Day 4 – Free and Easy Day!

No plans today! Since I only brought 7 days worth of clothing. I have to do some laundry, the control panel is in Japanese but there are some Chinese characters and symbols. So we roughly guess what button does what.

After setting some admin, I and my friend decide to go out since we still have the whole afternoon/evening. We decided to head back to Osu Kannon Shopping Street again to explore the places that we couldn’t explore yesterday. We also decide to walk toward Sakae which is around 15min walk from Osu Kannon Station.

To me, Sakae looks like orchard road in Singapore. Many brand oversea brand stores are around the area. They even lock down an entire street for shoppers to roam about. We saw some landmarks of the city such as the Nagoya TV Tower, Sunshine Sakae and Doki Building!

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Also while on our way there, we saw this small event in an area. There is much small food street stall set up around the area. At the centre of the attendance is a truck that can be converted into a stage. We saw local idols performing and huge fans (locals age 30>) supporting them. Crazy atmosphere!

Local Idol Performance

Takoyaki w Mayo

Takoyaki Street Store

After that, we decide to have dinner at Saizeriya. Since the dorm does not serve breakfast and dinner during Sunday and public holidays. Saizeriya was great as usual! Singapore also has Saizeriya but both countries have a different menu.

Dessert

CARBONARA

PIZZA

CARBONARA W EGG BROKE

With that, we explore around Sakae City to look for souvenirs for our friends back home. When is getting late, we head back to get ready for school tomorrow! Tomorrow will be the first time we going work together with the other oversea student and the Japanese student. Hope everything goes well!

Day 3 – Nagoya Castle & Osu Kannon Temple

Today we decide to visit the symbol of Nagoya, Nagoya Castle. Located around 35min away from our dorm location. It was a great sight to behold on, sadly it was a rainy day and the performance was cancelled. They have people who kinda cosplay/roleplay as samurai and ninja around the castle. It was interesting to see how they are so into the character. Also, the Castle main keep itself is getting a renovation until 2022, therefore it is closed for public entry.

20181006_121734 Nagoya Castle

20181006_112558 Program of the Day

With the performance cancelled we decide to head to Osu Kannon. Where lies the Temple and the Osu Shopping Arcade. The temple was great, we decide to offer some yen as a prayer for our safety in Japan for this 2 months.

20181006_142040 Osu Kannon Temple

The craziest place is the Osu Shopping Arcade. The place is pack with stores selling a huge variety of goods. Ranging from clothes, electronics and many more. We came across a unique store with an entrance that is probably around 90 cm high.

20181006_142543

Alice on Wednesday 90cm Door Entrance

Food porn section incoming in following order breakfast -> dinner. I like to state that the McPork was interesting and sadly MacDonald in Japan is not halal. So Muslim friends do take note!

Day 2 – Welcome Party and Meeting the Group

Firstly Food Report. Breakfast was FISH! It was between pork katsu or saba fish, the answer was simple, Fish. Probably the best breakfast for this trip for now.

20181005_072027 Breakfast

Dinner was a little disappointing but it was not bad. Some sort of Hayashi rice? It was like 80% vegetables than meat………

20181005_203522 Dinner

Today is also the orientation for student form NYP (Singapore) and Kajaanin (Finland). They toured us around the building and showed us our working area.

We were split into 2 groups: A and B. I was in Group A, our team is made up of 3 Singapore, 3 Japanese and 2 Finland students. Surprisingly, there is no artist in the Japanese student group. We are a team of 5 Programmers, 2 Artist and 1 Game Designer (who is title as a programmer lol). After that, we brainstorm for game ideas that we want to create.

Lastly, it was a welcome party, they prepare some local snacks and some drinks for us! Even shown us how they normally start a party with a kanpai (Cheers) and end with a itchō-jime (Single Clap).

20181005_172920 A game of Mario Cart on Switch during the party.