THIS LONG POST DOES NOT CONTAIN ANY PICTURES

Well, today's my third day in Kumamoto, Japan. Kumamoto is the capital city of the prefecture of Japan located on Kyūshū Island. I'm currently blogging from my room in Kumamoto National College of Technology(KNCT). Yes, I'm staying in the college's dormitory. Here's an update on my trip so far:

21 March 2009
Was at Changi Airport till like 1am before taking a 6 hours flight to Japan. Mr Lim and Mr Yeak were there to send us off. We also took a group picture together, but we've yet to receive them.

Moving on, we arrived at Fukuoka Airport and were kindly met by Professor Matsumoto from KNCT. Before I boarded the plane, I was required to hand over my nail-clipper and a scissors-like thing to the service staff because I forgot to place them into my luggage. I was then allow to retrieve my staff back when I reached Japan. And the worst part was, I lost one side of my contact lens on the plane and I forgot to bring an extra pair. That's a very bad start for the trip.

So after meeting Professor Matsumoto, we took a 2 hour bus journey to KNCT. We all, together with the lecturer, are going to stay at KNCT's dormitory. Each of us have our own room to ourselves. However, we had to share the bathroom and toilets as they were communal. We are living at the dormitory, we had to stick to their rules, which is - waking up early to have breakfast together with the Japanese students, keep our area clean, have lunch and dinner together at a fixed time and having to report to the dormitory by 10pm Japan time, which is 9pm Singapore time. Well it's a very good experience for us as we really get to experience how it feels like to live in a dormitory and to interact with the Japanese students.

So when we arrived at KNCT, we were given a short briefing before taking our stuff to our rooms. There are no lifts here and we have to walk up to our rooms. Luckily for me and the lecturer, we stayed at level 4 while Kenneth, Kelvin and Wei Chuan is at level 5. Oh, did I mention that we had to carry our futon(mattress in japanese) up to our rooms. And the futon are not light to begin with.

So after unpacking, we had lunch at a family restraunt nearby by car. The food and service here in Japan are top class. However, with good food and service comes a good price. I paid like 400¥ for macaroni, which is around $7. After lunch, we took a train down to Kumamoto shopping district to see if there's anything interesting to buy and also to find my contact lens. I think contact lens isn't very popular in Japan because we went to almost every optical shop to ask, but they don't carry it. After 2 hours, we finally found 1 which has. However, I have to do an eye check and have to pay like 2500¥. I refused the offer as it was too expensive. So I guess I'll have to do without my contact lens for the whole trip. BLAH!

When we went back to KNCT, we still had time to walk around. So one of the students who went for TP's Singapore-Japan student exchange programme last year brought us to see Sakura(cherry blossom). It is damn nice! But sorry, no pictures yet as my card reader is with my aunt in Singapore. I'll see if I could borrow one tomorrow.

By dinner, all the Singaporean and Japanese participants are here. There's a total of 9 Japanese students, 2 IIT students who are on on OSIP, 4 IIT students(including me) and 3 ENG students. 5 more students from Hong Kong will be arriving tomorrow. So I guess this trip is not only a Japanese exchange programme.

After dinner, Kenneth, Kelvin, Wei Chuan and I went to the communal room at level 5 and joined some Japanese students to play some games. And they have really interesting games. When we finished the games, we took a shower before heading to bed.


22 March 2009
We formed our teams after breakfast. And the meals here in Japan is really very healthy. I was "forced" to eat some of the vegetables here because we were not supposed to waste food. The teams were formed by drawing 2 rounds of lot. And my teammate is Marumoto-san. He's 20 and is currently studying here in KNCT. Each team were given a new set of Lego Mindstorms and a laptop for each student.

So we spent the day fixing our robots and had Japanese chicken rice for lunch. Their chicken rice is totally different from the one found in Singapore. I forgot to take a picture as I was too hungry. LOL.

After lunch, we continued working on our robots. My teammate and I had trouble communicating because I don't know how to speak Japanese and he isn't very well-versed in English either. How we communicate is by pointing, drawing and even using an online translator such as Goggle Translate. LOL.

Our progress were then interrupted by the arrival of the students from Hong Kong. We then had an ice-breaking session to let us bond with our teammates, and we had to draw a portrait of our team as a souvenir. My drawing sucks to the max! What I drew was a bad portrait of my teammate and I felt damn bad after that because my teammate was damn good at drawing. After drawing, our Japanese teammate had to introduce theirselves and their teammates to the rest of the participants in English. Which as pretty fun because they had some trouble conveying the message across.

At dinner, we had the real Tako-balls from Japan. It taste damn good! Who would have guessed that even at the canteen, they serve such good food! Even though the dormitory may not be as comfortable as a hotel, it is quite pleasant staying here.

After dinner, we met up with some of Kenneth's friend who drove us around to show us around the place. And the first place we went to is the sex shop. LOL. The things in the sex shop in Singapore is like only 1/5 of what the have in Japan. LOL. After that, we went to a nearby shopping mall, YouMe, to walk around. We had Japanese ice-cream there, which tastes damn good. I really beginning to like Japan and do not want to go back to Singapore. LOL.

Anyway, we headed back to KNCT at 10pm(Japan time) to mark our attendance before heading to the communal room at level 5. We then learnt another new game. It's like a multi-player "dai di". LOL. After playing, we then showered before hitting the bed.


23 March 2009
We had breakfast before heading to work on our robots till lunch. After lunch, we had a short tour around the school as Professor Matsumoto asked our Japanese teammate to show us around. We went see how their classrooms look like and went back to the place to see the Sakuras and take more photos. After that, we headed to the Judo Dojo before going to the sports hall. Played basketball for a while before heading back to do our work.

No progress today for our robot as I think there's a flaw in our logic. BLAH!

At dinner, we had a special 'Welcome Dinner' and had lots of fun together trying out Japanese tongue twisters and watching a few games of arm-wrestling. After dinner, we went for a short walk around the school with some Japanese friends to see the Sakura at night. It was lovely and we are very lucky to see them because it only lasts for only a week or two. We then told each other ghost stories under the Sakura. LOL. It was damn creepy, and cold too!

We then headed out to a convience store and I bought a bag of potato chips and Sake. Sake tastes quite good in this weather, around 8 degress to 16 degrees, as it warms up the body. Yes, the weather is that cold. Even in my room, I don't have to switch on my air-con and I'm already like freezing. The weather is damn good lah!

Anyway, I got to go already. Time for me to head downstairs to take my attendance. Will update soon if I have the time! =)

By the way,

CONGRATS TO ALL MEDAL WINNERS FOR THE ROOKIE COMPETITION! ESPECIALLY ZAC AND TAITAI!