My First Trip to Japan 18 - 29 Sept 1990 Day 6 to Day 8

Sept 23 Sunday DAY 6
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Johnny's birthday (my brother) 
Went down to Pie / Coffee shop, surprise ! meet Chester Yip, - old Nanyang Technological Institute Applied Mechanics (final year specialisation course) pal. What a real coincidence !
We never ever meet in Singapore for over 3 plus years since graduation and bump into each other in Tokyo !
Arrange for him to follow me and Shimizu to 
a) Harajuku - funky town

 Jpop Group with their groupies 

23 September 1990 (Sunday) 

 American Influence in their dance moves 

23 Sept 1990 (Sunday)

                                             Heavy Metal JPop rock star in Harajuku 

23 Sept 1990 (Sunday) 

b) Shinjuku - shopping area
c) Ginza - bought presents for everybody. 
Impression, its one real crowded place (move forward 25 years to 2015, and Singapore sure feels like Tokyo of the 1990 ! )
Dispensed off Norio and had some rest 5 - 7pm. Meet Chester for dinner, Yen 2,000 and then over to fashion concious Roppongi where the young and the trendy hang out. Walk a bit - 2 hours ! (I was quite a lazy guy then) before coming back to Shinagawa Prince for some tomato juice and pancakes (!)
11.30 pm proceed to visit Chester's hotel (Pacific) fora drink and a short call home.
1.00 am Proceed back for last night ; Overall an enjoyable stay in TOKYO

Sept 24 Monday DAY 7 (Autumn 1st Day - Public Holiday)
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TOKYO  - YOKOHAMA 

7th day in Japan and enjoying every minute of it ! 
5 more great, glorious days to go 
10.00am Have breakfast at coffee and pie shop where I first met Chester, Yen 1,165
11.30am Met by Shimizu , he's 30 minutes late ! (Tardy very unlike the Japanese)
               Check out of hotel bill Yen 60,000 
               Proceed to Shimizu's hometown, YOKOHAMA 

Yokohama Harbour 

24 Sept 1990 (Mon)

Yokohama streetside 24 Sept 1990 

(Monday) 

               A small city of 1 and half million, compared to Tokyo's 12 million. Takes 1 hour
               because of traffic jam - begin to appreciate the "efforts" our Government is taking                  to curb the traffic volume. (In July 1990, it started the Certificate of Entitlement
               or COE program to control the supply of new cars coming on the roads)
               Yokohama's a lovely city, a bit like San Francisco (I visited SF in 1987), with a nice                bay and a real impressive suspension bridge. It used to be a US navy base till 
               about 5 years back, 1985. My hotel, STAR hotel is right off the whart overlooking 
              the pretty walkways and park. Lots of youngsters driving open -top convertibles
               like in the States (wow I was a jet setter then). Had a fantastic lunch at Korean
               barbecue joint - courtesy of Shimizu.
               After lunch walked a bit and proceeded to Marine Tower to look at the sights.
              Unfortunately Mount Fuji cant be seen (I went later in 1985 up to 6th station of Mt 
              Fuji), due to poor visibiity.
6.00 pm Meet Mr. Kato (Kato san) Shimizu's boss for a nice Chinese dinner in the world's 
              largest and certainly beautiful Chinatown.

     Heavy Metal Rock Group at Harajuku Sun 23 Sept 1990

Sept 25 Tuesday DAY 8 
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YOKOHAMA - OSAKA 
6.20 am Arise and pack up, check out of STAR hotel.

7.30 am Norio is late again ! Jammed up at his house to hotel
             due to downtown morning traffic.

9.35 am TOKYO station. Meet Maru san (old guy, trading house). He is fuming mad !
              Waited long time for us, Managed to cool him down and proceed for the 9:56
              "Shinkansen" (bullet train). It takes about 3 hours to reach OSAKA 
               Route : TOKYO - NAGOYA - KYOTO - OSAKA

Maru san at Satake Sept 25 1990 (Tuesday)

OSAKA 1pm       Arrive at Shin OKASA and take taxi to SATAKE (chamber maker no. 2 in Japan)
              Meet Hirote and Yamashita san. Not too friendly types but OK for business I guess.
              After short introduction, I insist that I have money and have lunch. Too bad for them               Lunch is important !!! Anyway they prove to be very hospitable and so lunch at KEI 
              - HAN Department store.

Afternoon: Tech training. I 'bash" them in all the necessary points (I was a very ambitious
                  chamber salesman selling German equipment successfully for 3 - 4years) to 
                  scare them a little. See what tomorrow brings in terms of price limits for 3 zone 
                   thermal shock and walk-in chambers. Very conservative bunch !    

Me with Horibe san, Sales and Service Manager 

Sept 24 1990 (Tue)  

6.00pm     Yamashita drops us off at (Japanese print) Mariuchi Station Hotel for the night.
                 A real small town 

7.45 pm   Meet Maru san for dinner at local Japanese deli ; rice with meat. Simple food for 
                the first time in 8 days

Maru san and I at dinner 

Osaka

25 Sept 1990 (Tuesday)

9.00 pm   Back to hotel to check accounts.  
              

My First Japan Trip 18 - 29 Sept 1990 Day 3 to Day 5.

  Then 28 years old, a young Sales Manager in Japan for the first time

20 Sept 1990 (Thur) DAY 3

Up at 0815 hr. Tired a little but no problems. Met Shimizu at usual time (I call him Shimizu san as courtesy).
Had breakfast (on me) Yen 810 - MacDonalds (* what was I thinking ???)
Proceed to Ei Tir Tse (Japanese pronouciation for Eight) for further training on 802 (the functional tester product) and various companies
Lunch - 'tonkatsu', rice and soup. 15 minutes only (*disappointed not a long lunch)
1.00 pm software training
3.00 pm proceed to see Sony FA factory automation showroom
5.00 pm Bowling at Shinagawa Prince Hotel (* I was amazed that the Japanese bowl in 
              their full suits !!)
6.00 pm Dinner at Chinese Restaurant (on Itoh san)
8.00 pm Back in hotel
8.30 pm Out for a brisk 1 and half hour walk. A long one ! Nearly got lost, bought Fuji box
              camera for Yen 2,150.   

With Eight Sangyo 802  Functional Tester

Norio Shimizu and I 

23 Sept 1990 just outside Harajuku district 

21 Sept 1990 (Fri) DAY 4

Up at 0825 hr. Feel good and rested. 
0930 hr met by Shimizu at lobby
Proceed to have breakfast at trendy coffeshop
Go over to SUNTECH'S sister company - TECHNOID
Tech. training on hardware aspect of the In Circuit Tester (ICT)
Lunch at Chinese Restaurant - given the VVIP treatment (*cant recall a single thing)
After lunch training on software aspect of the ICT, learn about troubleshooting and setting up of software
Dinner at Chiquita's restaurant, again given the VVIP treatment,had Surf and Turf ie. steak 
(medium) and lots and lots of seafood (* I hadn't discovered the joys of eating sushi and sashimi yet). They have gone to town on me, wine, beer, water, the works !
Proceed to KaraOK lounge, where I sang a song in Japanese !
Late, late, night. Took taxi home (after 1.00 am) paid Yen 4,250 for it. 

Teppanyaki Surf and Turf 
Chiquita's Restaurant 
21 Sept 1990 (Fri)

22 Sept 1990 (Sat) DAY 5 

Up early and met by Shimizu at 10.00 am. 
Had breakfast at free of charge (in Japanese speak, no breakfast)
Proceed to EIGHT SANGYO sales office where we meet Mr. Yokozawa for brief outline on AF 8020 function checker (new product then). 
Selling points of 8020 highlighted
Lunch at Chinese Restaurant on Yokozawa san
After lunch we went to Electric City (Akihabara) for shopping, I got the SONY CCD - F450E
for Yen 128,000 (S$ 1,600 then a princely sum) good buy I supposed ! The salesman promised me that it was Made in Japan and Very Good Reliability.
4.00 pm felt a bit tired so proceeded back to hotel, thanked Norio and had a short rest.
Early night, dinner at Yen 865 and off to bed by 9.00 pm.   

My First Japan Trip 18 - 29 Sept 1990 ; 25 years ago

     I chanced upon my first travel diary in my basement today, and as in my earlier blog post about my son's trip to Japan (not his first mind you, his 4th while he only turns 18), from Oct 2nd to 16th, I felt it good to put on record my FIRST Japan trip as a young man of 28 
from 18 - 29 September  1990. I post the entire trip to reflect a young man's (me) writing his views of the country and his travel experiences when there was no handphone, no internet, no social media,no Facebook,Instagram,Snap Chat and no Whatsapp and only snail mail or ordinary letters by post. What a different world that was !!!

My first trip to the Land of the Rising Sun

    I was then a Sales Manager at Trio Tech, an American semiconductor company founded in San Francisco USA, with HQ in Singapore. My trip was funded by my company and I was visiting my principals Eight Sangyo and Suntech in Tokyo. 1990 was a time when the Japanese economy was booming, registering 4 - 8 % growth year on year and they were the richest Asians of that era. Singapore was just an up and coming small country dependent on manufacturing and moving up the value stream, our economic 'boom' was just about to start.....  so this is my unadulterated diary every 2 to 3 days per post. 

    18 Sept 1990 Tue DAY 1
    ----------------------------------

    Arrive in Japan on SQ 12 at Narita airport (Chiba prefecture). Flight uneventful. Met at Narita by N. Shimizu (SUNTECH CORPORATION).Proceed to Shinagawa Prince Hotel - yen 8,000 per night. Hotel has bowling alley, tennis courts,table-tennis,ice-skating and discotheque. Massive by any international standards. 

Shinagawa Prince Hotel 18 Sept 1990 

    Have steak set dinner.
    Short walk around to Shinaawa Train Station
    Back in hotel by 10.00 pm
    Potter around, unpacking, bathe etc
    Bed by 10.00 pm.

   19 Sept 1990 Wed DAY 2
   -----------------------------------

My Micro sized hotel room at Shinagawa Prince Hotel near Shinagawa Station

    Met by Shimizu at 0915 hr and proceed to EIGHT SANGYO for Day 1 of 2 for technical training. Met Mr. Itoh (the founder - a 50 odd year old man, ex-Sony technical chief of staff),
Mr. Masuka, Arakai, Yokozawa and Technical Staff for functional capabilities of 802 FC / hardware. 

Shimizu San

    Sushi for lunch (IN). * An aside here, I was amazed that Sushi was transported by bicycle or motorcycle from the shop nearby as it was the first time I encountered sushi in bamboo containers (recycle friendly).

   Afternoon continue - software aspect
   5.00 pm knockoff for dinner, at a small but typical restaurant. Had tempura, sake, and Kirin beer (* bad move, I had no 'legs' I recall which was quite hilarious and needed some help)

   7.00 pm Karaoke session, Itoh san booked the whole karaoke lounge till 10.00pm for me !
 Learnt 1 song and proceeding to 2nd song (presumably in Japanese).

   Eight Sangyo Signboard 

      

Andrew turns 18 - Birthday Dinner ; Dancing Crab

Posing with the Cajun flavoured Crab bucket ; I look like

some Chilli ambassador don't  I ? 

My younger son Andrew, turned 18 in late October. We bought him a 'present' which was a trip for himself to Japan for 2 weeks, from early 2nd to the 16th October, paid courtesy of my wife and myself. He is currently studying Biomedical Engineering at Ngee Ann Polytechnic Year 2, and the trip was a 'coming of age' trip for him and his ACS buddies. Several of his friends are in the same Polytechnic and we were keen to ask him of his experiences. But that will be in another post some time later. 

Back to the dinner. This place is called Dancing Crab and its speciality is Louisiana seafood (yes New Orleans) with gumbo, crab cakes and Crab done New Orleans style. We ordered 2 buckets one with medium spicy (which was hot for us anyway !) and the other was butter seared seafood lobster.   

Eat everything off the table, its fun ! 

The first dish was the Crab Bucket medium spicy. The crab was flavourful, Sri Lankan sized, and the chilli was well, spicy and a little sweet. There was plentiful prawns, clams and crab meat, plus potatoes, corn on the cob and some sausages thrown in for good measure. The Crab Bucket feeds 2 - 3 persons so we ordered 2 of these for good measure. The Dancing Crab is a subsidiary of the Tung Lok seafood restaurant chain, and they have 2 outlets, this one at Turf City, Bukit Timah and another outlet at Vivicity. 

May and Andrew

I feel very blessed to have a stable family, with 2 good sons who are hardworking and have a passion for their studies. My wife May is also my blessing in life. Having family outings for dinner, movies and the odd local trip to Gardens by the Bay or breakfast at Tiong Bahru are the things money cannot buy, it is these things that make us a family - through good and not so good times.   

V for victory 

Andrew is at the age where he can buy and drink alcohol, so moderation is the key to everything. The youth of today have different mindsets from ours, and social media is replacing the day to day communication. It should not be this way, but we will find a balance for it in the long run. Nothing beats a face to face communication ever so often. Human interaction has always been this way.   

WTA Finals Radwanska vs Kvitova

WTA Tennis BNP Paribas Ladies Finals Singapore Oct 2015

Singles SemiFinal between Gabine Muguruza (No.3) and Agnieska Radwanska (No. 5)

The last week of October was a real serendipitous one for me. In the midst of work pressure and end of year move out of our office, my friend Jason Lu offered me free tickets to Cat 1 and Cat 2 seats for the WTA Finals held at the indoor stadium from 23 Oct - 1st November. Initially I was reluctant to go, but after several friends told me I would be watching world class tennis in air-cond comfort with top 10 ladies singles players, I thought "why not " ?

  

So I rushed down and met 2 other friends, Michael and Looi and was enthralled to watch the match between Maria Sharapova (No. 4) and Simona Halep (No.2). As the world No. 1 Serena Williams was out njured, this was the perfect opportunity for the 2nd to 8th ranked ladies to shine in their own capacity. Garbine Muguruza herself had beaten Serena in this years French Open and was the losing finalist to Serena in this year's Wimbledon. A breakout year for Garbine.  

                                                            Michael, Me, Looi 

To watch tennis on TV is one thing, to watch it live and the players no further than 50 me away from you grunting, striving for every ball, the drama of in or out calls, and the cheers from the loyal fans won me over. It is not everyday that I can watch world ranked players battling tooth and nail for the coveted points and winning matches in air-cond comfort ! 

 My favourite is Garbine, she is a photogenic, very athletic and goes for every ball. A Venezuelan by birth, she is a Spanish player who is only 22 and up and coming, winning the recent China Open in early October and then flying early to Singapore for up to 2 weeks to train for the WTA Finals. A true passionate competitor who in my opinion will be the No. 1 ranked player in 2016.

World No.3 Gabine Muguruza 

The final was between Agnieska Radwanska (Poland) and Petra Kvitova (No.6) was over in 3 hard won sets, 6-2, 4.6 and 6-3. Radwanska, won the championship and the crowd was on its feet for the most part, such was the closeness of the match and the competitivess of the players. Not a single ball flew out of court, that is how well controlled the players are.

There is no love lost between competitors but as can be seen in world ranked players, it is "kill or be killed" No one is here to make friends, everyone fights for his place and staying in the tournament is the No. 1 priority.

I will indeed go again next year, such is new found my interest.    World Class Tennis in Singapore is now a reality - at least for the next 5 years. 

Craftsmen Coffee - Siglap Road

               Almond Latte with a Dark Chocolate by the Side 

             A gem of a coffee joint to celebrate life and have a chat with friends on a Saturday morning. Craftsmen Coffee is just the place. Located at Siglap Road, (new building opposite Siglap Centre) and beside the Cold Storage, Craftsmen Coffee boasts about a dozen brews ranging from your Espresso, Amaricanos, to Lattes to Teas.  My friends Looi and Tom joined me for a morning 'talk cock session'  (banter amongst the 'boys')  and the prices were very economical ranging from 5 to 6 dollars for a cuppa. Teas were starting at 4 dollars.

          Compare this to your chi chi place Tiong Bahru Bakery, this is the better place to relax and unwind after a long hard week chasing orders, managing issues big and small and making short trips to the region for work. There is not as much people coming in and out of the coffee establishment, which is manned by many young baristas mostly in their 20s. 

           The breads, like croissants (I tried one) were not as fresh as the Tiong Bahru Bakery but the coffee and the ambience was the main factor drawing the crowds, mainly young professionals, to sit and chill. 

         I would recommend it if you have an hour or two to unwind at the East Coast