Thursday, April 13, 2017

Failed holiday plans

Nihongo revision: not achieved
Gunpla building: not achieved
Project research: not achieved
Enough rest: not achieved

Basically I did not achieve most of the things that I planned to do during this holiday :( All because of e-passport and visa waiver to Japan which basically wiped out 5 working days. I hate to go out, even for meals, when I am holidaying at home so it was wasting my time having to go out for 3 consecutive days last week just to have meals. Haiz.. It does not matter how long the actual meal takes but as long as it involves going out, at least half a day would be gone.

The only good thing about the frequent travelling is that I am able to hatch my pokemon eggs. Yes.. who in the right mind is still playing Pokemon Go nowadays? Lol.. I even bought $30 worth of incubators to hatch those eggs. Ooops.. Prior to this, I had not spent any money for Pokemon Go. Birthday present is my excuse for this indiscretion. Oh well.. Haha.. I got a 10km egg and although it did not become Snorlax, at least I got an Aerodactyl which is my first catch.

Let me just share my visa waiver experience. Yesterday I reached the embassy at about 915am and I got queue no 91 with 40+ people ahead of me in the queue. Wew.. the official start time is 830 and it was already that crowded. It took about 1 hour 15 minutes of queueing so I think it was not too bad.

Today was the collection. Collection time starts at 1330pm and I decided to arrive earlier at 1300pm. The queue outside the embassy was already damn freaking long! By the time I took a queue number, I had 50+ people ahead of me in the queue. My goodness... I left the embassy by 1430pm. Japanese are known for their punctuality so I was surprised that the queue did not start moving from 1330pm. It could be due to street demonstration that occurred in front of the embassy! OMG!! Never I imagine that I will ever experience a street demonstration live in front of my eyes! It is one of the things that usually viewed or heard via the media. Anyway it was about some Japanese company and retrenchment so the atmosphere was okay and unlike those anti-government demonstrations. The funny thing was there were more policemen to secure the location than the actual number of people demonstrating. Lol.. And those of us who queue seem to be totally unperturbed by the demonstration. People were taking photos and enjoying the music played in between the oration. I guess we are already immune to it having read/watched/heard about street demonstration daily.

So after this experience, I better make the most out of the visa waiver. Instead of going to Japan once a year, I should aim for twice a year for the next 3 years. Lol.. (Excuse me.. where does the money come from?). Subsequently, I will pay travel agency to help me settle this. Rp 100000 is worth it than spending my time. In fact, the 2 breads and 1 TWG tea that I had for lunch out of desperation already cost me almost Rp 100000. Add the petrol and my time, definitely paying Rp 100000 is worth it. The reason why I am not using travel agency is because tomorrow is Good Friday. I did not want to take the risk if the travel agency is late in getting my passport back, I would not be able to fly back to Singapore on Sunday. Not that I mind.. really.. :p

Last week Ryu Studio is opening a Naruto statue pre-order. Ryu Studio is a new company based in Malaysia and currently its license is only for Asia region. Thus the limited edition statue has a high chance to sky rocket in price just like Tsume's statues at their beginning. Naruto is sold at 750USD and with 600 limited edition. For item with packaging weight 20kg, I prefer to buy from a local shop than to bear the risk of damage upon shipping. However, there is no distributor in SG. That may not be a bad thing as my room is full. There is only one distributor in Indonesia and its location happened to be near to my home. After asking all the questions, I was really tempted to buy. I was about to see if there were more new pictures during the PO opening date but before it happened, the shop informed me that item was sold out. Oh well.. I guess that is money saved and I don't need to think of storage headache. I am not a fan of Naruto and was considering this solely for investment purpose. Although it will be a challenge to sell 20kg item overseas anyway and it is a gamble with regards to quality since this is a new company.

Still about toys, I realise that the toy price at Multi is cheaper than when I buy in Singapore :( The difference is up to 15-20% which is significant :( Haiz.. I knew about this because of the Kotobukiya exclusive Edward Elric (Full Metal Alchemist) ArtFX J. I did not bat an eye when they initially released Edward Elric and Roy Mustang. But this exclusive version comes with 2 faces, 2 bodies, and base which includes Alphonse! Definitely not to be missed. Since I am in Jakarta with poor access to paypal, I decided to explore local toy shop and that's how I found the cheaper prices, even after considering the member preorder prices in Singapore. I don't know since when this happens or I am just poor with my research but I remember that prices for toys used to be higher in Jakarta and hence I usually buy from Singapore.

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