Ok, it's been 2 days since I returned from the world expo learning journey. If I don't blog abt it now, I probably won't do it anymore. So here goes.
5 June
I kinda regret taking the overnight flight. I know it did save one night's accommodation cost, but I think the overnight flight was terrible. I couldn't sleep and I had to keep myself occupied through the entire 6.5 hours. It's quite different for my flights to US coz for those, I do sleep after sometime coz I'm just too tired out. For a 6.5 hr flight, there really isn't enough time to get tired. Most of the others did catch some shuteye I think. Well, the flight was uneventful. Kept myself busy with my PSP. Managed to watch parts of The Incredibles and also Shall We Dance. I was quite pleasantly surprised by Shall We Dance. Not a bad show at all. I think Jennifer Lopez plays these kinds of roles very well. Maid in Manhattan, Monster-in-Law, Shall We Dance, all pretty similar roles. Thinking of getting the DVD now.
6 June
Our first day. Arrival was fine. It was nice meeting Yamakoshi san again. The last time i met her was when I was working in Ken-Air and I organised some trips with her. I remembered her as being a very meticulous and careful tour manager and at the end of the whole trip, my memories were more than confirmed!
Anyway, we made our way to Tokyo Sea Life Park. It's not my first visit there. I was here during my second visit to Japan many years back. I loved the way the Aquarium was designed, the tuna tank and the horizon pool at the entrance were my faves. This time round, the thing which kinda spoilt the visit were the screaming children on a school excursion. Wished it was a more quiet experience to enjoy the fishes. It was also a pity that the boys didn't have time to go to the Observatory Tower and the Ferris Wheel.
After the Sea Life Park, we made our way to Odaiba for lunch and then to the Museum of Emerging Science & Technology. I missed this museum the last time as I had arrived there too late. One of the teachers in school, Mdm Kwek, visited it last year (I think) and highly recommended it. I'm glad we made the trip there. It was a pretty good museum. If not for my tiredness, I would have loved spending more time there. The globe with the LEDs was very nice. You can see it in my album. From the museum, we made our way to the pier (just a short 10 mins walk away) and took a boat across Tokyo Bay to Hinode Pier. I think the boat ride was an excellent idea. It broke the monotony of the coach rides and allowed us to take in some fresh sea breeze.
After a Shabu shabu dinner at a shibuya restaurant, we started on our 3-hr journey to our hotel in Hamamatsu. We reached the hotel around 10pm and were totally bushed. On the whole, a very busy first day.
7 to 9 June
The next 3 days were spent at the World Expo. You can't imagibe the crowds that were there. I shan't talk abou tthe various pavillions but just share some thoughts after the whole expo experience.
- queuing: this was scary. Queues after queues after queues. Everywhere I went, there were queues. And the japanese (which made up majority of the visitors to the expo) were just happily queuing for hours. I think this can be simply improved by having a better queue system. One of the teachers were commenting that it was ironic how the pavillions were so high-tech and we couldn't even come up with a better queue system. Hopefully something will be done for the Shanghai expo.
- high tech stuff: I loved some of the high tech displays. Yeah, I know queuing for hours to see a 5 to 10 min display sounds stupid, but some of these were really awesome. The 4000-line high def screen, the spherical screen, the VR-tech, the 'infinite-screen', all really cool. Pity I didn't get to see the World Larget seamless screen in the Blue Hall of Global House.
- shoes: My feet practically died everyday. The shoes I brought were really ill-fitting and my toes were constantly rubbing against the front of the shoes. It was really really painful. In all my trips, I think this was the only one where I wore such lousy shoes. Wish I had brought my sandals instead. I know it's a little late, but I'm gonna go out and get myself a much better pair of shoes sometime this week.
- recycling: it's amazing how the japanese really recycle everything. They even had people at the recycling bins to help people sort their rubbish into the bins. I think in this repect, Singapore is years behind.
10 June
We went on a half-day self-planned tour of Tokyo before we met at Asakusa for a Taiko Drum session. I think both were excellent plans. The self-planned itineraries were fun but too short. If I ever do this again, I would love to give the boys at least a full day to plan their itinerary. As for the Taiko drums session, it was definitely a unique experience. For me, it was like playing a video game.. heh. Before we left for Japan, I had been hooked on Donkey Konga, a bongo game on the gamecube. Playing the Taikos were a little like that coz I had to memorize the rhythms. The instructor used 'Dong' and 'Kong' to represent right and left and it was totally confusing. On the whole, a memorable and fun experience. Finally, we got ot visit Akihabara in the evening. The sad thing was, it was raining (really dampened the mood) and many shops were already closed! sigh... next time, Akihabara needs to be an afternoon experience, not a night one.
11 June
This was our last ditch attempt to shop before leaving for home. Luckily, Ikebukuro had plenty of shops around which pretty much met our shopping needs. For me, it was definitely one of the most rushed shopping I've ever done. In the end, I must say I'm quite satisfied with my purchases, some of which I have shared in earlier posts. Then, it's to the airport to catch our plane home.
There was quite a bit of apprehension as I was organising this learning journey together with the other teachers. As I had mentioned in an earlier post, this was the first LJ I'd organised since joining RI (not including the prefects' retreats lar). At the end of it all, i think it went on quite well. Hope everyone who went on the trip had fun!
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