Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Japan Trip Day 2: Makuhari Messe

Continuing to our second day at Japan.

We woke up with sunlight streaming through our windows. I was having my PMS and didn't expect to wake up too early. Hehe. But my roommie got frustrated for not being able to do her subuh prayers. The time difference here was only late one hour from Malaysia but sun rose earlier than 4:30 am.

We woke up around 7:30 am. =p

The day was bright and magnificent. Just outside of our hotel, trees were prime in their autumn gloom. People say that autumn is the best season among the four seasons. And I have to agree on that when I spotted the view outside.

Weird, no cars to cause jems around here.
We were welcomed by the sight of empty roadways. Where did all the cars gone to?

The view was just breathtakingly beautiful. Sigh!
We had to walk our way to the nearest subway station and that took us about 10 minutes. It wasn't that near as expected. A map of the area was asked from the Foreigner counter down at the lobby. With that map, we made our way to Shinjuku Subway station using the underground route.

Almost at every corner we found machines like below to buy drinks on the go.

1200 yen per bottle.

This is among the few types of food machines around Tokyo. 
I preloaded a map of the Tokyo's subway onto my iPad. But that too deemed difficult for us to understand as the subway systems here were a bit confusing.

We actually didn't know which train station to go as there were like soooooooooo many subway lines. I initially planned to go on the Chuo Line from Shinjuku to Tokyo station and from there use Keiyo Line to Makuhari Messe. But we couldn't find the Chuo Line at all!!! 

It was after much asking around did we realize that the map on my ipad was actually for JR Lines only. And the Chuo Line and Keiyo Line were under JR Lines. Confusing right? 

I could summarize that there are THREE main subway lines in Tokyo
  • Tokyo Metro Line
  • Toie Line (Tokyo Metropolitan Government)
  • JR Lines
Knowing the colors for each line would be most helpful for newbies to Tokyo, Japan. =(

There are two types of trains to our destination. Rapid (left) or Local (right).

If you could get onto the rapid Trains.. you'll be able to reach your destination with only 2-3 stops. And faster with that! And try to avoid rush hours as things could get squishy.


This is not squishy enough. 
Using the JR Lines enabled us to ride to Makuhari Messe with only one ticket and with two trains whie transiting at Tokyo station.

Changing trains at Tokyo Station, had to find the Keiyo line first.
I never expected that in order to reach Keiyo Line from our drop off from Chuo Line, we had to go down three flights of stairs and three (me think) walking escalators. It took us about 15 minutes to go through all of that!!!

Just follow the ORANGE lines! 
When at last we reached Makuhari Messe, my friend was out of breath and our feet were aching! LoL. We hoped that the journey here has taken some kilograms off our weight.

Finally here at last!!!
The building was white and there were various banners outside it to showcase the many broadcast equipments being exhibited here.

Can't wait to get inside! It was freezing outside!
We had to rush to the International Conference Hall as the conference was being held there.

Just follow the signboards. 
When we finally registered at the counter, we were each given a name card to hang around our necks. There was a bar scan on the cards for them to scan for prove of attendance. Wow! Advance gittewww! As we were quite late (bikin malu sehh! haha), in the hall itself we were led to sit at the VERY FRONT of the conference room. Waahhh... reserved seats for both of us. Malu masuk lambat wei! Oh well. Pasrah jelah.

One of the content special session that I personally enjoyed that day was entitled "Unlimited Potential of Movie Production and its Future" because the renown Hollywood film-maker Mr Gareth Edwards was one of the panelists!

Mr Gareth Edwards at the far right!
Gareth Edwards was famous for making the movie MONSTERS with a little crew of only 4 to 5 members!!! It was budget saving and his movie was a blockbuster hit in cinemas worldwide. The movie Monsters were edited using the newly enhanced Adobe movie editing suite. They talked mostly on how visual effects would soon be widely used to cut costs and bring in more revenue.

He's sooo cute!!!!!!!!!!! *awwwwwwwwwww!!
The other panelists spoke in the Japanese Language but fortunately for non-speakers like me, I was given a device to hear the direct translation of each Japanese speaking panelist.

Nice!!
Meanwhile, outside the conference hall there were a total of 6 Halls that exhibit all kinds of broadcasting equipment and technologies.

This Hall  (Hall 8) was specifically for Visual Production equipment.
We had a breakdown communication problem as almost 90% of the exhibitors didn't speak English. LoL. Except for the young lad below.

He spoke with a British accent y'all!
Overall, we had an eventful day. I get to meet the director of NHK (Japan's TV station) and also the excutive director of Singapore's TV station. He was sitting on my right during the conference. A very friendly man who always smile, nice. Hee..

Oh before I end my entry for the second day.... lemme share my favorite picture of Makuhari Messe surroundings. (Not really the building.. just the buildings surrounding it. LoL)

Beautiful day right?
OK.. wrapping up my second day at Japan.

Thank you for reading. =)

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12 comments:

nad said... [Reply]

mana pergi semua kereta?? huh... kat kl view mcm ni dpt time raya je..
heheheh ;p

bestnya ada experience pergi japan !

Jard The Great said... [Reply]

@nadea... haha. tu la.. mana pergi semua kereta? tapi orang tetap RAMAI giler kalau korang turun kat stesen tren

Unknown said... [Reply]

wah seronoknya...

JieJ said... [Reply]

bestnya...terasa bersama u jard..heheheh....

Mas Light said... [Reply]

It's been awhile, wah so excited go Japan, I wonder when I can go Japan again.

iman said... [Reply]

melancong ke keje jard? missing d autumn season :)

hazman aka species1980 said... [Reply]

pergh....memang mencabar gak kan nak mencari stesen tren tue...tapi yang bagusnya ko sempat je amik gambar setiap pit stop...nice....

Hans Hanis said... [Reply]

nampak seronok
:-)

Wa said... [Reply]

Salam..mmg susah nak faham pasal train kat Japan nih...

siss..boleh bagi emel.. lagi 4 hari nak ke Tokyo..ada nak tanya skit..TQ

Anonymous said... [Reply]

Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!

Cerah Jeff said... [Reply]

sy xpernah pergi sini,hahaha

Boneka Tak Sakit said... [Reply]

huhu.. chantek pic2 ko tangkap. aku rasa kereta xbanyaks bb diorang naik public trans la kan? btw besih betol suasanan jepun langit membiru cerah