|
I'M BACK! :D
A few days ago haha. Didn't really have the energy to churn out a long recount of the past week; but nevertheless my very first (and most probably very last) overseas school trip couldn't have been a better one! It couldn't have arrived at a better time too, when the past few weeks have been a total mad rush and what I really needed was some fresh air and lots of time to hang around and get a good grip on things. Seven days spent in Japan was more than enough :D
Here I sit in this good old room feeling the heavy withdrawal from the trip - in those seven days, I had the chance to forget nearly everything, and just embrace the present and its bliss, just watching the tokyo cars drive by at funnily slow speeds (most of Japan's smaller roads have a speed limit of only 40km/h), feeling the cold winds flow by my face, even being able to catch the beautiful sight of the Nagano plains turning from green to white when snow started falling!
Now that I'm back here in Singapore it does really feel different; cold hard reality is sinking in, trying to wrestle with these wonderful memories and all that's left of me today is a lazy boy lolling around the couch and the bed at home trying to make sense of whatever's been happening and what I have missed. I have to spring back into action soon, real soon.
But until then, the past week:
Waseda University SILS Fall Programme 2008
I think the good memories all started right at the airport when we were getting ready to leave for Japan, for there were many many friends which came to see us off. Haha I've never had friends see me off from the airport before, and it was really a wonderful feeling :D Especially tingzhang who came running into the airport with carrot cake in one hand for his uneaten dinner. I've not forgotten all you people I've got lots of gifts from Japan okay :D
A big portion of song&dance was there! Including mingzhe who came to send us off too :D
And a few moments later, we took off from Changi Airport at midnight, into the starry sky (the Nippon Airways plane had a video feed of the plane's takeoff and landing so we could actually see what was happening upfront, and the sky then was full of stars). From then onwards I think I really put a lot behind me; I felt a lot less heavyminded and things felt a lot different. Then on, I had all the time I wanted (throughout that one week) to enjoy true-hearted conversations, to get to know lots of people and get to find new friends, to experience Japan.
After a great deal of talking, photoboothing on Isabella's mac, and very little sleep, it was morning! I was sitting on the left side of the plane away from the sunrise so the sky tones were milder, sadly.
My first glimpse of Japan a few moments later took the form of vast lands; the contrast from Singapore was very very stark!
We landed at Narita airport soon after and the moment I stepped out of the airport doors, the cold winter wind met my face and I was totally cheered up immediately haha it's been nearly ten years since I faced winter conditions and it was really wonderful! All of us started breathing out deeply out of fascination of the smoke puffing out of our mouths :D There and then we boarded a bus which took us to our hotel to leave our luggage there.
The trip along the way was pretty exciting - first sights of Japan were really amazing. I think I was overwhelmingly delighted for the fact that I've not really visited a new country in many many years and this was a wonderful chance which I had to visit Japan! Tokyo city is after all a giant city which doesn't sound any different from Singapore but its city feel gives off an entirely different feel, and I guess the unfamiliarity of the place really helps!
After reaching Rihga Royal Hotel, we left our luggage there and proceeded to Waseda University! At first sight was the clocktower, a key feature of the school. Haha how come every single school has a memorable clocktower. I'll never forget RI's clocktower, but it simply pales in comparison to this one!
After a short introduction at the Okuma auditorium, I had my first meal in Japan, at the Waseda University Cafeteria :D
It doesn't look much but it sure was rather nice! And they had a special name for this meal which I very sadly forgot - something like an Okuma lunch set or something. Plus the drinks were cool, you can actually get green tea (Ocha in japanese!) dispensed from a machine along with hot and cold water; it's like their staple drink!
After lunch we had a rather spectacular performance presented to us, by the Waseda University cheerleading team! And this was cheerleading like we've never seen before, amazingly different from the standard singaporean / american cheerleading styles.
Facebook has a couple of videos of the waseda cheerleaders :D Go take a look sometime! It was really unique; this was where the guy cheerleaders actually played a more major part in cheerleading in contrast to the dominance of girl cheerleaders. And they were pretty aggressive. Apart from that, it was really quite fascinating - it was as if they just jumped straight out of a book of manga or from an anime series hahaha!
After a few more cheerleading performances, and one SILS model lecture after, we went for more sightseeing!
I love them japanese taxis, their patterns / colours are crazy!
Soon we reached the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and had a conference with the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minorikawa-san. He really looked like a serious guy with real business but in fact it was quite funny when it turned out that he really had a sense of humour and got us laughing quite a bit. I like ministers like him! Fun people :D It was quite a memorable government experience.
Later that evening it turned dark at 5.30pm, quite a shocking thing considering it never gets dark in Singapore anytime before 7.30pm! And we went to Aqua City in Odaiba, where we got to try the best-tasting ramen ever. Apparently they gathered 6 master ramen chefs together in Aqua City to sell their ramen, and we had a chance to visit one of the 6 restaurants (which were side by side in a small enclosed area; talk about intense competition). I had a bowl of Tokufuku ramen (or something like that) which fulfilled my dream of having a piping hot bowl of ramen in the cold of the winter :D
You actually can order ramen via a vending machine!!
We then returned to the hotel after some souvenir-shopping, and stayed up till pretty late doing lots of fun stuff.
OKAY I NEED TO GET OFF THE COMPUTER ALREADY BUT I'M ONLY DONE WITH DAY ONE OF WASEDA ):
Plus I'll be going to Malaysia later today too, for a week!
Will be posting as much as I can :D
I really miss Japan.
| 
