Kumamoto

Alright. It's now day 6 of 180. I'm on GMT +9 based on Osaka's Time Zone. Been really lazy these few days to blog about life in Japan. Somehow the activities done here although very little, but it's usually very tiring.

Day 1 - 0000Hrs, October 1st 2009

We met up at Changi Airport Terminal 3 where we departed Singapore on a 6 hours flight to Fukuoka International Airport. CSC came to send me off and gave me a farewell gift. Thanks guy, hopefully I get to use it.

Then it was hugs and goodbyes before entering the departure hall. Kind of a weird feeling because I'll be away for 6 months. But enough of that mushy stuff. We rushed down to gate A16 after going to the toilet and stuffs. By the time we had reached the boarding gate, we realised we're the last few to board. Our seats were all the way to the back. Flight was okay only. The flight stewardess wasn't all that helpful. Maybe because we're not Caucasians? I don't know, I'm guessing majority of Singaporean SIA girls are SPG while the Japanese SIA girls were much more hospitable and friendly.

Flight Stewards are okay, acceptable.

Throughout the flight, it was difficult to sleep because I had the window seat, there was very little ventilation and exceptionally hot and the plane's engine was roaring throughout the entire flight.

Blahblahblah, had our flight meal which was Teriyaki Udon. Horrible. The banana muffin was good, but the rest were horrible. Plus I had a gigantic meal with my family the night before, that worsen by the fact that the plane went through 2 to 3 hours worth of turbulence, by the time we were reaching Fukuoka, my stomach felt like it was gonna come out.

0810Hrs

At this time, our plane SQ656 landed at Fukuoka International Airport right on time. The airport looks like Seletar Airport, extremely broken down and poor looking. Interiors were nothing exciting, there was no air conditioning by the way. At the time we arrived there were 1 SQ, 1 Thai Airways, 1 China Airlines, 1 ASIANA and 1 ANA flight. Which meant foreigners outnumbered locals.

Being a Japanese gives alot of privileges, of the 20 plus counters, only 2 are serving foreigners while about 15 were catering to Japanese. It took us 1 long hot hour to get out of the airport. But the staff were generally friendlier as compared to Changi Airport except that the facilities are extremely old and broken down.

The arrival hall was no improvement, Fareast Plaza would have fared better in a beauty contest.

We got our highway bus ticket from the airport to Kumamoto which set us back ¥1600 each. That's a 20% discount as compared to buying individually at ¥2000 each.

2 Hours on the bus was horrible, the bus was hot and humid at the back and I got carsick. That all cut short, we finally reached our destination where we met Shimakawa-sensei who drove us to KNCT. But before all that, he brought us to a Ramen House and which was about 5km away from KNCT.

Each bowl was about ¥600 but Shimakawa-sensei paid for us, so it was on him. The ramen was above average, very few ingredients and abit too salty. But not bad for a empty stomach.

After finishing our lunch, we finally arrived at our destination - KNCT. We got our room keys, received some briefing and we settled in. Afterwards, we walked about 1km to a convenience store to buy some stuffs. I got a bottle of green tea at ¥155. Here are some pictures taken around the school and the convenience store we went to - Lawson.

Day 2 - 1300Hrs, October 2nd 2009

Woke up early to have our breakfast, can't remember what it was. Everything cut short, it was a boring day. We went down to the city ourselves, Weichuan who was the only one who could speak acceptable Japanese didn't come with us, god knows why. So 3 of us, totally clueless about Japanese headed to the city central ourselves.

Almost got lost but managed to trekked at least 3km under strong winds and rain with only a hoody.

All of us felt the trip was worth it because we finally found Daiso and got some cheap snacks and stuffs.