The moment we alighted from the plane, we proceed to the counter for the stamping of our passport. In Japan, they are not using those stamps like what Singapore is using. Instead they used sticker to paste in our passport. The sticker showed the arrival date and how long can we stay in Japan. The Japan check-in area has a lot of different facilities like the Digital Video which checked our temperature. With just one scan, the machine can tell whether we are well or not.
We collected our luggage at belt 2 and upon leaving the airport, the first thing we bought in Japan is MINERAL WATER. It is selling at 110yen to 136 yen (around S$2) . It is a bit on the high side. Most of the food here is very expensive, mineral water is the cheapest. Some of us stepped out the airport to have a feel of the weather, the temperature outside is 12 degree Celsius, cooling is the word we are always using. We love the weather, it is so great.
We moved on to the Fukuoka Science Centre. It is a 3 storey building with a lot of different facilities. One of our favourite exhibit is a drawing robot which can draw Doraemon and Ultraman. The robot can also draw whatever drawings that we we want. Most of us enjoyed the "superimposed" area. It is an area whereby our image will be superimposed onto another landscape. It works something like the new Nintendo Wii, when we looked at the screen, it is as though we are in another land. Very interesting! There's a lot of hands-on activities in the centre. Though we do not understand the instructions (as most of them are written in Japanese), we still managed to figure our way out.
We collected our luggage at belt 2 and upon leaving the airport, the first thing we bought in Japan is MINERAL WATER. It is selling at 110yen to 136 yen (around S$2) . It is a bit on the high side. Most of the food here is very expensive, mineral water is the cheapest. Some of us stepped out the airport to have a feel of the weather, the temperature outside is 12 degree Celsius, cooling is the word we are always using. We love the weather, it is so great.
We moved on to the Fukuoka Science Centre. It is a 3 storey building with a lot of different facilities. One of our favourite exhibit is a drawing robot which can draw Doraemon and Ultraman. The robot can also draw whatever drawings that we we want. Most of us enjoyed the "superimposed" area. It is an area whereby our image will be superimposed onto another landscape. It works something like the new Nintendo Wii, when we looked at the screen, it is as though we are in another land. Very interesting! There's a lot of hands-on activities in the centre. Though we do not understand the instructions (as most of them are written in Japanese), we still managed to figure our way out.
The "Drawing Robot"
Sample of drawing from the "Drawing Robot"
Grace & Shazana before their "work-out". The more they cycle, the balloon in the middle loop will move higher.
After the Science Centre trip, most of us were feeling very hungry. Just imagine, our last meal was at 4:30 a.m. onboard. We went on to a traditional Japanese restaurant which served authentic Japanese Bento meal. Our lunch is very sumptuous. It consists of Miso soup, fish, lots of vegetable and chicken. We gobbled down our food till the plate is clean.
Bento stands for "Home-packed meal". We were told that Japanese will bring their own lunch to school or to work. Their lunch will be packed nicely in a container which looks something similar to the one on the right.
Our next destination is Blood Pool. It is a 2 hours drive from where we had our lunch. Most of us slept in the bus during the journey and we missed a lot of nice scenery. What is so special about the blood pool is it is red in colour and the temperature of the water is about 78 degree Celsius. What accounts for the red colour is due to the presence of transition metal, namely Iron(III) compound and Copper metal. These two metals are red in colour.
The entrance to blood pool
Blood pool. Notice the red colour of the water of the pool.
Next we took a 5 minutes stroll down to the Dragon Whirlpool. This whirlpool will explode every 30-45minutes. We are really lucky to be there at the right time. Within minutes, the explosion occurred. I wondered for a long time what causes that to happen? Who discovered these pools?
The dragon whirlpool
Our last destination for the day is the mud pool which is another 20 minutes ride . I didn't try it. Grace, Lizhen and Regina tried it and it seems like they were really enjoying themselves as they were giggling when they stepped out of the pool. They called the pool "OUR SECRET POOL". We were all very curious what the secret behind the pool it?. After much interrogation, they confessed. They were NAKED when they were in the mud pool. YES.. they were all naked. But the pools are separated, men and women, they do not share the same hot spring. 14 of them went, while the rest of us go to another place to take pictures. (I do not of any picture of the interior of the hot spring.. haha)
Finally, after a 20 minutes drive from mud pool, we reached Beppu Wan Hotel at around 1730. As it is autumn in Japan, the day is much shorter when compared to night. At around 1730, the sky was so dark as if its already 2000hours.
We were given a thematic room. The room is very nice as it is filled with HELLO KITTY, even the toilet roll. Before the dinner we had a short debrief, then we proceed to the dining area. It's like that wedding room; the room got only 27 of us and teacher. the dinner cost 150 Sing dollars. Oh my god! so expensive. It was a slow set dinner whereby we were served with exquiste dishes. Sashimi (raw fish), Rice, grilled fish, cold dish, soup and almond yogurt as dessert.
The Hello Kitty phone in our room
Finally, after a 20 minutes drive from mud pool, we reached Beppu Wan Hotel at around 1730. As it is autumn in Japan, the day is much shorter when compared to night. At around 1730, the sky was so dark as if its already 2000hours.
We were given a thematic room. The room is very nice as it is filled with HELLO KITTY, even the toilet roll. Before the dinner we had a short debrief, then we proceed to the dining area. It's like that wedding room; the room got only 27 of us and teacher. the dinner cost 150 Sing dollars. Oh my god! so expensive. It was a slow set dinner whereby we were served with exquiste dishes. Sashimi (raw fish), Rice, grilled fish, cold dish, soup and almond yogurt as dessert.
The Hello Kitty phone in our room
The Hello Kitty floor mat in our room
The Hello Kitty dustbin in our room. Notice the Hello Kitty bedsheet.
Ou
r S$150 dinner...
No comments:
Post a Comment