Continued from PART I: Sight-seeing/Interaction Day We met in RiverView Hotel on Day #2 at 10am. Finally, after my 10000th proposal was accepted. One by one, I set them off according to the groups I planned. And because I was the I/C of the entire event of the day, I just picked Group 7, which was the last. After the 6 other groups left the hotel, I looked to check back which were the members of my group (which were those left-overs). How lucky can I get? or WE get? haha! Ryan Ross was in our group. Mr Mitsumura was in our group. And previously mentioned, EMO JAP boy was in our group too!! WTHH. Ok, but we of we didn't show our elated side immediately. We're not fools. Mr Takaeshi was there inspecting as usual, so we quickly set off as well. First things first, Ryan Ross came up to me and introduce himself as MASANORI, but vice-versa. Perhaps, I thought he wouldn't get my name right anyway. I should have faked a Hideko or Yoko-Ono. haha! He was darn hilarious. When he asked for his name at the bus-stop again, my first instinct was to pull out the list of jap names to search, he did a "EHH....NONO, Ieh" with a cranky laughter and took the list instead. haha. what the heck. I was thinking real hard. Luckily someone else remembered. He took a pen and asked us to write all our names on his hand, again, the pronounciation of our names turned out to be really distorted and funny. Charlene = SHUNNIN, Jeanette = JINEH Cindy= SHINJI (which was elephant in jap) and Olivia= Ohleevbia. Nevertheless, all the others begin to open up, and we found ourselves laughing like real friends soon. By the way, Jap Emo's name was Shuji. Blessed with the comical-happy face and small eyes, the way he laughs, reminds me of the card joker. They asked questions non-stop from the minute we alighted and when we arrived at the musuem. On our way, Masanori taught me that raffles place underground was a "chikagei" and that nonsensical boy tricked us into the opposite direction escalator. They didn't know what a museum was, neither did they have any back at home. Therefore, it was hard to explain. The momentarily silent walk was broken with my [Ii otenki desu, ne?], in english, Nice weather, isn't it? I know it sounds so old-fashioned and formal, but when he heard it, we both burst out laughing. And trust me, I was waiting for a nice spot to say that, otherwise, when the sun came out, it wouldn't be relevant. Tour in the musuem was fascinating yet hard to understand for them, I guess they have never come across 9/10th of the displays in there. I can't explain what they can't explain. Finally, they reacted to something with a "THIS! WE KNOW! WE KNOW!". I turned to see what it was, and almost fainted. HAHAAHA. It was a yellow rubber duck, the one used in the Singapore River Race. Finally, they whipped up their cameras to snap many pictures of a stupid lame dumb duck. Most of the pics they took came with flashes, and i wonder if it was their first time snapping pictures. Cause the displays were kept in transparent reflective glasses and when developed, they would probably see only white light. Everywhere they went, there was bound to be someone telling them "NO FLASH, NO FLASH!". And sometimes when we took pictures in the bright places, we had to tell them "NO FLASH! NO FLASH!" without explaining the reasons for several cases, and now they'd probably think that it is ILLEGAL TO TAKE PICTURES WITH FLASH IN SINGAPORE. I suppose they thought we were being retarded by stopping them outside the old parliament house to take group pictures. We did it in a swift act as the blazing sun was torturous, and went for lunch. Throughtout the entire journey, there isn't any peace. Masanori kept conversations going and going and going, and the others only knew how to ask for SHOPPING, SHOPPING, SHOPPING at everywhere, every station, everytime. I almost went beserk, but it was funny. I am surprised they knew how to order their own food and to them, $4 a plate of local food was like 50cents. Something caught their eye, which was Sembawang Music. COME AGAIN? SEMBAWHAT? Wow, they looked really fascinated like CD shops didnt' exist in japan. Then came esplanade, which we tried a million and one ways trying to explain how it looked like and what it was. When we asked them for a map, they replied in disbelief "MAHPP?". Haha, I give up. Again, ended up there taking picturees and more pictures or MERLAME spitting water and discussing about Death Note which was said as "DES NOTE" and Initial D, "INISIA D" at the movie store. Oh, and by the way, along the road, they saw a blackpainted Initial D car and burst out laughing. I don't know why, maybe it was fake and couldn't probably exist in singapore or it was just ugly. Afterall, they know best. Here comes SHOPPING (their fav). They told me, their hobbies were sleeping, shopping and playing sports. ahaha, yes, all of them, the same. It suddenly strucked us that JP don't have watches? How come all of thm want to buy a watch and it was the only thing they wanted to get. When we stopped by every shop, they kept saying "watchee". Oh well, we pulled over at THE WALLET SHOP and nothing really caught their attention, and then at billabong they liked the caps and sunglasses. Masanori was the only one who bought them. I don't know if the others were saving up, or they just didnt like it. So, we stopped at ACTION CITY. and to our surprise, the small shop looked like paradise to them. They grabbed everything within sight and bought whatever we showed to them, without even bothering to change for a new one. Rich kids? Nah,I guess the city that they came from didn't have such "CUTE" stuff (yuck!),besides they were trying to fulfil the shopping list from their families. After 7 stops, it was still Masa that was the top shopper. While the rest looked so agonised. Finally, we found a watch shop. All 3 of them, (Ryotaro, Yasutake and Masa) bought a $138 watch. WOW. The storekeeper could speak jap! He saved us from showing them the designs, colors, functions and all that crap. I honestly thought it wasn't worth buying a watch here for that price. Since it was their first piece in 10 years, and for Masa, he broke 2 of it. The good thing is that, there's international warranty, so we put off another load of worrying what if its spoilt within months. Another tip: Japanese boys like silver metal watches, not those with the leather strap and colored plastic adidas ones. It goes to show they are more practical! =D We didn't help much, but after buying, the 3 of them kept bowing and thanking us with such sincerity, it was almost an appreciation too great to accept. "thank you very much" said they, "arigato" said us. "arigato" said they, "thank you very much" said us. It seems like were never speaking a common language. They were desperate to find a Levi's store to buy jeans, well, ok, actually only Masa. The fashionista of the group and shopper. He begged for 15mins, then 10, and to 5. but we really didn't have time. So, I guess he was disappointed but happy afterall for his new watch. Well, 55 mins of shopping time was pathetic. We rushed to the bus-stop like never before, only to realise we lost Naoki. WTF. LOST IN A FOREIGN LAND? I would really sit down and cry. they still had the mood to crack jokes "SOMEONE IS DEAD. DEAD. DEAD" I guess they wanted to say MISSING. Haha. Throughout the entire journey, Masa kept being lame and really really funny. With his silly actions and expressions. I love the way Shuji talks with so much tone, aggression and of disbelief. The communication barrier was really bad. We took 15mins to understand each other for a simple sentence. Everytime we spoke in english, their minds would literally wander off into space to try and think hard what we were saying. When they snap back to reality, they would go "OH YES, blahblahblah" in jap again. The funniest part was, when I asked Shuji where he wanted to go (in jap), he assumed that I could speak his language and replied me in 20 long jap sentences. I was totally freaked out, I just kept laughing and looking in dismay. Maybe, next time, I should just speak in english and forget about helping them understand better. *phew*! We arrived back at the hotel in time exactly at 5pm, no less, no more. All cramped up on bus 51, I guess the people in it were surprised to see such big group of foreigners. The teachers were a little impatient already. The others went up to their rooms, while our group stayed at the lobby, why? because Masa and Shuji were still crapping and they refused to leave. We said byebye a thousand times and they were still following and talking rubbish. Well, we entertained them for awhile more and their teachers and our teachers joined in. That stupid Masa snatched my phone and said byebye, I snatched his sunglasses (since he was sooo concerned about looks) and he surrendered. haha! As usual, he was being lame. Trying to test out his new watch, he timed 1 min and made us stand there like rocks, without talking or moving. Long long later, after all the persisting, we finally shook them off. My favourite Mr. Mitsumura was sooo quiet and shy. If only he was like cranky, noisy and funny Masa who continued putting on his sunglasses and taking it off to be funny.
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