Taipei TV and Film Festival

November 23-25, 2006 is Taipei TV and Film Festival at Taipei World Trade Centre (世貿中心). I've been there for the past 2 days to help out with PTS's booth in B2B Professional display region. There were booths from stations around the world (mostly Taiwan, Japan, Korea, China, etc). PTS shared the same booth with CTS (since we are sister companies under TBS. Ya, it's complicated). We have one of the biggest booth right at the entrance. On the first day, Jay Chou and other celebrities were there at the festival promoting for their 2008 movie "Slam Dunk". Later on in the afternoon, CTS held a press interview to promote their new drama, "寶島少女成功記(http://www.2cts.tv/prog/a/a0052/default.htm)". Many celebrities were there but the only one I know is 范逸臣 (the singer of "I Believe"). Many of the booths were really beautiful, especially the ones set up by Japanese cartoons (Nana, Naruto, etc were there to promote/sell their program). Outside of B2B, there was an area for general public to buy show products from the TV stations. I bought a Keroro and a Naruto luggage tag (so cute). There were also Keroro trucks and many other cute things on display (so cute too!!!).

So in conclusion, I got lots of freebies from the 2 days of festival I went to (oh wait, wasn't I supposed to be working!!??). I won't recommend the general public to go though because this festival is more targeted for professionals to buy/sell programs. Anyways, please continue to support original programs/movies!! ^^

White horse at TTV booth in section A (for general public)

This horse is a character from one of their drama series.

One of the Japanese cartoon booth "櫻蘭高校男公關部".

The set is very "princessy". It's surprising how much effort the Japanese companies put into a 3-day festival.

NANA!!!

My favorite comics!!!! It has been turned into cartoon recently and this is the booth to sell the program. The set is the same as the scene in the comic in apartment #707. Sooo cute!!! I love Nana!

Keroro Truck!

Yes, I'm 22 years-old, but I still took a picture with Keroro!! CTS is airing Keroro (a Japanese cartoon) so they had Keroro dolls, trucks, products everywhere for promo. PS. I like the pink character in that cartoon.

Taipei 101

This is the tallest building in the world as of 2006 (has held world-record for several years already). I think another building is being completed in Shanghai (?) next year that's supposed to be taller than 101. So I thought I'd take a pic of this while it's still the tallest ^^ The world trade centre is right beside Taipei 101. There is a department store, restaurants, and many offices in this building.

My first film making experience

I started an internship at international department of Public Television Service (PTS) right after my arrival in Taipei. The people in my department are all very nice to me. I got the chance to watch many films (which is my dream because I never have time to do that during school year). One day, they asked me if I wanted to join a director in my department for a commercial shooting so I went to help. The filming crew+actor/actress left Taipei at 4am (YES! 4AM!!! I was not awake at all) to drive to Miao-Li, about 1.5 hours away from Taipei.

The commercial we filmed was a charity commercial about a grandma and her grandchildren. The setting of the commercial was in a traditional Chinese housing complex called 三合院. The place we shot the film was a local hostel/hotel called 翠松菀 (Cui Song Wan). The building is very very old but we still saw a room rented to a guest. I guess for those that want to experience living in the olden days, staying here would be an unique experience.

I helped mostly with set up of the scenes. I was surprised by the amount of work and attention to detail that the crew put into the shooting. After set-up, I assisted the two directors in recording the takes into computers for immediate viewing (well, more like just pressing the start and stop botton). It was fun getting to know some of the crew member and the actor/actress. I got back to Taipei at 6:30pm. They all said to me:"Oh, today is such a short day! Everything went so smoothly!". SHORT DAY??? 4AM to 6:30pm is considered a short day!? Well, now I have more respect for those working in the filming industry. This was a very good experience and I learnt a lot from helping out with the commercial filming.
I can't wait to see the commercial once it's done editing!!! *excited* ^^

The location of commercial shooting. We used the main hall for the majority of the shoot.

The yard and rooms on the side (the rooms are available for rental).

All the things you see in this photo were set up by us (plants, decorations on the wall, baskets, etc). The golden stuff on the ground is 金珍 (an edible flower). It costed us $3000NT (~$100 CAD) to buy the bag so that we can set this up in the background. *so expensive >_<*

Shooting the building from the top.

(Note the very "realistic" tree we used in the background)

Ueno visual image tour

花園稻荷神社 (Japanese shrine) in Ueno Park.

Note how sincere the guy is praying.

A small annonymous shrine in Ueno Park

Street Performers in the Park.

This guy was so funny. It was a replay of the ping-pong skit (for those of you that have watched the famous Japanese show).

Ueno Zoo

I didn't actually go visit the zoo because I didn't have enough time. (Note the stripping of girls occuring around the bottom left corner)

A street sign that says "Yushima Tenshin" (Yushima God).

This is as close as I got to the Yushima jinja. I knew that I was really close because all the streets in that area had this sign....but I just can't find the actual temple!! *sob* So I took a picture of the sign instead *sigh*

Ichi-Ran in Atre Ueno.

See how the seats are in the restaurant. You sit in the cubicle with your assigned number and there are dividers between you and the person next to you.

There's a personal cold water tap in the cubicle which comes really handy when you are eating hot and spicy ramen. To the left of the tap is instruction sheet in English on how to use the ordering system (it can be tricky for someone that's there for the first time).

Ramen from Ichi-Ran

with Tonkatsu soup base, green onions, BBQ pork, and spicy powder. It's REALLY good.

Narita Express (NEX) back to the airport.

~ Sayonara Tokyo~

Next Destination: Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Ueno Walking Adventure

On day 3 in Tokyo, I decided to go to Ueno to experience some "true" Japanese culture since my feet was tired from all the shopping I did in previous day. The reason I chose Ueno was because it's where the Tokyo National Museum (TNM) is located. Hiroko told me that TNM is worth visiting and is the equivalent of National Palace Museum in Taiwan (I love National Palace Museum so I thought TNM would be good to visit). Well, it turned out that TNM was not as great as I expected. I spent about 3 hours there because there were several buildings. However, I forgot how similar Japanese and Chinese history/culture were back then so TNM was very similar to National Palace Museum, except I found the items were less unique. The only section where I really enjoyed was the Samurai part (because there's no Samurai in Chinese history). It was just one of those places where I can tick off my list of places that I went. I couldn't take any pictures inside but the Samurai armours and knives were really beautiful.

National Tokyo Museum

Roof of Hon-kan (central building) of Tokyo National Museum

TNM is located in Ueno park. I went there on a Saturday so the park was very busy. There were many families, tourists, and entertainers around. It's a beautiful park especially on a beautiful day like it was. Since I didn't have time to go to Asakusa to visit the very famous senso-ji (temple), I thought I'd look around Ueno to see if I can find some temples (coz seriously, how can I leave Japan telling people that I didn't go to ANY Japanese temples?). The walk around Ueno Park became very tiring after a while because the park was TOO big and the weather was too beautiful=TOO HOT!!! I also crossed the whole Ueno park to the other side because I wanted to go to a temple called Yushima Jinja. Yushima jinja is a temple for students. It's a famous temple where students go before exams to get good luck. I heard that they have nice souvenirs (well, it's "protection and good luck for exams" items unique to this temple) so I wanted to go there. However, I got terribily lost. After leaving the park, all the Japanese streets look exactly the same to me. According to the map on the street, Yushima jinja doesn't exist!!! (or I just can't find it) And now this is where the hightlight of my trip happened...

I asked an old Japanese lady for direction to the temple. She looked confused because she didn't know where it is.

So she stopped a group of high school students and ask them: "Do you know where Yushima Jinja is?"

High school students: "Umm....I'm not sure...to the right??"

And then the old lady stopped another Japanese man in suits and asked:

"Do you know where Yushima jinja is? None of us know where it is!!"

The man replied: "Well, it's kinda famous. I've heard of it. Well, is it....to the left?? Actually I'm not sure *pause pause pause* I think there's a police station ahead. It's probably safer to go there and ask".

So, the old lady wanted to escort me to the police station to ask for direction. On the way to the police station, we stopped a couple on bike and asked for direction again.

The couple: "yes, the jinja is just about 3 blocks down the road. Turn right at the light and you should see it".

Just as I felt relieved that I finally met someone who can give me directions, a man in police uniform passed by on the bike. The funny thing is that the old Japanese lady like totally ran infront of the bike and stopped him.

Old lady: "Police man, can you show the lady where the Yushima jinja is? She's lost."

Police man: "*shocked by the sudden stop* Mmm...sure. So the jinja is just down that way. Just follow the signs."

By this time, there had been about 8 people there trying to help me. So they all waved me good-bye and wished me luck as I continued on the adventure to find Yushima Jinja......

- end of crazy-road-finding-friendly-Japanese-people story -

PS. Imagine the story above but in Japanese. Ya, that was how tough it was for me since everything was in a foreign language.

In the end, I still couldn't find Yushima Jinja. I knew I was really really close to it because all the signs on the street said "Yushima Jinja" but I just could not find the temple for the life of me *sob*. I had to give up and leave Ueno because I had to make to to the airport in time. I was so tired and frustrated from all the walking (by now I've walked an hour and a half trying to find this temple) so I left to go to JR Ueno station to go back to my hotel.

Before leaving Ueno, I went to Atre Ueno just infront of JR Ueno station for lunch (it was 3:30pm already and I was really really hungry from the heat and walking). Hiroko recommended a ramen place in Atre Ueno (ramen is a common noodle in soup). At 3:30pm, there was still a LONG line up for the place. The restaurant is called "Ichi-Ran". The soup base is tonkatsu (traditionally from Fukuoka). The noodle was good too. I would definitely recommend people to go there. The place is really interesting. You buy a ramen ticket right when you enter (750 yen) and they hand you a sheet which you have to mark your preference for the ramen. They give you a number then you sit in a slot (literally, a slot. Kinda of like those cubicles you sit in library). There's a curtain infront of you and a "hand" will come by to collect your ramen ticket. After a while, the "hand" re-appears to hand you your ramen and say a whole bunch of things in Japanese (I guess they were probably saying things like "bon appetit"), roll down the curtain, and then you eat all alone by yourself in your little cubicle. It was definitely a very interesting sheltered eating experience.

I hurried back to Shinjuku and hurried to go to Narita Airport. On the way back to the airport, I got terribly lost again in JR Shinjuku station (TERRIBLY lost to an extent that I missed my train and had to wait an hour for the next one. Ya, it sucked).

Places I wish I had time to go to:

- Asakusa

- Roppongi

- Ginza

- Ikebukuro

- Tokyo Bay + Disney Sea

Impression of Japan (Day 3):

- JR Shinjuku station sucks. I don't ever want to go back to that scary station again.

- Yushima jinja is REALLY hard to find.

- People in Tokyo are really friendly, especially old ladies and polices.

- People eat ramen really fast and sit in little cubicles.

- I've learnt to walk faster than most Japanese people on the street.

Overall, my trip to Tokyo was awesome. Despite the number of time I got lost, the people in Tokyo were very helpful and friendly to me. I will definitely go back to Tokyo for longer next time to explore other areas of Tokyo.

PS. I will be uploading my Ueno pictures. Blogspot hate me right now so for some reason I cannot upload them. I'll try again tomorrow. Stay tuned :)

One weird thing about Japanese Culture

One thing that I found really weird and hard to get used to in Japan is the automatic washing toilets, or so called "washlets". I've always known that such things existed but I never realized that it was so common in Japan. They have washlets in my hotel rooms, in many public washrooms I went to, etc. These washlets have little spray nozzles that washes your private region depending on which business (you know what I mean) you did in the toilet. Some even have functions like drying after washing, or automatic playing of flushing noises to cover the sounds you make while you do your business. The toilet I had in my hotel room even let's you adjust water pressure, temperature, and nozel position. It's amazing how much energy Japanese people put into their toilets.

Tokyo shopping adventure

Day two was a shopping day. My plan was to stay around and concentrate on shopping.
I went to Shibuya (about 5 minutes JR ride away from Shinjuku) because many people told me that 松本清, a cosmetic pharmacy store, has a good collection of goodies and is cheaper compared to other cosmetic stores. I did my cosmetic research before going to Japan so I already had a list of things I wanted to buy. 松本清 was like women's heaven. It kind of reminded me of Watson's in Taiwan but had more things. I spent about 2 hours in the two 松本清 stores infront of Shibuya 109 (yes, TWO hours!!). It was way past noon afternoon when I came out satisfied loaded with a variety of things from cosmetics, lotions, masks, to hair dye.

I did a very brief sight-seeing journey in Shibuya (not like there were so much to see there other than shopping). Below are pictures I took in Shibuya:

Infront of Hachiko outside of JR Shibuya station.

There's a heart-warming story behind Hachiko. For more info see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachiko

Shibuya Train Museum

This is an old subway train so it was pretty cool. You can see those old train seats that people used to sit on. Japan seems like a train-oriented place. The transportation between places is much more convenient compared to Canada.

After Shibuya, I headed back to Shinjuku since that's where shopping central is. First, I went to Maru department store to find Aimer Feel (a lingerie brand that Sandy recommended). It was really hard to find because there were too many department stores around the area. Aimer Feel has a lot of really cute underwear and the price is also very good compared to Canada (about $20-30 CAD for a whole set). The store keeper did not speak or understand ANY English at all so it was difficult for me to shop since the bra size is totally different in Asia compared to North America. After Aimer Feel, I went to Isetan, another classic department store in Shinjuku, for a brief tour. I bought a bento box from the food section in Isetan. Isetan's items seem to be more unique compared to other department stores. I saw a leather wallet that was really pretty and only about $80CAD. Other than that, all the other items in the department store were really EXPENSIVE *sob*. How can all these people in Japan afford these expensive clothing???

Bento box from Isetan (900 yen).

From top left: Grilled fish, Mixed stew with octopus, tofu, and various vegetables.

From bottom left: rice with pickeled plum and seaweed, sweetened eggplant, stewed bamboo shoots.

After lunch, I went to Takashimaya Times. It's a big big department store in Shinjuku. I didn't shop much in the main department store since everything was so expensive. However, Takashimaya Times contains , a creative life store that sells various household items, travel essentials, crafts, home deco, office/school supplies, YOU NAME IT! This Tokyu Hands has like 9 storeys. I spent the rest of my day here shopping in various levels. I bought materials for crafts, cute cute calendar and agenda for 2007, school supplies, cards, wrappers, whole bunch of Japanese stuffed dolls/toys, and a variety of other undescribable things. There was a cover for the flush on toilets. It was so cute and came as different animal shapes. I struggled for about 10 minutes infront of it but still decided not to get it because it was 3500 yen for a tiny little cover (about $35US). But it was REALLY cute!!! >_<>

For dinner, I went to the food section of Takashimaya Times and bought a beef bento. It was on sale because it was after hours (the food section in department stores usually have discounts after say like 5 or 6pm to get rid of all the left over food). It was a really good deal becaue the bento was only like 400 yen (?) and came with a half-cooked egg. For those that have fear for half-cooked egg, it tasted really good when I mixed it in with the beef and rice. After dinner I went straight to bed. I think I might have walked 50km in a day from all those shopping I did (well, at least it felt like 50 km).

Beef rice box from Takashimaya Times (plus egg) and "Jumbo" Pudding" from Cozy Corner in Sunade. Cozy corner had so many different puddings like "pudding", "jumbo pudding", "Ginza pudding", etc. By the way, what's a "Ginza pudding"? I never knew Ginza was famous for its pudding......???

Impression of Japan (Day 2):

- Things at department stores are really really expensive

- Buying cosmetics and lingerie in Japan is women's heaven

- People still walk really fast

- Bento boxes taste really good and who said food in Tokyo is REALLY expensive??

Enough with kaimono-ing. Day 3 will be about sight-seeing in Tokyo...

Departure from Vancouver

On October 25, 2006, I departed Vancouver again after spending a month and a half without school stress. This time, my destination is Tokyo, Japan, a country I've been longing to visit for years.


To be honest, I didn't really want to go visit Japan on my own. I don't speak Japanese well and I don't have any close friends there either. The first visit I had in mind should be with people whom I can have a good time with and explore the country together. However, the travel agency had a special package with JAL that was cheaper and included 2 nights accomadation in Tokyo. Therefore, I fell for it and decided to go on my own adventure in a foreign country.

It was tough doing all the research before my departure. I had no idea how the transportation system works, where to purchase train tickets, where to eat, shop, or even how to get to my hotel. Thanks to the guidebook I bought and my friend Hiroko's help, I felt a bit more comfortable going on my own without knowing the language.

The beginning of my journey was surprisingly pleasant. The service of JAL was very good and the food was also better than all the other Chinese airlines I've been taking in the past years. I like JAL's drink called "Sky Time", it's a Yuzu sparking drink that tastes good on its own or with vodka. It's light and has a fresh yuzu aroma.

The other good thing about my fight was that there were two Japanese moms sitting beside me. They were sooooo nice to me. They made sure that I was fed, I had everything I needed, etc. Unfortunately they didn't speak any English, so I had to use my very poor Japanese to communicate with them *surprisingly they could still understand me*. We had a good time chatting so it really gave me a good first impression about Japanese people.

After arrival at the Narita Airport in Tokyo (which felt short I guess coz I was chatting/sleeping/eating the whole way), I followed the crowd and boarded the Narita Express to Shinjuku. I was very lucky that I only waited for about 5 minutes before the train came. My hotel, Shinjuku Prince, is located about 5 minutes walk from JR Shinjuku station. On my ride to JR Shinjuku station, I met this guy named Kirk that sat besid me on the train. He's a guy in his late-30s (?) from US and is currently working for US reserve in Japan. We had a nice talk and he offered his number and told me he can help me out if I have any questions in Japan. After meeting so many friendly people within a day, my impression for Japanese people had gotten much better.

So now was when things got tricky. I've been warned about the complexity of JR Shinjuku station before I even got to Japan. Appearantly it's one of the largest subway station in Japan and has 60 exits. But I thought to myself: "Oh well, how hard can it be to just follow the signs and go to the exit I need to go to". Well, it's REALLY hard. I wasn't so lucky considering I arrived JR Shinjuku station during the evening rush hour. OMG!! There were SOOOO many people!!! Not to mention I was carrying my heavy suitcases and trying to wheel it around the crowd. On top of the crazy crowd, I had to try to find my exit which was impossible. I was officially lost for the first time (~2 hours after landing in Tokyo) and had to ask for direction using my "almost-non-existing" Japanese. It is amazing how I could understand that guy's Japanese when I can't understand Japanese. (well, I understand words like "right", "left", "straight"). After finally getting out of the exit I was looking for, I was lost for the second time (~2.25 hours after landing). There were SOOO many tall building around. How the heck am I suppose to know which one is my hotel!!!??? Luckily there was a "koban" (police station) right beside my exit so I got direction again and found my hotel.

It was about 7pm after I checked into my hotel (see photo on right). My room was bigger than I thought since I've been told all rooms and apartments in Japan are REALLY small. The hotel is connected to Shinjuku Pepe (a small department store) and Sunade underground shopping street. On the second floor, there's Seibu Shinjuku station, and about 5 minutes underground walk to JR Shinjuku Station. For the first night, I bought a melon bread from bakery in Shinjuku Pepe. It was a melon bread with sweet red bean filling. It was sooooo good. I went to bed early because I was exhausted from the travelling. Before I went to bed, I watched (well, more like "listened" coz I can't understand it) a Japanese show and thought to myself: "Hey, I'm REALLY in Japan".

Impression of Japan (day 1):
- Japanese people are friendly
- There are too many people and they all walk really fast
- JR Shinjuku station is very scary

My hotel room at Shinjuku Prince

Starto

I've been wanting to start my own blog about my travelling experiences for a while. So finally here's a start. I've been moving around quite a bit in the past two years that it's difficult to answer now when people ask me: "Where's home for you?". I love seeing new things, meeting new people, shopping for exotic items, and trying new food.

So, this blog is about me, myself, and my suitcase.