Lots of it, actually.
Yesterday, YMCA organised an activity in which local volunteers would bring groups of Japanese students around some places in Singapore.
For some reason, Yichuan was among the volunteers, and he asked the NSFs in CPC whether they would like to join him.
The response was overwhelming.
For what I could remember, Jireh, Max, Nick, Dom, Kwok, JY, Bernard, Peng and I volunteered to joining him. That was almost all the NSFs in my branch (Kwok and JY from other branches). Oh there was Howard, an RP (Regimental police) from our Camp Commandant Office as well. Howard actualy took Jap in MOELC too, and could still remember Ono Sensei who taught Pre-U classes.
I didn't know what gave me the courage to actually go and join them. Perhaps it was because YMCA side did not specifically ask for people who know how to speak Jap. Meaning that the Jap students speak quite a lot of English.
They fantasised too much. You'll know why later.
Anyway, I was beginning to think of not identifying myself as someone who can speak Jap, lest I embarassed myself.
Wishful thinking. One of the first things that happened after I stepped into the YMCA educational centre was my colleagues telling those guys I could speak Jap.
Oh well...
Then came the Japanese students... who easily filled the reception hall. Max, who learned a couple of basic greetings from me and other friends, was already introducing himself to some of the students... haha.
After being seated in our separate groups in another dining hall with my local volunteer partners (who were total strangers) and the Jap students we're supposed to entertain (all girls. Zenbu onna no hito datta. Heh heh...), we played some memory game.
I won't even call that game an ice-breaker, because for my group, we, the local guys (yes, all guys. Which makes it a guys-entertain-girls event) were doing most of the scribbling of answers, and I was kind of guilty seeing the Jap girls had nothing to do.
Thank God that game was short enough.
After the game the Jap students were supposed to show us how to do Origami for stuff like - yep you guessed it- cranes.
Well, I did started speaking up at that time. And oh I didn't tell you... it turned out the Jap students hardly spoke English, so speak up = speak Jap.
OK lah, my Jap could still make it lah...
Then, we had lunch which was provided by YMCA side. Then we're supposed to bring them to places like Orchard or City Hall. Originally other places were not allowed, but my group of Jap girls actually asked for a chance to go Chinatown and succeeded.
So, we hopped on the train ("Hajimete!", exclaimed the girls, meaning it's their first time taking train) to Chinatown. After alighting, I heard those girls walking around talking about "tamanegi".
Hmm... why'd they talk about onions in Chinatown?
As it turned out, that's their description of the dome on mosques, as they visited one on the previous day. Haha.
In the end we didn't venture very far from the MRT station... just went through the few rows of shops near the station. And they bought things like handphone ornaments, fans and Merlion pens (at quite high prices...).
Next stop was Takashimaya, where they bought... nothing but drinks. Haha they actually treated us local guys to the drink! So OK lor...
They then said they wanted to go to a "purikura". Thanks to an episode of HardGay I watched recently, I knew that purikura means those shops with a lot of fancy photo sticker printing machines.
We went to Cineleisure then, since Weihan, my partner, said that there's one purikura there.
Wow they're really great at that sort of stuff, man.
After we got the stickers, the girls said they're thinking of returning to their hotel already.
But it was only 3 p.m.! I thought the time they had to return to the hotel was 5?
It was then when I found out that it weas their last day in Singapore... and they weren't quite done with their packing yet.
So... it was early Sayonara for our group... hmm.
Actually, I don't know why I took this pic
I thought I was smiling. That's why.
