東京

Before you start reading, you should know this is not a guide or a walkthrough of Tokyo. This is a personal reflection and a collection of thoughts after visiting. Tokyo may not have the same effect on you, but hopefully this will encourage you to find your own place in the world. Enjoy

I never really understood my fascination with Japan. It may have been the endless hours of Ultraman I watched as a young’un, it may have been the countless Animes and Manga characters I admired, or it could have been the fantastic games and technologies that came out of the country. I was never sure.

A strong love of Pokémon games prompted me to take Japanese classes when I was 11, Japanese versions of the games would always be out 6 months before an English version, I so desperately wanted to play it as soon as they were released.

I learnt Japanese for 3 years in high school, but you couldn't distinguish me between someone who has learnt it for 3 weeks these days. My parents denied me an exchange to Japan whilst in high school, that combined with a general laziness resulted in me ceasing to study Japanese.

However, the general awareness and a slight fascination continued.

This year, I made a last second decision to visit Tokyo. Even though it was only a week, it would prove to be a rather significant point in my life.

I'm no stranger to large East Asian metropolis cities. I've visited Hong Kong, worked in Shanghai and studied/travelled to Korea/Seoul. Urban jungles shaped by tightly packed buildings where a large amount of inhabitants teem with fervour and breathe life into an endless night.

I was impressed by the efficiency and infrastructure of Hong Kong, constantly amazed by the tenacity and the ambitious culture of Shanghai and Seoul seemed like a perfect place where a fast moving city came to be in harmony with a peaceful culture and identity.

Yet Tokyo was the only city that truly blew me away.

I spent a total of 10 days in Tokyo, utilising each day to try and explore each neighbourhood as widely as possible. To me, buildings and landmarks are only a small part of a city. It’s the people, the culture and the subsequent vibe that entails which really define and shape the city.

I was fortunate enough to visit Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku, Asakusa, Ginza, Tsukiji, Roppongi and Akihabara.
Each of these areas had a distinct feel, not just to the architecture and services, but the people. I could go on for days trying to explain what the differences are, but it would not do these places any justice.

Tokyo seems to be a city full of contradiction. People work hard, people play hard and people are sexually conservative, yet it’s one of the most sexually liberated cultures in the world. You can pray in a secluded temple and walk out straight into a red light district. Everyone conforms, yet everyone is different. Customs and traditions are strict, but thinking outside the box is common. People are crazy but they are respectful. They are racists but they are extremely open-minded.

I often found myself sitting on a corner and just watching people walk past. It amazes me how significant and insignificant that simple act can make you feel at the same time. A world full of surprises.

The variety of people I met in Tokyo was astounding, hardcore rockers who went to great universities, a bboy whose parents perished in the tsunami, expats of various nationalities/ethnicities who had been working in Japan for up to 15 years, Japanese people who have been overseas and come home to their motherland never wanting to leave again and seemingly like-minded people who draw no conceptual boundaries.

The weight of each of the words exchanged during my conversations with new friends is probably not reciprocated and I guess I will never know. But chatting in an empty Shibuya at 4AM with the sun slowly rising really does inspire you in many ways than one.


At the Meiji shrine in Yoyogi, I wrote on an Ema in Chinese, Japanese and Korean:

A Vibrant Life
A Mysterious Future
A Clear Path

I never really understood my fascination with Japan, in many ways I still don't. But after this trip I think I'm getting closer. I felt inspired in Tokyo, more so than the first time I set foot in Seoul, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong or any other cities.

But once upon a time, I ranked these cities and saw them as rivals. But now I see them as different parts of myself and my stepping stones towards:

A Vibrant Life
A Mysterious Future
A Clear Path

retail australia

I booked my tickets to the land of Pokémon aka. Japan aka. Nippon a few weeks ago. I decided that I needed a more versatile lens for my DSLR so I don't miss a thing.

This led to an extremely frustrating adventure through the world of Australian retail.

The lens I wanted was the SONY 35mm 1.8F lens. Its quite a basic, cheap, low range lens.

http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921666254721

Sony USA had it for 219 USD.

Usually official Sony stores sell for quite inflated prices, amazon seemed to have similar prices and eBay was going for roughly 210 (shipped)AUD at the lowest price.

So I thought I will do some research looking at local retailers.

Ted's cameras has this lens for 299 + 10 delivery if you want it delivered.
That's 310. 100 dollars more than INTL retailers.

I did a quick search on static-ice. A local retailer in Northcote is selling this lens for 249. A great price for Australia it seems (though I can't find the site of the retailer atm).

I printed this out and took it to the many camera retailers along Elizabeth Street to beat that price. Given that the retailer is in the same city and not TOO out of the way, it would not make sense to price match as it would only encourage expensive retailers to inflate their price and match when the occasion comes.

To my surprise, not one single retailer wanted to beat the price of 249.
These retailers include Ted's Cameras, Michaels and Camera House (their retail for this lens was actually 399).
Both Ted's and Michaels tried to convince me that their whole sale price is 249 which I called bullshit.
I hate it when retailers try to convince me they're not making any money with a sale but are willing to sell it to me anyway, that is an insult to me as a consumer. I will never buy anything from Ted's or Michaels moving forward.

At Ted's the first attendant told me that this lens was out of stock and they needed to order it in (which would take about a week). Just as I was walking out, I saw it on display and approached another attendant if I could buy the display model, he said no but funnily enough said there was stock.

The only place that was willing to beat 249 was Sony Center for a token price of 245. But when he checked his stock, he had to order it in (would take up to 2 weeks). He said the display model belonged to "Sony Australia".

(A word of advice to stores, if you are going to call yourself Sony Centre, don't tell me this stock belongs to Sony Australia and you're not actually Sony.)

I wanted to spend my money and would have settled for 230-240. No one wanted to take my money so I spent it with an online store from Hong Kong, paying only around 200 bucks.

This is why retailers in Australia are failing, not because of taxes. But because they are stubborn and would rather lose business and lie about their costs than adapt and lower their prices.

racism

2020 June 22nd Update

I no longer agree with my views below and think this is a perfect example of my rationalization to adhere to the cultural zeitgeist of "racism doesn't exist in Australia"

There's also an element of victim blaming

I kept the below post intact as a record of my own thought process back then


------

Recently something quite tragic (though I can't say I am surprised), happened in Sydney.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/latest/a/-/newshome/13513195/chinese-students-fear-sydney
http://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/latest/a/-/newshomef/13530527/chinese-students-at-risk-in-australia/

A few Chinese international students were assaulted and robbed in Sydney. What's more disgusting arguably in my opinion is the media position and how the Chinese community have reacted.

Being of Chinese decent and ethnicity, I've quite often had to deal with racism growing up. Though not quite as often the older I got, either because people become more educated or they become less inclined to show their racist ideology in the open.

But as you grow older, you also learn how to deal with racism and learn how to diffuse the situation. I've strongly disagreed with any media (even Australian) classifying these attacks targeted racist attacks and its even more ridiculous for any media (especially Chinese) to claim that Australia is somehow unsafe for international students for other ethnicities.

If the issue was racism, then the color of my skin should determine the amount of "racially motivated" assaults I'm exposed to/be a victim of. KKK did not discriminate between African American or Native Africans.Why then is it that international students seem to be the center to these attacks?

The truth is, the criminals committing these acts of violence are targeting people who are vulnerable to these attacks. International students need to reach outside of their shells and circles and learn how to avoid these situations much how you learn not to get pick pocketed or ripped off by street vendors (at times because of your race or origins) in China.

It angers me that one of the students went to social media and tweeted "Australia is not safe, no security at all" despite the perpetrators being arrested a few stops later on that same train. I would be more than surprised if he can find me an example of Chinese police doing better.

@Australian Media, please stop calling these attacks as "racially motivated" because someone threw in an ethnic slur. The focus should be on the perpetrators rather than the victims, those kids would have mugged anyone they could.

@Chinese Media & Netizens, stop pretending China is any safer for international students. A few rich Chinese international students in Australia get beat up and make headline news in China, set your priorities straight, there are worse things in China that you might want to start reporting on.

people people

This is a more humorous follow up to my post about the differences in social network norms across western and eastern countries.

Recently, I've been trying to be more active on the Chinese version of Facebook in attempt to increase my understanding potentially for future professional benefits.

RenRen net started off as "Xiao Nei" which literally translates to "On Campus". It was an exact clone (or attempt at) of Facebook right down to the color and the interface. A few years ago, their team decided they wanted to expand their demographics to more than just students and was renamed to RenRen, which roughly translates to "Everyone". This puts it in a better position to compete against "Kaixin001" which is pretty much the same thing but with a different color scheme and targeted towards young professionals.

RenRen Interface

Through my poor understanding if written Chinese, I somehow stumbled upon a beta app, an extension to the main website named YuJian, which translates to "To Meet". Basically its a lighter version of the main social network application tailored towards "meeting people". Here is what it looks like:

Yu Jian

You're supposed to list your personal details so gold diggers can check you out and be like "yo! this guy baller" I've blacked it out to avoid embarrassment as it is extremely exaggerated for the lulz.

At first you think "There is nothing humorous about all of this". Then you need to keep reading. So a big difference between this and the main social network is that you can view profiles and rate people out of 10.

Needless to say, the first thing I decided to do was go trolling, giving people 1/10, 2/10, 3/10. You know? Just being a jerk.

After I trolled some girls, I decided to explore it a bit more. A notification pops in the corner of my eye. "Oarsome, someone rated me 10/10! I'm the fcking shi.... ah fuck its just a bot :("

Within a few seconds...I had realised, you can see exactly who has been on your page and what rating they gave you. Of course these girls i trolled were very happy to give me a 1/10. Life lesson learnt, don't be a jerk...

After a while, the girls all start to look the same...actually, they all look the same from the start. I don't mean that in a racist way, I mean that they all take oddly composed photos that are either over or under saturated. Most likely taken at home by themselves in some funny pose:

And then sometimes you see girls that takes it to the next level, some of my personal favourites include:

The Ultimate Duckface

Apparently shes 19... go figure.

Toilet Seat Duckface

"Must take dump, must rinse mouth, must look cute!"

The Semen Tears

I guess Chinese guys find this cute?

I thought pretending to model in your own bathroom was only for early high school kids? I guess that's not the case in China.

Apparently this girl is like 25 so something

Oh wait, that's not from China, that's someone on my actual Facebook friends' list...guess we're not all that different then.

The most ridiculously next level profile I stumbled upon turned out eventually to be a bot. But here is a picture at how ridiculous it was. Here is a sample:

I had to give her a 9/10 for effort

It was not until this person uploaded this following photo that I realized it was a bot...

Sorry I had to censor the boobs.

And with that I end my post. To be fair, there are some pretty hot girls on there, even if they don't show their boobs on their profile.

Peace.