School restarted..

Yep, as much as I don't miss school, classes have been restarted on Wednesday...

No one in the class caught anything.. not even a cold.. most of us used the 'forced holidays' to do some sight-seeing around Tokyo.. :)

After so many late nights, sleeping around 2 or 3am watching Japanese dramas, I had a hard time waking up at 7am. But well, habits die hard.. after so many years of working - which means waking up before 7am, getting back to the rhythm is not a problem at all..

Had a kanji test yesterday and everyone in the class scored full marks, except for Alex, the French guy.. It was quite hilarious when all 9 of us were asked to give the usual テストの(test's) champion speech with Alex as the MC... but it was fun.. that was only the fourth time I managed to score full marks.. I've always made some minor mistakes here and there, getting 19.5 and 19 many times... Hopefully, there will be more full marks for me to come in the future.. Due to the 8 days of forced holidays as a preventive measure to prevent measles outbreak, some of the syllables were removed and will be covered in Level 2...

All in all, we have less than 6 weeks to go before the summer holidays...

LOST - HEROES...

Well, I finished watching the first season of Heroes and the 3rd season of LOST. Frankly, I'm kinda disappointed by their finales.

For Heroes, the ending is kinda of unbelievable.. Sylar was killed by Hiro just like that.. as if the training by Hiro's dad really worked miracle!??! How much more skillful can one get with just a few hours of training, especially to train from one clumsy fella to a skillful swordsman??!! OK, Sylar didn't die and managed to crawl into the sewer like some cockroach but it still doesn't explain convincingly that Peter really give all he got going against Sylar.. And what's that thing about him losing control and had to explode?? And Chapter Two was too damn bizarre.. what is that thing about the eclipse?? It's like the show producers doesn't want to any of the main heroes to die, so to be able to have season 2, or 3 or 4.. But just a cautious note, a great drama is not just about the story, it also must have convincing character development.. They can't just cooked up some half baked theories and expect the viewers to accept it totally without any questioning.. I will wait for the next season of HEROES..

In LOST S3, the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 finally got rescued.. but somehow, again the show producers try to leave some unfinished business or raise some questions so that they can have a season 4.. but I think I'm getting tired of the show... After checking on some websites, it seems that there will be a total of 6 seasons.. boy, I really don't know how far and how long the writers are going to drag/whipped a dead horse..

I had the same feeling with Prison Break.. First season was fantastic, but season 2 really is draggy.. I haven't have the mood to continue watching episode 10 of season 2.. It's either the cops are too slow/dumb or the escapees are too smart.. It's not convincing enough... at least not for me.. so I might or might not want to finish watching season 2...

Resting..

It rained the whole day yesterday.. didn't go anywhere.. didn't even leave my room.. Had bread and cup noodles for lunch and breakfast.. Watched several episodes of Taiwanese drama, 恶魔在身边..

Today, the weather was better.. did my laundry.. went to the 99yen shop to replenish my groceries.. stayed in the whole day too.. don't think I wanna go anywhere tomorrow too.. need to start revising my Japanese.. haven't touch it since Monday... :P

Day trip to Odaiba (お台場)

My 2nd outing during the 7 day 'forced' holiday from the University.. :)

Again, yesterday was a good day.. the weather was nice and no rain was fore casted.. The trip was more for Chua and me, as Mei Ling has been to Odaiba several times.. Chua kept wanting to go to the Onsen, but Mei Ling and I wasnt very keen as the cost is very expensive, almost 3,000yen! so we didnt..

We took the JR Yamanote line to Shimbashi Station (新橋駅) and changed to Yurikamome Transit. A single trip into Odaiba to Daiba Station will already cost 300yen, so we bought the 1 day pass that cost 800yen for unlimited rides on Yurikamome. The transit system is similar to Singapore's NE Line, where it is driverless. It zipped pass buildings and moves along the road across the Rainbow Bridge.

View of the Rainbow Bridge from the Yurikamome train.

The train was fast, stable and very quiet.. Although it was a week day and it's almost 1pm, the train is still very crowded. There seems to be lots of people working in the area, even though it was very inconvenient. Heard from Mei Ling that the monthly commuter pass for Yurikamome alone will cost 10,000yen!! Unbelievable..


We stopped at Ariake Station and went to the Panasonic Center. This is the showroom for Panasonics' products, from High Definition Flat Screen TV, Digital Camera, Home Theatre System, Home appliances to Nintendo DS and Wii.. There are lots of futuristic innovations and high tech stuff on display.. It's a geek paradise..


After lunch at Saizeriya, we went to Miraikan - National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, next to JASSO's Odaiba Lodge.. This is definitely much more advanced than the Singapore Science Center. Entrance was 500yen. We were given the admission ticket and a clip to clip it onto our clothes.. There is a total of 7 floors, but there are only 2 exhibition halls. The exhibits in it are very interesting and very high tech.. The topics displayed ranged from Nano technology, Micromachines, Genome, Extreme Environments, etc.. and yet there are lots of primary school kids among the visitors.. At 4pm, we went to the Planetarium to see the "Cosmos - Planet by chance". It was a 30-min show, much like the one shown in the Omni-Theatre.. But this show was produced by one of the Japanese university, and frankly it is a bit too bland.. I was expecting lots of visual images and animations, and yet most part of the show, it was just the starry sky.. half way thru the show, I could even hear someone snoring!! Quite a disappointment..


After Miraikan closes at 5pm, we walked towards Fuji TV Station.. We didnt go in as the admission hours have passed. We just took some pictures from the exterior..

The surrounding area is very clean although I can barely find any rubbish bins around.. And because there aren't many buildings around, the whole place feels very wide and windy.. Not claustrophobic.. As most of Obaiba is reclaimed, it's practically flat..


We then went to Mega Web, next to Venus Fort. It's a automobile exhibition by Toyota.. It's just next to Venus Fort.. Inside the building there were lots of Toyota cars on display.. including Toyota's F1 Racing car. There were a couple of simulators for visitors to try, like the racing simulator and the eye-hand coordination tester.. We went to take the driverless e-Com automobiles. Paid 200yen to be driven around Mega Web, took about 7-8 minutes in total.. Quite cool.. Check out the photo link at the bottom for that..


We then went to Venus Fort.. There is a History Garage, where they display old antique cars.. There are Cadillac, Corvette, Mustang, and some other famous cars.. Some are really very cool.. Check out the photo link at the bottom for more photos of these cool cars.... Of course, when there is exhibitions, there will be souvenirs and models/replicas for sale.. unfortunately, the prices are kinda steep.. but I'm not a car nut, so didnt buy any..


After the History Garage, we went walking around Venus Fort and Palette Town.. There are a few fountains around the place.. Again, took more pictures... They said that Venus Fort has similarities with Las Vegas’ Caesar’s Palace for Venus Fort also features a casino. As it was a week day, the casino was pretty empty for a few lone gamblers lost in their own gaming world.. There are many restaurants around the area, but again, the prices are quite high..

We were starving at that time.. but the restaurants were quite expensive, so we decided to go the Aqua City for dinner. By the time we reached Aqua City for dinner, it was almost 9pm.. We went around looking for cheaper restaurants, and finally we went into Ootoya for dinner.. The three of us were very tired and hungry after so much walking..

Finally we left the restaurant around 10pm..


On our way out of Aqua City, we caught a glimpse of the Rainbow Bridge.. It was very beautiful... I took a lot of pictures.. some with the Statue of Liberty, some without.. In some pictures, you can see clearly an orange-colored tower in between the 2 tall bridge structures.. that is the Tokyo Tower.. There are umpteen Japanese dramas that features that tower.. The Rainbow Bridge too, is a regular backdrop for many dramas and movies.. So I took lots of pictures of them.. :)



Reached home around 11:30pm dead tired, but happy.. There are so many more attractions in Odaiba that I've yet to visit.. will definitely make a few more trips there...


For more photos, click here .

Settled my admission application..

Classes were canceled since Monday afternoon.. I was very worried that I might not be able to submit my Masters admission applications for GITS on time.. So yesterday night, I spend almost 3 hours, filling in the forms, preparing my letter of achievements, made photo copies of the necessary documents..

At around 12pm, I went to school. When I reached Takadanobaba Station, I went around looking for Mizuho Bank to pay my entrance exam fee. I thought I should be able to save on some bank charges if I were to pay the fee directly to the bank account within the same bank..

The bank employee was very helpful and helped me with the forms and even gotten me a queue number. I could understand about 70% of what the employees were saying.. not too bad.. :) So I managed to pay the fee within 30 minutes..

Then I went to my graduate school. I still need to print out 2 documents, my Research field and my Letter of Achievement.. And it seems that the computer rooms are all closed and locked. Luckily, my Professor saw me at the admin office and ask what am I doing in school. I told him my purpose and also the fact that I need to get something printed for the admission. He was kind enough to let me use the Master Year 2 students' room that has a printer. As the PC was very slow, after much struggling, I managed to get those 2 documents printed after almost 1 hour..

I went to look for Ms Kishimoto, the lady in-charge of foreign students in GITS. She was going to have a meeting.. but she was very kind enough to ask her colleague, Ms Inoeu to help me with the admission forms. And add to that is the fact that students are not allowed in the campus at all, so she is actually making a big exception for me.. I was very very grateful for her kind gesture..

After going through the required documents, making copies of my original certificates, I finally managed to submit my admission applications !! Now all I need to do is to await their notification as to when is my entrance presentation.. either 7th or 8th July..

Trip to Meiji Jingu (明治神宮)

On the first day of school's 7 days 'holidays', Chua, Mei Ling and I decided to go to the Meiji Shrine..

We took the train to Harajuku to have our lunch.. There are plenty of interesting shops in Harajuku, but unfortunately they are not my type.. We went to La Pausa, for some pasta.. almost cost me 1,000yen.. Saw lots of Africans along the streets, soliciting, exactly what I have no idea..

We then walked to Meiji Jingu, which is near the Harajuku station.


The area was quite quiet, as it was a weekday.. The path was nicely sheltered by the trees from the sun.. The path was covered by small granite stones..

We went to the Meiji Royal Wardrobe exhibition at one of the annex building.. With our student pass, we managed to get the student discount and paid 200yen instead of 500yen. With the usual 'no-camera-allowed' rules being upheld, we could only see the clothes, suits, shoes, make-up kits, kimonos, and traditional palace wardrobe.. and not take any pictures.. One thing that I realised is how petite and thin both the Emperor and his Consort were.. As the main Treasure Museum is only open on weekends, we had to keep our tickets for the next visit within 30 days..


There were rows of sake jars along the path. These were sake donated to the Meiji Shrine.. Most of them have very interesting, intricate and not to mention very traditional designs on them.

We then proceed on to the main Shrine..


This is at the front of the main entrance into the shrine compound. This kind of structures can be seen in almost all shrines in Japan. Often then not, there will be a cleansing area for the devotees to cleanse themselves before entering the shrine compound.


The main shrine is surrounded by walls and there are several site doors.. The main door has 2 side doors, very much like the temples in Asia.. The compound with the shrine is very big and very clean. It takes a few minutes to walk from the main door to the main shrine. There were some tourist in the vicinity.. Judging from the rowdiness and loud-talking, it is not difficult to gauge where these people actually come from.. Once again, it reinforced my judgment of that country's citizens, especially the 'new' rich..


Worshipers can buy wooden tablets, at 500yen a piece, from the shrine and write down their prayers and wishes and hang it up in the shrine. Here, the racks surrounds a huge tree at the right side of the shrine compound.. Many languages were used, including Japanese, English, Korean, Chinese, French, etc..Some are serious, some are light-hearted..

I didnt buy any prayer tablets or amulets as I think I do not need to request special 'attention' from HIM... yet.. :) There are plenty of more urgent requests from other more needy persons for HIM to attend to..

After the visit to the Shrine, we walked around Harajuku. Realised that there are lots of brand name shops around the area.. Nike, NB, GAPS, Adidas, Decks, Nine West, Tag Heuer, Muji, etc.. No wonder Harajuku is one of the shopping hot spots in Japan.. especial for the young.. and young at heart..

To view more photos taken here, visit here.

No class for a week...

Don't know if I should celebrate or be sad... All classes in the University is canceled for a week, starting tomorrow, due to a measles outbreak in the campus..

Had wanted to settle my admission application tomorrow and Wednesday, but now I think I might need to plan again. I will call the GITS admin office tomorrow and ask if they are open. I've gotten all the required documents.. The last thing to do is to go to one of the many commercial banks and pay 35,000 yen as the entrance fee.

Maybe I will plan to go visit some of the places that I had wanted to see.. like the museums and the zoo. But frankly, I'm very tempted to just stay in my room and either watch my Japanese dramas or play World of Warcraft. WOW is having a 10-day free trial of Burning Crusade.. so am very tempted to use these few days of unexpected holidays and indulged in online gaming..

Maybe I will go to school tomorrow.. just to get all those paper works off my chest and off my mind.. so I can concentrate on playing/relaxing/watching dramas/etc...

WC Melody..

Did I mention before that Japanese people are very polite?? Sometime to the extend of being a bit absurd?? At least that's what I think sometimes... Just look at the gadget below...



What does it do?? The one on the left is obviously a emergency button, just in case some peeping tom or pervert wandered into the ladies.. but what about the one on the right?? Well, it is a speaker inside the toilet cubicle that plays flushing sounds or flowing water when activated just to mask the sound you make while doing 'business' inside!! Unbelievable isn't it??

Maybe I'm one who believe in nature or go with the flow.. If you are doing your 'business' in the toilet, then of course there will be unpleasant sounds... and smells.. Maybe they are so polite until they worried that the 'sound' they make might disturb/traumatize the person(s) in the next cubicle to the point of interrupting that person(s) 'business'... Maybe... :P

Karate 'Kid'...

Got my karate suit last Wednesday... :) The suit cost me 10,000 yen. With the membership fee of 1,000yen and insurance fee of 1,500, all in all I paid 12,500 yen for the weekly karate lessons conducted at my dormitory every Wednesday night, from 8:30pm to 10pm.

There are quite a number of karate members in this area. A few obaasan, a handful of students, a couple of working adults and us, the postgrad students staying in this dormitory. During the first lesson, there were almost 20 of us newcomers, but after 1 and a half months, only about 6 of us left. Only 2 girls, me included. The Sensei likes to talk and explain during the sessions, but it's a pity that my Japanese is still pretty bad, add to that, there are quite a number of karate terms that was new to me, so I can barely understand 20% of what he was saying during the karate session.


The suit had my surname on it. I wrote my full kanji name in the application form, but only my surname was sewn on it. Well anyway, I can lend the suit to Kuan next time, if his is torn.. hahahaha...

Kuan took up karate from the same Sensei so both of them know each other. Kuan came over to my dormitory about 2 weeks ago and attended the karate session. All the senpai and obaasan know Kuan, and Kuan seems to be quite popular too.. :) He is now brown belt.. too bad he wasnt around to take the grade promotion exam last week..

Watching Japanese dramas..

With the aim of improving my Japanese, I've been watching Japanese dramas the past few weeks.. And I must say, truthfully, it is helping me in my listening skills. As the classes are getting more difficult, being familiar with how and what the Japanese says under which circumstances and scenario, and to whom does help.. With the Chinese subtitles to refer to, I can reference and relate back to what the characters in the dramas are saying.. So far so good... I've watched 3 sets of dramas to date.. But I think one of my weakness is my Japanese vocabulary and forms. I can't seems to remember words/phrases.. Either I'm not studying enough or my way of studying is not effective...

Sometimes I'm just worried that by spending all my times learning Japanese, will my English and Chinese fluency suffer? So to prevent that from happening, I think I will read an English and Chinese novel every 1 month.. So far, I've bought 3 English books from a 2nd hand book shop.. Yet to start on any of them.. Maybe as a practice, I will also blog more often.. However, everyday after class, my mind seems to be frozen/saturated.. Must find a way to defrag it.. :P

What I had for breakfast/lunch/dinner...

After almost 45 days in Japan, I've eaten quite a variety of food.. and I must say Japanese sure knows ways of making lives easily and hassle free. Add to that, there is no compromising of quality and taste to these convenient food!

The easiest and most hassle free breakfast is bread.. And boy, am I spoiled for choices.. Other than the usual ham/sausage in bread, red bean paste, custard, cream, cheese fillings and sandwiches with egg mayo, ham, cheese, they have their own creations.. like sandwich with fried mee!! And their choices of beverages is limitless.. Sometimes I' m spoiled for choice.. Energy water, vitamin water, spring water, mineral water, milk tea, espresso, latte, cocoa, juices, green tea, etc... There are more than 30+ brands of green tea.. But most of them cost at least 110 yen per bottle of 300-500ml, so it's not that cheap either.. Every few days, I will buy some orange juices and some other drinks.. :P Cos it will really be a waste if I do not try every single one of those drinks.. hahahaha...


If I don't eat bread, I will eat cereal instead.. Maybe because Japanese have not cultivate the habit of eating cereal, the choices of cereal in smaller supermarket is very limited, not more than 3 brands.. So I had to buy those that are not so healthy, like Frostie, which I would not normally eat. The fresh milk here is quite good too.. The prices for both cereal and milk is about 10-20% more than in Singapore.. but consider the fact that almost everything is expensive, these 2 things are one of the few healthier and cheaper choices for breakfast..

For lunch, I will most probably have bento. I have to have lunch in school for 3 of 6 days per week, as I have classes until 2:30pm on those days. So the easiest and fastest way is to buy a bento and eat it in the class. Nowadays, almost all my Japanese class's classmates do the same.. There are many vendors selling bentos around campus. The bento cost between 300 to 500 yen, quite reasonable... Usually in those bentos, there will be rice, some meat (chicken,pork or fish), some salad (like cabbages, lettuce, etc), a little bit of kimchi and few strains of noodles. Sometimes, they are warm, sometimes they are cold..


For dinner, I would either have bento from the convenient stores or instant noodles.. And really, even the instant noodles (those that only require hot water) is tasty.. hahaha.. The bento from the convenient stores requires reheating, which can be done in the store itself, or I will heat it up in the common kitchen at my dormitory.. Depending on the prices, the bento can have a pretty good spread.. Of course, compare them to those sold in the University, these bento look more mass-produced..

There are many brands of instant noodles, some of them is cheap, around 110yen, while some are more pricey, with prices up to 300yen for one.. Again, I must commend on the ingenuity of the Japanese for coming out with different ways of preparing these instant cup noodles..


Although there are both dry and soupy instant cup noodles, but right now, I'm crazy over their dry cup noodles.. Usually, I will make a trip to the nearby 99yen shop, which is about 20min's walk away and stock up my cupboard with these instant cup noodles and other makan stuff.. There are so many different flavours to choose from.. and they managed to devise a way to get rid of the hot water without the need of sophisticated tools..


There is lots of instructions on the instant cup noodles to tell the user how to go about preparing it.. Here, the cup noodle has a portion with these little holes to drain the water away, and voila! the noodle is dried... So clever...


All you need to do next is to put in all the seasonings that came with it.. There is always some tiny bits of dried vegetables among the packets of seasonings.. And seriously, Japanese really have a thing with cabbage.. Almost every dry instant cup noodles have dried cabbage...

So at least for now, these instant cup noodles will be my dinner most of the nights.. Until I have to mood to cook.. :P

Bedsheet days..

Every room has a single bed, a pillow, a comforter/futon, a mattress protecter and a thin blanket. So we have a pillow case, a comforter/futon cover and a bedsheet. And all three of them are white in color.. so you can image the state these sheets will be in if they are not washed frequently..


Luckily in the dormitory, we do not have to wash our own bedsheets.. :)
We have designated days where we can just take them out, put them in a cloth bag, hang it outside our doors, and a new clean set of sheet will be given in exchange... so one is too lazy to take them out in the first place, then he/she will have to sleep in dirty sheets..

Thus every 10 days or so, I will have clean bed sheets.. :)

Being cultured... one night..

There was a free concert in The Tokyo Opera City on Monday, 7 May. It was offered to the scholars through the Center for International Education. I signed up for the Monday concert. I went with my friends from the dormitory, Chua (Msian) and Mei Ling (Indonesian).

It was a classical orchestral concert. It's similar to the SSO (Singapore Symphony Orchestra), but from France. The program's synopsis as copied from the Tokyo Opera City website is as below:


Time - 19:00
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
[Artists]
Myung-Whun Chung (Cond), Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
[Program]
Ravel: Ma mère l'oye
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, op.14
[Tickets]
SS:26,000 yen S:22,000 yen A:18,000 yen B:15,000 yen C:12,000 yen D:9,000 yen



We were given seats behind the orchestra, which costed 15,000 yen!!! One thing good about the seats is that we could see the face of the conductor... We can even see the musicians clearly too... Most of the time in an orchestra performance, the audience can only see the back of the conductor.. We can really see how his expression changes and his body language triggering the start/end of the instruments.. But one thing bad is that the whole of the concert hall is looking at our direction, so we cant really fidget or talk as everyone's attention is focused at our direction...

The audience was very passionate. They clapped and clapped until all the musicians were off the stage. They clapped so much that the conductor led all the musicians out to thank the audience for such a long round of applause.

It has been a long while since I've attended such concerts. If it wasn't for the high prices for these concerts, I would really like to attend them now that I have the time and mood for such enjoyment... Well, maybe there might be another concert soon.. :)

One day tour to Kamakura 鎌倉一日遊 (Part II)

As the place was so crowded with people, with queues formed outside every eateries, the group of us decided to try an all-you-can-eat Okonomiyaki（お好み燒き）for 1,500 yen. We started eating around 1:45pm, and since it's a tabehoodai (食べ放題), it will be a waste if we were to leave at 2:15pm for the meet up, so we decided to continue eating and go back to the dormitory on our own.


So what exactly is Okonomiyaki（お好み燒き）? It's a bit like the BBQ that we have in Asia, where everyone sits around a hotplate and cook our own food. It's the ingredients that is different. In Okonomiyaki（お好み燒き）, the dishes are eggs, cabbages, prawns/meat/cheese/etc, that is mixed and cooked. See the photos..

The restaurant was small and quite smoky when all the tables were filled. All of us had to keep our shoes at the front door and changed into a pair of slippers, which in my case, doesn't fit me at all. Then we were led up the staircase to the 2nd floor where we took off the slippers and sat around 2 tables that has a hole under the table for our legs. After more than one and a half hours, all of us are shedding tears, cos the smoke really does get into our eyes.. And all of us smell like okonomiyaki（お好み燒き）when we left the restaurant.


So coincidently, we managed to meet up with the main group who had just visited one of many famous shrine in the area. Next stop is the beach.. We had to take the train from Kamakura station to Shichirigahama station. Again the train is jam-packed with people.. But the Station opposite is empty (see photo).



Although the station is filled with people, but like everywhere in Japan, everyone is queueing up and it was very orderly. The station itself is small and lies among the houses and roads. Everyone would form 2 lines behind the markings on the station floor. No one would try to jump queue or jostle their way in front. That is what I would call a civilized country..

Finally, we reached the beach.. It was beautiful..






The sky was clear, the beach is clean and the sand is so fine.. It's almost picture perfect! Add to that, there are many seagulls flying and gliding above us. It seems like they were playing, just like humans would surfing.. I took many photos of the sea and of the seagulls.. There were several wind-surfers out in the sea that day. And the wind was strong... I had always loved the sea, and that day, the feeling has deepen further..

More pictures of the beach and the sea...
Beach 01
Beach 02
Wind surfer01
Wind surfer02
Seagulls 01
Seagulls 02
Seagulls 03
Seagulls 04
Group photo 01

From the beach we walked to the next train station.. Along the way, I couldn't helped myself and took more pictures...
Beach 03
Beach 04
Beach 05
Beach 06

From afar, we could see Enoshima Island (江ノ島).

At the station, we were dismissed. We could either go back to the dormitory or go continue exploring Kamakura. We decided to go to Enoshima Island to take a look. Again, we took the train to Enoshima Station, and walked toward the island.


As the weather was very good, we could even see Mt. Fuji from the bridge that connects to the island. The sun was setting beside Mt Fuji, and the scene was so beautiful, it felt like a drawing.. I can see the layers of colors emitting from the sun, shining beside Mt Fuji... I just can't find words to describe it...


More photos of Mt Fuji and Enoshima Island
Mt Fuji 01
Mt Fuji 02
Mt Fuji 03
Mt Fuji 04
Mt Fuji 05
Enoshima Island 01
Enoshima Island 02
Enoshima Island 03
Enoshima Island 04


When we reached Enoshima Island it was already 7pm. There is a main road leading to a temple, which unfortunately was closed. We went up to the temple and looked around the outside of the temple. Too bad there were no lightings within the vicinity of the temple. I could only managed to take a few photos.

Photos of Enoshima
Enoshima 01
Enoshima 02

We continue walking up the slopes, hoping to find some place that are well-lit. Unfortunately, there were none.

So in the end, at around 8:30pm we decided to make our way back to the dormitory. And this concludes my first 'tour' of Japan...

One day tour to Kamakura 鎌倉一日遊 (Part I)

This week is Japan's "Golden Week", where more than 3 holidays happens within one week. This year, the Greenery Day (みどりの日）falls on 29th Apr - Sunday, the Constitution Memorial Day (憲法記念日） falls on 3rd May - Thursday, the Nation's Day (国民の休日） falls on 4th May - Friday and the Children's Day (こどもの日） falls on 5th May - Saturday. So this week, I only had 2 days of lessons..

On 29th Apr, my dormitory's Resident Assistants, Japanese students who are offering their services to help guide foreign students to the culture and life in Japan, had organized a one-day trip to Kamakura (鎌倉). That is to be my first sight-seeing tour of Japan..


We were to meet in front of Building 2 at 9am. There are about 20+ of us, including some non-residents and the Resident Assistants. There were another Malaysian, and a few Indonesian Chinese in my group.. We took a train on the Keio - Inokashira Line to Shimo-kitazawa (下北沢). From there we bought a one-day pass for Kamakura on the Odakyu Line and Enoshima Line, which costed 1,360yen.


We went from Shimo-kitazawa (下北沢) to Sagami-Ono (相模小野） on the Odakyu Line (小田急線), then change to another train on the same line but heading towards Fujisawa (藤沢). It took us about 45mins to reach Fujisawa. Then from Fujisawa we changed to another line, the Enoshima Line (江ノ島線), heading towards Kamakura (鎌倉).




Instead of heading towards Kamakura straight, we stopped along the way at Hase Station (長谷駅), where the 2nd largest statue of Buddha is located.

One thing I noticed about Japanese is that they really do trust each other to behave accordingly. Imagine the gate to most stations are sometimes not manned, and the gate is just 1 little door that provide no real deterrent for those who refuses to pay up..





The entrance fee to see the statue is 200yen. The ticket itself is quite nicely done and serve as a bookmark, although I wouldn't be using it as one, at least not yet.. :P

The statue of Buddha is one of Japan's National Treasure.. It used to be inside a shrine or something, but somehow the statue survived and the shrine did not...





Since it was a holiday, there are lots and lots of people everywhere!! But luckily I managed to get a few nice picture of the statue at several angles..

A few more nice pictures at these links...
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4
Picture 5






Not forgetting Buddha's big sandals... :)

We could actually go inside the statue, but there were just too many people queueing, so we gave up..



After seeing the Buddha, it was almost time for lunch. We took the train to Kamakura and break for lunch. However, there were just too many people in the vicinity and all the eatery is packed with people...


We were supposed to meet at 2:15pm, but my group of people, around 7 of us missed the meet-up... And what did we do? What did we had for lunch?? Wait for the next entry of my blog.. :)