5 cm per second of emptiness

30th November 2007, Friday

So on Wednesday I have completed my trio of anime showing on "Animation Nation 2007" and kudos to the organizers for making the efforts to bring in such delectable anime title for viewing and I am sure with the reception seen from each full house showings as well as supposedly favored response for their seminars and short films screening, this one-week long anime festival surely must be a success and future such events will definitely be much anticipated for this anime-hungry nation...

My companions for the two shows this week was my wrecking buddies with the exception of Foo who as mentioned had to commit all his time in bid to get the deal with Lucasfilm...
TW & CS are the best candidates to watch anime with since we had done so while growing up and the aftermath of watching each movie once again justified the notion...

"Tekkon Kinkreet (鉄コン筋クリート)", a masterful rendition of Matsumoto Taiyou's (松本大洋,) 1993 work, "Black & White" which I once read on this American compilation of manga series some years back. French director Michael Arias and the good people from Studio 4°C who gave us the likes of "Spriggan", "The Animatrix" and MVs like Glay's "Survival" & Linkin Park's "Breaking a Habit" certainly carried the eccentric mood Matsumoto sensei wanted to portray in the town of "Takara machi (宝町)"....
There was a mix of authentic Showa element in the streets with many Asian flavors (i.e. Chinese, Indonesian, Thai, Indian), making it a labyrinth with a myriad of clashing colors and artifacts...There were lots of homage paid to classic anime series as well as live action heroes in the show as well as some "Easter eggs" which you just had to keep an eye for such as a large "Arashi (嵐 )" logo on a rooftop, supposedly in tribute to the voice actor of the lead, Kuro, Ninomiya Kazuya of the Johnny's group, Arashi.
Speaking of the voice actors, I felt Ninomiya as well as Aoi Yuu who voiced Shiro did a really good job to capture the pain of the pair of street urchins yet still maintain the fact that they are just children... Famous dorama writer, Kudo Kankuro was the voice of the frigid detective, Sawada (by the way frigid means unresponsive to sexual advances or stimuli)

TW found the show to be a wee bit too violent while CS felt it was not violent enough...
Personally after the slow paced for the first half of the movie, I began to understand what message the story was transcending... the presence of a "black (bad)" and "white (good)" elements in everything, there's a balance between the 2 to keep on in line somehow...
The 100 minute long film was a bit too long and defy laws of physics but still a recommendation for those who like unconventional anime work which may incorporate the Western style of story-telling and out-of-thi-world fashion design such as the diaper-like spacesuit the local gang headed by the Mohawk-haired guy, Choc...

The show that really got to us was "5cm per second (秒速５センチメートル)" done the upstart animator, Shinkai Makoto (新海 誠) who some rave reviews touted as the next Miyazaki Hayao.
A chain of short stories (basically just 3) which encircles the life of a hapless chap by the name of Tagaki who was troubled with the affairs of the heart since junior high till into his adulthood... the perfect "ah jun ge(阿俊哥)" story for the likes of me and my buddies...
The visual treat was simply spectacular as Sinkai and his crew meticulously and intricately do the beautiful artwork for every scene...
The cinematography is one to savor as well with nice pace in the storytelling. The characters are likable especially Akari-chan with her bento... And great background music and theme song of Yamasaki Masayoshi's 1996 hit (a classic track from our J Pop cafe days) "One more time, one more chance" which totally suits the mood of the story...

After the 60 minute-long trilogy, we were overwhelmed with emptiness or what we known as "空虚感"...
This feeling had been long buried in our sad, monotonous past and we were actually glad it was back actually...

CS was the one that got the hardest hit I think as he started his quiet, one-liner self with the usual "tchk", we knew our Pepsiman was back into his prime...
We couldn't stop ourselves chatting about the afterthoughts of the film which for CS was beginning to creep into his system a hour later...making a fool out of ourselves as always...
The film was affecting us for sure but we were saying if it was 7-8 years back when we are still in the midst of our National Service, perhaps the effect would be much more profound...perhaps will drive us up the wall, surely more detrimental to the heart and soul...but that's just us...
After dinner, CS felt an urgent need for a walk and so we pranced around the area surrounding Dohby Ghaut MRT, still deeply absorbed in our thoughts about the storyline, feeling wretched at the same time as we love to do so

Anyway once again a big shout out to the good people of Singapore Film Society, Media Development of Singapore and others for hosting such an event... we will surely be there for the 2008 version, and hopefully be blown away by more fantastic anime shows!

Japanese word of the day: 空 (Empty) Felt so empty after "Byousoku" yet so fulfilling...

La Tendo ~2007 Version~

28th November 2007, Wednesday

On Sunday, I was beckoned by Chan to help out the good people of La Tendo with the latter stages of their shift from Sunshine Plaza to the newly-opened Kallang Leisure Park (soft open, whatever that mean on the 1st of December)...

Compared to a couple of weeks back, the renovation seems to be on the way, and at around 50% completion with the main display cabinet shifted over from the old shop and the 4 rows of display shelves on the left side of the shop...
The adjustable shelves on the right still needed a lot of mending from the contractors supposedly and the cashier counter as well as a central glass display (should be a feature to marvel of) should be ready by end of this week when the new shop finally open for business...

Below are some shots I had taken while helping out:

Chan, Bryan & Miyano loading up the truckload of "Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu" figurines

An example of the display shelves on the left

Tay-chan diligently clearing any speck of dust for the glass cabinet display

The same glass cabinet with gashapon figurines loaded

My missus meticulously cleaning the storage trays with dust dated back in 2005

The multi-function counter which is due to be completed

At the end of the day, there are still plenty of goods accumulated over the last 3 and a half years to be unpacked...

Compared to 2 weeks back, we get to see the mall been patronized by quite a moderate crowd (considering around 60% of the shops still not yet to be opened), so it seems to be a good catchment area for family who most probably be residents of the Kallang-Geylang-Paya Lebar area; however whether they will be the big spenders, I highly doubt so...

I came out with a list of pros & cons of the new place.
Due to my cynical nature I will begin with the bad points first:

1. Location: Kallang as we all know is way out of the way unless you live around the vicinity, but even so it would be quite a hefty distance to travel... The MRT station will only be up and running 2 years later, but even so the locality is still a major turn-off factor for regular customers and neutral ones alike.

2. Lack of landmarks of similar attractions: There'll be no Kinokuniya, Sim Lim Square or other hobby shops to make it appealing for collectors or the local otaku-dom to make the trip down to Kallang

The good points:

1. Space: The new shop is easily twice the size of the incumbent. We felt if you want to have an intricate tour of the shop to check out everything on display, you might need a good half an hour or so. Almost everything is not visibly displayed, increasing the chance to be sold...

2. Strategic Location of shop: Within the mall itself, the store will be vividly seen on the 2nd level, beside Koufu, a foodcourt which can always guarantee crowd who will be dropping by for some bites...Let's do a hypothesis, if a good 30% of the crowd bypass La Tendo for the foodcourt actually start to buy something, it's a good source of revenue there... Another wonderful strategic bonus would be the fact that the gents/ladies are just beside the shop, a great way to lure the attention of boyfriends/husbands waiting for their other halves who are freshening up...

3. Great Facilities: Ice-skating rink, bowling alley, Karaoke lounge and a self-operated cineplex are some of the facilities in stall in this place..No so much for the customers, but great for us the clique to hang out when the shop closes late at night...

4. Parking: Parking shouldn't be an issue here as there are aplenty inside the Leisure Park as well as the surrounding. Can never get good spot near Sunshine Plaza in the past...Definitely cheaper than the town but still cannot beat the great rate for weekends at Paradiz Center.

5. Great coffee: Somehow the coffee from foodcourt, eateries and deli just ain't satisfying enough for the connoisseur of the caffeinated beverage like ourselves... The eatery on the ground floor, despite their sub-standard customer service provide the perfect remedy for our regular caffeine requirement..And for limited rime, it's only 50 cents!!

There are still many points that I might have missed out but the location issue surely outweighed any good points that maybe present...But the future looks bright in terms of the locality of the shop, the circle line's arrival should alleviate the agony of taking the endless bus rides (currently only 2 serving the location)...
Plus I got a feeling with the hospitality Vincent, Tay-chan and EK had been offering to their loyal customers, I am sure they would continue to support perhaps the shop with the most complete Japanese hobby shop in Singapore (in terms of variety of figurines on offer)...

Of course those who kept throwing brickbats at the shop, claiming the price is too high and only patronize when there is a sale, will find the opportunity to advise the others to not bother to come over..but consumers had the rights to make their choice...To be able to endear a lengthy 3 years in business, I am sure La Tendo surely had carved their niche in local toy retailing scene...

Just as I am typing this Karen sent an email, recollecting the good days we had at the current store in Sunshine Plaza...giving a great analogy of the Straw Pirates painfully bidding goodbye to the faithful Going Merry but it turned out that Thousand Sunny proved to be more than able replacement which I personally felt the new place would bring greater things for the store and we, the Lovely Frenz will always be behind this "Happy Paradise" in weals or woes and together we'll brave the storm!!

Japanese word of the day: 生き返らせなさい (Revitalize) The new shop surely is a great way to revitalize, I have faith it will turn out very well...

Hungry?! Nissin Cup Noodles...

26th November 2006, Monday

Imagine this scenario, you had spending all your lives in a policed state where your every moves are been monitored...
The authorities "handcuffed" you with a bangle which is a mode they will summoned you whenever they had caught you up to no good business...
Once you had deemed to be out of line from their stringent mode of ruling a state of slightly around 3 million citizens, they sent you to hours of reformatory volunteer work...
Apparently they had been hiding a giant conspiracy from its law-abiding citizens, which could lead trust loss to the authority and led to uncontrollable havoc in the form of standoffs and rallies...
Sound familiar?
No I am not referring to some governments in our world today, but the storyline of of "Freedom Project" which I had caught at the National Museum of Arts last Saturday which kick starts "Animation Nation 2007" 's anime festival...(actually no, Tekkon Kinkreet was shown the day before)

Foo had perked my interest few months back with this event though the listing of anime to be featured was quite murky at the juncture...
But after Zero's "ad" on his blog, it was clear that I was not to give the event a miss with some alluring titles to catch...
"Freedom" was another brainchild of Katsuhiro Otomo who gave us the cult hit "Akira" back in the late 80s, but fell a bit short in terms of critics' acclaim and box office with "Steamboy" 3 years back.
The characters such as the protaganists, Takeru and Kazuma as well as the design of the racing vehicle are evidently his style...

Foo, the initiator for this anime festival in the end pulled the plug for his participation due to his dire need to free up whatever time he had away from work to beef up his portfolio to impress the people at Lucasfilm..
However my buddy had previous engagement with his friends for the same show while CS couldn't made it as postulated, and no one from La Tendo was interested, so in the end I asked Foo whether he could make it again before I booked the tickets online...
He managed to cajole Howe Chern to join us for a show as he claimed, "he knew nuts about"...

I had wanted to whet my appetite before the show with a meal at Carl's Jr but a high tea at the Straits Cafe at Hotel Rendezvous with the missus in commemoration for the 7th year since we became an item kind of spoiled it for me as I was stuffed as a Thanksgiving turkey when I met up with them...

Despite not an avid anime fan like ourselves, you can always count of Howe Chern to enjoy whatever company we could provide which always involved corny jokes about old J pop songs and the soccer scene...

The venue for the screening got me marveled as I hadn't really visited the Museum since its revamp years back and the architecture within was a site to be behold, which really captured a contemporary feel in a building with history....

We got there at around 8 plus to collect the tickets and not many people was in sight of the viewing gallery despite claims that it was a full house show...
TW came by and got mingled with the lads a while before joining his own friends for the show...
As 9pm approaches, you suddenly see the audience started clustering outside the hall, mysteriously appearing out of no where...

We were handed a paper with dialogs before heading in and Howe Chern immediately was alarmed that they might be a lack of subtitles and his doubts were founded as the organizer mentioned that the prologue to the series weren't provided by the distributors, Bandai Visuals and they had to use the DVD format which didn't come with the subtitles...
We would love to read the script while the movie was screened, but the they decided to dim the lights...bummer...

Actually I thought it was a movie but it was really an OVA and on that night we caught the first 3 episodes of a 6 episodes long series...so the ending was pretty open-ended whether we liked it or not...
The series began with "This is Love" taken from Utada Hikaru's last album, "Ultra Blue", a pretty upbeat track which got us cozy for the show...
But then when we followed up with 2 more episodes, the repeated opening and ending got us pretty restless...

The storyline surely built up in the end with the lead character, Takeru and friends started to have doubts over the authorities of EDEN, their residence on the moon after Earth by then had became depleted and not fit for living...
It intertwined with Takeru's desperate search for this earthling girl who's photo he found while on volunteer duties on the craters of the moon, which provided some comedy reliefs in an otherwise tense action flicks with the future as a backdrop (glimpses of "Total Recall" was felt)
The ending of episode 3 left me wanting to catch the rest of the series (only available on DVD) and was pretty into the main sidekick, Kazuma who played a big role in the ending...

Of course, the strong presence of Nissin Cup Noodles was immensely recognized to the amusement of everyone..
Takeru and his rivals, Moonshine gang was kept seen sipping the cup noodles for snack while somehow a carton was found lying somewhere in an age old rocket hangar...
Of course the 6 CMs (commercials) of the cup noodles got us in fit as well especially the latter ones, and as my companions mentioned...the show had a strange effect to make you go grab a Nissin Cup Noodle from your nearby convenience store...perhaps it had a strong subliminal message for the sales of the noodles...
We then pondered what if Indomee had sponsored the show...would the nationality of the characters be changed?

Next up Tekkon Kinkreet this evening with my buddies and 5 cm/sec on Wednesday...

Japanese word of the day: 広告(Advertisement)What if Kao tied up
with an anime to sell their sanitary pads...

L'Anniversary

20th November 2007, Tuesday

My missus bought me a concert DVD during our recent Japan trip...L'Arc~en~ciel's "L'Anniversary" DVD which is shot in November last year at Tokyo Dome, in celebration of their 15th year in the business....
I haven't had the time to catch the 2 disc concert (which I believed to be an amalgam of the 2 separate days of events) till over the weekend when the missus is out of town, and Laruku served pretty well as my lullaby provider...

While going through the list of the songs performed in this ceL'ebration, it certainly brings back memories of when I first got to know of Laruku...

I believe it was back in 1997, after having sampled the likes of Glay and Luna Sea and hungry for more J-Rock (still a bit refrained from visual kei), I picked up the album which sees yukihiro officially becoming their drummer after the previous drummer (Sakura)'s drug fiasco which subjected them at the brink of disband...
I wasn't really hooked on the tracks at first finding it now as speed rock as certain classic tunes from the band mentioned above...Melody was more of Laruku's genre and it proved to be much endearing as time tells...
By the early 2000, the 4-men Osaka based band which name stands for "rainbow" in French was sweeping the mainstream Japanese music scene by storm and I became a rabid fan...

I went in search of the 4 previous albums (not much a collector of singles, though I had almost all the singles between "winterfall" & "Neo Universe") which became my favorite music companions for years....After I had decided to sell most of my Japanese pop/rock albums a few years ago to save space as well as the emergence of the mp3 player era, I kept the L'Arc collection in intact in a corner of my room....

As they reached their peak, they decided to go solo for a few years with Hyde & tetsu doing especially well with their solo projects.
I followed the former with his solo works but felt I still like the Laruku sounds the best, which was why when they returned in 2003 with "Ready, Steady, Go", I was exhilarated as they continued to release new songs for the next 2 major albums before another break again but at least we knew they are still a band...

Of course their love for anime was evident with tracks for anime openings and endings throughout their discography (such as "Blurry Eyes" for "DNA²"., "Fourth Avenue Cafe" & "Niji" for "Rurouni Kenshin", "Ready Steady Go", "Link" & "Lost Heaven" for "Full Metal Alchemist", "Shine" for "Seirei no Moribito" & "Daybreak's Bell" for "Gundam 00" and even Hyde's "Season's Call" for "Blood+") which further reinforce my passion for their music...

They had also been spicing their line-up with the P'unk~en~ciel and D'ark~en~ciel project which gives their classic tracks a whole new feel...

Tomorrow will see the release of their 16th album (including indies and compilations), "Kiss" which I will try to get my hand on (though a cheaper Asian press would be suffice for me who is more into the songs than the collectible value of the limited edition)... It comes a week after their very first X'mas anthem, "Hurry X'mas" which sounds pretty jazz-like (and some commented as a Disney wannabe song) but despite the cynics, it just add on to the wide spectrum of song genre they could produce....

After watching the DVD, it just rekindled the fact that they had so many wonderful and endearing tracks in their repertoire or at least to me they are...So I dug within myself to come out with my top 10 L'Arc~en~ciel tracks which is an ordeal on its own:

Top 10 Favorite Laruku tracks of mine

1. winterfall - I think this might be their original winter themed track, very easy-listening and I couldn't get enough of it, I put it in one of my travel video
2. Honey - One Hyde's composition I really enjoy, a favorite track of mine to pick in the karaoke
3. Lies & Truth - The MV is cheap but the song is not
4. Niji - A wretched ending to my attempt of this song for a karaoke competition didn't deterred me from loving this song till this day
5. White Feather - One classic slow ballad with a wonderful intro.
6. Fourth Avenue Cafe - Like it so much I used it for the video in my wedding
   
7. Flower - Always perks me up when I hear the song with a distinctive harmonica solo from Hyde
8. New World - Another song that would make me revitalize, nicely written by Yukihiro
9. Love Flies - I was dumped by a girl in my University and this song was playing at the background during that juncture
10. Lost Heaven -Haunting tune which you can keep listening to...

There are plenty more that worth a mention, underlining how fabulous Laruku's songs are especially to fans like myself...

Anyway today marks the big 30th birthday to my buddy, Foo who himself was a L'Arc~en~ciel fan for a while....who wouldn't...
Happy birthday man!

Japanese word of the day: バンド (Band) Seriously for me to be aband, you really need to play musical instruments

Ferrislisa 結婚式

19th November 2007, Monday

Taking a well-deserved break after an exhaustive weekend with wedding bells are ringing vehemently...

After months of non-mentioned from the horse's mouth, it was only the last couple of month we started to see that Ferris had been dedicated for his big day and with a wisp of the wind, the event has come and gone, not without it's highlights...

We dropped by his place as he has commanded at 9 but actually moved off to fetch the bride after 10 as from my own experience, we shouldn't really go early to subject ourselves to be played around by the band of sisters in order to capture the ultimate prize.
However while we were being ushered by the anxious groom with a mobile blasted with deadly threats to beckon his immediate arrival, non of us had noticed he had forgotten to bring along the bouquet of flower....
Fortunately somehow there was no urgent need to keep tab of the auspicious time to fetch the bride or leave the house, so with the young chauffeur vamoosing back and forth for the flowers, it was a perfect platform for the girls to lay the tortures which we reluctantly had signed on to receive when we agreed to be his "brothers"...
The "sour-sweet-bitter-spicy 酸甜苦辣" treatment was classic but generally stale, somehow women love to see a hapless grooms and his wretched friends going through some gastronomical hell to get some undefined organsm they hadn't been getting...Fortunately for Chan who swallowed 4 chilli padi (including EK's, Bryan's and mine) to be around...
The girls also always loved to see men frolicking with one another and this time prepared a well-thought prop in the form of a pair of artificial bosoms which could be blown up when you crack the hydrogen vial within... Not wanting to waste much time I volunteered for the ordeal for Ferris to went ballistic with my body for their entertainment, not realizing it was caught on tape and would be broadcast in the banquet...
Finally we were allowed in only for more uncreative tasks like guessing the bride's lipstick mark, choosing the right room keep and some mushy oaths from the groom...
After the bride was successful fetched, it was just transiting from the bride's place to the groom's and back and forth again...

The whole affair ended by around 2 and we had a good 4 hours before the solemnization, so we went ahead with a movie treat with the complimentary token for our hard work as "brothers''...
Since Ek was required to pick up his wife from his place, we agreed to watch the movie at Tampines Mall, however "Beowulf" was listed at the wrong time and we picked the next best choice, "Hero"...The Japanese box-office success of 2007, "Hero", the movie edition.
The storyline which continued from the TV specials last year would be a bit hard to digest for anyone who hadn't watch the dorama series about an eccentric district attorney portrayed by Kimu-Taku who once again displayed his acting versatility...However the storyline was wittily written once again...
With the movie climaxing, little would we suspect the film would be cut due to technical fault and we left stranded for a good 10 minutes or so before the staff came to rectify the problem to quell the disgruntle from the audience including ourselves...what a time for such unfortunate event to happen when we were very late for the solemnization in the hotel room...

Therefore we tried to beat the traffic into the city, and made it to Chijmes where the banquet was held to set up the reception and projector for the dinner...
Being the emcee, I had to liaised with the prime emcee who introduced me to the "surprise" of the night which I had made known about a week before...
By 8 pm, the banquet started and it seems like my microphone was almost inaudible but I didn't care much...
The gang made their presence at the dining table as usual, which led to us having a laughing fits (especially Karen) once more... This time round Ferris had allocated to poor, unsuspecting poly friends to be sitting in our table and were badly traumatized by the antics pulled by the likes of Miyano and Vincent but generally most of us...But to us it was just getting into the mood for being glad one of the brood had finally tie the knot which was 6 years in the making...
The surprise of the dinner also tried her/his best to entertain with Chan and Bryan being sporty enough to play along though not many guests really bother with the shenanigans on stage...
Lastly we proceeded with the usual "La Tendo Oi Cheer" and made the newly-weds down 2 glasses of red wine filled to the brim, but sadly making the alcohol-intolerant bride puking her guts out at the end..
Below are some pictures taken by Karen-suan~~:

Of course Saturday was Hau Kong's big day as well and I met up with Hoe Chun and some other secondary school chums including Chin Mong who's place was their mahjong haunt ...
The same usual shit from the gang but it was all fun only to be spoiled by the fact that they weren't actually playing with money which was a kill-joy...
Wonder when would be the next time I meet up with my secondary friends again, but the next wedding perhaps...

Japanese word of the day: チャイム (Chimes) Wonder would I attend a wedding with Abigail as the bride...

A Nice Way to Return to Reality

12th November 2007, Monday

Touched down Changi Airport Terminal One an hour plus Sunday morning when at least 4 other commercial flights loaded with army of passengers were arriving as well, clustering the arrival hall and slightly delaying our processing time...
On Sunday went to help out La Tendo with their shifting into the new place at Kallang Leisure Park, more on that in a while...
Will be spending this laid back Monday attempting to complete my holiday journal as much as I could before work kicks in tomorrow...what a dreadful thought...
Since we came home rather late last evening, the missus too needed another day of rest and due to the shortage of annual leave to spare, she took the next best option...Medical leave...

So about our 9 days tourney from Kansai to Kanto, crossing to Japan's 2nd largest city to ancient capital of the Imperial era to the vibrant capital incumbent...
From experiencing 2 world-renowned theme parks to tasting many signature Japanese delicacies to hopping on board the shinkansen (新幹線) to visiting landmarks like Tokyo Tower, Mt. Fuji & Kinkakuji to being well-serviced by the great staff of our authentic Japanese ryokan in Kyoto, I am sure my sister and her beau got a fair share of the bargain for their very first trip to the magical land of the rising sun...
As for myself and the missus, it was also another nice break from our work and an opportunity to spend quality together, kicking in a bit of romance in our stale marriage life one year into it...
The down side of course is that I felt I had spent way too much...
I have exchanged an amount unrivaled to my previous trips yet I only manage to leave a teeny bit for the next trip to an extent I even restrict my missus' expenditure in the last few days which I shouldn't have coming to think of it...
However in the end I think I will recouped a bit since I had helped the lads to get some figurines...
I also managed to find the wonder of air tight bag to pack the clothings which helped minimise packing space in the luggage.
Kudos to my wife for making some wise choice throughout the trip and once again proved to be my best traveling companion and the one to keep a level-head against that quick tempered nature of mine...
Compliments have to be given to my sis and her boyfriend as well for always meeting the time allocated and reduced any arrears we had accidentally made...
It is also proven with a good map and a sense of orientation, anyone new to Japan and know nuts of the language can easily roam the country...
Now awaiting the next trip..heehee

As mentioned spent a good deal of the day helping out La Tendo with the move...
Preceding that I had a late lunch with my in-laws as my elder brother-in-laws was treating the family for his birthday which is around the corner...
We had tried to impose a bit of diet since the trip had add on some inches around our waists but in front of crispy Peking duck and braised shark's fin, we succumbed to temptations...
However we were put to some work out with the packing and moving of goods from the old shop in Sunshine to the new place at Kallang...
The newer place is surely bigger but not necessary be big enough to store the amount of goods they had garnered over the years...
At the end of the day even with the help of the entire gang (including Annalisa), we only managed moved around 30% of the goods to the new place as the transportation should continue for them for the rest of the week for sure...

The locality of the new shop has always been a topic of hot discussion as its inaccessibility will have a cascading effects on the overall sales...
Without the MRT connection for the next couple of years and only a single bus service to the indoor stadium area, it would be a hindering factor for regular customers to patronize the shop at regular basis as of now...
On the flip side the residents around the area seems loaded and the presence of Cold Storage supermarket, the bowling alley and eventual cineplex and ice skating ring should be able to pull in new market for the shop which we all hope about....

Anyway glad that the gang enjoyed the gifts we brought from Japan which had contributed to much of the weight of the overall luggage...
Days tp Ferris wedding which I played a big part of being one of the accompanying brother troop as well as the emcee of the banquet, so some level of anticipation there...

Time to get back to my journal and continue to assimilate back into reality back home after all fairytale adventure...

Japanese word of the day: 現実 ~shin-ji-tsu~(Reality) Actually I am glad to have this reality with my friends and family back here in Singapore yet able to fly frequently back to Japan...

Eyes Glued on the Monitor

1st November 2007, Thursday

My last post before flying off to Japan...
Mood now not exactly brimming with excitement...Just looking to take a good rest from work
Not being condescending because I had been there umpteen times, and I for one vouched for the fact that each return to Japan, can only bring new excitement
My muted mood can only be good as no anticipation means no chance for disappointment...

Our dear Sel who "meddlesome" surely is now her middle name had forgotten to bring along her credit card...
She tried to contact me before her flight yesterday but I was too engrossed in my engagement of battle with the pesky eternal knights in "Hoshigami Remix" to really hear my mobile buzzing...
She eventually did got hold of my missus and apparently her poor old man had to pass it to us before our flight out and we could relay to her when we meet up...
As Foo suggested, dinner will definitely be on her as she can used the credit card to foot the bill..

Spent my day at work with my eyes glued to the monitor as I rushed through the reports for the project I had labored for the past month or so.
Working on the report is not daunting (as long as the results are good) but looking through each individual subset of it to check on the clustering can be a torture...luckily I managed to endure the torrid time and successfully done with it...
Complimenting the effect of waking up early and sweating it out in the gym, I am looking forward to falling into deep slumber on the plane for perhaps the first time ever tonight...

Ghost of my past came haunting me yesterday..actually not as gloomy as it sounded actually..
Somehow our old chum Howe Chern remembered the URL to the DJ Su chatroom we had frequent in those days of bewilderment before she left the radio station and Singapore for good and the club got disbanded as a few of our "clique" still kept in contact over the course of the last 8 years or so...
It seems like the chatroom has never been taken down and members of the club still went to chat years after the peak of Su's success, even the DJ with "an infectious personality" was still looming in it till 2005...
Finding the chatroom and caught up with one former member Betrand was like finding your long lost toy years after it was gone...
As Howe said "old is gold"...in this age when BBS & chatroom or mirc had became obsolete, nostalgia is perhaps the only reason why we bother going there for a peek...

Alright, will be back in a week or so, till then, don't glue your eyes on the monitors at work or at home for too long... can sure make you groggy after a while...

Japanese word of the day: モニター(Monitor) The continued exposure to the light spectrum is scarring my cornea!