A Trip to Oz, Singapore & Japan!

JULY 2023

Oz, Singapore, Tokyo trip

Mark’s role in Blackline is Head of Global Sales and as part of the new take over, he was off on a fact finding visit as he hadn’t visited all his areas since before Covid 19. So, he scheduled a whirl wind tour covering Australia, Singapore and Japan and again I thought I’d tag along. While he worked in the week, I went to museums and gardens and generally investigated areas. I cannot lie and say I always knew where I was and yes, those of you who know me, know that I always get lost, but the trick is not to get too stressed about it and just accept its part of the adventure. I just asked people and they were always helpful. The only issue was when I was out in 100-degree heat and lost… I am a typical Englishwoman and go completely red faced.

AUSTRALIA

Australia was a 15 hour flight – far shorter than from the UK and it wasn’t a bad flight if you have a couple of melatonin gummies. We stayed in a hotel room overlooking the Opera House which was spectacular. We arrived in Australia’s winter which was cardigan weather and hardly what we know as winter…. It was the weekend and with a bank holiday, so I had 3 lovely days with Mark, on a Big Bus tour, walking around Rocks market, going to an old Art Deco cinema in the Sydney Film Festival seeing Asteroid City and seeing the beautiful illuminations in the harbour. In the week, I walked and walked, hitting around 12,000 steps each day, which I can tell you is tripling what I normally do and my legs were absolutely dropping off but it was worth it, as I stopped every so often and had the best cappuccinos I’d ever had, while looking at art and plants ….and shops!! A note to self is that I need to take my sunglasses off as in one shop I didn’t see the side glass door was open side and went to knock on the glass to get the shop assistances attention, only to have the young lady come up to the doorway and point to the open side – I’m such an idiot!!! The pedestrian crossings have an epic almost rave music – which makes you walk faster for sure. I visited the National Australian Museum, which tracked the history of the first white invaders/settlers, and I did feel uncomfortable about the British Empire’s treatment of indigenous people, so kept quiet, so as not to be identified! Then, I walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, viewing Sydney Harbour from above, which is very beautiful. I met some of Mark’s Australian Team who were very cosmopolitan and colourful characters, from South Africa, New Zealand and one lady had found out that she was descended from an aboriginal princess, it was fascinating talking to them. The funny thing was they decided to book an American restaurant of all things. The Australian government has taken affirmative action to show support to the aboriginal people by having a disclaimer on all websites across all government and businesses which say things like ‘ The Australian Museum respects and acknowledges the Gadigal people as the First Peoples and Traditional Custodians of the land and waterways on which the Museum stands,’ which is at least a start in owning the invasion of their lands and it’s something I cannot ever imagine the American’s doing….

THINGS I HAVE LEARNT ABOUT AUSTRALIA

· Australians love to travel and holiday in Fiji

· Winter is a lovely time to visit, especially during the Illuminations

· Britain wasn’t great with the natives!

· Australian politics seem tame compared to the UK and USA.

· There are lots of lovely architectural sites to see, but as a Brit, it all feels very new history.

SINGAPORE

Next, we travelled to Singapore on an 8 hour flight and got upgraded in our hotel to a higher floor and looked out over Raffles! It was a lovely hotel with a beautiful swimming pool and the best thing about it…. I could see it when I got lost as it was a high distinctive building. Mark had the weekend off and we went to the fantastical Gardens in The Bay with and the bizarre Marina Bay sands which has a cruise ship spanning two hotel building roofs had a Raffles cream tea and visited Haw Par Villa which used to be Tiger Palm Gardens and where I visited as a 6 year old child when I lived there with my family, as Dad was in RAF Changi as an armourer. I actually have strong memories of that time, but the city has changed beyond recognition apart from this park. Mark took pictures of me in exactly the same place and we also discovered that one of the Buddhist stories of the park is that of Monkey, Pigsey, Sandy and the monk Tripitaka – those of you the same age as me, may remember the Friday night dubbed Tv programme called Monkey, with the theme tune Monkey Magic which I loved as a child, but never connected with the park I had visited years before… isn’t it funny about life’s connections…

The heat in Singapore was stifling and it was difficult to walk for too long in the middle of the day, but many of the malls are connected underground so you can find many routes where you can stay in air conditioning most of the way. I even found a Marks and Spencer, where I bought some undies (as they are definitely the best in the world)!

The funny thing is that only the locals know where the mall links are as there are no maps anywhere showing the routes, so through a bit of trial and error and walking through malls the wrong way and finding I was back in the same place I started, I have now mapped out some routes, if I ever was to return. On a note I mentioned in my Sydney notes the pedestrian crossings are similar to the sound of Sydney, but there is a concession card which disabled and older people can tap on the button area, and it gives them extra time – Singapore is wonderful!!! 😊

I went to the Singapore National Museum here too and I joined a group tour walking slightly behind. It was a ethnically mixed tour and I was the only white Brit and much of the tour was rather anti British, so I aimed to not speak, just nodding now and then. I was especially ashamed when we saw a sacred stone which had been at the mouth of the harbour and had been blown up by the Brits to make the harbour entrance bigger. There were nice stories though, where the Brits tried to understand and support the indigenous peoples, once you got over the fact that the original governor captured a Malay and held him prisoner to learn the language, then after a number of years where the Malay was now wearing British clothes and eating with the family, felt that they had become friends and decided to free him, taking off his chains (yes he was still in chains). The Captive ran off to be with his family… of course, much to the dismay of the governor. I also learnt about the Chinese opium dens and the gambling which the government made money from at the time.

The national museum is housed in a beautiful white colonial building standing amongst the modern tall skyscrapers and a Law School campus as well as Fort Canning Park, where the Malay Royalty once lived and the place where there are the ruins of an underground military site from the 2nd world war. The museum shows eras of Singapore history, with some recent discoveries of the 14th century indigenous people whose history was washed over when the Brits arrived, as well as exhibitions showing Singapore’s Independence and its separation from Malaysia (the Prime Ministers speech in 1965 was very moving), but no mention of the RAFs time there unfortunately and I couldn’t find any museum that did. What I did see also was an exhibition about the second world war and the Japanese invasion. I had no idea before about the treatment of the Chinese during this time, the persecution and extermination by the Japanese – it was very shocking. Selfishly, suddenly I didn’t feel quite as bad about being a Brit!

National Day was being rehearsed in the streets around us and as Singapore is such a new country and is such a mix of peoples that I was moved by their ideals – it felt to me as the primary ideals of America originally before the fascist Republicans were in charge, and I thought back to being moved by the Lincoln Memorial on my visit to DC, with his speech on 50 foot tall tablets on the walls about the dream for America of equality and tolerance… something that many US politicians need to revisit instead of being hooked on the right to own a f***ing gun! We met the Singapore team, and they were lovely, very young and keen to please. They’d booked a German restaurant which served German beer and sausages. I said to Mark that he needed to be more direct in where we wanted to eat! 😊 One of the guys was an American from New York called John who’d been in London during Covid and later travelled with us to Japan.

THINGS I HAVE LEARNT ABOUT SINGAPORE

· Singaporeans are very proud of their new country and rightly so!

· It is incredibly hot during June, use an umbrella to shield from the sun.

· Many people are still using masks when in large crowds.

· Britain wasn’t great, but in many ways not as bad as the Japanese (depending on your perspective I suppose)

· There are lots of amazing architectural sites to see, but as a Brit, it all feels very new history.

· There are Marks and Spencer stores, but they don’t sell sandwiches. ☹

JAPAN

Our last leg of the journey was Japan, and we had a 7 ½ hour flight to Tokyo with John tagging along to meet the Japanese team. Now Japan was a whole other experience!!! I practiced saying and trying to remember a few words in Japanese on the way and working out where I would go as Mark was working for the first couple of days there. Luckily Mark had booked a guide through work for the first day called Yuki and she had sent me a note asking what I wanted to see. It was an invaluable day, as Yuki showed me how to use the metro (well the local area anyway) and learn that every station has a different tune- how lovely; Why Tokyo Has Musical Train Stations - YouTube (Matsudu is my favourite and btw, it was busy, but I was never pushed on) and that most people walk or stand on escalators on the left, but that’s not always the case….; and showed me some of the Edo or old parts of Tokyo. She told me about the rituals of the temples at Senso Ji Temple, on how to bow at the Buddhist Temples, and when to bow, clap twice and one long bow at the Shinto Shrines, which were built along side the temples even though they were a different religion to make sure there was no rivalry; the water fountains outside the temples are used to wash hands and sprinkle water over your heard and pre covid there were spoons used by hundreds of people to drink the water too (thank goodness that stopped). Everyone carried a small towel with them to dry their hands and wipe their sweat – something I started to do too; There was also incense burners where you bought them to burn and put them alongside many others in a burning hot cauldron (it was a libel suit waiting to happen if it was in the US) and then you stand in front of it and wave the smoke over your head – it is all about rituals and ceremony; The emperor and the samurai followed both religions strangely, but it seemed to work; Yuki told me that most of the temples we see today in Tokyo are rebuilt as most have burnt down over the years, as they are all built from wood…. The Senso Ji Temple gateway was erected in the 80s. After we went to a ceremony I understood how this was possible as the priest in the ritual burns the paper fortunes left by people (if they are bad or unwanted fortunes) and I watched fearfully as the fire rose higher and higher, smoke filling the temple and saw the sparks fly into the ceiling – I’m amazed it hasn’t been banned. Yuki showed me how to order food from a vending machine with pictures at the front of a café and then take the ticket that popped out to the cook who then prepped it for you -Ramen and tempura was the food of the streets and so many pickled vegetables (Kimchi) – no salads here!! BTW the pedestrian crossing uses bird churping noises – rather nice!.

We finished the day with a calligraphy artist called Chikako, who showed me the ritual of calligraphy, making my own ink from a block and how to use the brush, which was an art form in itself. It was lovely a few days later to talk to an Australian lady in an art shop about it when they were asking about the process. We met the lovely Japan team with New Yorker John and they had picked a French restaurant…..:-O They were so excited to have us there it was almost embarrassing. We promised to go out again and go to Karaoke.

Over the weekend Mark and I went to see Hayao Miyazaki’s clock at the Nittle Tower (for those who don’t know, he is the famous Japanese film animator who made Spirited Away and the character Toroto – I only know this because my kids have told me 😊) and then ate lunch at the Dawn Café an Avatar restaurant which was run by avatars (along side humans. Each table had its own little robot to give your order to and have a chat to and we discovered that they are operated by disabled young people many miles away. Our avatar guy was called Orihome who is in a wheelchair, and we had a lovely chat about his love of sport and rock music and playing guitar. We discussed ACDC and our favourite rock songs. It was very heart warming.

On Sunday Mark and were accompanied by the lovely New Yorker John and a wonderful lady called Takako (who looked 25, but was in fact 45ish), from the Blackline office who we met in Kyoto. We took the bullet train which was a fab experience in itself and yes the train station had its own tune. Every train runs exactly on time!!!

During the 2 ½ hour journey we had little few pidgin English words with a very old and wizened man who sat in front of us and had heard our accent and he pointed to his luggage label which was from France. Everyone was so friendly.

Takako met the 3 of us at the station and thank goodness she did as it was mayhem and then we took the metro to the area of Gion, with its tea houses and the fantastic market streets of Nishika (where we saw all range of foods, clothing and gifts) and the temples of Chion. These temples were far less touristy and were all about meditation and zen gardens. We saw many kimonos being worn as normal dress, even the children and Takako told us that that is their version of Sunday best and they wear them for special occasions, including going to Temples, family gatherings and even graduations. Traditional family portraits are taken at milestones, and they all wear kimonos for these. How wonderful to keep those traditions alive – I wish we would do that, but what would we wear? ..... Morris dancing outfits maybe :-D

Each restaurant or shop has the traditional material framing the top of the doorways and in a very old part of Kyoto, we walked down a street that looked like something from 200 years ago and then entered the door into an ultra-modern Italian restaurant for a well-earned gin and tonic – very bizarre and rather wonderful. Speaking of G&T, the favourite drink of the Japanese is a Highball – Whiskey and Soda. Mark had trouble getting whiskey and coke – his favourite drink- as they servers couldn’t believe he would want coke and always looked incredulous.

At one of the shrines, I got talking to a couple of young British girls who didn’t know what to do with getting a fortune and what to do afterwards. I was pleased to be able to show them. Takako was amazed they didn’t know as she kept saying…’but they’re Japanese” and I pointed out that they were Brits – it’s a funny world!

On the days when I was on my own, I had exciting times on the metro, being the only blondie on the train, but I also felt at home because most people were the same height as me!!!

On the first day on the metro tube, I went to try and use the ticket machine, but after a bit of difficulty, was helped by a lovely very young Tube assistant who couldn’t speak any English, but we got there and I realised that instead of saying thank you a few times, I’d been saying hello, hello, hello – what an idiot! :-D I travelled on the Ginza line (orange) and arrived at the Ginza shopping area, looking at 7 floored art stores and the most amazing Muji shop that was more like IKEA and of course stopping at coffee shops on the way …. I am going to have to wean myself off caffeine now I’m back! I also visited the Tokyo National Museum situated in Uena Park which was beautiful and I was in awe at the history spanning over 1000s of years, influenced by Chinese and Korean culture throughout. It displayed the beautiful kimonos, paintings, history of the language and the development of the Japanese from the Chinese lettering (kanji) which over the years has been simplified away from the combining them with hiragana and katakana - all very fascinating, and something I can easily go down a rabbit hole of research on youtube. On one evening Mark, John and I visited the Golden Gai area where there are tiny bars which only hold 5 people max in two stories and are packed into 3 alleyways. A ‘pub’ crawl would be amazing there. We only managed 2 and then went to eat – such light weights. We then walked to the famous Shibuya crossroads where there is the 4D billboard which is truly a wonder….

On the last night we met up with the Blackline team again and went to a Japanese restaurant this time. After taking off our shoes at the entrance, I was rather concerned to see how low table was and saw the seating cushions, but was relieved to see that modern Japan had large holes in the floor below the table so you could sit normally. The courses were brought out in tiny, beautiful bowls, each containing Japanese delicacies (one was sea urchin and cod roe eggs). The last course we cooked on coals next to us – it was wonderful. Then to finish off the evening we went to a karaoke private bar called the Happy Cat and sang for 2 ½ hours – fantastic fun. Some had awful voices, some Ok and some, amazing, but it didn’t matter as everyone sang along with everyone - they are such wonderful people!!!

We were sad to leave the next day, but really needed to get back to our doggies and the golden hills of LA.

THINGS I HAVE LEARNT ABOUT JAPAN

· Its bloody hot in June, use an umbrella to shield from the sun, you won’t look out of place.

· The Japanese are tiny – don’t expect to get XL in clothing anywhere.

· Japan was isolated for 300 years and is still steeped in its traditions – kimonos and going to temples.

· Most Japanese affiliate and practice their religion.

· The metro system is like London’s tube and the Bullet train is wonderful.

· Its important to bow when saying thank you – they love it!

· Many people are still using masks and Yuki told me that the conservatives are the ones wearing them.

· There is so much history in Japan that it’s difficult to know where to start and you would have to stay for a few weeks to even scratch the surface.

· Make sure you have shoes easy to slip on and off and no holes in your socks.

· The film, ‘Lost in Translation’ is a pretty accurate depiction of the Japan experience.

· Karaoke bars can be big enough for large groups, but you can also book them for small groups and even individual rooms where people go during the day just to sing alone.

· Karaoke in Japan is the best thing EVER!

· Shout ‘Kanpai’ instead of cheers – it means ‘dry glass’ or ‘down in one’.

· Taxi drivers use white embroidered covers on their seats and are very friendly, but don’t understand you, so show them google translate or google search of your destination.

· Tokyo station has a basement street with shops only selling anime memorabilia.

· Everything is spot on time, so you can’t be late – it’s very rude.

· Japanese toilets are an experience in themselves.

A FEW WORDS TO USE

· こんにちは (Konnichiwa) - Hello

· ありがとう (Arigatou) - Thank you

· すみません (Sumimasen) - Excuse me / I am sorry

· はい (Hai) – Yes

· いいえ (Iie) – No

· じゃね (ja ne) – Goodbye

· カンパイ (kanpai)- cheers