Monday, November 27, 2006

yoKohAmA/tOkYo

argh... a week there on business trip
yokohama is about 1.5 hours (train/bus) journey from tokyo with a population of over 3 million ppl, yoko is japan's 2nd largest city and is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture.

towards the end of Edo Period (1603-1867) during which Japan isolated herself fr the rest of the world, western nations forced the country to open its ports to foreign trade.
in 1859, Yokohama's port become 1 of the 1st ports to be opened and Yoko quickly grew from a small fishing village into 1 of the Japan's major cities.

oh.. Yokohama's Chinatown is also one of the world's largest.
keke.. why i so informative?

cos i take a half-day tour "Rambling in Yokohama" but the sweet japanese lady told us "only japanese language".. but frankly speaking, do we care about ENGLISH?
places we visit :
- minato mirai 21 districts
- yokohama red brick warehouse
- yokohama foreign general cemetery "Minato-no-Mieru Oka Koen"
- sankeien garden
- yokohama bay bridge
- yamashita park

we take a direct flight from SG to Narita airport, then catch a limo coach to Yokohama excel hotel tokyu.
hungry.. so we look for food lor

see the food here?
the top 2 is for my colleague ken, the below 2 is mine.. some sort of wanton noodle.. but funny wor, it must accompanied by a bowl of rice
the rice taste good n yummy
the noodle lagi best...
as for ken, he can eat much more than me but just manage to finish his bowl of noodle.. that plate of rice with curry is so yummy & tasty but he's just too full to swallow
wasted man!

after our lunch, we take the yokohama sightseeing coach trip lor
as i mention before.. only japanese.. so the whole damn trip, i only understand 1 word "Yokohama".. but the tour guide does try her best to accomodate us.
argh.. she talk, we sleep lor..

after our exhausting sightseeing trip, we look for food again..
then we found this one, food stall near the street.. all stand there n eat

of course we prefer a restaurant lar... our meal only 1550 yen per person, with unlimited refilled of rice n salad
after dinner, we shop around takashimaya
we shop = windows shopping lar
Louis Vuitton, Channel, Gucci, Prada, Burberry... how to shop?

dun talk about big item like the louis vuitton bag which easily cost SGD1.5k
let's talk a about a simple shawl from Coach & Burberry

nah.. i snap via my 3G moto phone
Coach = SGD260
Burberry =SGD525

interestingly, most of the school kids here got burberry shawl.. so rich?
then their uniform are really from polo ralph lauren
huh... the differences so great?
imagine what we wear in m'sia & s'pore on school uniform & how much it cost?

then we also browse those long jacket/coat like piere cardin... easily cost more than SGD1k+, how to buy? it is stylish lar.. but just too expensive for us
my colleague is looking for some brand of cosmetic for her wife and we also bought a bottle of cK eternity eau de parfum spray 100ml
cost us ard SGD50.. frankly speaking, places like japan n korea.. all these stuffs are way cheaper than south-east-asia
my lady friends also ask me to bought them those biore uv moisturiser n clinique dunno what type of stuff lar, i think is toner or something.. still much cheaper.
some say only can found in japan, some say v cheap there.. i agree lor

frankly speaking, japan is indeed a solid country.
it doesn't even need to depends on tourism.. imagine how many millions can be generated from tourism industry?
not agree?
ok.. let's dig old data out for Malaysia itself (always see the Visit Malaysia year, right?)
tourism industry generated around $11.2 billion in revenue for m'sia in yr 2002, can you imagine how many billions now?

we're talking about money now (in a macro mode) - the economic importance of tourism in asia-pacific countries cos tourism is the major source of foreign exchange earnings in these countries...
It ranked 2nd in HK, Malaysia & Philippines while ranked 3rd in Singapore & Indonesia.

Japan still hold tight to japanese languages (while maybe lately open-up a bit) and its economy really depends heavily on its local consumption and demand
clap..clap..

japanese gal buy a few louis vuitton bag a year (normal small range is ard SGD1300), how many m'sia gal can afford such bag as a cost of RM3000.
how many % of the population in m'sia will buy a RM3000 handbag?

our old premier launch a vision in the 80's that we shall follow the japanese.. but i guess he should go there n stay for a period of time to understand the japanese, then decide whether m'sian can follow or not!

sMurFy at ... [ 4:38 PM ]

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================================================================ Sunday, November 19, 2006

sEcuRiTY tOKeN

online banking now are such a hassle that i can only perform 'online-banking' at home with the newly launched 'security token'.
1 bank 1 token
that's the damning reality now.. and why use such an old & fussy technology since everyone is owning a cell phone now?

see it now?
i've 2 internet banking account, hence i need to carry these 2 devices around with me anywhere, anytime.. without it, u won't be able to do any transactions online.
their intention is good, to prevent fraud... but can't they make use of 2nd authentication via cell phone? i believe it is much more secured and up-to-date and u carry yr cell phone around anywhere, everywhere... & u can do it anytime!

the ppl here are just too slow to adapt to new technology, too profit-oriented.. & too conservative to move ahead. just a couple of years.. u'll a lot of complains from this token stuff, let's cross yr arm and see...
same as mobile number portability, broadband services & credit card... when can they do something about it?
haiz...

sMurFy at ... [ 11:55 PM ]

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Foma SH903i & Nikon D80

i'm back... from japan, a week there like a dream to me n my colleague.
the streets there are full of supermodels, trendy & kawaai gals.. they're just everywhere. the only problem is the language barrier!

i stay at yokohama.. u hardly seen any foreigner there and whenever i do shopping n dining, i'm just speechless.
do i look like a japanese?
my colleagues also very frustrated on the gadget we wish to get from japan, such a let down... ken wish to get a new 3G handphone for her wife n himself while i wish to get a D80 but they dun just sell the handset.
their policy is "all handset must with contract" while my D80 is only with local warranty.. damn!

this is the phone that we wish to get, a 3G smartphone with 3.2 mpixel
& yes, the phone there is very cheap too
few hundred bucks (latest) while most of the phone are free when u sign contract and they like flip phone.. and mind you, all the phone there can do video conferencing too even without 3G

ok.. my dSLR that i wanna get from japan is d80, from nikon.

only japanese local warranty, damn.. the price there is ard SGD1750 while in SG, they're selling at SGD2288. why such a different?

end up... we back with empty handed... sob..sob..

sMurFy at ... [ 12:21 PM ]

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================================================================ Monday, November 06, 2006

aN iNcOnVenIEnT trUTh

Sat meet-up with a close friend cos' 1 of my buddy busy entertaining his wife... cannot get temporally permit for breakfast, hence our brunch meet-up with my buddies postpone till further notice!

this friend of mine "my" is a frequent traveller due to her job nature, and meet-up is indeed rare. i sleep late while she got time touch-up her hair at one of the saloon and we meet-up for lunch at vivo-city, cos she wanna bought some winter clothing there.

hmm... that's good since she travel to most of the european countries, anything should buy or not, she know well.
after we had our lunch n shop around, we check out for a movie...

my : eh... see got any movie, i long time didn't watch lei
kok : ok, but lately got any meh beside the men favourite "DOA"?
my : what's that?
kok : babe, good movie..
my : haha... check out this, "the man of my live"...
kok : damn (i saw a man carrying a man), what's that?
my : hello.. brokeback movie lor
kok : how about flushed away, animation... should be good hor?
my : i anything, we go n queue
kok : eh.. how about "An Inconvenient Truth?", i saw review in the Times Magazine leh
my : good?
kok : dunno lar, but those ppl say solid, this al gore (last time former VP of USA) campaign for the Global Warming something, but Gold Class leh
my : gold class v expensive, right?
my : nvm lar.. see cartoon or DOA, check the timing
kok : queue damn long
my : eh.. got platinum queue, argh.. i got platinum master only
kok : hehe... i got, courtesy from Maybank, my platinum visa
my : eh.. timing is good, got yr what inconvenient truth leh
..
inside the cinema & the movie start

my : eh.. start liao, dun sleep
kok : ok..
and start the talking... talk, talk n talk
the movie is good, very informative but.. doesn't interest me anymore because i've go through an in-depth research on this topic when i'm in my junior college
so i watch a bit, sleep a bit, watch a bit, sleep a bit...
..

my : u har, really sleep hor
kok : no lar... damn documentary, sianz ler.. i tot this movie like twister like that
my : haha... haha... i also kena cheated, but very informative
kok : damn.. i should protest later i ask them to move this stupid movie to science centre, the omni-theater
..
then suddenly... finished liao
..
kok : eh... so fast finish
my : what fast, 2 hours leh
kok : har.. i tot 1/2 hour only?
my : hello.. u sleep very long liao (& keep laughing non-stop)
kok : oh shit... 2 hours?
my : shiok or not pay $9.50 to sleep here?
kok : what sleep, i didn't sleep, ok.. i close my eye and listen one.. audio book mah
my : haha, haha...
..
then outside the cinema on our way out, i hear one gal asking his boyfriend about the movie and his boyfriend promptly say "watch discovery better lar"
..
which i agree, huh... indeed A GLOBAL WARNING for this movie

sMurFy at ... [ 12:04 AM ]

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