Welcome to my blog. I sincerely do hope that you would gain much insights about life in Japan, mainly in Kumamoto City.
3 other guys and myself left for Fukuoka on the night of September 30th 2009, specifically our flight was October 1st 2009 at 1.00am.
The flight was horrible, if you have not taken the window seats and always wanted to, DON'T. There is almost no ventilation and extremely humid, the reward however is that you get to enjoy most of the fantastic view that no one else can.
Talk about service, Singaporean SQ Stewardess seemed to be less hospitable towards Singaporeans as compared to Japanese. I wonder why. But Japanese SQ Stewardess are much more friendlier.
If you seen Changi Airport and think that all airport look the same, you'll be in for a shock when you see how bad a condition the Fukuoka International Airport is. One wouldn't expect a Terminal 3, but at least half of Terminal 1 would be enough.
For a capital of the region, there is nothing the city can be proud about this Airport. Immigration was horrible, long queues of foreigners wait for 10 plus Japanese officers to clear Japanese first then watch as 7 of them take their time to stroll to the foreigner queues.
Imagine a packed immigration checkpoint, did I mention there is no air conditioning? Couldn't stop sweating, alright then, less of the rant and more story now.
So onwards to the details!
Day 1 - Fukuoka, Japan.
We arrived on time on SQ656 at local time 8.10am which is about 7.00am in Singapore, Japan is running on a GMT +9 timing. As mentioned, immigration of horrible. Bags were all out by the time 4 of us got cleared. Unlike Singapore, there are no checks of the bag except for declaration of the items you have with you. The security staffs are extremely friendly. The only "checking" part about this part is that once you reach the baggage claim, a dog handler with his/her dog would approach you to probably sniff for illegal materials.
Sidenote, don't trust SQ's advertisement of world class chefs preparing their food. It was horrible, the portions are ridiculously small. The only good about is, you get free beer, cocktails, red wine and probably the best is the muffin and orange juice.
Once we got out, it was heaven. We're no longer in a stuffed area with poor ventilation.
We bought ourselves 4 highway bus ticket to Kumamoto from the airport. It cost 2,000 yen but buying 4 gives 20% discount each.
It wasn't very pleasant, because I had a big meal before my flight, I already felt like vomitting on the plane during to some 2 hours turbulence over the Phillipines and Taiwan straits. The back of the bus was hot and made things worst.
Plus I was hungry.
Public transportation in Japan is different from Singapore, I've always taken for granted the fact that I can leave home 20minutes before school start and still be early.
Paying for is also different, other than this airport shuttle. The other thing about their transport is, you board from the back and alight at the front. When you board, you HAVE to take a ticket and you would pay when you alight. Not taking a ticket would probably cost you a hefty fine I guess.
So, finally after 2 hours of holding the vomit back in. We arrived at the Koutsu Center in Kumamoto where a KNCT techer was waiting for us. It was extremely hot and humid. During this time, Kumamoto is switching between Summer and Autumn, temperatures are generally similar but it's much humid over here.
A current check in Google shows that both Singaporea and Kumamoto are raining with temperatures 29 degree celsius and 21 respectively. Humidity levels are 64% and 94%.
So you can roughly imagine how sticky the air is and how uncomfortable it is.
Once we've met with the teacher, he brought us to the toilet to freshen up and then drive us to KNCT. Midway, we drop by a Ramen shop for lunch. He was extremely nice and treated each of us to a bowl of Ramen which cost 600 Yen each, that is roughly SGD9.50.
Okay, you may think its okay. But judging that is probably their version of a neighbourhood coffeeshop. $10 for lunch without beverage? I don't think so. So, Japan's cheapest region isn't all that cheap afterall. Thankfully, we only pay 1000 Yen for our 3 meals in hostel and its extremely good compared to Japanese food back home.
After lunch, we went to KNCT, got our room, explored the place a little and it was night time. Not sure how electricity is charged here, but seems kinda expensive based on Google results. Each unit on a worst case scenario is about 22 Yen/kW.
I already used 2kW in a day. 1320 Yen would be the rough gauge for a month's. That's cheaper than in Singapore.
Day 2 - Kumamoto, Japan
Second day, already starting to feel homesick. Feeling lost in a foreign land with poor knowledge of their language definitely does not help the situation. It made me think "What am I doing here?".
At first impression, the Japanese seemed sort of hostile towards foreigners. There is a custom that in this hostel, whenever you see each other you should greet. Their greeting style is different such that a word like "Konnichiwa" sounds like "Umchom".
Thankfully, we were introduced to the foreign students here. Somehow, 4 of us get the impression that foreigners and Japanese do not come together in an equation.
So, instead of 4, 3 of us without any knowledge of the city at all and having extremely bad Japanese but above average Chinese, ventured into the city.
It was 30% wisdom, 60% hardwork and 10% knowledge to navigate through the city. Update on the next time round!
3 other guys and myself left for Fukuoka on the night of September 30th 2009, specifically our flight was October 1st 2009 at 1.00am.
The flight was horrible, if you have not taken the window seats and always wanted to, DON'T. There is almost no ventilation and extremely humid, the reward however is that you get to enjoy most of the fantastic view that no one else can.
Talk about service, Singaporean SQ Stewardess seemed to be less hospitable towards Singaporeans as compared to Japanese. I wonder why. But Japanese SQ Stewardess are much more friendlier.
If you seen Changi Airport and think that all airport look the same, you'll be in for a shock when you see how bad a condition the Fukuoka International Airport is. One wouldn't expect a Terminal 3, but at least half of Terminal 1 would be enough.
For a capital of the region, there is nothing the city can be proud about this Airport. Immigration was horrible, long queues of foreigners wait for 10 plus Japanese officers to clear Japanese first then watch as 7 of them take their time to stroll to the foreigner queues.
Imagine a packed immigration checkpoint, did I mention there is no air conditioning? Couldn't stop sweating, alright then, less of the rant and more story now.
So onwards to the details!
Day 1 - Fukuoka, Japan.
We arrived on time on SQ656 at local time 8.10am which is about 7.00am in Singapore, Japan is running on a GMT +9 timing. As mentioned, immigration of horrible. Bags were all out by the time 4 of us got cleared. Unlike Singapore, there are no checks of the bag except for declaration of the items you have with you. The security staffs are extremely friendly. The only "checking" part about this part is that once you reach the baggage claim, a dog handler with his/her dog would approach you to probably sniff for illegal materials.
Sidenote, don't trust SQ's advertisement of world class chefs preparing their food. It was horrible, the portions are ridiculously small. The only good about is, you get free beer, cocktails, red wine and probably the best is the muffin and orange juice.
Once we got out, it was heaven. We're no longer in a stuffed area with poor ventilation.
We bought ourselves 4 highway bus ticket to Kumamoto from the airport. It cost 2,000 yen but buying 4 gives 20% discount each.
It wasn't very pleasant, because I had a big meal before my flight, I already felt like vomitting on the plane during to some 2 hours turbulence over the Phillipines and Taiwan straits. The back of the bus was hot and made things worst.
Plus I was hungry.
Public transportation in Japan is different from Singapore, I've always taken for granted the fact that I can leave home 20minutes before school start and still be early.
Paying for is also different, other than this airport shuttle. The other thing about their transport is, you board from the back and alight at the front. When you board, you HAVE to take a ticket and you would pay when you alight. Not taking a ticket would probably cost you a hefty fine I guess.
So, finally after 2 hours of holding the vomit back in. We arrived at the Koutsu Center in Kumamoto where a KNCT techer was waiting for us. It was extremely hot and humid. During this time, Kumamoto is switching between Summer and Autumn, temperatures are generally similar but it's much humid over here.
A current check in Google shows that both Singaporea and Kumamoto are raining with temperatures 29 degree celsius and 21 respectively. Humidity levels are 64% and 94%.
So you can roughly imagine how sticky the air is and how uncomfortable it is.
Once we've met with the teacher, he brought us to the toilet to freshen up and then drive us to KNCT. Midway, we drop by a Ramen shop for lunch. He was extremely nice and treated each of us to a bowl of Ramen which cost 600 Yen each, that is roughly SGD9.50.
Okay, you may think its okay. But judging that is probably their version of a neighbourhood coffeeshop. $10 for lunch without beverage? I don't think so. So, Japan's cheapest region isn't all that cheap afterall. Thankfully, we only pay 1000 Yen for our 3 meals in hostel and its extremely good compared to Japanese food back home.
After lunch, we went to KNCT, got our room, explored the place a little and it was night time. Not sure how electricity is charged here, but seems kinda expensive based on Google results. Each unit on a worst case scenario is about 22 Yen/kW.
I already used 2kW in a day. 1320 Yen would be the rough gauge for a month's. That's cheaper than in Singapore.
Day 2 - Kumamoto, Japan
Second day, already starting to feel homesick. Feeling lost in a foreign land with poor knowledge of their language definitely does not help the situation. It made me think "What am I doing here?".
At first impression, the Japanese seemed sort of hostile towards foreigners. There is a custom that in this hostel, whenever you see each other you should greet. Their greeting style is different such that a word like "Konnichiwa" sounds like "Umchom".
Thankfully, we were introduced to the foreign students here. Somehow, 4 of us get the impression that foreigners and Japanese do not come together in an equation.
So, instead of 4, 3 of us without any knowledge of the city at all and having extremely bad Japanese but above average Chinese, ventured into the city.
It was 30% wisdom, 60% hardwork and 10% knowledge to navigate through the city. Update on the next time round!
