Another lonely peregrination

Last Monday, I traversed to Singapore. Recent excursions in the digital realm has revealed to me information about a certain art shop at Northbridge Centre in Bugis. This shop claims to have served artists in Singapore for over 30 years. However, that information is not the main reason why I decided to pay the shop which is located SGD$1.70 worth of MRT fare from my grandparents' place. The main reason was that, it has come to my knowledge that they sell manga equipment.

Curious about whether it is more economical to obtain my manga tools from that shop, I braved the drizzle from the Bugis MRT station to Northbridge Centre, which was a place I've never been to before. After consulting the lists of businesses that run in the building, I found the place without much difficulty.

Indeed, their claims seem to be legitimate. Omnifarious art related materials imaginable were abound. They were sorted systematically and displayed neatly. I saw a mannequin sold at a ridiculously cheap price of 4 dollars! I did not purchase it however, due to my pathetic funds.

I sauntered around the rather quiet and smallish shop (think Ollivanders!) of 3 workers trying to locate the equipment I was looking for. When I finally spotted the inks and nibs, I was greeted by whom I suppose is the wife of the owner of the shop. Her polite questions were answered by my search for pen nibs. When she took out the box and showed nibs before me, I was dejected when she told me that they are selling them for $1.80 per nib...

That is expensive! I usually can obtain 3 nibs for $4.20 with a 5% discount at the usual place I get my equipment. However, the shop does offer nibs from brands that are not offered at the place where I usually purchase my stuff. In the little magical box, I saw assortments of nibs from Zebra, Hunt and Nikko. However, it was rather odd that they aren't selling any Maru nibs...

The shop offer inks at a much cheaper price. They are of different brands... and I have grown fond with the brand I am using now. Nonetheless, I am considering trying these low quality looking inks in the future. Hey, they are $5.50 per bottle compared to the almost $9 per bottle that I use now!

After leaving the shop empty handed, I headed towards Bugis station. However, when I saw the National Library building on my left, I decided to tarry there. After depositing the books that I loaned in the bookdrop, I walked quickly into the lending section (which I did not notice on my first visit).

There, I discovered one whole shelf dedicated towards manga! There were many popular titles such as Naruto, EyeShield 21, and Bleach. These manga are translated in America by JUMP Comics and was brought here. They are pretty expensive... about $14 per volume (about 6 times more expensive than the price of one volume here in Malaysia). So it was great to be able to read them for free at the library. It is little disappointing however, because none of the titles there interested me.

The arts section delighted me. There was one row full of books from the popular How to Draw Manga series ready to be borrowed. Without wasting much time, I started to pull out 4-5 books with the intention to borrow them. Next section that I visited was the language section where I decided to borrow a kanji textbook and a beginner's Japanese vocabulary book. However, when I tried to borrow the heap of texts at the machine, I was restricted to only 4 items! What a bummer... only last month, the quota was twice as big. And now they've axed the number into half... So I ended up borrowing the two Japanese texts and 2 How to Draw Manga books.

The next day, I came back to the same library. Having read the two tutorial books the previous night, I disposed of them at the bookdrop and preyed on the books I couldn't borrow the day before. I spent about an hour of my morning there immeresed in the history of manga and the negative western preconception on manga (I didn't know they were so antagonistic towards manga... so it was rather interesting)

Afterwards, I took the MRT to Orchard to visit the Japanese Embassy. This is actually the main reason why I came to Singapore in the first place - to make enquiries about the Monbusho Scholarship. I don't remember walking along Orchard road before, so when I perambulated along the pavements, I marvelled at the hustle and bustle, the busking musicians, the unique architecture of the complexes and serpentining underpasses.

I had the impression that the Japanese Embassy would probably be just this small old building with a few offices. However, that imagination of mine dissolved when I walked past the Royal Thai Embassy. The Thailand Embassy was immense. It covered a great expanse of land with exotic greenery. The edifice appeared to be rather old, but the entire place still looks impressive. If the Thai Embassy is this huge, how huge would the Japanese Embassy be?

It was a pretty long walk to the Japanese Embassy, which is located in a rather isolated area. Nassim Road sported condos on one side of the road and embassies of other countries on the opposite side. When I reached the Japanese Embassy, I was greeted by two behemothic steel gates with the security post perched in between the gates. The three meter tall, half a meter thick gates made the place appear rather forbidding. Apparently, new security measures were instilled in which all visitors must present their IDs to the guards and wear visitor passes while in the embassy.

The Embassy building is split into two. The left gate is for visa collecting and enquiries, while the right gate leads to a majestic edifice with a large Imperial Seal emblazoned at the top of the entrance. I suppose the right gate is for the visiting VIP from Japan and not for curious normal people like me.

After negotiating my entry with the guards, I was admitted past the intimidating automatic gate and made my way up a small bridge into the Culture Center. There were books, magazines about Japan. There were also dolls on display. After consulting the woman behind the counter, I was told to wait for awhile as the counselor whom I am supposed to talk to has not arrived.

While browsing the books to kill time, a woman entered the room. She looked to be in her late 20s... she didn't approached me or anything, so I thought she's not the counselor. Only when this guy who came into the room and started to talk to her about his intention to study in Japan that I confirmed that she's the counselor...

So I sat next to the guy and asked her my questions... This woman... I didn't know her name while I was there. It was only today that I discovered that her name is Pauline Lue. Haha. She was under the scholarship before. She's also a Toudai alumnus who got through the entrance exam in one try. Smart and lucky!

When I finally ran out of questions and wanted to go home, it started to rain terribly. So I was stuck there. I browsed through the books uninterestedly (because I was tired) and restlessly walked around the place. A Japanese guy came into the room and started to talk to Pauline in Japanese. So I really got to hear her speak Japanese... she sounded so natural.

Anyway, the rain finally stopped. I grabbed my bag and half whispered

"Kaerimasu!"

She looked up at me with a rather startled expression. I had been speaking exclusively in English to her all day long. As I slung my bag around my head, I said to her cheerfully;

"Kyou wa arigatou gozaimashita!"

She was like "Ha..." and gave a little nod. Nice.

And so today I got home... I made a few more calls regarding the scholarship and most probably I'm going to pay Mdm Lue another visit...