Japan (Mar 2013): Day 2 Commendation Ceremony at Saitama ~ Linchakin

Brief itinerary for this day:

0345: Woke up, since I slept too much the day before. sigh...

0500: Buffet breakfast at hotel

1130: Meet at hotel lobby

1200-1300: Bus ride from Tokyo to Saitama

1400-1430: Rehearsal

1500-1630: Commendation Ceremony

1630-1730: Rest, and short tour of the facility

1730-1930: Bus ride from Saitama back to Tokyo

2015-2300: Dinner with Japan Tourism Agency

Expenditures:

0 yen :)

Go back to Day 1 Singapore to Tokyo /

Go next to Day 3 Aizu Wakamatsu

Today's the day of the Commendation Ceremony, held at the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel at Saitama.

I woke up at way too early at 0345am and couldn't go back to sleep since I slept too much the day before.

So I watched some TV on the home shopping channel while waiting for 5am to arrive so that I can go down and have breakfast.

Finally was able to eat at 5am, think I had some rice, miso soup, tamagoyaki (sweet egg omelette), french fries, fried noodles, and coffee. Then I went back to the room to watch more home shopping programmes (tried to learn how to cook king crab) and also weather forecast programmes.

We gathered at the hotel lobby at 11:30am so that we can all proceed to take a chartered bus to Saitama together. The journey took about 1hr 30mins.

Here are some of the official photos of the ceremony:

Credits: Japan Photo Contest website

Screenshot from Japan Photo Contest website. See the photos I submitted here.

The photos I submitted

Award Winners for individual themes:

Screenshot from Japan Photo Contest website

Screenshot from Japan Photo Contest Website

Here are some of the photos I took during the ceremony:

Narita's mascot

Photo credits: Mike

With the prize winners from Taiwan, Canada, and South Korea

With the prize winners from China and South Africa

All 7 of us.

Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel

With my wonderful Translator and Guide, Mayumi-san. Extremely grateful to her and her team of translators whom helped us throughout our stay in Japan.

Nice handcrafted soap in the shape of Mt Fuji, given to us after the Award Ceremony. Apparently this is part of a handcraft souvenir competition which was held in Japan recently too. I was initially worried whether it would survive the trip in my luggage back to Singapore, and it was perfectly fine when I opened my bag when I reached home.

Watching demonstration video on the Underground Discharge Channel system and how it works to help prevent floods in the area.

Model of the Underground Discharge Channel. It was also the venue where the Commendation Ceremony was being held.

Us in the waiting room after the ceremony.

Lovely sunset while we were just about to board the bus.

Since there was a traffic jam (it was Friday evening), so our return journey from Saitama back to Tokyo took us 2hrs instead of the usual 1hr30mins. During the bus ride, we were being invited to go to a dinner hosted by the Japan Tourism Agency at a restaurant near our hotel at Shinjuku. We had a good time chatting with the staff from the Japan Tourism Agency, fishing (yes, we could fish in the restaurant), eat good food, and also chat with our fellow award winners. Even though I could tell everyone was pretty exhausted, but I guess we enjoyed ourselves.