May 27, 2008

Hong Kong and Macau-May 2008

I went to Hong Kong and Macau with my best friend Naoko from May 17th to 20th. During the trip, we've seen so many differences from Japan even though Hong Kong, Macau and Japan are in the same Asian countries. It was sometimes surprising for us, but we've known other Asian culture. The trip was A LOT OF fun!

(I had a good time with Naoko and want to keep the memories, so this entry will be so long…)


Sat, May 17th:
We needed to get to Narita airport at 9 am, so Naoko and I met up around 7:30 am at Nippori station. We woke up earlier than usual, but we were excited to go to Hong Kong! Of course, we slept during the flight though…

We've heard we can see beautiful harbor from 80 % of the rooms of the hotel Inter Continental Grand Stanford, and we were expecting to see it. But it was not actually… What we saw was just windows of another hotel... That was kinda funny. Oh well, we chose a reasonable travel plan, so no wonder we could not see the beautiful view from our room. We could upgrade the room to see the harbor if we paid additional fee, but we decided to stay in the room. Except the view, the amenities and the room were great. And you know, we could see the beautiful view when we went sightseeing. Plus, the view from the room was not that important for the trip, for two girls. (We hope to see gorgeous view from a room if we go on a vacation with our special one ;-)

After we took a little rest at the hotel, we went sightseeing. The time was around 6 pm. We saw around the city and then headed to Victoria Peak. You know, that was the first night for us to walk around the city, so it took time to find the subway, get the train ticket, and get on the train. Also, we got lost a little bit to get the Peak Tram which takes us to the Victoria Peak. When we arrived at the Peak Tram, it was already 7:30 pm! There were so many people waiting to get on the tram! We were planning to see the light show from 8 pm from the peak, but we missed it sadly. BUT, we could see the gorgeous night view from the peak. It was really beautiful. Yea, it was the million-dollar view of Hong Kong at night ;-)

I had one thing I felt sorry for Naoko. She has a fear of heights! I did not know it! She decided to get to the peak, but she should have told me at first~ Of course, she was afraid of the high place. She did not come near the edge to see the night view, but she had the courage to get to the peak! It was very courageous of her to do that!!!


Sun, May 18th:
We went sightseeing and shopping around Central and Admiralty in Hong Kong Island. We bought souvenirs for family, friends and coworkers on the day as well. It is kinda "must" for us to buy something for our acquaintances on the trip, so we felt "Our task was done!" after buying souvenirs ;-)

The main thing on the day was SPA! We hardly ever go to SPA, but we were excited about it. We made a reservation of the SPA with Four Season Hotel. Naoko chose Deep Pressure Massage (Swedish Style), and I chose Aromatic Massage. It was sooooooo good! We got so relaxed and our tiredness was gone. We could also take a Jacuzzi. All was really luxurious! It's hard to describe how much it was great. And the cost of SPA was much cheaper than that of Japan. Maybe, twice or three times was different.


Mon, May 19th:
We ate congee (rice porridge) and dim sum at restaurant 糖朝 for breakfast. The taste was good and we loved it! The restaurant was full of tourists and local people.


Then we headed to Macau by ferry. The ferry was rolling badly…And we got heavy rain when we arrived at Macau. Because of the rain, it was hard for us to walk around the city, but we visited some world heritages like Ruins of St. Paul’s, Senado Square, Holy House of Mercy, etc... The main road and tourist spots were clean and well-built, but other buildings in alley were different. You'll see the mixed culture with Portugal and Asia.







Since it was already passed 5 pm when we finished seeing around the city, we visited the hotel MGM instead, although we first wanted to go to Venetian. We went the casino and saw people playing gambling games. We also tried the slot. It was just for the experience, so we used just HKD100 for each. I lost everything, but Naoko made HKD350 plus! Good for Naoko! So, we were like "Let's eat something good for dinner~!"

We needed to go back to Hong Kong on the day, so we went back to the ferry place and got on the ferry at 8:30 pm. (Each ferry leaves once an hour, so we tried to catch the ferry!) It was nearly 10 pm when we got out the ferry place in Hong Kong, and we got exhausted. But we wanted to see around Hong Kong as much as possible, so we decided to go to Temple Street. It was fun to see the market. We also did fortune telling. First, we were told to pay HKD1,000 (too expensive to do that!), but once we told we did not have so much money with us, we could try it at HKD300 for two persons. Great discount! About my love and marriage, the fortuneteller said:
*I am lucky in 2010. Maybe I'll meet with the one in the year.
*If I have someone who I am interested in right now, it is good to live together and get married this year. (too fast!!!)
*My partner should be a fat guy. (eh!?!? I prefer "normal" or "muscular"…)

*I can get along with the guy who is the same age as me.
*I will have my baby in 2014.
She said those things...Well, I do not usually keep in mind these kinds of fortune telling, but it might be good to have some idea for my life at times. And we'll see the fortune telling would be right or not!

Guess what? Since we spent our time for sightseeing on the day, we just ate one meal till midnight... Of course, we were sooooooooooo hungry! (We shared one cereal bar which I had with me on the ferry on the way to go back to Hong Kong. How poor we looked!) You know, almost all restaurant near our hotel were closed, so we went to convenience store Seven Eleven and bought some foods like noodles and snacks. Who imagined we ate those kinds of foods during the trip in Hong Kong! We could eat delicious foods at a restaurant... Oh well, it was kinda funny memories!


Tue, May 20th:
We got exhausted before the day, so we slept as much time as possible till noon and checked out at the hotel. We had a cup of coffee and a cookie for breakfast. (We ate late dinner last night and did not feel like eating in the morning. What a small meal we had!) We spent most of our time for moving to go back to Japan and we were just taking a rest at the airport.
We left Hong Kong around 5 pm. Again, we were so hungry... We could not wait to eat the in-flight meal! How tasty it was. We felt it was very delicious.

We rushed to catch the last train to go back home when we arrived in Narita, Japan. On the train, we talked about our memories we had from the trip. We were laughing and laughing. Many things happened and we missed some things like seeing the light show from 8 pm and visiting ladies' market. But overall, we had a lot of fun together.


Let me write down some differences between Hong Kong and Japan which I felt on the trip:

The speed of an escalator was faster than that of Japan!

A taxi fare was much cheaper than that of Japan.　One taximeter in Hong Kong was HKD15 (about JPY200), but it is JPY710 in Japan.


There was bamboo scaffolding all around buildings. It seems the climate in Hong Kong is so hot that they use bamboo for that instead of steel or iron.

Buildings and apartments were so tall compared to Japan! Since they do not have an earthquake, they can build those kinds of tall buildings.



The signboards were hanging out upper a road.


Service was also different. Attitudes of shop girls were often cool and sometimes even rude for customers, which was also surprising for me. They were not smiling, some never looked at us when we were paying for souvenirs and meals, some threw our souvenirs over to us...It was also surprising for us that our books were thrown to the garbage once we were away in a few seconds while we were drinking a coffee at a cafe. (It could be considered as a good lesson for us that we need to take our stuff with us all the time.) Those who work for customers should know what hospitality is and what good services are. Mmm...those shop girls might be kind once we become good friends though. Because, you know, for them, me and my friend were no more than strangers. I am just guessing.

Many young men in Hong Kong were wearing glasses. Is it latest fashion or people just wear them?

We did not see so many drunkers on a street or train at night in Hong Kong, Meanwhile, there are many drunkers at night in Tokyo.

In Hong Kong, we did not see young people pretending to be bad either. They looked just innocent. What we saw was only a part of Hong Kong though.

I realized many Filipinas and Indonesian work as a housemaid in Hong Kong. I've heard they work hard from Mon and Sat and their life standards are limited. On Sun, me and my friend saw those housemaids sitting and chatting on a street. It would be natural for them to get together on Sun.

People in Hong Kong use cell phones in a loud sound in public and in transportations. On the other hand, Japanese set our cell phones as "manner mode" like silent or vibration. So, it was a little bit shocking for me to hear so many sounds of cell phone in public.

It was good to know those differences, I think.


That was almost all I saw in Hong Kong and Macau. Thanks Naoko to have the trip together. I enjoyed a lot with you!

posted by Maffie @ 10:52 PM 0 comments

May 11, 2008

Lovely Wedding Party

My best friend got married and she had a wedding party yesterday. That was soooooo lovely, and I felt happy and warm by looking at her smiley face.

They are a perfect match couple. Really well-matched couple. Everyone must have thought so at their wedding party. Both bride and groom respect each other and care about each other. He said, “I swear I will make her happy in her whole life.” in front of everyone in a big voice. She looked touched and happy.

She, bride is the thoughtful person, and the party was just like her to do that. The card of seats had comments from her for each attendee. In the video clips of their childhood, family, friends and their dates, that has warm messages from the couple, which everyone was moved. She and her husband also celebrated the birthdays of the attendees who had or will be having their birthdays in May. They held the party in order that everyone could enjoy.

Since her husband needs to go into his family business in Toyama prefecture, they will start living in Toyama from next year, which is a little far away from Tokyo. That should have been a big decision for them, especially for the bride. I mean, she will live in the city where she knows nobody, far from her family and friends, and she will also support his family business. That sounds like she needs to be a good supporter for him, a future president. Thinking of her personality, I believe she can get along with everyone, but it should be a little touch for her to work for his company and the employees. But she decided it because she loves him. She said she can get over everything because he is with her and they are in love with each other.


Dear Keiko,
I am so happy for you. You found the one. You were very beautiful yesterday. Remember we always said “Shine and Bright” as our word. You are shining when you are with him, and I believe you will be shining as long as you are with him.
Happy wedding, Keiko!

posted by Maffie @ 4:52 PM 0 comments

May 06, 2008

Golden Week Holiday

In Japan, we have national consecutive holidays called "Golden Week" at the beginning of May. The golden week is almost over...how did you spend this year?

I was thinking to go back to my hometown to spend my time with my family at first, but I got some plans with my friends, so I decided to stay here in Tokyo and go back to my hometown during my next vacation.

Friday night, May 2nd: I did "all" with my team members of the office.
After work, we held a first farewell party for our boss who is going to leave the company. (Her last day is the end of May, so we will hold the parties for her more ;-) ) We went to the restaurant at first. After spending a few hours at the restaurant, we decided to go to the KARAOKE! Since the members are much older than me like in their 30s and 40s, I first wondered if I should sing the songs which became popular in their young age. But I did not have to at all! They knew recent songs and pops much more than me!! We sang many songs together and danced to the music. It was a lot of fun. Some people went back home, but several people stayed in the KARAOKE till 3 am, including the boss of course! We got exhausted, so we left the KARAOKE to go back home . But the only our boss went back home and the others decided to stay in the KARAOKE till the first train comes. A few people were sleeping and the others sang slow songs like ballad. (too tired to sing fast-speed songs.)
I had not done the "all" for long, but I still had such energy to stay all night. It was fun, but I cannot do that so many times. once a year is enough!

Sat, May 3rd: I met up with my friend.
I just slept 4 hours after the long night, and went to see my friend who used to work in the same company. We updated each other. We are like-minded, so we can understand each situation of our job and romance. We were relaxed at the nice cafe and chatting. She has been considering her career like me (I changed my job last Nov.), so I really hope she can get the right job and position for her. no more stresses... We spend lots of time on the job, you know? It would be nice if we can say "I love my job.", I think.

Sun, May 4th: I hanged out with my university mates.
One of us were coming back to Tokyo from Osaka during this holiday, so we decided to get together. We had a brunch and went to Odaiba by water-bus, which was nice. Then we took a Big Wheel. You can imagine there were so many people in Odaiba! Anyway, we had a dinner together at an oyster bar...
After going back home, I started having a stomachache and felt sick from around 11 pm. Maybe I got food poisoning from the oyster I ate. I could not sleep and started shaking. I was wondering if I should go to the hospital or not. I could not judge what to do and I just called my mom. It was hard to talk at the time... then I decided to go to an emergency hospital but did not know where it was. So, I called 119 (fire station) and asked some hospitals which could see my condition. My arms were shaking as well when I was taking the phone numbers and addresses. It was around 2:30 am when I arrived at hospital by taxi. I could not walk and was almost faint. I got an both intravenous drip and anti-nausea drug injection and took some hours rest at the hospital. I finally recovered from the food poisoning. God, it was a long night...


Mon, May 5th: I was going to see my friend, but he was having a headache, so we decided to take a good rest each other. I already got better though. I watched DVD, took a nap, called my family to tell them I was ok from the food poisoning. It was a relaxing day.

Tue, May 6th: I had a dance lesson.
I had been learning ballroom dance. Today, I learned Rumba and Cha Cha Cha. It was a lot of fun!!! I feel so good after dancing ;-)
After the lesson, I had a chat with one senior lady who also had a lesson. She told me she used to have incurable disease for 10 years. She could not walk and even write at the time. Her doctor told her she would live at most 10 years. She was in a hospital but wanted to dance. One day, she ran away from the hospital, and started to take dance lessons. But you know what? Now she can work and dance! It is miracle. She looks healty. She seems she feels to live. The power of human being sometime defeats medical science. I thought I learned something from her.
She also said to me, "Find the soulmate who can dance or understand dancing world. A couple who dances together looks lovely and their relationship goes well." That might be true!

posted by Maffie @ 10:42 PM 1 comments