Nikenkan Version 2.0

Homestay began with the arrival of the 5 Japanese students at the airport. I was pretty excited to meet Fumi, the person whom I was hosting. Upon meeting her, I found her to be very bubbly and extremely cute!

The first time she saw the HDB block that I was staying at, she was amazed at how tall the building was. As she was pretty tired from the flight, we had an early night to prepare for the next day’s activities. The next day, we went to school by MRT, and again, she was rather excited to start the day off by riding on the train. We had a tour to the Culture Room at JS department where it was the first time they had ever experience the traditional tea ceremony. After lunch at the engineering canteen, we took a hike at Mt Faber. Even though it was tiring, we really had fun interacting with them as a group!

As she requested to have dinner with my family on Sunday, we took her to the old airport road for dinner. There we had a feast, eating chilli crab, herbal chicken, cha kuay teow and drinking sugar cane juice. Even though the rest of my family members do not speak Japanese, they were still able to communicate because Fumi’s English is really good! After dinner, we brought her to Geylang Serai to see the Pasar Malam inconjunction with Hari Raya. She surprised us with the knowledge of knowing how to speak simple Malay. When we were back home, as we were still in the month of the Ghost Festival, my mom brought her to see the Wayang which was fascinating for her because she has never seen anything like that.

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the activities on the other days due to school, thus I wasn’t able to join her. But every night we would talk about her day and she would jabber happily about her day and what she bought. We even had a try-on-her-new-clothes session!

I attended the BBQ on the last night and because I had an assignment that I had to rush for, I couldn’t stay and send her off the next day. So our last goodbyes were said during the BBQ when I was about to leave. I guess, both of us were trying not to cry, and we kept talking and hugging and refused to part. It was sad for me to see her for the last time! And I will and am definitely missing her!

 Charmaine