Hmmm...I was thinking that you should have known better since you reside in Japan. I was under the impression that you were staying much further off or at least away from Asia to have such misinterpretations abt Singapore.
I have been to Japan once and the Japanese are a courteous bunch of ppl...
I am a Singaporean, and I have no idea what kind of rip off stories you have heard about my country.
But one thing is for certain, our country do not have school kids treating their teachers as shooting targets with shotguns and pistols in hand...:p