JENESYS (Part One)

Before I completely forget what happened during the trip, I'll blog about JENESYS. :D Ooh, finally, I'm getting myself to do this. After like what... a whole 6 months? XD

I can't entirely remember the whole trip though, but thanks to the pictures, I'm still able to recount what happened. *phew*


Before I start, I just wanna say that I TOTALLY REGRET NOT TAKING ENOUGH PICTURES (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), AND I REGRET NOT BUYING ENOUGH STUFF TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY GOD. I STILL CAN'T GET OVER IT!!!!

Well anyways, here it is, part one of my Japan trip. :D (Have to resize all the photos, if not, the uploading process would be a torture. :/)

Marvien! Our coordinator! super awesome!

I-forgot-what-group-i-was-in WE'RE IN KLIA! 

Pavitra! :D My roomate-slash-seatmate!
And coincidentally, she's a Kedahan, and we're roomates from the beginning! Like literally the beginning, since the interview!

AND FINALLY, LANDED ON KANSAI AIRPORT!

TOILET!

WE WERE ALL SO EXCITED WHEN WE SAW THE TOILET. couldn't wait to use it! XD Not only because we were really wanting to use it, it was also because of the cool devices we heard the Japanese toilets have.
BUT. TOO BAD, the toilet we used (the picture above) was a Japanese style toilet. It was the same normal ma tong where we had to squat down to use it. :/ haha. No extra buttons, no automatic bidets and no music either. Haha.

Okay, blogger is acting really weird. It's not letting me upload pics!! UGH. Alrighty, let's try again.

Inside Kansai Airport. Waiting to board on the bus. :D
From left: Clarisse, Me, Mei Yee and Rach!

Tour guides!
Centre: Seiko-san! AND PANDA. :( damn, i forgot what's the lady's name on the right. :( will update when i know! D:

The tour guides were suuuuppppperr-duper nice! They had these awesome smiles on their faces ALL THE TIME. Service: 200 marks! Panda wasn't really good in English, but he tried his best to communicate with us. :D He's a university volunteer by the way! :)) LOL and most of the girls went into this crazy fangirl-mode when they saw him, cause he's the first Japanese we saw! Haha.

First stop: NARA! 奈良

It was soooo awesome there. The splendidly colourful leaves adorning the trees were such a delight to the eyes! I've never seen anything so beautiful before!

Beautiful view!

Yep, those are indeed deers you're looking at!

Deers can be found roaming freely in Nara! They were so tame and cute! They just let you pet them and their doe eyes are soooo cute! I've got no idea where we were actually. It's either Nara park or Kasuga Shrine. It's somehow all connected? Couldn't get a thing our tour guides said, I just followed the flow. XD

Deers+Japanese students=Perfect combination!
The high school students were feeding the 'sika's(deers) Senpei (biscuits)

Nara Park (or wherever we were) was almost flooded with high school students that day! When you look down at the park from higher ground, all you can see are black uniforms moving around! Haha. They were all visiting Nara for their school trips! Gah, and mind you, Japanese school trips are over-the-top-awesome!

Kasuga Shrine

Ginko Leaves!

I wanted to bring the leaves home as souvenirs, but didn't do so. Thought taking leaves out of the shrine was a bad idea. Didn't want to mess with the Jap Gods. :/ Haha.

An Ojisan drawing!

After an hour or so. :)
LOL this was after we went round the temple and came back. On our way back, he was still standing there, determined to finish his drawing! :D

Apparently Japanese ojisans love to draw! Met another drawing Ojisan in Hiroshima too! :D Will post up his picture a few posts later!

Finally, lunch time!

Lunch in Nara!

Didn't get a picture of the restaurant! :( It was something like a grocery shop at the front, and at the back, it's a restaurant. They sell souvenirs and stuff. :) Made my first purchase here! LOL. It was just plain water though! XD I spent so much money on mineral water in Japan!

Another beautiful tree! :DDDD
Makes me so happy seeing the bright red leaves! :)

Yeah, and I know, spring is already here. I bet sakuras are even more beautiful than the red and yellow leaves I saw. But I'm still grateful!

Todaiji Temple!

A failed attempt! XD We never succeeded in our jump shots anyway. haha
HOMG, and look at the Jap students at the back! :3

After all the touring in Nara, we finally headed back to the hotel!
I HAVE NO IDEA WHY I DIDN'T TAKE A PHOTO OF MY ROOM, AND THE BATHROOM OF THE HOTEL. IT WAS THE MOST AMAZING HOTEL BATHROOM I'VE EVER USED! :((( THEY HAD A TRAY OF AWESOME TOILETRIES! :( AND THE BED WAS SUPER COZY. TT_______________TT I MISS IT THERE. :(

Well, but I had a picture of the tv. XD

HOTEL! The kids tv show on Jap TV! XD

After resting etc, we had to go down to the gigantic hall for our first dinner in Japan! Oh yeah, we were split into groups. I was in CM10. :( Gahh, missing them a lot.

Didn't get a photo of the JENESYS people lining up for food - which is a very sad thing, cause it was actually very spectacular! Didn't even take photos of the food! Well I didn't eat much though. IDK why.Well the food, was served in a buffet style. You had to line up and serve yourself. I never figured out which end was the starting point and which end was the ending point. Oh! And I remember having this super scrumptious green tea cake! :D

From left: Brie from Tasmania, Rach and ME! :)
my god, my eyes. I SHOULD SRSLY LEARN HOW TO STOP SMILING LIKE THAT!
*we were secretly spazzing how we had an ang moh in our group, but she was so cool at the beginning, and so awkward*
*behind those smiles, it was actually very awkward having a picture with here LOL*
But she finally opened up in the end! Haha, I think she was just shocked by the myriad of Asians. XD

Having Ramona (from NZ) sign our autograph books! :D Super star Ramona much? Oh, and she was a total sweetie!
From left: Katrina(from Phillipines), Rach, Afi, and Robyn(From Phili as wel)
BTW, RACH WAS SOOO POPULAR AMONG ALL OF US! 

After having our dinner, we went to the toilet. THIS TIME, IT WAS THE TYPE OF TOILET WE WERE ALL WAITING FOR. We were all spazzing like crazy people about the toilet when we went it! Hahaa. Like retards. So all hail, the long awaited Toilet!

You think there's nothing special about this toilet? Look closely. 

OHMAIGOD. AREN'T YOU FASCINATED?!
SPRAY SPRAY. BIDET BIDET. FLUSHING SOUND. HAHA. you can even adjust the water pressure! XD

So after the toilet craziness, we went back to the hall for our briefing.

MR JUNKO TAKADA giving a speech! :)

The next day, we went to Kyoto.

One thing I didn't like about this trip was that we rushed too much. Didn't even have time to shop and look around much. :( But it's true what AFS Malaysia told us, we weren't there just to have fun and tour around, but we're there to learn about their history and culture. That's why AFS Japan tries to squeeze in as much places as they can for us to visit. But still, am feeling perfectly lucky that I got chosen for this program! Something that many people have dreamed of. T__T

Kyoto skies

Smurfs in Tokyo

Yumi, Me, and Izumi! :)
They're the student volunteers for CM10
IZUMI WENT TO MALAYSIA FOR HER STUDENT EXCHANGE PROGRAMME! :))

Entrance of Kiyomizu Dera

Kiyomizu Dera

Kiyomizu Dera

Tadah, the pretty ticket to Kiyomizu Dera

View from the top of Kiyomizu Dera!

Little kindergarten kids we saw on our way! He was shooo cute. Missed the shutter when he posed for my camera though! :(

Really adored walking down the streets of Kyoto! Loved the buildings, loved the vibe. It was just so eccentric! Too bad, we didn't get to meet any geikos/maikos. :(

Oh, and we went into a shop which sells rice cakes and cinnamon sticks. They actually serve tea and samples when you walk in the shop. Doesn't matter if you buy things from their shop or not. Service is 200% again! :D And they prepare benches for you to sit down while drinking and eating! So nice! It was so packed in there I couldn't take out my camera and take a picture of the interior lah! :(

But here's the picture of the cinnamon sticks they sell.

Cinnamon sticks! Bought some rice cakes from this shop!

3 school girls with the same fashion sense! Haha. Same type of bags, same hairstyle same everything!

Then it was lunch time! After lunch, we went to see a Kimono Fashion Show which was just opposite the restaurant. :D

Lunch! ご飯！

Okay, gotta go now. :( It's 11:30pm. Have to shower and go to bed. So will continue the post next time!

LOL and this layout sucks. :/ Will change it soon.