30 Mar 2006 - Japan (Tokyo) - Day 3
Not much for this day. Woke up 5.30am, did a quick pack up and proceeded to the check out desk. Ms "Artificial Polite" was there. This time, she said she could help me. So, was she the Check out girl? Bill came and was much better than I expected. Guessed they were kind enough to charge me corporate rates. I paid up and got my Airport Bus ticket finally (another 3,000 yen). I was told to wait at the bus stop. Grabbed a quick bite from the hotel's restaurant and went to wait out the bus. Good thing I looked around. The bus stop that I was waiting at didn't seem to have anyone there. I realized that there was another bus stop at the other corner. And they were already boarding. Lucky me, else I would really be late for the plane.
Got to the airport and checked in. Plane was to leave at 9.30am. Walked around some shops inside and did some last minute shopping. Bought on impulse some electronic toys for D and A. One of them, was a LED pendant, whereby you could customise the scrolling message. The demo looked very cool and I got it. But it was really expensive. 39,000 yen. That was like $60. Another hole in the pocket. I got another LCD Mario game key chain. What is cool is that it runs on solar power. and quite small and slim. (Till now, I have no idea how to work it. Instructions all in Japanese. Pressing everything pressable didn't work. It just kept on blinking a "Game over" screen.)
Nothing much eventful happend during the flight. My Swiss knife was confiscated as it was not allowed to be brought to the plane. But I had already checked in the luggage. No choice but to give it up. It was about 6 hours from here to Thailand. Nothing to do. Watched some shows, looked out the window, sleep a little. When I reached Bangkok, my phone worked again. Quickly sent out some messages home and some replies to messages from others. Phone was running out of juice and I was hoping that I could at least get the message to A to pick me up. Luckily, it was still working on 1 bar.
Plane was slightly delayed but transit was smooth. I caught the 2nd part of "The promise" on the plane and a pretty funny show by ??. Reached Singapore at around 6.30pm. Wow, that was about a total of 10 hours flight. Sit till backside pain.
Even though do nothing, it was pretty tiring to fly.
It had been a fun trip. In the mere course of 2 days, I had experienced so much. Though I didn't get much sleep, time was too precious to do that. I had come to understand Japanese a little better. Here is a very unique culture, that prides itself on human courtesy, even to themselves, and a certain amount of respect for the environment. We as singaporeans, have a long way to go to achieve this level of considersation for fellow human beings and things around us. You don't see people defacing public property, you don't see people throwing rubbish on the floor. People are always courteous, even if they don't know or like you.
Also, here is a race that is metriculous in nature, always improving, always personalising, always imaginative. There are processes for everything, from ordering food to getting a bus. Here is a society that is inherently complex in nature, just like their multi layered train systems. There are information aplenty, information to show which stops you are at,information to inform you of traffic jams, information to tell the temperature. There are LCDs/LED panels literally everywhere. Everywhere you are, you will be exposed to a whole multi sensory stream of info, be it from the video walls, the neon signs, the girl shouting on the street, the sound system blaring out from the walls. This is one of the most advanced city in the world. Truly living, truly modern, and truly creative.
It would probably be sometime that I would ever revisit it again. Cost of a holiday is inhibiting. Glad that now it is a "been there", "done that". And the cherry blossoms, a bonus in my memories.
Got to the airport and checked in. Plane was to leave at 9.30am. Walked around some shops inside and did some last minute shopping. Bought on impulse some electronic toys for D and A. One of them, was a LED pendant, whereby you could customise the scrolling message. The demo looked very cool and I got it. But it was really expensive. 39,000 yen. That was like $60. Another hole in the pocket. I got another LCD Mario game key chain. What is cool is that it runs on solar power. and quite small and slim. (Till now, I have no idea how to work it. Instructions all in Japanese. Pressing everything pressable didn't work. It just kept on blinking a "Game over" screen.)
Nothing much eventful happend during the flight. My Swiss knife was confiscated as it was not allowed to be brought to the plane. But I had already checked in the luggage. No choice but to give it up. It was about 6 hours from here to Thailand. Nothing to do. Watched some shows, looked out the window, sleep a little. When I reached Bangkok, my phone worked again. Quickly sent out some messages home and some replies to messages from others. Phone was running out of juice and I was hoping that I could at least get the message to A to pick me up. Luckily, it was still working on 1 bar.
Plane was slightly delayed but transit was smooth. I caught the 2nd part of "The promise" on the plane and a pretty funny show by ??. Reached Singapore at around 6.30pm. Wow, that was about a total of 10 hours flight. Sit till backside pain.
Even though do nothing, it was pretty tiring to fly.
It had been a fun trip. In the mere course of 2 days, I had experienced so much. Though I didn't get much sleep, time was too precious to do that. I had come to understand Japanese a little better. Here is a very unique culture, that prides itself on human courtesy, even to themselves, and a certain amount of respect for the environment. We as singaporeans, have a long way to go to achieve this level of considersation for fellow human beings and things around us. You don't see people defacing public property, you don't see people throwing rubbish on the floor. People are always courteous, even if they don't know or like you.
Also, here is a race that is metriculous in nature, always improving, always personalising, always imaginative. There are processes for everything, from ordering food to getting a bus. Here is a society that is inherently complex in nature, just like their multi layered train systems. There are information aplenty, information to show which stops you are at,information to inform you of traffic jams, information to tell the temperature. There are LCDs/LED panels literally everywhere. Everywhere you are, you will be exposed to a whole multi sensory stream of info, be it from the video walls, the neon signs, the girl shouting on the street, the sound system blaring out from the walls. This is one of the most advanced city in the world. Truly living, truly modern, and truly creative.
It would probably be sometime that I would ever revisit it again. Cost of a holiday is inhibiting. Glad that now it is a "been there", "done that". And the cherry blossoms, a bonus in my memories.
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