You might be thinking what is Tokyo Big Sight… When I first heard the name, I thought that it is a place that can see the whole of Tokyo. But actually it is a International Convention Center. I went there last week for the Software Development Expo.

It is at the Tokyo Bay just south from Tokyo Tower. It is about 3 to 5 times bigger than Kuala Lumpur Convention Center. It has a unique cone shape tower at the main entrance that you won’t miss it. There are some interesting places around the area also like Tokyo Fashion Town, Mega Web, National Museum of Science and Aqua City. I will make a trip there in the future.

During the journey to Tokyo Big Sight, I saw Statue of Liberty standing near the Aqua City. My friend told me that the statue is the original statue that the “big” Statue of Liberty now standing in New York was made based on this statue here. This statue is much (a way lot) smaller then the New York ones. This statue was originally made in France then New York’s Statue of Liberty made based on the it. Then the original statue was moved to Japan just few years ago (I don’t know the exact date). Below picture is the route map of Tokyo Bay.

and here is the photo gallery…

Trip to Tokyo Big Sight

Today already 7th day in Japan. I getting used to the environment here… I’m sure you all wondering what do I eat everyday and how much is one meal here in Japan. There’s way to save here if you know how to find cheap and good food. In Kawaguchi, you find tons of restaurant here. Until today, I tried their italian restaurant, Japanese curry rice, Obento (set lunch), Taiwanese restaurant, Hong Kong Restaurant and McDonald. Usually for lunch I will go to restaurant to eat and for dinner I will go to supermarket to buy Obento to eat. Wondering why at night I go buy Obento to eat? Because they don’t keep overnight their Obento that they cook that day. So they will give discount on Obento and a lot of Japanese buy Obento at night for their dinner.

Their Obento price is ranging from 350 yen up to 600 yen and eating in restaurant ranging from 700 yen up to 1200 yen per meal. 350 yen Obento consider very cheap here if you are earning Japanese Yen. The best way to save money here is to cook yourself. Today I went to supermarket to buy spagetti and sauce to cook spagetti myself to eat. I calculated that 1 meal just cost about 150 yen if I cook spagetti myself. So it is all up to you whether how much you want to save here. Below are some photos on Obento that I ate.

I’m from Malaysia. When KL people talk about Low Yat Plaza, they know the building is a place to look for computers and handphones. Some people also said everyday is PC Fair in Low Yat where computers stuff is cheap there. OK… Low Yat is like computers one-stop-center for KL.

But for Tokyo is different. There’s one place called Akihabara or most people call it Electronic Town of Tokyo where you can get all the electronic stuff. All these while I just hear people said Akihabara is bigger than Low Yat plaza many many times. But last weekend I got the chance to see it myself and I was shocked with the size of the Electronic Town and the activities in that area. The whole of Akihabara sell computers, handphone, toys and AV products. It is bigger than Low Yat 30 times or more…. which I’m not able to estimate it.

When I first came out of the Akihabara station, there was a Matsuri Festival parade held there. Few groups of people parade their floats around Akihabara. I don’t know what is this festival but I believe is something to do with their religion. Another that suprised me when I came out from the station was a group of young Japanese girls wear Maid costume and giving out flyers of Maid service. They not only looks pretty but also very fair.

Every Sunday, the Akihabara main road will be closed for patrons. There are thousand of patrons walking on the main street of Akihabara to buy stuffs. Some shops there using loud speaker to attract customer. Is a bit noisy there in Akihabara. There’s one shop here selling second hand CDs, DVDs, and games. I was suprised second hand XBOX360 selling at 24000 yen only is like about RM 700. Most of the stuff here is selling at half price. There’s also some shops sell Japanese toys where you can find tons of figurine, model, and cosplay costume. How the main street looks like? Just take a look at my photo gallery below.

Yodobashi, is a mall where all kinds of electronics can be found there. It occupied 7 floors and each floor sells different kind of electronics. 1st Floor (Ground) sell handphone, 6th Floor sell games, 4th Floor sell camera and watch. I can’t remember all teh floors. There’s too many choices until I also got headache to choose which item I want to buy. For small items like memory card, they won’t display the real item on shelf. They just put a card represent the product on the shelf. Then you take the card to the cashier counter and they will get the product for you from their storeroom. Outside Yodobashi, some people actually do street performance beside the road. Most of them produce their own album and try to sell there to catch people attention on their talent.

That’s all for now…. I will come back with more interesting posting on Japan. For now enjoy the photos I took in Akihabara.

Akihabara 13 May 07

Hi everyone, Square Enix Party 2007 which held last 2 days in Makuhari Messe in Toky was a very successful event. I went on 12 May 07 at about 1 pm and a lot of people queuing up to try game demos like Final Fantasy Tactics A2 for DS, Final Fantasy Tactics for PSP, Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System for PS2, Closed Mega Theater for Final Fantasy 13.

There is a cosplay competition held on 12 May 07 morning which I missed it. They invited Jyonjri, a Japanese singer who sang a theme song for a new Square Enix game, It’s a Wonderful World (DS). Too bad they don’t allow people to take picture during her singing session here. This song is not that good compare to her previous album.

They put up a booth to commemorate 20th aniversary of Final Fantasy by showing all the products under Final Fantasy brand. The booth is nicely done and they have a notice board that allow visitor to give feedback to Square Enix on their product. Most people want them to remake Final Fantasy 7. This is very interesting and we hope Square Enix will take take this into consideration and quickily make the remake.. hopfelly with superior graphic like upcoming Final Fantasy 13.

They also put up merchandise shop in the event selling soundtrack, games, figurine, books….. Have I mentioned about their Archives book which they sell at 1000 yen each during the event? This book contains details on Final Fantasy products including the upcoming Final Fantasy 13 with 2 posters inside of Final Fantasy 13 and versus 13 plus stickers.

I quite impressed with the Dragon Quest game for Wii which showcased during the event. You just swing the controller like you swing a sword to kill the enemy. It is pretty interesting. There’s also a game combining Nintendo’s most popular character Mario with Dragon Quest for Nintendo DS. It is more like a puzzle game and hope I can try the game when it’s out in the near future.

Enjoy some photo I took during the event by clicking the picture below and also a video for your viewing.

Square Enix Party 2007

On 12 May 07, I went to Makuhari to attend the Square Enix Party 07. This posting is talk about makuhari. In the next post I will talk about Square Enix Party.

From Kawaguchi to Makuhari takes about 1 1/2 hour by train and cost me 690 yen to go there. I get a chance to see Tokyo Disneyland when the train made a stop in Maihama station. The train to Makuhari is a bit complicated and have to becareful when changing line. If you change to a wrong line, you will ended up at another place.

Makuhari is a new business area and its surrounding areas are mainly industrial area. There are few tall office building and also a big International Exhibition Center. When I got out from the Makuhari train station, I saw a live performance by a group of people in front of the Makuhari Mall. They performed a dance in front of patrons. I managed to take a video of the performance. The dance was very exciting and is the first performance I saw in Japan. Below is the performance’s video.

I went inside the Makuhari Mall. In this mall, you can find many international brands like Nike, Edwin, New Balance. This mall consists of 3 buildings inter-connected by bridges. There’s also a stage between 2 buildings where a live band will sing some songs for patrons here. It is interesting to see live band singing for you while you rest yourself after a long shopping.

Aeon name is a well-known company in Malaysia which owns Jaya Jusco chain of department store and one of the office building here is Aeon building. You can check out the picture in my photo gallery by clicking the picture below.

Makuhari

Kawaguchi is here I stay and work. It is not exactly located inside Tokyo but it is located at the outskirt of Tokyo call Saitama prefecture (more like State for Malaysia) which just seperated by a river. This is the first place I see when I reach japan. For me, it is a very nice place to stay. Not many cars on the road, convenience store everywhere, tons of restaurants, good public transport (train and bus).

Click on the picture below to view some photos taken on places in Kawaguchi.

From Kawaguchi

Last time people tell me how fast is the Japanese Internet line but I never tried it before this. Today I tried it and it was crazy… the speed is so fast that I can download 2 anime movie in just 15 minutes. Their cable internet speed is 30Mbps and their fibre optic line speed is 100 Mbps (is like LAN speed). Fibre optic line only available below 3th floor. Now the issue here with downloads is NOT enough hard disk space to keep the files because you will keep on download and download when you have a super fast line.

The picture below shows the download speed for torrent. The speed can go up to 250 KB/s depending on the peer.

I reached Japan at 7 am (Japan time) on 10 May 2007. The first thing I was very impressed is their railway system which is so complicated. I took a train from Narita Airport in Chiba prefecture to Ueno in Tokyo City which took about 1 hour. Then I changed train to JR line to Kawaguchi where I going to stay and work. During the journey on the train, I noticed Japanese like to use flip mobile phone and suprisingly all phones were in silent mode. They don’t answer call in the train but just emailing (is their “SMS” method).

The Japanese people is very polite due to their culture. When I want to cross a road, cars have to give way to predestrian. Even when using the public toilet, people have to line up outside to use the toilet. You feel very safe walking around Tokyo. No people will rob you or snatch your beg.

Convenience store is everywhere in Japan. Some is 24 hour store and some is 99 yen or 100 yen shop where most of the goods are sold at 100 yen each. I went to a big 24 hour convenience store in Kawaguchi called Seiyu a bought a bread for breakfast. They cashier when receiving your money, they will count in front of you and they also will count your change in front of you to ensure that they give your change accurately.

I hardly see parking lot for cars along the road. Not many people own a car here in Japan. The parking is so expensive here. In Tokyo, you need to have a parking lot in order to buy a car. Without a proper carpark, they won’t allow you to buy car.

The air here is so clean and the visibility is so good that I can buildings far away clearly. Japan don’t have much tall buildings like Kuala Lumpur. In Kawaguchi, there is one building that they called it mansion (is a condo for malaysia) which is the tallest mansion in Tokyo and some claimed whole Japan. Most of the bulding is just about 10 storey high but this mansion is about 50 storey high.

Click on the picture below to view some pictures I took during my first day in Japan.

First Day in Japan

I took wednesday 9 May 2007 8.15 pm flight to Bangkok and transit to Japan from there by taking 11.10 pm (Thai time) to Japan. This is my first long haul journey to a place far far away from home. During the journey, I miss Malaysia and everyone around me especially Ele and Lee Kim who with me most of the time. I took Thai Airways to Japan. Some people said their service is better than Malaysia Airlines. I went to check out how good is their service. Indeed their service is good. The air steward and stewardess is very polite to you, try to attend to you in any problem or request even they don’t know your language. Their food is very nice too…. yummy yummy.

It was a very tiring journey to Japan especially when you took Midnight flight to Japan from Bangkok where the time different is 2 hours. I got no enough sleep in the plane. I only slept for 3 hours in the plane. When the plane is flying at high attitude to the north to Japan, the plane is so cold and I got sick with flu. The temperature outside the plane is like -55 celsius.

First I took a plane to Bangkok newest airport, The Suvanabhumi Airport. When this airport first completed, there are a lot of problems with the airport like damaged runway track. My first impression of the airport is huge and long. I have to walk a long way from one end to the other end of the airport to transfer my flight to Japan. Their Duty Free shopping arcade is very big and most of the shop is occupied. A lot of branded shop here.

At 11.10 pm (Thai time), i onboard my next flight to Japan. Half of the passengers were Japanese. Suprisingly Japanese like to go Thai for travel. Now even Nintendo DS got a travel guide program to Thai for Japanese but not Malaysia. Malaysia should do more to promote the country if they want to make Visit Malaysia Year a success. Some of the Jap woman in the plane is very pretty hehe :p.. Once I in the plane, I went to sleep.

At about 7.00 am (Japan time), I reached Narita Airport. This airport is very far from Tokyo city and it took me 1 1/2 hour to reach my house in Kawaguchi, Saitama. I was amazed with the railway and subway system in Tokyo. It is so complicated and yet so convenience to everyone. They have so many lines crossing each other. Click on the picture below to view some pictures:

From Journey to Japan

Welcome everyone. This blog is created to show how is the life in Tokyo to most people out there who interested to know about Tokyo, one of the most expensive place to stay on earth. I will try to update this as much as possible for your enjoyment. I will continously improve this blog to add excitement. Enjoy!!