On the 9th of October, I was really excited, and didn't sleep because of last minute preparations. Time flew by really quickly, and I also baked cupcakes :)
I've been to Japan before, in 2012 with my family to Tokyo, but I've never been to Chiba before this trip, as well as a lot of other places we went to in this trip. (Hence the title of this post.)
We were supposed to meet at 5.50am at the airport, but I was late :( and I forgot my phone, so my mum had to go back to grab it for me. My stepdad was just shaking his head at me in the driver’s seat. In hindsight, this was pretty much how I was on the rest of the trip :P
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| Credits to Gabriel's mum |
We all wore Team SP shirts with the GoGlobal Chiba logo on the back designed by some of us :)
We checked in and everyone decided to go eat, which was probably not advisable seeing as we would be served breakfast and lunch during the flight.
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| Credits to Lynn |
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| Credits to Lynn |
The flight was mostly uneventful, though there was some scary turbulence for a bit >< I was kind of afraid, but then I fell asleep *laughcry emoji* The air on the aeroplane was really dry, and I had difficulty breathing. Some of us actually wanted to put on masks during the flight, but I fell asleep way too fast. Oops.
It took around 7 hours for us to reach Japan. We took Singapore Airlines, and it was pretty comfortable! They would wake us up for breakfast and lunch. Pretty peaceful (except for the turbulence) and time flew by (ha ha).
We occupied the last few rows of the plane as a group.
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| I am terrible with a fish-eye lens. |
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| My "special" breakfast - is it just me or is there a marker heart? |
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| I thought that this was a beautiful shot of the skies. Terrifying, but beautiful. (Credits to Lynn) |
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| We've landed! (Credits to Lynn) |
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| Every toilet in Japan has a bidet, and the airport is no exception. (Credits to Lynn) |
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| We were all super excited! (credits to Gabriel) |
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| Behind the scenes. (Credits to Lynn) |
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| I don't know what I was doing. (Credits to Zi Ning) |
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| Credits to Zi Ning |
We reached and were met by two professors from the Chiba Institute of Science, Mr Hazen and Hiraki-sensei. We actually kept them waiting for a bit even though we were reached earlier than the scheduled time. (Woah, how much earlier did they plan to be at the airport and wait for us?) It was because Genia had trouble with the immigration checkpoint and then got stuck at the automatic door *laughcry emoji*
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| Credits to the CIS |
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| Look at my hair action. And glasses, in case you all forgot how I looked with my spectacles on. (Credits to Gabriel) |
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| (Credits to Gabriel) |
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| (Credits to Gabriel) |
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| (Credits to Gabriel) |
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| Credits to Lynn |
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| Credits to Lynn |
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| This is probably Mr Ng's pose for 50% of the photos. (credits to Zi Ning) |
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| Credits to Lynn |
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| Credits to Lynn |
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| Credits to Lynn |
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| Model walk. |
They brought us to the bus and Hiraki-sensei asked us to introduce ourselves in Japanese to test our proficiency levels. I forgot all I learnt last semester, and I stuttered :(((( oh well. The drive from the airport to the inn was about 2 hours, so we travelled for almost 9 hours that day. I was really tired and headachy :( Slightly nauseous too, though I didn’t vomit. According to Mr Hazen, from the airport, we went under the sea in a tunnel to get to Choshi, which I thought was fascinating.
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| Credits to Gabriel |
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| We're off! (Find me) (Credits to Gabriel) |
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| Credits to Gabriel |
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| They have lanes for both left- and right-handed vehicles! |
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| He waved at us XD |
We then reached the Ryokan Dakshin Inn and got our rooms! The girls slept upstairs and the males below.
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| Ryokan are a type of Japanese traditional inn that started during the Edo period. They normally feature hot baths. |
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| In traditional Japanese inns and most Japanese homes, people wear indoor slippers. |
Mr Ng had a room to himself, but I didn't see what it looked like. We saw the boys’ rooms, though. Well, room. It was quite cosy and cute.
Apparently, the building is one of the oldest in Choshi, and the Ryokan Dakshin business is older than Choshi itself.
The boys helped us carry our luggages upstairs and we saw our room.
It’s a typical Japanese common room-type thing, which you’d see in anime. We chose our futons and were given a tour of the Ryokan. (The photos below were taken in the morning when we were of sound and awake mind.)
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| Credits to Lynn |
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| Credits to Lynn |
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| Credits to Lynn |
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| Credits to Lynn |
The common bath was quite intimidating to us since most of us had never been to a common bath before.
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| Credits to Lynn |
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| Credits to Lynn |
Then, we went to the convenience store nearby, Lawson, to buy Japanese SIM cards, which they obviously did not carry, or you’d have seen this post earlier. That was a lot of commas. Instead, we bought desserts :x Kristopher, Gabriel and I had to ask the innkeeper to bring us there because Mr Hazen and the rest had gone to the nearby convenience store. The night air was really cool - it's been two years since I've last been in Japan - and our innkeeper is actually 82! Wow.
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| I love the tiny details you can find in Japan. |
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| A local bakery that I didn't have the chance to visit. (Credits to Kristopher) |
I bought this bread pudding mix thing and shared Van Houten cocoa and mille crepe with Gabriel and Eugenia for supper.
But before that, we had dinner.
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| Maguro (Tuna) sashimi. That day was the first day I tried maguro - normally I would eat salmon sashimi. It's not bad. |
It was really good! Gabriel kept dropping his food, which was quite funny. We were quiet for the first day - I think we were all quite tired.
We also had an orientation with Mr Hazen.
He told us about the Kake Institution and to look for our own “diamonds.” He said some people hear about others’ experiences and want the same “diamond” experience, so they go looking for this “diamond,” missing other unique diamonds, or rocks with potential to become diamonds.
It was interesting, I guess. I went on this trip with different people, at a different time and place, so I never expected the same experience. I did my best to have fun, and behave, but we'll see how it went, huh?
When we had our bath, the girls all went in threes. Three groups of threes! Me, Eugenia and Lynn went first. We actually brought our towels in with us :x (you're not supposed to do this, shhh.) We could also hear the guys from our side of the bath. It was actually pretty relaxing and fun - we promised to go in without our towels the next day. I had been slightly concerned about the common baths, but it turned out alright, and was pretty enjoyable.
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| Credits to Li Xuan |
Some others were playing ping pong while they waited for their turn. They were pretty loud, and I was worried that they would disturb the other guests, though I wanted to join. I was too tired at that point, so I just headed upstairs to
bed the futon.
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| Introducing... the Ping Pong Club. (Credits to Pei Sze) |
It was really comfortable and warm in the futon! It was fluffy and not hard at all. The pillows vary, though; they came in soft and hard. According to Zi Ning, I was really dramatic and loud in my sleep, rolling everywhere XD It's funny, because normally I sleep like a rock. Looking back, I was always one of the first few to go to bed. Weak.
よろしくお願いします!
(There will be a lot of photos in this Japan trip series, and I used as many photos as possible for a wider perspective. Also I broke my phone on Day 7, and many of my photos were corrupted, so I kind of have no choice when I use photos of others. I've credited everyone, and if uncredited, it means that they are my photos.)
Labels: Chiba, chiba trip, GoGlobal: Chiba, Japan
GoGlobal Chiba, Day 1: Hajimemashite! (はじめまして)
