This is me, blogging from Tokyo. I wanted to blog everyday, but as it turned out, I had to clear a lot of office emails. By the time I finished, it was close already close to midnight the last 2 nights. Today, the seminar finished before lunch, so I have time now to blog after clearing my office emails, and before I go out to enjoy Tokyo!!
So, let me share some interesting bits and pictures with you here.
Flight to Tokyo
This wasn’t a lot of fun, because the in-flight system broke down for some of the seats, and mine was one of them. So, I was bored for 7+ hours and ended up solving a Soduko puzzle instead. I settled down to watch Die Hard 4.0, then realized I should be watching something I had not watched before. I switched to 881 (yes, that getai show), and settled down for the next 2 hours, when it happened. The system went kaput on me.
Tokyo airport – Tokyo City Airport Terminal (TCAT)
Nothing much to say – just share some pictures with you. From the airport, I took the airport coach to TCAT. The roads were free of jams, so the usual 1 hour 10-20 minute ride took only about 1 hour. From TCAT, I took a taxi to Diamond Hotel. Oh ya, the taxi is super techno. There is this little screen on the deck in front. It is a GPRS system, shows the map of the part of Tokyo the taxi is in, with a little arrow moving about (that’s the position the taxi is in). Well, in Singapore, you only see this in the movies! Took a picture of the screen, unfortunately it didn’t turn out well. Come of think of it, I didn’t see the screen in the taxi I was in just now.
Some pictures inside and outside the Narita airport.
Diamond Hotel
I don’t have a good picture of the front of the hotel. Here are some pictures of the room. The internet connection in the room is super fast, and it’s free. One of the subway stations actually had wireless broadband connection. The 3rd hotel I will be staying in does not have internet connection in the room. I am thinking that I will go to that station to do my work. How about that?!
First night out in the town
Ya, I went to Shinjuku (the super hip area in Tokyo) after I checked into the hotel. First, I went to a rather quiet spot to have dinner, otherwise the prices will kill me. Here’s a picture of the shop where I had beef rice – cost me 600 yen or about $7.80.
Here are some pictures of Shinjuku that I took last night.
On the way back to the hotel, I dropped into a convenience store called AM/PM. I picked up a bottle of 1.5L orange juice (see picture), which cost me 313 yen – or about $4.00. There are many many 24-hour convenience stores in Tokyo – so if you need anything at any time, you can get it – even in the middle of the night.
Is the weather cold?
The answer is yes, but not too bad. I have experienced colder weather in Tokyo, but my friend said the temperatures will drop this weekend.
Tokyo subway
Take a look at the Tokyo subway map.
Fantastic maze, and I love the challenge. It’s fun standing below the map in the stations, staring at it and wondering what to do next. The Tokyo people will be staring at me, wondering what’s wrong with this man… ha ha!!
The fares – give you an example. From the hotel area (Hanzomon station), I change train once to get to Shinjuku (about 4 stations and 11 minutes away). The fare (one way) is 260 yen or about $3.30.
A funny story
Last night, I met my friend yashiro @hotmail.com (that’s what Dennis calls him, he’s actually called Hiroshi Yashiro) for dinner. First, he brought me to the 2 hotels that I will be staying in next week. Then he asked what I wanted for dinner – katsu don (fried pork rice) or pork ball/beef ball. I suggested katsu don. Since the restaurant was quite far away, we decided to go somewhere nearer for beef ball/pork ball. After not seeing him for 5 years, and not coming to Tokyo for 5 years, I thought he would bring me to somewhere nice for some real Japanese food.
Guess what – we went to Yoshinoya. This food outlet is all over Tokyo, and cheap. I looked at the menu. All beef and pork dishes, but no beef ball and pork ball. I didn’t dare to ask him. Anyway, we had pork rice that cost only 330 yen or about $4.20 (the Yoshinoya in Singapore – you pay at least $5 to $6 for a simple meal and the taste is so un-Japanese). So, we parted after dinner, with me still wondering where were the beef balls and pork balls.
Then this morning, I realized it. It’s not beef ball and pork ball – it’s actually beef bowl and pork bowl! So much for Japanese English.
Japanese people
I know this is the part that most of you want to know about but dare not ask.
Yes, there are many many beautiful people in Japanese – both guys and girls. They are ordinary people on the street, but many of them can be models and TV/movie stars anytime. I wanted to, but dared not take pictures of them – don’t want to get beat up here in Tokyo.
Stop drooling!!
That’s all for now
Dennis taught me in MSN how to place the pictures properly, otherwise they will all appear in front in one place.
Dennis – stop crying. We will have a holiday in Tokyo together some time soon, and if Lek Wei is well-behaved, we may let him tag along.
Bye for now. just came back from the Ginza area to visit the ASEAN Rural Community Plaza – had such a great time find my way through the subway maze again!!
Will blog about my visit Ginza another day - took some very nice pictures to share with you all. Tomorrow, we will be going on a field trip to Chiba Prefecture and will be staying overnight there. Not sure if there's internet connection in the hotel there. If not, I will be back in the cyber world on Saturday evening.
Oh ya – the seminar
The powerpoint presentation slides I prepared didn’t work! Oh no!! The Japanese girl from the seminar secretariat took me in taxi back to the hotel to get my laptop. But the file again couldn’t open on the Japanese laptop. So they delayed my presentation until the last (just before lunch). Finally, another Japanese guy from the secretariat managed to open it using another version of Microsoft Powerpoint. So much for technology, but thank God for helping me to do the presentation finally.
Posted by Mr Chin
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