Yesterday, I attended my first Japanese school festival at Waseda Shibuya Senior High School Singapore with my friends Jia Wei and Xi Hua!
The students were friendly and polite, the cafeteria food was
delicious, the decorations were impressive, and the games and
performances were enjoyable! It was the 24th Seiransai 星蘭祭 organised by Waseda Shibuya Senior High School Singapore. Feels good to be back in school! ＼（＾▽＾）／
The
facade which greets you as you enter the school! This year''s theme is
"Four Seasons 春秋夏冬"! It has a very traditional festival-like feel to it!
UPDATE: Check out our experience attending the 25th Seiransai this year!
"Engawa" (縁側),
which can be seen at a Japanese traditional house. A place to watch
fireworks, eat watermelons and enjoy the breeze! It represents the
summer.
"Kamakura" (鎌倉),
a Japanese igloo. It is said that it originated in Akita Prefecture. It
is built by making a pile of snow, digging an entrance and lighting it
up to make it look good! It represents the winter.
We
were hungry so we decided to go to the cafeteria. The dishes on sale
were Teriyaki Chicken Donburi, Curry Rice and Salmon Chirashi. costing
S$5/¥430 each. They were delicious!
There
were desserts on sale too and they are so beautiful! They cost
S$2/¥170each. Good to go with your main course! Do you have a sweet
tooth?
I
tried the Salmon Chirashi. I love the salmon sashimi, ebi (shrimp) and
the bamboo shoots! I could eat that everyday! The Maccha Azuki pudding
is palatable too! The milky maccha (green tea) pudding, coupled with the
sweet azuki (red beans) and whipped cream is a match made in heaven!
Jia Wei took the Tori Karaage (Japanese fried chicken) Curry Rice! The curry is
Japanese curry and it is fragrant and savoury! If I ever get tired of
eating the Salmon Chirashi, I may eat this instead. The fried chicken
quantity though... orz
A
panorama of their cafeteria! It is so big, spacious and clean! There is
even a second-level seating. Big enough to accommodate all the students
and teachers!
Food food food! Omnomnom! The cafeteria has been turned into Edokko Restaurant for the day!
Some of the posters designed by the students promoting their classroom booths at the cafeteria!
The exterior of Waseda Shibuya Senior High School. It is affliated with Waseda University.
The
classroom block where most of the events are held during the festival.
There was a school tour which I wanted to join but I forgot about it
after meeting Jia Wei. It seemed fun.
A banner where you could pen your well wishes and feedback for the school at the classroom block.
The key visual (poster) for the 24th Seiransai 星蘭祭. Wow! 24th!? My alma mater's fund-raiser Fun-O-Rama is only in its 22nd edition this year! ACJC's carnival is biannual though, so it does not take place every year.
A blackboard in a classroom for guests to write on with chalks. Can you spot Wake Up, Girls!? Fufufu~
The last panel of the story of Tanabata comic. It is a nice comic with great illustrations and a touching story.
TL;DR "GAME THEORY"
Room
3-A's Tanabata Festival (Booth 23). It was well worth queuing up for
this activity! It was so fun and exciting! Kudos to the students for
doing such a good job!
Basically, you are given 5 stars to bet on any 3 games in the room. If you win the game, you get a multiple of the stars bet. If you lose the game, you say sayonara (goodbye) to your stars bet. The prize you get at the end will depend on the number of stars accumulated. Some of the games require a bit of strategy and some involve probability. Xi Hua and I played the Card Game, Pinball and PopUp!
1. The Card Game was very fun! On the surface, it looks like a game based on pure luck. However, there is a trick to it. The cards are arranged from the weakest to strongest but the weakest card beats the strongest card. There are 5 rounds for this game. Both parties place a card from their deck and flip them open at the same time.
Theoretically, you should place your strongest or weakest card first to minimise your chances of losing. If you place your strongest card first and your opponent places the weakest card, you lose. However, if he places the strongest card first too, it's a draw and neither wins. If you place your weakest card first and he places the weakest card, it's also a draw. If he places his strongest card, then you win. This eliminates either the strongest/weakest card from each party's deck at the beginning, increasing your chances of winning in successive rounds.
In addition, the probability of getting a draw, given that you place your strongest or weakest card first is 0.5!
However, in the heat of the moment, we placed the second strongest card first and were beaten by the strongest card ... orz Well done, opponent! The final score was 2-3.
2. Pinball. It all comes down to the force with which you exert when you launch the ball. For this pinball, there is no tilting of the levers but there are five areas which the ball may fall into with 2 x2 multipliers, 2 x3 multipliers and a x0 multiplier (in the middle). There are metal pins on the board which will guide the ball into the landing area. This games requires you to shoot with an appropriate range of newtons of force for the ball to land into your desired landing area (the x3 multiplier).
3. The final game was PopUp! There are 10 holes. A person is hiding behind the wall of holes. If you hit a hole with a cone and he POPS UP, you win! The number of cones you are entitled to are 2 cones per star bet.
We opted for a safe bet of 2 stars, which entitled us to 4 cones. A probability of 0.4 of hitting the target. We managed to make the person POP UP on the second cone and I think that got us 4 stars in return.
In retrospect, I think that we should have bet 5 stars (or all our stars) on this game as this was our final game. Thus, we should have a probability of 1 of winning the game and getting the largest returns. I am not sure if this is permitted though as we had only bet 2 stars and did not ask for further explanation of the rules. If this was permitted though, then... \(^o^)/
Irregardless, we were still \(^o^)/ because the games were SO SO FUN! とても楽しい！The concept of betting involved sure set our hearts racing! Anyway, please don't bet on Singapore Pools. I'm pretty sure the probability is ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).
Did I mention that there was a bonus game? Ohhh! Just when we were about to leave, there was a bonus Bingo game! Each game participant was given a Bingo card to complete and a random number from 1-100 would be rolled out from the Bingo machine. You only have 25 numbers on your Bingo card though. I do not know anything about Bingo game theory so I played this on luck.
Basically, you are given 5 stars to bet on any 3 games in the room. If you win the game, you get a multiple of the stars bet. If you lose the game, you say sayonara (goodbye) to your stars bet. The prize you get at the end will depend on the number of stars accumulated. Some of the games require a bit of strategy and some involve probability. Xi Hua and I played the Card Game, Pinball and PopUp!
1. The Card Game was very fun! On the surface, it looks like a game based on pure luck. However, there is a trick to it. The cards are arranged from the weakest to strongest but the weakest card beats the strongest card. There are 5 rounds for this game. Both parties place a card from their deck and flip them open at the same time.
Theoretically, you should place your strongest or weakest card first to minimise your chances of losing. If you place your strongest card first and your opponent places the weakest card, you lose. However, if he places the strongest card first too, it's a draw and neither wins. If you place your weakest card first and he places the weakest card, it's also a draw. If he places his strongest card, then you win. This eliminates either the strongest/weakest card from each party's deck at the beginning, increasing your chances of winning in successive rounds.
In addition, the probability of getting a draw, given that you place your strongest or weakest card first is 0.5!
However, in the heat of the moment, we placed the second strongest card first and were beaten by the strongest card ... orz Well done, opponent! The final score was 2-3.
2. Pinball. It all comes down to the force with which you exert when you launch the ball. For this pinball, there is no tilting of the levers but there are five areas which the ball may fall into with 2 x2 multipliers, 2 x3 multipliers and a x0 multiplier (in the middle). There are metal pins on the board which will guide the ball into the landing area. This games requires you to shoot with an appropriate range of newtons of force for the ball to land into your desired landing area (the x3 multiplier).
3. The final game was PopUp! There are 10 holes. A person is hiding behind the wall of holes. If you hit a hole with a cone and he POPS UP, you win! The number of cones you are entitled to are 2 cones per star bet.
We opted for a safe bet of 2 stars, which entitled us to 4 cones. A probability of 0.4 of hitting the target. We managed to make the person POP UP on the second cone and I think that got us 4 stars in return.
In retrospect, I think that we should have bet 5 stars (or all our stars) on this game as this was our final game. Thus, we should have a probability of 1 of winning the game and getting the largest returns. I am not sure if this is permitted though as we had only bet 2 stars and did not ask for further explanation of the rules. If this was permitted though, then... \(^o^)/
Irregardless, we were still \(^o^)/ because the games were SO SO FUN! とても楽しい！The concept of betting involved sure set our hearts racing! Anyway, please don't bet on Singapore Pools. I'm pretty sure the probability is ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).
Did I mention that there was a bonus game? Ohhh! Just when we were about to leave, there was a bonus Bingo game! Each game participant was given a Bingo card to complete and a random number from 1-100 would be rolled out from the Bingo machine. You only have 25 numbers on your Bingo card though. I do not know anything about Bingo game theory so I played this on luck.
TL;DR
BEST. BOOTH. EVER. \(^o^)/ Everyone's a winner and we
got to write our Tanabata wishes and hang on a plant which they
made too!
BINGO!
History of Midori No Hi みどりの日 (Green Day) in a classroom!
Manga art by their students.
Nice castle made from water bottles!
Nepnep Countdown to Sports Day!
Studio Ghibli characters illustrations by their students. So detailed and beautiful!
I particularly like this watercolour/marker illustration by one of their students! It somehow reminds me of Hatsune Miku.
Art room~ Magnificent!
Some pottery works on display, moulded by their students.
The
school was so kind to give a printed-and-bound event guidebook to each
of the guests! The cover is an illustration by one of their students.
This design as also used as the festival's poster.
The event timetable for the 2 days. From what I heard, the festival was only open to selected parties on Saturday. Which also meant I failed to catch the Rev. from YNS dance on Saturday! Dame!!! I heard that they were covering Rev. from DVL songs and dances. The idol group which once-in-a-thousand years idol Kanna Hashimoto （橋本環奈） is from!
The Terror Dollhouse and Labyrinth of Christmas had the longest queues! They must be pretty fun although we didn't manage to participate. But Tanabata Festival, you go man!! ヾ(´▽｀*)ゝ
We also participated in Ennichi which was held in Room 2-C! There was a wide variety of activities, from throwing rings over bottles to score points, trying to place parts of a funny race while blindfolded, getting your fortune read, picking floating balls with chopsticks and hitting the lowest block without toppling a tower of blocks. It was pretty enjoyable too! (´◠ω◠`)
In addition, we caught the St. Valentine's Day drama at Room 1-B. I felt that the drama was pretty well-acted. The actors were quite serious and professional in their portrayal of the characters. As with all romance dramas, there has to be that big misunderstanding before that dramatic confession! Hahaha! Well done, Group C! That made me tear a bit. （；_・） They played some romantic song at the end of the drama as the audience was leaving (I can't remember which song, it sounded really familiar, like an anisong but that song was SUPER GREAT. Your acting too.)
UPDATE - I think it's the Isshuukan Tomodachi ED. (゜´Д｀゜)
I
guess my first seiransai 星蘭祭 was pretty fun! The atmosphere was
inviting and exciting. The students were all very enthusiastic and
welcoming! There were so many activities to choose from!
I didn't take many photos of the activities (out of respect for the students' privacy) or any photos with the students but I hope to take some next year, if I could! (*/ω＼*)
That's all for this year's seiransai! I hope you enjoyed reading this post, looking at the pictures and had fun at the festival yourself, if you went. I plan to attend again next year, given how this year's edition was so amazing. (≧◡≦)
Thanks to Waseda Shibuya Senior High School for organising this festival too! ヽ(；▽；)ノ
I didn't take many photos of the activities (out of respect for the students' privacy) or any photos with the students but I hope to take some next year, if I could! (*/ω＼*)
That's all for this year's seiransai! I hope you enjoyed reading this post, looking at the pictures and had fun at the festival yourself, if you went. I plan to attend again next year, given how this year's edition was so amazing. (≧◡≦)
Thanks to Waseda Shibuya Senior High School for organising this festival too! ヽ(；▽；)ノ
UPDATE: Check out our experience attending the 25th Seiransai this year!
