Day 1

Team SMA is all ready to go!

After months of preparing, we had finally reached the day where we would be flying off to Japan. To get to Oshima, we would first be taking a flight to Haneda Airport in Tokyo before transferring to a domestic flight to Iwakuni Airport. We took off at about 2215 on 4th Oct and reached Iwakuni at about 1035 the next day. 

A rainy welcome to Japan

Despite the long flight, the warm welcome from our Japanese friends recovered some of our fatigue. After a few commemorative photos, we set off for Oshima College! 

Our friendly Japanese counterparts! Please treat us well~

After a long bus ride, we arrived at Oshima College. From there, we walked to Oshima Maru, our accommodation for this year's trip. It was an actual training ship that was owned by the school so it was pretty cool! 

昼ご飯を食べています!

We had a bento box for lunch and got to know more about the Japanese students. Despite the language barrier, we managed to find out a lot about each other! After lunch we headed to the school's indoor sports hall for a bout of badminton.

Our sportswear was inadequate for the brutal wind |ω･`)

2 v 2 between Team Oshima and Team SMA

Even Captain Raj and Mr. Sugimoto joined in the fun!

The games were tough with the Japanese, but it proved to be a great ice breaker.  Although exhausted, we had a really good time!

A cloudy afternoon sky

We had arrived in Japan just as a typhoon was leaving. We were pretty lucky!

A simple but good meal

To end the day off, we had our dinner at the college's cafeteria. We retired to Oshima Maru and had a pretty good sleep, ready for the week ahead. To the next day!