post hk




we are back from hong kong. it was a nice getaway where i attended the Reach Herman Miller event courtesy of Herman Miller Pan Asia and Xtra. I liked the Eames exhibit, which quite inspiring. Some of the talks were entertaining too. plus the clients were super nice. and mingyao and i got to meet up with greg and sabine for a nice dinner, as well as take our time to walk about. we didn't buy very much - yes i bought three custom-order items which will arrive at my home in a few days but aside from that we bought foodstuff for the family and just spent out money on eating. and it was really nice to wake up to a beautiful harbour view for once.

one of the nice places we went to was The Chairman, a slightly high-end but not snobby chinese restaurant that served msg-free delicious food - a rarity in salt-driven hong kong! though that day was a little badly planned cos we went all the way to hollywood road then to wanchai then back to hollywood road then back to the hotel at causeway bay before discovering out dinner reservation was back at hollywood road area again.

other than that, october's a much free-er month for a bit so i've got activities lined up with husband (biking, watching movies, taking walks and dates), family and meet up with old friends. that plus having to finally go to my parents' home to clear all my stuff.

should i revamp this blog? i dunno i've been thinking about it for awhile. nobody really reads it but it doesn't matter.

designtide exhibit in tokyo...october...sounds attractive...

a thought about bedding

in milan i saw my dream bedding set - more like the comforter - at the wonderful rossana orlandi shop but i did not buy them for several reasons. why? they were made for scandinavian homes and the pillow cases in the set were much bigger than the standard size here. i think that was the main reason why; besides that it only came in a super single size and i'd have to buy two for my king-size bed. but i think the pillow cases were the main reason; and maybe it won't go with my bedroom carpet though if all other factors were right i might relocate the carpet just for the comforter. but that leaves me with a resolve to save money so that i can have something in my home designed by the same duo - my current design crush. i saw a table designed by them in tokyo in the cibone shop but to lug back a table, and during that scary earthquake time - okay and it wasn't very cheap.

Design with a capital D






so i am back from the milan furniture fair. there are lots more to share but i've only just put some snippets. i have learnt alot not just about furniture production, but the design life and inspiration, from past and present greats. my new favourites are enzo mari (the frate table for driade, i love), archilles castiglioni and his great designs and even at the park hotel we stayed in where there were several design classics used in a nonchalant manner. that and pistachio gelato. but i did miss husband lots so thank God for cheap m1 sms and hotel room wi-fi.

having been in tokyo just after the earthquake and when the nuclear panic and panic of another large earthquake that was to come, i can really relate to the whole media frenzy/ confusion. i won't say that either side is totally right - there is a lot of confusion and common people not well-versed in nuclear issues only relate to past media references of its danger. i was really torn on monday whether we should stay or go; at that time the nuclear issue wasn't a problem. it was the news of another probable large earthquake. for someone like me, who couldn't even take the aftershocks (i blame it on my imagaination), there was no point staying plus the shops were all closed, being in the city didn't make sense if there wasn't a reason besides tourism plus our families were worried sick.

i really hope that more help gets to the victims.

72 hours of niceness

technically we only spent one and a half days being out and about in tokyo. on the first day we couldn't check in till 2pm so we spent the morning in the hotel lobby and being in the nearby malls in shinjuku. we slept the noon away and at night, was just in the vicinity for dinner - ramen. we went into a gourmet bottle shop/grocer and the cashier saw us looking at some beer mugs. he came up to us and said it was a gift for us - not knowing at first we were tourists/or afraid of another quake? - and the nice thing about them is that they're very attentive - he gave us a set of 2 instead of just one.

on day two we knew we only had that one day because we had already booked our flights back which were to be the next day and we were unsure about the next day's situation so we didn't want to venture far. so in the morning we found a st. cousier shop nearby in keio mall just by the train station and bought our precious bottles of wine. the cashier kindly gave us a st. couseir cork coaster when he saw us pondering over it. another kind act out of nowhere. then we took the train to shibuya - the trains were running normal; the crowds of yesterday weren't there. the platforms were a little crowded but it was probably normal peak hour crowds. at shibuya we found the brass shop where mingyao tested mouthpieces for his trumpet. we didn't buy them cos they only ordered into tokyo and didn't have them on sale in the shop but at least he got to try them.

then we walked towards another shop which i wanted to go to - the claksa hotel's satellite shop in parco mall but the mall was closed. so we took a walk, about half hour to jingumae. along the way we stopped at a small shop that sold things made in japan. i got a ring and we spoke to the lady i the shop who spoke excellent english. at the few shops we went to, the staff were surprised we were tourists visiting at that time - the streets were literally quite empty of tourists. at omotesando we found kagure - i featured them in my article last year. the second floor was closed. all the beautiful ceramics we had seen were not there - maybe they were destroyed in the quake? i handed them a copy of the magazine with their shop featured in it and they were so grateful. the lady at the counter gave us 2 packets of biscuits before we left. this is the third time i've been in this shop, three years in a row when they've given us something when we haven't bought anything.

tower records was opened and we went in - mingyao has a soft spot for this cd shop. he bought a jack johnson cd and i bought the latest belle and sebastian ones that has two extra tracks for the made in japan cd. at the counter they gave us a free sample cd of songs from random artists.

we found the renowned maisen tonkatsu shop - a reputable old shop at the back of omotesando hills. inside the traditional interiors it felt like another world. in the calmness and with a backdrop of lighthearted japanese music, the only thing that mattered was the black pork tonkatsu.

we walked on to the franc franc shop in aoyama which had the monocle shop inside, and then to cibone, after which we took the train to ginza and into the original meiji shop which was opened and still fully stocked. we had tea at a cafe near the yakisoba shop we intended to go - there was no point walking the streets. even if some shops were not closed, most closed at about five or six to conserve electricity. and yes, like omotesando, the flagship stores were closed too. not that i go into them but it just gives you a sense of ennui when the streets of tokyo are so quiet. when we went into the yakisoba shop - it was opened! - the owner recognised us. we gave him the pack of bak kwa we brought from singapore and a framed picture we took last year with him in the shop. fortunately his helper was chinese so he was our translator. we exchanged emails and the owner refused to charge us for dinner. the only pity was that his helper made the yakisoba instead of him and i could observe the skill difference. he gave us some extra dishes too. we found out alot more about him through the translator, that his shop used to be so popular during his younger days it had queues. we were delighted that we had found this gem. after dinner we went back home.

the next day we left right in the morning for the airport.

back

we're now safely back in singapore. what a relief, for us and our parents and family. we slept the whole of thursday away, exhausted in part by not being able to sleep properly on monday and tuesday - i was quite scared by potentially larger quakes and we were on the 13th storey of our hotel - and the whole of wednesday in haneda airport, for more than 12 hours waiting for our flight.

it's amazing how the japanese were still being polite and nice in their usual fashion - maybe not being in the frenzy international media helped. we were really unsure about leaving on monday; if not for the nuclear situation i think we might have stayed on. but then again maybe not. i'm really not accustomed to even those aftershocks.

despite the japanese people being nice and friendly and that in tokyo itself there was still food and some small shops were opened but it wasn't like the normal tokyo you see or what we remembered of it with all the lights out and shops closed. omotesando was relatively quiet for a normal afternoon and all the flagship brand boutiques were closed, some with notices saying they are closed till yesterday but i doubt they're opened today. the staff at the hotel and airport were still so polite and accommodating - i can imagine the irritation and frustration local service staff will most probably render in such uncertain situations.

i thank God for many things - that haneda was opened last year. i'm sure it eased a lot of the crowds that thronged narita; for the fact that we changed our flight early, on monday to come back - even then we couldn't get flights out till wed night; that we didn't manage to get jack johnson tickets for tokyo, on the 15th i think - i read on the jack johnson website that they were in osaka when the earthquake happened and they were bound for sendai next. he is donating all the earnings from his japan tour so far to the relief efforts.

my only regret is that i did not go to see the house i was suppose to write about but under such circumstances, that's the least important thing to worry about. maybe i should have gone in the afternoon on tuesday instead of omotesando, but i was a little unsure about the trains so was unsure about venturing further to setagaya.

it's good that i have a few days of rest before i resume work. my mind and soul is too cluttered now to start writing immediately.

one_surreal.

we were a little apprehensive but after arriving, everything seems alright. fortuntely we took the airport limo and skipped the trains. when we walked past shinjuku later in the early noon we saw that the queue to get to the platforms were right at the entry turnstiles. so today we stayed right in shinjuku - we were dead beat anyway after the flight and the hotel didn't allow us to check in till after lunch. in the early evening when we ventured out for dinner, the big malls had all their facade lights switched off and were closed early, some even at 3pm - i think there was a lot of clean up/stocktaking/restocking to do; compared to the normal times, shinjuku was quiet and not as brightly lit for energy conservation. the mood is sombre but things are going on as usual. we're at home here, having been here before so it's okay. maybe we're doing our bit for the jap economy by being here.

in the convenience stores, there was still food, drinks and stuff but there were empty shelves so i presume those were the preservables.

some groups were on the streets, basking or holding boxes to collect funds for the quake efforts. we read that some areas, including tokyo would have 3 hours of electricity shut-down each day but when we checked our area was not included. tokyo's so big - i think it was the residential areas that had to follow that rule.

after a ramen dinner we walked around the blocks back to the hotel and stopped at a bottle shop along the way. the shopkeeper saw us looking at a beer mug and gave us 2 free! just like that! we were really touched considering we didn't buy anything expensive.

on thursday i'm going to visit the house i'm writing for. that's still on so i'm excited.

a dream away



last weekend mingyao and i were away - the plane rides were relatively long but the holiday was nice. we cycled pass the mekong river, had the pool to ourselves, and cycled out to the morning market to buy curry powder for future attempts to make Kalle Pat - awesome Lao duck curry that we had two days in a row within the resort.

now it's writing craze for the next two weeks.