Before the Speech Contest

On the day of the speech contest, we were supposed to visit another famous tourist spot - Okayama Korakuen.

However, this beautiful study lounge for the students of the university is where we ended up~ But no one is complaining because "We finally got WIFI!!!". Hahaha.......never knew that one could be so happy just to get wifi connections. 

Well, not that I think about it, we should've gone to the korakuen instead because the place is absolutely stunning! And, I'm not sure when is the next time I will get to visit this beautiful city again. I really hope that I will get opportunity to come again!

Lol, actually how we ended up here was because one of our members got sick so we made a stop at the clinic in the uni and also, it was raining....

But we're absolutely loving it.....see, we're all too busy with our phones to even bother with anything else.

hehehe....for days we've been trying to get our hands on wifi to contact our families etc.....but failed desperately! lol.... every single we enter a room in the university, someone will be trying their luck!

Wifi aside, you get some pretty good views from inside the study lounge. I wished that my uni had such a spacious and quiet area for us to study.

After the wifi party, they brought us to one of the main research facility in the university for an eye-opening experience. 

Some of the views along the way....

Really love how the 2 universities that we visited were located on top of the hill~ The view is just amazing!

Have you seen fresh-water and sea-water fishes swimming together in the same water? Well this is where it all happens in their special water! Who knew that later in the night we would be having fugu (that do not have any poison) sashimi that were reared from this very facility.

Really happy that I got to see 2 research facility in the uni. One was the chemistry lab from the day before and the other was this. I only wished that I could visit their biology labs too!

Then finally, it was lunch time in one of the classrooms. Love the bento!!!

Everything was yummy even though they were cold. hehehe.....talking about cold food, I'm reminded of Na-chan! She was complaining that ever since we arrived, all we've been eating were cold food stuffs! In a way it's quite true......except for the foods that I ate on arrival day and the bowl of hot rice at breakfast the next morning, everything else was served cold. Even so, they taste great!

Happy faces everywhere!

After that, we were brought to another classroom where we changed into our national costumes and did our make-up! 

Kurashiki Binkan + Sushi dinner

After our animation experience, we went to this very famous tourist spot in Kurashiki - Kurashiki Binkan.

Everything repaired and remodeled but the architecture of the buildings from the outside are pretty much from the olden times.

The water is seriously clean and clear~ kinda reminds me of the philosopher's path in Kyoto.

Even the ducks agree....

There you will see a lot of buildings like these which used to be store houses during the Edo-period, but now they have been remodeled for different purposes. This one behind us houses an art exhibit.

How can you now enjoy a walk here?

I wonder what happened to this tree....

The path to a tea house~

Me Love~

The entrance to the art exhibit.

Inside~

Found some traditional toys outside a shop and the owners didn't seem to mind us playing with them~ :D

Then at night, we went for sushi~ Nothing better than free flow of sushi form the conveyor belt! kekeke....

All of us were delighted!

Pick anything you like or order them from the menu~

Ebi daisuki!

This is super delicious~~

Ooo.....what's this at the bottom? Atari!

Whee~ I got one too!

Contemplating whether to order desserts.....

In the end everyone gave in and ordered desserts~

Tada~ look at how much we all ate!

Gochisousamdadeshita~ :D

Okayama Science University + Lunch at Healthpia + Animation experience at Kurashiki University

The first thing to do after all of us have gathered is to of course visit the University that hosted us!

This is the Okayama Science University. I'm really loving the campus especially since it's located on top of a hill....you get some pretty magnificent views in the bus on the way up.

It was pretty embarrassing because we were give the Japanese treatment whereby people actually came to greet us at out bus when we arrive! So we were all bowing back too~ :)

Mr. K form Nepal posing for a pic!

Kake Tsutomu, the founder of the University! And that behind is their 50th commemorative building~ So in!

Inside the 50th Commemorative building is an exhibition room~ showcasing the milestones of the university since it's establishment as well as it's achievements~

Nobel Prize winner Akira Suzuki!

Man~ I wished I had the opportunity to do an internship in the university!!! 

Actually the main purpose of our visit there was to rehearse our speech in the hall which we will be presenting in the next day. After our rehearsal we had about 30 mins before moving on to the next destination and since I really wanted to pay a visit to their science lab, sensei and the university people very nicely arranged a lab meeting for me with a researcher from the Chemistry department. 

So I got to visit their lab and he showed me some photosensitization experiment that they were doing! So cool~ Their labs are relatively smaller than ours but what efficient use of space in the lab! Plus there are more people working on a single bench. At that moment, I really wished I could just work for a short-term internship in their lab to just get some experience!!! Somebody tell me how do I apply to such things!!???

Next it was time for lunch and we went to this place called Healthpia which was supposedly owned by Kurashiki University. This place serves healthy food buffet style.

Here's my plate! Healthy but yummy! I really love this plate! I wish that we had this too....but this is one heavy plate! 

Ms. M from Myanmar and Ms. A on my left~ Ms. M was spotting a super cute snoopy plate for kids! So cute that even adults cannot help but opt for it too!

This is me with Mr. M who was sharing with us stories on Japanese culture and history.

I just had to......japanese rice and curry! Super delicious~

More food from the buffet table~

Next it was time to move on to Kurashiki University to learn a bit more about animation. This here is the bus that brought us around everyday~

Next stop- Kurashiki University!

Once again, we were given the Japanese treatment but this time with the medias too! When we got down the bus there were like a whole entourage of like 20 people waiting for us! Whatever did we do to deserve such amazing treatment!!??

Then there were so many photographers snapping pictures of us! Omg~ I only wished I had put on more make-up. We were all pretty shy and didn't know what to do.....

After all the commotion, we were led to the animation class where we met with all the students of the class and got separated into groups, so that we can learn how to create animation from them.

 Us foreigners were supposed to prepare a drawing of a face while the japanese students were supposed to make the eyes and mouth of our "face" move.

Me working hard!

Here's a snap of others hard at work....

Before the class ends, it was time to showcase out works!

And finally, a group pic before the class ends!

Though I'm not that big of an anime enthusiast but what a great experience that was! Never ever look down on any anime production especially if you do now know how much work goes into each frame! My goodness....all the attention to details! They will enlarge the image and search everywhere just to find that one tiny bit of loose end and perfect it! Truly respect them! I thought I'm very particular about things but boy was I wrong! Even things that I thought were acceptable was by no means acceptable to the girl I was working with! Respect~!

Really thankful for the opportunity!