The NYP Team

For the past 7 days, the Year 2 Digital Visual Effects students gained a rich amount of experience in Kitami City, Hokkaido. From the exposure to traditions and history of Japan, to the relationships formed with everyone involved in JENESYS 2016, we enjoyed every part of the trip (except for the boring plane rides). In summary, JENESYS 2016 has been one of the most eye-opening and enriching experiences we've had.

Dinner Party Gathering

Personally, I feel that the most enriching event we've had was the dinner party on Day 3. The dinner party had the intention of getting the participants of JENESYS 2016 to get to know one another and form new relationships. Although the Singaporean team wasn't as hyped up and open as the other countries, it was amazing to see everyone mixing around, taking photos, dancing PPAP and trying to communicate even though there was a language barrier. The atmosphere was simply breathtaking.

Group Photo with Japanese Students from Kitami Beauty School

The school visit programme was enriching as well because it allowed us to interact with the locals. I got to see how different their schools are compared to ours in Singapore. Although the local students didn't understand English well, we managed to get a long well by showing respect and kindness to one another.


The last night we spent in Hokkaido was one of the best moments I've had. Although it wasn't planned in the JENESYS 2016 Schedule, the initiative and spirit of everyone was able to make the snow session incredibly fun. Since most of us experienced heavy snow for the first time that night, we were naturally excited and hyped. The inner child in us was revealed once we stepped out into the vast, snow-covered parking lot. It was a night I will never ever forget.

SNOW MORE STRESS (Ethan)

The takeaways I've had for this trip were more than I expected. I got a better understanding of the culture and etiquette of the Japanese. Unlike other Asian countries I've been to, the people in Japan are very friendly and hospitable. They would greet upon seeing you and would always have a wide smile on their faces. The visit to the museums also allowed me to get to know more about the history and traditions of Japan. New friendships were formed as well, mostly with the students from Taipei because most of us knew how to converse with them in Chinese.


Summing up everything we've been through the past week, I feel that JENESYS 2016 was something I'm really glad and honoured to be part of. Sincere thanks to JICE for making JENESYS 2016 possible, and to NYP for selecting me to be one of the representatives for this trip. If given the opportunity, either through the next JENESYS or as a holiday trip, I would definitely be willing to come to Japan again.

“A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be.”
-Douglas Pagels

In the morning, most of us rushed to pack our luggage. Breakfast was the usual, but the lunch was smaller than what we usually have and it left most of us feeling hungry even after the meal.  We headed for Mamembetsu Airport to fly to Tokyo, and Yanlin and I gave other countries sweets when we saw them.

 We flew back to Haneda Airport in Tokyo from Memanbetsu Airport in Hokkaido. We were sad to see our friends from other countries leave, but I'm sure we will keep in contact via social media.

We went Harumi Triton to have our lunch at a Japanese "foodcourt". We were given prepaid cards charged with 1000 yen for our dinner, but we were allowed to top up with cash. We had a good meal and were given some free time to shop for goods. 

After that, we headed for the airport. Unfortunately, our coordinator and translator, Midori Koga-san, was unable to send us off and left after dinner. We had 4 hours in the airport until it was time to board, so we had even more time to do shopping! I made sure that I bought plenty of the famous Tokyo Banana and Shiro Koibito chocolate biscuit home with me.

Today was a short day, but we still managed to use it to the fullest.

After breakfast, we headed down to Tanno Town Community Center to attend the workshop presentation, where we proposed our action plan for post-trip.

Arins and Shirley, one of the TP students who is also part of the Singapore delegation, presented for Singapore. They thanked the organisation for JENESYS 2016 and laid out our plans to promote ties between Singapore and Japan when we return home.

After the presentation, we had performances of the remaining countries: Vietnam, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Taipei.

Vietnam managed to get everyone on stage to dance with them!

Flash mob (Arins)

This was the closing of the presentation and we went for lunch at Chouchou de Couleur, Tobu East Mall.

Vanilla ice-cream (Yanlin)

We quickly headed down for Kitami Beauty College after lunch where we learnt about what they teach their students in the school, including hair weaving and washing, kimono wearing and the tea ceremony.

Kitami Beauty College students demonstrating hair weaving and washing (Yanlin)

Sweets given before the tea (Yanlin)

Freshly made matcha by the fellow students (Arins)

We got to experience wearing the kimono. It was really tight :P

Almost complete!

The students there were very kind and inviting!

Sadly, we had to say goodbye to the school and people.

We headed back to our hotel for dinner. Seeing as the day had ended too early, we decided to kill some time by singing PPAP and having fun in the snow.

Vietnam's rendition of PPAP (Yanlin)

A lot of participants from other countries were also at the entrance side of the hotel playing with snow, so we decided to join them as well.

Some of them were even sliding down the slope of the entrance of the hotel!

Brunei kids (Arins)

I myself managed to make friends with the people too.

Yu Ting from Chinese-Taipei (Arins)

Sidny from Laos (Yanlin)

Laos jumpshot (Arins)

JENESYS 2016 is almost coming to an end and I am really sad about it, however with the kindness and friendliness of these people, I do not think I will leave this country feeling sad, but instead with the great memories spent here.

Day 5

Today was a rather relaxing day with very little activities.

Our first stop for the day was an Aquarium where we went to see various kinds of fishes and also visited the souvenir shop and got some trinkets and snacks.

We also had some amazing ice cream in the snow that we got from the souvenir shop.

We then had a little snowball fight outside the aquarium and that was really fun.

Our next stop was lunch at a BBQ place where we got to choose from a wide variety of cooked foods and uncooked foods that we had to grill on our own, it was a good experience and there was a lot of good food.

Our next stop was a planetarium where we got to watch an amazing “documentary” of sorts educating us about space in an omnitheatre.

                                           

After the film, Dennis and I went to the forested area outside the planetarium to shoot some videos and take some pictures.

After that, we went to a place that produces peppermint and peppermint products and were educated on the production, uses and benefits of peppermint.

We then went back to the hotel to plan for a workshop, edit videos and also eat dinner.

After all that was done, those of us that weren’t busy or too tired, met later in the night to play in the snow and relax. The Filipino girls staying in the hotel saw us from their rooms and opened the windows and said they wanted to come down and play too, so we invited them down. This then caught the attention of other countries like the Chinese Taipei Group, the Burmese and other countries that I weren’t too sure about. It turned into a mass snowball fight and hangout for some of the countries and Singapore somehow became a social catalyst that brought the countries a little closer together. I’m quite proud of that.

All in all, today was a crazily fun day.

The day started with a long-awaited snowy weather. Unlike the past few days, today's snowflakes drifted slowly and gracefully in the air. Everyone was rather excited about this.

After breakfast, we had a short rehearsal for the upcoming skit we had to perform later in the morning (outside in the cold!). 

We left our hotels and set off to Kitami City Working Youth Centre, where most of the events took part today.

We experienced the making of mochi. Two representatives from each country were given the chance to use a kine - large wooden mallet and usu - large wooden mortars to pound the mochi.

Right after the mochi making session, a few countries perform on the stage, including Singapore. We started off the performance with a singing session of the popular National Day song, Where I Belong. However, to spice things up, we also added in the Great Singapore Workout to get the rest to dance along. 

The centre was also filled with shopping booths which sell various items, ranging from food to accessories. It was a good time for everyone to get to know each other more.

We headed over to Kitami's City Hall, where the Asian International Children's Film Festival 2016 Award Ceremony took place. Special and honourable guests arrived and handed out the awards to different teams for their films. Unfortunately, our film wasn't one of them (hopefully next year's team would get an award!)

We ended off the Ceremony with a sing along session. As the representative for this segment, I went up stage with the other fellow representatives and award winners to sing the film festival's theme song - Message. It was a challenge for me because the song was in Japanese, but all was good because everyone else didn't know how to sing as well. Photo-taking was strictly prohibited inside the hall, so no photos of me singing!

The day reached a conclusion after we enjoyed dinner outdoors. We met new friends and enjoyed the free food provided by the vendors. It was truly an experience like no other.

Photo Credits: Arin Tan

We went to the Hokkaido Bank Curling Stadium and we had the opportunity to learn how to play the sport. The yellow and red stones on the ground were our way to score. We needed to push the stones as close as possible into the circle. The stones closest to the middle gets a point.

The coordinators taught us the proper stance and posture for curling. We were also given an equipment to place under our foot to slide. The game is much like bowling on ice.  

We were required to wear a helmet at all times whenever we are on the ice. They had very strict regulations; like not being allowed to wear leggings or thin clothes because the ice will melt. We also tried to clean the ice after we used it, although they cleaned it themselves afterward. Despite having quite a number of strict rules we had to follow, I think we all had a good time falling down on the ice! 

And here's a group photo of us with our Temasek Polytechnic friends and our coordinator!

We went to another hotel to eat our buffet lunch (the food consisted of mostly deep-fried food) and it was absolutely delicious! The hotel was nearby the sea and it was colder than most other places. 

                                          

The view near the hotel was absolutely stunning, this is the first time I've ever seen sea being frozen. I did not dare go closer to touch the ice, but it was a very pretty sight. We were even able to see native birds on the way to this place, which our coordinator mentioned that the swans were migrating from Russia.  

                                   

Next, we gathered at a conference hall with a the countries, including Japan. There were students from parts of Japan here to watch the performance. All the countries did a great job with their performance, and I'm sure I enjoyed them a ton! 

The last event was a social dinner. There was a band performing (and it was amazing) for us. They played a lot of upbeat songs which made the crowd hyped. We finally had a time to mingle around with other countries and also given a chance to talk with our Japanese friends and they prepared gifts like paper cranes and "business cards" for us!

The crowd was filled with people. We had learned a new dance: The Coconut Dance! An Egyptian teacher(?) came and helped along the little kids who sang and danced for us. It was a very nice experience to be able to meet so many people from different countries, different lifestyles, and different culture. Although today was pretty hectic, I had a very good time, though I wished the curling session was longer!