The trip to Japan 4 – Yokohama

Location: Asakusa, Tokyo
Time: 10:00a.m
Date: 1 March 2008

It’s our 3rd day in Japan. We are leaving Asakusa, Tokyo and heading for another city. The city of Yokohama. It is Japan’s prominent port city and the 2nd most populous urban area next to Tokyo. Before we left for Yokohama, we had to say goodbye to an Asakusa friend – The cute doggy! Just look at that friendly face! Awww… so everyone took a picture with him.

The Friendly Dog

with Eva (*smiles smiles)

with Stef (*i like getting pat on the head)

with EL (*hehe.. smiles again)

with Stii (*smiles smiles)

and with Me. (*aiya..sien liao! are you the last one?)

Yes, and we had to travel to Yokohama by train. Again, this was another challenge for me and Stii, because we had to carry bags. Freakin huge bags and luggages. (Thanks to the girls’ huge luggages and their shopping skills). *Japan Tip #1: please travel light!!

Well, finally we were in the train and some of the luggages seemed to have legs of their own. As the train is near to a halt, the bag slides it’s way down the alley of the train cabin. Although the Japanese looked at us like weirdos, we were still happy!

Location: Sakuragicho, Yokohama
Time: 2:00p.m
Date: 1 March 2008

Here we are at Yokohama. This place is known as Minato Mirai 21 District, which means “Port Future 21” in plain English. Once a fishing village, now this.

We actually came to Yokohama to attend the JVC Video Film Festival‘s welcome party & the award ceremony. The party is held in that sail-looking building beside the Ferris Wheel in the picture above. Below is a view from our hotel room.

The weather in Yokohama was really chilly. It was so cold, that we had to jump when taking a picture. 1..2..3…*snap!

A group photo of the winners *clap clap!

Okay, so we were hungry and guess what we ate? Ooo..Japanese KFC-o. The menu looked so delicious that we had to try it. Noticed that one on the left? Yea..the one with black background. Who cared what it was. We just ordered.

It’s the black pepper chicken! YOOOOOO!!! Crunch! Crunch!

After a crunchy dinner, we headed down to the welcome party. The welcome party was really cool. We met a lot of people there. Friends from Singapore, Beijing, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and more. We even talked to producers and film makers and beautiful people.

Some of the Japanese judges even came to talk to us. I was amazed by their sense of profession. When they came and ask what film we did, we answered Fence, and they would be like “OOOOo.. Fe-n-soe!”, then they would start off with comments of the film and compliment on what a good job we’ve done. They actually know what the film means, each and every one of the details in the film. I was both touched and amazed. We exchanged namecards too! Kekeke…

At the party, we had red wine, beer, orange juice, green tea, tons and tons of great food!

Oh! and here’s a picture of the Asian winners! We are all Chinese!

After the party, we went back to the hotel. We had nothing to do, so we played Cho-dai-tee. We even had a crazy idea at the hotel. We played hide-and-seek in the hotel room. Yes! I said the hotel room. Hahaha.. It was the funniest and craziest thing we’ve ever did and it was kinda stupid and fun.

After some crazy time, it was time to open the envelopes that were passed to us after the party.

As a Excellence Award Winner, JVC was generous enough to sponsor us a bunch of stuff:
1) 2 airtickets to Japan (to & fro)
2) ¥18,000 in transportation fee
3) 2 deluxe rooms at the 5-star Sakuragicho Washington Hotel for 3 days 2 nights
4) Prize money ¥100,000
5) A wooden plague for the award
6) Excellence Award

So, we ended the night at the convenient store at the lobby. Getting supper and sat at the lobby til they chased us up to our rooms. 🙂 Can’t wait to go to the next day’s Award Ceremony!