♥Japan Homestay (Thursday, December 25, 2008 / 12:13 pm)
After 3 days, I have finally settled down but everything still seems too good to be true. Couldn't feel a sense of realism these few days.
I took a total of 900 plus photos and videos. Having problems uploading them all because my laptop doesn't have enough space. lol
For the time being, I shall blog abt the first few days of my arrival in Japan with those photos that are successfully uploaded.
I shall not keep dear fauz in great anticipation anymore :P
DAY 1 08-12-08
Boarded the plane late at night. Din sleep well at all on the plane because lots of air turbulence disrupting my sleep. Moreover, it was damn cold and as I looked at the temperature details outside the plane, it was -54 degree celscius!!! I tried watching the movies on the plane and MAMMA MIA was just too boring.
So after 9-10hrs, with transfer of flight in between, I finally reached Hiroshima train station and grabbed a little bite while waiting for everyone to arrive.
-me at Hiroshima station-
-riding on an electric tram-
The weather was pretty bad tat day. Not only it was very cold, it was raining as well. I had to heave the cold rain because silly me forgot to bring umbrella there despite constant reminders for myself. And I have to share one with Jenice. Both of us were wet and we din manage to take any photos because it was raining heavily.
We visited the Atomic Bomb memorial, museum and listened to explanations from a volunteer guide. It was hard paying attention to what she was saying as many a times, I dunno understand her English. lol.
-remains of the structure caused by the Atomic Bomb-
-Atomic Bomb memorial-
-Sadakko memorial- (a little girl who was killed by the radiating effects of Atomic Bomb)
-rainy day, could only take pic with the Atomic Bomb memorial from far-
my cam-whore while resting inside one of the shops of the museum
After all the visiting, we arrived at Shinjin Bank, awaiting for our homestay family to meet us. And we were seated in a hall, with rows of tables and chairs that looked like we were going to have a formal interview. For a few moments, everyone panicked as it appeared to be quite intimidating. My host family was the last to arrive. Definitely put me in much suspense and anticipation since everyone else's host families were already all there for the briefing.
My host family has a six-year old daughter who is very mischievous and bubbly. My host mother is a very approachable and nice lady who always tries to make my stay comfortable. And she cooks damn well. My first dinner there was sumptous. Anything you like about Japanese food is there. We even gampai(cheers) with cocktail and sake (for the father) during my first dinner there. But I din take a photo of the food as I wasn't too sure it was polite to do so. Anyway, I knelt all the way for that 1 hr of dinner. It was sooo painful lah. I felt my legs grow weak and numb when I was about to stand up after my meal. Terrible.
My host family's house has 2 storeys. I have a little room all to myself with a very comfortable bed to much of my relief. However, as the house was still situated on the hill. It was extremely cold. I wanted to kill myself whenever it was bathing time because the water was dead cold. And I turned the shower water till it showed 40degree celscius. However, I couldn't sense a tint of hotness at all. The toilet bowl was amazing though. It has many automatic functions, eg, cleaning and washing your butt etc. lol. But I din try coz I was afraid of misunderstanding the functions and caused myself in deep trouble.
While sleeping, my heater could only be switched on for 3 hrs because it was actually burning something like charcoal to keep the room warm. Hence, everytime after 3 hrs, I could start to feel cold again although I had 3 really thick layers of blanket covering me.
Day 2 09-12-08
We visited Hiroshima castle. It was still a rainy day but it was kind of on and off raining. Managed to take photos at last. Hiroshima castle was beautiful and I caught a landscape view of the whole Hiroshima city.
-guard dressed so smartly could be seen everywhere especially train station though-
I also realised that the season was actually autumn transiting into winter. Therefore, I could still see many autumn red leaves around. I have a flair for taking photos with autumn leaves.
In the afternoon, we went to Hondori Street, which was one of the best shopping places I had been. I bought some cosmetics and I din dare to buy much because I din want to bring many things when I head to Kyoto.
-me at Hondori St-
-please click on the pic and zoom in to the left, you will get to see all the amusing rules to get into the neoprint shop in Japan-
-I see this poster advertisement everywhere. Tt's Kenichi Matsuyama ("L" from the deathnote movie)seriously, I couldn't even recognise lah till Jenice told me tt-
-all the chio hp in Japan-
And that day, I had a mission to complete. Yesh, I was supposed to observe wad Jenice likes and touches during her shopping because the group decides to give her a surprise present for her bday the next day. So I had secret meetings and conversations with the group. And I decided to get her the latest SPEED Single available in Japan.When we were dismissed, I went back there with Thiam Huat to get her the SINGLE as Jitsy went off to check some bus routes. Half an hour later, I went to SOGO to meet Jitsy to wait for her host mother because her host mother happens to be in the same company as my host father and the company is having their annual dinner party.
Her host mother is a very fun person. She is super high and hype that kind. When she picked us up, she told us that we had to introduce ourselves to other staff of the company. I almost died on the spot lor. I'm supposed to converse with my limited Japanese with those big-shots of the company.
The dinner itself was pretty scary. As I entered the function room, it was packed with men in black-suits and ties. And the fact that Japanese companies tend to have more males than females, the whole place was like dominated with men.
However, I can strongly sense the unity within the company as they really listened earnestly to the speech made by the big shots and how sincere and uniform they replied as a whole to every question asked. Furthermore, all departments had to put up performance for the dinner. These performances and games they played were really madness. They were so crazy and wild till I find it scary. Especially I see those male employees shouting wildly, excitedly and drinking non-stop. Lol. I noe all the these were meant to be morale boosting within the employees of the company but culture clash, you see.
-Jitsy's host mum and her colleague-
-I was playing with the wig Jitsy's host mum will be wearing for performance-
I actually took a video of all the performances but dun think should put all tt up because well, it is supposed to be an internal thing between the company and its employees. And the videos are quite M18, so I shall not post it here. lol.
It was a long and tiring day. we went back in Jitsy's host mum's car. Take a look at the automatic parking system. It's damn cool and high tech. All you need is to pay for the parking fee first and get a coupon, and the system will help you get your car to your front.
short video of how it works
