Leaving for Tokyo

I read somewhere that happiness from vacations is short-lived. It is planning and anticipating a trip that gives you the high or ‘’happiness’’.

For me, it is the anticipation that kills. Maybe it comes with my job – always planning and looking too much into details, drawing up checklists, planning the route, connections and accommodations. Plus, I tend to opt for ‘’free and easy’’ holidays and avoid anything ‘’packaged’’.

Tonight, I leave for my much awaited trip to Tokyo. Tokyo is not new to me, having been there twice for business trips. But the memory has always been so hazy. I recall going there, being taken around, and coming back all in a very hurried, stressed, and dreamy state, no different from ‘’Lost in Translation’’.

The past two days I started getting anxious – over my tight budget, directions to various destinations, and itinerary. But earlier today, I felt a certain happiness, as I wrapped presents for Kayoko. I could not help smiling.

I can’t wait to see Kayoko again! We met in Italy, as students, in 2005. One year later, we met up in Tokyo when I was there for a business trip. In 2008, she visited Singapore. This year, it’s my turn to visit.

And yes, I can’t wait to meet up with Willie and the Business Week team too. Willie and I first ‘’met’’ over emails, at work. Somehow we hit it off so well, it’s uncanny. Should I take Willie a present too? I had not planned on that – he is not Japanese, and we have already met several times when he came to Singapore for work.

But, it makes me happy to take a little present for my friends in Japan. So I bought a little box of chocolates, and started wrapping them, after doing Kayoko’s.

Business Week? Well, I would say they are work connections. I know the marketing team in Singapore, and they connected me to the team in Tokyo, who will be showing me around their office, which is now in the same building that Willie works in. Yes, Bloomberg has acquired Business Week! I decided to take them some chocolates too, and a box of postcards.

I fill my luggage with presents, like Santa Claus. When I return, I will fill my mind with memories of lovely conversations, warm meals, and lots of hugs. And hopefully, a well rested soul, and memorable photos too.

Coke and Lemon

Lately we have been reading quite a fair bit about the dismal state of service in Singapore.

Singapore has been ranked ninth out of 10 countries and territories for the third consecutive year last year for customer satisfaction.

‘’If Singapore is to lift its languishing service standards and compete effectively with top global cities for visitors, chief executive officers here must show that they are serious about changing things,’’ pontificates six CEO’s at a recent Forum.

Service standards have indeed sunk to a crisis point, reported the papers. Crisis point? Or ridiculous point, I wonder? Or pure despair, and beyond hope?

I was at Sakae Sushi yesterday, hungry, in a hurry, and wanting a quick bite. I saw the claims on their computer screens: ‘’our rice is enriched with Vitamin E! Our food is sent for bacteria count examination each week!’’

Still, I didn’t have high hopes for food served from a conveyor belt in Singapore, and was not under any delusion of a gourmet meal in a five star establishment. But neither was I expecting to be talking to someone from another planet or who has lost her human capacity for reasoning:

Me: You serve diet Coke? Can you put a few slices of lemon into my diet Coke?
Waitress: (Dead silence, confused look)
Me: (noticing a very Chinese name on her tag, repeated my request in Mandarin)
Waitress: (Blank look)
Me: Lemon, you have lemon? (surely a Japanese restaurant would have lemon in the kitchen)
Waitress: Yes, yes
Me: Ok, can you give me a few slices and put them into my Coke?
Waitress: (Pointing to the fridge in front of me, containing bottles and bottles of mini Coke) But our Coke comes in bottles.
Me: Do you pour out your Coke from the bottle before you serve?
Waitress: Yes
Me: Ok, never mind, just give me a few slices of lemon, and the Coke.

So in this case, are you going to blame the CEO’s for not being serious, for not training their staff (to think?!), for hiring staff with no IQ, or simply blame the staff for being too lazy to ‘’exercise her brain’’?