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profile Cecilia Lanny Winata Aliases: Lanny/Cecilia/Xenopus Location: Singapore Occupation: Grad Student, National University of Singapore Interests: Zen, Martial Arts, Japanese Culture and philosophy, Life Sciences, Religious philosophy, Christianity Hobbies: exploring new places, learning new things, walking (preferably outdoors), cooking, eating good food, home making, swimming, sea sports, anime (Naruto being the best by far), good music to accompany my different moods, and good books to read Schools/Past Affiliations: TK Bunda Hati Kudus, Jakarta (Kindergarten); SD Bintang Kejora, Jakarta (Primary 1-2, 4-6); Ironside State School, Brisbane, Australia (Primary 3-4); SLTP Santa Ursula, Jakarta (Secondary School); SMU Santa Ursula (High School); Indonesia International Taekwon-Do Federation (Jelambar, Jakarta); National University of Singapore archives November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 April 2006 May 2006 August 2006 October 2006 January 2007 August 2007 January 2008 March 2008 June 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 September 2009 affiliates 5h4d0w's Lair My old Friendster blog credits skin by: Jane |
Sunday, June 14, 2009 @ 7:11 AM
Japan - Day 0 - 1: January 30 - 31 It initially started as an excitement over Mike's first Japan biz-trip - which we had been waiting for ever since he joined the Japanese company. The timing was rather inconvenient, however, since I was rushing for experiments to address the reviewers' comments over our manuscript, and my thesis was being extensively reviewed (sort of) by my supervisors. So, although Mike asked me several times whether I was going or not, I only decided (and bought the tickets from Zuji) a little over a week before his departure day.  Our luggages (from left to right): my 35L backpack, my winter overcoat for quick access upon arrival, Mike's luggage containing his laptop & biz trip stuff (to be left in Yokohama), and his mini backpack (on top) to carry to Kyoto.Perhaps I was wrong to book a flight at such an odd timing - 6 AM. But due to the last-minute nature of the decision, and my bad habit of compromising almost everything to save on bucks, I simply endured it. So here was our schedule: Mike's training was to be held at Yokohama, somewhere near Tokyo, 5 - 7 February. There is nothing much in Yokohama, and Tokyo is of secondary interest to me, big modern cities are just not my cup of tea, so Kyoto was my definite choice. Given the complicated situation which would take half a computer screen to explain in writing, we decided to arrange our trip in such a way: 30 January, 11pm - Mike's flight to Narita, Tokyo. I tagged along with him to the airport and spent the night there to avoid having to take cab in the morning - his cab fare was sponsored by the company. By the time I tried to settle to sleep on the uncomfortable bench in one corner of Changi airport Terminal 1 departures, Mike excitedly texted me that his (company-sponsored) flight turned out to be an SIA A380. Damn him. 31 January, 6am to afternoon - my cheaper NWA flight from Singapore to Kansai (Osaka) via Narita (Tokyo, International airport) - transit to Haneda (Tokyo, domestic airport) using the "Friendly Airport Limousine" bus. I was proud to be able to use my basic Japanese skill to purchase the bus ticket: "Haneda kuukou e ikimasu, onegaishimasu!" (Going to Haneda Airport, please!). During my wait at Haneda, I went around and saw rows of stores selling cute snacks as souvenirs. One of the most memorable was the Tokyo Banana. The shop attendants were infectiously lively and cheerful, shouting "Tokyo Banana... something something...", that it uplifted my mood as well. I bought an onigiri and a bottled green tea from a convenient store for a quick lunch. I also went to the ladies', and I was like alice in wonderland looking at the high tech gadgets they had in their public toilets. The seats had internal heater, and they have this "Equipment to cleanse the buttocks with warm water" thing attached to each toilet bowl. It was such a blessing for the lower body in a cold winter's day. I spent 15 minutes just sitting there enjoying the warmth.   I was also impressed by how thoughtful the people of this country were. This one below (in a toilet cubicle in Narita airport) shows a particular example for the purpose of lone-traveling mothers. They also had mini TVs showing advertisements in some of the cubicles.  31 January, noon - Mike reached Tokyo, went to his Yokohama hotel to store his luggage, then took shinkansen to Kyoto. He reached Kyoto by late afternoon. 31 January, evening - I reached Kansai International Airport (KIX) at 7pm. Unfortunately for me, this wasn't the end of my journey. KIX was located in the middle of Osaka Bay, some 3km offshore Rinku town at Osaka prefecture. I had to take the JR Haruka Airport Express to Kyoto, which took about 1.5 hours. I loved the train. Perhaps being the second from the last train in the schedule makes it less crowded. I saw lots of people bringing bento boxes to eat on the train, just like those normally seen in CNA's Japan hour. Hungry me could only be satisfied with Mike's energy bars which was supposed to be our emergency breakfast. Along the way, I passed by the flashy downtown Osaka, which I would be going to at the later part of my trip.   By the time I reached Kyoto station, Mike had already checked in to our guest house earlier and was there to pick me up and update me of his local survey result. He pointed out that there was a huge Isetan in the station which we could check out sometime. It was drizzling lightly that evening, and my domestic budget flight from Tokyo didn't give me any meals, so I was kind of starving. Feeling rather gloomy over the rainy night, together with the lack of sleep the night before, and also my ears were hurting due to the freezing winter air, we decided to just head straight to our guest house for the night and settle over three packets of onigiri from Lawson's convenience store nearby (one costs ~100 - 120 JPY depending on the fillings). The cashier asked us whether we wanted our packet meals to be heated in the microwave, which I later found to be a common practice in all convenient stores I went to during the trip. The microwaved packets became sort of my face warmer throughout the walk to the guest house. Mike complained that our flimsy cheap NTUC umbrella was a goner by one single gush of strong wind he encountered earlier in the afternoon, so we bought one sturdy local umbrella as well which became quite useful throughout the trip.  Kyoto station on a rainy night. Kyoto Tower in front of Kyoto station. Our cozy (but cold) tatami room with the small heater on the right. Tomato guest house in the morning.0 Comments: |
