Sumimasen, wakarimasen, arigato, chotomate, gomenasai....

Japan is one of the MUST visit places in Asia. I've never seen any culture so unique before.... 3 words sum them up. Polite, Anal, and Cute.

Polite

1. Saying NO-If you do a regional survey within Asia, say its testing of a new product, the rejection rate from Japan will be the lowest. Thats cos the Japanese never say no.... They'd rather ignore you than say no to you. Mike (my boss) was asking for directions around the subway, some japanese just pretended he wasn't there, presumably cos they can't speak english.
   
2. Bowing is a common courtesy as many would already know. I never know when to stop. Do you just keep going? or do you bow like 9 times to call it quits...
   
3. Saying Arigato (thank you) all the time.
   
4. Obedient and orderly and considerate. Never out of line, never selfish.
   
5. And never will they push you even when its crowded.

Anal

1. I happened to witness a wedding.... The bride was wearing this gorgeous kimono and was waiting to take a picture. The photo-assistant took like FOREVER to adjust the skirts of the kimono, so that it will fall perfectly in the picture.

This is another bride with her entourage... We were at the Meiji Shrine when we witnessed these weddings.

1. Everything was very orderly. Very efficient. They thought about everthing.... Like you know how trays are normally rectangular and u can't put them side by side on a round table... The japs came up with trays tht are chopped off at the two top corners so i'd fit on a round table.
   
2. There must be at least 20 advertisers within a subway cabin... The posters are not put in a glass display, they are literally clipped on. But surprisingly, every poster was in good condition. The paper quality was also very impressive.

CUTE

1. They invented a million things you never thought you needed, and they make it cute!
   

EG: Cute child friendly food. Imagine putting ladies fingers in such cute form, anyone would eat it!

This is a Harajuku girl wannabe. She's trying to be scary but she's more cute than scary...

Anyway, here are some of the great pictures we took.

We went to the Hot Springs resort and everyone had to wear Kimonos.... it was quite fun. There's a specific way to wear it, Right over left, and the bow behind for girls. If worn any either way, someone would have mistaken you for a prostitute, or someone who is mourning.



Obviously neither Mike or Les or I went to the hot springs. Cos u must be naked.... bleh...Maybe when u're not there with the entire company.

After dinner, we went round looking for a nice place to drink.... Found this cafe called ARU. Apparently its names after the owner's dog. And the owner also kept a special gem in his garage.... 1958 vintage porche. He was nice enough to open up the garage to let us take a picture of it... Mike's drooling over it.

Next day, took a quick walk around the resort and found this incredibly beautiful green trail...




Also happened to be VERY windy and VERY rainy... u can practically see the wind. I got sick as a result... really bad flu.

Anyway Mike is doing his Leonardo Impression, You jump i Jump... Lester goes "okay you jump first"...


Ladies and Gentlemen, i present to you Mount Fuji. Super cloudy day, couldn't really see....



Travelled out into the city in late afternoon. And this was the view from a tourist trap observatory.... Very much like any other skyline... But its when u get down to the details that you realise how colourful japan is.







A rainy day in Shinjuku...



A trip to the Tsukiji Fish Market. Sashimi can't get any fresher than those u find here.....



Who love Bonito flakes? CRATEs of it here... Yummmm....



All sorts of crabs. Can u imagine how sweet the flesh would be...



Mike and Les are happie after a nice fresh Sashimi meal.


This is the Ginza area. Full of branded shops.... TALL BIG grand buildings. Check out the wonderful sky after a rainy day.



We were excited to see policemen for the first time (cos we thot Japan got no crime), so we decided to take a picture of them, but didn't want to be to obvious. See the background?


This is us along the one of the streets connecting Ometosando and Aoyama....

Trying to do a desperate impression of the rabbit...

One for the ladies. I'm standing outside the PRADA designer building. A designer architect designed the designer brand...Its like a giant glass igloo....

Anyway, walking around Japan with 2 boys was fun. Needless to say, not so productive in the shopping... I only bought one Yellow nailpolish, one eyelash curler (from Shu Uemura cos its cheap), and 2 japo mascara so i can get the Kawaii eyes. Oh and Les bought me a nice hot pink Coach wallet tht i'm very happy with. thts about it....

Crazy celebs update part 3

okay, only some of you may think this is crazy... BUT DVB are vacationing in singapore! Its quoted in people magazine. Siao, what is there to do in Singapore. Say hi to Merlion?

Following his last game with Real Madrid – and a celebration with pals Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes – David Beckham and wife Victoria head through London's Heathrow Airport Tuesday, reportedly on their way to Singapore for a vacation before their highly anticipated move to L.A.

What do we do when we're NOT with each other....

I think you guys must wonder whether Les and I spend anytime apart at all. We live together, eat together, work together.... We're practically conjoined.

Well its almost true, but we do spend time apart... like when either of us have to work late, or when he goes to the gym, when i go to the spa.... We're all human and we need that personal space.

So here's how Lester spends his free time...

Lester is hooked on his Nintendo Wii. He confessed that he can't wait for me to be on business trip so that he can have all day to play the Wii undisturbed.

Check out his golf swing.... and his tongue.

When I'm alone....

It's either spa, shopping, massage or at home watching my fav serials. Sometimes i also do crappy things, like think of ways to spice up the blog. For example;

I spent Monday/Tuesday in Beijing on business (yes i actually work, i don't blog full time). These trips are never fruitful from a leisure perspective. So i was forced to explore within the areas of my confinement...As i was taking a shower, i realised how HUGE the shower head was. so i took a picture of it. See? same size as my head.

And check out the showering instructions....Super detailed and foolproof, in 3 different languages!

Actually there's an explanation for this. Its a japanese run hotel, thts why its so efficient and "extra". heh....

Speaking of which, Les and i are going to Tokyo tomorrow for company trip. WOOHOO.... harajuku girls we're coming!!!KAWAIi!

Random Pictures

Our Trip to Mo Gan Shan Road
This place is near the Suzhou Creek (quite far from where we live). This place sells mainly Art pieces, the selection is even more diverse than Taikang road. Should call this the ART street rather than Tai Kang actually, beats me, a lot of things in China don't make sense.



This is the entrance of the compound. There's a nice fountain and a miniature structure of the place.

Anyway, Les and I are not really art connoisseurs, we just wanted to explore a new place. We do buy things we like, but mostly photographs, only because we both don't appreciate the impressionism abstract stuff.

You'll find that most artists in China influence each other, or rather, they copy each other. So u never know who is the original mastermind. There are one or 2 unique ones, but usually very overpriced. I walked into a shop and enquired about a painting, the guy initially said RMB40,000, then he said RMB20,000. Les said that pple in china don't have a concept of value yet, especially art.

Anyway, we couldn't take any pictures of the art samples for obvious reasons... But we don't think its worth taking pictures of anyway.

This is les posing, in every sense of the word. So cute.

Just outside the compound, this dude was happily snoozing. It must have been about 30 degrees that day. Thing about Shanghai is, this view is quite common. U'll see something very old, juxtaposed against something very new, like the high-rise building at the back. It's everywhere.

He was also sleeping next to this....RIGHT next to the mogenshen compound.

Okay now i have to do a girly thing, So cuteeeee these kitties....They were snuggling and it was such a lovely sight.

Well on the whole, we won't go back to Mo Gen Shen road in the near future unless we plan to buy a super big house. But if u want a quick dose of what China modern art is really about, this should be the place to visit.

The long awaited pictures of our new place!

Okay i won't show everything, just my favourite corners of the house first.

Below is what we name the Music Shrine corner... It's just outside our bedroom on the 2nd floor. We really love this place because A. Its where Les keeps his hundreds of precious CDs, B. Its our jukebox every morning, les gets to be the DJ of course. C. we designed the CD cupboard ourselves. It doesn't look nice in the picture cos u can't see the colour well, but the drawers are kind of orangey red, and each drawer fits exactly 2 rows of CDs, and u can afford to arrange the CDs alphabetically, or by genre, or by singers/groups.

This is the living room...The gorgeous orangey red couch is also personalised, we picked the fabric and colour ourselves. It originally came in a dull beige colour from the old tenant, and we revamped it. This matches the Rickshaw picture at the back, and the cupboard upstairs!

Okay sorry i don't have pictures of other places yet... it took me forever to get the angle right on these 2. more will come.

***

Finally, this is a picture of my mom and I during her visit in early may. Who thinks we look alike?

singaporebrides.com

Other than getting tips from our friends, Les and I log on to Singaporebrides.com for practical tips on wedding planning. Its got a very good forum section that classifies wedding banquet reviews, bridal boutique reviews bla bla bla...

For those unmarried and soon to be married, u shd start surfing the singaporebrides.com to get yourself acquainted with B2B (bride 2 be) lingo.

A typical coversation in the forum goes like this...

A: When is your AD? and what is your BS? Have u chosen ur MUA?
B: Have not decided. Should i get my WG OTR or MTM?
A: Depends on whether u want to wear ur WG on ur PS & AD. How about VG and PG?
B: I may not need both, any recommendations?
A: Well when i was BM at my friend's wedding, the PG is good, i'll PM you.

Seriously CNB (Catch No ball). Do you have to be a laojiao bride in order to understand all these acronyms? But i want to be a new bride, preferably only once.

Okay anyway... let me not be selfish and decode the bride's language for you...

A: When is your Actual Day? and what is your Bridal Shop? Have u chosen ur Make Up Artist?
B: Have not decided. Should i get my Wedding Gown Off The Rack or Made T0 Measure?
A: Depends on whether u want to wear ur Wedding Gown on ur PhotoShoot & Actual Day. How about VideoGrapher and PhotoGrapher?
B: I may not need both, any recommendations?
A: Well when i was BridesMaid at my friend's wedding, the PhotoGrapher is good, i'll Private Message you.

For those who are just bored, log on to singaporebrides.com anyway. There's a section called "Matters of the Heart" that sends me rolling on the floor after reading.

Examples of some topics:

How to teach that slut a lesson: HELP
Any Deepest Darkest secrets to share? (Needless to say, only 2 replies to this thread)
Hand Job by Lady Friend
Sex threat from HB
What is u find out ur husband eat VIGRA (not a typo on my end).

Quite funny, should check it out.

Crazy celebs update part 2

The recent Paris Hilton debacle is turning into the mother of soap operas.

She's been charged with DUI, and then violating her probation by driving despite suspension of license. Her jail term was originally 45 days, but cut down to 23 on good behaviour.

Here's the brief sequence of events if you haven't been following....

Late Sunday- She checked herself into prison...Paris is not locked up with the other prisoners, she's in solitary confinement for her own safety.

Thursday- Reassigned to house arrest as she was suffering from a "medical condition". Her jailterm was reinstated to 45 days. During her house arrest, she had cupcakes, special deliveries to home and took naps.

Saturday- Court sent her back to jail as there were insufficient grounds to reassign her to house arrest. This is a picture of Paris crying on the way back to jail from court. Maybe she thought that she should have had that last cupcake.

Yesterday, she called Barbara Walters and told BW that she's no longer gonna act dumb anymore, she wants to do charity work for women with breasts cancer and open a playhouse for sick children.

Jamie Lee Curtis joined in the fun by slamming Kathy Hilton (Paris' mom) for not being the mother that Paris needs. Even when she tried, it was too little too late...

After ALL these exciting events, i only have one question in my mind... did Paris wear make-up in jail? This was her mugshot when she entered jail... with full make up. How did she remove them wo proper make-up remover? The eyeliner looks really thick.

Anyway, come on Paris, wht is there to cry about.... She's done worse things to ruin her life than jail (her infamous seeex tape remember?). Its not like she's being put with other inmates, its not as if she's gonna be out of job after this, its not as if she's gonna lose her wealth. She's just gonna miss partying and shopping for 23 days. Stop being dramatic...

Moving on from Paris. I just wanted to share a pretty good joke from Conan O'brien... Reports say that Nicole Richie is pregnant. To which she denied saying "i just ate a grape". HA HA....

PS: Jennifer, i don't know why i can't reply to comments on my blog. But to respond to your earlier comments, i quarrelled in mandarin (yes i'm quite good at it now, its not what you say but your tone and manner), and YES, i've lost ALL repect and pity for BS at this point.

Crazy celebs Update part 1

Like a moth to a flame...
WHAT!? After all the yo yo dieting, sex scandals, vgina flashing and head shaving, she's come full circle.


Graceless Jess


Jessica Simpson was seen wanting to flirt (not flirting) with Leonardo Dicaprio to make John Mayer jealous. Leo got scared and ignored her.





After her failed attempt, she decided to embarrass herself further by throwing herself at her old flame JM himself. Attempt #2 also failed.





She's one girl i don't understand. She wanted to save her virginity for a marriage she didn't treasure, and now she's acting like a gorilla in heat. Wassup with that.






What do you do when no one's looking?
Some private pictures of Lindsay Lohan and Vanessa Minnillo (Nick Lachey's fiance) got out to the internet. What's bizarre is that they are posing with knives and pulling down each other's shirts.

They're bisexual, and dominatrices! Who thinks this is a turn-on?

Looking out for a good fight...

Les told me this morning that Summer is declared as summer when the temperature hits 22 degrees celcius 5 consecutive days. 2007 has seen the earliest summer in history. No its not time to get all lecturie about the effects of global warming...

The arrival of an early summer was signaled by the rising mercury, literally and metaphorically....

I've picked a couple of good fights recently. Brains get fried in the heat, and so does good temper.

Fight #1 took place at an internationally renown boutique.
I tried on a gorgeous white dress, but the shoulder straps were far too long. Its an odd occurence cos i know that God has given me a gorgeous extraordinarily long sternum, so usually dresses strap are too short rather than too long. I then noticed that there was a weird piece of extra cloth hanging at the seams of the shoulder strap, then it occured to me that the dress was meant to be worn as a cross back. I went back into the changing room, wore the dress cross back and it fit perfectly...I walked out of the dressing room triumphantly to show the sales girls tht i figured it all out. To my dismay, they told me that i got it wrong, that the models wore it non-cross back (maybe implying tht i don't have a modeleque figure to carry off a dress!)... i insisted back tht it was cross back and they should tell their customers, if not nobody would buy such a ridiculously LONG strapped dress right? But they were so set to believe that i was wrong and disagreed to the point where I got so tired of quarreling with 5 salesgirls (managers included), so i relented. Before i paid for the dress, i asked for a new piece.

Drum roll... the new piece came out hung CROSS BACK on the hanger, wrapped in plastic, straight from factory. So again, i triumphantly pointed out tht i was right. The salegirls didn't even apologise. Anyway, when i asked for the fapiao, the girl pulled a long face at me. Thts when i snapped.

Stella: What's your name?
Salesgirl: XXX
Stella: How do you write it?
Salegirl: Why?
Stella: You pulled a long face at me. U're attitude sucks. (in a deadpan tone)
Silence.... i took my receipt and walked off.

What would u have done?
How can a country who wants to leapfrog into the future harbour such third class mentality? they couldn't even bring themselves to entertain the thought for a moment that the CUSTOMER MAY BE RIGHT. I wasn't at some night market... I was in a renown boutique in a shopping mall. Some pple think my reaction was a little ill-mannered. But i feel like to dismiss their actions as being "typical chinese" is even more condescending... I'm sure the chinese are capable of eventually understanding how service works. Its not about me getting my way, it's about every other consumer out there as well. Revolutions begin with dissent.


Fight #2 happened at the fabric market.
Okay so this tailor made me 2 tops. both are oversized. The neckline is like twice around my neck... she insists tht its meant to be worn loose. But i insist back tht she alters it. so she told me to collect it on weds, i went on friday, and she still hasn't altered it. So i wasted 50yuan (the top only cost 90 each)cab ride, and wasted my lunch time. I was incredibly mad.... i told her not to waste other's time and another taiwanese customer in the shop agreed with me when he said "time is of no essence to the chinese, they are very free".

On the bright side...
Well, the chinese makes me fume sometimes. But they also make me laugh...After my trip back from the fabric market, i decided to treat myself to a cup of starbucks... the ever cheeeerrriiiee on permanent prosac starbucks cashier repeated a customer's order,"web beeng fwappucino cleeng", and her colleague echoed "web beeng fwappucino cleeng"... Curious to know what drink it is? Red Bean Frappucino with cream.

Taikang Road

We live along Sinan Road/Taikang Road. You might be wondering why there are 2 road names. China roads are typically very long, so usually the address contains the nearest intersecting road so that the cab driver roughly knows where he's heading. Its like saying Upper Paya Lebar instead of Paya Lebar.

Anyway, just a brief introduction on Taikang Road. It is known as the art street as it is supposedly populated with a lot of art shops and art galleries. Actually, i think its more than just an Art Street, it really is one of the most beautiful places in Shanghai in my opinion. Its also a great place to live next to because along Taikang road, one can find a very clean wet market, fruit stalls, convenience stores, local, thai and italian restaurants, a bar, cafes, and 2 very solid DVD flagship stores. The only thing we don't have is a massage parlour.

Anyway, before we even moved to Taikang Rd, we explored this area a lot. Here are some pictures we took sometime ago, even before we moved. It was still winter then...

That's me... standing in one of the alley's in taikang road....Looks like Whitechapel in London.

And that's me again, pretending to be a seamstress. My grandma used to have one of these old manual sewing machines. I always used to play pretend. Hee...

This is us, nearing one of the exits of taikang road. Check out all the clothes hanging... Tht's China... One can be having a nice meal at a pish-posh restaurant, and the next door neighbour will hang their undergaments out dry for the whole world to see.

Really love the new area tht we live in. Looks better in real life than in pictures. So u'll have to come experience it for yourself!

Our blog unblocked!

Seriously, don't know how these cyber-nannies operate. Like contestants on Project Runway, One moment we're in, the

next moment we're out.

Its been about 3 months since the last entry. Lots have happened since....
Lester and I have moved into our new apartment, i've now been working for 3 months, and we've made more friends and explored more of Shanghai. Also made it through our first trip to Suzhou/Hangzhou during the May 1st hols...

Here are some pictures from the trip.

Suzhou
Lester's colleague Shirley invited us to Suzhou for her wedding. It was our first Chinese wedding! 20 course dinner... It was a huge party. Rowdy and every bit chinese.

It's customary for the Bride's boss to give a speech. So tht meant Les had to give a speech in mandarin! Of course Les didn't write it himself, another colleague helped him. I think she purposely included a lot of chinese proverbs just for the heck of it, so poor les had to practice quite a bit, his script was practically in chinese pinyin! it was so funny and endearing, he did a great job... I'm proud of him.

You know how Singaporeans like to sabotage the bride/bridegroom on the wedding day. Well the Chinese top the game. They stuck 8 cigs into an empty plastic bottle, and the groom had to light all of them by sucking through the mouthpiece. Its nasty but SO FUN...

The next morning, we took a quick tour round suzhou on a trishaw. Went to a garden with a lake. Suzhou is apparently the Venice of China.


This woman must have been at least 80. She's still strong as an ox, she's the boat rower (whatever you call it).

Hangzhou(West Lake)

We took a bus to Hangzhou. It was rather adventurous given tht we've never done this before and had no idea what the condition of the bus was like. But it turned out okay i guess.

We stayed at the Sofitel Xanadu Resort in Hangzhou. Absolutely beautiful... Its really far from the West Lake but there's a regular shuttle bus that brings us there. But who needs the westlake when the hotel has their own private lake! This is us posing in front of the hotel lake! We definitely recommend staying at the Sofitel Xanadu. Its not expensive too!

Check out the GORGEOUS cloudless sky... i didn't enhance the colour of this photograph. I haven't seen a sky like this since i left Singapore.

This is us at the West Lake. We took an 80RMB boat ride... Its very nice and romantic cos it was sunset... And its also nice to break away from the chinese crowd around the westlake for a moment, and truly enjoy the gorgeous scenery.

Gotta love the sunset....