Look East - Japan

On my recent trip to Japan firstly to Tokyo and then to Izu Peninsular on holiday I cannot help saying that if I had the power I would certainly make people look to Japan and better still use or imitate what the Japanese have achieved thus far in terms of efficiency, cleanliness, and discipline.

EFFICIENCY. On stepping into Narita airport, I am already welcome into their country by the way things are handled at the airport. Although most of the English language signboard need some correction of spelling of words but it has not put off the focus of bringing you to your destination. Toilets, trolleys and luggage reclaim section were well planned. There were no merry go round like in Heathrow. Helpful SUICA cards(like UK's oyster card) puts lots of pressure off visitors unlike UK,France or Norway and regretably our very own country. Taking the train(subway) is just like elsewhere including Malaysia very efficient. But later I cannot believe that Japanese time schedule are incredibly precise and punctual. An example when we had to change a train from Izu to Tokyo at Ito station the time difference was only 1 minute and true enought the train was there when we arrived at Ito station and took off 1 minute after. Incredible! Unbelievable! Yet true. I have not seen anywhere in the world practising such precise timing.
From the train station to our destination was spot on. We could not understand the direction signboard so we took the opportunity to ask a Japanese couple. Mind you they were equip with mobil phones statelite navigation and they could tell us where and when to stop like " the train will stop at 732am at Ueno station. Later when we are more settled with the excitement, we actually could see the stations the train is stopping showing inside the train. One weakness is that there are not many signboards seen at station because of many carriages.
Upon arrival at our destination and to find our hostel where we are going to stay is another breeze through a good direction guide. This hostel are run by a small family group and yet they are well equipped and efficient in dealing with customers.
When we come to ordering food we again are met with such simplicity. Look at the pictures of the food you would like to eat and just press the button and slot in your money. In other restaurant where they have menu you simply order by pointing to the pictures of food. Outside they have display of food that are made of plastic and they look like real hot or cold sushi and others.
Their currency may have big denominations like 100 yen, 1000 yen and 10,000 yen but not problems when you carry 10,000 yen around because you will get back your change.
Shopping practices are honest because they do not have discount and they prices stated for all items are fixed price no matter which shop you go to. However in certain restaurant they give you discount vouchers to encourage first time customers like in the airport for foreign visitors you get special discount to buy SUICA cards.
Yes things are usually priced much higher because of cost or whatever but it is fair for everybody. To get the benefits of getting cheaper things like sushi go to the supermarket an hour before closing time and the sushi prices are slashed half or even more towards the end to get rid of the day's stock. They really practised selling fresh food especially sushi because on a particular day when the Tsujinji market was closed the sushi stock were not available at the supermarket and elsewhere.
Even pricing for taxi transportation was properly monitor and they charged you accordingly to hourly rate eg 6 hours equal 32,000yen.
I personally felt that they treat the visitors to their country very well.
At the Spa in the resort,they look after the very need of the comfort of the user and I find myself enjoying the facility as if I was at my own home.
Even the train ride to the resort from Tokyo, the seats are facing the seaview so that everybody can see the magnificient view of the sea/oceon as the train moves along.

CLEANINESS
I have yet seen another country so clean yet they too have all the similar problems we faced at home or another country. This is what I call discipline people and the right attitude. I cannot see a plastic bottle floating in the Japan sea, on the road, station or even around busy shopping centres or park. How do they achieved this high standard. I witnessed a garbage truck like our mini bus and 3 people working as a team. One driver and the other 2 person running along the back and picking all the garbage neatly tied up and clean up and crush in the truck using hydralic. Later these truck were at the enclose part area nearby to do further recycling.There were no spillage or leakage of garbage water onto the road. How do they achieve this feat!
At the park where we went for walk and photography, there were no garbage bins at all yet there isn't a bit or rubbish throw anywhere. Smokers not seen at all.
On the road, in the restaurant, in the resort, in the park, and in the temple and shopping area I have yet been able to find a piece of rubbish thrown by inconsiderate citizen or even foreigners like me. We think it is impossible but in Japan I M POSSIBLE.
What is the result of this wonderful practice of cleaniness, everywhere we go or see we see the true beauty, beautiful people who are so strong and discipline to want to keep their country clean and beautiful. Can our country achieve this. IMPOSSIBLE.
INNOVATIVE
I have had this opportunity during the days when a delegate of Japanese business came a visiting our Company. After learning our methods of administration one of the Japanese man immediate gave me another idea of improving my work method. Today I have seen how innovative the Japanese are and they ae never satisfied to stay put or happy with one design. They are always focus on improving what they have now and what could be done to improve their technologies. Watching their local TV talentime hour you can see how they compete against each other to improve their robotic skill. What they have today are probably a copy cat of others many years ago but they improvement to the technology have made them today the top in the world.
I hope any one reading this blog will be convinced that we are no difference from the Japanese and if we can look at them and imitate them in continuing improvement we could one day be a better people AND BETTER NATION TO LIVE.

Malaysian hospitality

I am not trying to disgrace our own society in terms of attitude, but I am only amused that somehow when I return from United Kingdom each time I seem to observe a great different in our society hospitality.

This is one of the many incidence I have had encountered that prompt me to write it down.

Case1. One day while travelling on a bus on my way to Subang Jaya it rain heavily. The bus stopped at the fruit stall near USJ14 where I got down. Could not go anywhere further because I did not have an umbrella, so I have to temporarily hide under the fruit stall's roof. To while away my time till the rain stopped, I ordered 1 durian. Somehow this fruit tasted extremely delicious probably because I was kind of hungry. After finishing the fruit, I ordered another 2 more to take home to my wife. The rain did not subside so I tried to flag down some passing taxi without any sign of them even bothered to stop. Suddenly I notice an umbrella around the shop and immediately I asked the boss's wife if she would allow me to borrow it promising I will return it immediately once I get to my car which was parked about 400 yards away. The boss'swife flately said no cause she needed to use it herself. It did not occurred to me that she is not helpful but honest. About half hour passed, another customer in a 4 wheel driver pulled next to the store and ordered some durian.The driver stayed put in the car. After he got the durian delivered to him via his open window, I took the opportunity to ask hime whether he could offer me a lift to my car parked in Carefour. Unfortunately he also refused. Another half hour passed and the boss's wife finally asked me to take the unbrella. It took nearly 1 hour to convince this lady that I needed her umbrella to help me out of this helpless situation. Had I been oversea ie UK I believe the situation would had been different.

Case 2. This happened on my arrival from Stansted airport to LCCT terminal. On the way to the casserole to reclaim my luggage I had to retrieve 2 trolleys from the trolley stand. As I went over to the stand, I notice several trolleys stuck and a lady was struggling to retrieve one trolley. Immediately it dawn upon that if I go to the front of the trolley stand and push the trolley while the other person pulled it it may dislodge it easily. It did.She took her trolley and off she went leaving me all alone to handle the similar situation.Struggling again to pull the stuck trolley by myself isn't easy. Then a man came and while I was trying to kick the trolley out he wanted to take the trolley away but I told him I wanted the trolley instead. These people just returned from overseas and have they not learnt a lesson or two from UK yet when they are back home their old habit become reactivated ie bad manners.

Dining out in Cambridge

If you a fellow particularly keen to eat noodles the way I enjoy it, then I would recommend you to this Chinese restaurant not very far from South Cambridge/Addenbrooke Hospital. It is located in Shelford. Walking there by a footpath beside the Adenbrooke Hospital would take about half and hour. If you drives it would take less than 15 minutes.

The name of the restaurant is called " Peking Restaurant " and the decor of the interior is very Chinese except they have lots of wines glasses preparing for the wines lovers.

We actually stumble upon this dish simply called " Fried Noodles " when we went over to this shop. We have had visited here a couple of times and (one day when we were there on a Tuesday and it was closed for business. )

There were many choices as would find in any Chinese restaurants, but we have been ordering the usual dishes that we like like crispy duck, vegetarian mixed vegetables, crispy noodles and lots more others which we did not attempt to order yet.

Just by looking at the colour of the noodles served, I can actually tell that it exhilarate your taste bud. This dish also reminds me of my childhood days during festival my Dad would cook his special noodles and one look of it you can already feel your mouth "watering".

When tasting it you get an impulse of sensation, somewhat smooth and downright delicious.

Another surprised dish which was very well prepared was the lemon honey crispy lamp. We have tasted lamb in many different recipe but this is yet another proven taste revolution. Never tasted this cuisine before back home or in Cambridge or UK. Wonderful dish and the meat is so tender.

Learning lesson of wisdom from my grand daughter

It may sound strange or egoistic to say that a 67 year old grand father needs a lesson or two from a child aged 3. Yes it did happen to me and I am thanking my Clare for this unique opportunity to see how "mong tong" I am at times.

It happened in a normal day, when my routine of the day was to collect my 2 grand daughters from their respective nursery and school.

On the day in question I had already planned what I would appropriately do so that I was ready for any eventuality that could happen during the performance of my routines. Right and everything checked and off I went.

What started to go wrong was when I decided to do what I thought would be appropriate. It did not, unfortunately and that created a situation.

My grand daughter aged only 3 has expected me to take the route which her parents usually take to pick Hope from her school. But I chose another route instead. This had upset her but she being of that tender age could only protest using baby language ie. cry. Here this grand dad of years of experience and could not read this message correctly. Oops!

This was lesson Number 1. Read a child's emotional expression correctly and do not blame them if you as an adult was wrong, the poor child cannot understand the reasons of an adult. I need to apologize to my grand daughter about this oversight of my judgement. Sorry Clare.

At school, when Hope said that she was cold and wanted to sit in the pram with the blanket I allowed her to do so without understanding that this was again another violation of Clare's right who was sitting on the pram earlier.

Lesson Number 2. I should not decide unilaterally to give the right of one child be it a toy or place or food to another simply because of a situation arising, in this case a child's complaint that she was cold. Instead I should have asked Clare if she minds exchanging place with her sister Hope. Again this was my wrong decision and I must apologize again. Sorry Clare.

When she said that she wanted to sit in the pram, she was denied her rightful demand. Instead I tried to explain that her sister needed the pram more because she was not having an extra layer. At that instant she took off her coat and immediately demanded her rightful place ie the seat in the pram. I was extremely stunt. Imagine a 3 year old child can react instantly to turn the situation in her favour. But I took it as an act of disrespect and a challenge. And so I lost my cool.

Lesson Number 3. In Clare's mind she would have thought that "if I take off my coat then I am at par with my sister, I am now entitled to my right to the pram." Again my decision was totally lopsided and I insisted that she should stand on the buggy board instead. Poor Clare she had to come home without an extra coat. I cannot forgive myself now that I have learnt this valuable lesson from my intelligent grand daughter. I would be called an old wise man if I did not do such an arrogant act. Today I can see how silly I can sometimes be. Clare I owe you a big apology. SORRY AGAIN CLARE.

Cloud watching

When I was a little boy, one of my past time activities with my friends is to sit under a big angsana tree watching the clouds in the sky. We often gazed at the various formation and many times we are able to ascertain ourselves the shape of a particular cloud. This activities had been going on for several years and amongst the funny clouds that I still remembered until now were:

1. Acyclone cloud. The sighting of this cloud was towards the evening and after dinner around 5ish I went down the stair from our bedroom. A group of people standing at the verandah were looking behind the threatre which is basically the Straits of Malacca. All of a sudden, I could clearly see a twirling cloud like what we see in the movie called twister. After about a minute or so, the cloud disappear. I have not mentioned this incidence to anyone but now whenever I said that I saw a twister in the sky of Malacca, everybody though it was a great joke. Is it?

mycharacter

While observing birds show during the current season of springwatch, an idea dawn on me. It is about how we human beings are controlled by the behaviours or character drawn from our parents. So is it correct to say that when we were being formed as baby we were completely innocent and all the behaviours and characters were inherited from our parents or surroundings. I would like to recollect my observation of myself. One strong character that I saw in my youngest daughter the other day suddenly reflect back to the days when I was younger and the behaviour exactly matched how I think and how I feel when such a situation croped up.

Similarly now I can see another ofshoot of another family ie my son in law and his eldest daughter. The character and behaviour can be so matching and I can see that the father fully understand the daughter's behaviour.

While I observed the robbin feeding in the garden yard, this bird are not very keen to fly to the seed feeder rather collects all the remnant fallen onto the ground. Now when she has to feed her little one, she has to persistently fly to the feeder to get the seeds to feed the young ones. This is learnin g from the enviroment.