Day 5
QWSS JAPAN TRIP JUNE 2007

Woke up, earlier than usual because today was a special day for us…. The mayor had kindly invited us to his office…. So we’re all excited….. at 8am, we boarded the bus and left for the mayor’s office…. The mayor’s a kind guy, he welcomed us into his office….. when we were heading to his office, we walked pass the civil service workers….. yah, we had to greet them ‘ohayo gozaimasu’(good morning) and there were lots of them that we had to keep bowing for every step we took…..


outside the mayor's office



the staffs working for the city


teachers talking




Then, the mayor brought us to his meeting room , together with his assistant… there we were given origami paper, looks expensive !!!! and they taught us to fold a ‘shiratori’ (swan) yup , a ver y fruitful experience…..

the memorable meeting room


Ms leong presenting a gift to the mayor


after that, we bid goodbye before leaving for UGUISUZAWA JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL…..

For our entertainment, the mayor had passed a CD to our tour guide, mr Ronnie tan… and it contained the news report on our arrival in Kurihara, featuring the PAPER MAKING SCENE & WHEN WE WERE AT THE CHRYSANTHEMUMS PLANTATION.


us, on the news


Soon, we reached the high school and received a warm welcome !!! yup, only the principal greeted us as the rest of the school were still having their lessons….. after taking off our shoes and wearing the sandals provided, we were led into a waiting room, where we rested for a while before going on a tour around the school…
Guess what, we were introduced to the school’s information and surprisingly the school only have a population of 70 students…. Wow, compared to Queensway’s 1400 students 200 TIMES MORE !!!!!! I could say their teaching style were similar to Queensway…btw at that time, they were learning mathematics, home economics and history….. and there were only 1 sec 1, sec2 and sec 3 classes….
After that, we returned to the waiting room whereby we were served ice-cream….mmmm yummy, especially the ice-cream was branded …. I couldn’t recall the name, but I ever seen it in s’pore, which costed $14 bucks for 1 tub…..

Then, we went to their hall to practice our performance… their hall was far more bigger that queensway’s ….. yup, here we go, everyone except me went to the toilet to change to their designated ethical costumes, while me…. Haha, went backstage to become the DJ !, well, I was kicked out from malay dance as I danced as stiff as a rawhide….hehe sabotaged DANIAL instead…. So here we goes,after the formal opening speech by a student representatives from both party, the Japanese showed us their skills: from basketball, to soft tennis, and softball … all of them were magnificent, all of them took turns to ‘serve’ so quickly and professionally, just like machine guns….. But the part I like the most was the softball…. Their skills were unmatchable…… because on several occasion, when you expect them to miss the ball, they could still able to catch…WOW!

Soon its Queensway’s turn,after an opening speech by ARIYANI, I hit the play button , sit back and watch their performances, however view was only of their butt ! =D
After the dance, we were exchanging gifts, ahh…. Most of us made mistakes for not bringing our ‘prepared’ presents and yet we still dared to argue with Mr Tan who scolded us… but soon after we realize our mistakes, we apologized to him, except one student who did accept that he is wrong….
After that, we were given a treat by the principal, their school’s lunch… JAPANESE SCHOOL STYLE BENTO! The looks may be quite unattractive, but the uninteresting look didn’t mean that the food is insipid! It was…. OISHI~~(*delicious) . Well some information, in Japan, their school did not have such thing called” canteen” They have an aunty who lived in the school, who will plan and cook their menus everyday and their parents will just pay monthly fee….

After a delicious meal, we were separated into groups and went around to enjoy their culture…. Actually the Japanese had planned for us to rotate around the activities, but due to time constraint, we were not able to enjoy all of them. For me, I’d only felt their local deer dance, which looked the same as Singapore’s liondance, its just that we have to put a deer-look-alike hat that was sooooo heavy. Furthermore, there’s a veil that covers your face, so you would not feel hot and in addition, there was a huge drum tied on your belly…. You had to dance while beating the drum…. Quite difficult but haha enjoyable… too bad I did not bring my camera there…
Afterwards we went to the ‘community centre’ to watch the other groups learning tea ceremony… not bad, we were served with Authentic JAPANESE GREEN TEA… and a candy-like stuff… Well I could roughly guess the procedure, since I was interested in JAPAN when I was young and I’d read too much DORAEMON, which roughly teach you about JAPANESE CULTURE.

Tea drinking procedure:
EAT THE CANDY first, then hold the bowl in your hand…. Turn the bowl three times(believed to be able to make the tea delicious) and drink it…. Afterwards, use your fingers to wipe the spot on the bowl that come into contact with your mouth…..
Soon, we headed back to the school and yah, it’s a sayonara already and Japanese are really kind people…. When we went back to gather our things, and walking out of the school, we could see all of them lining up to shake hands with you and there were….. 70+++ hands !!!


some of the blue 'YAKUZA' lolz

So yup, feeling grateful to them we shook hands , boarded the bus and we left….. Along the way, Mr Ronnie Tan told us that He was impressed with our performance and decided to reward us; KARAOKE ON THE HOUSE ! haha at first we thought it was merely a joke, but when we reached the hotel dining room…. Wow, it was really there…. The karaoke machine, the same machine that was used by the other patrons in the next dining room…. At first everyone was shy….. then we began to volunteer each other…. First in the row, ARIYANI singing DANCING QUEEN ~ woohooo bravo !
Next, Ms Annie Tan , singing an English song…. Quite an old song…. yay!!!!
ms annie tan singing

Then Hiromi take up the mike and delivered us a Japanese song ~~~ wooo everyone was enchanted by that


Hiromi singing

Then its my turn, but 1st song was a DUET , ARIYANI and me, singing YESTERDAY ONCE MORE ….. just an applause…..

DUET!

The Duet was not really a duet, because I joined in when she was singing halfway, so it was not counted and the audience requested me to sing them another song….. I trembled, because I rarely listen to English songs. I only listen to JAPANESE songs,but the song that I wanted to sing was not there, so I flipped through the song book and saw a ‘light’ , the song “ UPTOWN GIRL “ choo looking….. I smiled and take the stage….

but before that, Hiromi DUET with Natasha singing a song.... i kinda forgotten hehe~~~



When I sing, everyone had a good laugh…. Yah I know, the lively song was changed into a monotone,classical olden songs…..


Uptown girl! even mr ronnie tan was laughing all the way



~my singing causes the audience to be like this~ horrible isn't it?


After singing, haha quite glad, received applause and some even threw 5 yen coins at me muhahahahaha luckily not tomato!
Then Mr Gary Tan also did not want to lose, he braised himself up and deliver his best song : STAYING ALIVE, everyone enjoyed the song haha ….that we even did a style…. Pointing sidewards while yelling STAYING ALIVE !!!


Well after that, we had our presentation and yup, ONSEN~~~~~ THEN not time to sleep yet !


Mr ronnie tan has prepared a karaoke lounge for us and wooo hoo.... we sang and sang and sang till the midnight oil burns out!



my japanese name: A-U-IN