh)
Tak San is a very nice person to be with.. he always told me info on Japan which I will be interested in. He told me that Ramen is popular in all parts of Japan and considered to be the most popular noodle. Japanese living in the Kanto region (East Japan) prefers Soba wheras Japanese living in the Kansai region (West Japan) prefers Udon. Interesting fact ah~
CYCLING TIME ! (There's nothing to do except to cycle.. besides, i love cycling..)
I didnt ask anyone..make it a pt to be alone this time round so i can really take my time to simply admire Kashima streets while cycling and to take my time in shopping. Hee..
Photos that I anyhow took on my way to 7-11
天不作美。It started to drizzle on my way there (5pm).
I realised the 7-11 cashier will say out the prices of all the items that i bought as he scanned in the price into the cash register..
Sky had turned dark when I stepped out from 7-11...
As mentioned earlier, Kashima is like a countryside so there are not many street lights on the street.. 踏回去时，前方的视线是昏暗的。。脚踏车的自动夜灯又不亮，只好凭着感觉慢慢地骑回SMTC。唯一害怕的是像昨天一样跌倒（因为路是不平的。）
虽然危险，但觉得还是一种享受。
Late dinner time.. Eh? No one was at the cafeteria so I had my dinner alone for the 1st time =) Beef, Macaroni soup, fish, banana, pickles.. it was great. Those who know me knew i hate to have meals alone outside but..... it was diff this time round. I could fully enjoy the Jap food and quietly sit there to enjoy it, heee..Too bad i was unable to admire the scenary outside because in the morning, glass was transparent but at night, it was a mirror.
I walked back to the office after dinner.. WOW! Everyone was in the classroom.. no wonder..
Eric asked me to take photos of him & his grp working.. (He said no one helped him to take cos he's the photographer) After which, i played ard with his camera taking shots here and there & all other grps discussing in action.
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Date: 6th March 2007
Day: Day 10, Tuesday
3 days left in Japan~I do miss things back in Singapore.
I am a Video-woman today. =D
All video-taping of every group presentations was handled by me. From the set-up to preparing & showing the videos to them.
It was their first grp presentation........ and Yawn, i was a bit bored by them. All the presentations were really serious. But they did a good job though. I had the easiest job of just standing there to record,hahaha
Lunch was with Takiko & Tak San. Once again, Tak san told me something interesting and informational abt Japan. As told by Tak san, Northern Japan depends on snow for water while Southern Japan depends on typhoon for water. I tink insufficient water might be caused by global warming in Southern Japan one day....
4pm was the videotaping exercise. There were 3 grps of 1 pair each. Each pair are supposed to have a 20mins discussion and decide on their final choice. Yah.. i was the video-woman again.
It was cute to hear their discussion.. In a normal discussion, speed are normally fast. But as their common languages were not English, their discussion sounded like slow motion discussion, with X2 slowness pressed on the videocam. All of them spoke slowly and carefully during the discussion. But it was really cute...(ya, i was eavesdropping to be ready to press the stop button when they made their choice)
What did i do with these videos? Well.. it was an achievement for me!! PP asked me to look out for all the listed response strategies, link them tog and make it into 1 video. Oh boy! I was excited to do that!! The last time i did a video movie was for Michael b4 he headed off to Shanghai NOC. Now, i get to do it again ^_^
It took me one whole day.. to find all the strategies and make it into a movie. But i was really statisfied wif my work. I extracted one part of Suzuki's video where he kept sniffing..and added my own comment on top:"Suzuki had a terrible flu...." I showed it to PP and tot she might ask me to remove that cheeky comment.. hey, i was wrong, she love it! I guessed the class love it too cos they told me they were laughing loudly when that was shown. *SMILE*
Dinner - Takiko, Tak, Nori (The jap guy who wanted to learn Chinese)..
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Date: 7th March 2007
Day: Day 11, Wednesday
It was a hurtful day for me. I was hurt by what one of the GMBA participants said. After this incident, i feel quite proud of Singaporean. Singapore does have its own style and characteristics. Through this incident, i realise i do feel a sense of belonging to Singapore.. cos wen he insulted Singaporeans, i was damn damn damn mad!!! I wanted to scold him right in the face in the cafeteria but I ren. If I wont need to face him for 2 more days, i would have just walk off.
Anyway, pls dun ask me abt it.. i wana forget it. I tried not to be mad at him on the following day cos it was stupid to be mad at someone for so long. But i know in my heart, i will nv be frens wif this kinda ppl anymore. Somehow, i wanted to just throw away NP of him & me.. but i didnt.. suan le. I hope not to have more contact wif him in future.
Forget abt the sad thing.. i wanted to cycle again. To get rid of all the unhappy tots & to relax after a day of hard work.
However, i was busy all the way till irt was dark outside. Being the stubborn me, I really wanted to go out even though PP & Tak discouraged me to do so. In the end, Tak said he wanted to get something from 7-11 too.. so he will be going with me.
Frankly speaking, i know he does want to get breakfast for tml but the main reason shld be to accompany. Such a nice guy.. he is just like my dad.
We went.............. ok, after tt i regretted a bit. The weather was too damn cold for any normal human being to withstand and the street was too damn dark to even walk properly on the pathway! Single degree outside... no road light.. we depended solely on our bicycle lighting & car lights that came from the opposite direction.
He's a hero.. he guided me thr and on the way back.. and i was touched wen he bought some tibits which he loves and gave it to me as a farewell gift =....)
Thanks Tak !
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Date: 8th March 2007
Day: Day 12, Thursday
I had breakfast, yeah! (After skipping bf for so many days)
I helped PP with the laptop setup to show the class the video i have made. Hee.. as mentioned earlier, response (I tink) was good. =#)
It was the day before i leave for Singapore. Ymei and Takiko was my lunch partners and later on the whole table was occupied by Taiwanese participants (Ymei, Eddie, Jeff, Kelly). Taiwanese were really cute & friendly people. They spoke in pure chinese (which is def rare among SIngaporean). We chatted from Taiwan politics (Hmm.. not like those serious discussion), our country to match-making for Kelly.hahaahah... They were fun to listen to. I could see they were really concerned about their country's economy & political scene.
Last Shopping trip at Jusco with Takiko. Hee.. Mr Kato (nt Tako~) was very nice to drive us to Jusco.. we had ard 1hr 15min to walk ard the supermarket and get wat we want. Phew! I managed to get Aaron & Elaine's prez.... In addition, bought goodies back for my frens & 2 small bottles of Sake. Speaking of the Sake.. it was nicely wrapped..... sobz...... but i didnt get to bring it back to Singapore at all cos it was confiscated at Japan Airport.
My fault.... cos i forgot i am not supposed to bring liquid on flight. Should have squeezed into my check-in luggage!
My last dinner in Kashima was a really grand dinner. Takiko & Tak wanted to bring PP to the restaurant we ate the other time with Linda & Jenny...... so...... keke.......... i get to eat there for the 2nd time (IM REALLY SUPER LUCKY).
The food was different from the other time. Variety of food was diff, everything was in smaller portion but............. it was still...... a lot of food. Similar to the previous dinner, we could not finish our food..
The translucent slimy item in the cup is called SoreNore (Baby conger eel). Takiko said it is rare and only available in certain season. Here is another clearer photo i obtained from the web:
It doesnt taste like eel/fish definitely... it just erm.. slimy..like jellyfish
Potato with Veggie.. not bad.. but not really one of my fav.
Those who know me well as Lingz will know this is def one of my Fav - CLAMS!
This is Takiko San.. look at the spread of food in front of us!!!!!!!
Can you imagine the no. of plates that Jap waitresses have to wash each day? Count yourself lucky if you are not working in a Jap restaurant..
What I have shown is def not all.. some of the empty plates have already been taken off by the waitress.. Food just came in continuously.. Both PP & I was flabbergasted by the no. of dishes Takiko has ordered! The door of our room was definitely opened for at least 10 times.. nt joking..
I went back to SMTC with a big fat tummy and a full stomach *BURP*
Well.. Takiko is really really nice to treat us to such a great meal and i could see that she was a bit hurt wen we could not finish the food..
I went to the student discussion room to ka jiao one of the grps.. ahhaa.. im leaving soon and nothing to do so I just hang ard, chit chat with them..
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Date: 9th March 2007
Day: Last day, Friday
Award presentation on last day of lesson...
Kelly won the most persuasive award
Mr Bear, Eddie & Emma shared the most creative award &
Toshi won the most improved award..
The Taiwanese had arranged lunch with me at the cafeteria.. my last meal with them. They were really great but due to their busy study schedule & my hectic work schedule, we didnt really have time to know each other much. Nevertheless, i was glad to know them.
Before i left, they gave me a Japanese Cd as a gift & souvenir to remember Japan & to remember them.. so sweeeeeeeeet....
Ryu gave me his box of korean biscuit the night before.... I went Japan and yet came back with a Korea gift too,hahah
Takiko & Tak.. they were great.. Takiko always buy nice tibits for us.. te di bought cakes & pudding for me on one of the nights. Before i left, she handed me a package of assorted rice crackers for my family which I wanted to buy when she brought it from Tokyo to office.
On PP's last lesson, she presented me with 'University of Michigan' T-shirt as a token of appreciation during the award presentation. (I had 2 t-shirt cos Takiko gave me one b4 PP gave me, hee..)
When i was leaving, Mr Kato & another Jap staff was there.. The Jap staff said:" 明年见。” Shocked me! Well.. i dun tink i will ever get to see them again... All the Jap staffs were so nice and hospitable towards me.
Thanks for the great Japan/Kashima experience. I will miss all of them. =)
P.S.: Tokyo-Narita Airport has a great shopping area.
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