JTW Welcome Party

A few days after the orientation and after everyone kinda settled down, a welcome party was held for all the students in the JTW program! I was actually looking forward to the makan.... Coz we all paid like 3000Yen Each for a buffet with free flow alcohol BUT in the end... the food turned out to be CHINESE CRUSINE!!! WTF!!!... its like the stuff that i eat all the time in Singapore lah!... haha... but in the end, it was also more for us to mingle and drink and have fun so i also not too pissed lah... =)

ABOVE: Just the 3 in the front of the picture, from the right. (1) TARO - Japanese Tutor, really helpful person!, (2) MASA - Japanese Tutor, he really damn funny kind... his face always had a smile and when he talks he just tickles me... haha... and finally the last on the right (3) Kathrin from Belgium... She's really soft spoken and sweet and its always great chatting with her!!! =)

This gal next to Kathrin is named... KAYA!!! haha... exactly like the kaya that we have in Singapore!! wahaha... She actually just came back from a trip to Singapore and she showed me some of the pictures that she took in Sentosa etc!!! =) Its actually quite cool hearing someone else's experience of your home country, give's you a whole new perspective. [Ehhh... actually its just more like you keep thinking how tourist seem to seriously enjoy the stuff that we all just take for granted since we see it everyday! =) ]

KAWAIIII =) Jap Tutor - Misaki!!! =) Unfortunately that was the first and last few times that i managed to have a chat with her =)

ABOVE: Other then myself, from the left (1) Joyce from HK, she's super hk-ish but her japanese is really good! haha... (2) The other guy in the picture, Soonpeel from Korea, this guy here is a real talent, he has some of the most creative 'juices', playing the piano, dancing etc... (3) and the last gal on the right, Yeji from Korea - She's a really interesting babe from korea, she always seems to be strong headed but when you know her better, she has a really gentle and sweet soft side haha... =).

ABOVE: Me and another tutor - Sayumi!! =) She went to Singapore with Kaya so we kinda when through the same routine once again! =)

 

ABOVE: Tian Ran and John Paul, a.k.a 'JP'. He's the guy that did the meditation in the orientation! haha =) he has certain concepts that feels a little too abstract for me thus didn't really get to know him well =(...

ABOVE: After the dinner, the whole gang of us stood outside the resturant contemplating the next 'move' and the funny gal that you see in the centre of the pic is DANA - from Philippines, Dana is like the life of the party and everyone will definitely know when she's around! i swear, her laughter can reach sound levels that no human can naturally endure! =) (in a good way of course!)

ABOVE: Check out Woong and Natsumi - Jap Tutor, They are both already tipsy and kinda drunk and Natsumi was really kinda gone! haha...

BELOW: The MOST RIDICULIOUS thing is the name of the 'disco' that we went to... check it out!!! OMFG!!! i laughed my head off when i saw it!!! haha... [HAPPY COCK - International Bar] Who the hell names their bar HAPPY COCK!!! it just advocates something that i rather not elaborate on here... haha... please let your imagination take over... (AND BTW... the name of the bar did NoT describe my feelings at the end of the night...)

ABOVE: Some of the Gang right outside the bar...

From here, i did not manage to get any more photos coz i had to place my belongings into a locker before getting into hte groove on the dance floor... In general the club was kinda small, and i simply felt that is was catered more of the foreigners in Japan, [Mainly only the WHITES and the BLACKS] coz we, the 'Chinese-skinned' blend in too much and it was kinda weird... as though we were Japanese trying to act like foreigners... zzz anyway, since the majority of the people there were JTW ppl, we just kept to our own groups and enjoyed ourselves =).

Applying For Alien Registration Card & Buying A Bicycle!!! =)

As i mentioned before! the Bicycle is the MAIN for of transport here in Japan! haha.. check out the first picture of the 'Bicycle Stop' right outside the Subway entrance! haha (MADNESS!!!) i can't imagine looking for my Bike is that load of mess!!! =).

This post is mainly about the trip to the Higashi Ward Office to apply for our Alien registration cards! PLus right after, we all headed to a nearby mall called 'BoxTown' to get our Very own wheels! (Kinetic-ly powered though...zzz)

ABOVE: From the right - (1) Nayeong, (2) Woong's Tutor (Tatsuya), and (3)Woong.

Check out the Ward office, bustling with activity... !!! actually, eh... i didn't know where to head to initially when i first entered... so many ppl all over... but then i took a look around then realised that there was an area that was totally POPULATED by either foreigners or my own JTW people!... from there... even an idiot would know where to go! =)

BELOW: The few of us with (1)Jungwon right next to me.

Each of us took turns to fill up these forms and i realised exactly easy it was for Singaporeans to handle their foreign applications. In comparison to my Korean counterparts, they all had to look through a Korean - Japanese Dictionary and translate their home addresses to Japanese Kanji / Katagana, but it was actually ok for me to just write the whole load in Romanji (English).

The registration took almost about a total of one and a half to two hours for all of us to finish everything. They told us that we had to return to the office again in a weeks time to collect the card... zzz faints... need to come back again... it was already so damn boring that i nearly fell asleep. BUT what really shocked me about the office was that is seemed to be really 'MANUAL' - meaning that everyone was still like using pen and paper and writing on forms and clips etc... and this slightly changed my impression of Japan being such an advanced country! =)

BICYCLE TIME!! WOOHOO!!! after the largely boring part of the day, we proceeded to the more interesting and anticipated event of the day! =) TO BOXTOWN to get out bicycles!... if you look at it clearly, the place was actually like a super market [pic directly below]... and they actually sell bicycles in the super market!!! haha weird japanese culture! =)

Choosing the bicycles was a serious chore! haha... but eventually i just took the cheapest one... It was one of those AUNTY BICYCLES that you see in Singapore but i think that the most important thing for me here is the price and the comfort of riding everywhere THUS my eventual choice! the bike costs around 5800yen which translates to about $S80 so it was really rather cheap!

Finally After all the hassle!! check out my proud AUNTY BIKE!!! wahahaha! KAWAIIIIIII =) (actually its not that kawaii... but i still love it!) hehe...

So i finally got my wheels and this wheels are really going to serve me well in my coming days in Fukuoka! from this day, literally EVERYWHERE i went i rode my bike! like downtown(about 45mins), everyday to sch (30mins) and to nearby convenient stores (5 to 10mins). i dare say that this is the cheapest most convenient transport system that i could have possibly chose in FUKUOKA... [Just think... a bus ride to my sch costs about S$3 and a ride to downtown costs about S$5 so its just absolutely ridiculous to take a bus everyday!!!] I'M JUST IN LOVE WITH MY WHEELS!!! haha!!!

STILL ON ORIENTATION: Day 3

Were were supposed to go to Mount ASO today BUT due to really bad weather, we had to change plans and head to 'Daikambo Observation Point' instead. Look at the wonder view!! (This was the view when the weather was BAD... just imagine what it would look like if it was on a good day!!! wahaha... )

ABOVE: This here is my friend Anna Graham - from Germany! =) She's a really sweet gal that's soft spoken (yes.. not all Germans sound overly masculine)  =)

ABOVE: Group Photo!!! =) we are all actually blocking the Big stone with the name of the place we were at!!!

ABOVE: Miki and Mitch - [from Australia] fooling around!. Really funny cool guy! haha, ya can't really see his face here so just check out his back first!

BELOW: More photos of the area, it was really windy and the view was MAGNIFICIENT!... kinda makes you think about the extreme extent to which nature can create and destroy (coz we were looking at a volcano crater...)

ABOVE: Crazy ppl all getting into the photo!! =)

ABOVE: This here is 'Tian Ran' a.k.a Yoko! [from China] she's those kind of super sweet gals that a lot of guys will like! =)

BELOW: Check out the next few pictures of my friends and myself.

ABOVE: from the left - ME | Miki | Jing Wei | Hemi

BELOW: Photos of the place =)

After spending come time at 'Daikambo' we continued to our next destination - KUMAMOTO CASTLE!!... Actually hor... i've been there before already, last year with my family! haha... so it was a little weird that i'm going back there. BUT anyway, this was the last destination for the orientation and even though i have been there before, the experience this time was really different coz i was with friends!

 

ABOVE: Two of the Tutors that followed us to the orientation trip. They are the true blue Japanese so the guys that are interested, check them out ok! haha...

ABOVE: The whole gang of us walking to the castle.

BELOW: The next few pictures are of the castle and the 'museum' that they have inside. We have to actually walk up the castle floors and each floor will have some exhibits for us to see.  

And we reach the TOP of the castle!!! check out the view from here!! the last time i came with my parents, they were doing some renovations to the top floor so we didn't manage to get up here, so it was 'technically' my first time up there! =) THE VIEW WAS REALLY NICE... wanted to just hang out there and look down for a while.

ABOVE: Two tutors (Masa - top and Shin - bottom) and Two Thais (Miki - left and Mickey - right).

ABOVE: This here is Deej, from England - Manchaster. She already has several Singaporean friends and was actually able to shoot some 'lah, leh, and lohs' to me just for fun!

And finally, the last group picture! =)

AND this final paragraph officially ends my posts on my orientation days here! It was a really fun experience and this was when all my friendships with everyone was 'forged' haha.... or maybe i should use initiated! anyway... really had fun those 3 days! =)