Last month, a group of 16 students and their professor from Hijiyama University (Hiroshima, Japan) came to visit NUS. The event was divided into 2 days, the first day supposed to be an 'English-only' day with NUS students doing a presentation on Singapore culture, while the second day was the reverse - Japanese only and presentation done by the Hiroshima students. The 'English-only' day didn't really turn out to be English only though, because it seemed that their English was not really on the conversational level since some of they even had problem saying things like "I'm a third year student."
Our presentation was started by Shungui, with Sandra and Jade helping here and there. The presentation wasn't really serious, or rather there were quite a number of jokes in it, especially when Shungui told them his schedule as an NUS student and how NUS students are divided into several types. He actually told them about the hungry ghost festival.. but to include one whole slide of scary picture seemed a little too much haha.
There was a little quiz in the end which was to guess the meaning of Singlish words lol.
Their angmoh professor who taught them English lesson was really friendly and hip. You can easily see that from the way he dressed and spoke. Didn't look like an university professor at all!
Their presentation on the 2nd day only focused on teaching us Hiroshima dialect! Quite difficult to remember, in fact I forgot most of it already haha. They also had a similar quiz in the end of their presentation and I got a packet of Hiroshima cookies for answering a question correctly!
After the class, like the first day, they were free to go to anywhere they like. A group of 5 girls (Yuuko, Manami, Tomomi, Kana, and Azusa) wanted to visit Sentosa, and Zhixin, Shungui, and I decided to bring them there. Since they expressed an interest in taking the cable cars, we decided to go by that way even though nowadays people usually take the express monorail instead. The obvious reason would be the steep price for taking cable cars.
When we were about to buy the tickets, suddenly a suspicious uncle came to offer us the tickets at discounted price, claiming that a tour group that supposed to go with him had canceled their trip. Even though suspicious, since he offered us to bring us there together without paying first, there seemed to be no harm, and indeed nothing went wrong as we followed him to take the cable cars.
An auntie, who seemed to partner the uncle, followed along too, and then kept following us, acting as a tour guide lol. She then offered us discounted tickets to go to inside the big Merlion. We took the offer and finally managed to "get rid" of her haha. Ok "get rid" sounds harsh since she was kinda helpful in a sense =P
A group photo, as taken by the auntie.
And so we went into the Merlion!
It was quite dark at some parts and I'm not sure if this dragon symbolizes anything.
At the teeth of the Merlion grarrrR
Shungui is really a talkative person, always have random things to say, but he couldn't really speak Japanese. So he would say something, then look at me or Zhixin and say "translate" lol.
Reached the top, but it was so hot that we couldn't stand staying there for more than 10 minutes.
We then went to the Dolphin Lagoon to watch pink dolphin! Wow there are pink dolphins in this world! I didn't know. The dolphins are pretty cool, but the show itself was quite slow and boring haha. The Japanese girls insisted to pay for our expensive tickets. So nice of them >.<
The tickets actually covered the Underwater World as well, but as Zhixin and I have something on, we decided not go there. I felt quite bad.. I mean they could have gone there with Shungui, without us, but somehow they decided to exit Sentosa together.
That day was actually Edi's birthday, so meeting him and my brother, we went to eat at the new mall, Ion Orchard. We tried the restaurant that serves Hokkaido Ramen, but the meal wasn't really satisfying and was a little overpriced.
All kinds of souvenirs received on that one day. It's kind of a Japanese culture to give souvenirs to express their thanks. Sometimes even though they didn't prepare, they insisted to give something, like Japanese coins, and even a TCC Scratch & Win card that can be exchanged for a cup of coffee haha!
Last month, I watched Final Destination 4 with Edi and Wilson. There was nothing really new in this sequel other than the usual flow of this series - watching how one person by one person dies. I just realised that for this kind of movie, in the advertisement they specifically advertised all the upcoming horror movies. The Indonesian movie called Darah looked really scary. I feel like watching.
Around that period, I was with Hari, who came to Singapore for a few days in an attempt to further his studies at SIM. His English test turned out to be relatively successful, but his admission is not confirmed yet and I wish him all the best. Recently, Edi mentioned to me that after O Levels SIM looked like a possible option for him as his results are not looking good for now. Eh, that would mean Hari and him might be classmates? That sounds weird lol.
In the event of welcoming Hari and Andika to Singapore, there was a small gathering at Minds Cafe. Lika and Fita were the other 2 persons that turned out for the dinner and board games. As a start, we played quite an interesting game called True Colors.
Each person first choose a representative colour. A card is then drawn from the deck to decide the topic. It could be something like "You are going to a party and are confused of what to wear. Who should you ask?" or "Who looks like someone that would peek at messages in others' phone?" haha.
Each person then put 2 votes into the box. You can dedicate both votes to the same person, or you can vote 2 different persons if you think that they are both equally like one described in the scenario card. You can't vote yourself. After everyone voted, each person guesses what the others think of himself/herself, by betting that he/she get the most number of votes (3 points), or zero vote (3 points), or some votes (1 point). The points are then rewarded for those who guess correctly! To be honest, other than Hari, I don't really know the others that well, so most of my votes are based on my probably incorrect impression. It should be more fun playing with closer friends! It's interesting in extreme cases, like for "You are going for an interview. Who will you go to for advice?" all the votes went to only Fita and Lika hahaha! and for "Who has the cleanest room?" all the votes went to only me and Fita. Ehh why me?! LOL. That's certainly not true. I seldom clean my room hahaha.
The other game we played was called Cash-a-Catch. The rules are too complicated to explain. It's basically an auction game. Quite interesting, I like it as well, but it was dominated by Hari boohoo.
On the Friday of that week, Hari actually went back to Batam with me and Edi. Ika joined us the following day. It was a great break as usual. Septi bringing us to the sup kacang supper was one of the unusual events that happened. I was quite surprised simply because I have never drunk or seen this kind of peanut soup.
In addition, Indra brought me to join a steamboat feast with a huge group of his friends. Well, some I know, some I didn't know. I did feel a bit out of place, but it's still alright I guess.
After X Hero Siege, during this trip, we picked a new warcraft custom game again, Final Fantasy Tactics RPG! haha. It's fun, but is kinda too long to complete, probably needs 5 or 6 hours in a go... and of course we didn't play that long.
On the same day KUIFA left Singapore, the new JSS sub-club, the J-Food Club, organised their first session which was making onigiri!
Me, and my ugly onigiri, out of shape, and the piece of seaweed was too big haha! It's really hard to shape, too sticky. They said they bought the wrong rice which was for making bak zhang...
That weekend, JSS held an orientation for the new-comers to get to know everyone. We were first divided into 4 groups based on the names of the 4 seasons, Haru, Natsu, Aki, and Fuyu. Many ice-breaking mini games were then introduced. It started off with some clap clap game that somehow included some japanese words, to get familiarised with everyone's name. There's a familiar game that one group used actions to describe a certain word for another group to guess. To describe "George Bush", Carolyn decided to throw her shoe LOL.
In the curtain game, in every round each group sent a representative, then when the curtain was raised, one has to name the representative from the other group, along his/her "nickname" defined earlier. The very last game of the day was the double whacko, upgraded from the traditional whacko game. In this version, instead of one person, it involves one pair, with the person behind protecting the person in front. In a sense, it's harder because you have to respond to somebody else's name.
Earlier on, before the lunch and double whacko, we went into a lecture theater to play a game that they called it Music Station. It's about naming the song title and/or singer of the song that's played. Bonus point was given if you could sing a few lines. I love this fun game hahaha, because in recent years I listen the most to Japanese songs. If after a few seconds, nobody was able to guess, then they would show a video of the song. I answered the most hahaha, partly because those who went for the camp were not allowed to answer. I'm sure some of seniors are really good at this. There's one song that sounded really familiar to me, but I couldn't remember until the video was played, oh ZONE! but I couldn't remember the long title of the song. secret base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~, I won't forget the name of this song anymore, because somehow recently I'm really into ZONE =D
Partly because they are really attractive, especially Maiko and Miyu! Too bad they already disbanded in 2005, sad. They are a rare case of a bandol (band + idol), in the sense that they play band, but don't write their own songs. While their other songs are pretty good, the best song is still secret base, and the live performance below is probably my favourite.
Day 3 was a short one for me, because I only joined the night activity, Night Safari! I had been quite curious about this Singapore's attraction. JSS managed to get us a special rate of half price! But in the end, it was canceled out by taxi fare as we ended too late =.=
It's basically the same as Singapore Zoo, just that it's at night, so we could see those nocturnal animals. It's quite amazing to see a fruit bat at such a close range, without any protection. It felt dangerous, as if it could come to bite me anytime, but well.. it eats fruits. It's great to see leopard, wolves, or their alike, and other animals too. There's one animal which was really funny; its body is covered by some kind of white patches, and Issho joked that it looked like mayonnaise, and he's absolutely right haha! But in overall, I think it's still quite disappointing because I was expecting something more special. The most negative point was that it's freaking hot!
There were some performances when we first entered the Night Safari. The animals seemed not well trained as they made many mistakes hahaha, especially the part where they had to pick up rubbish and categorise them into different types.
We didn't take many pictures of the animals as the nocturnal animals are sensitive to light, and it's hard to capture good picture at such dark environment without using flash.
A resting point. I like the chair design =)
Special effect by Carmelita's camera.
After the long, hot, and tiring journey, we were relieved to see the exit, as if everyone were saying "finally..." lol.
Day 5 was spent in East Coast Park. Most of them were cycling, but I chose to skate which I was more confident with. I could see that cycling is definitely less tiring as they rushed to the end of East Coast (Fort Road there), then went to the other end, all within the 2-hour rental time. Really wth lor. In NUSSC skating session, we usually go to one side of East Coast only. They went both sides lol. Super tiring. Maybe I should have cycled instead.
At one point of time, I was talking to Naho, and when we reached a junction, everyone was nowhere to be seen. We then picked a wrong path haha. And yes, we were lost, in a sense. I thought it didn't matter, as East Coast was just a long stretch of route, but we still didn't see anyone after a long time that we decided to turn back and return. And that's the right thing to do because when we arrived at the rental shop, most of them were already resting there.
The night event was the usual barbeque party. It was great as we had more chances to talk to the Japanese. Conversations about the different culture and lifestyle are always interesting.
The next morning, I went to send them off at airport too.
Fumi and Mari were crying when they were about to enter the departure hall... T.T
The main plan for Day 2 was Sentosa! I was expecting a sport day under the hot sun, but it was raining quite heavily as I left my house. Nevertheless, I still went ahead to meet the rest at VivoCity.
It's really rare to see a group of Japanese eating spicy food like laksa, but Naho even said that she loved spicy food! The guy in the picture is Kouji, a Japanese from Osaka who was doing internship in NUS. He spoke quite a good English, and was quite actively talking to many of the Singaporeans. One strange thing that he did was to note down people's names in his phone so that he wouldn't forget =P
We arrived at Sentosa, despite the rain which looked like it's going to stop.
To avoid the rain, we camped at the pavilion playing volleyball and football, just passing the ball around. And soon we moved on to a game called Husband and Wife haha. Basically, in a circle, everyone has a partner, except the chaser and the runner who would be running around the circle. If the chaser managed to catch the runner then the runner became the chaser, and the runner can grab anyone in the circle, making the partner of that person the new runner. Quite fun to play, especially when you suddenly make another person the runner =D
The beach and sea~
When the rain stopped, I thought we were going to play ball game, but no, it's another running game. We were divided into 2 teams, and there's an item in the centre of the field, in this case a Kou Fu cup haha. Each of us in each team lined up and was assigned a number accordingly. The game officer then shouted a number, and to make it more difficult, they might give us some calculation like 2 plus 4! Then number 6 from each team would race to grab that item and return. But the tricky part was that if someone managed to tap the opponent who grabbed the item, his/her team scored a point instead, so sometimes it's wiser to wait for the opponent to take the item first. So there are times the 2 people just looked at each other, refusing to take the item lol. Then the officer would call another number, the more the merrier. Kouji was super fast, he always manage to grab and ran off, while everyone was hesitating. There was once, the officer called something like 2 plus 4 divided by 2! We shouted 3, 3, run! but Kaitian said no, should be 4, by math rule, division must be calculated first. Wth, in such situation still could think of such trick haha. Another fun game.
A mysterius dark circle floating in the sky. It seemed that it's another Sentosa attraction, I wonder what it was exactly.
Woohooo seemed fun, but only some of us rode it.
7 Eleven break, before heading to the next attraction!
Having lived in Singapore for so many years, I have no idea that there's this extremely big Merlion in Sentosa hahaha! One that vomits no water!
That's the end of the Sentosa trip, and I love this picture, very nice angle!
We then went to Bugis for a steamboat meal! There are many steamboat restaurants around that area, but this one was really the best, because it's air-conned and not crowded at all! And it's only 1 dollar more expensive! Can't really remember the exact location though, shall figure it out the next time.
At the end of the meal, Naho stunned some of us with a few phrases of Chinese! haha! The first sentence she spoke was "Neng bu neng pian yi yi dian?" (Can it be cheaper?) LOL.. extremely hilarious to hear that from someone who has been speaking Japanese. Shocked Leslie replied her that he's not a host haha!
