It was the first time ever since I reached Kobe, that I was left alone by myself. R went out early in the morning, while C had to attend her weekly kimono class. So I was all alone at home in the morning, and I also had to cycle to school by myself, without R or C guiding in front of me! Scary as it was, I was also glad for the little bit of freedom. I decided to go cycling around and take pictures of the things around me.
the bread here is much thicker and taste much better!
bicycle parking lots under my apartment
tt's my bike in the middle!
juz 1 of the many roads i gotta cross everyday to reach school
there 1 lane for bicycles but i dun really care =P
a general view of the streets
i also stopped by at the 100 yen shop (orange shelter) to buy some stuffs
Kansai Supermarket
they hv 10% storewide discount every monday!
1pm: Lessons starts 1 hour earlier on Saturdays, and so does our meeting. However, we had just finished making our coffee when a lady came in and asked us to help her with some translation work. She wanted to trade with an organisation in China and needed to understand their website which is all in Chinese. C and I tried to translate for her, but the website isn't very user-friendly I think. Hee~ Anyway, I hope we were of some help, because she brought us a big box of cakes! =P
2pm: It turned out that both my students were absent for the first class, and so I only had 4 classes that day. One of them was a babies (pre-school) class, and gosh... those 2 kids just couldn't stop running around! They even hid under the table and refused to come out. I had a hard time coaxing them but they seemed to find it fun, I supposed. In the end, I decided to use a stern voice and said "先生怒るよ！本当！" ("Teacher is getting angry. Really!") They then slowly climbed out... laughingly! Grrrr~ But luckily, I also had a very obedient class of 5 elementary (primary) school kids who really listened and followed my teachings. It feels so nice to teach good students. =)
8.30pm: I left the school alone because I was going to attend my first hip-hop dance class in Japan! R has been taking hip-hop classes here and she agreed to bring me there. We had arranged to meet at 9pm at 元町 station. So once again, I cycled alone to 兵庫 station to take the train.
Reaching 元町, there were 2 exits and I didn't know where I should go. I ran between the 2 exits to check whether R was around. Soon, it was already past 9pm and I started to get worried. I tried calling her with the public phones but the line always get cut off. After some time, I finally managed to get through to her. It turned out that she was late and there was something wrong with her handphone. *phew* I was just glad enough that I managed to find her.
Anyway, she brought me to a dance studio called "Lab 3" and we attended the hip-hop class by a really funky-looking guy with dreadlocks! the class was 1.5 hours long, with the first hour being warm-up and rhythmic trainings. Then he taught us a little choreography, which is much easier than what I usually do in Singapore, but harder to master in terms of the bounce and rhythm. It seems to me that Japanese style of hip-hop focus more on that, and I totally enjoyed it! The only things I didn't like was that almost all students and the instructor were smoking, and that we are supposed to wear shoes that have not been worn outside into the studio ground. But oh well, there are the common habits found everywhere in Japan.
The class ended at about 11pm. As it was R's last hip-hop class in Japan, they decided to have a little farewell supper for her! Both of us and 2 other girls took S's car (tt's my student from yesterday's class who does hip-hop). I was really impressed - S, a pretty girl who's only 1 year older than me, drives a really big car! It looks somewhere between a family car and a van and a wagon, and comes equipped with navigation system too! Way Cool~!!
We went to a restaurant called "Royal Host". I remember seeing this restaurant back in Hiroshima everyday when walking to and fro our dormitory and the tram station, now I finally had the chance to dine in there! R and I shared a set meal of lasagne, chicken, bread, soup and ice-cream. It was delicious! Then we continued to sit and talk with the other people. I was pretty quiet at first, but I decided to open up and spoke to the girls sitting near me. It was definitely the right decision - I got to know a few cute high school / college girls, a nurse and a pre-school teacher. I also talked to the instructor a bit about what dance I did in Singapore. They are really a nice group of people. I'm definitely going to attend the hip-hop classes regularly from now on!
Finally, it was time to go home. R bade farewell to all of them and S sent us back to 兵庫 station, where we cycled back and reached home at 2am.
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