If you were out and about one day and a foreign student randomly came up to you and asked you to dance to some Japanese pop song you’d never heard in your life, would you do it?
Four exchange students from Japan managed to get hundreds of people in Singapore, locals and tourists included, dancing to the catchy tune of Japanese idol group AKB48’s Koi Suru Fortune Cookie in various public places such as tourist spots and popular food establishments. If you’re planning a trip to Singapore, or have never heard of this tropical getaway, this informative video is a must-watch!
Just in case you’re wondering “Where the hell is Singapore?”, well as a native allow me to tell you that it is a little island country snuggled up next to Malaysia, in Southeast Asia. Although the majority of the population is Chinese, the multi-racial city is not part of China, as many Westerners used to mistakenly think. We can’t really blame them for the confusion since the sunny island, though an independent country, is tinier than even Tokyo, one of the smaller prefectures in Japan.
In Japan, what usually comes to mind at the mention of Singapore is, the Merlion, thanks to its many cameo appearances in Japanese commercials and anime. It is a symbolic icon of Singapore, but incidentally one of the world’s most disappointing tourist attractions, according to the Japanese. Well, it really just is a water-spitting statue, so what can you expect?
In hope of introducing Singapore to Japan and the rest of the world, the group of enthusiastic Japanese undergraduates put together this three-minute music video that features various attractions on the island, capturing the nation’s colorful culture and community at popular spots including Marina Bay Sands and Orchard Road, as well as local food centers that “the guidebook doesn’t tell you about”.
Anyway, we’ll save the details and let the video do the talking instead. Watch out for the epic dolphin show at 1:40!
▼ AKB48’s Koi Suru Fortune Cookie (Singapore version)
Behind the scenes, the four-man crew including Takanori Ito, Yuya Takeuchi, Yu Iiyoshi and Yuncheol Kim reportedly spent four weeks planning, filming and editing the video. The catchy and info-packed clip has gotten over 50,000 views in a week on YouTube.
As Madonna says, music makes the people come together! Kudos to the production team and the passionate souls for dancing their hearts out! Hundreds of smiles packed with cheerful song and dance; tourism info-videos don’t get more enjoyable than that! Somebody needs to pass the baton and get this creative feat going in all the cities in the world!
Source/Images: YouTube
Reference: The Straits Times, Yahoo! News Singapore
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