Japan =)

Yes I have tons of work on my table and I'm here trying to escape from reality. But really, it was the most enjoyable work trip that I ever had so far, though I was staffing my bosses, there wasn't much stress: partly because they are nice and easy to travel with and partly because Tokyo is really my homeground.

Boarding the plane, there was this girl pushing her backpack up the luggage compartment and she looked familiar. I settled to my seat behind her and realised that she looked just like our national swimmer whom I read during the last SEA Games, etc. Not to mention that Darryl had commented on her legs before so we took extra notice.

Unable to suppress my curiosity, I confirmed it and yes, I managed to talk to one of our local celebrities (in Economic Class though). I should have taken a picture (I'm sure she'll oblige) but my hair was in a mess that morning. So ... Yes, she was Ms Quah Ting Wen

I started with 20th Century Boys Chapter 3. Ok, I knew the itinerary and my brief well and there was no need to memorise the timetable etc during the flight.

The show was horrible. Chapter One started off very well, with sufficient mystery and cliffhangers and would leave one to pine for the sequel. Chapter 2 was still alright because some questions had remained unanswered and Kenji Endo reappeared just before the credits, thus setting the stage for a grand finale in Chapter 3.

Unfortunately, it was a let-down. The idea of throwing in questions wouldn't work in Chapter 3 and it did a bad job in trying to answer some of those questions. In the end, it was just a mistake committed by Kenji Endo in his younger days which caused the entire destruction of mankind, some 3, 40 years later (Ha ... Ha ... Ha ... Ha ... Ha ...). I thought I had wasted 7+ hours of my life with this trilogy.

Up in the Air

It was refreshing and you can't help but to love George Clooney. I guess the casting was important because the movie needed the audience to love someone who goes around firing people because their bosses do not have the guts to do so.

It dawned upon me that in our Civil Service, presentation and persuasion skills have been undervalued although they are such important assets in the working world outside. Anyway, it is a wonderful movie, highly recommended.

It wasn't easy with the trip planning, because my Director (who did not travel with us) was adamant that we should avoid congestions at all costs because we may end up missing the meetings, and being the former-student of the land, my only mean of transport had been the trains. So when we switched back to hired vehicles, the meetings were already set based on the estimated time needed for taking trains and we ended up early for most of our meetings.

It was therefore good that we ended up 10min late for our last dinner there. We were advised that the trip would take about an hour. Though I had catered for another 30min, we were still late by 10, I guess my boss could see therefore how unpredictable the traffic could be.

Anyway, I was out every night for the 3 evenings. I used to station myself in the hotel room, waiting for calls or sms-es from my boss, asking for this or that data but I didn't bother this time round. For the first night, I went to Akihabara in search for my Pikachu pyjamas lol.

At Donki Joitei (I knew I could buy it there, opening hours 10am - 5am), I found a lot of the others (Pooh, Tiga, Batman, Stitch, etc) but just not Pikachu. Anyway, I wasn't planning to buy there and then so I noted the section of the 4 level store and came back out. I couldn't buy it because over half of my suitcase was filled with gifts and I didn't know if we could give them all out or if we would be receiving anything from the hosts. To play it safe, I didn't make the purchase which I actually regretted.

I had more time for the 2nd evening, the dinner ended before 9 and I was invited by Anna for desserts with her aunt. There were 3 ladies there, with Anna's future sis-in-law. Though it was the first time for me to meet with the aunt, she had heard much about me since the time Anna and I dated. It was a short meet-up with lots of teasing from them. They were trying to sell Anna to me again and we had a good laugh, they must have thought that I was some Todai elite who travels around with my boss, staying in 6-star hotels and meeting with Presidents and Chairmen of companies on govt/companies' expenses although I reassured that all credits go to my boss.

The dinner for the 3rd night ended only at 10. I took a 45min journey to meet with my God-ma at her place. She must have appreciated the efforts to spend 90min of travelling time just to meet for 30min. It was a nice time of catching up, and she must be a very happy mother at this point in time as I'm blogging because Tetsuya is getting married today.

Watched Chinese movies on my flight back:

To Live and Die in Mong Kok

It was not a new genre, portraying someone with split personality. But it managed to infuse it cleverly in the Chinese triad environment. I could understand why the movie won several awards in the East Asia market. Cinematography wasn't spectacular but the portrayal of the good, bad and ugly, with their different agenda was commendable.

Fight Back to School

Don't ask me why but I wanted to watch it. And then, I realised that I couldn't laugh at most of the jokes from the early-90s. I guess the jokes etc had also evolved over the last 20 years and my experience with the quirky Japanese entertainment industry didn't help matters.