Leaving Tokyo

I woke up at about 4:15 AM for some reason right before the alarm goes off, and I had to turn it off. I get myself ready and then checking out from the hotel and get the taxi to the airport. I had given the taxi driver to take me to the International terminal in Haneda, and then he was asking me whether we take toll way or not, I though it was early so we don’t have to do that. Then I double check my ticket, I saw it was terminal 1, so just before he turn to International I asked him to go to terminal 1. The guy is quite polite and turn off the meter and basically the journey from International to terminal 1 is free, but I still end up paying over Y7000 for the trip. Then we notice that there is no Singapore Airline counter there, so I had to ask, and they told me I had to go to International terminal, damn.

How is this possible? I just checked at it said one, according to them it is “I” for International, so shit I had to catch the free shuttle to International terminal, I will probably be late, because only when the third shuttle came is for leaving for International terminal. So I quickly rush to the counter, and check my self in, and the customer service told me the plane is delayed due to late arrival. Hmm ok, so I am not late after all. I still had chance to hang in the lounge and grab one more souvenir for Ipo.

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Last day in Tokyo

I end up having lunch with Peter, Arthur, Tetsuya Nakamura, Jim Oski, Uwe as well. I had pork on rice. Which is quite filling.

Then I attended their quarterly staff meeting. The interesting part about the meeting are, everyone is wearing a headphone so that they can have the complete story of the whole meeting being translated, so the translator translate to Japanese when the speaker speak English and vice versa. The other impressive thing is they are making everyone aware of the BMO project by having competition which consists of 6 teams, and each teams present the new name and also a short video showing what change mean to them. There are a few video that are very impressive in terms of sound, choreograph and wording. I end up voting for team 6, which Miki and Azusa was part of. The wording in the video is actually a poem written by Harada san on the way home in the train after one of the use case review session. Another interesting part is it seems that most Japanese are quite a public speaker.

Then at about 7 PM we all go to another function, officially this is the party after the staff meeting, but also coincidentally one of the sales manager is moving on to become the president of BMW Osaka. That night was raining and we had to walk about 15 minutes to the venue under the rain. It is quite a different atmosphere, but I get chance to speak to Uwe, Pascal, Jim in a relax environment.

Dinner Day 3

We end up meeting up with Ho Sung, and Marcel. The 4 of us wonder to Ginza on the same street Peter took me the first day. We choose Korean restaurant hoping that Ho Sung can be the person who can order. It turn out that the restaurant owner speak Korean, so the two of them ordered the food. It was a massive feast, 3 serve of Korean BBQ, served with fresh lettuce and some green leaves. Then followed by Korean pancake, and fried rice, also Korean spicy tofu soup. It was very filling, and we end up spending Y4040. This is the most expensive dinner by so far.

Dinner Day 2

Just finished dinner with Peter and Marcel, we dine is a sushi restaurant in the Ginza area, taste pretty good and quite filling, we had assorted fish, makarel, tuna, salmon, roe, and all other sort. This cost Y2500

Lunch Day 2

I had technical meeting with the development team, and as the result of that we don’t have much time for lunch so we go for the easy option. So we went to italian restaurant and I had salmon pasta with caesar salad. it cost Y1200. Now I am waiting to meet Peter for dinner.

Dinner Day 1

After waiting for a while Peter and I decided to wander around by ourself, because we are not sure whether Pushkar will turn up, so Peter took me for a walk around the ginza area, and also but we can’t find the place in the restaurant he wanted to go, then we walk some more and then Peter had sms from Pushkar, so we go back to the office and find the whole team were there, so we went to the Korean restaurant at the basement of the office. The dinner was quite nice, we had a few assorted Italian/Korean pancake, some Korean salad, with pork and Korean glass noodle. We finished at about 10:30 PM. Pushkar paid for the dinner, and on the way back I stopped by 7 11 to get some sushi plate, a bun and 2 cup noodle for my breakky tomorrow.

Japan workshop Day 1

I had cup noodle, which is the okonomiyaki noodle. Doesn’t taste that good. Miki took us to a restaurant on the basement of the building and I had Sashimi for Y800, which is served with rice and tea. Now chatting with Hui and waiting for Pushkar to came, we are suppose to go out for dinner somewhere.

Freshen up

Just had a shower in the business lounge. Feel much fresher, the shower is pretty swank, 3 nozzle up the front with 3 shower head at the top and you can also control where the water flow. trying to call mommy, but she is not available I suppose.

Ready to aboard

Still waiting in the Singapore Airline airport lounge. Just had a few chicken nugget with curry puff and sipping an orange vodka. Now ready to board the plan heading to Singapore on the way to Tokyo.