Shinjuku -> Shibuya

Yesterday was Sunday (Nichi Yoobi)as per planned, I went out from Kawasaki after took abit of light breakfast. I took a train to Shinagawa then transit to Yamanote line. Yamanote line will make a circle around Tokyo city, so I thought it was a good idea to took an opposite direction (moving counter-clockwise to Tokyo and Akihabara direction). After a while inside the train I started to feel bored and started to realize it was just a dumb idea took an extra time turning around.

(This picture would be 10 times nicer if I just move 3 steps to the left and 1 step behind)

When I reached Shinjuku, I just like a man arrived in jupiter. I just don't know where to go. I know there's alot of interesting places around, but being an alien (Gaijin) without knowing Japanese language and without any tourist guide could be difficult for me. And the worst part is I was totally alone here! I guess I just walk around. First I find interesting building named Takashimaya Time Square. I just jump went in and found out it was the one like KLCC ground floor; you know, shops for all the riches (I'll come back when I become rich one day!), and it doesn't suit me well. I just leave the building and just walk around.

Tired of finding nothing interesting, I just walk to Shibuya. On the way there I found a garden, some of the signboards said it was the Museum of the Meiji bla bla bla... I just walk around enjoy the scene of autumn inside the garden. Some leaves did fall down, but it was more or less same like Hutan Ayer Keroh. When I arrived at the Museum, there's a sign with "CLOSED" written on it. How dissapointed!

Through the other exit, it was not far from JR-East Harajuku-eki, there were bunch of people wearing some kind of gothic dressing. It was very interesting to actually see a scene like this. Then I realized, it was the helloween. Some of them holding paper written "Free Hug", but since I think my iman is still here, I am not hugging anybody. (actually I don't have the courage to do so, in addition, some of them doesn't really look cute to hug to).

At another section, there're alot of people playing guitar like SS (syok sendiri) in every corner and 1 guy, sing along with the CD player he brought and teriak2 like hell especially when it reached the chorus. Penuh perasaan pulak tuh! He must be just break-off with his girl friend or something. It looks exactly like tanjung rambutan thou, but it seriously cool that you can do whatever you wish to without any disturbance from "pihak berkuasa".

Along the garden, there's a street jamming session. There were a few bands in a row complete with their own equipment, jamming like in a studio. They play in turn, while one band playing, the other setting up their sets. Just like a mini wood stock. It was really interesting even though listening to a band with old woman playing guitar while singing with an awful vocal, but they really played from their heart.



Here you can see a group of people dancing rock and roll like a break-dance. It was totally awesome, they dance in a group and taking turns among them. People walked by just watching and enjoy their moment there. Not just these people are crazy, there are few teams that gather in different location doing the same thing. And some of them looks very nice with skirt, but dance the rock n roll stuffs. Dude, there is no way you can do this in Malaysia.




Next destination was the Shibuya. In this visit, I prefer Shibuya more than Shinjuku (maybe I didn't found anything interesting in Shinjuku). Shibuya for me is more like a friendly city (owh.. I just don't know how to use proper words to describe this). But since I already tired when I reached here, I didn't went to far before I decided to return home. I guess next time I'll make another visit here, and I do some research on interesting places in Shinjuku. After all, it is better you know what you are doing rather than just do it because people said so.

I return home and do some shopping at near-by supermarket. I bought sushi and kaki fruit. That was my dinner for that night before I lay down my head on the bed.

Where to go tomorrow

Tomorrow is Sunday, it's holiday and I don't have any plan where to go. Today, I slept the whole day; as last night I stay-up late till night browsing the internet and doing nothing. So, today I woke-up at 11 (damn I missed the free breakfast!) and continue to sleep after Asr (Asr is at 2:30pm).

I went out to buy a network cables. They only provide with 1 meter of network cable and I only can use my laptop on the desk. With this new 3m RJ-45 network cable, I am able to online on my bed and surf while I lay-down on the bed (see how lazy I am... actually I am not lazy, but I am efficient - Pinjam Nokia punya motto).

I don't know where to go tomorrow. I just asked few of my fellow friends who familiar with this Japan cities. After a few consultation, I think it would be cool if I went to Shibuya or Shinjuku. Shinjuku is a very famous place and I have heard about it dozens of times - but I have no idea what so special about it. Last Friday, Yamakoshi-san said he will go to Shinjuku for a dinner with his photography club. Then I asked him, what's so interesting about Shinjuku? After type something on his electronic dictionary, he said Shinjuku is a metropolitan city. It maybe a big city.

Hit here for a pdf version of this map.

Traveling in Japan is not difficult because the public transportation is very efficient. You can simply go anywhere (of course you must have enough cash in your hand) by train. For example the above map not all, but for 1 train company - JR-East Lines. They have a few more companies, but this is the famous one. If compare to our country, people prefer to travel using private transportation. One of the reason is the weather is very hot. Maybe, people don't like walking from the station to their destination. Or maybe there is other reason? But here, even the ticket fare is not as fair as Malaysia, but people still like to travel by public transportation. For example, one of the staff travel 2 hours daily - 2 trains and 1 buses - and it cost him more than my daily salary in Malaysia! But who cares? As long as they got a very good pay, then everything is settled down.

New shoes....

I made a mistake by wearing a tight shoe when I came here. It simply because this shoe can fit all condition. Not too formal, not too sporty-type and not too 'serabai'-type of shoe. At first, it does not cause me any problem except for the little discomfort feeling. But then, here, I need to walk far to my office everyday and to make things worst, I can't wear slippers when I go 'jalan-jalan', cause the weather is quite cold now. I looked around for shoes before and started to estimate the price I need to spend. It was around Y8000~Y10,000 for a pair of shoes. It was quite expensive. After a few consultation and after consider my leg is for my whole life, why not I spend some of my allowance to buy one.

I went to Lazona Plaza once again, straight to a shop named 'Asbee'. There is an offer shoes that attracted me, the price was below Par. Around Y6000 at discounted price. I asked for more discount and the guy said he can give me 10% if I pay cash. I just took a pair of it and here it is.....

An adidas shoe, after discount of 10% and added 5% of government tax, it cost me Y5575 and I am really happy about it. :)
(Huh... Aku pakai kasut harga lima ribu lebih... Jgn jeles yerkk...~)


The next day, I went to office and my foot was totally happy about this new shoes. I can walk even faster and pain-free. On the way back, just beside the Yako station, there is a shop selling fruits. Noticed that I my lips are drying, I need some vitamin C to cure it. I bought some blackcurrant, cause it cost me more or less cheaper than in Malaysia (owh.. what a typical me... always comparing the price when buying something even for myself). This blackcurrant looks good and taste even better! It has been my habit since I came here, I took pictures of almost everything. I did have the same habit last time when I was studying in University, but the habit was gone ever since I started my career. I took more PCB pictures than any other things. Maybe the budget allocation for pictures 'given' already been fully utilized for my job?


Here, I'm in my hotel room with my DSC-T7. You can see my sleepy face. Sukareta-ne~.. Oh.. My stomach started to make noise... Dah lapar la pulak. Ok, that's all for today. I'm gonna have my dinner after this. See ya later... Oh ya.. forgot to tell something, for more pictures, you may visit my flickr.

Mata ne~

AKIHABARA Electric Town

Last Sunday I went to Akihabara. As suggested by Kak Liza of MPT Human resource exec, training and Japanese affair section (Kak Liza did thought me some basic Japanese language before a few days before I went here), also recommended by Abe-san, I made some effort to go to Akihabara alone. Without any experience on how to buy a ticket and with a very little Japanese language speaking ability, I just made it to Akihabara. I just can't believe myself.


Akihabara is the famous place as Electric town. It was just like Low Yat Plaza, but the difference is it was a city, not a plaza. When I first step my foot there, I saw many people dressing with all the anime suit, just like in MMU when they have some event on Anime organized by Emina Society.

I went to some shop to survey the products and the prices. I came and look at the new Sony DSC-T200 and DSC-T70. It was an upgrade version of T100 and T20. The obvious new features was the touch screen panel and the bigger size of LCD screen; 3.5". Price? Around Y52,000 and it was negotiable. It's around RM1,500. Not a bad deal... In Malaysia, DSC-T100 was about RM1699. I was attracted on Sony Digital Handycam with Hard-disk Drive. I don't memorized the model but it sure make my heart melt. It was on my 'To-Buy-List' but I don't think it was time to buy. Price is around Y100,000+.



The next part of the story was the most interesting to me. I went to a MUSIC VOX, a heaven for musical instruments. 6 floors full of music stuffs and 2 floor of studios. I found some rare stuff like Instructional DVD for guitar by some world talented guitarist. After looking around for a while, I finally found my dream guitar ~Steve Vai signature series : Ibanez JEM model. I looks exactly like Steve's guitar with DiMarzio Evolution pick up. They even played the Steve Vai G3 Concert: Live in Tokyo at their display TV.


Can someone please lend me about Y220,000 to buy this guitar pleasee....



Next stop was the Shosen Book Tower. I seriously don't know how many floor it is but I keep on going up to the top level possible. From this whole tower, I failed to find an English book, except for the learning purpose e.g. 'English For Business' and 'English for Communication'.

I had a lunch at McDonalds. I took a french Fries and McFlurry which I was really confident on both products. (Others such as McPork... sounds... yikeee... )It cost me about Y540 = RM16.20. (I can get 2 value meal in Malaysia with the same amount that I paid). I noticed here they don't use the 99c on their price. All are even numbers.



I continue my journey to Ueno. Kak Liza said Ueno is one of the best place for shopping. There is a bunch of shops but to be honest, I am not in my shopping mood. I just look around comparing the prices and enjoy the trip. At one place, I notice there's somekind of monument on top of the hill. I straightly went there and found it was like a garden and so many nice things around there. It was like Taman Tasik Perdana or something like that. I took alot of pictures around here.



While Sony Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii was selling all around, I noticed a shop displaying some 'micro-genius' type of game with a Super Mario Bros on it. And some people are actually testing on the game. I just don't understand. I did know something about 'Hentai' stuff during my study period in MMU, and suprisingly, here hentai are sold everywhere. Alot of comics and DVDs shops did sell this 'Hentai' stuff and of course for 18+ only.



I walk back to Akihabara on a different path with a different view. I saw a Crepe Deli, I don't even know what is a Crepe actually, but as suggested by Kak Liza, I just bought 1 of it. Nice taste but alot of creme make me feel 'muak'. However I manage to finish it after I took out some of the cream.

It's time to go back. I had been 'pau'ed by a stranger at the JR Line train station! I was at the ticket machine with full of confidence before a man who suddenly come to me and said "Hey.. Do you speak english..." I said "yea..", He tried to assist me on buying ticket and I really smells something fishy. He do all the pressing and shows me the map to Kawasaki. Then I put on Y1000 note for a Y380 ticket and the balance was Y500, Y100 and 2 pieces of Y10. Faster than lightning, his hand grabbed the Y500 and said can I have this, I really need it. I said Hell NO!!! Y500 is RM15, even the zakat fitrah also worth less than that!~ "Damek!" Then he return the Y500 and took the Y100 and asked me "is this OK?", after think for a few nano-second I said, "OK!" He said "Good work!" and left me.

I went back to Kawasaki and had sushi for my dinner, before I went back to my hotel room.

Kawasaki Day Out... (Lazona Plaza)

Today is Sunday, actually I just came back from Akihabara. But I prefer to wrote something about my journey to Kawasaki town yesterday (Saturday). Maybe tomorrow I will drop some words on Akihabara.

Everyday I go to work using JR Railway From Kawasaki station to Yako station. But it was go to work and return to hotel without going anywhere. But yesterday was off-day, so, I decided to have a look on Kawasaki town, as Abe-san suggested to go to Lazona Plaza. There's a music store on 4th floor.. Sou-desuka? I tell him I will go and have a look. Abe-san knows I play the guitar, but I am not sure from where actually he knows about that. So, my first mission was to fine the music store. It was Shimamura Music. There's a few guitars over there and the price is quite reasonable, i.e. not too expensive one.

Then I look around on other places. There was a place of Japanese superheroes, you know, all those Ultraman, Dragon Ball, Kamen Rider etc etc. It surely reminds me of my old memories, how I was very fanatic on those superheroes. But one thing come out on my mind... Is people still watch the Ultraman and ultraman Taro??? Isn't it outdated?? I thought they have all new superheroes such as Naruto and stuff. Maybe they not yet established as what Ultraman had achieved. Or maybe their parents are actually buys all those items, just to remember their good old moment?

Lazona Plaza is half open air and half is covered building. The view is very nice. They event plant some plants and trees on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floor. There's even some garden where people can play football or main kejar-kejar in fact, there were some kids playing the kejar-kejar. And there were couples dating, sitting around the garden, spending some quality moments together. Also there is some kind of place complete with a pintu gerbang, maybe for praying purpose?? I am totally not sure about this, but I just took some picture on it cause it looks nice!!

And because I travel alone, I decided to took a picture of myself (asyik amek gambar org je, gambar sendiri pun nak gak!)

It was already 9pm. Some shops closed at this time. I wonder why they close so early. I noticed that some of the shops using melody of "Berjumpa dan berpisah adat manusia biasa, hilang dimata tapi di hati jangan lupa" errmm... I don't know what was the name of this song in English, ala yang Mr. Bean nyanyi when he celebrated new year in one of his episode. Or "Mohon restu pada tuhan, semoga berkekalan... " in one of the P. Ramlee episode ('Gerimis' if I not mistaken). Ok... I have gone too far.. So, the point is, they use that melody to halau all the people politely from their shops.

Then I decided to walk around Kawasaki town just to look around. Japan town mostly are full with colourful lights, which is nice. I bought some bread with 6 slices, which cost me about Y178 ~ RM5.34. I went back to hotel and took my dinner with that bread and a can of sardine.

Udon Soba

Here is the view of Pioneer Kawasaki Plant I took during my way to hotel. Kinda nice view, but morning is nicer. Here in Kawasaki, they are using very high technology, but in MPT (Malaysia Pioneer Tech.) the technology was hampeh. At least at Cubic (my previous company) they are using 'touch-and-go' system to scan-in and entering some section or room. But here in MPT, scan-in and out using bar code system.

Today I ate some fish with rice for my lunch. Before this I took udon and soba. Udon wa Soba is the name of Japanese noodle. Udon is a little bit thick while Soba a little bit thin. Japanese don't use any manual cashier to calculate the meal. All of plate or bowl or even a glass have a chip which already been stored with a value. At Pioneer cafeteria, we just put the tray at the machine, then automatically the screen will calculate the amount we ate, and we pay using card which we have to top-up earlier (prepaid system). But when I think back, Japanese are very honest people. No matter how advance the technologies are, if honesty does not exist, everything will be difficult. I think if they implement the same system in MPT, maybe many of the workers will 'makan free' for their lunch.

Food here are expensive. Imagine RM3 for a can of coca-cola. A meal will cost around RM15, while in MPT I spend only RM1.50 (nasik free kat MPT), 10% of the amount I spend here. But if I to calculate every single cent, then I wil become thinner and thinner. So, first rule, do not convert Japanese yen to RM. 1 coin of 500Y is equivalent to RM15. Imagine you are carrying a coin worth RM15. In Malaysia, most people just simple throw away all the coins cost the biggest amount is 50c.

Hotel room here is not as big as Malaysian hotel. Not even close to cheap hotel in Malaysia, but the facilities are great. There is a network cable to connect to the internet, sink and a kitchen (as in the picture) all in a small space of room. But amazingly, it is very comfortable here. I can cook, eat and enjoy the internet (even sometimes the connection intermittent, and sometimes download rate can reached 90kBps). Television all in Japanese and I can't even understand a single word except for the very basic one. However, so far I enjoy my trip here. It won't cause any trouble for me even if they asked me to continue this training for another year. People here are very warm and kind, and I bet you too will enjoy living in a country like this.

RM960M to be invest in Malaysia

3 Companies from U.S. and India will invest in Bio-Tech industries in Malaysia. Wow... From this we can see some positive impact on government policies to introduce industries based on agriculture. At first many did not agree with this policy. Some people (including me) saying that if we produce 1 IC, we can sell up to hundred or thousand of ringgit. But by agriculture, 1 can of nenas or 1 kg of durian may be sell less than RM5. But there is more positive points on this agri-culture base. Here I list out some of them:

1. Not every country can produce. Our land is very lucky and we can plant through-out the years without worry for the season change.

2. By planting more, we can control on market price. Thus, will reduce inflation rate.

3. Foods are essentials. As IC and all those entertainment we don't really need it. We only buy them if we have some excess of cash.

4. Global warming! We can fight them by reducing the carbon diokside which produce from those plants during photosintesis. We can breath the fresh air.

5. It makes us care on the earth. If we plant, it shows we care with our earth.

6. Less pollution will produce. If happened lazy people throw all those kulit rambutan, it wont cause any problem since all of them are bio-degradable. No RoHS compliance needed. No lead, no mercury, no cadmium!

7. Everyone can do it as long as they have the courage and will. No need degree or master. (Unless you want to be in the RnD, you might need some basic knowledge or qualifications).

8. This job can contribute to better health also better wealth.

In addition, people who are serious into this business will end-up as multi-millionaire. Why I said so? Of course there are stories of all success people around. I took some kerepek from one guy who are actually an ex-soldier then he became guard at UiTM. Now, his business earn about RM100k per month. A young guy in goat industries earn RM50k per month. There's also a man who plant banana in 20 acres of land end up to be a millionaire. Imagine if you become a manager of a company earn RM5k a month, they earn 10 times than your monthly income. Think about it. Think and grow rich...

In conclusion, old folks said "Berbudi pada tanah akan dapat hasilnya" (I am not sure this sentence is correct, but more-or-less gitu la bunyik dia). Let's plan for a better future.

Chicken Price Going Up

It has been an issue when the chicken price gone up higher than silling price. All news paper also news in TV were talking on this issue. An some of the pissed-off malays wrote up on the newspaper saying that they all purposely raise up the price, and the same case never happened when chinese new year.

If we think back, who's fault is it when the price raise high?? Should we just blame other parties (especially the suppliers) without point any of the fingers to ourselves??? Why I point up this issue was, sometimes we didn't see what our people are doing and always blame others. If we see, everytime of Ramadhan, there will be PARAM (or Pasar Ramadhan) everywhere around the country. What did they sell on that Param if not chicken as their main sources. Most of the Param will have Nasi ayam, nasi tomato, ayam percik, ayam golek, kebab etc etc. Only few will be based on beef, mutton or fish. Then what will happened if orders is too high for all these? Of course when demand is high while supply remains the same will cause the price raise up. This is simple economics.

So, should we blame all those people first or shall we blame our people? Maybe other people got other opinions but for me, we try to look at our side first, before we blame other people.