Japanese Tea Ceremony and John's Bday

Just a quick recap of the past week before I set off for Okinawa tomorrow. Last week was the midterms/finals/final project/final report week. Though it was supposed to be the most stressful and intensive week in APU, I somehow found time to cook dinner, chat with friends and went down the mountain to do some shopping. Haha, this either means that I am damn smart or I didn't really study. And the answer obviously is the latter (Okie, I did study a little).

I would like to blog a little on the Japanese tea ceremony, which is definitely the best class in the whole of APU. The student office actually opens a Japanese tea ceremony class especially for the exchange students, and regular APU students could not attend that particular class. So when all the exchange students come together, all hell breaks loose. Every class we made silly jokes, commented on the Okashi of the week and giggled about the stupid mistakes each of us made. It was really enjoyable. So I am really sad that such a fabulous class has come to an end for us. Here are some of the pictures we took during our final (where we were required to perform the whole tea ceremony):

The guests and the hosts bowing to each other at the end of the ceremony:

Students caught studying while in the class:

And finally, a group class photo:

Last tuesday was also John's 23 bday. And we went down to Sports Bar to celebrate his bday. And it was like 25 dollars for each person and we could drink all the way from 9pm to 1am. Freeflow of beer, wine, cocktails and others! Fabulous!

John's the bday boy:

The Sports Bar:

From left to right (clockwise): Me, Kyoko and Arienne:

Rebecca and I:

Haha, drank a little too much that night, and suffered a little hangover the following day. Oh, and on the following day, I had my final for Political Science. Seriously, going clubbing and drinking during the exam week is definitely a big No-no in SMU. Over there, even if you are willing to go clubbing, no one would accompany you (including me of course! I'm one of the chaoest Smuggers). But over here in Japan, everything is possible (esp with the exchange students). Okie, that's all from me. Going to shower now and tmr I gotta wake up at 7pm to catch the bus to Fukuoka airport!

Desmond and Ashely in Beppu!

Ohisashiburi! Sorry for not updating for a long time. I am preparing for my finals for Political Science and Japanese Tea Ceremony, and midterm for my Advanced Japanese. Moreover, I have two final reports to be handed in by next Friday before I fly off to Okinawa! Damn Jialat now. But it is time like this that I feel like blogging instead of doing constructive stuffs like studying or clearing my reports. Sighz.

Anyway, I am dedicating this blog entry to my dearest friends: Desmond and Ashley.

I have known Desmond in RJC, and since then, we have been the 'best of best' (To bean and beer, this is not a grammar mistake or anything: Japanese like to use this term a lot, not my english lousy okay) friends. We used to be in this circle of friends called the Purple Family, and we did all the stupid things like purple family dance and other things. I was the Purple Bodyguard and Des was the purple third sister. And then we have Joan as the Purple Big Sister, Jen Vern the Purple Second Sister, Marina the Purple Cousin and Lip Yoong the unwilling Purple Hamster. I know these sound real gay, but this was all so cool and fun when we were in our JC days. Now, I miss the sexy SO6C:(

Anyway, after JC, Des, I and other SO6C pple went on our graduation trip to South Korea. It was really fun then! And after army, Des and I went on an community service project to Cambodia. And it was there when Des met Ash.

I still clearly remembered when Des first met Ash at the NUSS hall, he was telling me how gorgeous Ash was. And throughout the whole Cambodia trip, he was sneakily trying to create a good impression on Ash. Very very sneaky.

And during the Cambodia trip, I got to know Ash pretty well. Well, you got to be careful when Ash was around. She is really acidic and mean(that's why I used to call her the Witch wheile we were in Cambodia); I always shiver when I recall the tormenting 21 days in Camobodia when I was forced to see her everyday.

Sighz, those were the good old days when we spent our time laughing and giggling away. I really really miss those happy days.

Okay, back to the main story plot: Des and Ash in Beppu!!!

Des would be in Tokyo for a month to study Japanese, and before that, he and Ash are doing a little trip around Japan. And they are so nice that they travelled all the way down from Tokyo to Beppu to pay me a visit. Tokyo to Beppu is like from Orchard Road to Pasir Ris, and given that the land size of Japan is so much bigger than that of Singapore, the Shinkansen ride took them around 6-8 hours to get here. It's really not easy for them, as Beppu is just a small town with ONLY ONE shopping centre. It really isn't the kind of place a tourist would visit if they come to Japan. So they have been really really nice to make the trip down! Arigatou yo!

And on the first day that they arrived, we checked into the Beppu Youth Hostel, and then we went down to the 地獄温泉 (which means Hell ponds in English). There are 8 地獄温泉, but given the time constraints, we only managed to visit the 血の池温泉 and 竜巻温泉。

血の池温泉(also known as the blood pond) is famous because the onsen water is red in colour, just like that of the blood. (From left to right: Me, Kai and David)

On the other hand, 竜巻温泉is this underground water which would spurt out every 30 to 40 minutes. Pretty cool.A photo of all of us in the 竜巻温泉:

And after the 地獄温泉, we went to try out the mud onsen in Kannawa. The mud onsen is really quite a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The setting was like the old Meiji Era, when the onsen area is partially surrounded by wooden fence and stuff. It was so natural that u can actually feel the grass, mud, sands and rocks as u waddle your way into the mud onsen. Furthermore, it's a mixed bath, and both girls and guys go into the same mud onsen. For the girls, they have this special entrance, so that they can actually undress and waddle and hide in the mud water before coming out to the common area. But for the guys, there isn't any such special entrance, so we actually gotta walk out to the common area in the full glory of our naked bodies. It was really quite a cultural shock for me. Really, mud onsen, one time is enough. I wouldn't want to go for a second time.

After the mud bath, we went back to my school APU and there Des and Ash met my Singaporean and Canadian friends. We had a cooking party, and that was like the best cooking party I've ever had in APU. There were so much good food, that it was like a buffet dinner at a 5 star hotel. Really thank you to my dear Singaporean and Canadian friends for cooking up such a feast. And later, we had a small drinking party at my room. Thanks to Kai, who brought his XO Henessy, we mixed it with the Hynoptiq and we got Incredible Hulk! Haha, a pretty cool drink. Pic of us getting a little high:(clockwise from the most left) David, Shima, Toto (yah, the toilet bowl brand), Kai, me and Kane.

On the second day, we went to try the sand bath at the Takegawara, which is one of the oldest onsens in Beppu. This was a really unique experience. My whole body was buried in the sand, with only my head sticking out. It was really comfortable and unlike the mud onsen, I would love to go back for the second time. In the evening, Des and Ash treated me to a sumptious dinner at the Ryokan that they were staying in. It was like a repeat of what I had with Weili, Kane and Mic in Toba. But I think the variety is lesser over here in Beppu, but the plate of the crabs and the prawns more than made up for it: Itadakimasu:And after the dinner at the Ryokan, we went down to another onsen: Hyoutan Land. This is a really good onsen, as they have a wide variety of onsens for the visiters. We tried the Rock bath, the foot bath, the waterfall bath, the suana and the best of all is the outdoor bath. The experience was sooooo good that I felt as if I was filming another episode of Japan Hour. Wonderful!

So that was the itinerary for Des and Ash's short stay in Beppu. 3 different kinds of onsen in less than 48 hours. Our skins were like glowing in the dark after the third one. Really shiok! Right now, Des and Ash are in Tokyo.

Have fun over there! I will see you again in August!

P.S. Study study study!

Translation from Altavista Babelfish

Already the close friend came to Beppu from the respective America and Singapore in 48 hours. Now it has been excited! Furthermore, this week end the hot spring and sand bath of the mud are experienced together! It cannot wait,!

Des and Ash！

もう４８時間に親友がそれぞれアメリカとシンガポールから別府に来てくれた。今興奮してる！更に、今週末一緒に泥の温泉と砂浴を経験する！待てないよ！

Last Day in Miyajima and an encounter with Ai San

広島の最後の日は全旅程中一番素晴らしかった日だった。有名な宮島へいったし、綺麗な景色を見たし、とても優しいおばさんとあったし、さらに無料のカラオケとアルコールを厚意でもらった。つまり、本当に不思議なの一日だった。 僕たちは９時ころゆーすホステルから宮島に出発した。バスセンタでの写真：



実は、僕の主な心配は宮島に行っているところに、急に雨が降ってさせた。特に、先の日でネットでちょっと天候をしらべた,そして結果は一日中１００％雨だった。そういうことは発生すれば、僕たちは大変困った。幸運にもそうなことが全然じゃなくて、宮島に到着した時に、天気が完璧だった！


宮島と言うと日本三景と自然に考えているようだ。宮島,天橋立,松島,その卓越した三つの景観はいわゆる日本三景だ。日本三景の一つとして宮島の美しさは人々の心の琴線に触れる。そして、宮島の一番有名な観光地は、やっぱり大鳥居に限る。

大鳥居前の写真：


厳島神社：

でも、実は宮島の素晴らしい景色がただ大鳥居と厳島神社でなく、紅葉谷公園や他の自然な景色(例えば山や小川や動植物など)も面白いと思う。

宮島に到着したら、すぐに自転車を借りた。それから、僕たちが宮島の小冒険は始まった。

最初に大鳥居と厳島神社に参観するのは当たり前だよ。それから、紅葉谷公園へ行った。紅葉谷公園は豊かな樹木や石に囲まれている美しい庭園だ。ベンさんとカイさんが橋の下に立っていったのが写っている：

紅葉谷公園を観光しったの後は、僕たちが山の上にそのまま上って出発した。歩いてるところに、様々素晴らしい風景を偶然に見つけた：

しかし、まもなく弥山頂上に上るところに限って、雨が降ってしまった。でも、僕は宮島で十分見たことにもう満足した。実は、一日中雨ばかりはずだったが午後４時ころこそ降っていった。だから、僕たちがもう幸運だったと思う、不満を持っているわけがない。

宮島の後は広島市に戻った。ベンさんの勧めで、味千ラーメンを食べてみた。日本の味千とシンガポールのは同じだか違うかまだ分からなかった。でも、まもなく知ったよ。
果たして、日本の味千はシンガポールのより倍に美味しかったように思う。もし、日本へ行ったら、ぜひ食べてみるよ！

晩ご飯を終わったら、僕たちがSpiderman 3を見るのが欲しかったから、映画館を探した。探しているところに、まだ知らなかった藍さんと偶然に会った。藍さんは日曜日で徹夜の映画がない情報を与えてくれた。そして、藍さんは自分の店へ行くのか招待してくれた。実は、最初に僕たちがちょっと驚いた。訳がなくてあまり知らなくて、どうして僕たちを招待したの？

疑いがいっぱい心を持って、藍さんに随行した。藍さんの店はPrivate Barだ。大体に藍さんの主な客様が年とって金持ちのサラリーマンだ。でも、あの日は休みだから、客様がなかった。藍さんはご親切をお掛けて、僕たちの疑いがそろそろ消えた。

藍さんは無料で飲み物やお菓子を与えて、そればかりでなく、自分の人生経験を分け合ってくれた：藍さんは何十年前に仕事のために自分で香港へ行った時に、香港人から助けをもらった。だから、いま同じ助けをほかの日本にいる僕たちにあげた。僕たちもいつか他の人 に助けて、ほかの人が他の人に反複するなら、このまま世界は綺麗になるかも知らない。つまり、「Pass it on」の映画という感じ似ている。

あの夜は本当に本当に楽しかった。不思議なの夜だった。藍さん、心から感謝している。特に、あなたの忠告は記憶にいつまでも残している。いまから、一生懸命遊び、一生懸命学べ、僕の能力を最大限生かす！

次の朝、バスで写真を撮った：

このように、広島の旅程が終に終わった。APUの素晴らしい皆さんと一緒に旅行したのは確かに僕の幸運だ。皆さん、ありがとう！広島は滅茶苦茶楽しかった。今、沖縄の旅行を大いに期待しているの！

絶景園＆中華料理食べ放題

Life here in APU is really slack. And I'm kinda in a holiday mood recently, especially after the trip to Hiroshima. I've lost the fire to study, and everyday I am just planning the itinerary for Des and Ash, and my Okinawa trip. こんな思索は本当にやばいな。

Anyway, let's go back to my Hiroshima trip. So after the Hiroshima castle, we went to the 絶景園. This is a miniature remake of one of the China's best scenic landscape - 西湖。It wasn't a really big place, but it was kinda tranquil and had therapeutic calming effects on one's nerves. So we just wondered around the garden, stealing unripe plums from the trees, and catching tortoises that were stupid enough to be caught by us. Adam, Nardia & Atle with the really stupid tortoise:
After the 絶景園, we went back to the Bus Centre to meet the rest of the people who had gone for the Hawaiian fair. And there, we decided to go for a HK Dim Sum buffet!

Pic of the variety of the Dim Sum available:
Straightly speaking, the dim sum wasnt really that fabulous. But if you have not eaten Sweet and Sour Pork, or Char Siew Pao for like 3 months, I bet you would relish every single moment as you savored the slightly 'Japanese mutated Dim Sum'.

The buffet cost 1800 yen (slightly over S$20) for 1.5 hour of 食べ放題. But by the 30th minutes, we were all so full that we could not eat anymore. And given that we KTV the whole of the night before, it was natural that we were overwhelmed by fatigue after a hearty meal.

Pic of Thor and Adam sleeping:

Pic of Rosanna and Ben sleeping:

And finally a group photo before we footed for our bill:

I will reveal on the best day of the Hiroshima trip in the next entry! Stay tuned! Btw, the weather report on Saturday forecasted a 100% precipitation on the following day. See how we battled against the natural forces on our last day of Hiroshima trip!

広島旅程２：平安祭りと広島城

After the marathon of Karaoke, we went to Mac to have our breakfast. And afterwhich, we took a cab down to our youth hostel to dump our bags, before heading out for the 平安祭り.

平安祭り is an annual festival of flowers, greenery and music. It is held annually on May 3, 4, and 5 on the Heiwa Boulevard. The festival attracts over 1,300,000 people each year featuring flower floats built according to designs collected from the public. And this was the main reason why we chose to come to Hiroshima despite the flooding crowd during the golden week.

We went to the Peace Museum (free admission for overseas students studying in Japan) and there we were brought back through the ghastly history of Hiroshima during WWII. And when the atomic bomb exploded 800m above Hiroshima city, all kinds of life forms and combustible items within 2 km were instantly consumed by the storm of fire (at 3000 to 4000 degrees) and sonic blast. And only a few buildings barely survived the Armageddon.

It was a really cool museum, giving us valuable lessons on the disastrous effects of nuclear weapons and such, but given that we hardly slept the night before, we could barely lift our eyelids during the day. The end result: the unglamorous sight of all of us sleeping against the glass wall of the museum.

And after the 平安祭り, we parted into 2 groups: one wanted to visit the Hawaii festival and do some shopping while the other group wanted to visit the Hiroshima Castle. I chose to go with the latter, cos I don't really like shopping.

And the group of exchange students doing SMU jump in front of the Hiroshima castle. 但し、SMU JumpはやぱりSMUの学生に限リです。

The castle bears much resemblance to the 大阪城, though probably less grand and magnificent. Nonetheless, it was free admission for the exchange students, so we were not complaining.

The new V6 inside the castle:

This was my first time travelling with the Canadian gang (from left to right: Adam, Nadia, Rosanna and Justin). Was rather amused by the interests the Canadian gang displayed over small things: like fishes in the pond, tortoises, trees, flowers and many other minute things. So at the end, we took like 2 hours to get from the entrance of the castle to the main castle building. Really fun to be with them and to take our time and smell the roses.

And the highlight of the castle trip was the free rental of the samurai armor, warlord costumes and female Yukata. We were like a bunch of kids, giggling and making a silly fool out of ourselves by taking turns to dress in the costumes.

Nadia the princess and Thor the samurai:

Ben the warlord and Thor the samurai:

Kai the Genghis Khan from Mongols:

Rosanna the Hua Mulan and Adam the mistress. Oh, and we were trying to add boobs onto Adam's chest, but Nadia refused to sacrifice her soft toy for the special touch.

Oh, did I mention that the weather was superb? The weather forecast reported rain for the whole day in Hiroshima and we got kinda worried that the 平安祭り might be cancelled. But in the end, we were really lucky as there were only a few droplets of rain for the whole of Saturday.

運が強いやな！

広島の旅程:最初の日

This is really one of the best trips I have ever had in my own life. I have never played so hard in a span of 4 days. Thanks to all the great people who have made this trip so wonderful:)

As so many beautiful memories have been created over the last 4 days, I will be writing 3 blog entries to capture as much of the details of the fun and crazy moments of the trip. And this would be the 1st entry on the trilogy series:

On 4th May, a sunny friday afternoon, a group of international exchange students were waiting eagerly for their Japanese tea ceremony class to end. Their luggages, lying at one small corner of the room, were beckoning to them on to the fun and excitement that they would soon have in Hiroshima.

The Sensei, who was informed about the Hiroshima trip, kindly postponed the midterm and let the students off early on that day. And off the students went to the Cafeteria to grab some food before embarking on the 5 hours bus/ferry ride to Hiroshima.

At 1.15pm, the students arrived at Kitahara, the boarding place for the long distance bus to Hiroshima. Overflowing with exuberance, they gleefully took a memorable photo to mark the start of the trip.
And out of the corner of his eye, Thor spotted 3 beautiful ladies peeking surreptitiously at the group from the ATM machines.

"Hey, are they not Mariel, Arienne and Paivi? What are they doing here?"

Thor approached the 3 girls and discovered that they were thinking of going another city for a weekend getaway, but the GODDAMN ATM was not working! And to Thor's incredulity, he learnt that ATM in Japan only works for a specific hours during the day: ATM in Japan does not operate for 24 hours! Then what's a ATM for??? Does ATM in Japan need to rest, like a human being does? Thor was deeply disturbed.

As a result of the unexpected working hours of ATM, the poor girls were left stranded in the godforsaken Beppu City, which has only one shopping centre and the shopping centre is only half the size of Jurong Point in Singapore.

Being a compassionate SNAG, Thor wept for the unfortunate trio from the bottom of his heart.

Anyway, the girls bidded a tearful goodbye to the group of 14 exchange students who were going to have the fun of their lifes.

(Story writing ends here. Too troublesome... From now on, Singlish liaoz!)

Anyway, we boarded the comfortable JR bus, which brought us to a ferry harbour. There we changed the mode of transport to the ferry for 2 hours. And this is my first time on a ferry in the Japan sea. Damn shiok lah. The ferry even got Tatami mat for the passengers to sleep on. But the group of us spent most of our time on the deck, embracing the sea view and mellifluous breeze.

Group pic of the Singapore gang:

Pic of Jenelle and Mic traumatizing the Japanese kids:

Beautiful seaview from the ferry:
When we arrived at Hiroshima, it was already 7pm. As Friday was the golden week in Japan, we could not find accomodation. Hence, we were finding the Billy the Kid Karaoke, where we would sing all the way from 12am to 7pm for 1600 yen (20 bucks).

Pic of the group pic in Hiroshima:

Luckily for Kyoko's ability to communicate in Japanese and Weili's great sense of direction, we effortlessly arrived at Billy the Kid. We made the reservation and with a big group of 14 people, we unwillingly splitted out to find our own dinners.

And David, Atle and I went to this small Okonomiyaki stall to try the famous Hiroshima Okonomiyaki (also known as Hiroshimayaki). 確かに、お好み焼きなら、広島と大阪のに限る。(Indeed, if you were talking about Okonomiyaki, Hiroshima's and Osaka's are the best)

Basic Okonomiyaki with Soba, meat, egg and Veg:

Pic of David and Atle waiting eagerly for the Okonomiyaki: And after dinner, with a stroke of luck, we chanced upon this cheap お風呂 at the end of the small street. The thing about the Karaoke is that they do not have a place for us to shower and clean ourselves up. So the 広島の名湯 was really the thing we needed to freshen ourselves up.

360 yen for shower, お風呂 (public bath), 薬風呂 (herbal bath)、and ソウナ (sauna)。全く信じられない！

And at 12am, we went into Karaoke, and we sang and drank till the wee hours of the night. I was overwhelmed by the Z monster at around 5am, but there were a few brave warriors who managed to tahan all the way until 7am. Bravo to Weili, Jenelle, Kyoko, Nadia, Atle, Kai, Adam and Rosanna!

Pic of the refreshed APU gang in the next morning:

Okay, ここまで終わります。Wait for the 2nd part of the trilogy:)