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Monday, September 26, 2005
aichi banpaku visited...
ok lah.. since i mentioned about the expo earlier this morning, i will first cover this photo blog... fafa... omataseshimashitane...
but first of all, let me list out the pavilions that i have visited... (in order)
1. japan electric pavilion
2. singapore pavilion
3. dream pavilion
4. mitsubishi pavilion
5. spain pavilion
6. toyota pavilion
the highlight of the event is undoubtedly the toyota pavilion, where we had to queue for 2-3 hours for the 20 mins show. not too bad lah, considered i queued 3h 15mins for a spiderman ride in Universal Studios (Japan) before.. fafa.
also some of the pavilions i visited, nothing much interesting, so i didnt feature any photos here... hehe... and toyota pav, no photos allowed. so dun be sian diao to see that most photos are of the singapore pavilion ok? hehe...
here we go...
we first reached the expo at ard 830 am... obviously being 30 mins early isnt good enough, as we are already behind these bunch of ppl in the line...
yeah.. ppl so many until cant even see the entrance...
that's our first queue of the day - to get in.
we charged for the toyota and hitachi pavilions, but by the time we got there, they already closed for the day (ie. filled with reservations liao), and will be opened only after 5. hence we trudged along to the one with fewer ppl (but still need to queue 45 mins) - the japan electric...
which wasnt really interesting. next.
by that time, it was already late morning, and time for a quick pavilion followed by lunch.
SEA corner... tadah! singapore pavilion just at the corner.
(hmm... i wonder how much singapore paid to get the prime location - first pavilion ppl will pass by in this region)
anyway, being singaporeans, we went to visit our homeland, not so much to look at the hoo-ha surrounding their 'moment of genius' - the rain simulator, rather for the food... hehe.. yummy singaporean food...
and being singaporean, quite proud that the queue for our pavilion is longer than most, if not all, in this region ;)
at the entrance, all visitors are handed an umbrella each. cos we all were to watch a clip of singapore in the rain.. yes the rain simulator..
good idea? well the locals like it.
well at least since the outside was hot, the rain was sort of like a welcome change.
afterwhich, was a stretch displaying singapore's local artwork... wah super arty farty man... they portraying singapore to be some art hub, but sadly i dun think she really is... not yet anyways.
then we went past 2 walls of chinese medicinal herbs...
yup, those are drawers containing all the chinese herbs.
hmmm... again, common in singapore? representative of singapore? maybe ;)
then theres this...
opera costumes and indian costumes and what have yous....
so far, there isnt much message in saving the planet. more like scalping the plants for herbs... haha.. but in the next room, finally theres an exhibit using NEWater bottles to form a .. what was it? light? chandeliar? lantern? i cant remember... and again more arty stuff...
and we reached this part...
selling singapore memorabilias... at the right, you can see SIA uniforms being sold.. hehe...
we even posed with the Merlion... something i havent done since i was a little kid.. hehe...
calvin, james, jianrong, me, tshush, august, all stand in awe of japan's fav singapore statue.
hey we singaporeans dun think much of the Merlion, but mark my words, do yourself a favour and learn the legend behind it. cos for many of the foreigners i have met so far (esp the japanese), the one thing they know about singapore is the merlion. and when you tell them about the story behind it, they will be definitely delighted. ;) worked with the japanese gals i've met so far... hahaha
anyway we came to the most exciting part of our expo trip - LUNCH.
heheh they sold things like chicken rice, curry chicken rice, hokkien mee, carrot cake, popiah, curry puff, etc.
yup 600 yen for a can of tiger beer from singapore. the gal at the counter is air flown from singapore too, in case you are wondering.. hehe.
i spent 1500 yen (23 dollars) on a curry chicken rice... not chicken rice, as i can get that in tokyo. by singapore standards, i think it is ok.. but since it is a rarity here, i was totally satisfied, begging for more!!
curry chicken rice
laksa
hokkien mee
the laksa was not bad too, but tsu tsen was suay as he ordered a sub-standard hokkien mee. he was so pek chek that he ordered a curry chicken rice (1500yen) and ice kachang (600yen) as 2nd round. all in all, he spent a whoppng 3600 yen (55 SGD) just for the hokkien mee, curry chicken, and ice kachang... ex-AC boy, so no probs lah... fafa
we were talking ard the table until a voice behind me said..
"oi... where are you guys from?"
we turned and saw a lady in her early 30s.
"singapore lor, where else?" was my reply. our accent, and singlish kinda hard to ignore.
we started chatting with her and found out that she was the owner of the food stall. she asked us how the food was, and i told her frankly that the curry was quite good, but sadly the hokkien was dismal. she was like "why did you order hokkien mee??? aiyoh.. if i was here, even if you all wanna buy, i also dun wanna sell to you"
she explained that since the taste of hokkien mee is derived largely due to the pork lard, the stall being halal (to serve muslim singapore ministers, and other SEA neighbours), they couldnt replicate the taste. it was good enough for the locals, but she told us to avoid at all costs.. but too bad. i then asked her, got discount or not?
"discount cannot lah, but what i can do is to give you guys some stuff FOC" she replied.
she immediately ordered some set, with curry puff, popiah, and carrot cake.
steady!
they were yummy, not only because they were free, but quite authentic. she definitely knows her stuff... she asked whether we tried the chicken rice, and we said no. she said it was a must try - her pride and joy. so again, she signalled her kah kiahs to bring up a plate for us to try, free of course.
and my gosh - it was really really good! even by singapore's standards! she explained that for hainan chicken to taste like that, cannot use frozen chicken meat, but must use live meat. she mentioned that the whole of japan, only nagoya can find live chicken, hence the good quality...
we sang the praise so much, she offered another plate to us. waving the 2nd plate in front of me was a temptation too much to refuse, but i was thwarted by my frens.. hehe... we kindly declined saying that we needed to continue our tour. she returned the plate to her boy at the counter and told him "the curry chicken also no need liao, tell them dun bring up"...
we are some lucky singaporeans. hehe..
anyway, as i said that was the highlight of the day. the 2nd highlight was the toyota, but i think i prefer my chicken rice.. hehe...
we went to the dream pavilion, and saw some rather bizarre video clip abt humans tranforming into dogs... dunno what was that. after which, we went to the spain pavilion..
spain pavilion
how could we photo-crazy singaporeans miss this photo-taking chance? hehe...
along the way we took some photos as well... didnt have time to go in for more...
romania pavilion.
forgot what pavilion this was.. hehe..
the dutch pavilion.
photo with the mascots... hehe..
we took a cable car to get back to the toyota pavilion for 600 yen. before we boarded the cable car, i saw this...
having a toddler on a leash.
steady.
view from the cable car.
we reached the pavilion, queued up for close to 3 hours, watched the very interesting 20 min robot show, and got out. in the robot show, there were 2 segments. 1st segment you can see toyota robots playing musical (brass) instruments. yes, they actually blow and play them. it was kinda cool. the 2nd segment was even cooler - you see the new age vehicles - concept of toyota. real real cool. if only they start selling these things sooner. as i said, too bad no photos. but i do have a videoclip of this show (condensed version), maybe i will upload it somewhere. drop me a mail or comment if you are interested to see it.
by the time we got out, it was already dark...
anyway, though we couldnt take photos of the show, we were able to take photos of the cool car as they were exhibited outside.
car in a seating position.
car in a speeding position.
nice hor?
another nice car concept exhibited, but not featured in the show.
it was late, and we were all tired from the whole day of queuing... hence we decided to call it a day after that (not that we have any other choices - we tried toshiba and hitachi, but they were closed liao).
before we left, we went to the expo shop to get ourselves some omiyages..
yes... a long queue to get into the shop.
seriously, the crowd was crazy man. i didnt even have space to keep my hands down inside the shop... seriously. after grabbing a few stuff, i left.
逃げた!
and that was my whole aichi experience. sigh. how "marvelous"...
posted by winz at 3:40 PM
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