Japan, Day 2: Shinjuku (and a bit of Shibuya)

The trouble with holiday trips is that one can never see everything but just a very small snapshot of a place. Such as Shinjuku in Tokyo. My son wanted to go there, because he was searching for something specific to buy, so we all trooped there by train from Ikebukuro.

We alighted from the Shinjuku station and took a random walk down the road, not knowing where we would be heading. Then my son went one way and the three of us went the other way.

We slipped into a shopping mall - I think it was the Lumine - and got distracted by a bakery. Selling all sorts of cakes and buns. And drinks. And so we ordered some to eat. We searched for an empty table among the limited there. Couldn't find one. But there was one with a shopping bag resting on a chair. One of the shoppers - an elegant Japanese lady - motioned to us and quickly removed her bag. We thanked her and rested our feet. Not that we had walked much, but the rest still proved a blessing.

Somehow, we found ourselves at a tourist information centre. Where could we find somewhere interesting to visit around here, we asked the lady at the centre. She whipped out a map and suggested walking to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building where we could go up and take a panoramic view of the district. There was also a park nearby, if we were interested.

This sounded good to us and so, like well-trained tourists, we followed her directions to the government building. But there was disappointment. There was a long line of people with the same idea as us. Only goodness will know how long it would take us just to reach the front of the queue. So we gave up the idea of going up the building. By this time, though, darkness had descended on Tokyo. We did make our way to the park and there was nothing much to see in the darkness except for a pavillion in semi-darkness.

We decided to make our way back to the Lumine building, re-tracing our steps through a road selling electronics stuff. We went into one which turned out to be the Shinjuku West branch of the Yodobashi chain of stores. While Saw See and Michelle, waited for Jeremy on the ground floor, I took a hurried tour of the upper floors. I must admit that I was quite floored by the widest selection of electronic goods that I had ever seen. It was with great reluctance that I had to go back down to the ground floor again.

The family now re-united, we walked back to the train station but my ears soon picked up a familiar sound. The sound of the Hang musical instrument. The last time I had watched anyone play this musical instrument was in 2014 when Richard Clayderman performed in Penang. But at this present moment, it was an unknown street performer who was playing with his Hang on the sidewalk.



Oh yes, we had to take a quick trip to the Shibuya station which was one stop away from Shinjuku because Jeremy still tried to find his stuff. A very quick trip. We emerged from the station and while Jeremy disappeared somewhere, the three of us slipped into a nearby department store and wandered around. We got tired after a while, waited for Jeremy to return, and then we took the train back to Ikebukuro. No, we did not go to the famed Shibuya crossing intersection.

It must be understood that this was our first day in Japan. Had landed in the morning without any rest and we were dead tired. Hungry too, if I may add here. So we took refuge at a Hanamaru Udon shop at the end of the Ikebukuro station. Needless to say, we wolfed down the food without thinking too much about it

P.S. But it was good in retrospect.

Japan, Day 2: Disk union

It was all a rush rush rush getting from airport to train station and then to the apartment. Now that we had settled in, it was time to take things more slowly and absorb in the atmosphere around us. Emerging from the building, we walked out to start looking at the restaurants. A few caught in the distance our eyes but we decided not to linger too long to decide on our lunch because the whole city was before us!

So we peered and then popped into the nearest udon shop, a little establishment name unknown to me, where we sat at the counter bar. But first, we had to buy tickets from the vending machine. First time again. Passed the tickets to the restaurant staff and waited. Watched them serve other customers first before us. Soon enough, our own meals came. Interesting bowls of noodles and a towering heap of bean sprouts on one of them. First and only time that we saw taugeh served with our meals, though.

Next stop for me was the Disk Union shop on the other side of the Ikebukuro station. While the family went exploring the area, I excused myself for a half hour to immerse myself in one of Japan's well-known music shop. Heaven is when you can browse through their hordes of records.

Okay, I got what I wanted. My spoils of battle. Now we can go elsewhere. My son said Shinjuku. Okay, Shinjuku it shall be. Let's go!

Previous: First feel

Japan, Day 2: First feel

You can say that our first contact with Japan outside the arrival hall was the 7-Eleven outlet at the airport.

We were famished. We hadn't eaten since the unexpected overnight stay at Incheon. So we filed into 7-Eleven and started gawking at the food sold there. All sorts of Japanese food imaginable, all telling us: "Pick me, pick me!"

We grabbed a few things, paid for them and started eating right outside. In front of people walking briskly between the airport and the train station. And all the time, my son kept telling us: "This is Japan, this is Japan. We shouldn't be blocking the passageway." So after we had finished eating, what now? To go to our airbnb apartment, of course! On our very first rail ride in Japan from Haneda international airport to the Ikebukuro station.

During the journey to Ikebukuro, I was actually a bit relieved that, thanks to Typhoon Lan, we had arrived in Tokyo during the day and not the previous night. This was a silver lining. If we had arrived late at night, I had feared that we could have missed the last train leaving from the airport station and we would be forced to buy the late-night express bus tickets to Ikebukuro station.

Not only would the bus tickets be way more expensive than the ¥750 for each train ticket, the bus would not have stopped where I wanted and we would have to walk right across the station. That wasn't a big deal but as first-timer visitors to Tokyo, I would want to be certain that the station would be open round-the-clock. Would it also close at midnight? Or soon after midnight?

Days before our journey, I had contacted the owner of the airbnb apartment to inquire about getting to his apartment. At first, I thought, wow, this Japanese guy can at least understand and communicate in English, giving me the required information and how to retrieve the keys from the postbox. But when I inquired further about the apartment's location and details on the Ikebukuro station, whether it was open 24 hours, the poor chap went completely silent after a while. It was then that I realised that my questions were now beyond him and I had better seek answers elsewhere from other people who had been to Japan. Poor me, poor him.

Anyway, we did find the building and we did locate the keys to the apartment. My impression can be summed in three words: clean, compact, cramped.

Yes, it was clean with everything in their proper place. All the conveniences of a holiday stay were there....well-stocked bathroom, bath towels, washing machine, small wardrobe for the clothes, kitchenette with accompanying utensils, foldable table and a chair, television set, a portable WiFi and most importantly, an air-conditioner.

And yet, it was small and compact, something which I was prepared for. I think the best way to describe our airbnb accommodation was that it would qualify as a studio apartment back home. If it was meant for one or two persons to stay, the place would be all right. But for four persons to live here even for only two or three days, it was cramped. Especially when the mattresses were lain down on the floor and with our respective luggage bags all opened up. Nevertheless, this was a holiday, right? We were prepared to accept everything and anything.

Previous: From Incheon to Haneda

Japan, Day 2: From Incheon to Haneda

We arrived at Incheon international airport at almost one o'clock in the morning, Korea local time. As I joined the rest of the passengers to file out of the plane and the female air crew were all standing at the exit to bide us farewell, I could see relief on their faces. I guess they were just as rattled as us during the attempted landing at Haneda some two hours earlier. I spotted one of the more senior crew members. "Are you the pilot," I asked him. "Yes," he replied. "Well, I want to shake your hand. Thanks for getting us out of a sticky situation," I said. We grinned at one another.

The airport was basically closed when some ground staff from AirAsia X met us at the arrival gate. Well, at least the airline had someone come to meet us at this unearthly hour. We were led to the airport security where our carry-on luggage was checked and scanned before we were allowed into the departure lounge. We weren't allowed out of here. All the passengers were required to stay here until the rescheduled flight, bearing a new code D7522D, leave Incheon at six o'clock. That would be in some five hours time.

Although each passenger was then given a 10,000 Won food coupon, there was hardly any food outlet opened. We were lucky. We were the last passengers to use our 40,000 Won to buy up the last of the sandwiches at the only available food outlet. Then we settled down to attempt some shut-eye which, of course, did not happen to me. I think it was only my wife who got some sleep.

At 5.30am, we assembled outside Gate 109 and were soon allowed into the aeroplane. There was a fresh set of crew who would fly us to our intended destination. The aircraft left Incheon at 6.45am and flew without any further incident into Haneda, reaching there at 8.45am. By 8.59am, we were already on terra firma and waiting to depart from the airport. Hello, Japan, finally!

Previous: Flying into a typhoon

Japan, Day 1: Flying into a typhoon

It was almost a year ago during the Chinese New Year reunion dinner that we were talking about taking another family vacation. The last time that my wife and I took a vacation with my children was in 2014 when we decided to go to Hanoi after cancelling our initial plans to Bali because of my hospitalisation.

We were discussing where to go this time around and for quite a while, we were looking at St Petersburg in Russia as a destination. But then we decided not to cross so many time zones and plumb for Japan instead. (I think everybody were more excited about Japan than Russia).

The only decision left was the date of travel and eventually decided on the end of October when the raining spell in Japan was starting to dry up and the weather was still not too cold. With some luck, we could even see some fall colours during the transition from summer to autumn. I settled on the 22nd of October till the 29th, and we all agreed to enter Japan through Tokyo and depart through Osaka. We would take a one-way trip by rail from Tokyo to Osaka and experience their bullet train along the way.

So there we were, Saw See, Jeremy and I, flying down to the KLIA2 on the 22nd morning where Michelle would then meet up with us. We were ready. We boarded the AirAsia X flight D7522 which would depart at 2.25pm and scheduled to arrive at Haneda international airport, Tokyo, at 10.30pm.

Everyone thought that this would be, or should be, an uneventful flight. But unbeknownst to my family, I was a little nervous. No, actually, I was more than a little nervous. No thanks, of course, to two jokers on the opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean.

On one side was a maverick dotard now in his latest role as the President of the United States of America and on the other side was an unpredictable little rocket man from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea with a penchant for playing with missiles and nuclear weapons. Between the two of them, there was no predicting when someone could be trigger happy and war could break out at any time. The situation grew more tense as the year rolled along. South Korea and Japan, caught in the middle between the United States and North Korea, could face the dire consequences and there we were, having already decided to visit Japan. Fortunately, there was a two-month lull from mid-September when the lovebirds did nothing much except trade insults, and I felt that it would be safe enough to travel. But I wouldn't have hesitated from aborting the family trip if there was escalation in the tension.

There was a second reason for my nervousness. Typhoon Lan. Days before our trip, I had begun checking on the weather conditions in Japan and noticed that a typhoon was threatening to strike at Japan at about the same time that we were to arrive. A friend in Tokyo wrote to me on 20 October: "Tough weather forecast. Heavy rain and thunderstorm on Sunday. Typhoon warning for Monday. Bring umbrellas."

Yup, a typhoon named Lan was bearing down on Japan but what could we do? It was a natural phenomenon. The flight was still taking off on schedule from KLIA2 on Sunday afternoon. I suppose typhoon weather is all quite normal circumstances for airlines. Nothing extraordinary. Nothing for them to worry about. The aircraft could still land in stormy weather. Or so I thought.

Only things was, this was a very different cup of tea. At about 10 o'clock at night, Japan time, I knew that we were already in Japan airspace. Preparations were already taken to land the airplane. I could hear the outboard and inboard flaps on the wing being engaged. I could also imagine that the landing gear was down too. However, the problem was that there was nothing reassuring to see from the window. Except for patches of grey clouds whizzing by, everything else was in pitch darkness. No sign of city lights on the ground. No approaching landing strip lights could be seen. And the engine was straining against the wind. Loudly. Making all sorts of noises that I normally wouldn't associate with landing. I could feel the bird strain but fortunately, it remained very steady. I suppose the airplane must have circled the airport once, perhaps twice. Then suddenly, the pilot came on the air. All airports in Japan were closed on account of this particular typhoon. He was diverting the aircraft to Incheon.

It took me a moment to fathom this decision. Incheon? That's Seoul's international airport, isn't it? In South Korea. That's about two hours away from Tokyo. So this wasn't any ordinary typhoon. It was a typhoon strong enough to close all the airports in Japan, from the northern to the southern parts of the country. At least, this decision meant that we no longer needed to worry about a dangerous landing under an utterly stormy weather condition. The weather at Incheon, the pilot assured us, would be fine. We would wait out the storm there and fly out to Haneda first thing in the morning.

To be continued....

Happy New Year 2018

The war of the worlds

Herbert George Wells, more popularly known as HG Wells, was a prolific English writer of novels, short stories, works of social commentary, satire, biography and autobiography. He is best remembered for his science fiction novels and I remember reading the abridged version of The Invisible Man during my schooldays. Apart from this story orf invisibility, his other science fiction works imagined time travel (The Time Machine), alien invasion and biological engineering (The Island of Dr Moreau). But it was for The War of the Worlds, written in 1898, that Wells is now most famous for.

The War of the Worlds spawned seven films, various radio dramas, comic-book adaptations, video games, a television series and sequels or parallel stories by other authors.

One of the most notorious adaptations of the science fiction was the 1938 radio broadcast that was narrated and directed by George Orson Welles, an American actor, director, writer and producer. The first two-thirds of the 60-minute broadcast was presented as a news bulletin and was often described as having led to widespread panic by some listeners who, not having listened in to the programme from the start, believed that an invasion by extraterrestrial beings was actually taking place. However, there are some sources that claimed these reports of panic were mostly overly exaggerated.

The first The War of the Worlds film was produced in 1953 and it starred Gene Barry. In 2005, Tom Cruise was the leading actor in a Steven Spielberg version of the story.

In 1978, Jeff Wayne was inspired enough to produce a musical version of the story. It was a concept double album with its main format being progressive rock and string orchestra, using narration by Richard Burton and leitmotifs to carry the story. The vocals in the album were provided by Justin Hayward (The Moody Blues), David Essex, Chris Thompson (Manfred Mann's Earth Band), Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy) and Julie Covington. Wayne himself provided some narration at the end of the album.

I remember first hearing Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds (to give the work its full title) in 1980 and, like many other people then, owned a pirated audio cassette version of the album after requesting it taped by the local record store. Later, I "progressed" to owning a copied version of this album on a compact disc. It was only very much later that I managed to lay my hands on an original but second-hand copy of the vinyl record. Having owned all three formats - cassette, compact disc and record - I can assure you that there is nothing comparable to holding the records in your hands and listening to the music loud through the hi-fi system!

By the way, the late Richard Burton's voice is super-superb on this record. His doom-ridden but brilliant reading really brought out the drama and the atmosphere in the recording.

Side One: The eve of the war, Horsell Common and the heat ray
Side Two: The artilleryman and the fighting machine, Forever Autumn, Thunder child
Side Three: The red weed (Part 1), The spirit of Man, The red weed (Part 2)
Side Four: Brave new world, Dead London, Epilogue (Part 1), Epilogue (Part 2) (NASA)

Remembering David Cassidy

I do remember watching The Partridge Family over local television in the early years of the 1970s at a time when syndicated television programmes took years before reaching the Malaysian audience. The biggest star of the show was, of course, David Cassidy who was the son of actor Jack Cassidy. The younger Cassidy had charisma and girls over here also went ga-ga over him like their counterparts elsewhere. David Cassidy died two weeks ago on 21 Nov, a few days after being admitted to a Florida hospital for liver and kidney failure.

I had been wondering whether I had an album of The Partridge Family music in my collection but apparently not. Then I remembered that I did have a copy of Cassidy's debut solo album called Cherish, that I had bought second-hand from someone about four years ago.

Side One: Being together, I just wanna make you happy, Could it be forever, Blind hope, I lost my chance, My first night alone without you
Side Two: We could never be friends ('Cause we've been lovers too long, Where is the morning, I am a clown, Cherish, Ricky's tune

Li Chun (立春), 2018

After years of flicking through the pages, my copy of Joey Yap's book, The Ten Thousand Year Calendar, is almost coming apart. It has been my most faithful reference companion as I consult it every year to find out the date and time of various cultural festivals such as Tang Chek (冬至) and Cheng Beng (清明).

But it is for the festival of Li Chun (立春) or Lip Chun, which actually heralds the start of the  new year according to the Chinese lunisolar calendar, that I consult this reference book the most and luckily, other than the pages falling off, the book is still more or less intact.

Incidentally, we of the Penang Baba Nyonya community have another name for this festival, which is Jip Chun, where Jip means literally "the entering of" and Chun meaning, of course, Spring. Jip Chun = The Entering of Spring. Get it?

For 2018, Li Chun will occur before the start of the popularly known Chinese New Year festivities. To be exact, the date for Li Chun is 4 February 2018 which corresponds to the 19th day of the 12th Chinese lunar month. So, if you are like me and have to paste a new Chun (春) character on the rice bucket, please do so shortly after 5.30 in the morning.

I've been writing about Li Chun in this blog since Year 2007 and you can still read them here:
Li Chun, 2017
Li Chun, 2016
Li Chun, 2015
Li Chun, 2014
Li Chun, 2013
Li Chun, 2012
Li Chun, 2011
Li Chun, 2010
Li Chun, 2009
Li Chun, 2008
Li Chun, 2007

Visitors from Xiamen China

It took us about a day to prepare for the visit of four representatives from the Xiamen Haicang Songyu Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese and other related associations to the Penang Swee Cheok Tong Quah Kongsi (檳城瑞鵲堂柯公司) but there we were, the four of us waiting to greet the four of them on their arrival at our humble Kongsi this afternoon.

Led by their president, Mr Lin GuoBao, the four delegates were taken on a quick tour of our Kongsi's premises and given a brief rundown on our 171-year-old history. But of course, we had already hosted them for lunch and exchanged quite a lot of information and pleasantries earlier.

Nevertheless, it was only appropriate that at our Kongsi's premises, we partook the official exchange of souvenirs and the mandatory photographs. The four delegates from China were Mr Lin GuoBao (林国宝), Mr Xie Fu Kun (谢福坤), Mr Yan Di (颜笛) and Mr Jiang ZhiMin (江志民).

Myself receiving a scroll from Mr Lin GuoBao. Others in the picture are Quah Cho Pin, Keo Soo Liang, Mr Yan Di, Mr Xie Fu kun, Quah Chin Sun and Mr Jiang ZhiMin.

And my turn to present a souvenir from the Swee Cheok Tong to Mr Lin GuoBao

John Kongos

I almost bought another copy of this album recently until I remembered that I already had it in my possession. One of the songs on this album is a piece of pulsating music, mesmerising, full of incessant drumming - African drums, I am told - and someone playing an aggressive riff repeatedly on the guitar. Well, this is John Kongos' original version of He's Gonna Step On You Again which was covered later by Australia's The Party Boys and some others.

Side One: Tokoloshe man, Jubilee cloud, Gold, Lift me from the ground, Come on down Jesus
Side Two: I would have had a good time, Try to touch just one, Tomorrow I'll go, He's gonna step on you again

Penang's great floods, part 2

It just came to my mind that I should perhaps separate my original post on Penang's great floods into two stories; the first one several days ago to describe my own experience with the flood that I missed and the second one here to show some rather disturbing pictures that emerged from the floods and the aftermath.

I was at a friend's hair salon yesterday and he related that the flood waters had risen about six inches into his shop at the Anson Road end of Seang Tek Road during that fateful weekend. But the floods had also affected his own single-storey home in Caunter Hall as he was chest deep in water. Together with his cousin who was staying with him, they had to make sure that his mother was safely perched on a table throughout the night. His car was submerged and he is now debating whether to get it repaired - an estimated cost is something in the region of RM20,000-plus with no guarantee that nothing else could go wrong with the engine in the next year or so - or scrap it off and buy another one.

If his end of Seang Tek Road could be so badly affected, I'm sure the other end of the road, where I stayed during my childhood, would have been severely flooded too. The Dato Kramat Road end of Seang Tek Road is basically a basin and I do recollect that the road outside the house my grandparents rented could flood after huge storms. There were at least four or five occasions when the flood waters then had even swept into the house. It seemed that the monsoon drain at Dato Kramat Road, huge and deep though it was, could simply not cope with the gush of water. My friend told me that even Dato Kramat Road itself was flooded.

This is Malacca Street.

Even the roofs had been blown off in the storm.

The beached ferry at the Butterworth terminal.

This huge sinkhole formed near the Surin Condominium in Tanjong Bungah affecting a nearly completed housing project.

Unbelievably stupid

This is one of my old postings that never got to see light way back in November 2015 for some obscure reasons that I can no longer remember. It was about my old school pal, Kee Thuan Chye, launching his Unbelievably Stupid books at The Star Pitt Street building in Penang, and Lim Guan Eng was there to do the honours. Remarkably, a host of my other school buddies were also around in Penang at the same time.

Thuan Chye has not written any new book since then, instead reserving his energy to produce an excellent play, Swordfish & Concubine, which had a short run earlier this month at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre and which my wife and I had the benefit of watching.

Rhythm heritage

I've just been watching the first episode of the 2017 reincarnation of that hit television series of the 1970s, namely, S.W.A.T. and I must say that it is terribly interesting. Action-packed and interesting. But I had to wait until the end of the episode for the theme music which appeared before the closing credits. Well worth the long wait, though, because it is such a kick-ass piece of music. It made me decide to dust the old cobwebs from my copy of Rhythm Heritage's Disco-fied album.

Side One: Disco-fied, Caravan, Baretta's theme (Keep your eye on the sparrow), Theme from S.W.A.T.
Side Two: Blockbuster, My cherie amour, (It's time to) Boogie down, Three days of the condor, Disco-fied (reprise)