Furu Anime Panikku

Actually, I wouldn’t call it an exchange programme, since the Japanese students were having it with another school instead of mine. However, I had 3 friends who came over, and  they asked me to join them during their free time. I was more than glad to hang out with them, despite the strict timings they were given. All that rushing around really sucked, but there’s nothing much that can be done since they were with their school. That’s the reason why I would rather go over to Japan on a personal visit, as opposed to going with my school.

Just like any most IT courses, my friend’s class had the guys outnumbering the girls. Only 8 girls were present, but that’s much better than having only 2 girls in your class. Like my class, for 3 years. The group I hanged out were all Japanese guys, but what the heck, it was fun. My group met another group from his class, and my friend introduced me to the girls as the guy who really likes Ayanami Rei. I guess that killed all my chances? Haha.

Apparently, all the guys in his class are otakus of some sort. Pokemon otaku, Poker Card otaku, Airplane otaku, and many other types which were really interesting. One of them isn’t otaku though. Everyone says that he has surpassed the level of the otaku, going into the next realm.

The other Singaporean students that were in the same group couldn’t converse in Japanese, so once again, I took on the job of being the translator. In the beginning, I got a little confused, speaking Japanese to the Singaporeans and English to the Japanese when questions started flying like bullets and missiles in a warzone. It took about an hour or so for me to be able to function properly.

Here are a few interesting quotes I can recall:

“You know if you’re Japanese if the first thing you say when you step into an aquarium is “うまそう!”"

One of the Japanese students said this when we were in Underwater World, an aquarium. It was really hilarious as some of the students, unlike the other tourists in the aquarium, were more fascinated about how delicious some fishes looked over anything else.

“Singaporean girls don’t like Singaporean guys, so Singaporean guys don’t like Singaporean girls.”

Quoted from a friend who tagged along with the group. She was half Japanese, half Singaporean, but thinks totally like a Singaporean. When she mentioned that she had another friend who was obessessed with Japanese guys, my Japanese friend immediately look at me and said　”彼は逆だ！”.

Sending my friends off at the airport felt somewhat depressing. Just a month ago, I was at the airport too, heading to the same place they are headed now.

Now, I don’t want to go to Japan, I want to return to Japan.