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Tuesday, May 23, 2006,6:37:00 PM



NUS Harmonica Orchestra Japan Concert Tour

our plane was scheduled to leave Changi airport at 6.20am.. so we decided to sleep over at the airport..
So, on 13th May (Saturday), we left NUS at 9.30pm... heading towards Changi by MRT... reached Changi around 11.30+pm.. took the sky train over to Terminal 1 and found seats near our check-in counters... some went to look around for places to eat supper.. some just sat around and talked... 4 people came to send us off.. as the time passed, we started to stare at the departure board.. and some started playing "bridge" and "chor tai ti"...

can't see me in the pic....i'm blocked by Ferry-san...

then it was 4+am and we went to check-in and said goodbye to those who came to send us off...


xuehui, kahying n me.. bye bye Changi! bye bye Singapore!

the plane ride was about 6 hours and 45 minutes...my seat was far away from the rest, somehow.. but i enjoyed the plane ride nonetheless..there was an empty seat between me and another passenger, so i got to put my bag and stuff there while i enjoy the movies, games and sleep.. i tried to watch King Kong but i slept through 1/3 of it i guess..haha..

reached Narita airport, Tokyo Japan at 2.26pm local time (1 hour earlier than Sg n Msia)...took an Express train to Tokyo city...


ferry-san, boss, ky, ME, xh n tn on our 1st ride in a Japanese train... (^_^)v.. by the way, their seats are cushioned.. like in long distance buses kind.. not the plastic type like in Singapore's MRT...

at around 5.35pm, we reached Iidabashi station which is the stop nearest to our hotel..We stayed in Hotel Metropolitan Edmont..a 3 star hotel.. but it was a great place.. plus we only spend a few hours in the hotel each day.. for sleeping and bathing only..

At 6pm, we met at the lobby for our dinner.. the adults (haha..the officer went for their official thing)..while the kids (us!) were left with Eiji-san ( Japanese friend of a Japanese exchange student who joined NUSHO when she was in NUS).. Eiji-san brought us to Akihabara (the electric town..somewhat equivalent to Sim Lim but it's not just a building, it's practically a small town of Sim Lim's...haha)

we saw a lot of zero yen mobile phone.. but you have to sign up for the line.. then we found out that the mobile phone cannot be used outside Japan because they do not use SIM card.. i don't know what they use..but it's different from ours.. and their phones looked like plastic toys..haha.. but very nice!!

Before we walked around, we wen to have our dinner...

They have vending machine-like machines where you can put in your money, press the button of the food that you want and receive the order ticket, which you give to the cook inside...and they will make the food..and you eat them while standing around this tall tables.. our 1st meal in Japan! yummy.. warm soba in a cool night... The temperature on our 1st nite there was quite cold..

After Akihabara, we went to Odaiba ( got longer name but can't remember..hehe).. where there was a shopping complex... and it's near the Odaiba Beach.. a small Statue of Liberty was there.. the weather was so cold... some of us wore 4 layers of clothes? haha... we took the train passed the most beautiful bridge in Tokyo, the Rainbow Bridge..it was quite difficult to take photos as we were in the train and all we could get was our own reflection in the train mirror.. the bridge has 2 levels, where the cars and other vehicles go above while the train goes below.. Eiji-san even treated us a special ice cream called "Dipping Dots" which were like normal ice cream except that they are in small beads... i got a "Strawberry and Cheese" flavoured one.. yummy! We walked around somemore on the beach.. and disturbed a lot of couples with our loud voices and laughter..whoops.. reached hotel around 11.40pm.. and went to sleep..tired... the bed was super comfortable.. zzz...

Day 2 (Monday)

some of us went to have breakfast at 6am... i didnt go cause i was lazy..hehe... they ate at Yoshinoya near our hotel.. at 7.50am, we gathered at the lobby... day 2 was performance day.. we would be performing in 2 primary schools and Waseda University.. at 9.30am, we reached Hasuda Minami Primary School..

all of us walking into the primary school.. by the way, we were greeted by 3 black cars with advanced GPRS system, which sent us to the primary schools.. when we reached, the principals and teachers were lining at the gate welcoming us.. wahhahaha.. felt like some big shot... all of us had to change into the school's slippers and kept our shoes in the proper shoes locker.. cute!


sitting in one of their classrooms... acting like primary school kids with green teas provided by the school..we rested a while, had some practices..(see my altohorn lying there).... then it was performance time at 10am (local time)...

the kids were all waiting for us in the hall.. so cute!! no pix of them cause we left all our belongings in the classroom..only brought our harmonicas there.. (but i think the officer might have..I haven't looked through all the pix..had been trying though... but there are just too many of them.... )

anyway, Mr Watani performed about 4 songs in total, and we did two.. and Mr. Watani had a short song-guessing session with the kids.. all of them were so enthusiastic.. shouting "haik! haik!" and raising their hands high up..sometimes even before the song was played.. kawaii!


one interesting thing we saw in the school was these kids jumping ropes.. non-stop! in perfect synchrony.. they queue up in a line and jump continuously across the spinning rope.. best!

then we went around the school...


the children were writing in that black ink.. just like chinese's...

off we went to the second primary school... Hasuda Central Primary School..



we had free lunch there! Jap rice with pork, bean sprouts, vege, soup, milk, and mochi! nice nice... we had a short tour around the school ..

the children were having lunch! very cute.. all in caps and aprons..after eating, they helped to clean up and then brush their teeth...

then again, we practised and rehearsed.. 1.55pm was our performance time...

and the we said bye bye to the kids! they were running along our taxis and shouting "sayonara!"..hahaha.. felt like superstars eh...

this little boy is very cute! he saw us taking photos...us being very ulu people, there were many things we had never seen before..so we kept on taking pictures of this and that..anyway, this boy did a brushing teeth pose for me to take..when we were outside later, i realised this boy loves being in pictures.. he stood right beside us when we were taking photos outside.. so we let him into our pictures.. and he told us his name..which i forgot.. @_@

then we went back to the hotel to rest.. before the cultural exchange at Waseda University...

ok..the picture of Waseda Uni Harmonica Society performing can't be transferred for the moment.. only this happy pic of us eating pizza buffet in Shakey's Pizza.. i'd never eaten so much in a pizza place before! our table ate the most.. the food that the other table couldnt finished up, we helped them to finish.. (^_^)v -with Daichi, Toru, Asami and Shoko from Waseda U...


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