:D

20050608

#cgssb JAPAN TRIP 2005
010605 - 070605
room6- samho genseow nicole natasha ivy wenjun (nurul) ((:
I LOVE JAPAN. i love kinki university. i love kinki high. i love my asahina. :D

after all that 1. tourism propaganda. hmmph. 2. packing of instruments and rubbish. 3. nagging of ms low geok pin. and ms achila. 4. ingestion of facts and important stuff needed for the japan trip. burp. 5. practicing. CHIONG prac. siaoness. WE ARE FINALLY READY TO GO TO JAPAN. (:

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day one wed 010605
slept at 1am. woke up at 3.30am. took cab with parents to changi. (they went to phuket. some ppl thought they also following us like dorothy's mum. -_-) reached at 4.59am. went to assemble at terminal 1. put on orange! tags on luggage. (eh got some i write one ok. my pretty handwriting for my pretty bag. -_- whatever.) checked in luggage, intruments. briefing on what to do for the next hour. went subway with emily's family. (my parents went to terminal 2.) ate chocochip biscuit. assembled again and went thru immigration. my section went to buy the gifts for the japan ppl (last minute!!). i got glued to the free local calls phone. called loads and loads of people. heh. sorry if i woke any of you up. played around with the retarded travelators. seriously retardation. haha. assembled at gate. entered gate. ahem. DOMINIC CALLED WHEN I HAD MY HANDS FULL. and therefore i LOST MY BOARDING PASS. dominic you ass. got a super scolding showdown from low geok pin. well her duty to scold la so ya its ok. my lifesaver was a kindly guard who found my boarding pass on the floor (: i love him. anyway. managed to get on the plane. and then sat according to seat number 61G of JL712. nobody sat on my left. mrs chua sat on my right except there was an alley between us :| so for the whole time during takeoff i didnt dare to face my right. so i was like some vegetable paralysed on my left side forever facing my left. diao. finally when we were in the air mrs chua moved to the empty row behind and i was relieved of having a nervous breakdown anytime during the flight. phew. not that i'm scared of mrs chua but before the trip i wasn't very close to her. so ya. :| phew. emily moved to sit on my left and i had the privelege of having someone to talk to for the next 7 hours. -_- watched phantom of the opera and some other soppy shows. i like BOWLINGUAL (: right ivy. you're BALDING. haha. i had special food cos i was lactose intolerant. and i had a lactose intolerant sticker on my seat (: so cute man. went to take photos of the really beautiful clouds outside from the emergency door window. haha. they're really pretty. but anyway. reached tokyo (kansai airport) in the afternoon. (btw japan is 1 hour faster than sg. so when it was bedtime it felt very early.) had to take a transit to osaka. went off the plane by STAIRS (: so cool. and the weather was damn shiok. heh. took a cute bus to the main airport area. had to move all our luggage and instruments as a whole big group so there was some lag. yup. had to scan all the instruments so you could see distorted clarinets and flutes on the infrared screen. and the trumpets! damn cool. like x-ray. heh. when we were done we went to the gate to wait for the next plane. they scanned our water bottles! to check the water purity or something. haha. went to the toilet on the way. the toilet is damn clean! and neat! and super high-tech. pretty. there was a VENDING MACHINE at the gate :D (there are millions of vending machines in japan. serious. prototype.) bought a super cute cola. as in the can is damn cute. and the cola in japan is a hundred times fizzier than singapore's. serious. almost choked from the bubbles. i love the can (: went on board and sat at 62G of JL3007. and i swapped place with cindy/natasha so in the end i sat with emily again (: cos we were seated according to class. and i was with karmen so cindy changed place with me. so i was with someone else so i changed seat again with natasha to sit with emily. haha. for the whole 3 hour flight i slept. only woke up once to take a photo of emily sleeping. hahaha. finally at night around jpn time 8 plus we reached osaka (: went thru immigration again and got our luggages/instruments from the belts. got out of the airport and rolled our trolleys across the road to the coach. very funny ok some of us jay-trollied/jay-walked. lame. like some amazing race. stuffed the luggages and instruments into the belly of the coach and got on board. it was a pretty cool coach haha. slept for while again and took a vid of the outside city lights whizzing by but i deleted it ): finally we reached the hostel. Osaka Municipal Nagai Youth Hostel; 1-1, Nagai Koen, Higashisumiyoshi-ku, Osaka 546-0034. its actually a hostel INSIDE a national stadium, which is ultra cool. but we don't get access to the stadium so ya no big deal la. ate a sumptious dinner at the dining area with the super cute canteen granny. packed our instruments at the sec4s rm downstairs (only room downstairs. tatami somemore. hmmph. later got intruders! haha.) and got settled down. we stayed on the 3rd floor while the sec4s stayed on the 1st floor (for the first half of the trip). settled the bathing times and did mostly admin stuff for the night. room6 (aka clarinet + oboe room) is BEST la (: we were situated right next to a VENDING MACHINE (: which is cool. suntory boss. heh. the corridors are cool too. really clean and a cool bend design. i love the hostel (: did our bedsheets very noisily and got pretty settled down by midnight -_- got all my uniforms in my lovely locker done up and revised on some of my sec1 japanese before turning in listening to purgatorio. which is a BAD CHOICE don't ever listen to purgatorio when you sleep cos the moaning wailing and all will make you have a weird imagination. changed it to some other song before actually sleeping. haha. anyway our room was damn hot. cos i think the heater was on -_- or something. couldn't make up anything of the aircon controls. (until the last night before we went back to singapore. by then a bit late hor. hai.)

day two thurs 020605
woke up at 5 plus. realised my poor mp3 player earpiece (left side) wasn't working!! argh! and i had to listen to the music for the rest of the trip with only the right side. and the great thing was, for jap graf iv the clarinet solo comes out on the left side. so ya. growls. i probably screwed the wire connection on the left earpiece cos maybe i slept on it. oh well. at such an early hour it was already really bright outside, like 8am in singapore. probably cos of the time zones. and the view outside is really breathtaking and peaceful! you should see my album (: anyway. went to wash up and got changed into school u for the day. ate a lovely breakfast at the dining area. i could write a whole story on the food at the hostel. it is simply delicious and ya. best local japanese food i've ever tasted. and the canteen granny is my idol. haha. anyway. walked to the coach and we left for a 3-hour bus ride to the world expo, aichi. 3 hours!! god. slept on the bus. (who doesn't. everyone sleeps on the bus in japan. haha. serious! everyday.) woke up when we stopped for toilet break/shopping. didn't go to the toilet- went to the mini mart to buy something nice to munch on. bought a egg and ham (cold) onigiri and a can of WARM CHOCOLATE COFFEE. (: japan is damn cool la you know we have chillers for chilled drinks eg. milk, apple juice etc. they have warmers for hot drinks! haha. and the hot chocolate coffee was really really nice. drank half and hugged the rest on the way to aichi. haha. reached aichi at around 10 or 11. got our passes to the world expo and went off in our rooms to walk around for the day (: went to the singapore booth. which was really cool and techno. i'm so damn proud to be a singaporean man. anyway. mr vincent (tour guide. nice guy.) said there was this mitsui-toshiba exhibit not far away which was really good. so we went to the mitsu whatever thing. and guess what. we went to the wrong exhibition. cos we went to the mitsubishi one. not the mitsui-toshiba one. ARGH. nevermind. it was boring but really high-tech. oh well. world expo mah. heh. went to eat lunch at the singapore pavilion. which is KILLING. cos one crap bowl of hokkien mee (and it doesn't even taste authentic) costs 1200 yen. which is 20 dollars! 20 SING DOLLARS! oh my god. i cannot believe i spent twenty bucks on something that i ate up in two slurps and didn't even taste good. ): went to this western fast food restaurant called PIZZA-LA express. bought fries. which were really good cos they were 1. straight-cut. 2. really hot and crispy in that cold weather (it was raining that day.) 3. it was salty and peppery enough. some black pepper stuck to it. which was really tasty. haha. and when i gave my order they gave me this walkie-talkie thing. which me and ivy were staring at when it suddenly beeped and vibrated. which meant that my order was done. that is SO cool. i mean, who gives away handphone-like devices which alert you of your order wherever you are (in the world expo for this case)? damn cool. went to the wonderwheel to have a ride on the half-ferris-wheel. it was half submerged in this huge structure whereby you'll watch some movie on early man transportation and finally evolve till you reach the top of the ferris wheel and you'll slowly come down admiring the pretty world expo scenery. and the wonderwheel never stops. it just keeps going. but its rather slow so ppl can move in and out easily. nice. conclusion from experience at the wonderwheel: 75% of japanese ppl use transparent umbrellas. which is dumb cos what can a transparent umbrella do in shading you from the sun? but anyway. trend. it looks pretty cool on a rainy day. the ride was nice. haha. went to get some ice creams!! bought them at 300 yen which means 5 bucks. still ok lah. they looked really cute cos it comes in a cone and swirls upwards. and the chocolate was real good. heh. walked around before heading back to the meeting point cos it was rather late alr. bought some fans at the souvenir for like, 30 dollars each. god. authenticity is so expensive. :| nicole wanted to buy stamps to post last minute so i went with her and ran ran ran to the post office which was like damn far from our meeting point. at the post office i forgot how to say stamp, damnit. finally got the message through and we got what we wanted. this old granny came up to me and asked me in japanese, 'you speak japanese?' i was like, uh yeah haha. she was like good good! haha. funny la haiyo. went back to the meeting point just in time to avoid a stripping-down from low. left the world expo at around 5 and went on the coach for a 3-hour ride again. it was raining quite heavily by now and i was lazy to take out my umbrella/windbreaker hood so i just walked in the rain with my windbreaker. nicole did likewise and both of us got scolded by low geok pin. hai. whatever la. i probably had a really angry face when low was lecturing us about getting sick and being disappointed with us on the coach cos when we reached the hostel she was like samantha come here why you so sulky the whole day. -_- anyway along the way we passed mountains that we didn't see earlier cos we were sleeping and there was smoke surrounding them; i'd thought we would've been transported to some celestial place. they were really pretty tho i couldn't get a nice shot of them but anw the sunset was really pretty too, many of us took photos. we stopped by this food court for dinner and i was starting to feel a bit sick so i went to the super duper clean toilet, as always. -_- (me and nicole started chanting to ourselves like, i'm not gonna fall sick in front of that low geok pin, i'll show her that i won't fall sick, i won't fall sick, i won't fall sick.. when we were getting a little feverish and sniffly.) went to help some ppl buy the ramen or whatever there and the aunties were like, you speak japanese? haha. ate a bowl of kitsune udon which tasted real authentic compared to singapore's. walked around feeling sicker and sicker by the moment when i realised the sec4s needed help in communication with the snacks stall. so i translated again and they were like, you speak japanese? -_- how many times alr. hai. then miyano (tour guide 2. wife of vincent.) came and did a detailed explanation of our exchange with kinki and ya. senior translator = vincent/miyano. jnr translator = samho/emi (inactive. that lazy pig.) went back on the bus and reached the hostel at around 9 i guess. had sectional practice in our rooms for a while till around ten i think. and just nice there was this group of mentally challenged japanese kids down for the night so yeah we got real weird people lurking around in the corridors. suddenly!! one crazy boy barged into our room! and somehow our door wasn't locked! we were all practicing inside (me and pt out in the balcony.) and then we could see this weird boy dashing in (obviously into the wrong room.) and gen trying to close the door on him. everyone was screaming and yeah. he managed to get in and almost grabbed gen's instrument. he kept calling out 'sensei! sensei!' which means teacher. obviously you're in the wrong room, jerk. -_- after that incident gen was traumatized for the entire night. o_o well i would be, if some ass barged in and headed for my instrument before dashing out again. shudders. anyway. settled the bathing times and packed our stuff for the next day. realised there was an international calling phone!! bought the int'l calling card and called loads of ppl. haha. 1 card = 1000yen. that means about 15 dollars. and i bought total 6 cards, which means i spent nearly 100 bucks just on calls. oh well. haha (: went to sleep at 12 plus after browsing my camera manual. was having some problems with the flash.

day three fri 030605
woke up at 6. ate breakfast in the hostel again before leaving for the cultural-ish day. :| i was walking behind mrs chua on the way out of the hostel and there was this super brave pidgeon crossing our path. and mrs chua was like, shoo! and waved her papers or some brochure at it. and it didn't even budge. hahaha. super funny. lame pidgeon. anyway, since the tour guides told us abt courtesy in japan about nodding your heads at drivers and stuff i decided to try it out on the road. heh. i nodded at this cute little grey-haired grandpa on his bike and he nodded back! hahaha. cute man. anyway we went to the osaka music museum. on the way there me and nicole started counting vending machines cos we wanted to know how many million vending machines there were in japan. and we stopped around hundred before falling asleep at the open window. hahaha. i fell asleep first at 96 and nicole fell asleep after me at 120-something. hahaha. reached the music museum and went to wake ourselves up at the museum toilet. -_- the instruments exhibits were real cool and there were instruments from all around the world though i was more on the wind orchestra instruments area. there were loads of instruments from the ancient times and ya. a big collection. they even allowed us to play on some of the instruments haha. took loads of photos (refer to album.) and ya went off sooner than i thought we would. our next stop was the national museum of ethnology. which was super boring cos we only had about an hour there and everything was in japanese. we were given digital translators which used infrared to read the japanese and translate to us in english but they took really long to load so my foursome decided to just go ahead with just walking around and admiring the exhibits. took some photos. only some stuff were interesting cos its all about culture around the world. yup. didn't cover the whole museum in time cos we had to go alr. took a super retarded group photo with everyone looking at the wrong cameras cos fifty million cameras were going off at once so ya. ok not that many la but you know. all the teachers taking photos using all our cameras and stuff. rubbish. went back on the coach and we were off the the osaka castle (museum). went to eat lunch at a restaurant nearby which served self-service takoyakis! my fav! we could make our own takopachi/takoyaki cos it was just like the batter on the hot plate and you're to roll the stuff into five balls. haha. damn fun. but anyway burnt my knuckle on one corner of the hot plate so that means its real hot. and the scar's still there so ya. heh. had a real nice bento and loads of rice. good food (: went to the osaka castle after that and it was super boring cos its all in japanese (what can you expect.) and the exhibits were all on the war-times like ya you know. japanese wars with those retarded armours and spears. and we were recommended to go to the 8th floor then down each floor to view the exhibits. so by the time i crawled up the damn flight of stairs i was panting alr. -_- so was ms chye who was on my heels or smth. anyway the top level was an open-air one which was really cool (: the view wasn't really that nice but the feeling up there was good haha. went down level by level to look around. went to this toilet on the 2nd floor and when i was inside i realised i was the only one inside the toilet and there were weird sounds. besides, there were stories about japanese haunted castles.. so ya. i practically dashed out o_o oh well. gathered at the foot of the castle and went back to this shrine further off to make wishes (: you make a wish and drop a coin into the wishing thing. my wish probably didn't come true and won't come true. hai. nvm. went to buy ice cream again! japanese ice cream. haha. i love the chocolate. its so tasty that you'd probably start indulging in it before remembering to take its photo (thats what happened.) but anyway. we passed this japanese beggar. and i think they have some cool fashion statement man. he was clad in black, with white japanese socks and those japanese clogs. and he had his head bowed and on his head was the straw type japanese hat. he held out this straw plate-like thing to collect money. and that was really cool cos he bowed his head at such an angle that you wouldn't be able to see his face and he just stood there modestly, waiting for donations in the hot hot sun. at first i thought it was a statue. then i realised the statue breathed. o_o whatever. some high school boys were teasing him, which was really mean of them. but yeah i didn't have coins to spare at that moment so ya. he looked like a super funkeh hobo. whoo. took the coach back to this supermarket near our hostel and bought some fruits (: yay. mrs chua recommended japanese strawberries so i bought a pack (: which tasted really nice. refrigerated in mslow's room fridge. -_- went back to the hostel by foot and got changed out of my jeans cos there was a combined practice. we used the multi-purpose hall on the first floor and had combined with mrs chua. did the songs that we were supposed to play for concert on sunday. packed up after our practice and went to have dinner in the dining area. settled the bathing times and ya. settled down for the night and slept before 12 that night cos the next day was the exchange day. yup.

day four sat 040605
woke up at 6 plus. got dressed in my second set of sch uniform and ate breakfast at the hostel before leaving for our very first public transport trip!! :D yay. we left our hostel with the weather a little chilly and walked through this alley to the mrt station Tsurugaoka. on the way there was this whole flowerbed full of purple and pink flowers. which looked either very fake or very surreal. don't know whether they're real or fake -_- but anyway. there was also this old ancient music museum kinda building. which was really interesting cos the gates looked like the gates to heaven and the house looked like some haunted house. and as far as i know i haven't seen anything happen there or anyone go there. which doesn't sum up to anything cos the only times i passed there was either really early in the morning or pretty late at night. anyway. vincent settled all our ticketing and stuff (he always does. for all our train trips.) and we went to the platform to wait for the train. which took like a hundred years to come cos some trains either don't stop at our station or don't stop at our destination. some trains just whizz past, which is cool cos you feel the wind rushing past. haha. so we took about an hour to get there due to all that waiting time. we changed trains two or three times, which shows how chim the japanese railway track is. and people can still get lost at raffles place and city hall. -_- sigh. anyway. we were all like really sleepy cos somehow we were all tired from the trips to wherever during the last few days so we were like some group of little girls sleeptalking on the train. but anyway. we finally reached Nagase station and when we alighted me and ivy almost jumped out of our skins cos there was this huge BANG! and it was supposedly the bullet train or something. :\ oh well. when we reached our japanese counterparts were waiting for us! :D or rather my japanese boyfriend aka student conductor of kinki university band ASAHINA YASUHIRO (: and the female band major and their teachers in charge. the brasses (and some heavy winds) were finally relieved of carrying their heavy instruments cos apparently kinki hired a van to drive all the heavy instruments to the school first while the smaller ones (like the clarinet! and flute etc.) had to carry ours all the way. anyway. walked for a pretty long distance (about 20 mins?) and we finally reached kinki university main entrance! well i think it should be the main entrance but its situated facing some alley.. which all the more makes it so japanese! haha. walked past loads of interesting shops and stuff.. battery vending machine, some 7-eleven lookalike, mos burger!! yeah you know. we were led to the music conservatory? or rather a small music building lah meant for the band only (i guess). the whole kinki university band was waiting for us when we reached the lobby! haha. man it was cool. the first impressions and all. (: anyway after that we dumped our stuff in some lecture hall, taking only our instruments and other essential stuff like files, water bottles.. and went for sectionals! yay. our japanese sl maki came to collect us and brought us to the clarinet room (: so it was like 7 clarinets + 2 bass clarinets from singapore and i dunno how many more from japan. haha. sectionals was really fun! we introduced ourselves and me being the translator (for the past few days, mind you.) i had to tell them what we were trying to say and tell us what they were trying to say. we sat alternately and, through our hand gestures and all that futile attempts to get a message thru, could communicate with them pretty o-k. haha. maki would always like, ask me something in japanese and i'd tranlate to english to tell the rest of us. which is kinda silly but fun (: warming up was never this good before cos the japanese have really good warm-up sessions (which i was hoping that our band would adopt, but anyway.) then we did japanese graffiti iv until lunch. i won't forget their cute pink section metronome that we used for warmups. it wrote 'never, never, never, never.... give up!' which i think is really encouraging like ya. you know. so when we did jap graf iv maki was like, you play solo! then i was like nonono! we cannot play. and we started to push the solo here and there. eventually maki played the solo (duh. me and peiting were like hah? dun even know how to play it. ) and she played it real nice!! and that was just for sectionals. ha. but anyway. we had section interaction and yeah we went for lunch chanting 'hana heta' after maki all the way back to the lecture hall. (that means i'm hungry.) kinki had ordered bento lunches for us, which was really sweet of them cos they provided us with lunch on both exchange days (: the lunch was good, as usual. all the sections had lunch in the hall and we sat in a huge huge clarinet circle haha. the kinki people bought their own food! which is weird cos we're eating food catered by them while they're eating their own food. oh well. we talked a bit during lunch and finished up ur lunches pretty quickly considered we were hungry haha. then we went to practice on the mezzanine level until we were called in for combined rehearsal. we were admitted inside the november concert hall next to the lecture hall and we spent the whole afternoon there getting the administration and configuration right for all the combined items. that dumbass guy (ava?) was like shouting here and there all the time fixing the lights and chairs and everything. when he asked me (gently. how nice. when he's shouting at all his peers.) about how many chairs we need in japanese i was like, huh? ya i speak japanese but maybe not that chim la -_- first we did the crescent band rehearsal, which was pretty okay. joyous spring and fiefeorniek. i tell you the trombones were superly amazing for the fiefeorniek glissando or rather the fiefeorniek ears. my god. i can just die hearing them gliss up. they are so damn power! but so is the entire kinki band anyway haha. then we did the crescent band and kinki high band combined rehearsal (they finally arrived after lunch.), which was real fun! haha. my japanese partner was sakae (sah-kah-eh) and she's my age too haha. when we got settled down she said hi in english to me, and i replied hi in japanese. and she was like hi in japanese and suddenly -gasp! she hurriedly turned around to all her friends and started telling her band members that 'the girl sitting beside me actually responded in japanese!!' i started to laugh, and she started to laugh and ya you know. eventually we became the best of friends haha. we kept talking during our rehearsal and even after the rehearsal and stuff. i called her sakana which means fish in japanese, and she taught me retarded japanese phrases and all.. haha. we played concerto d'amore and i tell you i have never ever played concerto with such vigour before. playing concerto in japan was the best concerto i feel that i have ever played. partially because me and sakae were best buds, partially because the japanese didn't mind me being expressive cos they were themselves! (not like some people in sg. never cease to insult me and my expression/movement when i play.) finally i understood what you said to me so long ago, to enjoy yourself when you play. i've learnt how to enjoy myself when i perform. (: and the best piece i've played in my life is concerto d'amore (: which was conducted by mrs chua. then we went on to do the crescent band, kinki university band and kinki high band combined rehearsal. this time round sakae didn't get to play cos she was a junior compared to the other first part girl who was the kinki high band major. sad :\ oh well needless to say, we played jap graf iv (: and the singapore experience o_o and we are the world. and stars and stripes as encore piece. for all these songs we were conducted by their resident conductor except for jap graf! haha. my darling boyfriend asahina yasuhiro conducted us for japanese graffiti iv! yay. haha. he was like damn cute when he first conducted us during rehearsal. he was like, ha-ro. (hello.) then he was like saying 'ahh i don't know how to say!!' in japanese to maki. oh man. cuteness. haha. then he said, er. japanese graffiti. four. and laughed. i could go on and on about how cute and shuai he is (to me.) but i shan't waste your time so ya. he started to conduct us and when we were somewhere near letter B his baton suddenly FLEW and piak! landed in one of the fingering holes of the flute of his flautist friend. and the whole three bands started to laugh while playing at the same time. he was like gasping while still conducting us with his bare hands and laughing at the same time. haha. at first i didn't really take a liking to him and i just thought he looks pretty cute. but i realised his (haha.) charisma the next day (which was kinda late. sad.) and so fell in love with him on our concert day (: anyway his flautist friend returned his baton to him and we finished the song nicely (: and the rest of the songs were pretty okay except for some parts here and there. yup. basically everything was great. and all of a sudden it was 6pm already. and we had to leave! sadness. so we left and we walked through the same alley where we came from to the same station. janice had some breathing problems so she and mrs chua took a van to the station -_- anyway along the way there were various provision shops (like 7-eleven) so i begged low geok pin to let me go to one of the stores cos my camera batteries were seriously dead (in just four days i changed them twice already! god. batt-suckers.) and surprisingly! she relented and allowed me and gen to snoop into one of the stores. we were expected to catch up with the group asap so i grabbed hold of some panasonic batteries and gen got some strawberry hello kitty chocolates before zooming out of the shop and galloping after the band which was, by then, some distance away. so gen was forcing down my throat the chocolates which i kept refusing (but tasted really nice.) haha. so we caught up with the band and we passed by this shoe shop selling heels and stilettos which, at the point of time, gen squealed in desire of some serious shopping but you know low geok pin. she claimed some analysis of females being most attracted to shoes in terms of shopping. and so we crossed the road to the train station and took the train to tennoji! some big interchange station. we were pretty tired out by then so on the train some of us were sleeping while other made small talk and stuff. at tennoji station there was this rotiboy-lookalike shop that sold bread, buns, cake, rolls and stuff. smelled really rich cos this waffly smell wafted into our hungry nostrils while walking to the exit. haha. eventually we went to road surface and crossed the road (again) to this really small petite shopping mall (not really.) full of restaurants. we were to eat dinner on our own in this mall or in the neighbouring mall so my room decided on this cosy little japanese restaurant specializing in fried rice (: and mrs chua (not to mention low geok pin) joined us for dinner. the restaurant was so small at first we didn't have any space. when we actually settled down our table was the largest (only 7 of us. i think.) and there were people smoking! but it ceased after a while. we ordered gyoza and fried rice and etc, and there was some mix up we thought that they gave us a plate of gyoza for free when actually we ordered gyoza twice cos of that extra tour guide helper. -_- and what's wrong lah i asked the waitress if the water was free then he laughed :\ is it very funny? but anyway. the original fried rice was really delicious and so was the gyoza (which were really really small. really.) and so i went to settle the bill after dinner being the only japanese-lingual one there. took two fruity sweets which, one i ate and gave the other to my trusty partner wani (in singapore lah.) and when we were on our way out of the mall i realised with outmost horror! my tuner/metronome was with me. we left our instruments at kinki and somehow i forgot that my tuner was in my pocket and happily left kinki. oh well. so i decided to play a trick on everyone! haha. i switched on my metronome at 120 and let it go tok-tok-tok. mrs chua was like, eh what's that metronome like thing ah? haha. another joke was to show ppl my 'new phone bought in japan' and bring out the ticking metronome or the tuner with sound. man i think i'm super lame. whatever. anyway we took train back to our train station Tsurugaoka and walked back to our hostel in the darkness of the night. it was quite dark lah. and we passed by some small restaurants and the ancient music house building again. so finally at near 9pm we reached our hostel. worked out the bathing times and after preparing all the stuff that we needed for the concert the next day we went to sleep. and being the room alarm clock i was super kiasu so i wanted to ask room 8 (emily's room) to wake me up by knocking on the door real hard at 5am the next day but everyone was sleeping already and it was past 11pm. mrs chua said she would be patrolling that night to make sure everyone sleeps before 11pm so knowing that room 8 was out at the launderette ironing their band u's i decided to give my acting a try. heh. i pretended to be some sleepy little girl walking along the corridor just having woken up and advanced to the bunch of people ironing their band u's like mad. mrs chua was already there hurrying the room to sleep. so when she saw me she was like, samantha what you want? and i said in my sleepy little voice i was looking for emily as though i couldn't see her when she was just squatting at my leg. and after i told emily mrs chua was like okok shoo go back to sleep shoo. haha. i think my acting really worked :D heh. pro pro me. slept like a baby and other than the hot air-con everything was pretty okay.

day five sun 050605
the concert day was here! woke up at 5am by ivy's phone (my phone died. sad. and i couldn't remember your number! shit.) so i washed up and changed to my band u and everything and i was ready by 5.30am. and nobody, i repeat, nobody was up. until yixin came along and wanted to shower. that was then i remembered i haven't taken any photos of the toilet! the pretty toilet. it was also then that i realised that the toilet (bathing one.) looked really really pretty in the morning. as in we only see the toilet in the evening or at night when we bathe. in the morning the sunshine makes the toilet look really fresh and lively so taking photos then was no mistake. (: check out the photo album, its real pretty. then people started to wake up and as my room had instructed the night before, i woke them up at 5.45am and all of us assembled in the dining area for breakfast soon after. the funniest thing was that room 8 was the last room (i think?) to wake up and so they didn't have to wake me up at five. haha. okay so we finished our breakfast and left the hostel looking like a bunch of scottish girls with that band skirt of ours. boarded the bus and left for kinki. when we reached we wasted no time in setting up, warming up and etc. met sakae again, who complimented on our band uniform haha (: went through some fast rehearsals again and got ready for the concert. somehow for japanese graffiti i ended up sharing file with sakae's senior or rather the band major clarinet girl and so for letter F i just pretended to play it cos at that time me and peiting didn't know how to play those running notes. and i couldn't just play the second part score cos peiting was holding on to it. oh well. i hope nobody noticed during our concert. haha. anyway. ate lunch (catered by kinki! again.) with the kinki high people this time round and me and sakae were talking non-stop. though sometimes there'd be some communication breakdown but eventually we'd sort it out haha. so our sections were asking questions and the main translators for the day were me and sakae. haha. man. i really miss her. now that i think of it. i wonder if she remembers crescent band. its so fragile and precious, our friendships between country borders. i want to go japan again! (: anyway the concert finally started! somewhere around 4 i think. and crescent band was admitted to the circle seats to watch the marching showcase that the kinki university band put up. and maki is really a pro pro clarinettist! (: the effects for the marching showcase was really cool. and satoshi's dancing was real cool too! cute clarinet guy (: welcome to japan! haha internal joke. anyway then we went backstage to prepare for our performance. joyous spring was okay, fiefeorniek was ._. i played wrong note! -slaps myself. how could i?! oh well. emily did her talkshow thing and then it was shermin. went backstage again and reappeared on stage after kinki high's performance (i like dixie patrol!) together with kinki high as a combined performance. again, one of the best concerto d'amores i've ever played (: i'll never forget the time i played concerto in japan. and i'll never forget the times that sakae and i had together as friends in that short span of two days. haha. then it was kinki university band on stage playing their winning piece to the world music contest a few years back (: it was really chim cos i couldn't understand it and besides, it made me sleep. we were admitted into the hall for kinki university band's performance cos the pieces were rather long so we kinda blended into the hall. the hall seats! i forgot to mention that they were really really comfy and you could just practically fall asleep sitting in one of them. and what's more- you could extract a 'table' from the seat in front of you, just like on a plane. cool huh! the previous day i already experienced the power of the hall seats to lull you to sleep and on the concert day itself i fell asleep again while listening to the kinki university band play. haha. and its not just me who slept- low geok pin slept too, on the previous day, and lots of the audiences slept on the concert day itself. haha. i love the hall seats (: then we had to go backstage again to prepare for the 3 bands combined performances. sigh i wish sakae performed with us ): but anyway. japanese graffiti iv was really really nice. (: serious. it was probably the nicest jap graf iv that i've ever played and i'll ever play. maki's solo was mind-blowing! and that soulful rendition of outo's saxo solo :D man. he's cute too. so many cute guys in japan :3 haha. the rest of the pieces were good. and i think the japanese way of calling for encore is simply so japanese. they'll start clapping in syncro. in fours or whatever. clap-clap-clap-clap. and they won't stop till we play again. cool eh! i think queenie is seriously a good piccolo player! and so is the other piccolo girl (: oh well. time flew by and zap! the concert was over and so was our exchange! ): when the guests left we had this farewell party and i guess it was really sad to leave kinki. we took official group photos and everything, there were even tidbits and drinks. kinki university band officially gave us a farewell gift- their own university pens. as in the pen has their university name engraved on it. which is really cool! black pen, red pen and pencil. i'll never use it. its such a precious momento. (: as for us we gave them our own gifts from singapore, and they gave us their own unofficial presents. for our section we gave one merlion to the kinki university klarinettes, another to the kinki high klarinettes and we had one left.. for my boyfriend! :D unfortunately he had left for some seminar or some sort so emily was ultimately disappointed. the kinki university klarinettes gave us their own hand-made cranes! :D their sincerity really touched me. i felt sad and happy at the same time. sad that we'll be leaving our new-found friends. happy that over these two days, we bonded as two countries and our friendships formed so quickly and easily, that we were friends and will be friends, forever. (: soon it was time to leave, time to say goodbye. the crescent band panicked- we didn't want to leave (obviously. haha.) and so we kinda dragged a bit here and there. i really wanted to give sakae something to remember me by, but i couldn't find anything that i could give. suddenly i fished out my favourite necklace that i've never worn before- a silver treble-clef on a chain. (and the last one at yamaha ok! vicky do you remember! its the one that i bought at ps! i actually GAVE it away! -sobs. but for a good cause lah. haha.) i brought the necklace to japan in hopes to wear it maybe everyday or something but on the first day emily warned me about rashes or some sort so i kinda forgot all about it till then. so i snatched my liquid paper pen out of my pencil case and wrote on the back of the black casing sakae's name and my name and the date. then sakae was suddenly behind me and i gave her the necklace. she was like, GASP. she was very touched. haha. we hugged and said our goodbyes, tears almost forming in our eyes.. ya you know. and i had to rush downstairs already (cos low geok pin was already quacking at us.) and so after we finished counting and all that we started to leave. on the way out i met sakae again, and we hugged (again) and said goodbye (for the last time) and yeah. we left. i almost cried lah haiyo. but anyway. we went to our buses parked further off and we left kinki, waving goodbye to our respective SLs which came to send us off. gosh. i really miss maki. and sakae. maki is my idol. she's cute, friendly and pro in her clarinet. as for sakae, she's more like my best friend. she is, anyway. (: i miss calling her sakana, and us doing those retarded japanese poses and saying those crazy japanese terms.. oh well. kinki has certainly made my trip to japan a fruitful one. without the kinki exchange, i would never have known so much about the japanese and their (band) cultures. of course, having fun people around like maki and sakae certainly helped. (: i love kinki band(s)! and this concludes the entire kinki-crescent band exchange. (: so! we went back to the hostel by bus and ate our dinner at the hostel after putting down our instruments and blazers. after dinner we settled the bathing times and had to pack our luggages in preparation of the trip back to singapore cos the next day was at universal studios and (according to low) we'd be too tired to pack or anything at night. so when i was done i roamed around and used the net for awhile before turning in to bed. i tell you people are damn funny online. a million people asked me like, why are you online?! aren't you in japan?! -_- i mean, doesn't japan have internet? -_- haha. anyway. called back home. i tried to figure out your number but anyway. -_- damn. oh yeah. janice had some asthma attack after the concert so she was sent to the hospital. and lucky thing the hospital discharged her and sent her back to the hostel just before the hostel curfew time. phew. anyway went to bed at 12 maybe, or later. packing made me pretty tired.

day six mon 060605
we could wake up a bit later cos it was gonna be a pretty relaxed day. i woke up near seven and went for breakfast feeling a little sleepy. after breakfast we were sent to our rooms to relax for a while cos low geok pin was coming around to check on our luggages and stuff. so me ivy and nicole did this sock exhibition thing on my bunk, check it out in my album. haha. at nearly 8 we set off to Tsurugaoka again and took the train to Universal City where Universal Studios was. and when we reached, there was this heeren-like open air mall around with fast food like macs, mos and others. haha. but that was for the evening. we went into universal studios and i tell you the main gate was GRAND. music was heard like, everywhere cos there were speakers all around. and let me say this- it was good good music. good band music. all john williams soundtracks. like E.T. and some other movie themes. which sounded really good. (: vincent settled our tickets and i got a hello kitty one (others got shrek and snoopy and etc.) and we went in! :D we had about 9 hours in universal. not bad ah. (: there was music all around so yeah it was almost heaven for me haha. took some pics here and there which were really nice. ate a hot dog bun for lunch. which was tasty (: my room (plus nurul) went around for the rides and all- we went to the spiderman ride first. which i seriously hate from the bottom of my heart. first. the queue was damn long. damn damn long. we queued for an hour i think. and the queue is damn boring. second. its damn thrilling. too thrilling for me. and besides, i sat in front with natasha and wenjun. its always us three who sit in front (somehow.) cos there were seven people. and so the stupid 3-D glasses made it worse for me. spiderman POUNCED on the car, then we started speeding and then flying and crashing through some buildings and the fire monter blew fire at us (we felt the heat. so surreal.) and the water monster spit saliva on us (there were sprinklers i guess.) and it was one helluva ride. i didn't even dare to look up after spiderman scared me out of my wits at the start so i kept my head down the whole time cos i was so damn freaked out and i was screaming like hell. at the end spiderman took a photo of us in the 'car' and these photos sold for about 20 sing dollars. i didn't buy -_- walked around the spiderman shop for a while trying to recover from that damn ride which knocked the wind out of me. man. then we went to the san francisco candy shop! bought candies, cookies.. i think my room super splurged at that chocolate shop -_- we were like, full of paper bags (universal studio's trademark. paper bags.) after we exited the shop. then we went to the back to the future ride! which was thrilling and just nice for me! phew. queued for maybe 40 mins and saw azilah's group and dorothy's group. haha. i got corrected for my japanese by that back to the future guy :\ i said a wrong version of '7 people'. damn. i should read up more. argh. anyway. we went in and suddenly we were sent into this room whereby the ushers closed the doors on us. and we started to panic so we pryed open the door and i asked the guy what's going on. and i got the same explanation as the guy who put us into the room so we assumed we had to continue watching the little movie clip in that small room till something happened. some professor lost something i think. but anyway. another door finally opened and we were led to this 'car'. and the movie just went on until there was smoke! vapour i think. and me being kiasu flapped away at it as though it was some poisonous gas -_- then the ride began. some bumpy back to the future ride and yeah. not bad lah. you can actually see that its a hall with loads of similar cars that are next to your own or above and all the cars and experiencing the same ride cos we're all sharing the super big screen. oh well. i think we were the noisiest cos apparently we seemed to be the only people who screamed. hahaha. (: well well. after that ride we proceeded to the jurassic park ride!! which was fun fun fun! :D i love that ride man. but first we stored our bags and all into two (or three?) lockers and got our windbreakers out or bought ponchos, for those who didn't have windbreakers. and the queue was FREAKING LONG. 1 hr 40 mins? around there. oh man. the longest queue i've ever been in. gosh. haha. but it was a good wait, cos the ride was cool! we got into this jurassic park float-boat that's in the movie and one boat could take about 20-25 ppl? yup. so me natasha and gen were in front and the rest were behind. and i was at the side! o_o i was so afraid for my camera in case it got wet, which i brought along and was snug in my pocket during the ride. (it didn't get wet in the end. only my windbreaker and my jeans were a bit spotted with water drops.) and so we went up this little slope (on the water the whole time.) and we passed through the safe area (all herbivores.) with those stegosauruses and phlatosauruses (i think) eating grass and honking at us. there was this phlatosaurus that emerged from the water and sprayed water out of its nose. and it SCARED ME. oh man. i was seriously prepared to get scared until a meagre herbivore could scare me. natasha lah! laugh laugh laugh. i scream scream scream she laugh laugh laugh. crazy. haha. then we entered the danger zone with all the carnivores like the little pesky meat-eaters and the chameleon-lookalike. and inside this 'tunnel' full of carnivores there was this door that was threatening to fly open anytime cos there was some dinosaur growling behind it and the door was quavering on its hinges. i was so scared that i hugged natasha's arm like some baby -_- in the end we reached the tippety top of the ride and the t-rex in front of us stretched its neck out at us and gaped at us. okay, roared at us. it wasn't scary at all. -_- retard. and whee! we went splashing down the 29.5m slide. which was cool! cos there was water everywhere and the feeling's so fun! hah. i bought a photo of us dropping down. nice. heh. and then we got off the boat, walked around the jurassic park store before heading to the snoopy land a bit further off. FUN (: haha. i bought a jurassic park tee which suddenly seems outdated now -_- sigh. oh anyway when we walked out of the jurassic park area there was survivor music playing.. so there was this I SURVIVED kinda feeling to it when we walked out.. like on tv! haha. anyway at the snoopy land we queued for about 30mins to get to the snoopy roller coaster! :D i love that roller coaster. my first ever roller coaster ride! lasted less than 10 seconds. -_- cos it was like, for kids. baby roller coaster. and we learnt that they took photos of us too, so me and natasha posed for the entire ride like retards :P haha. it was cool! though short. the feeling of the wind in your hair feels damn good. i like roller coasters! haha. then went to the snoopy shop to walk around, and then we separated. i went with natasha and wenjun to walk around.. and got lost -_- walked into this area that was meant to be still under construction -_- oh well. went to the stores along the way back (cos it was reaching our gathering time already, nearly 7pm.) and i bought quite a lot of memorabilia and etc. haha. bought a necklace for auntie vicky, a snoopy plushie for cheryl (and belle), and other stuff for other ppl. gathered at the universal globe for a group shot and dispersed for dinner at the open air heeren-like mall. ate macs with wenjun and dorothy and suiying. pretty good macs! haha. nice. went to this shop called ou-ra-ra and discovered clip-on earrings! which i super splurged on :3 haha. spent 100 sing bucks on 5 pairs of earrings. haha. -sheepish smile- anyway. we went back to the hostel by train and did an final pack before chilling for the night. and for that one night we slept really good cos finally i somehow figured out how to fix that hot hot air-con of ours.. by comparing with room 7 haha. finally (: (a bit late hor. -_-) before sleeping me, gen and ivy were at the balcony watching the people downstairs play with fireworks! and moping over the fact that during the whole trip we had wanted to sneak out to the ice cream vending machine outside the hostel before the hostel curfew at 11pm to get some ice cream but couldn't cos we were too afraid of low. but anyway the fireworks people were playing around with the fireworks and it was really pretty!! haha. until one of the fireworks hit one of the neighbouring room's walls. then we screamed and rushed into our room for safety -_- haha. went to the dining area to finish up all the food that we couldn't bring back to singapore. finished off my strawberries from the supermarket and bought this super tasty kitsune udon instant noodles from the vending machine! haha (: they have vending machines for instant noodles too. heh. then i went to visit the sec4s (who were obviously not asleep.) and played around till near one i guess. went back to my room and slept pretty soundly at around 2am. (: haha ivy and the majulah singapura curtains! :D

day seven tues 070605
finally! the last day of our japan trip '05. woke up and ate our japanese breakfast for the last time ): took photos with the canteen granny! haha. cleared our rooms and all. left the hostel by bus and reached the airport in perhaps an hour? and halfway we suddenly got the news that the student conductor aka my boyfriend asahina and also the female band major toki would be there to send us off!! :D so emily got me to write a thank-you letter to kinki (to be given to asahina) and i was rushing through the letter with miyano's help all the way. -_- did i tell you emily was after my guy? haha. tsk tsk. anyway. at the airport they were already waiting for us so after we got our luggages and all out we said hello and emily gave him the letter and some gift. then we had to check in our luggages and custom etc. so we met them at the other side and we were then sent off for lunch in our rooms. just that i went with emily cos my room was obviously not going after asahina. sorry guys! haha. so being the only japanese-lingual one around at that point of time really helps cos i can converse more properly than the rest of us. haha. competition!! heh. anyway. he gave me a hologram sticker of kinki university band! haha. and its only me (: (other than dorothy and her mum but that doesn't count) and also he gave me a clarinet badge! the penguin one. only me! :D heh. whatever lah sam. -_- oh yeah i gave him my NAMETAG! :D so that he'll remember me forever. heh. emily was soo jealous. hahaha. well. guess i was happy. (: anyway. had some drink at this cafe and walked around with asahina and the toki after our lunch. talked to asahina about band, anime, etc.. haha. i guess after talking to him i feel that he's a pretty nice guy. and that mean's he's all yours emily :D cos i treat him as my 'brotherly' friend now. (: and so time passes and we had to check in.. yup. took some photos with asahina before leaving and ultimately bid goodbye to him on the behalf of the band? and also myself. haha. we proceeded to our terminal by skytrain and boarded the plane, with a sudden realisation of TWO OTHER CRESCENTIANS :D the sec2 pankhurst twins. hahaha (: oh well. when we left japan i cried on the plane. cos i really loved japan. i wanted to go to japan ever since my craze for manga and anime started in p5 i think. and finally i'm in japan. and all too soon i have to leave. and all those memories. world expo, museum trips, kinki!, universal studios.. and all the friends i've made. also, all the new bonds formed within the band. time passes really fast, and we had to leave. oh well being the sentimental ol' me, i cried on the plane like sentimental ol' emily and if i'm not wrong i think i fell asleep crying. oh well. didn't even eat or anything for the whole plane trip. i slept my way through. for 7 hours! i think. but it was a wonder i slept through it all. haha. only woke up a few times. oh well. anyway. we reached singapore! in the late afternoon. got our instruments and luggages out and went back to our own homes. (: and this is the end of the cgssb japan trip '05 -samho version. haha.

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OH MAN I'M TIRED. i finally got this all typed out after so many months after the trip. i hope you've enjoyed my story. if you actually read it all till here. congrats if you did; this is a 10,127-word essay. heh.

I LOVE JAPAN. (:

life is like a sine graph =)
4:12 AM