yesterday had a 2.2km run after 5 days of no exercise in Japan. well, the run felt quite good, and i finished it in slightly less than 11 min. but it was a bit slower than the last short run i had, by a few seconds only.
today, i finished a 5km run. the 1st round is not as ideal cuz i was rather tired after the 1st round, finishing in 14 min 20s. the 2nd round, i tried to run faster and managed to finish it in slightly less than 13 minute, seems ok. but this run as a whole was a tired one, my stamina has dropped a little after the Japan trip. but nvm, i can pick it up very fast i suppose.
actually i wanted to have an overview of the trip to Japan, but i am quite lazy to type out all my thoughts. well, i shall keep them short.
1) expensive; transport, food, shopping...; partly due to exchange rate, and lack of cheap foreign labour.
2) some buildings lack re-furnishing, especially places out of Tokyo.
3) food delicious, be it raw or cooked.
4) sake tasted good once, but the other time it didn't taste as 顺口.
5) technological edges evident; toilets have warm-seat function, water-spray from beneath function...
6) English standards are now quite okay, compared to 10 years ago. most service sector pple can speak basic English, or at least understand us.
7) rather self-supporting; evident from lack of foreign workers, hotels filled with Japanese tourists.
8) excellent service of course, which Singapore can never catch up with, cuz their courtesy comes from within, it's part of their tradition and culture.
9) mrt (地下铁) system is very complex; many lines, many stations, many interchanges, the network lines criss-cross like nobody's business.
10) mrt stations are rather old, lacking new coats of paint.
11) mrt stations also lack safety measures to prevent pple from falling onto the tracks, losing to Singapore in this aspect.
12) no wireless network for free usage; Singapore is better in this aspect, well the only few edges that Singapore has.
13) a bit disappointed for not being able to ride on the shinkansen (bullet train).
14) ... etc
Below is the Bumble Bee toy from Transformers i bought in Japan. think toys from Transformers are still not out in Singapore yet...:)
