im back to a reality check once again...

zzz.... now im missing japan and beijing... ><

ok japan was fun... well could be more fun if we went to tokyo as planned.. we only stayed in kyoto (yea.. japs ran out of names to name their cities so they just rearrange the letters to form a new name..) for the entire trip cos the bullet train to tokyo and the cost of living in tokyo is very ex... so we ended up being in kyoto for the entire trip.. well its still alright la..

got to experience a lot of japanese culture.. their service attitude is OMG-ly EXCELLENT.. nowhere else can you find it.. like when you get down the bus, the driver will say to each and every one of the alighting comuters arigatou gozaimashita.. and the shopkeepers will just keep greeting customers and when they collect money, they will say how much they get from you and how much change to receive and thank you ( in jap of course..) but i didnt really get use to the food... ended up eating McDonalds for several meals... and cup noodles ;)

and theres this traffic light at the bus interchange that has some interesting cultural song instead of the usual 'beep beep beep's.. we called that the singing traffic light.. lol and i miss it.. theres also a lot of those bumps on the ground to guide the blind.. its EVERYWHERE... same goes of anime stuff.. THEY ARE EVERYWHERE... yea and i got the next yr sec 3s (thats leslie.. wilson and si yao..) pokemon figurines.. yea.. beautifly for leslie....

the rits super science fair, which was what we are really in japan for.., was quite good la.. except the language barrier that was hard to overcome.. speaking of language.. the americans were like so impressed that we could speak english.. esp with my accent... they were like WOW. its also kinda annoying when ppl keep asking us how do we speak 'singapore-ish'..'singaporean'.. whatever.. they meant to ask us for our native language... that also reminds me.. there was this drunken, a student of the university, we met at the uni hostel, who attempted to engage us in a conversation abt out language blah blah blah... his face was all red and he was reek of liquor.. and he kept saying 'i think.....(in some funny jap accent..)' as the beginning of his every sentence.. he began to annoy us as we were trying to cook instant noodles then... we couldnt get back and we have to ask a jap student whom we knew to help us shake that freak off... that was scary...

i also rem how i had to explain the word 'concentrated' to those jap ppl.. "you know oocha(tea)?
ok you have a lot of oocha, and you add a bit of mizu (water), that is concentrated. then little oocha, add a lot of mizu, that is not concentrated (note i didnt use the word diluted for i doubt they understand...)" i was saying all those in funny jap accent.. i also was trying to say pH4 to 6 in japanese.. "pH 'yong'(4) to pH 'rooku'(6).. haha that reminds me also an incident at the airport.. we were queeuing at the custom in japan, then the security guard was telling us 'go'. apparently 'go' is 5 in japanese but some of us didnt know at first and we 'go' ahead.. lolzx.....

ok dont want to get too long winded abt japan.. lets move on to china beijing..

well we spent 3 wks in beijing in our respective correspondants' homes. the family i was attached to was nice.. blah blah blah... been repeating that.. one classic example was the very fact that they gave me things that are worth abt SD$150.. (not including the meals.. extra water and electricity that i used.. transport... movies.. etc) i was like trying on this adidas sweater, and b4 that i had to take off my layers of coldwear. when i decided that i shld buy it, the father took it over from my hand without my attention and while i was wearing back my coldwears, he already swashed his credit card ><...

the transport is really intriguing... there are 2 to 3 door per bus, and you can board and alight the bus at any door. the ppl are always rushing up, regardless if its empty or not. oh speaking of that, the bus are not of 'siting', they are for standing.. that are only 2 rows of individual seats aligning the sides of the bus and the middle is empty for standing (somewhat like a MRT carraige but the seats are individual facing the front thats all..) then in every bus there would be at least 2 staff, 1 the driver, 1 the ticketing officer. so its like after you board the bus the officer will come to collect money from you for the ticket, or rather, you go to the officer for the tix cos the officer themselves are not very concerned..

i recall an incident where the ppl just refuse to give up at any cost. the bus was already packed and so that very packed that ppl are already standing at the steps of the door already and more ppl still dont care and try to squeeze up. in the end, they manage to get all of em in the bus (well techniqically IN the bus..) but then the door cannot close!! lolz! then the bus driver meng keep pressing the button to close the doors but the doors cannot close cos some ppl are like hanging onto the handles with some part of their body hanging out of the door... so after 1 or 2 min, one door closed, then after a few more seconds, the other door finally close. so the bus was like at the stop for abt 2 to 3 min just trying to close the doors.. and the communters themselves just wouldnt give up! lolz!!

oh another incident.. we were like at this area where its like orchard road, all the shops and everything, we board up this bus, and it is more or less also THAT PACKED.. so its like i couldnt hang onto any bars or handles cos im all surrounded by mi frens and other ppl.. but actually i also dont need la.. cos when the driver applies the brakes, i just have to fall back on the ppl behind me.. >< yes its that packed.. i was afraid that i might get suffocated for having so many ppl arnd me competiting for oxygen.. cos it happened to me a lot of times when i was in pri sch.. and err.. i think the best toilet i have been to during this whole trip is the toilet at.... the airport. i mean the changi airport...

well.. we tried to listen to the lessons.. but they were all in chinese.. maths sceinces all in chinese.. only 1 subject is in english and thats.. english ><... and their standard is considered average ba.. i mean.. even the tcher was so impressed by the what-we-call-short-essay.. they were all like what the... so long?? the essay jin hao wrote certainly aint his usual standard.. honestly, i suppose thats just... half? man.. till they see rui an's essays...

then during outings and everything have to be ever-ready during photographing times.. this trip has really exposed me to the job of a photographer.. it was a really good scope that i enjoy being in.. im really glad that i was the official photographer for the trip..

could have written more.. but i dont want to make it look too long and tidious...

missing japan and beijing.....