Yamaha Asian Beat Asia Grand Finals Yokohama 2009 Part 9: Departure & Sayonara
Mar 1, 2010 Events, Gallery, News
thanks to CNY celebrations (means more work) and my laptop power break down, this is a very delayed post.
read older related posts here:
Part 1: Ohaiyo and First Taste of Japan
Part 2: Interesting Yokohama Bay
Part 3: InterContinental Yokohama Grand
Part 4: Rehearsal Day and the Retarded Bitch
Part 5: Competition Day
Part 6: The After-show Party
Part 7: Guitar Conquering Day in Tokyo
Part 8: Shopping in Yokohama
so, we have come to the final post, a lot of lessons have been learnt, many photos taken, many things bought, many memories to cherish, and…
lots of $$$$$$$ spent!!
so i bit farewell to the yokohama / tokyo series posts with the last photos captured and short stories…
a view from the hotel window where we were staying in Narita before going to the airport
as you could see, it was really a kampung place, but nice view and fresh air
arriving at Narita airport after breakfast at hotel, took about 25 minutes on the hotel-airport shuttle bus
not really many people checking in, so we din have to queue up for long period of time, so, we went shop shop awhile, and for me, i need to spend the remaining Yens in my wallet, bcos after boarding this flight, the next stop you wake up, you will see KLIA liao, and ringgit will take over…
anyway, i din have much left, about RM150 only (in japanese Yen off course)
walk here walk there, we noticed, uncensored DVD in HD various AV idols, various style, various stories, various categories were sold publicly in the DVD shops, at Narita international airport, thought of buying one as souvenir for ah hooi, but since we can get Gigsssss of it from the internet, then why buy ah?
nice finger gesture…. who the hell set it up this way??
finally, i bought a few key holders, box of goodies, and a pink / yellow coloured watch.
that’s the end of my final Yens…
rubbish bins for cans….. glass bottles…..
magazines, newspaper…. plastic bottles and then….
and others, such as used condom, unfinished sandwich, i pad, your pad, ka chuak, your enemy, husband’s grumbling wife, wife’s cheating husband….
here comes the plane, time to say good bye to beloved japan…
on board, the movies were not really interesting, so i played games again…classic space invaders.
i also played Pacman a few times, but the most i could reach was about level 3, then die liao, bcos i am so fat that i run so slow, the ghost so fast nia eat me liao…
**************************************************
after 7 hours and 30 minutes, we finally reached KLIA, very sleepy and tired, but nevermind, the flight to Penang will be in just 2 hours time, and Chin Sing’s family will be there to take us back (Chin Sing Sr, Jr, and me) to alor setar.
since we still have some time, i decided to take photos of McDonald….with a twist
Mc clicked well with my MG 145
as we were sitting at Mc’s this American guy (AG) walked straight right to me and started talking:
AG: hi, are you a rock star? having a concert
(i guess bcos of my long blond hair, shades and holding MG 145)
me: hi, no i’m not, i just came back from japan and…
AG: oh… concert in Japan, very good! you must be famous, what’s your name?
me: i am michael, actually its not a….
AG: wow! michael watanabe! i must take a photo with you, you are famous
me: what? eh? huh? ok…. sure
(after taking photo)
AG: here, take this, USD100, its for you….
(the USD100 bill was actually his business card, business dollar bill
anyway, he was very friendly and talked really a lot. his name is Gary.
Gary and me, see, i am so thin…
KLIA is so so so boring that kae vin and me walked in out in out in out so many times and ended up no where to go…
it was finally 11pm, flight taking off…
however, after the airbus took off for about 15 minutes, the captain announced something through the PA system and we were told like, we are heading back to KLIA, since the PA was so blur, and i was so sleepy, i thought they caught some terrorist, found some explosive, or part of the engine was not working, or the pilot left his shoe on the plane runway….
we reached KLIA again and only knew that it was very bad weather in Penang thus, the plane could not land in PIA right now. To make matter worse, the plane could only fly again at 5am bcos there was no fuel service back in KLIA at that time.
to compensate for our lost time, MAS gave us some Burger King food coupons (passenger one each), but the smart-but-tham-chiak kae vin and me queued up a few times at the coupon counter and got ourselves TOO MANY coupons, so, this is the consequence:
the coupons were some how useless bcos they were NO MORE burgers at that time, except one type of it called duno what lah… Haris said: I never hated french fries in my whole life but now i really hope to get them out of my sight, we got like 7 or 8 boxes of large fries i think on the table, with kaevin, haris and me staring at the mountain of fries….
after so heavy de meal, Haris went to zzz waiting for the 5am flight…
KLIA was so damn cold but i left my jacket on the plane ^&%*(^*#$#$
to my utmost dissapointment, when we board the flight at 5am, the jacket was gone!!!
Damn MAS…. damn staff…. damn whoever who took my jacket…. that jacket was one of the winning merchandise from Converse when Uglymen won Malaysian Asianbeat in 2003…
and last year, some #(*)()# lost my RM300 MUFC jacket…
luckily malaysia is so the freaking hot right now…
*******************************************************
finally back to penang, and to alor setar around 9.30am in the morning, the trip was unbelievably over and i had music classes at 4pm later in the day….
i would like to thank Wind Rising (Haris, Kae Vin, Chin Sing), Mr & Mrs Ng, Suan, Chin Sing’s family for taking me back home from penang so that i dunt have to take ferry and board bus at the stupid Butterworth dirty smelly bus station, Chin Sing’s family for spending me breakfast after arrival, and to everyone at Yamaha Asian Beat 2009 Yokohama except OYR, you bitch!
where is this?
Yamaha Asian Beat Asia Grand Finals Yokohama 2009 Part 8: Shopping in Yokohama
Feb 8, 2010 Events, Gallery, News
read older related posts here:
Part 1: Ohaiyo and First Taste of Japan
Part 2: Interesting Yokohama Bay
Part 3: InterContinental Yokohama Grand
Part 4: Rehearsal Day and the Retarded Bitch
Part 5: Competition Day
Part 6: The After-show Party
Part 7: Guitar Conquering Day in Tokyo
ok, i must admit, i have more and more work coming in, piling up, crashing on me, so, it’s time to end the Yokohama post series… in a few days’ time, anyway, it has been more than two months ago since the Yokohama trip, if i am still writing about the travelogue by next two weeks, my site would have turn into yokohama-tokyo-tour.com liao.
well, these were the final 1.5 days in Japan, so what did we do?
early in the morning, we went to Yokohama city for a no-direction shopping spree. no direction becos we dint know anything, anywhere to shop, but just walk walk here and there.
this photo taken while we waited for the train, this guy’s boots are nice…
arrived at a huge shopping complex (claimed to be largest Yokohama electrical store), but this statue attracted us more than the gadgets on display.
i coudnt stay there too long, too many laptops, netbooks, mini netbooks, never-seen-before micro-netbook! mp3 players, cameras, but they all have a common name = wallet ripper…
at least i got this shot in the shop… ao zooi leh…
ei? guang liang pin guan also got open shop in Yokohama lol…
actually the meaning is, quality brandless goods, some stuff are quite cheap inside…
cafe Limapuluh, means this shop worth RM50 only or one cup of coffee is RM50
some game machine shop
this is a monsoon drain beside a main road, can you tell me how clean is the water? look at the fish, you can see through the water!!
so, now you ask me got economy rice (keng che pui) in japan?
below is your answer…
omfg, look at the food, the way they are presented, the deco, the colour, the freshness, the…. price
this is the fish de eggs!
this is the eggs become de fish, both eaten by human… 
after walking from here to there, to no where, we bought some local delicacies and a few souvenirs (again!) including two unique recycled G2 type pens.
soon, we became very very very hungry (again!) and since i was roaming with mr ng, i had a free meal wahahahaa… we went to..
piZZa de bUFFET! about RM3o each person, now this is so much more worthwhile than the food served at traditional japanese restaurant, the theory is simple: this one you can eat as much as you want…
inside got about 4 types of pizzas (some even tasted very sweet one), some spaghetti, rice, soup… eat until i really want to ta pao back in malaysia.
after lunch we walked for an hour more and about 3pm we gathered at the subway station to head back to “she was the one who did it with me” (Ishikawacho)
wa, so few people in the subway station…
we arrived at Hotel A Silk Tree, packed our stuff, checked out, and headed straight away to Narita, where the next noon we will be boarding flight back to politically-corrupted malaysia.
bye bye yokohama…
by the way, japan has the longest living age of citizens in the world (it means the country also has most old folks since inhabitants survive longer) bcos of their health care and policy, life style.
look at the photo above, aunty still so hip de clothes.
this is really sardine fish, since so many people, what do we do inside? its promotion time!!
introducing the best drummer to the public
wa, see the MRT also got double deck one loh…
after arriving in Tokyo, we hopped on to another train to Narita, where we have to put up a night before flying back to politically-seriously-corrupted malaysia
people de mrt got map and tell you how much time left to destination, the journey was quite long, from ishikawacho to narita, two journeys of trains added up to about 90 minutes, so some one was really boring, and so he started smiling to himself and made funny gestures…
chin sing has bcome “chi sin”
all the officers at the airport are well-mannered, helpful and alert, not like malaysia, sleepy, black face god, and always trying to eat snakes.
this was our last dinner (i mean last dinner in japan)
it says please take home the plates, bowl, spoon after you finish eating…
we are looking at…
halo the food ok liao boi…
this is simply the BEST food i’ve eaten in Japan for the while trip! the best came at last!
after dinner, we have to wait for 30 minutes for the bus to pick us up to a nearby hotel (since the flight is tomorow) takkan we sleep in airport???and again we had nothing to do, so? its promotion time!
and soon after everyone joined in the fun, and put up an MTV show “live” at Narita airport
woo hoo…
and the craziness did not end here, bcos at about 9.30pm, we finally arrived at the hotel.
and started shooting photos again…
the hotel staffs kept looking at us, at the entire lobby had turned into a make shift photo studio.
left to right: yamaha bass, yamaha guitar, italia, edwards, HIDE LOVE LOVE LOVE, italia, Aria pro, musicman bass
all winners, lesson well learnt in japan.
ok, job done, see you in the final post part 9 in a few days’ time.
Yamaha Asian Beat Asia Grand Finals Yokohama 2009 Part 7: Guitar Conquering Day in Tokyo
Jan 22, 2010 Events, Gallery, News
read older related posts here:
Part 1: Ohaiyo and First Taste of Japan
Part 2: Interesting Yokohama Bay
Part 3: InterContinental Yokohama Grand
Part 4: Rehearsal Day and the Retarded Bitch
Part 5: Competition Day
Part 6: The After-show Party
Good morning, this is a view from the hotel room at Yokohama Grand, we are going to check out in less than an hour’s time. The lads were still sound asleep while i sat beside the window savaging “final moments” of this breathtaking scene.
when will i see you again… i dont wanna go to the theme park, but wish to walk along the stretch of bridge, park and all the way back to yokohama pier where we paced along on the first day.
however, something more attractive, temtping has distrated me from the scene by now, cos Mr Ng has told us today he’s gonna bring us to the guitar market, ya, guitar market. in malaysia, you heard of pasar ikan (fish market), pasar tani (agricultural market or sort of), pasar malam (night market), pasar pagi (morning market), but in japan, it has guitar market (pasar gitar)…. isnt that so cool…
i was probably thinking 1 kg of guitar RM50, so 10 kg only RM100…
so, without hesitation, i woke up every one, and start packing and go straight to the LRT hotel restaurant for free breakfast…
Wind Rising did some stupid but funny stuff at the restaurant… but it’s not really nice to write here, if you wanna know what happened at the breakfast you can PM their respective facebooks.
after eating i have a little trouble, bcos i had to take 3 of them to the LRT station (about 25 minute walk from Yokohama Grand) and get the train to Ishikawacho meeting up with the rest of the gang. and i aint having maps with me after reaching there.
finally we arrived at Ishikawacho station after riding the train for about 6 minutes only. although some japanese addresses are hard to remember, but this one is easy, you see, Ishikawacho, the word if translated into hokkien is （她是跟我做）, it means… haha… u know what i mean…
so, we got down from the train station, but, got lost in the neighourhood… which road leads to the A Silk Tree Hotel?… so i took them for a mini tour… above is the mini post office.
with bright sunlight, but cool weather. this is a small lane full of restaurants but very quiet. you can see lots, i mean LOTS of beverage vendor machines all along japanese roads, main road, small road, sub road, or no road, lots of them. above picture you can see one just outside the further building.
after some wrong turns taken, we finally met up with everyone, checked in extra rooms and kept our luggage well, its time to ROLL…. to Tokyo
many public places in japan are smoking prohibited, including open-air main roads. the above sign says “终日禁烟” which means when the day ends, you cant smoke, means day time can smoke lolzzz…
this way to tokyo, but before going to tokyo, you must go through the next station called “see breast”, see the signboard above? “看奶“, and before Ishikawacho station, its “Yamate”.. hmm.. that sounds familiar in many japanese-produced movie clips right?
even riding on the escalator is an experience in japan, it is divided into left lane (static lane), and right lane (express lane) where commuters walk or run up instead of waiting for the magic stairs to take you up.
after about 40 minutes of train ride, we finally were now very near to GUITAR MARKET..
thanks to Mr Ng, he had been here before so, we din have too much trouble in our treasure hunt.
soup anyone?
it was about 12.45pm when we arrived, you will be surprised, when it was later 8pm in the day we were still shopping for guitars and music gadgets…. why? read on…
all the shops there so tempting… in terms of u just ate your breakfast, walked out and you already want to eat your lunch, and dinner, and supper.
no smoking on the road yeh…
so, to make full use of this rule, there were many restaurants which offer “in house” smoking, where you can dine and smoke inside… but since you cant smoke on the road, then where do all the smoke go if you smoke inside the restaurant???? wont it be sucked out to the open air as well??
CAUTION: WHOLE LOADS of GUITARZZZZ AHEAD…
this is the first shop (of many many many many…more) we stepped in.
aint it crazy? the shops there made “Bentley” in malaysia looks so average…
before i continue, i need to clarify a few things, my initial purpose of coming to the music market is to “have a look” and not buying anything, since nothing i was missing. so i just look here there, take pictures, try playing out a few guitars… and slowly, very gradually, the desire took over the logical mind…
you see? its like really stupid if you dont buy at least one guitar back home… cos they are much cheaper compared to malaysia, and the choices are countless, it was like if you can find thailand, china, indo, local chicks in alor star, well, in japan, you see united nations…
from shop to shop, and this corner shop, i was thinking of grabbing a few guitars and run away through the side lane… you see the word “Part-2″ on the sign board? this shop which has 3 floors of guitars has 5 branches, two located on the same street.
this is one odd-but-nice looking building located at the corner of one of the guitar streets…
this is Ming Zhi (translated) University, 明治大学，located in the middle of these busy streets.
it shud be a guitar university to make it a perfect match.
we must have at least walked through over 8 shops, saw hundreds if not thousand of guitars, and its time to be tokyo raiders…. tokyo food raiders to be precise.
well, surely i aint gonna eat here, this is for the memories… very attractive deco infact, you can see the fish from afar… as i also said in the first post about one month ago, almost every japanese restaurant has their menu displayed outside, only trouble is…. we dont read japanese.
so much for the restriction sign, this guy showing how cool he is by parking is bicycle EXACTLY in front of the ‘no bicycke parking” sign… and chained it to the metal railing beside the road, just outside some restaurants.
finally seeing one… this typical japanese toilet bowl was found in the restaurant we dined in, all the others we utilized was automatic ones…. this made me remember crayon shinchan…
after a 45minute, lunch, here we go again… next shops till i see what’s worth buying…
as we visit more shops, the accessories i bought increased. first, fancy guitar picks, knobs, and almost bought some never-seen-before japanese BOSS effects.
LARGEST Gibson collectino in Japan… although they are expensive, but still cheaper than you buy it in malaysia, how much fire insurance has this shop invested??
u see u see? these babies are testing my resistance, see how long i can refrain myself from taking out my wallet. p/s: these are all GENUINE USA Gibsons, not some Epiphones or china imitations…
ESP custom shop, you can order your guitar here, from pickups, to wood, neck profile, hardware…
lets see what’s inside…
wow…. it’s a…
…hot chick
i told her, hey, “i know you, you are the superstar on TV”
after taking photo, i overheard she told her friend “these guys thought i am an artiste.”
well, you certainly looked like one…
PRS custom, RM32000… want to buy ah??? i mean, can afford to buy ah?
Forest Brothers, guitar in guitar…. price: ASK
you can really see some weird weird de gutiar designs, some which i think will not help in playing at all but only for collection purposes. this shop cannot stay too long, must move on…
this is from another HUGE (5 floors) guitar store, which tai suan and chin sing eventually bought their new Italia guitars here. displaying on the front panel are three awesome out of this wolrd ESP custom guitars. i not quite like this one, the next two are better. the above shown is like a normal guitar body kena acid and the body started deforming…
this one looks nicer and the deformed ESP… but not practical too because you will have trouble playing it for long period if you notice there is no arm rest, you have to rest your picking arm on the arrows… not ergonomic design, but if the guitar is priced at RM500, i will consider buying it, sadly, it was over RM20000.
now this is the best among the three on display, i will definitely buy it if the price was about RM4000, sadly…. it is a not-for-sale item and priced over RM40,000… siao eh, buy a car better la…
can somebody teach me how to stop myself from about-to-buy a guitar at that time?
so, it was over 7 hours we walking all music shops, and the sky was already dark, my feet were very very pain, as i only wear very thin RM18 sports shoe. Chin Sing Jr has stopped walking as he could not bare the pain and exausted. so, i sat down and started thinking which guitar to buy after over thousands of them flashed before my eyes…
i have narrowed my options down to three:
(1)
Fender aerodyne, which i craved for two years back, kaevin eventually bought it years ago after i suggested, the guitar is thin, neck profile suited me well, nice white colour lining surrounding the body, with matching head stock colour. but Suan said, what the heck, buy la something different which is not common back in malaysia…
kaevin’s aerodyne
(2)
Edwards Guitars, weird shape designed guitar, i think the look is more appealing than the playability of the guitar itself, i think i din really click with it.
now u see why i no like, if u look carefully, it looks like a black cat stretching out his front legs, with his ass up behind farting…
(3)
Burny Hide Signature, this is the likelier guitar that i might part my money with (in this case, part with my credit card credit limit)
after some running here there to a few shops, finally put my misery of dilemma to rest by buying the Hide guitar.
wow! she’s a beauty, i made the right choice. MG145 S, costing RM4,900
job done!!
wow, by this time, i was really thirsty, luckily in japan, the drink vendor machines follow you every where
and as you noticed, the sky already dark, and time for dinner.
now this is really called Pasar Malam Gitar (Guitar Night Market), sky dark liao still no want keep and left at road side, i wish i had a lorry in tokyo, and take all of them away while the shop owner inside having dinner…
well, eventually, we (Chin Sing Sr, Haris and Me) all went back to the same restaurant where we dined for lunch, reason is simple, it serves Chinese food!!! more local (malaysian) taste = more acceptable
outside the restaurant got photoshop, yeah, auto photo shop, not that software, the chinese wordings “证明写真” means prove to me you take sexy photos. LOL!!
but in japanese is ID photo machine
i got a little drunk after dinner, though no alcohol consumed.
you must see these beautiful beautiful night scenes!
if only S90 and its owner were here…
why time passed so the fast…. 2 days to go and everything back to normal…
kaevin also wants to be with Hide…
ok, its about time to head home (Hotel A Silk Tree), lets look at the LRT map…
certainly we are not going to “My Grandson’s Place”, or “Take Hand”
and not going to “Tai Suan” becos it’s a dead end…
here comes the train
let’s hop on to the train, but if you wanna stop it, just press the “VERY STOP” button.
we still have some time after arriving at Ishikawacho, bought some sweets, junks, ice cream, and tai suan bought a rare souvenir in book form for metal sow.
ok, gotta leave right now, below are the colourful packaging sweeties keavin bought for his girl friendsss.
Yamaha Asianbeat Asia Grand Finals Yokohama 2009 Part 6: The After-show Party
Jan 13, 2010 Events, Gallery, News
read older related posts here:
Part 1: Ohaiyo and First Taste of Japan
Part 2: Interesting Yokohama Bay
Part 3: InterContinental Yokohama Grand
Part 4: Rehearsal Day and the Retarded Bitch
Part 5: Competition Day
finally its over, just some photos to share here, not really detailed report.
very many the people!
it was like a huge banquet, minus champagne…
happy faces at the end, the lads grown up a lot. Wind Rising wiped off their make-up immediately after their performance, haiyo, wasted my effort lo, know took how long to draw all your faces cutely?
a winning combination, friends and family.
Wind Rising ride a sudden fame.
i love this japanese couple…
Haris has new fan…
Chin Sing pointing to kaevin: not fair, kaevin and haris got chicks around them, how bout me?
G Eleven, the champions of mianland China, the entire band came from the same college. They already have their own band album out as well.
Zen Kwun… i want that monk costume
one of my favourite bands in the conpetition, Pleasant Noiz, nice people, nice song, nice vocal…
Singapore champs Black, a cool lot to be with, on stage agressive metalizm, down stage crazy gang.
The Lemons from Mongolia, probably the most “got attitude” band in this year’s showdown.
Sonoda Bando, named after the keyboardist Sonoda.
me: how long do you practice on the piano every day to prepare this competition?
Sonoda: at least 3 hours.
Storm Bringer bassist (Mr Chocolate Factory, not in photo) performed a Chris Novoselic routine on stage towards the end of their performance.
after we took some photos, chatted with the contestants, it was about 6.30pm already. (the show ended 5pm), and i suddenly remember i did not eat breakfast and lunch, for my size to bare that is a miracle, so better go search for food now…
we walked across the hall, through the main door of the hotel, and going through Queens’ Bay Mall, and finally reached Land Mark Plaza (about 20-minute walk from the convention hall) ah….. really tired…
this is one huge christmas tree sizing almost three floors of the shopping mall.
and this time, i did not wait for tai suan to search for his favourite restaurant and walked in a japanese style outlet with Haris and Chin Sing Sr, well… at the end, everyone came dining here, we had to wait outside the shop around 10 minutes as it was full. while we went in, there were still many waiting outside…
appetizer before main dish. mushroom salad with tomatos and duno what kind of vege. tasted very very good.
main dish… miso soup, fried brinjals, dried salted vege, slices of cucumber, with lemon and mayonize, oh this is so perfect, by looking at this photo, i want to go japan again soonest…
to end this post, i would like to thank Mr Ng… bcos hoh….
this meal he belanja one… wahahaha…
Yamaha Asianbeat Asia Grand Finals Yokohama 2009 Part 5: Competition Day
Jan 8, 2010 Events, Gallery, News
read older related posts here:
Part 1: Ohaiyo and First Taste of Japan
Part 2: Interesting Yokohama Bay
Part 3: InterContinental Yokohama Grand
Part 4: Rehearsal Day and the Retarded Bitch
welcome back to Part 5, and it’s show down in Yokohama. but before that, there was another rehearsal, stage appearance order and prize-giving run-through.
after a furious day in Part 4, i dont really recall much detail in the morning of Part 5 (competition day) as i am writing now, so i try to pen from what i see in the photos below.
chin sing, haris, kaevin lined up in final program run-down rehearsal
the very pro de Mr Steve joined in the rehearsal as well
now i remember, since i was putting up at the hotel again, i did not manage to have breakfast, bcos MORON had badly managed logistic and did not keep Wind Rising well-informed of rehearsal time, they were late and missed breakfast. see? i told yeah, if we (tai suan and me) were in charge, this wouldnt have happened!
the rehearsal lasted not too long, and MORON told us only one person is allowed into the dressing room while the teams prepare for their turn on the main show. since i designed and picked their out look, i was the only one who stayed back to make up their appearance, and the others went for lunch
i had a few ideas in mind prior to setting up their stage image but since only limited cosmetics in hand, the end-product wasnt quite like what i expected.
first, i planned to do half-face on Chin Sing and Haris. Haris was first to go, and he had a red hot appearance, red hair, red shirt, red pants…
then, Chin Sing’s identity would be like two face the villian of Batman
this is Zen Kwun of Taiwan with Chin Sing and me.
this is Ms Oda, Wind Rising’s japanese guide who speaks good indonesian language and english. we hung out in the dressing room and she coudnt stop laughing when i finished drawing Haris’ and Chin Sing’s faces.
this is one sad soul..wahaha… he was complaining non-stop when i painted his pretty face. mrs ng later came to touch up the eye… he looked cool but similar to being punched in the eye huh.
the afer-show-get-together-hall is ready, each team has its own booth where they can sign autograph, take photos, social with the fans and supporters.
here’s one huge Wind Rising poster (it is now located in muzik sistem display room)
since the time gap between now and show time is quite short, i decided to skip lunch and walked around the hall again.
these guys were every where outside the convention hall, promoting the Asian Beat event, in front of the hotal lobby, at the park in the back lane, right at the point where boats arrived, more and more people were showing up…
left to right: Chin Sing Sr, Yin, Suan, me,Carrot, Mrs Ng, Mr Ng.
a Mexican dude took this photo for us, surely must be from the entourage of Kitchen (Mexican champion)
ok, its about time, and since the organisers (Yamaha Japan) were kind enough to give Tai Suan and me the PASS tag, we have license to roam anywhere in the venue before it opens for the public, look at the wonderful competition hall, so grand, feel like holding your own concert here leh…
this hot seat belongs to ah hui’s (Billy Secondhand) big brother… Billy Sheehan
Tang tang tang… show gonna start..
Initally we (the malaysian entourage) were given seats miles away from a good view, but the cunning Tai Suan and me grabbed much closer seats in the end for the entire gang, gradually, the venue was filled up to capacity. the event started exactly the time stated in the booklet, and whole program was superbly managed as you look at your watch and the stage, everthing was like synced. thumbs up to the japanese.
Billy addressing his welcome and opening speech
the judges joined forces to open the show with “Smoke On The Water”, Nishikawa on guitar, he played the guitar using a metal rod, i’ve seen guitarist using stuff like this, violin bow, beer bottle, microphone stand… however, Nishikawa was the cleanest i ever heard playing with toys on guitar.
Rolly was the toast of the gang as his presence and both audio and visual expression were heavily felt by the audience.
thanks to my budget Canon camera, i failed to capture fine photos of Billy and drummer Satoko San
and our hosts for this evening are: Sascha and Kylie
The Lemos were the first to take the stage. They are popular back in Mongolia and “have attitude” in their music, nice vocal work.
next up were Zen Kwun from Taiwan. they combined modern rock with ancient chinese traditional instrument, fresh stuff, impressive.
here come the three stooges, if only S90 was in Japan…
hello S90, why din you come into my world earlier…
each band was introduced on the giant backdrop screen, performed their entry number, then interviewed by the MCs. Kylie said Haris looked like michael jackson, i say Chin Sing looked like two face while kaevin like a porcupine…. more like a raccoon maybe haha.. apart from their stage sound, they played well and i think were a little better than they were at the Malaysia finals. nice job done. Haris introduced malaysian culture to the japanese audience by ending his answers to the questions from the MCs with one, loh, lah…
Pleasant Noiz from japan, i like the band, typical J Rock, the arrangment, performance was nice, and i thought the bassist was one of the most consistant through out.
Zaitan from thailand, instrumental stuff, fusion and jazzy, sort off. soothing music
G Eleven from china was the “cleanest” band, some swing mood taking you back to old 70’s shanghai, it’s a shame that some last-minute drama occurred and affected the band, they were initially 5-piece, but only 4 came to yokohama. the guitarist was the cleanest, simple and matching solo to the main theme of their song.
at this point, we had a 15 minute break, where i left the hall, when i came back, it was near the end of the performance from Paran Byeol (korea), the bassist (tae jung gwon) came down from the stage, and Chin Sing Sr accidentally blocked her access to Billy Sheehan in the middle of the hall 
Paran Byeol were fantastic, (after watching from video, cos i missed the live) the first thing flashed in my mind was: if i were to guide another band to a competition, i will form a band with the maximum number of contestants allowed. Paran Byeol were dancing and kicking on stage well synced with their song. this made me recall korean groups such as Super Junior and DBSK, both have the many many many de members to dance and sing. maybe next time i ask Chin Sing do somersaults and Haris karate on stage…
colourful and youthful Paran Byeol
Black from singapore was the next band, damn, the band was really tight and the drummer stabilized and anchored the metalizm. the guitarist and bassist taped a torch behind thier headstocks and keep pointing at the crowd, the band should easily got sponsorsed from energizer or duracell.
Kitchen from mexico, a easy-listening pop ballad
the mexican team created some light moments when the guitarist was interviewed.
i cudnt remember the exact words but it literally went sort off…
MC: are you guys couple?
guitarist: yeah
MC: getting married?
guitarist: eh… ah….. hmm… maybe
MC: you gonna marry him (asking the keyboardist, see above photo)
keyboardist: no… bcos he din say “yes”….
truely, very romantic couple where they hold hand in hand even walking on stage. all the sweetest best to both of you…
whoever says that Yamaha Asian Beat competition standard has dropped is so so so dead wrong, this is some world class shit. enter Mr Sonoda on piano from entry number 10 Sonoda Bando (japan), fine, superb, electrifying keyboard work and world class arrangement.
if only there were no guitarist in the band, Sonoda Bando would have been the most balanced band in the competition. balanced in terms of dynamic, technicality and performance, but sadly, the guitarist was like an added-on to the band, i hardly notice there was a guitarist until he raised his hands to invite the crowd clapping with him while the violinist solo-ing, i did not hear a single string, or a single pick of guitar sound from the guitarist.
This is Blaster from hong kong, and their song must be one of the weirdest in Asian Beat history thus far, mood swings, frequent change of tempos, and it made you wonder when is the solo part or the ending. the song moved into different directions quickly and yet, such a unique piece to be enjoyed.
Tai Suan pointed Chin Sing and told the bassist (after the competition) that Chin Sing is Lam Xuet (林雪),but guessed the hongkies din know what Suan meant…
“dont….ever come back, cos i dun wanna see you again…”
lead vocal from indonesia group Walk After Running, singing her heart out, these are stuff which champions are made off. the entire performance was like a drama on show, she narrated the story of the song before starting entering the main theme
finally the last contestants to take the stage~
Storm Bringer of japan bringing down the storm to yokohama, rockability stuff ala Setzer style the entire band was colourful and visually attractive.
oh, the bassist comes from a sweets heaven called chocolate factory
yeng leh Storm Bringer…
before the big moment, unforgettable moment, heart-breaking moment…
japanese guest band Hooidos raised the roof with fantastic original japanese rock music, eh, mixture of traditional arrangement with flute and modern rock beat. however, we (from malaysia) cudnt stop laughing when the front man shouted “pookey stand dup! pookey stand dup!”, can anyone tell me what does it mean in japanese, cos in hokkien is so the funny loh!
Hooidos… great entertainment!
judges gave their overall comments. Nishikawa was amazed to see huge amount of talent on show
Rolly said he din only witnessed some world class bands, but the bands also inspired him to move forward in his own musical voyage.
opps, i’ve forgotten what Satoko said, it was more than two months ago now, have to watch the video to recall. Satoko is the daugther of japanese super drummer Kozo Suganuma.
Billy was the last to give his thoughts, he described the event as “wonderful!”
ok, its about time for the result, tai suan and myself made some predictions, and here they are:
tense moment…..
tai suan~
champion: Walk After Running
2nd: Sonoda Bando
3rd: Paran Byeol
Best Drummer: Black
Best Bassist: Pleasant Noiz
Best Guitarist: Black
Best Keyboardist: Sonoda Bando
Best Vocalist: Walk After Running
me~
champion: Walk After Running
2nd: Sonoda Bando
3rd: Paran Byeol
Best Drummer: Wind Rising or Black
Best Bassist: Wind Rising
Best Guitarist: G Eleven or Storm Bringer
Best Keyboardist: Sonoda Bando
Best Vocalist: Walk After Running
we pretty much predicted correctly (if only i can predict soccer results like this…)
the results~
champion: Walk After Running
2nd: Sonoda Bando
3rd: Paran Byeol
Best Drummer: Wind Rising
Best Bassist: Paran Byeol
Best Guitarist: Black
Best Keyboardist: Sonoda Bando
Best Vocalist: Walk After Running
Paran Byeol, 3rd placing and also winning the Best Bassist award
Sonoda Bando landing the 2nd placing and Best Keyboardist award
champions of Yamaha Asian Beat Asia Grand Finals 2009 (Tokyo Band Summit vs Asian Beat) WAR Walk After Running from Indonesia, also winning the Best Vocalist award, the band also had the most number of vociferous roaring supporters in the venue where they virtually turn Yokohama into Indonesia home ground, and japanese bands became the away teams.
to end this post, i present you a priceless photo of our little friend holding the Best Drummer award plycard, congratulaions kaevin, but it’s time to forget about your success, you have higher mountains to climb now.
Yamaha Asianbeat Asia Grand Finals Yokohama 2009 Part 4: Rehearsal Day and The Retarded Bitch
Dec 28, 2009 Events, Gallery, News
Part 1: Ohaiyo Arrival and First Taste of Japan
Part 2: Interesting Yokohama Bay
Part 3: Intercontinental Yokohama Grand
where part 3 is the shortest post, part 4 might be the longest thus far (in terms of word-count)…
please be patient as you read on the long story before the nice photos pop up from below.
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there are people who think they are smart bcos they are really smart;
there are people who think they are smart bcos they think others may not be as smart;
there are people who think they are smart but in fact they are retards.
this post is dedicated to a person who falls into the 3rd category above.
i am no where near perfect as a music educator though been involved in the scene for over 15 years now. however, i always ensure maximum knowledge-transfer is done efficiently to students whom i come upon with. Wind Rising are no exception in that privilege. hereby, let me describe the true process of, the birth of wind rising from zero to hero.
in early june 2009, mrs ng (from muzik sistem) got the news from Yamaha Malaysia that there will be a Yamaha Asian Beat band competition held, and Kedah will probably be one of the hosting regional finalists. mrs ng told me casually “duno whether there will be any new bands coming up this time”. as a veteran in the Asian Beat scene, we annually will come upon the usual suspects, at least four or five same bands from previous years are always taking part annually. off course they improved every different year as experience piled up.
there is a known secret about our little friend Kaevin, who dreams….eh…who craves for Asian Beat action long ago, but too bad, his band Uglyboyz were tragically collapsing. Ugyboyz are another whole lot that gone wasted after years of guidance, but i did learn a lot of things when bringing up the lads, including educating the band psychologically and building mental fitness.
ok, getting back to Wind Rising.. i started to think deeply the possibility of rebuilding a new band, more solid, and most importantly, with the capabilities of challenging other top acts in Yamaha Asian Beat. so i roped in chin sing (bak pao), who often talk craps and smiled alone by himself. i thought before of getting in a second guitarist but experience tells me it wasnt necessary, anyway, there was no eligible student at my disposal who is at the same level as Chin Sing and Kaevin at that time.
so to make the band complete, i enquired on a bassist with Cikgu Man (bass instructor), whether there is a bass student, who has very steady pulse, great time sense, advanced technique and keen on learning new stuff with a constructive mind. he mentioned Haris without hesitation.
fast forward to Chin Sing, Kaevin and Haris first tried playing Uglymen’s classic “Robots”, they glued quite well and Haris started to like the other two kids (i bet Haris was shocked when he first saw Kaevin and Chin Sing were the two kids he was gonna play with). They started jamming a few songs, and off course, eventually, came out with thier song called “Nevermind” for the competition.
it wasnt easy at all to arrange a 3-piece-band for a band competition, i had to sit down think deeply every night after 3am, when i came back from work, and will try out various arranging and alternating the song bit by bit till morning. i had to utilize all their strong points and minimize their weak links. however, penning the lyrics was far easy as it is based on a true story. i had to record over 20 to 30 times in every phrase of the song, reviewed it before i was satisfied with a particular section. it was really hard to come up with the end product.
so, they started playing and performing “Nevermind” whenever they had an opporunity, and to be frank, i was more strict than usual in preparing the band. fortunate enough, all 3 were as hardworking and willing to sacrifice time to practice whether in alor star or changlun 40km+- apart
they were deservedly awarded champion in the regional finals, and to prepare for malaysian final, tai suan (in penang) also came chipping in ideas. where we communicate via emails to keep each other updated on Wind Rising’s latest progress.
as the competition progressed, i made extra effort looking into their attire, make-up, stage presence, speech, choreograph, it was like all of tai suan’s and my experience of over 15 years of band knowledge came pouring down onto these lads. we analyzed video footage of great bands, listen to many great songs, and kept asking ourselves questions to fine-tune Wind Rising. i found more excitement and motivation teaching Wind Rising, as all three of them have NEVER entered a band competition, and Kaevin and Chin Sing were being the youngest (16 and 17 yrs old) to compete in Yamaha Asian Beat malaysia history. they also NEVER perform in front of large scale crowd, and to top it off, the band was formed merely one month when Kaevin hardly knew who is Haris and Haris had no idea how crazy Chin Sing would be in the band.
pardon me for the long details above, as i would like you all to know, after all the hard work, their presentation on competition day in japan were ruined 50% and almost 80% by a single person ~ the person who was supposedly in charge of taking care of the band in Yokohama.
and now, lets fly to Yokohama…
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after a good night sleep, everyone gathered at the hotel lobby and we met Karen Sun from Taiwan, where she took good care of Uglymen while we play in Asian Beat Finals 2005 in Taipei. this time, she was in charge of bringing the taiwanese finalist Zen Kwun to Japan.
since Wind Rising has gone for official breakfast, and all the others were coming from Ishikawacho, i wandered around outside the convention hall and took some photos.
9 am in the morning, relaxing and a real calm across the deck. not many people around and the occasional chirping of birds around made me wanna just sit there and enjoy every fresh breath of the morning air.
this is where people board the boats, it was later on competition day that quite a number of audience came here via boats arriving at this jetty.
the hall itself is a beauty inside, outside, and beside…. every side.
as time went by, team by team from every participating country arrived at the hall for a briefing by stage manager Mr Steve before kick starting the rehearsal. it was about this time that strange things happened.
as the yamaha staff directed every team into the meeting room, tai suan and me followed suit as sort of manager/technical assistant to the band, we were immediately stopped by Managing OfficeR Of coNtestants, hereby referred as MORON, the person who represented Yamaha Malaysia in this grand event.
MORON went into the meeting room, and told tai suan and me to stay outside. however, from our previous limited encounters, we know that MORON aint know nothing about bands and in serious doubt will she air any constructive questions or enquiries to the stage manager. we wandered aroud outside the hall, and decided to ask permission from the japanese staff out side the room, we gained entry EASILY and were ushered into the room!
the meeting was already in progress.
all ears on the briefing
each national team has his own translator / japanese guide
Wind Rising’s pretty translator is Ms Oda
Mr Steve, the big boss of the event. he speaks fluent english, mandarin, cantonese, and off course japanese.
it was fortunate that tai suan and me went in but we did not get a clear picture and program flow. after the 30 minute briefing, we were again told by MORON not to get involve in the stage rehearsal, which we reluctantly agreed.
question marks started to pop up on our mind as why assistance to malaysian team was being prohibited by a person who supposed to be the face of Yamaha Malaysia in Japan (hereby referred as MORON)
since we still have a few hours before wind rising’s rehearsal takes place, we went for a walk in the surroundings and shop for souvenirs for friends and family
this is the ceiling of the convention hall, brilliantly artistic, isnt it? you’ll get to see the grand interior of the huge competition hall in my next post: Part 5: Competition Day
japan largest musical instrument fair, but i wasnt going there.
these posters were every where, the only regret i din attend the fair was i din get to take photos of various luxurious instruments. Haris did. so i’ll share some of his photos at michael-one.com later if he allows.
anyway, the instrument price were very high and zero discount, so no point of exploring the fair, it was justified after we went to tokyo on the 4th day later.
we went to a shopping mall called Queen Square
the first thing attracted me was there were this trio music group performing some children songs on miniature musical instruments.
so, u must wonder how famous they are, their music is simple and pleasing to the ears. lets see how’s the crowd like…
wa… so the many crowd loh, if only uglymen do gig like this hoh….
and japanese are so discipline and no sia soi their country, they lined up quietly, orderly, patiently, waiting in line to get a seat in front of the stage, though it’s an open event, where you can literally stand beside without a seat but still getting a good view.
wa.. see this koko buy their CD and get their signature and photo with them. japanese really know how to appreciate music, in this case, simple but quality music.
going to Pacifico Yokohama, its a shopping complex like our own Pacific Star Parade in alor setar, the only difference is larger, cleaner, nicer, comfortable…. i started buying some souvenirs there and mr ng bought the costliest candies in his life (you must ask kaevin about that… thanks to tai suan recommendation, he ask us go buy, but he himself no buy loh…)
there is a huge open air multi purpose stage in between those two malls and some music shows were always going on there. in malaysia, people use wok to cook, in japan, they use it to play music, lol…. this is Steel Drum ensemble anyway.. wonderful music from the group, i din stay there too long as Wind Rising rehearsal time was approaching.
nothing much really special in the mall for snap shot but this giany snoopy outside the Snoopy Store, i notice snoopy no tail one when i walk behind it, and looking from below, snoopy’s sex is really still a mystery as you couldnt figure it out view from below too LOL!!!
time to get back to the hall, gona walk through Yokohama Grand as the hall is at the other side of the building.
here comes the shocking (no more photos taken from this time till the relearsal was over, not becos i was busy helping out rehearsal, but i was afraid i will throw my camera at that retarded bitch)
taisuan and me arrived at the hall and went into the venue (competition hall) via side doors, it has too many doors and never-ending stairs to confuse you.
Zen Kwun of Taiwan were rehearsing just before Wind Rising’s slot, we paced the front stage (not on the stage) and see what kind of potential the venue had, to enhance Wind Rising’s performance. So, we sat down, looked around and finally Wind Rising took position. The stage was really wide (for a 3-piece band, esp only 2 front men), so we started to draft their positions and see what type of equipment were on offer on the stage. as we approach the front stage, MORON (she was there before us) DIRECTED US NOT TO HELP WIND RISING ON STAGE… this was the EXACT CONVERSATION:
“haiyo, you guys again, why want go help them? let them learn themselves, you want to teach them til when huh? this is INTERNATIONAL competition, in KL always only see you two helping, let them learn and set up themselves la.”
WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS? CHAO CHxx Bxx (pardon me on my choice of colourful expressive words)
we tried to tell her Wind Rising may not know how to express their needs or even were strangers to the amps settings on the stage. i recalled even i got to help Ocean of Fire set up Jonathan’s bass amp in the ASIAFINALS in SUNWAY few years back en route to landing the Asia Best Bassist award, what’s wrong with that?
-Photo by Paul Ooi
electrifying bass solo by Jonathan in Yamaha Asian Beat Asia Finals 2007
we were not like going to stand beside them as they perform, this is called TECH RIDER ASSISTANCE, TECHNICAL ADVICE, and for the 3 kids (Wind Rising, who never perform or took part in competition like this before), CONFIDENT BOOSTER.
all these were WIPED OUT COMPLETELY by MORON, instructed us to sit down and DONT HELP THEM!
was she from Yamaha Malaysia or from other rival teams Yamaha Thai, Yamaha Indonesia? no, she’s not, why? because ALL OTHER TEAMS’ MANAGER, ASSISTANT, ADVISOR, even PHOTOGRAPHER get to go on stage and helped! was she blind or what? The Korean team PRB teacher (with sun glasses) was so busy up there directing choreograph and positioning where to jump down the stage to create gimmicks when PRB took the stage for rehearsal.
she is far far far worse then the worst.
Chin Sing and Haris stood miles apart, with Haris over-covering Kaevin’s, the sight was awful, the amp setting were world apart wrong, Haris’ bass tone was in a MUD like playing gong, Chin Sing’s tone was just average. So, the rehearsal went completely wasted as Wind Rising did not air any request to the stage crew at all.
after the rehearsal, Wind Rising went off to the musical fair, while i was watching all my hard work going down the river infront of Yokohama Grand. tai suan started cursing the wasted chance and we tried to think of some remedy to the total abso-fucking-lutely fucked up situation.
after some lenghtly discussion, we decided to approach the stage manager Mr Steve directly after MORON left the venue. we spoke to him in the most friendly way, to our surprise, Mr Steve was very very kind and helpful to us, and he referred us to the stage coordinator (which i din get to know his name).
We: we are very sorry to trouble you guys again, but can we do some changes to the band setup? cos we did not know that we were allowed to do that on stage.
Stage Coordinator: (in fluent english) you dont have to apologize, its not your fault, it’s your country yamaha representative who din manage the rehearsal appropriately.
the Stage Coordinator told us he would like to help us as much, but he had to inform the sound engineer, the stage controller, the position manager, the tech crew…. on the changes. (see how pro they are!!) after a short discussion with Mr Steve, he allowed us to do another position check in limited time, but it was impossible for another sound check, as there were still many bands waiting to rehearse. well, at least we were able to salvage something out of completely everything gone!
so, every one of us walked back to the hotel and looked for Wind Rising (they went off to the Musical Fair). since all three of them were not in sight, i had to called them or msg them, which was so hard to get through, and when connected, some mis-communication happened which i have to run here there every where to locate them. my total phone bill (roaming from digi malaysia on my phone to japan and again roaming to maxis malaysia on chin sing’s phone in japan) ran up to over RM150 just inside that 1 hour! i dont blame them, but i want Yamaha Malaysia to pay my RM150!
fast forward to Wind Rising came back to the venue.
tai suan informing Mr Steve how Chin Sing’s effect and microphone should be positioned
we did a 15-minute position check, and were very very thankful to all the stage crew on board to land a hand in this extra privilege. it is a BIG BIG SHAME Haris bass tone still sound like shit mud without getting another chance to fine tune the bass equalizers
now you see why were we (still are) very mad at this retarded bitch!
i really need a nice cold ice cream to drowse the rage and fury…
this cute girl is making ice cream, never-eaten-before-in-malaysia type, ah suan also later ordered one, the price is about RM20 one person’s sharing.
all right, after all the fire has been drowsed now, i leave you with a more light-hearted joke, see below:
this billboard is situated in front of the main entrance, if you dont know Billy Sheehan by now, eric martin will drill your head. Billy Sheehan is a world reknown musician, he is most-recognized in 90’s rock outfit MR BIG, and one of the best bassist in the world, with his exclusive tehcniques and out of this world bass playing speed.
in the picture, far right above, it says 入场无料, in Japanese, it means free entry to the event with Billy as a special guest, but in mandarin, it means…..
Yamaha Asianbeat Asia Grand Finals Yokohama 2009 Part 3: InterContinental Yokohama Grand
Dec 21, 2009 Events, Gallery, News
part 1 of 9: Ohaiyo Arrival and First Taste of Japan
part 2 of 9: Interesting Yokohama Bay
hi hi hi, welcome back to part 3, this is the shortest post off the 9 in total
Intercontinental Yokohama Grand is the hotel Wind Rising put up at, where they were sponsored by Yamaha Music Malaysia, some people told me the rate of their room was about RM1.5k per night.
well, that wouldnt surprise me as our store room in Ishikawacho is RM450 pernight, bcos Wind Rising is staying in 6 times of our room size back there.
compared to japan, awareness of preventing H1N1 from spreading in malaysia is far too low. back in our country, it was like nothing happened except you hear some radio announcement, and occasionally see some posters in clinics and few public wearing masks in the streets (p/s: malaysian normally wear masks to rob)
in japan, almost every building we walked into, there were huge sign boards or posters reminding you how dangerous is H1N1, and they have hand sanitizers ready at all entrances.
all right, back to the hotel.
the interior of the hotel is really nothing to shout about (ok la, classy but not out of this world), but…
the location of the hotel is too beautiful to describe in words. first, you can see beautiful river flowing all the way into the sea, theme parks on both sides, and the hotel itself is connected with two HUGE shopping complexes, plus just situated beside the convention hall (where the band competition takes place), the scene from window of the hotel room is just breathless, you feel like sitting there forever. if i am not mistaken, their room was at 13th floor? it has over 25, 30? floors in total.
i want to come here again! (with polished japanese)
since their room capacity was more than 3, i sacrifised my 6 x 9 feet Ishikawacho store room to stay with them for two nights. first, it will be good for me to monitor them and see into their logistics, program run-down, blah blah, cos you just couldnt rely on that bitch (ok ok, i’ll keep that in the bitch post later, no want to spoil the hotel mood)
well, as i said this is a short post, cos not many photos taken, espcially after walking so long to reach here, and had to wait damn long for all the contestants to check in (malaysian team Wind Rising was the first to check in) haha…. so, have to wait til die on the couch…
at the meantime, i went walking around and saw this…
ok, emergency exit in japanese is 非常口，but if you translate into mandarin, it means “very mouth”, or “very the point”, the word 非常in japanese is emergency, so i can see this happen if you dont read japanese but stay in japan:
Teacher: tom why you put up your hand?
Tom: 老师我非常大便. (teacher i very shit)…
ok, its dinner time, this time all of us were really really really really hungry after walking, waiting, looking for places to dine, we finally settled for another japanese restaurant. but this time, the meal is not something i want to remember, since we were so so so so hungry, the tham chiak me ordered two sets of food, and as you can see in the above pic, like nothing was wrong right, udon mee can la… but…
see the bowl of rice on the right? it has fried egg and vege above it, but in the rice, it has uncooked, UNCOOKED RAW eggs stirred in it… walao! how to eat woh, looks like lao sai, or mud, or anything you could imagine… i eat two spoon nia no want dy… and the set meal cost about RM50….
hai…..
after dinner, we walked around awhile, as all the contestants were having their orientation / welcome party, we were not even allowed to go in (ok, more about the bitch later, i know, i know, i am refraining myself from writing.)
that bitch some how knew i planned to put up with wind rising and warned me i was not allowed and may get kicked out from the hotel room! ok ok ok ,, stop! bitch! you will get it in your post i promise.
the whole gang went back to Ishikawacho while i went to the hotel room with kaevin, sat at the window, and looked down at the unbelievable scenes. my RM700 camera did not do justice to the photos shown below.
oh… just so the nice…..
ah… no matter how many photos taken, just so the nice nice…
just beside the river on the right, there is a rotating restaurant on top of a building and another theme park beside.
time to go now, and i leave you with another blur blur pic taken by ah suan…. why why always take my photo so blur one :’-(
Yamaha Asianbeat Asia Grand Finals Yokohama 2009 Part 2: Interesting Yokohama Bay
Dec 17, 2009 Events, Gallery, News
click here to read Part 1: Ohaiyo Arrival and First Taste of Japan
Welcome back to Yokohama!
the weather was just nice for walk in the park! we started walking along the whole stretch of Yokohama Bay (or by other name which i duno).
after buying vitamins, we started walking through the park and this fountain was the first in our way for snapping.
i duno whether this ship is still in operation, or is docked for tourist spot and floating restaurant…
…and on the chain that docked the ship, you can see hundreds of pigeons (not sure), resting peacefully, but if you see them start flapping their wings, you better get away soon, bcos in no time, you will see bombs coming down from mid air.
japanese boy playing with water, ah boi ah, dun play with water la, you know we pay around RM8 for a 7 minute bath in the hotel you know?? but my boss paid double kekeke (bcos hoh, she was the first to try and something went wrong…)
basically the organisms at the bay can be catagorized into:
old folks 50%
mid age 20%
teens and kids 15%
animal 15%
pretty girls like you see in japanese drama and av 0%
one thing i noticed was, there were VERY VERY few people smoking, though it is in open air, maybe out of 100, i only saw 2 or 3. the feeling was like if you wanna take out a cigarette, you feel like an alien there.
another interesting fact is, it is SO HARD to find a rubbish bin along the whole damn stretch of the bay (i later found out even in tokyo street also very hard to see a sampah thang). i wonder where do they throw their rubbish when they are outdoor in the streets.
this very small de dog also wearing some clothes as you can see, the weather is really cold but not freezing, the dog later pang sai on the grass, and the aunty owner cleaned it up.
uncle aunty making talking love in the park, they duno i taking photo lol…
this uncle has no companion to talk love, so he shared his love to the birds
left bird: pstt….. would you like a date to dance fly with me?
right bird: my name is tom, you idiot
wow, and you can see penang bridge from the yokohama bay
wow, you can see a public phone from here…
ok, i know its lame lol…
now i know the phone booth in Get Smart movie is made in japan, see above, so small lo, duno if i can go in
难得 (so rare) came by two girls, they walk walk walk and…
run run run… bcos
this uncle sprawling whole loads of bird food on the ground as flocks of birds came crashing down for goodies
got monkey also in the park….lol… (joking)
this aunty training her toddler to climb trees
have you ever seen people in malaysia take their rabbits out for walk in the part??
this dog is being held back by her/his owner as he/she tries to chase the rabbit
so cute doggy
kombang wa, my name is Hush Puppy, look at my eyes, i am very sleepy
they quarantine the H1N1 infected people in this ship… lol
after strolling for about 30 min, we are nearer to the destination ~ Intercontinental Grand, where all the contestants put up at…. but wait
spotted these poodles behaving suspiciously…
they looked to the right, ok no one…
looked to the left, ok no one…
ok, let’s do it baby! wahaha…
alamak… after finish “do things” liao go pang sai pulak…
my bosses and kaeron. why when we take photos for others all pretty one but…
when ah suan take my photo… ok, raw materail is ugly, cant complain much.
this is called Velo Taxi, where the driver padels the machine, not sure if it has power on board, but it looks heavy and paddling two people hmm… ponders…
ok, hope you enjoy reading the second post of the Yamaha Asianbeat Asia Grand Finals 2009,
till then leave you with this photo where taken just across the street of the main hotel.
sayonara till we meet again in post 3.
Yamaha Asianbeat Asia Grand Finals Yokohama 2009 Part 1: Ohaiyo Arrival and First Taste of Japan
Dec 3, 2009 Events, Gallery, News
the Wind is Rising to Japan
This is the first post of 9 different posts related to the grandest event of Yamaha Asianbeat history thus far.
The posts are divided into~
- Part 1: Ohaiyo Arrival and First Taste of Japan
- Part 2: Interesting Yokohama Bay
- Part 3: Intercontinental Yokohama Grand
- Part 4: Rehearsal Day and The Retarded Bitch
- Part 5: Competition Day Let’s ROCK! and…
- Part 6: After-show Conference
- Part 7: Guitar Conquering Day in Tokyo
- Part 8: Shopping in Yokohama
- Part 9: Departure Sayonara
there will be over 300 photos in the above posts, so please browse patiently if you are using Streamyx (malaysia most cursed broadband provider).
hello00ooo everyone, welcome to www.michael-one.com, this is the first official post at michael-one.com since it went into hiatus almost 2 years ago. as you can see, this site has been transformed into blog-based, thanks to my brother Paul Ooi, this site is alive again! Thanks to Seok Kheng on helping on rebuilding this site. as there was no comment nor guest book section available on this site previously, now, you are welcomed to leave any comment as you enjoy browsing this site.
BEFORE THE TRIP: to go or not to go? i was in deep dilemma to make the trip to japan, many things have to be sacrificed, work, time, vitamin m… thought i would be wrong to go
AFTER THE TRIP: if i had not gone to Japan, i would be 10 times wrong!
at around 2pm, Mr Ng, Mrs Ng, Kaevin, Kaeron, Haris, Chin Sing Sr, Chin Sing Jr and me met up at Alor Setar airport, boarding the flight to KL, meeting up with Suan and Yin at KLIA. We had to wander around til 11pm when the JAL flight departs to Nairta. Besides a stupid Mcdonald’s employee who took away two UNTOUCHED McFillet, which I bought for Suan, and self-proclaimed World’s Best Airport lets you access their wifi for only two hours, nothing worth-mentioning here.
At the airport, there is a section called Viewing Area, and the illustration for the section is hands-waving, they should have used an illustration of a guy holding a binocular waving to a person on the plane holding a binocular, it was so damn the far……
KLIA is so so boring…
we had more than 5 hours to wait for the flight, however, Suan accompanied Haris to KL visiting Haris’ dad as he was in ICU. (thats when the McFillet turned into McVanished)
the flight finally departed and it would be another 7.5 hours before we reach Narita. Mr Ng was reading a book entitled Young and Rich or something through out the journey, minus when he slept, i would read too if i had a book on board called Young and Crazy. there were many movies on board but not really interesting ones, or those that i already watched. so i tuned in to some japanese documentaries and played some games.
at around 5am, i requested assistance from the stewardess on some basic japanese languange, which proved useful in a few days’ time. it was almost 7am Narita local time when we reached the airport.
bye bye JAL, i am going to the arrival hall to claim my luggage
the weather was warmer than i thought, it was 19C, much warmer than i thought it would be. many friends has reminded me of wearing very thick clothes, and even winter wear (as they know i could easily fall ill in cold surroundings), well, it turned out to be a false alarm, i was quite comfortable in a t shirt, plus a converse-awarded-2003 jacket (the jacket was later lost at KLIA when we came back from Japan). as we stroll down the walkway, there were some interesting objects and i captured some of them.
toilet, i know, nothing interesting, but lets see what is hidden behind the wall…
multipurpose bed inside? note the word multipurpose, hmm… it could mean many purposes…hehe…
lets go behind the wall…
oh… Wind Rising doing business inside…
this ad signboard is so cool huh… Fender guitar (its a Diners Club ad here)
after claiming our lugguages, went to immigration officially checking into Japan, for unknown reasons, Haris was the only one stopped by the immigration officer and ordered to take off his jacket, scarf, even shoes for inspection. Then, we met up with Ms Ayoki (representative from Yamaha Music Japan), and helped us arrnaged our transport to respective venues. I tried out some japanese lanuguage as i spoke with her:
me: watashi no nama ehwa michael desu.
ayoki: hai michael… (spoke in japanese which i only understood 20%)
me: hajimemashite
ayoki: welcome to japan… (again some beyond-my-understanding-japanese)
ayoki: blah blah bli bli blu blu.
me: wakarimasen
ayoki: are you their family? (in english)
me: no, i am my family… (in english)
ayoki: …. (smile, thinking this guy must be stupid or crazy)
me: renra kusaki wo oshiete kudasai?
ayoki: no i cant, my cell phone is company phone (in english)
me: oh no, i mean your personal phone (in english)
ayoki: (laugh…)
me: isshoni shahin wo torimashou?
ayoki: sure, no problem…
Ms Ayoki
wow! 1.5 hour ride bus ticket to Yokohama is approx RM140
view from the bus window, isnt it the buildings the same in those Japanese ultraman movies? imagine in this photo ultraman standing hitting the monster’s ass…. (only if i knew how to use photoshop…it will be so fun)
as i did not sleep during the 7-hour journey flight, i soon fell asleep and missed the mask riders fighting scene…
we finally arrived at Yokohama, and will be boarding mrt to our hotel, motel store room sleeping place. a town named Ishikawacho.
unloading our luggage from the bus, it was such a short journey, yet, the japanese were so serious at work, all our luggage were tagged, a piece of receipt were given to us when we boarded the bus, and the driver was so polite and well-mannered, i lost count on how many times he and his assistants greeted and thanked us. it is a far cry back in malaysia where some drivers even make fun of you if you have problem boarding his bus…
nice statue found at the MRT station. while we were finding our way to the ticket counter, we came accross a shoping mall where no less than 60 girls were queuing up at the front door, some wearing very fancy dresses, some dress like dolls only you can see in walt disney cartoons. i should have taken photos but was too paise… (eventually, they were preparing to go to war on a mega-sales…)
we finally reached Ishikawacho around 10am local time, and found the place where we put up at Hotel A Silk Tree, ok, there were no silk tree, although the room is really small, but the experience is… uh… words will not do justice to what we experienced there. very nice and relaxing. the streets were not busy, many old folks walking, cycling around, some talking with cats… (i overheard their conversation)
man: how’s the food?
cat: i am bored with my cat food dude, i want sushi for lunch…
welcome to our storeroom, it is so narrow that you lye down, you couldn’t even place your leg at full stretch, but again, it was nice in some way.. note the room door where Chin Sing’s dad is standing, and i am leaning against the wall taking this pic.
off course there were no wash room attached to our guest rooms, however, there were toilet and basins at every floor, for bath room, you have to go to the ground floor to utilize it, each bath costs approx RM8 for 7 minute, so if you plan to sing songs while you bathe, make sure you do not sing over 7 minutes, else the water supply will stop, and you can either (1) insert another RM8, or (2) wipe of the shampoo, soap with your tower, and wear your clothes as if you are done bathing.
there were notices glued on the wall saying the purpose of charging is to save water and energy, indirectly preserving mother earth so 2012 wont happen so soon…
our rooms were at 9th floor, here’s a view from the balcony
out side of every room has emergency stairs, where it connects to the floor below so on and so forth…
this photo was taken from our hotel’s roof top garden, some buildings beside also has gardens on the roof top.
lets get onto the street! it was about 12pm, the weather was very nice. we were looking for our very first japanese meal
chrome hydrant, try imagine, if it was fixed in malaysia… (now you see…. now you dont!)
japanese ambulance, notice there is an old man behind on wheel chair chasing the ambulance, he must be very strong…
this one from the fire department, the car so yeng leh…
the police car…. i think, as a tourist, it is pretty unusual to see vehicles of the police, fire department and hospital, passing by on the same street and almost same time
this road sign says only men wearing hat can cross the road!
advantage pedestrian.
this is sampah chia, so the cute huh….
one thing, eating out with tai suan around is interesting, and may be frustrating at times, because you have to bare the hunger if your stomach is roaring, he tends to flip the whole street upside down before settling for the finest choice of all. since i am a vegetarian, i don’t care looking much at the food, most restaurant has posters of their dishes displayed at the front door, we literally look at the pictures rather than reading those descriptions. Finally, we settled down at this very japanese-looking outlet.
note the cooking board in the middle of the table, while everyone going for come familiar-looking dishes, i was keen to try out some food which gonna be cooked infront of me. co-incidently, there were a couple sitting beside our table cooking their own food, so i went for that one.
three plates of fried rice to be fried at the same time, the way they prepare the dish is quite different from what we see locally, first, he cooked ingredients for the three dishes, then took out three well-wrapped white rice and piled up on the ingredients… and timble!…
kiang kiang kiang….
japanese rice is delicious in the sense that eh…. the feeling when you chew it in your mouth (口感）,much nicer than our local rice. and this fried rice tasted not bad oh.
haha… here comes mine! full bowl of vege, looks like a giant bowl of salad huh… the waitress left the food on our table, i guessed she expected us to cook, but i requested she does the job cos i was afraid of turning the vege into some crap…
there you go, i should have write down the name of the dish.
and i should have note down the procedure of cooking it, because in less than 5 minutes, it turned out to be one of the best dishes i would eat in japan for the week.
ready to be served. it looks like a giant oyster omelette (蚝煎）now
is so the nice….
the meal cost me around RM50. drinks (generally green tea) were served free in almost every restaurant unless if you order other beverages. the green tea we drank were all tasted like green tea, not like our local japanese restaurant where the green tea either tasted like iced water or water with some grass.
this is one huge arcade / anime freak building across the restaurant where we were dining. they even have top ten arcade players chart at the main entrance
after meal, we took a brief walk down the streets, and headed into China Town. many chinese delicacies and some kick kick kock kock chinese toys, souvenirs… apart from those, it looks like chi cheong kai to me in japan, only that the people are much friendlier, more helpful, well-mannered, and most of call….much much much (x10) cleaner and well organised.
entrance to the China Town
it says car and horse cannot enter loh (lol)….
very busy place and nice place to shop infact, but the fact is, we came here to look for some ala japanese style souvenirs but all here seemed we can get in the pasar malam back home. note the speed limit sign above the photo? since there is no car or bikes horse allowed, it means you cannot run at over 30kmh… wait, who’s gonna run in this busy street??
this is some rare super talent, this guy carves on your handset, any graphic or text, from big dragon, buddha’s statue to very detailed compassion mantra. he stopped me when he notices i was taking shots of him, albeit in a very friendly way. per carving cost around RM80.
cute-looking police station
p/s: the day where we arrived in japan, there was a crime just committed few hours back, every where TV, newspaper were headlining a university girl has been murdered and her head and body parts severed and dumped at different locations…
after walking through China Town, we walked for another 15 minutes and arrived at the Yokohama Bay
to sum up this post, i found this vendoring machine selling vitamins…
