"One
of the biggest differences I noticed between life in Japan and Singapore is
that their students there are more dedicated to their CCAs and seem to enjoy
school more. Also, they have many activities outside school, and do not solely
just rely on the computer for entertainment.
My
buddy happened to bring me along to some learning center where she goes weekly
to practice calligraphy, which is also her CCA, and she has been doing this for
the past 9 years. Also, she plays the piano extremely, extremely well, and I
also heard from her mom that she swims really well. Probably this is because
these are the activities that my buddy spends her free time on instead of
always using the computer like me, which is why she turned out to be so
talented, unlike me :0.
Despite
having so many activities, my buddy showed me this log that she said the school
asked them all to do. It is a rather detailed timetable of the things to do
after school, and there’s an allocated time to study, to practice the piano, to
eat, etc. Their lives are well regulated and they exercise much more discipline
than us Singaporeans.
Another
thing I realized during my stay in Japan is the difference between living in a
small and a big country. There is a lot to see and do over in Japan, thus their
family often goes on short day trips to different places to do things.
Transport is much more time-consuming in Japan though, despite the very
efficient train system. The distance between two stops on the map seems very
short, but it is actually a very long walking distance due to the size of the
city, and also it is pretty expensive travelling in Kyoto, especially without a
train pass.
One
thing I really enjoyed was the class visit during the second last day. We had
music, Japanese, PE, physics, and flower arrangement lessons. From what I heard
from the people there, the students also have lifestyle lessons, where they
learn where their food comes from, or how to do daily stuff, and also cooking.
I feel that this kind of education is both interesting and useful.
Despite
the academic abilities of the students in our school, many people do not know
the nitty gritty interesting facts about daily life, and end up not knowing
stuff or how to handle simple problems when they arise. Of course, our school
focuses heavily on math and sciences, so there may not be the time or resources
for this kind of activities, but I feel that it is both interesting and
meaningful, and that this kind of information is worth knowing.
Physics
was quite interesting as we learnt how to make and see rainbows. The lecture
was quite technical and draining, so we saw some of the students dozing off
during the lecture, which was amusing, because no matter whether we’re Japanese
or Singaporean, there are some similarities between us :P. The practical part
of the lesson was a very simple experiment that involved a black paper, spray
glue, and some sort of small circular glass balls that allows us to see a
rainbow due to refraction of light. It was a simple and fun experiment, which I
feel that might make lessons interesting. However, it may not be so applicable
to our school because our schedule is tight and every experiment we do has some
much more complicated theory to it. The lessons were generally pretty fun to
attend.
Of
course, not everything went perfectly smoothly throughout the trip. I felt that
the NINS workshop was really time-consuming considering that we didn’t really
do much there. I regretted choosing basic biology instead of molecular science
because I was interested to find out more about biology since I didn’t take it
from year 5 onwards. However, it turned out that I wasn’t able to understand
almost everything as it required certain genetic modification knowledge that I
wasn’t taught, and thus wasn’t really able to help my groupmates come up with a
presentation, and therefore it didn’t had much content in it. However, to those
who did take bio, they felt like they didn’t really learn anything from the
trip, and as the presentations were done in English with most of the content
presented by the Singaporeans, I felt like the Japanese students didn’t really
receive much out from this workshop either.
However,
as it is one of the only academic activities during the trip, it was necessary
to do this. The experience of trying to communicate with our groupmates and
staying in a hostel where we had to do everything for ourselves was unique, and
we did learn some things out of it, even though it wasn’t really pleasant.
Another
issue that happened was that I think I caused quite a bit of problem for my
buddy, because I requested to go to places with other people in the group. I
was quite unlucky for this trip because I wasn’t able to access wi-fi and was
unable to contact the rest of the group, and also, my buddy planned the
activities for me but wasn’t able to tag along because of her tests.
I
think that my buddy got quite stressed because I had to contact the others via
my buddy contacting their buddies, and it was much harder than I expected to
organize a group outing as our Japanese buddies did not really know each other
that well, and some of them had already planned activities beforehand.
Therefore, I think I kind of killed the mood a little on Saturday because my
buddy started arguing with her mom, and I also kind of unintentionally troubled
my buddy’s mom as she went to call the other party’s parents to see if they are
okay with a group outing. I was trying to tell them not to worry if it’s too
troublesome, but communication problems kind of prevented me from doing that.
Therefore,
I felt quite guilty that I troubled my buddy so much just to plan these
activities for me. In the end, I still had a pretty fun trip on Sunday going to
Nara to see the deer with Yi Xuan, and we also managed to squeeze a small group
outing on the second last day of the trip, which was extremely fun though quite
short, so it worked out pretty well.
Overall,
the trip felt quite short and I didn’t get to do as much as I wanted, such as
buying souvenirs for friends, but all in all, I enjoyed my stay in Japan, got
to eat quite a bit of nice food, and received really good hospitality. On my
buddy’s side, they were trying their best to ensure my stay was a good one, so
even though not everything went the way I wanted it, I realized from some of
these issues that it is not solely just what I want, and sometimes it is better
to not be so assertive if it would be troublesome for my buddy. Thus, I’m
really grateful to my host family.
Now
that I’ve been to Kyoto and received such good hospitality, although the buddy
that would be coming over wouldn’t be the same one, I’ll most probably be able
to better empathize with him since I’ve experienced the outbound trip.
Therefore, I’ll try my best to accommodate to my buddy’s needs, and try to do
as much as I can with the existing barrier. And most of all, I’d like me and my
buddy to have as much as possible when he comes over soon! :D"
anyway, if u managed to actually read all that, yea im kinda happy that i get a second chance, and it feels much easier to host than to go there and interact cos i've got more stuff to tell my buddy. and i kinda met him before too, somehow. lucky. but then im kinda worried that my buddy will judge me cos he looks quite the popular guy. sigh i have no confidence.
but yea, i think i've got quite a lot of things i want to tell my new buddy that i din't get to say to my old buddy. see how it goes. its only next next week :D. bring them around, especially now that i get how it feels like to be an outbound buddy. intending to host some bbq at one of the weekends (and jio ppl :P). and then i get to go night safari for the first time lol. pretty excited haha
kk anyway, that's all for now. bye ~~
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