With the lovely birthday weekend, a training project at work, frantic study-catch-ups at nights, and a weekend in Tioman starting today, there just haven’t been any time to update. Except these 2 paragraphs of course.

Happy May Day! Happy get-your-Progress-Package day!

It’s still bloody cold. I wasn’t planning to go sight-seeing about Seoul anyway, since I’d been here twice before and it isn’t an incredibly exciting place to be. The cold makes me wanna go out even less. Thank god the hotel is a 5min walk from the office.

One thing I realized about my hotel room: there seems to be more emergency items than usual. There are two canisters of fire extinguishers. There are sets of two extinguishers all down the hallway. And I go into a room, there’s an emergency flashlight. Well, we all should have one in places like Tokyo, San Francisco, where an earthquake can happen anytime. And then, I go to my bed, and there’s an emergency mask next to it. Now, fire extinguishers and flashlights make me feel perhaps a little safer, the management is taking precautions in case of emergency. But the emergency gas mask is a little unique. I guess South Korea is still technically at war with the nuclear makin’ North Korea.

If it hasn’t already been known, Korea is an incredibly male-dominated society. On the plane from Tokyo to Seoul, it was mostly business suit wearing men. My supervisor was the only female on business class. We were probably the only 2 wearing work outfits. In the offices, still not many women that aren’t the support staff. Was talking to one of the local colleagues about his children. 2 boys and the oldest, a daughter. The youngest is in California for a year learning English. The other boy is thinking of going overseas for college. What about the daughter, I asked? “Her…well, you know, because daughter…no need…son go…” Not that we don’t have a glass ceiling in Singapore, America, etc…but theirs seem pretty darn low.

I arrived in Seoul yesterday. It’s my 3rd time in Seoul and it’s still bloody raining! Well, to be more accurate, it’s not raining this morning, but it’s bloody cold. Temperatures are below 10 degrees celcius, but I swear it’s minus-zero winds.

We are staying at a fancier hotel at Koreana Hotel, but I ain’t too impressed so far. First, they charge 300 won (about S$0.50 excluding 10% tax) per minute for the internet in the room. Second, the hotel charges bloody S$300 per night and they charge you about a buck each for the shampoo, conditioner, toothbrush, and toothpaste! Not that I mind paying for them…no scratch that, I do mind paying for them, not because of the cost, but because of the audacity of it. I guess I’m lucky they don’t charge for the use of towels, electricity and soap.

Seoul is definitely less convenient for English speakers than Tokyo. My supervisor and I arrived around noon, cold, wet and hungry and looking for a place to eat before heading to work. So we randomly walked into a Korean restaurant (the only thing they have around here are KFC, Starbucks and Korean food). No English spoken, no menus with pictures. This happened to me before, but I lucked out the last time. This time, we sat down and the lady started giving us kimchi and other side dishes (I love Korean side dishes…you order one thing and so many plates of side dishes come you forget what you originally ordered), so I guess we had ordered. Then the soup came with some rice. I stired it and there were a whole bunch of animal intestines in it. And clotted blood of some animal. I pretty much ate the rice and kimchi. It was hilarious. Thankfully, we had a great dinner with our work mates.

Since I’ve been here twice before, and I’m not a fan of Korean fashion at all, I don’t feel a need to head out in the cold too much, just straight into my hot bath in the hotel.

In my first business trip, it’s been as busy and tiring as I expected to be. Any yet, I’ve been enjoying every bit of it. One just gets that much more exposure that’ll help me with my job, especially since the nature of my job deals in markets that are anywhere but in Singapore.

Going home tomorrow! It’s a birthday weekend! My mom’s birthday tomorrow, and mine the day after! Reflective I-have-hit-my-mid-twenties essay to come. You have been warned.

My last night in my lovely box of a room. I have decided that this has been my favorite hotel room of all time. Strange but true. Must be the warmed toilet seat. It’s so welcoming in the morning.

Worked all morning, meetings all day. ‘Twas an incredibly productive day, I must say. If only every working day was as productive as such. Work only seems like work when I really have nothing to do at work. When there’s tons of work to do, it’s actually fun. The finance world is fascinating and there’s so much more to learn.

I love Tokyo the way I love every other major cosmopolitan city in the world – there seems to be endless things to do and, a pleasant surprise, the restaurants here are amazingly cosmopolitan, you have Mexican, French, Italian, American, Chinese, Singaporean, Indian, Korean, and of course Japanese food everywhere. Vs. Seoul where I pretty much saw only Korean restaurants with a splatter of Italian (I don’t know why only that) food.

Food for thought presented today: perhaps working in Tokyo. I don’t think I’d like to. The language barrier simply puts too much space between me and the culture. And being able to communicate well with my surroundings is incredibly important to me. My networking opportunities will be limited. I am envious of people that speak 3, 4 languages; the opportunities are so vast for those. I have much respect for people who do that; I have no excuse: I have simply been lazy with languages. Sure, I can learn Japanese, just as I should improve my Chinese, just as I’d like to brush up on my French. But we have limited time to learn anything. Picking up basic conversational languages is okay, but to learn in depth such that you can read legal and financial documents in a  new language (crucial to be good at what I’d wanna do) would be a great stretch for me. I suppose the priority I’ve chosen for my time now is to learn my industry well than to struggle with a new language. Particularly since I have an easy time with reading/writing English.

Also, while the Japanese care for quality and presentation is lovely in their service (the service standards here are just spectacular, unbelievable) and food, it’s rather over-bearing in the presentation of themselves, i.e. I have never seen so many well-kept women and men. There appears to be so much effort made in looking nice, that it really doesn’t seem very…nice after a while. The major cities of the world are all incredibly materialistic, but Tokyo seems to take it up a notch or two.

Off to Seoul early tomorrow. I doubt the big Koreana Hotel would be as cosy as my Ginza Bellevue one…

I worked all day.

I had good unagi. But for once the portions were way too huge and I was unagied out by the end of the meal.

Worked through dinner till midnight. At least in the comfort of my nice hotel room. ‘Tis the life of a Japanese corporate whore. Thank god I never have to work so late in my regular SG life.

Oh, and I love warmed toilet seats! After getting over the icky feeling I have associating warm toilet seats with the bum of the user before me, there’s nothing like the skin of your butt touching the warm porcelain rim on a chilly night.

Tokyo day 2 was far superior to day 1. First, I had a solid 10 hours of sleep. Second, my Tokyo colleague, Shoko, gave me a ring at the hotel and asked to take me out for the day. Of course! I said. I’ve learnt in Seoul that the experience of traveling in a foreign country, especially where you don’t speak their language, with a local friend enhances the time you spend there so much more.

Shoko was an amazing hostess. What is it about these Korean and Japanese people that make them such incredible hosts?

We had lunch in Ginza at a restaurant and I had something I’ve never had before – raw ‘tai’ fish with rice. Only that you take slices of the fish, put it over the rice and then pour green tea over the fish to cook it a little and you have a green tea porridge-type thing. It tasted amazing.

Then on to Daikanyama, to see beautiful buildings, beautiful cafes, beautiful restaurants, beautiful galleries and of course beautiful people. It’s kinda like Union Street in San Francisco. Only richer.

Then on to another world – Harajuku – famous for its crazy fashion at the edge of Yoyogi Park. It was funny to look around at the crazy fashion, but I can’t help but think they all looked the same after a while. I’m all for creativity and expression of self through fashion, but I wondered why after all the effort of dressing up, they’d choose to dress up like each other. You had the Goth Group, and the French Maid-slash-Baby Doll look. That’s about it. I think it’s likely due to the shops nearby that sold these very outfits that all looked alike. Still, it’s to Tokyo the Statue of Liberty is to NYC, ya gotta have a picture with them no matter how cheesy it feels.

At the request of my 16 year old cousin who has a strange fetish for all things Japanese, I bought a stuffed toy that’s a radish. Don’t ask me why a company would choose a radish as the latest Hello Kitty. Also, don’t ask me why it’s so popular that a girl from Singapore would want a radish soft toy. But I bought it because I’m nice like that. It’s called Aokubi Daikon. Seeing rows and rows of that expressionless face is quite trippy.

We then walked to Shinjuku (Shoko is about 3 inches shorter than me but boy, can she walk fast…and in heels too!) to have dinner at a fancy restaurant. She ordered a 10 course meal with 16 different kinds of seafood (I counted, I took pictures of every one of them so nicely placed out) and it was divine.

I learnt some things about the Japanese while speaking to Shoko. Most of which we kinda already know. The modern working women here don’t think much about having children. It’s too expensive. And if they have children, they are expected to stop working. Maids are too expensive. And the men will clearly not give up any career time. In my 2 full days walking in the streets of Tokyo, I have not seen a single pregnant Japanese woman (on that note, I’ve seen an incredible number of pregnant Singaporeans back home of late). The only people with babies are gaijin or interracial couples. The Japanese work a lot. 90% of the economics/ law/ medicine/ political science faculty at the universities are male, because women are expected to take ’soft’ subjects like Literature. 75% of the Japanese women I see here have light brown hair. 0% of them have black roots. Which means 100% of them visit the salon once-twice every 2 months to color their roots. Do you know how high maintenance that is (at least to me)? Shoko thinks it’s good marketing. The salons here email/sms reminders to have your hair coloured at ‘deadlines’. It’s average to spend at least 100,000 yen (about US$1,000) a month on pure shopping for clothes (I don’t know if that sounds like a lot to you, but it’s a bloody fortune to me!). And what do they do with old clothes? “Throw away. The fashion here changes too often.”

Crazy city. I gotta say, the men/women here dress to the nine’s. I’d like very much to have a chance to visit other parts of Japan someday. I’m pretty sure it ain’t all like that.    

Whew!

First of all, I’m staying in the smallest hotel room I’ve ever stayed in. Since I have to pay for my weekend room, I went for the cheaper option, but which will still cost me bloody S$180 anyway. Geezus. It’s at Ginza Bellevue Hotel. I’m staying in this room. I love it! It’s tiny, but incredibly clean (BIG thumbs up) and cozy and it’s got all you need for one person really. And it’s got glass walls for its bathroom. And the most complex looking toilet I’ve ever seen. I’ve been told the bidet function is awesome. Will try it out tomorrow.

So I landed in Tokyo at 730am after a red-eye. I completely knocked out from the sleeping pill I took (love those things. Makes flying so easy). And completely knocked out on the Narita Express train to Tokyo. Checked in and started to walk from Ginza to Shibuya. I have this thing about trying to walk as much as possible in a new city. It’s the only way to feel the city. So I walked and walked, completely groggy still from the sleeping pill. But it was rather fun to be in loopy-world while walking.

It took me about 3.5 hours to walk the 6-7km from Ginza to Shibuya. Traveling sans-hubby is good for me at times; being married to a human-GPS is not good for training my sense of direction. He’s so great with directions I tend to get very very lazy and dependent while traveling with him. By myself, I’m forced to be more aware of where I am, and in turn learn more about the place I’m in. Stood at the famous junction, took pictures. Walked in the side alleys, visited their incredible records stores. They had DJs playing great music from great sound systems in these little and big record stores all over.Left Shibuya still in a haze. Got back to the hotel. Knocked out for 3 hours.

Then went out to Shinjuku, or more specifically, Kabukicho, for dinner with Chris, who happened to be in town for work as well. Dinner was below-average; we couldn’t find the restaurant we were recommended, and ended up at a cheapie sushi-train place which was pretty crappy actually. But company made up for it. I hope to have good sushi here, but it’s just so bloody expensive. You’ve heard this before and I say it again: everything’s bloody expensive here. Case in point: a taxi ride costs S$9 the moment you hope in (vs. S$2.40 in S’pore).  

Thoughts about Tokyo: I expected more actually. It was probably because I’m still in a haze that I don’t feel much towards it. Maybe also because Singapore seems rather influenced by Japan pop-culture as well. So we have shopping malls and restaurants that imitate what you see in Tokyo already, so now that I’m seeing the real thing, it just feels like what I’ve already seen, only on a wider scale.

Still, the fashion is great to watch. I don’t know what to make of it. I like it because it’s crazy. And yet, so much of it, I’d totally wear for a bad-taste party only. But because they are Japanese, it works. I thought in Seoul, the fashion was horrible because they tried to be ‘different’ and Tokyo-esque but never brought it all the way to the over-the-topness that the Japanese take it too, so they get stuck at the bad-taste zone, while the Japanese take to Liberachi cool.

I also love how socially-conscious the Japanese are compared to…hmm…say us, Chinese. In Singapore, in China, I feel annoyed by even minor crowds; I feel like I’m being pushed and shoved all the time and having to put on headphones because people are yakking away loudly on their phone. Tokyo is more crowded than most places I’ve been, but I hardly feel aware of the crowd. It’s the cleanest major city I’ve been too as well. What a nice bonus.

I hope to get a better feel of the city tomorrow when I get enought rest. Good night.

My first biz trip. To Tokyo then on to Seoul. I’ve been to Seoul twice, but I’m incredibly excited about being in Tokyo. There seems to be so much to see and do. Thankfully I get to weekend in Tokyo to just look-see. Tra-la. Thoughts and pix next week.

Is it weird that I wanna eat sushi now at the SG airport?

I miss my Zion and Bluebud already though. And the husband too of course.

It’s a pizza! It’s a sandwich! No! It’s…P’EatZZa!

P’EatZZa Sandwich

Pizza and a deli sandwich – it’s a marriage made only in 7-Eleven heaven. The new P’EatZZa™ sandwich, (pronounced Puh-Eat-Zuh) is the first of its kind and debuts in stores April 18.It brings together a combination of pizza, deli meats and flavorful fixings into one delicious sandwich that tastes great for lunch or any time of day. 7-Eleven designed the new sandwich and packaging so it’s easy to eat on the go — there’s no need to heat it, just grab one and enjoy.

P’EatZZa comes in two varieties: a mouth-watering turkey and pepperoni on pepperoni flatbread with parmesan ranch spread and romaine lettuce; and a flavorful and zesty ham and salami on cheddar mozzarella flatbread with banana and red peppers, oil and vinegar dressing and romaine lettuce.

Look for a Greek-style salad on mozzarella cheese and parsley flatbread with peppers, onions and mushrooms coming to your favorite 7-Eleven store on May 22.

For only $3.69 this winning combo is a real deal!

There’s is so much in this write-up that’s beautiful: “a marriage made only in 7-Eleven heaven”…”there’s no need to heat it”.

Notwithstanding the fact that it has the stupidest name, that sounds absolutely disgusting. Excuse me while I barf.

You know those days. When you walk out to your bus stop in the morning and your bus is just pulling away from the stand. When you walk into the restaurant’s air-con section on a steamy afternoon for lunch with a friend and 2 people cut in front of you and walk in and you say to your friend “god, they better not have taken the last 2 seats”, and they do. When you walk to the bus stop on the way home and your bus is just pulling away from the stand. When the next bus comes up and you are the first person not able to get on the bus because people are so inconsiderate that the entire back of the bus is empty but no one moves because it inconveniences them.

It feels good to be home.