The New Year

Greetings my fellow mates!

It has definately been ages since I have updated. It has been a week since I got back from Japan now and all I can say is that Japan was the Blast! It has certainly changed my perception on so many things from bathing to food and people. I am really thankful that I was given the opportunity to be involved in such a program. Well, to highlight some experiences,

I went horse-back riding, I went to Universal Studios Japan, I went to many shrines and temples and Himeji Castle too, I visited Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe and Muraoka, I lived in Himeji, which was in Hyogo prefecture, I had MANY public baths in spas and hot springs, I made Mojisuki, I went skiing for 3 days, I ate many weird DELICIOUS food, I love Okonomiyaki, I found out that Japanese people always reverse park, roads in Japan is superbly small, Japanese people cycle ALOT especially the elder people,cars are cheap there, Japanese people don't really look too different from Chinese people, Japanese are extremely polite people and so on. I really don't want to bore you with words but instead I will try to upload more pictures from time to time..

I really do want to go back to Japan to meet my host family and some people I have met over there. My host family consist of 7 people. My host parents have 4 daughters and a son. Oh, and one proud thing I have to say was that they owned a hotel so they whole time I was there I lived in their hotel. Their house is connected to the hotel. They were extremely generous and provided me with all my necessities. It was a really funny and weird experience when they first thought me how to "bath" with them in the public bath. All the man in the family, which were the 4 daughters' husbands and their son joined in for the bath and slowly thought me the procedures. Yes, it did feel weird the first time but soon after I got use to it and it was really relaxing. Japanese people only bath once a day and only before they sleep at night. So you soak yourself in the hot spring before you go to bed. They have procedures for bathing so if you ever take the public bath, becareful not to jump right in the pool. Other than that, I had an extremely packed schedule there. They kept me busy everyday. I really really really really do wanna go back to Japan this year itself. To all you people out there, please, if you have to opportunity, just apply for it, it will be the experience of your lifetime!

Well, on another note, I have applied for ADP in Taylors and I have been enjoying myself. Do hope all will go well for me. Really have to start working hard and do well to get into Uni next year. So, till then, farewell people! Take good care of yourself and please do update me on your happenings too. Forgive me if I have not spent enough time with everyone. Call me anytime peeps! Missing everyone!

UPDATE: Forgot to mention, I appeared in Local Japanese Newspaper too with my pic :P Will post that pic soon.. :P muahahaha..

-jOhN "Oyasumi" LiM-