1st week in Rikkyo: Orientation

I've been busy with my orientation and adopting Tokyo life. I went to school since last Thur but classes will commence on this Wed.

There are only 28 exchange students this term but 1/3 are graduate or post-grad students, some doing their PhD. But there are only 6 from Biz (3 from SMU & 3 from Taiwan). I feel very inferior cos almost all of them can speak Japanese very well. Some had lived in Japan during their high school/undergrad time. 1 New Zealand guy lived in Okinawa for 5 years and Tokyo for 3 years. Most are from Korea, Taiwan, the US, China, Germany and Poland (i think). There are only 3 from SG. We are the worst in Japanese among all (oh...Taiwanese are also the same) This photo was taken on the first day outside Center of International Studies (OIR in SMU) with student volunteers from IFL Club (Int'l Friendly Lunch - like SMUicon but slightly different) I was really amazed by their helpfulness. They don't have buddy program like us but they help us as group. Sometimes they outnumber exchange students. I was really ashamed to admit as a former VP of my club that we lack passion like them. They are not our buddy but really take care of us. But in SMU, some exchange students don't even know who's the leader of SMUicon.

I don't know about my Japanese but my Chinese has been improved a lot cos the China students are talking to my in Chinese. They know that I can't communicate to most Japanese so they help me a lot. And there is one full-time China girl called Fan Fan. She's one of the most active volunteers in that club and the main person for us to communicate to Japanese ppl. She helped me and Alicia buy hand phone.



Campus tour: Exchange & IFL students under Sakura tree outside Rikkyo University

Last Sat, we had Hanami (花見）picnic. It's really funny cos Hanami is to appreciate Cherry Blossom but we were meeting at night :p for dinner and drink. Oh btw, their club is IFL (L means lunch but it's dinner-time lol)

Guys: Flowers are gone after the rain so let's drink.


Girls: OMG, where is our drink!!!

After that we went to KTV. I sang 2 songs with the help of Fan Fan but it's in Chinese. I promised them I'd sing Japanese songs next time. :D

Alicia: How that Japanese guy sings so well....
Junkai & Naoki: When is my turn? I'm waiting for 20 mins already.



Fan Fan: Where is David Tao in the list?


Jin: Keep quiet! I can't sing.

It seems very fun, right? Don't think everything is so fun. I've been eating like this to save money.

My first dinner cooked at hostel: 2 eggs, one packet of Miso soup and one salad for 2 ppl (in SG, even I alone eat more than that)