Day 6

Morning exercise really gets us fresh and active early in the morning!

Our last meal on Oshima Maru....

Chief Mate supervising Rasyad to ensure a smooth sail

The training cruise was really great and we all learned a lot from it. Thank you for the opportunity!

The weather in Oshima really set the mood for our last day in Japan

We're all going to miss Oshima College terribly when we're back in Singapore....

JUMP JUMP JUMP

The Oshima students woke up really early with us to send us off! It was a really sad goodbye but we were confident that we would see each other soon.

Sorry Yosuke!

The one week we spent in Oshima was really fantastic. We got to know each other better and did not let any language barrier stop us from forging meaningful friendships. We had fun, joked around and learnt many things. We showed our best while on the training cruise and did not make any amateurish mistakes. All of us here in Singapore miss Japan and we can't wait for you guys to come here soon. See you all next March!

Day 5

We woke up early in the morning for our morning exercise! It's important to stretch our bodies (￣∠ ￣ )ﾉ 

We even had natto, i.e. fermented soybeans, for breakfast! Shinn and Masaki were really happy about that because the rest of us gave them our boxes of natto.

We headed off to JRCS for a tour of their plant! It was an eye-opening experience, being able to see how they assembled the machinery that we would later use on a ship.

After the tour, we had lunch at a restaurant which specialised in puffer fish! It was an adventurous lunch.

We made our way to a temple, ready to immerse ourselves in the essence of Japanese culture.

???????????

Washing our hands, as taught to us by Yosuke

Shinn saying a silent prayer. Masaki is enthralled.

After that soul-searching experience, we proceeded to lose some calories by ascending the hill to reach the cable-car at the top.

An authentic picture of 4 Japanese people in the past. Don't they look so lifelike?

In we go!

Up we go!

Here we go! The view from the top was really breathtaking.

Captain Raj showing off some cannons from his personal collection.

Desperate for some ice-cream 

Yosuke then led us on a ferry ride to the city located on the opposite side, Kitakyushu!

Guan Qi possessing the swag we all desire

From Kitakyushu we took a train to Kokura, a city further down in the island of Kyushu. Japanese trains are really cool!

The way the tickets are priced really eludes me though. Kokura really reminded us of Singapore, with all the malls located around the train station.

Another commemorative photo 

There's always time for supper no? Sadly our time in Shimonoseki was coming to and end and we would be setting off for Oshima tomorrow morning.

To the next day!

Day 4

We embarked on our training cruise on board Oshima Maru today. Cadets are required to wake up early to make good time for pre-sail preparations
.

Breakfast before we set sail to Shimonoseki, a very busy port in Japan.  

Shinn and Guan Qi were the men of the hour before we set sail

Single up all lines.  Although difficult to see from the picture, but the ropes are really heavy and thick.

The Chief mate supervising students .

Serious work!

Preparation for leaving port on the bridge, students are required to keep watch as part of their training.

Akito guiding Xin Wei and Guan Qi on how to take readings off the doppler's log

Shinn and Rasyad keeping a sharp lookout.

Here I am learning to measure our distance from waypoints on the map!

Our leader Chung Kai learning the ways

We had Japanese curry rice for dinner, which tasted great.

Himejima ( Princess Island)

The allure of the open seas.

Off watch group having great fun.

Serious work aye

The captain told us to keep an aggressive mind and be observant at all times.

Xin Wei steering the ship with skill

Rest time!!!

 It was near evening and we were finally approaching Shimonoseki, with Kanmon bridge in sight.

Berthing and preparation for shore leave

We headed off to Sea Mall during our shore leave and had delicious ramen for dinner. Imagine our surprise when we set off to shop after dinner and were stopped right in our tracks when the entire mall closed at 8pm sharp!

Yume Tower

Night came really early in Japan and we were fortunate to have really clear skies.  Although tired, we can't wait for Day 5's full day of shore leave!