Chikako's Reflection
My First Visit to Joo Chiat
I have been in Singapore for over 6 months and I have gone to different places in Singapore. Recently, I visited an area called Joo Chiat for the first time. From my impression of Singapore, it is a country like the city of Osaka in Japan, which has lots of city side, and a bit of countryside and it has a good balance (not like Tokyo which has only buildings and no greens;)). Where I have
been in Singapore is probably called “city side” and I would call Joo Chiat the “countryside” of Singapore.
By visiting Joo Chiat, I found that it has lots of religion related buildings and objects. Walking around Joo Chiat with group members, we found a building with lots of statues. It actually reminded me of the time I went for school trip in Kesennuma city in Japan. I don’t know if the place is still alive as the place got badly affected by the earthquake and tsunami. Anyway, statues
aren’t normally seen everywhere as I have never seen such a thing in my home town. Actually, I have never gone to a different city where it has temples or area that are related to religion. What I thought was that people start to live in a place because what they want a relation to their religion.
Also, we could see the beautiful buildings which are very colourful and pretty. These buildings are not just colourful and pretty like new buildings; something about them makes it historical. I asked one of my members and I found that they are buildings that are the culture of Peranakan. It was very interesting to see the buildings showing the culture because I don’t think there are buildings to show the Japanese culture. In Japan, you can see buildings more on historical
(like Kumamoto, Osaka, Himeji Castle) but not cultural context.
We also found the area that had a traditional Vietnamese hat tied on a bicycle. Around that area, it had few Vietnamese restaurants. I wondered if that was the area that is called “little Vietnam”. It is interesting that in Singapore, there are “little India”, China town, and “little Vietnam” and I had a little hope that has “Little Japan”, but I guess not, as the Japanese society in Singapore is not as big as Chinese, Malays, and Indians.
Visiting Joo Chiat was completely new experience for me, and was very interesting. While we were visiting there, I got to try the food called Laksa. I have never eaten it before and I really liked it! Apparently that was the best Laksa you can get in Singapore so I was so lucky. :). The visits have really given me a new understanding of Singapore and increased my appreciation for the infusion of different cultures in Singapore. At the same time, it has allowed me to appreciate the different cultures in Singapore. I really consider myself lucky.
DATE: Thursday, March 22, 2012
TIME: ||3:00 PM ||