Life's just a Show and we're all the Actors

Alright guys, its my fault for not updating in such a long time but I've been busy. I went to Japan from the 5th of June to the 10th of June and had a blast. And of course I took a whole bunch of photographs that I'm now putting up. It really takes a lot of work so go through them slowly. I took four whole days to finally upload my photos and paste them here. Phew! Anyway, sit back, relax, and enjoy Shaun's Trip to Japan.

This is us at Chang airport on Wednesday the 4th of June at 11pm. I can tell you that we were really excited! Spoiler at the back. Guess who it is? (Yuck!)

This is the whole group that was going, except the man in the YMCA t-shirt (left side) who came to send us off. At this time, we didn't really know many of the people going so it was kind of awkward.

A self taken photo of myself when we first landed at Fukuoka Airport. Aishah is in the background. "Spoiler" LOL

I told Aishah to take a photo of my coming out of the airport so I posed to look as if I didn't know the camera was there :)

The entrance of Fukuoka Airport. Lol, for proof that I was there

That's me in front of our tour bus

See the idiots behind me? When we exited the airport, we were blasted by the cool temperature of Japan and suddenly everyone rushed to take photos of the "cool" scenery.

Ok, ok, I was also one of the idiots who was fascinated by the airport's surroundings. LOL

This is the PINK bus that we rode around in for our whole journey in Japan

A full view of Fukuoka International Airport

My first views of the buildings in Japan. It looked pretty quaint. =D

This is just an idea of the weather in Japan. Super beautiful right?

This is our first few views of the countryside in Japan

This is the first rest stop we made while on route from Fukuoka City, Fukuoka prefecture to Aso, Kumamoto prefecture.

Some of the items they sell at the rest stop. Creepy right?

Me and Amirah outside the rest stop

After looking through all the products sold at the store, I bought this sweet, which later turned out to be bubble gum. My first purchase in Japan!

This is a granary we passed.

This are some of the places we passed. I snapped these photos on my new camera, which is able to take photos even though we were moving pretty fast :) Oh, by the way, vehicles in Japan move as if there isn't a speed limit. Even the buses go round sharp corners at the speed of light!

Train tracks that ran parallel to the road we were on. The interesting thing was that they were really small!

A small stream we passed
(its fuzzy cause someone else took the picture, not as skilled as me =)

This is the place we had our first meal at. Its on the Aso Farm, a tourist attraction in Aso, Kumamoto prefecture, Japan.

This is us inside the restaurant waiting for the signal to eat.

In Japan, everything is very clean, including the utensils which are only used once, and then thrown away

The sausage lookalike is actually pork but I though it was chicken until after I finished it. LOL

The meal has been consumed and then it was time for....

...Desserts!!! Fresh strawberries, chocolate brownie and passion fruit sauce with almond jelly. YUM!

After we were done with lunch we headed out to the farm entrance where we took lots of photos =)

I told the girls to look away fro the camera so they looked like professional models. LOL

Then it was my turn

My modelling portfolio...

...a close up =)

Next the girls tried jumpshots. LOL...

...Here's mine! (A failed version LOL)

The Aso Farm sign (in japanese)

Me and si xuan in a classic spy pose

Me and Nadia in a sultry pose. LOL

Me and Si Xuan posing again (under my guidance of course =)

One of my favourite pictures in Japan

Catch the rabbit! (We didn't have much time so we didn't go into the far itself, so this was as close as I could get to an animal)

Outside the entrance while waiting for our bus

My Japan History Project Group (from the left) Aishah, Si Xuan, Nadia, and Me

Photos I took on the way to Sony Semiconductor Factory, Kumamoto, Japan. The scenery is really beautiful!

A photo of the whole group with some sony people outside the factory. The person who came to talk to us was the CEO for communications of Sony, Japan. However, he only spoke japanese and by the time our guide directly translated his words to english, it became lost in translation. We wern't allowed to take photos in the factory though. Otherwise I would have taken photos of students sleeping, myself included. But seriously, it was really difficult to understand, just like math lessons...

Me and nadia taking a photo in the mirrors that make up Sony's windows, proving how clean they are.

As the day grew hotter, we began to put on our sunglasses. (My Ray Ban!!)

Scenery of Aso as we were on the way to YMCA Aso Hostel. The city of Aso sits in a Caldera 35km across and has a huge volcano that rises up in the center. Originally there existed a huge volcano called Mt. Aso, but about 30,000 years ago, a huge eruption occured and created the Aso Caldera. What remained were five small volcanoes in the center of the Caldera. Currently, only one is active and that is called Mt. Aso's Active Volcano.

The road to YMCA Aso was so steep the bus couldn't make it so we had to walk.

The YMCA Aso looked more like a holiday lodge rather than a hostel. Most of the students stayed in the main building but some of us had to stay in the smaller huts located further up the sides of the Aso Caldera. That's (from left to right) Fadly, Hamzah, and me. The photo was taken by David.

Before dinner the girls went to try kimonos on while the guys tried their hand at japanese caligraphy. Not too bad for a first time eh? The red stamps in the last photo make it more professional =)

View from YMCA Aso's balcony

Photos of me and the guys with the director of the YMCA Aso's hostel. The photo that I wasn't in was the one where I was the photographer. It looks great except for one spoiler. Can you guess who he is? #$#@%KIEWZHENYI!@#$@#%

The next day (Friday) we were told that we were going up Mt Aso so we dressed heavily and brought our jackets. Suddenly instead of bringing us to the bus, we were led down a grass path.

Suddenly, we ended up coming out at a graveyard!!

The weather was beautiful

Me and Amirah

And so we walked on until we reached our destination

It was the geyser where YMCA Aso gets their water from. It was amazing.

So the area around the geyser was full of flowers. Beautiful!

Time for some group photos!

After that we took a 2km hike down the road to a historical site. What we didn't realise was that not all of us went because some of them were lazy. Its so unfair for the few of us who walked the 2km all the way down and up to the place and then back while the others relaxed at the hostel. Nadia was complaining all the way to and fro. LOL

This is one of the oldest roads in Japan. Built for the governer so that he could travel between Aso and Tokyo. Its amazing since its such a small narrow path going over the edge of the Caldera and all the way to Tokyo. Makes you appreciate modern roads.

I think I now know where the makers of Anime like Naruto got the idea of jumping from tree to tree from.

While walking back to the hostel, I came across some flowers that I thought looked like sad faces.

So after that our bus brought us to a convenience store to buy mineral water, which in japan is kinda hard to get. And guess what I saw there, in 7-Eleven! =)

They sell all kinds of cards there. Even those card games I played when I was young.

They sell the cholocate version of this in singapore but in japan, they sell the ice cream version. And it was delicious!

The view on the way to lunch =)

Even in Japan you can find things like coke and a lamborgini. The interesting thing was that the coke machine was in the middle of nowhere!

More beautiful scenery =)

So for lunch, we had to make our own soba noodles. Here we are in our aprons. Reminds me so much of Food&Nutrition back in secondary school.

Here's the final product! The three chickens ordered hot soba while I, Shaun the Brave, ordered cold soba. It was really good but there was just too much carbo. I could barely finish my meal. Imagine the trouble the others had!

Outside the Soba Noodles place.

So next we went to a place called the Shirakawasuigen Fountainhead, which was basically a cold geyser.

The water there was so clean that you could drink it. And I did! It was super good!

There was a shrine there to some water god or something like that. Here's David and Me in front of it.

We saw some people throwing coins into the shrine, ringing a bell, and then making a wish. So me and nadia, like retarded people, excitedly did the same! Then we took photos in front of it.

Do I look holy enough? =)

Finally on the way up to Mt. Aso Volcano. The temperature began to drop and the wind began to get really strong.

Thanks to David for taking the photos! The temperature at the base of the volcano was close to about 7 degrees.

We took the Aso Ropeway up to the rim of the crater

This is us on the cable car going up the mountain.

Pictures while going up the mountain.

The temperature at the top was a cool 5 degrees celceius and the wind was blowing really strongly. I loved it!

Thanks to Zarah for helping me take some of the photos. I was so close to the crater and yet it did not feel hot.

I thought the sign was funny. Firstly, its spelt wrongly, and secondly, the crater behind the sign is smoking. LOL. Anyway, the smoke coming out from the crater is filled with poisonous fumes and we were very lucky during our visit because the direction of the wind was in our favour. At one point I though that the smoke was going to hit us and Mrs Joy tan scolded me fro being so kiasu. LOL. I say, better be kiasu than being dead. Anyway, the minute we left, the wind changed direction and everyone had to evacuate the area. Lucky for us I guess =)

Hot people at a hot volcano =)

The crater is amazing

I am so cool... I can advertise for Ray Ban Sunglasses now!

The four other dormant volcanoes that make up Mt. Aso

I think I look good with glasses on =)

I really was on one of the most beautiful places on earth.

So me and Nadia walked all the way to the tallest point of the rim where we could see everything. It was so amazing! And I took a photo of myself from all four directions =) I just love the cold wind blowing.

This is us waiting for the whole group to re-assemble.

After Mt. Aso, we went to the Mt. Aso museum where we had to watch a boring video (I fell asleep) and the geography students plus fadly, went crazy collecting soil and rocks of Mt. Aso. Crazy...after that, most of the history students boarded the bus to sleep. I went with Zarah to take photos of the fields around Mt. Aso. Simply breath-taking...

It really looks like a postcard right? Some of my favourite photos here.

Next, I tried some failed jumpshots. It ended with me cheating =)

The girls are really cool (from left) Madeline, Geraldine, Zarah and me!

A japanese mailbox

On the way to the hot springs.

This is where we ate dinner after the hot springs. It was really relaxing. Even if I had to be naked. And by the way, Kiew Zhen Yi disgusts me. While in the bath, he asked me and David why he could not see our private parts. (Duh, good body positioning!) Perveted TOOT! I never want to talk to him again as long as I live. I think that its only fair :)

Woke up the next day late and had to change into uniform. Seriously disgusting. Anyway, I don't think anyone was happy about it cause our exchange partners weren't going to wear uniforms. Sigh.

Last look at our "lodge" and the last look at the countryside Japan as we head into the city on that Saturday morning.

So we headed to the Kumamoto YMCA College in Kumamoto City, Japan. There we had lunch, specially prepared by the YMCA staff. It was delicious. Its safe to tell you that the best meals I had were the ones cooked by the YMCA staff. Yum!

Here is a photo of my exchange group with our partners. The girl on the right is Saikiko and the one on the right is Aikiko. Actually, originally our group is supposed to have just three people. Me, David and Shao Wei but KIEW ZHEN YI (who is hated by all) complained to everyone about how he didn't get along with his original groupmates. Let me tell you about David (extreme left). He's seriously the kindest person I know. He's the type that gives till it hurts, always outting others before himself. And the "Christian" KIEW ZHEN YI keeps taking advantage of him. David doesn't like KZY but by being nice to him, KZY thinks that David likes him as a friend. And so when he wanted to change group guess where he went? And poor David had no choice but to say yes. STUPID TOOT! He seriously is the thorn in everyone's side. SERIOUSLY! At the hot spring, he asked us why he couldn't see our private parts!!! WTF!!! Perveted psycho. So from now onwards, I've distorted his face to match his intellect. That way, its more bearable to see him. =)

So our partners Saikiko (called Sako for short) and Aikiko (in blue) brought us around Kumamoto city. First stop, Kumamoto Castle. (David's taking the picture)

Just an idea of how big the castle walls are

My first view of the castle

The tablet reads "Here lies the marker of a house once built here". Quite sentimental, the japanese people. Just like me...

Japanese children are seriously some of the cutest you will ever find. They're like China children, except cleaner and cuter.

This was taken just outside the castle

So this is a map of Kumamoto Castle, one of the three most beautiful castles in all of Japan. It was restored to its peak during the Meiji Restoration period just before the World Wars.

Hehe, what happened was that me and David switched cameras for the rest of our visit in the castle. I took photos of him and he took photos of me.

This is us in front of the castle. Sako, who lived in the US for a year and can speak english, was a great guide, giving me information about the places we visited and answering all my questions. Lol, I think Sako and Aikiko we slightly frustrated with us because David, me and Shao Wei kept stopping to take photographs everywhere. Literally every few steps. KZY didn't of course because he came to japan without a camera. Asking poor david to take photos for him. Seriously...WTF??? Luckily I already warned our exchange partners about him so they we on their guard. =)

Some photos of the castle before we decided to climb up its wooden floors.

The view of the city from Kumamoto Castle.

Vending machines in Japan sell all kinds of stuff. These one's sell coffee (David took the photo so it not my fault its blur =)

I had enough courage to try the local speciality of tea. It was surely the most expensive I've ever bought at 300yen (SGD 4.00) for such a small amount. But the tea was bitter at first, then sweet. Truly a marvelous drink. According to our guides I had to turn the bowl once clockwise and then counterclockwise before drinking. Even Shao Wei had to do it while trying a sip from my bowl. LOL!

Me and David with the Kumamoto City mascott, which for unknown reasons, our guides forgot his name.

Replicas of Kumamoto old city inside the second floor of the castle. Some of the walls are lined with names. I thought it was those of the people who died, like a coloumbarium, but i was told that the names of people who donated money to the castle would have their names put up. LOL. I kinda scared Sako and Aikiko with the "dead people" part.

Photos with the replicas inside the castle. Some are blur because it was taken in a haste. Why? Because no photography was actually allowed but we did so anyway =)

This David, seriously made my blood boil with this photo. I wanted to take a photo by myself and he asked KZY to enter the photograph. I asked him why later on. His answer? He didn't want KZY to feel left out. .....WTF! David is seriously too kind. Seriously, TOO kind. Thank God for Photoshop =)

View from the top

David's kindness in action again. Sigh...Did you know David actually treated KZY to alot of things, until he didn't have enough money at the end? All because he didn't want KZY to feel sad. WTF lah! KZY really took advantage of David. I really wanted something bad to happen to him. Seriously!

View of the surroundings and what its supposed to look like on the picture.

After the castle, we went to a smaller version of it called the reception house. A whole building built just for the king. In ancient times, it took the king months to reach Kumamoto from Tokyo and so when he came it was a big deal. The room dividers were opened up to signify grandness. And the room at the end is made up entirely of GOLD!!! It was delicately decorated with paintings in gold. Amazing! Too bad photography wasn't allowed and there was a guard there to keep watch. Sigh

Coming down the steps

These photos were taken by a man who worked in Singapore during the 1980s. His daughter was born in the same hospital as me! KK Hospital! LOL! The guy said that it was fated that we meet. Quite cool!

Familiar sights in Japan

They have cool stuff on the sidewalks in Japan

This is Ginza street. Its the mainstreet of Kumamoto City, where the youth hang out. Its like their version of Orchard Road. Can you believe that we were in our school uniforms??? David went off on his own to do shopping. I wanted to do the same but Shao Wei kept telling me not to "bastard" him, leaving him alone with KZY. LOL. So I sacrificed my shopping to accompany him, stupid KZY.

In Japan they have shops where you can come and donate your blood. Japanese are really civic minded!

This is their MCdonalds menu there. The funny thing was that the flash went off in the crowded MCdonalds and everyone turned to see where it came from. Luckily, we were tourists. =) Notice how the burgers get bigger and bigger? Japanese eat a crazy amount and yet stay slim without exercising. I'm still trying to find out their secret. LOL!

So our guides bring us to the cheapest place to shop at ginza street. DAISYO! Stupid right? We have it in singapore and we go all the way there to shop there. LOL. Anyway, they did sell funny stuff there.

Next we went to...(wait for it)...BEST DENKI!!!! -_-" Anyway, I saw really cool handphones there but not the sidekick I wanted from Gossip Girl. Sigh, its not out in Asia yet. Oh, by the way, Japanese phones are tens of times cooler than Singapore's phones. And they don't sell foreign brands so its really cheap. But its not compatible with our sim cards. Dammit!

We took a tram back from Ginza street to the YMCA college. It was the first time in my life I've taken a tram. It was cool! Much cleaner than trains and busses. But unlike Japanese people who wait patiently and do not complain, singaporeans would complain until they pull the tram off its tracks because of its slow speed and low capacity.

Kumamoto YMCA College, Kumamoto prefecture, Japan

Lol, when we went to the castle, we were supossed to chop our maps to make it a souvenier but being singaporeans, we chopped out hands instead. Lol. That's what we usually do in singpaore right? David stamped himself twice because he thought the first one was too unclear. How hilarious!!!

I bought a hat for myself. I look good right? It even suprised me!

This is outside the hotel that we stayed in for the night. It was a budget hotel but you could have fooled me and said that it was a 5-star hotel. The service was good, rooms we spacious and clean and it was fairly comfortable to the eyes!

We had dinner at the MK restaurant. Because of me, everyone's stock for the steamboat was changed to chicken stock! Cause I'm allergic to seafood!

Its was fun cooking your own food! Our table consisted of me, nadia, aishah and poor Rashid who had to sit with us cause there was no where else to sit. I think he was shocked by the crde jokes we told but after that, I got to know him better. He's a really nice guy.

So when we got back to the hotel, it was around 8.15pm (Japan time which is +1 singapore time). I told my group to meet at 9.15pm, giving us enough time to take a bath. Guess what time we had our meeting? 11.45pm!!! I toom a long soak in the bath tub and woke up at 9.10pm with nadia banging on my door. She told me that she was JUST going to take a bath. After she left I quickly showered and then went to her door at 9.45pm. She was STILL bathing. So I went down to collect the other two girls first. When Si Xuan opened the door, we was wearing eye masks and told me that Aishah JUST went into the bath. TOOT! SO I went back up to Nadia's room and waited patiently, knocking every ten minutes. Fed up, I got my camera ready....

...SNAP! Moment of unglammness! Hahaha!

Nadia was sharing the room with Zarah, and Shao Wei was there to find food. So they hung out there for awhile.

It was fun scaring the girls. And they deserved it for coming at 11.45pm! Made me sleep so late.

I was one of the few ones staying in a single room. It was quite spacious. The only problem...I had no one to wake me up. I woke up at 8am on Sunday when we were supposed to be up at 7.30 for breakfast and the bus was leaving at 8.30pm. Luckily I had enought time to bathe, pack and eat before the bus left.

So on Sunday we met our new partners Yumi(left) and Yuka(left). Sadly, even thought I protested to Mrs Tan and she was against it, KZY continued to remain in our group. Sigh. Worse part, he has only like two shirts and pants that he keeps wearing over and over again. And he bathes very seldom! Ewww!!!

Me and Shao Wei

Our partners were going to teach us how to cook japanese fried noodles! And since I couldn't eat pork of seafood, our's was plain. LOL.

Our group hard at work!

Let me tell you the story behind our noodles. If you know me well, you'll know that I'm a good cook and baker. So noddles was a piece of cake for me. Stir-frying it like a pro. Then after 20mins of cooking, a few minutes from completion, David suggests I let KZY cook, to the approval of our exchange partners. Sigh, so I let him cook. What's the worst he could do nin the final minutes of cooking? BAD MOVE SHAUN! Within just two minutes, KZY the idiot manages to burn my perfectly cooked noodles. SCREW HIM! You mess with my cooking, you mess with me. Stupid toot!!! Anyway, I shall not talk to him after this trip for as long as I live. For my sake, I hope it rings true.

The final product!

Some of the groups with muslims in them had to cook pork so the malay guys went into one of the classrooms to draw on the blackboard. If you look closely, on the bottom left corner it says "Shaun ate his girlfriend". Luckily for them, they're my friends already. LOL they wrote alot of funny stuff like "KZY is smart, handsome and that they love him. AHAHAHA! Bored people come up with the funniest things to do.

Me and Nadia in the kitchen

The soya sauce in Japan comes in cute little fish-shaped packets.

The previous day, some of the boys were so kind to their exchange partners that one girl was crying as the bus pulled out from the college. LOL! Mr Saw saying that these boys were HBK (Heartbreaker kids) lol! Anyway, on Sunday, David tried to run for that position by folding flowers for our exchange partners.

Seriously, Japan has like the best strawberries I've ever tasted. The Japanese saw how much we liked them and gave us quite a bunch as we were leaving from the college. We finished them all up before the bus even reached the next destination. =)

Strawberries are not the only fruits present in Japan, as this picture shows.

Other than making the noodles, our students learnt how to make a local version of Tang Yuan and also prepare sushi rolls. So here are all the rolls laid out on the table for us to DIY. I got so good at rolling it in a perfect shape that I actually taught some of our teachers how to do it. =) When It comes to food, I'm a fast learner!

Me and Shao Wei presented our exchange partners with postcards from Singapore. And David, being as sweet as he is (LOL) gave our partners a singpaore ten dollar note each as a momento. How thoughtful right?

Here's our whole group!

Me and our exchange partners. They always have the same "peace" pose! So kawai des! (cute)

A rest stop on the way to our next destination. I bought some crappy fries there and a freaking good mango ice cream. YUM!

We went to a coal factory museum.

In Japan, this considered a western style toilet.

And this is the normal kind. I found it quite funny that they actually labeled it.

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Our japanese museum employee guide. Everyone thought he looked damm dorky. He was so passionate in telling us about the history of coal. Too bad he spoke only japanese and the passion was lost in translation. LOL

O LOOK! A PIECE OF COAL!!!!!!!! OMG, I can just die right now after seeing it. Bleah!

Us in front of a coal powered vehicle

Time for a geography lesson. Here are the uses of Coal. WOW!! -_-"

The latest in coal mining fashion.

This exihibit it titled "Move Air to produce Sound" HAHAHAHA! I know how to do that even without looking at the exhibit. Me and Amirah bust out laughing at this one.

Entryway into the mining tunnel

This is the first group that I went with into the "lift"

Its too dark to see but there are creepy maniquines behind me.

Me on my second trip in the "lift". It was actually a simulator and I tricked nadia, sixuan and aishah that we were really travelling down when I went with them on my second trip.

Mrs Tan made me take these photos of the information of coal in english.

David climbed to the top of the museum's roof and took photos of us.

After we exited the museum, we headed without the teachers knowledge to an abandoned theme park. There were already stuff growing out from under the cracks.

David talked me into climbing up a whale while we were there. I realise now that the orange shirt and black t-shirt outfit does not work on me. Too bad I didn't realise it then.

Me looking damm unglamourous on the whale's tail.

The entrance of the abandoned theme park. Luckily we came during the day.

I was bored while we were waiting to boaed the bus. Did you know that all the history students and teacher thought that the trip to the coal museum was for the geography students while all the geography students and teachers thought that the trip was for the history students. How hilarious!

On the way to our next destination, everyone suddenly got into the camwhoring mood and cameras were flashing like crazy. Trust me, I wasn't the only crazy one on the bus that day.

We stayed in a place called Referetsu (Refresh place) which was a tatami mat YMCA hostel. I used a hairdryer to fully dry my hair for the first time in my life. I loved it!

Monday's breakfast. I'm wearing sunglasses because the previous night Me, Shima, Amirah and Fadly stayed up doing our projects but ended up chatting and singing the night away. It was fun but I had many dark circles to prove it. So Sunglasses it was.

Random photographs taken while waiting for the bus. It was our final day in Japan.

My Saviour! They sell this at every convenience store in Japan. And its only about 3 sing dollars!

Photos of the Sea from Fukuoka's main highway

First stop in Fukuoka City, NHK Broadcasting Center

One of my favorite photos taken in Japan. Fadly, me, amirah and david acting all crazy outside the studio.

Solo photograph with the signboard for proof of visit =)

I was on TV. Yay! First picture is of me, nadia and rachel and the last two are of me and Hamzah. Hamzah's a cool guy that kept taking scandalous pictures of me. Oh and btw, both nadia and Aishah have a crush on him. LOL

Mascotts of NHK

A live recording of a show. It was freaking boring as it was in Japanese. The millennian students all got up and left during the interval. It was quite funny to suddenly see the whole studio empty after they came back from a commercial. hahaha!

After that we went for lunch in downtown Fukuoka City, Japan

A photo of all the guys. We were all posing and suddenly KZY said "oh, you guys are taking photo? Ok!" and he suddenly entered the picture, much to the frustration of every single one of us, teachers included.

They've been asking me to pose in different poses throughout the whole trip and so it was my turn now. Happy! Sad! Suprised! Bored! They had a little trouble with the last one so I had to teach them how to be Sexy!

Hamzah's cool pose. LOL!

David's shy pose. Hahaha!

A pictuer of my ray bans. (I was bored while waiting to eat)

So after lunch they turned us loose in the city of Fukuoka. David went of on his own again while Amirah and Fadly followed me though the winding streets of Fukuoka City. We stumbled into a hat shop and a ahop selling sunglasses. Montage anyone?

I can safely say that this is one of my favourite places in Japan. The electric guitars were going for as cheap as 30 sing dollars!!! I love Japan!

The giat apple shop we went into. I used the display iphones there to google my name. Guess what, other than this blog, my name turned up my AEC website and my STRAITS TIMES ARTICLE!!! I'm practically famous now =)

After our visit to the ishop, we went into a liqueor shop where i bought a bottle of the best sake they sold and some small shot bottles. Then we made a wrong turn and began our 3 hour trip around Fukuoka city. It was hilarious because I was with kental and bodoh and i kept speaking in riddles. I was called Joda (Japanese Yoda). Amirah was called Queen Aminadalla ( a Mina Amidala) and Fadly was called Mat Solo (Malay Han solo). It was so funny. When I finally tried to ask for directions, the japanese woman I asked ran for her life. It was really funny. We finally wandered back to our original meeting point and so we came across some funny stuff that they sold there.

After our totally unproductive afternoon, we headed to Robosquare to see robots. I bought my brother a robot truck for his birthday. After that, I suffere from photo fatigue and didn't take any photos of our dinner at AEON mall Fukuoka and our shopping trip there. I bought a belt for myself to replace my broken one and an expensive bag for my mom. The mall looked freaking huge from the outside but inside, it was almost the same as vivo city, just that it was almost empty. Creepy. Anyway, I kept changing shopping partners during the trip. First it was nadia, aishah and si xuan, then david, then fadly and amirah, then back to nadia and rachel. It was an interesting night. Oh, now Mr Saw and Nick, our YMCA singapore staff, think I'm somekind of PSP god because of the questions I answered for them while at a game shop in AEON. Quite funny. After the game shop, me, nadia, gwen, and rachel went liqueor crazy and bought like ten litres among the four of us. Alcohol is so much cheaper in Japan. And interestingly enough, water is actually more expensive than alcohol there.

My single room (again) for our last night in japan. What was funny was that Mrs tan called each and every one of our rooms to forbid us from going out of the hotel because there were yakuza hiding outside to catch and kill us. She likes to scare us. LOL.

While amirah and I went to visit kenneth and rashid, shima and fadly fell asleep on my bed. They took up so much of the bed that I was going to sleep on the chair. Luckily, the teachers came and we had to wake them up. Everyone left and I slept alone. Oh, something funny happened. We bought a pre-paid card to watch movies on the tv but ended up paying for porn! It was so funny!! LOL! But after they left I was to tired to watch it and fell asleep. We were supposed to be at the airport for our 10.15am flight at least an hour earlier. We were told that breakfast was at 7am and the bus would leave at 7.50am. Guess what time I woke up? 8AM!!! I awoke to people banging on my door. IT was Mrs tan and Masako san, our guide. I went into panick mode because everyone else was already on the bus! Mrs tan unceremoniously dumped all my belongings into my bag while I took a shower. The best joke? I turned the wrong faucet and my clothes got wet!! So I had to wear a different outfit! Apparently, all my friends thought that I was already eating breakfast when I didn't answer my phone and it was only on the bus while doing a headcount that everyone realised that I hadn't woken up yet. That was definitly one of the most memorable experiences in Japan.

Me and Masako san, our Japanese tour guide and one of the most understanding people I've met in my life. We didn't really have a proper goodbye with her as the last time we saw her was when she was giving out the duty free coupons to us.

A photo of me, shima, fadly and amirah as we were waiting for our luggage to get checked. I got my mayonaise and my small can of coke confiscated at the security check. I was in a rush that morning and totally forgot that it was in my bag. So sad, sigh.

I bought breakfast at the duty free shop but in the end didn't eat it because I fell asleep for most of the flight.

We checked in together so we kinda sat together. The three of them behind me and I sat infront with two empty seats. This are the three stooges before take off. Luckily we checked in together because my luggage weighed at least 5kg over the limit. LOL.

The disgusting halal food they served us for lunch aboard SIA. Yuck! And I couldn't even eat some of the stuff because there was seafood in it.

The deceiving green tea ice cream they served. It looked good but trust me, it was disgusting. Sigh, I miss Japan food already.

Whether it was the beauty, the technology, the people, the culture, or even just the temperature, Japan has truly been an experience I will never forget. One of the best places on earth, I miss it greatly.

Ok, so here are some of the lessons I too away from Japan. Firstly, David is a great shopper (he got the best deals of the whole trip). Next, Orange and black doesn't always go together (the whale photo is an example). The way you interact with the people of the country can really affect the outcome of your trip (Japanese people are amazing). And lastly, you make friends for a lifetime. (Nadia, Amirah, David, Fadly, Shima, Aishah, Si Xuan, Gwen, Fandi, Shao Wei, Zarah, Kenneth, Rashid, Anabel, Madeline, Geraldine, Hamzah and many others which I can't remember their names right now). This is something that I will carry with me for the rest of my days and mark my words, this is not my last trip to Japan. Not by a longshot!

Finally the blogpost is done. Its take my one whole week! Its exactly one week ago that we landed back in sunny singapore. Phew! The longest post yet! Well I'm off to study for my exams that start next week! Bye!

Yet another chapter of my life closes as a new one is about to begin. This is the story of my life~

SupremeShaun is sleek and Handsome @ 4:41 pm