Saturday, June 7, 2008

Lectures

Lessons in Tokyo Tech are pretty much the same as those in Junior College in Singapore. They have fixed timetables for everyone, (compulsory) PE lesson, common time slot for recess etc.



A typical classroom used for seminar



A teacher bringing his class out of the classroom to observe the structures of buildings.. interesting. Most prob from architecure or civil engineering.



Due to the common lunch break timing, the canteens are always packed during that time. So we usually buy Bento(弁当) and picnic on the open grassfield. Summer is coming.. nice weather

Here are some video clips i secretly took during class:


Module title: Operations Management



Module title: Distribution Channels

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Tokyo Tower

Some pple call it the "Fake Eiffel Tower", cos the shape is rather similar.
Tokyo Tower is located rite in the middle of the city - good landmark for the surrounding area.

View from the bottom:


From the top, you can see the whole Tokyo lighted up.

Up at the observation deck, there's also a cute DJ playing music and reading the song dedications to entertain the crowd.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

SAILING in Japan !!!

(Disclaimer: I apologize if there is some sailing terms/jargon used in this blog)

I went for a sailing session with my uni’s yachting club. The location was a small place called ShinZushi(新逗子), which is known to be one of the more popular sea sports location within close proximity to Tokyo. There were abt 50 pple in total – 30 newbies and 15 seniors. After changing trains 3 times from school, we finally reached the marnia. Indeed, it was a splendid place for sailing – nice beach, open waters, gentle waves….
In Singapore, I sailed a LASER, which feels kinda different from the SNIPE I used today. Although the rigging, sheets and knots were the same, the Laser is smaller, and thus more responsive when tacking/jybing. It’s a pity that the wind was not blowing consistently, and we were stranded a few times.. sob sob. We ended up floating around in circles and wasting time.
(Interesting fact to note: I had no problem communicating with them while sailing cos all the sailing terms were exactly the same as English. Mainsheet = Me-n-shi-i-to. Tack = te-ku. Jybe=Jya-bu. Its basically the same thing, but just pronounced in a Japanese way.)
The cool sea breeze and the magnificent view of the seaside was quite a splendid and memorable experience for those people sailing for the first time.

After sailing, we were brought to the other end of the beach, where clusters of beach houses were located. We entered TITECH sailing club’s beach clubhouse, and were treated to a curry rice lunch prepared by them. It was good! The beach house may have been slighted squeezy with all 50 of us in it, but the atmosphere was friendly. We chatted and took turns to do some self-introduction – and yup, I was the only foreign exchange student there. Haha. The rest were all normal first-year undergrads.
It was past 5pm when the whole event ended. Great experience.. enjoyed it very much J




(Jap version: Sorry if there’s any grammar or vocab mistake)

今日、大学ヨット部の試乗会に参加した。場所は新逗子って、東京市に近くて海スポーツできるビーチと言えば、ここはとても有名 と先輩に教えられた。新入生30人、先輩15人と私の計50人は大学で集合し、電車とバスに三回乗り換えたら、やっと着いた。やはり、灘やビーチがあり、この所では、波が低いのでセイリングするのに最も適した場所ね!

SNIPEは私がいつもシンガポールで使うLASERと一味違う気持ちだ。もっと大きい型のせいで、割とまどろっこしい。残念ながら、風があまり吹いていないので、ヨットは全然速く動かなかった時もあった(涙)。ただ此処彼処でぶらぶらして堂々巡りばかりそのものだ!だけど、海風が涼しいと、海岸景色も見事、初めてセイリングする人々にとっては、本当に魅力的、すばらしい気持ちだ。

そして、僕たちがビーチの他方に連れられた。そこは、ビーチハウスで一面に広がり、至る所だ。東工大ヨット部の部屋に一緒に先輩が作ったカレーライス(う~、うまいよ!)を食べながら、おしゃべり。ちっちゃい部屋に50人も集まるのはかなりいっぱいのに、皆さんは優しいで自己紹介すると親しい雰囲気である。ちなみに、全員で交流生が俺だけ、他の参加者は全て学部一年生だ。
活動が終わって帰宅したのは、5時過ぎ。日本でセイリング経験をよく楽しみましたJ

Me at the marina:

Sailing area:

Too bad i cant get a photo of myself sailing... you cant bring a camera out to sea...