Joy to the World

Christmas is coming. And it's that time of the year when Orchard Road is illuminated with LED lights and traffic starts to crawl as motorists slow down to let their passengers on-board take in the colourful sights along the way. Red, green and gold - these are the colours that have come to be associated with everything about Christmas. 

In my childhood days, Christmas brought me special feelings. It was more than just a public holiday. I would wait with eager anticipation for carollers and Santa to march by and to hear them sing from one home to the next. Christmas songs like "Oh, come all ye faithful" and "Joy to the world" remain deeply etched in my memory as part of the Christmas scene. And I recall how I soon joined their ranks and participated in a pantomime about the birth of Christ - playing the role of Mother Mary. That was in fact my first acting break at the age of 8. 

These days, people celebrate Christmas regardless of their religious beliefs. Christmas has been successfully white-washed by commercialism into a holiday time for shopping and merry-making. It is a peculiar story of how businessmen managed to transform a major religious event into a secular event, bringing in huge revenues for shopping malls and eateries during Christmas season. Such a transformation does not seem to have ever happened to any other major religious festival. 

Whatever the reasons for people to celebrate Christmas today, may Christmas continue to bring glad tidings to each and everyone. Let's hope one thing will never change for Christmas. That every Christmas will always be true to its spirit of love and remembrance - a time for us to give and to forgive. 

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Great food and excellent hospitality, Japan will never disappoint you

I have always loved holidaying in Japan. It was my honeymoon destination and if you are looking for beautiful scenery, great food and excellent hospitality, Japan will never disappoint you.

I was in Tokyo for a couple of days in the second week of June. It was a free and easy trip and moving about in Tokyo was so easy. The trains are so efficient that they arrive almost immediately. You will not feel that you had been kept waiting and from the airport to my hotel in Hamamatsucho, Minato-ku, the cushion seats provided great comfort to every weary traveller who has just arrived.

There are endless shopping streets and malls in Tokyo and you simply cannot miss  the great offerings of Japanese confectionery, sashimi, sushis and noodles. There are sushi bars and noodle shops and if you have a budget for food and don't mind standing when you eat, then you might want to try the standing sushi and noodle outlets. Be assured that the food will be just as good. If you like to relish freshly caught fish and other seafood, head down to the Tsukiji Nippon Fishery Port Market, somewhat like the Sydney Fish Market, where you can also find juicy oysters.

One of the must-visit stores for me in Tokyo is definitely Tokyu-Hands. I like browsing and vividly remember my first visit to the store in 1989. Even now, Tokyu-hands still intrigue me with its wide collection of innovative items for kitchen use to office use. Tokyu-Hands has set up shop in Singapore but the outlets are small. You will never get the same shopping experience that their multi-storey stores offer in Japan.

Tokyo's Shibuya is another must in the internerary. The intersection outside Shibuya Station is famous for the massive crowds crossing from various directions when all the traffic lights turn red at the same time. The pedestrians would literally "pour" into the intersection like marbles spilling out of a box. You can get a good view of this phenomenon from the second-storey window of Mark City. And of course there is also Asakusa where you can find Senso-ji (the oldest temple in Tokyo) and Harajuku, where you will be able to feast your eyes on cosplay enthusiasts in their best outfits but only on Sundays. Although cosplay fever has only reached Singapore's shores in recent years, it started in Japan some 30 years ago.

The yen has dropped quite significantly during my visit. It was ¥1000 to S$1.10 and so things were relatively cheaper. You can't beat Tokyo for its standard of service and hospitality. Japanese paper-wrappings of anything you buy is a true art and sometimes you wonder why they pay so much attention to every minor detail. There is this personal pride in everything they do and they do it so well. , That's a culture that we seem unable to replicate in Singapore though we may have succeeded in achieving a similar standard of living. Like they say, we may be able to recreate the place but we may not necessarily be able to recreate the culture.