EVACOMICS BLOG

If you want a nice restaurant in Tokyo to chill out with friends/colleagues and experience traditional Japanese culture at the same time, this is it! Shinjuku Awaodori Restaurant  (新宿 阿波おどり) is a new Japanese traditional dance themed restaurant located right outside Shinjuku station's East exit and sits right next to ABC Mart (shoe shop). Very convenient!

Kochia is actually Bassia scoparia (syn. Kochia scoparia), which is a kind of grass that turns red during fall. You can see the sea of red at Hitachi Seaside Park (ひたち海浜公園) in October but 19th Oct was the last day in 2014 to see this plant before they change to brown.

Kawagoe Festival is an annual event held every year in the 3rd weekend of October. The place is within 40mins train ride from Ikebukuro and has buildings preserved from the Edo period.

Based on Trompenaar's dimensions of culture: Internal Direction Versus Outer Direction (How People Relate to Their Environment) http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/seven-dimensions.htm Americans are vocal about their opinions and believe they can change their environment. On the other hand, Japanese tend to avoid conflicts and remain silent to maintain harmony with other people. Foreigners often find it irritating because we do not understand if their silence means consent, still thinking, or rejected. As for Singaporeans, we are a mix of both due to our traditional values but westernised education. Previous cultural dimensions: Collectivist and Individualist Neutral and Emotional Universalist and Particularist Specific and Diffuse Achievement and Ascription Sequential Time vs Synchronous Time

Akihabara Well actually we went to Tsukiji for early sushi lunch first but I won't blog about it since I already covered the topic in my  Tsukiji article  last year. Do note that they will be moving out of Tsukiji in early 2016 to allow redevelopment for Olympics 2020.

My friend had never visited Mt. Fuji before so we signed up for a day tour from HIS Travel. We departed from Shinjuku early in the morning and we reached there within 2.5-3 hours by bus. This wasn't my first time at Mt. Fuji's fifth station and you can read about my previous trip here , when I visited a farm and an ice cave.

It is strange but the entire blogspot.jp has been down since this morning. If you clicked on a link in my article that doesn't work, please change ".jp" in the url to ".com" Thank you!

So the main reason why I visited Tokyo again was because of an interview by a Japanese major company for their staff magazine. I am not allowed to disclose any information right now but hey, I can post my "selfie" first! The interview took like an hour or so with me sweating profusely because of the walk from the station to the office. (I hope my photos turn out fine...)

October was still freakin HOT when there's sun! So if you are going to Disneyland on a sunny day (except for Winter), bring a cap or something!!! My friend and I were both horribly bad at waking up early so we ended up arriving late (like 11.30am) at the park. By then, queues for all the popular rides had become very long. For tips on getting fast passes, etc. you might want to check the following Tokyo Disneyland survival guides here: http://tdrexplorer.com/tips-for-dealing-with-massive-crowds-at-tokyo-disney-resort/ http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3016_tickets.html http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201308/3624/

I am definitely not into a cup of nothing nutritious for 343kcal but my friend was. So we went to Nissin's Cup Noodles Museum at Yokohama to spend our rainy day there. In fact, many fans thought that I would be stuck at my hotel because of typhoon but its strength had decreased dramatically and became a heavy rain instead. Having stayed at Tokyo for 3.5 years and experienced typhoon a couple of times, I learned to always check JMA a day before for a more accurate weather forecast. Thank you all for your concern! ^^