Just wanna report to everyone that I have arrived safely to Hiroshima!!! It's kinda difficult to use the Internet for now cause I can't open an internet account without my foreign ID card. I have submitted my ID card application form yesterday but I can only collect it from the 25th Jan onwards... Right now, I'm in an Internet cafe using the Internet but it's FOC cause the Internet company we are subsrcibing to gave us complimentary tickets for Internet usage for one month...
So right now, let me start my updates!!! Yeah!!!
090108 - Wednesday: HanYen's Departure
I was still packing and finalising my luggage but still went to send Han Yen off cause this is more important as I will not see him for 6 months and also wanna wish him all the best for his attachment and take care of himself. I still have one day more to stuff all my things in tomorrow so packing can still leave it to then. Haha...
There were around 18 NTUSD members at the airport and we chatted with Han Yen and each other from around 10.45pm to 12 midnight, while at the same time, taking a lot of photos with Han Yen together.
Han Yen posing with all the YMDs for a final shot...
Good bye Han Yen, Bon Voyage and see you back in June with your victory report!!!
With this, tomorrow will be my turn to bid farewell to everyone...
100108 - Thursday: The time is now!!!
In the morning, I went to NTUC to buy 3 packets of dried mango. After packing into my bag, it is now super heavy! (FYI, I am carrying 3 luggages: 1 trolley, 1 bag filled with souvenirs, books and food for the Japanese people that I will meet and the third is my backpack.)
Then I went on to transfer all my traveling info, ie the jap sentences to say when taking the taxi, Shinkansen (Bullet Train) and my apartment address into my travel notebook.
After that, with some spare time in the afternoon, I went to recap back my jap vocab, which will definitely come in handy in Japan. After finish flipping, I went to pack my bags for the final time.
Soon, it was evening and Kian Joo came to my house after he ended his lessons in school. I had a farewell dinner with my parents and Kian Joo and then went to West Mall library to use the Internet (cause I had just terminated my home Internet account). Then at 9pm, the time has come for me to go to the airport...
At the airport:
My flight details are as follows: SQ656 bounded for Fukuoka at 0110 hours on 100108 at Terminal 3.
I reached the airport at 10pm, 1 hour ahead of check-in schedule. Saw Claire outside Row 3 of with her friends. We then went to check in and guess what? Our check-in luggage over exceed the weight limit of 25kg given to us!!! Claire's baggage was 45.1kg while mine weigh 41kg! Oh no! We did not check in our baggage straight but instead went to reshuffle our stuff, to distribute the stuff inside our luggage. I think we spent around 1 hour transfering our items here and there and went to the check-in counter a few times to try again but each time it was still over weight. Claire managed to persuade the SIA manager to increase our weight limit from 25kg to 38kg but we still overshot. Haha... So without any choice, I have to abandon some food items and further squeeze all my stuff. Now for the final time, Claire again managed to persuade the manager and he finally agreed to increase our limit to 40kg. Wow! That is the weight for a first class check-in baggage! Haha! From initially having to pay a fine of S$300 due to over-weight to now that it is free, this was really incredible!!! After my baggage was settled, it was time to finally say hi to my friends who were at the airport waiting...
I chatted with my relatives, my cousin and my MAE friends before going over to talk to my NTUSD mates. Think there were 21 people who specially came to Terminal 3 to see me off (William, Zhi Qiang, Hong Jin, Kiyo, Bing Bing, Jonathon, Mervin, Jackson, Wei Zhi, Wei Ji, Wee Chong, Kenta, Geraldine, Pei Jun, Siew Yi, Mavis, Harumi, Nobuko, Li Ting, Yvonne and Yu Fei). Thank you very much guys!!! Although my flight was in the wee hours of the morning, you all still came and have to take taxis back. I was really touched and I must really seek and come back with the Gakkai spirit from Japan!!!
Me and my cousin
Me with Samuel Chee and Zack
After chatting with all of the people for one hours, at 12 midnight, it was now my turn to go inside the departure hall. The whole NTUSD lined up one queue outside the departure gate and I said my farewell wishes to them. But maybe I was shagged out with all the packing at the airport 2 hours ago, I was too tired to think about crying... Haha... After the farewell wishes and hugs, I finally took my bag and laptop and went in. After scanning my passportand entering the gantry, I bowed 3 times as requested by my NTUSD mates and that's it, Good Bye Singapore and Japan, here I come!!!
Watching Resident Evil 3 and having my western style breakfast on the plane
Finally, the sun has risen!!!
Yeah! I can see some clouds!
Yeah! Bird's Eye View of Fukuoka!
In the Airplane: SQ656, 1.30am to 6.32am (Singapore time).
Have supper at 2am and breakfast at 5.30am.
Our plane touched down at Fukuoka Airport earlier, so have to stay in the plane and wait for further announcements for around 15 minutes.
During customs, I took second finger for both hands for fingerprint identification and took a digital photo on the spot. Next, claimed baggage and Claire and I bypass the animal quarantine declaration even though we brought in so much food! Haha...
Came out of airport at 8.25am (Japan time) (FYI, the whole of Japan is faster than Singapore by 1 hour).
Spent 10 minutes taking photos at the arrival hall before boarding a taxi to Hakata train station.
Facts for Japanese taxi:
- Starting fare for taxi is 580¥.
- Driver will come out and help you put the luggage into the boot.
- And he will also open and close the door for you, so don’t need to touch the door at all.
- My taxi driver’s name is Koga Koji, 古賀 涸二.
- Total time taken: Approx. 10mins and fare is 1630¥ (S$1 = 76¥)
At Hakata station, went to buy the Shinkansen tickets.
- We chose the Nozomi line based on the time schedule which has a 30 minutes buffer for us to play safe.
- A one-way trip for 1 person is 8190¥ for the Nozomi line bounded for Tokyo (FYI, there are 3 different Shinkansen companies: Nozomi, Hikari and Kodama)
- We waited at Platform 12 for our train to come.
- We tried to choose the longest possible train ride so that we could rest our tired legs more cause we are shag out carrying our 7 luggages walking around Hakata station.
- Our Shinkansen made 3 stops throughout the journey: (Different lines have different number of stops based on the price of your ticket)
Hakata ----- Kokoda ----- Shin-Yamaguchi [新山口]----- Hiroshima
- Total trip lasts from 9.49am to 11.02 am (Japan time).
Upon arrived at Hiroshima station, we stayed at the platform for 30 minutes waiting for different kinds of Shinkasen to come so that we could take photos and videos with them!!! We took a lot of pictures of the Shinkansen’s bullet head as well as the bodies. いいですね!!!
At 11.45am, left the station but Claire could not find her camera a it might get knocked out of her luggage while we are traveling down the escalator. So we spent half an hour searching the platform again for her camera but to no avail. In the end, she decided to ask one of the train conductors and he passed her the camera! All Claire did was to fill in her particulars and contact no so that they can call her in case another person also claim the camera.
Then with this commotion ended, we head for the exit out of the train station and took a taxi to our apartment. The ride was also approximately 10 minutes and the fare was exactly 1500¥. (The starting fare in Hiroshima is 610¥ instead of 580¥ in Fukuoka.)
Our apartment’s name is called Suncourt Tokaichi. We reached there at 12.55pm (Japan time) and pressed the bell for the reception. But I think they were out for lunch ba. So we waited for around 20 minutes, resting and chatting until finally an obasan (auntie) saw us and immediately opened the door for us. We were so delighted! The auntie straight away issued us our room and letter box keys and taught us how to open the ground floor main door using our room keys! Then another lady, Miss Wang appeared. She is a Chinese and is a staff of this apartment. She communicated with us in Chinese and issued us our bicycles (should be left behind by the past interns) as well as telling us how to separate our rubbish for disposal. (Interesting!) Yeah! We were pretty excited with our bicycles as we can now explore the whole of Hiroshima in the future! We then took pictures with them and checked into our room at 1.45pm. From there on, we started unpacking .
At 4pm, I went out with Claire to the supermarket cause I heard from William that on the 10th of every month, there’s a 50% discount on selected items. (On our way there we bought a prepaid international calling card but it somehow cannot work with phone operators). But when we reached the supermarket, it has changed to a new company called Apanda (instead of Oouchi – the one I visited the last time). Claire went to ask the staff regarding the discounted prices and they said there were no such things now! Oh no!!! But in the end, since we were already there, we just buy a few stuff first, namely cooking oil, garlic, egg, carrot, vegetables, detergent (those that are the cheapest around) to store up first and this amounted to 1040¥.
We reached back at our apartment at 6.15pm (by the way, the night darkens at around 5.30pm) and waited until 7pm to call Hashimoto-san.
I got through to Hashimoto-san’s phone but he said he was having a company party at the moment. But he asked me for my apartment unit number and he will come tomorrow at 7pm and “Bing Bong” my room. (which means call me up) Haha…
In the end, I brought Claire to a nearby shop called つくし (Tsukushi) restaurant to eat Hiroshima-yaki, which was being recommended by William. It cost 600¥ and it was really delicious!!! Finally get to eat it again after 1 year of absence but as the serving was quite large, cause with udon inside, I almost cannot finish it. Haha! (FYI, the ingredients inside Hiroshima-yaki are flour with egg, sliced cabbage, bacon, bits of meat, udon (or you can choose soba or nothing inside) and of course, the okonomiyaki sauce!!!)
During the meal, we chatted with the ojisan and obasan and took photos with them. They were also very friendly people. We will definitely come back next week to try out other dishes!!!
After dinner, we went back to our apartment at 8.15pm and did my other admin stuff till 1.30am. I was very shagged by then. And so this is how I spent my first day in Hiroshima. :)
110108 - Friday: Meet-up with Ford HR department and settling admin stuff...
Woke up at 8.10am. Did my morning Gongyo and gave Claire a wake up call at 8.30am. Today, we are supposed to reach FHO (Ford Hiroshima Operations) which is located at Nissei Midori building (Hatchobori Tram station) at 10.30am (cause the HR manager passed a note to our apartment lady to inform about this when we just reached). Today is not the official working day but just to go to the office to meet up with the HR manager to settle our reimbursements for all the transportations to Hiroshima (Air ticket, Shinkansen (Bullet Train) and taxi fares). I wore formal with blazer on but this is the norm over here in Japan... Everywhere you go, you will find working people wearing coats or blazers. And so I don’t feel uncomfortable at all...
Me and Claire's first visit to Ford Building
We left the apartment at 9.30am. The tram ride takes about 15 minutes but we wanted to reach there earlier to give a good impression. But as usual, cock-ups appear. Haha... When we arrived at the tram station, we crossed the road and the path split into 2 ways. We chose the one on the right and walked for 10 minutes until we saw Hiroshima Mazda building. We went inside to look at the directory and yes, there is a third floor for Mazda which we were supposed to go to. We went up and entered the room and saw the extension number to call the person that we want to meet to come out. We saw the name of our HR manager, Mr Yamada and called him. But it was the wrong guy! This Yamada-san said Mazda and Ford are at different buildings. He then went inside his room to print for us the local map and brought us down to show us how to go to Ford building. What a nice guy he was!!! This means that we chose the wrong path at the beginning and hence we ran back. We ran for ard 5 minutes but we reached the HR office at 10.40am, 10 minutes late. But luckily the correct Mr Yamada was busy on the phone and so we are safe!!!
Taking with a Road Sign along the way
After finishing his call, he brought us to the conference room and we gave him all our receipts for transportation and also visa application (which I didn’t know can claim back). He then went on to explain to us how to apply for the foreign ID pass, bank account, setting of internet account and also the places of interest in Hiroshima that we can visit. While talking, my supervisor and his supervisor, who is the chief engineer, came into the conference room and introduced themselves to us. Claire and I also introduced ourselves and we exchanged namecards. They sat for around 5 minutes chatting with us before going off to resume their work. Then at around 11.45am, we finished the briefing and went on to settle our ID card, bank account and internet account. For the ID card, we were told to wait till the 25th Jan to collect. As for the bank account, which we were told to go to Mitsui Sumitomo Bank, they said that we must have our ID pass first before we can have an account. The same goes for the Internet but this is longer as the sales guy say we could only have it installed at the end of February. So late!!! (That’s why I am now at an Internet Café writing this blog up).
My office is located at the 4th floor of the building
After all these, we went to Daiso to grab some grocery and personal food stuff.
By then, it was already 6.15pm and we are meeting Hashimoto-san at 7pm. We were at Hondori then (which is the main shopping district in Hiroshima) but still decided to walk back home instead of taking the tram cause there is no reimbursements from the company for today. Haha... It was a 30 minutes walk and on the way we walked past the Atomic-Bomb Dome. Think I’ll see that everyday cause it is in between my apartment and my workplace. So no matter if I walk, cycle or take the tram, I will definitely see it! Yeah!!!
By the time I reached back, it was already 6.55pm. I took off my blazer and straight away Hashimoto-san called. Claire and I went down immediately to meet him outside our apartment building. When I saw Hashimoto-san, I was really happy cause I can finally see him again after 1 year and 2 weeks.
My every first meet-up with Hashimoto-san!!!
He still looks the same to me just that he has cut his hair but his English has definitely improved. Claire is like my translator, explaining to me those long sentences that Hashimoto-san said but I also tried my best in listening and trying to understand. I passed him William’s postcards and some food that I brought over from Singapore such as Ba Gua, dried mangos and spicy hebi. Hashimoto-san said that because his wife was having a company dinner tonight, he did not organize a dinner today. Instead, he arranged with us dinner for tomorrow night as a welcome dinner for us and we will be having sushi in his house!!! Authentic sushi and not those sushi with cold rice that we find in Singapore’s restaurants!!! We then walked with Hashimoto-san back to his home cause we wanted to know how to get there tmr and I took a picture with him. I’ll be waiting eagerly for tmr night!!! But first, the plan for tmr, Sat, is to find the building that we will be having our Japanese lessons. Will be looking forward for tmr... :)
3 comments:
Im so glad u are having such a nice time over there, keep updating yeah.... =)
Hai, I will!!! Thanks a lot and you enjoy your attahchment too!
what is your problem with using
the work "j.p" when referring to
vocab, etc in your opening post
statements? if we in the u.s.a.
are ripped for saying it, do you
get a pass? what if i called you
s...t eyes; how would you feel?
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