DAY 6
QWSS JAPAN TRIP JUNE 2007

Yup, today was a really special day for us,as we were going to stay with our designated host families… Well actually not many of us wanted it, after the first day whereby we met with our respective host families, we were terrified…. Not because they were scary or anything else, but the fact that only a handful of them were able to speak English and we’ll have difficulties communicating with them.
After Onsen-ing for the last time, we went to the restaurant to eat our last meal in that hotel…*sob
After that, we went back to our room to pack up everything… well it seemed just yesterday that we had just arrived in the hotel and now we’re already leaving….time seemed to have no hold in Japan…


written: Heilsam Kurikoma



Hiks* drinking Japanese Milk for the last time...btw my favourite is the blue coloured milk...


Sayonara mountain, Snow, Clouds....

Yup, the moment the clock struck 8am all of us boarded the bus,leaving for the city hall to meet our host families…. When we reached there, we directly went to our host family and yup…everyone was separated….. Tingwei and I headed towards our host family, Shirotori families….who led us to his vehicle….quite a big car…..inside the car its no joke! GPS system!!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes!


WOw ! ! !GPS SYSTEM


Well first, Kyotaro and his father,Mr Shirotori drove us to their home, whereby there we met his wife, daughter, 2nd son and his mother…outside their house, they had a dog that could able to listen to commands, because when we first reached, it’s a common sense for a dog to bark….but when Kyotaro spoke in Japanese to the dog, the dog kindly returned to its dog house……flipping through the Japanese dictionary, we tried to communicate with Shirotori families…. First they led us to their 2nd living room….wow their house was very big, it took quite a long time just to get from the main door to the 2nd living room…
There, we placed our bags and headed back to the 1st living room…we talked with each other by using a handphone translation….it was quite fortunate for us that they thought of such thing…..our hobby ranged from hobby….to school work..and then to my favourite topic: ANIME&MANGA….. Lolz Tingwei was puzzled when they talked about this topic, but I, being a anime-lovers was enjoying a talk with them…. GUNDAM….DETECTIVE CONAN….DORAEMON…ETC…

Soon, they asked us to get into the car as they wanted to take us out for lunch….and we did…. When the car was going out, they suddenly lowered their side windows and told us: “ OJISAN” , which means their grandfather…. He’s a nice man….and looked healthy despite I thought that he was already quite old….

Along the way, Mrs Shirotori asked me what song did I listen to and I told her Japanese songs…. She smiled and asked me which artist I favoured…. I told her ZARD and she raised her eyebrows…. I did not know why until I returned to Singapore and found out that the artist had just passed away from CANCER…. Mrs Shirotori then suggested to me,” AYUMI HAMASAKI?” and I nodded….
After one hour on the road, we stopped by a convenience store and they asked us to take what I wanted and they would pay for us….Being brought up with Manners, I kept declining their offer and thank them for their kindness….. But later the funny part was that when they showed me their translated text and it read” PLEASE DO NOT DECLINE” lolz…. Funnay hahahahhahahaha but still in the end I still did not want to take, but TINGWEI took a Caffeine water…then our Journey continued….
After another one hour, they asked us to choose whether we wanted to eat burger or beef rice…. Of course our answer were anything…but to the Japanese, Anything is not an answer….
Then we chose BEEF RICE…..and guess where we were brought to? YOSHINOYA! At first we thought it would be the same as in Singapore…. But there was something different when we entered the YOSHINOYA outlet in Japan…. The seat were all counter seat and the cashier would deliver the food to the customers…. Furthermore, they did not sell any kind of drinks at all and provided us with cold plain water !!!!! sooo nice, unlike the YOSHINOYA IN SINGAPORE, BOOOO!


Yoshinoya, Japan


Their Beef rice was also quite unique …. Their sizes were: small,medium,large,EXTRA LARGE….. lolz…
After a fruitful lunch, we headed to Sahara, a ceramic shopping centre …There,Shirotori-san wanted to buy for us necklace, which was made up by choosing the beads that we wanted…similar to those in Singapore and was usually for girls….. so we declined their offer…. But now in singapore, I regretted my decision, because I found out from JAPAN HOUR that the purpose of beads in JAPAN is not the same as in singapore,because each of the beads represent your characteristics…and it could even act as a TALISMAN!


Water-powered clock outside Sahara Shopping centre



us with the Japanese..aww doesn't they look kawaii*(cute)?





After that, we went to the most attractive sites; THE GOLDEN TEMPLE…. Which requires us to hike up the slopes…quite tiring, but It was a fruitful experience for us to watch the GOLDEN TEMPLE….everything was made of gold! Sadly we were forbidden to take photos and the monks were on guard…. Well,all the statues were the same as in Buddhist temple…haha its just that the explaination was written in JAPANESE….we prayed and threw in some coins…..


we're hiking...and hiking and hiking....wooohooo!


washing hand...pure water i think...


Outside the temple


Benkei with Natuko,Kyotaro's sister as the model


Torii*(gate)

Outside the temple, we tried the Japanese culture of fortune telling…. First we put in 100yen into the box and draw out a piece of paper…. Then, KYOTARO explained to me what it means….




My symbol was a broom….. then Kyotaro translated for me:
HEALTH – OK
STUDIES-OK
LOVE- NOT TIME YET >.<


Japanese Ice-Cream...


their family...haha i wonder why Yajiro(extreme right), Kyotaro's brother acted that way...



Later, shirotori asked us whether we wanted to play bowling…but we declined for that we felt very uncomfortable for them to keep treating us…..as they had spent a huge amount of money therefore, we headed back to their house…
Inside the house, they asked us to get into the car to shower and we were puzzled….shower in a car?? Haha actually we were brought to his 2nd house, just to shower…..but I could roughly guessed that JAPANESE ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT FOREIGNER WILL ALWAYS TAKE A BATH, NOT A SHOWER….
After showering, we took a walk around the neighbourhood and yup, he brought us to a Japanese Shinto shrine…. We prayed and threw in some coins…Then, we returned back…..quite nice, Mrs shirotori and her mother-in-law cooked delicious food…but the interesting fact was that During their house meal, each members will have their own CHOPSTICKS,SPOONS, PLATES…. Because we were given wooden disposable chopsticks… Another treat comes again, when OJISAN returned home with 2 boxes of SUSHI.....WOW NYAM~NYAM…… Sushi ~~~ we could not finish it……


Tingwei and I


Us, with their family


Ojisan in the pics


at the same time, we were watching JAPANESE Variety Show on the television…. Lolz it was so funny,its about:

About a blackman who brought his monkey and tried to experience Japanese culture… the scene was set when he visited a ‘TAKOYAKI’(Octopus ball) shop and when he was served with the ‘takoyaki’,he used his hand to grabbed it and put it into his mouth…guess what, in the end, he was struggling and fanning himself , as the ‘takoyaki’ was too hot !Next, he handed the plate of the’takoyaki’ to his monkey and guess what, the monkey could not resist the heat that caused it to throw the ‘takoyaki’ away, in a funny manner! Haha

So, after a delicious food, we took some photos and yup, headed back to the 2nd living room…. There, Shirotori-san showed us three VCDs that he had just rented and asked us what we wanted to watch the choices were; TROY, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 3, The Great Chase
Well actually I wanted to choose Mission Impossible 3, but Tingwei just kept bugging, saying that he had watched Troy and Mission Impossible 3, ok lor, so I just relent to him…. To watch The Great Chase, since he was a car-racing-maniac…..
Guess what, we could not understand the movie at all,Because it’s a German Movie that had a Japanese language as the subtitle…. No!!!! haha so in the end, we just stare at the moving picture….But unfortunately, I got a sore eyes after that….. Not because watching the movie for too long, but to see something that I was not supposed to see yet….. You know, the movie scene that suddenly show a Caucasian Woman’S Boob !!! Sianz lar, I immediately covered my eyes….couldn’t believe what I had just seen !!!
Halfway during the show, Ojisan came in and brought us cake!!! Wow so generous of them… and he asked us to write some kind of message for the family….and they will write some for us too…. (exchanging messages) yup, its very nice, Japanese surely really treasure their guests!
That night, I could just doze off easily, as it was the only moment I got to sleep in Futon*(Japanese mattress) Recorded down some information in diary and…. Yup ZZZ..zzzz…ZZZZ….zzzzz OYASUMI!