Someone send me on a shopping assignment, please

The senior journalist who covered the story of the gold-plated office tap was recently assigned to do one on the best shopping cities in Asia. Wow, she gets to do pretty exciting stuff, doesn't she? I didn't actually read all the articles because they were so long but I know that at the end of it, she ranked Hong Kong #1, followed by Singapore (which rather surprised me), then Bangkok.

Since I didn't read everything she wrote, I'm not sure why she didn't cover cities such as Tokyo and Seoul, but I just want to have my two cents' worth here, since it's about shopping. The BEST shopping cities I've been to are in Japan. Great variety, quality, service, etc. And also very fashionable, trendy stuff, as well as conservative stuff if you want. The best part of it is the prices aren't as high as you think they would be, although the cost of living overall is rather incredible.

For example, electronic products might even be cheaper there, but the catch is that everything is in Japanese, including your on/off button (and all the other buttons), instruction manual, etc.

Japanese cities are really the places to be if you want to shop till you drop, or window shop till you drop (which is really fun too). But nowadays, with no earnings, I will, of course, not be found in any Japanese city... sigh...

You will find shops everywhere -- indoor malls, outdoor malls, underground malls, above-ground malls, etc...

Even a factory outlet (and a pretty good one, I must say) near Kansai Airport (Osaka)

Huge shopping complexes

Shops on a hill leading to a temple

Seoul has huge malls and shopping areas as well, but the stuff isn't as interesting as what you would find in Japan. In fact, I would say that even Hong Kong and Bangkok might be better bets for shopping. And as for Taipei, which was one of the cities she visited for the story, it was much too crowded for me, and the clothes, shoes, bags, etc were just... err... not so attractive.

Aiyah, it really doesn't matter, lah. Especially when you are constrained by how much you can afford to spend not just shopping but flying to a particular place, accommodation, transport, meals, etc. Or when you don't even have a salary.

Comments

A lesson in love

I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world. -Mother Teresa Most of the time my eyes just glaze over when I see article upon article of football news. One caught my glazing eye over the weekend, though - 'De la Cruz - Mother Theresa in boots' , because of the familiar name. Mother Teresa, that is. It was the first time I’d ever heard of this de la Cruz guy, an EPL player who hails from Ecuador (GNI per capita US$2,630; as a comparison, Singapore’s is US$27, 490 – source: BBC country profiles ). His is a great story to illustrate that famous Chinese saying about not forgetting your roots. According to the article, ‘Each month a proportion of that salary (about S$150,000) Reading pay him - be it 10 per cent in January or 20 per cent in February - goes direct to the village’ (where he grew up). (Picture and profile from here ) Here's what he has been credited for: 1. 'The 2002 World Cup,' de la Cruz reflects, 'finan

True train school

‘Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear, said the headmaster.’ How would you like to have such a headmaster? I finally re-read (read it first as a teenager) Totto-chan, The Little Girl at the Window , a ‘school story’ by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, translated by Dorothy Britton. Totto-chan is the name Tesuko Kuroyanagi called herself, and the book is about her life during her school days at Tomoe Gakuen. Totto-chan was expelled from her first elementary school because of her ‘disruptive’ behaviour, which included constantly opening and closing her desk top (because she was so thrilled by it), ‘vandalising’ her desk (because there wasn’t enough space on the piece of paper to draw) and standing by the classroom window waiting for street musicians to pass by or talking to swallows. Her mother, although probably alarmed about the

When the best man doesn't win

Speaking of 'sway' spurned lovers, the latest one I've come across is in Love Revolution ( only 12 episodes!), a J show I recently watched. Heroine of the story is pretty, 30-ish Smart Doctor, who is dying to fall in love and get married. She meets Aspiring Actor and Broadcast Journalist (right). She falls for Broadcast Journalist like a ton of bricks. It's obvious from the start (to the audience but not to her) that Aspiring Actor is nuts about her. But... she has fallen for Broadcast Journalist like a ton of bricks already. No doubt, Smart Doctor and Broadcast Journalist must be given credit for their love that stands the tests of time, separation and misunderstanding, but the one who loves most in the show is undoubtedly Mr Aspiring Actor. What he does/does not do because of his undying love for Smart Doctor: Y does not pursue her at first because he is still struggling to survive in this small-time drama group and he knows he doesn't have much to offer Y resp

my ajumma notes

Search This Blog