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  

Bedok Prawn Noodle - Bedok Hawker Centre

My bowl of piping hot noodles cost me $5 

     This morning, I tried the Bedok prawn noodles at the Bedok Hawker Centre next to the Bedok Mall. It was not crowded at 10.30 am and I had the noodles with big prawns and pork ribs. The noodles were either the soupy kind or the dry kind. I opted for the soupy kind. 

     The flavour of the prawn was not very strong, as was the noodles which were not too springy. The pork ribs were soft but no real flavour. The prawn stock however, was quite tasty and the condiments were untouched as I wanted to appreciate the real prawn flavour.

Occupying the Centre Stall at the Centre Aisle 

Verdict, this is not one of Singapore's better Prawn Noodle stalls, or "Hay Mee, Xia Mien (mandarin). There are many better ones at Adam Road Hawker Centre as well as the famous Whitley Road Prawn Noodles now located next to Revenue House. 

I would not make the effort to go there to have good prawn noodles.  

Whip It - LunchMoney