Thoughts before more pictures...

Was reading a couple of blogs belonging to NUS students who had gone on SEP during the same semester as me. I'll list one here: http://vsrabbit.blogspot.com/ (went to China for SEP)

Haha... I sort of realised that almost all the students usually comment that SEP changed their outlook on life someway or another haha... I gotta say the same for myself.

During SEP, you experience things that you sometimes will never experience before. You're thrown into a somewhat foreign environment (esp. for those going to America or Europe or Scandinavia regions) and you're required to adapt to the local environment as quick as possible.

This is the time where one shouldn't always see the flaws in the foreign culture and say that "Oh... this country is so inefficient/messy/disorganised compared to Singapore". All I can say is that this is the time to acknowledge the difference in culture and recognise or even pick up pointers on how improve your own well-being.

Best part is you'll learn how to appreciate what you have in Singapore. The nice facilities, the quick and efficient automated systems, the organised planning of anything and everything. Sure, the frustrations showed when I was there in the beginning, but then you begin to take a step back and learn how to slow down your pace of living.

Take a slow walk and enjoy the foreign atmosphere (and skip lessons/be late for class wahaha)

Here's a quote from the above blog link: "never come to conclusions about anyone (including yourself) and other countries till you've really seen everything inside out of it."

Japan trip during SEP (Day 3)

Alright haha... after another 2 weeks... here's Day 3 of my trip to Japan~ This time, it's the trip to Universal Studios Japan in Osaka. Entrance fee was quite expensive @ 5800 yen... but it was worth the price haha... had a lot of fun!

Big expectations for the local version of Universal Studios which should up in 2010 haha...

Spiderman: The Ride

Back to the Future ride~

Jurassic Park: The Ride

Warning: Wet ride

Waterworld - A staged performance. The kids here are lining up to get wet haha.

Osaka Takoyaki Museum at the JR Line Universal City station

Plenty of Takoyaki shops inside

Soon~

Updates coming soon... Haven't updated in 2 weeks haha...

More pictures to come.

Japan Trip (Day 1 and 2)

Finally! Pictures from my first two days in Osaka, Japan!

Though it's only a mere 2.5 hours away from Taiwan, I can say that the Japanese culture somewhat differs quite a bit from the Taiwanese culture haha...

Namba Shopping District at night

Desmond's long-time friend/Our tour guide in Osaka - Jeffery

Shinsaibashi, a food and shopping district. Can see "Glico man" in the picture?

Jeffery's place (where we bunked in haha...) - Hommachi (Business district)Somewhat similar to Raffles Place.

Buying famous cheesecake at Namba

Namba during the day

Lunch stopover at a sushi place. 130 yen per plate, considered affordable for the quality of the sushi that you get haha...

Expensive subway ticket. 230 yen for 2-3 stops. That amount can get you from east to west in Singapore haha...

Taking the JR railway to Kobe. JR lines are so-called "1 level" above the subway in the entire Japanese Shinkansen/railway/subway system.

Arrival in Kobe~

Chinatown in Kobe

Yeah. Pork buns (Ba Bao-s) are popular with the Japanese haha...

Chinese-style dinner

Tour of the Motomachi shopping district after dinner in Kobe

Back to Osaka at night for its famous Takoyaki. Soft texture instead of the harder ones you find in Taiwan or Singapore.

The Takoyaki shop

Dotonburi (food district) at night.

The cheesecake packaging haha... Didn't manage to eat it while it was hot because we were too full from the sushi lunch

That concludes days 1 and 2... More updates coming soon~

Japan trip

Been a long time since the last update. And I'm back from my Japan trip!

Yeah it was fun haha... considering the last time I was there was about 10 years ago with a tour group. This time it's just me and desmond, armed with maps and constipated japanese wahaha...

But knowing how to read hiragana and katakana was useful haha... so my C6 and D7 efforts during Secondary 1 and 2 were not put to waste LOL

The photos I took in 7 days amount to about 2.5 GB. That adds up to about 1000+ photos haha...

I will post the nicer ones here haha... The rest can be found on my facebook album.

Sidenote:

The Japanese 500 Yen coin and the Taiwanese 50 NTD coin have the same colour and almost the same size.

I was back at the Taoyuan International Airport in Taiwan when I wanted to purchase a bus ticket to take me back to my dorm.

The guy said the price of the ticket was 145 NTD and I happily passed him ONE 50NTD coin, expecting him to return me 355 NTD in return wahaha....

Jialat. I got all 3 cultures mixed up in my mind right now ahaha.

Another sidenote:
Returning to a foreign country from a foreign country feels a bit funny~