In the morning, we headed to Kyushu University where were were supposed to have animation lessons. As we arrived at the school, we saw many students walking in. The bus continued up a steep slope and finally stopped at the front of the art faculty. A teacher was there to receive us and also an ang moh translator was present to help us understand. So we went around the building to look at their galleries - sculpture and photography, which there were some amazing photographs. Then we settled down in a classroom that had at least 50 iMacs in there. We grabbed a station each and opened the Blender programme, which was some 3D animation software that Japan used instead of Autodesk 3DS Max. We opened a few of the samples and woah! we were amazed at how each object in the samples were carefully modelled and even more beautifully presented when rendered.
Then we tried out a few of our own animations and it didn't turn out that bad. So afterwards, the teacher showed us a few of the university's animation works and they also had some very good models. But I took this time to update my facebook, hence that short status on my profile page. After 2 hours, class was dismissed and we headed to the canteen where they had the special meal of the day - beef steak. I was the first few to pay for the food ticket and hand it to the kitchen. Then, more people started coming (our own Hwa Chong guys) and started cutting queues so me and my buddy soon ended up the last in the queue. I was furious, my buddy was to. We were complaining about the stupid queueing system the canteen had so we gave up and took a seat somewhere first. After the queue had subsided, we then went to collect our food. But then the kitchen aunty didn't recognise us and so refused to hand us our food. Then our guide explained to the aunty that she saw us queueing first and told her our story.
After we got our food, we sat down at the table and started eating. The serving wasn't as big as those in restaurants and wasn't as delicious too, but we made do with it. Then we went back to the bus, which took us back to the boys school. Over there, we headed for a Japanese calligraphy class called shodou.
As we settled down in our seats, took the calligraphy guide books, mixed our ink the ancient way by rubbing the solid flakes on a rough surface submerged in water, the Japanese calligraphy teacher then called us to come to him for a demonstration. He said "Come on baby" like he was hooking up chicks. It was hilarious!
Then, came the funnier part. What we expected initially was like any ordinary calligraphy lesson Mr Quek could give us, but we were wrong. Instead of making the brushstrokes as fine and neat as possible, the Japanese teacher told us to be aggressive and free in our brushstrokes and hence to make them as THICK as possible. Every time he gave us a demonstration on a chinese character, he would act like he's choking on each brushstroke - choking on his own phlegm as if he wanted to spit but was unable to. It was damn funny, but I did not get to take a video, shit...
So after that was our turn, and I wrote my own name in the weirdest and craziest manner possible, and actually earned the praise of the teacher. He shook my hands and not others everytime I showed him a new character. It was my normal painting style in art, and it was the first time I ever got recognised for that. Ok, enough of that, we ended our lesson sooner than possible and cleared up our desks, washed our palettes and cleaned our clothes. Then we heard from another teacher, our next lesson was PE.
Luckily since morning, we were already instructed to wear our PE attires but guess what, they were short sleeves and short pants. We didn't wear anything underneath, so we were fricking cold the whole day. Even the Japanese soccer players wore long pants and sleeves. I found myself and my fellow Hwa Chong people like retards. Then we had to wear these singlet jerseys with our country flags on them. The teacher told us that it was gonna be an international friendly between Japan and Singapore. But hey, it was an unfair advantage since we were at away ground and I had a broken foot.
But who cares, we started playing and eventually our bodies warmed up. I ran quite a bit and tackled some too. But our defence still wasn't strong enough to break up their attack, and soon the game ended with us losing 4-2. But it was a worthy game and we shook hands with our opponents, even though deep inside, we were bitter about losing.
Heck, afterwards was the dinner, I guess.. We had sushi and many other table snacks. But it was the only time in the whole trip that I actually got to eat raw salmon and other fish. They were as yummy as the ones found in Singapore's NTUC Fairprice finest or other expensive supermarts. Then the snacks were also like heaven, the chocolate made in Japan was just as good as the ones in New Zealand and Australia which they were supposed to be famous for.
Then after the dinner, we got a surprise. Because we ended early we had like 2 hours to spare. So the bus driver took all of us to the beautiful Ferris Wheel place.It was quite chilly by night, so I had to put an extra jacket on. Anyways, around the ferris wheel was a huge shopping district that sold souvenirs, collectibles, sports stuff, muji and more food stuff. That was where I got my seaweed from. There was also an arcade there which I saw a few games I was really familiar with.
But my friends and I decided not to waste time at the arcade, but shop instead. So we toured the huge mall like 2 times and bought handfuls of stuff, especially food. I also got my favourite neck pillow with loud speakers and earphones there at a shop called Vintage Village.
There were also like tons of Gachapon machines there so I spent some of my money turning the wheel and the machine does the magic by automatically selecting a toy for me. It was worth it. Haha! Finally we got enough of stuff, and again Guan Chao and I were the last to arrive so we got scolded by the group again. The guide told us that we were running late to catch a bus. So we literally ran from the mall to a faraway bus interchange to catch the bus. Lucky for us, it was still there so we got on and it brought us to a subway station. We then needed to take the subway back to our dorm subway station - Imajuku. We visited the same old convenience store again and I bought more than I had ever throughout the trip of tidbits and small snack-food like break, sweets and chocolates, before the bus took us back to our dorm.
I wish I bought instant noodles though, but I only saw cup noodles. It was late at night like around 9pm so we all took our time to shower. We met up with all the table tennis players which were Japanese students too, and we took a group photo together. Memories... I was tired by 10, so I headed back to Guan Chao's room for a talk that lasted all night. We talked about almost everything under the sun, and Stephen joined us soon.
By 12, I got laid back and decided to go back to my room to sleep. Good night! Sweet dreams and see you tomorrow!
PS. The last sentence above was my feelings then, it's not my grammar error ok.
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