A taste of Singaporean wedding

I just came back from a wedding dinner. It was the first wedding dinner that I attended in the 11 years of life in Singapore. The last few times I attended wedding, they were always the wedding mass only. Honestly, I am not that close to my friend who invited me. I was invited rather late too so I suppose I was invited just to fill the spot of those higher priority guests which could not make it. I decided that I should not be anti social and my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to go.

Obviously there are quite a lot of differences in the culture here. I am quite surprised that the bride and groom were already on standby at the entrance to greet the guests. In Indonesia, we usually see the bride and groom when they march into the hall. The other difference is the rituals. Here, we only have the symbolic cake cutting, pouring of champagne, and the 3 toasts. In Indonesia, after the cake cutting, we have the couple giving the cakes to their parents, the wedding kiss, and the champagne. The stage is empty for most of the time except for the rituals and the couple with their parents will go around to every table to take photos. In Indonesia, the couples and parents will be seated on the stage and the guests will take turn to congratulate them on stage. The photo taking is usually at the end where each group (groom's family, bride's family.. friends.. colleague.. and so on) is called to the stage.

Attending the wedding of a very sweet and happy couple is always inspiring. It must be good to get married too. However, seeing how antisocial I am, I don't want to imagine how sad my own wedding will be. I will have only few friends to invite.. and I have no close guy friends to be my khakis. Sad life indeed..

Earlier this morning, my cousin helped me to move my fragile toys. I am praying hard that nothing breaks while we were moving :( Haiz.. Will be quite scary to open them on the 14th. My new room has been repainted and it is sickly PINK! From the wall, the door, the bed, up to the curtains, they are all PINK! Sigh.. With 90% of my items transported, I realise that the new room is definitely smaller than my current one. Haiz.. It is expected but I am still in denial :( The only consolation for me is that the cupboards are wide enough for my plastic container to go in!! Yay... However, inside the cupboard, there is this irritating metal bar to hang clothes hanger that makes me unable to stack all my plastic containers inside.

This moving also makes me realise that 70-80% of the things I have are the non-essential ones for my life. It basically means I have too many toys. Sigh.. Not buying also sian.. Buying also gives me so much problem. It is a vicious circle with no end. Anyway, I realised that whenever I am extremely emo, I will buy new soft toys to accompany me. Toys are only good enough when I am in "normal" emo. Haha.. With the most recent of extreme emo episode, I bought Kuroko and Tetsuya 2 plushie!! Hehe.. I went back to Seimon-cho Plaza Singapura and Tetsuya2 was still not sold. When I made the payment at the cashier, the person offered me whether I also wanted Kurokocchi which was lying around somewhere on the cashier. This time I could not be bothered with the prices or with the fact that they are not wrapped, I just bought them ^o^

So Hamtaro gets new playmates while I get new sleepmates. Hehe :)

Almost gave up

Lent is coming and it is time to give up on something again. I still cannot believe it that I still managed to resist fast food and junk food for the past 2+ months. Honestly, I feel that the temptation to give myself a treat before embarking on Lent is super huge!! However, I am concerned that I will relapse instead :( This evening, I finally gave in to buying bubble tea. Haiz.. I promised it will be the last one until I fly home during my birthday. For this Lent, one sure thing that I will give up is Starbucks which has become like a new addiction recently. Last year, I had drinks at Starbucks etc once every 2 months or so. Recently, I am having one every 2 weeks or so. So yeah, I have a reason too worry. Although the drinks do not seem to be as unhealthy as bubble tea, fast food, and junk food, I am sure they are loaded with tonnes of sugar too!

My biggest "addiction" problem is actually collecting toys. But I don't think I can survive not buying, especially since it is just a matter of time before I pre-order Shiraishi and Yukimura figurines from Kotobukiya ArtFX J New Prince of Tennis. Let's aim for something more possible. Haha..

Anyway, it has been a long time since I wrote anything about J-Pop. I officially cannot be bothered about AKB48 anymore after the departure more of the older faces. Their recent singles are mediocre at best. Koisuru Fortune Cookies is just so-so for me although the fan-made video gimmicks sort of hype up the single. I hate their subsequent single (Heart Electric/Heart Ereki). Their next single (Suzukake Nanchara) has quite a easy-listening tune but it sounds quite similar to their previous medium-tempo songs like Give Me Five!. After making the longest PV ever with their "So Long", they come with the longest song title ever:"Suzukake no Ki no Michi de 'Kimi no Hohoemi o Yume ni Miru' to Itte Shimattara Bokutachi no Kankei wa Dō Kawatte Shimau no ka, Bokunari ni Nan-nichi ka Kangaeta Ue de no Yaya Kihazukashii Ketsuron no Yō na Mono" (鈴懸の木の道で「君の微笑みを夢に見る」と言ってしまったら僕たちの関係はどう変わってしまうのか、僕なりに何日か考えた上でのやや気恥ずかしい結論のようなもの.With 76 Japanese characters, nobody will ever remember the full name and thus it is more well known in the short form Suzukake Nanchara. Surprisingly, AKB48's popularity remains undented with each single still selling more than 1 million. For me personally, they need new tunes and new concepts which make their earlier singles all sound different but yet interesting to listen and watch.

Sexy Zone released their second album, Sexy Second, on the 19 February. I find it quite disappointing as compared to their first album where I still can find a new nice songs and I find none in this second album. Sexy Zone went for a trip to Dubai and recorded a "new" video for バィバィDuバィ〜See you again〜 in Dubai. Honestly, this is much better than the official PV! If they released this as the official PV, perhaps I will like the song even more. Anyway, Dubai is AMAZING! The architecture and those man-made islands really blow me away. They also released a PV "We Gotta Go" together with the album. The PV is quite nice to watch as it only features the 5 of them and Sou and Marius are not as neglected as they were in their last 2 singles. The song is not that bad but I hate the parts where they go: "Everybody gotta go.. Everybody gotta go... We gotta go go go...". which I find very irritating and butcher the song. Perhaps I need to listen to the album a few more times to grow liking it.

Moving on to Hey! Say! JUMP! They released "Ride with Me" single on Christmas Day 2013 which I could not be bothered. Lol.. I don't know why but typically I hate HSJ's "cool" songs wor.. There are plenty of complaints from fans that HSJ is very slow when it comes to releasing singles and album. So it was a surprise when just more than a month later, they released not one, but 2 singles as double-A side. The singles are "AinoArika" and "Aisureba Motto Happy Life" and they released 2 PVs too.

I am a sucker for over-the-top orchestra so AinoArika score many points. I don't know why so many people praise Hikaru's rap here. I thought it did not really blend well with the song and sort of ruined the song for me. Another reason for liking this is that each member gets their own lines which is quite a rare thing for Keito and Ino in their past few singles. Yup, glad to see that they get more screen time.

The PV for Aisureba Motto Happy Life seems to be lazily made with rehash of ideas, themes, and colours from Come on a My House. Cleaning the house? Cooking? Decorating the house? Aren't they familiar? I thought Keito's PV performance has improved since he sang quite realistically in AinoArika but he got back to his "can't be bothered" lip-sync in this PV. Well, we all know that singers lip-sync when making their PV but the least that he can do is to pretend that he is singing for real :p

These double-A side singles show how versatile HSJ is. They can sing cool song and make cool PV for one single and then switch completely to a cutesy song. 

Cursed

I saw the new place yesterday. I know that it is not going to be as good as my current room/house but it is not as bad as my expectation. The flat is pretty huge although unfortunately most of the space is for living room, dining room, and the kitchen. My room is not as small as I imagine but it is not up to my liking. The wall is lined with embedded cupboards. The sad thing is that these cupboards are for clothes! I don't have that many clothes in the first place. Sigh.. Inside the cupboards, there are only metal railing for the hangers and nothing else: no drawers, no racks, not partitions. Above the bed, there is a bit of cupboard too. I don't think I will utilize it and honestly I hate to have something above my head when I am sleeping :( There is a large study desk attached to the wall too. The stupid desk, however, has no lockable drawers. Jeez.. 

The part that I hate most is the lack of privacy. The master room is actually dissected to a room where my landlord will be staying and then my "makeshift" room. Although the divider is opaque, I still don't feel comfortable as light still can go through. In addition, the top part of the the sliding door to "enter" my room is not sealed to the ceiling. The ceiling is much lower than my current room and it makes the whole atmosphere rather cramped. I don't know how things will be when my plastic containers are in. I am crossing my fingers that my plastic containers can fit to the cupboard so that I can have more empty space. But I honestly doubt it :(

No point crying or getting emo over things which are beyond me control. But I can't help but feeling angry.. cheated.. cursed.. and whatever negative adjective I can think off. I really cannot remember how many times I have packed my things to move around for the past 10 years. My dad often says everyone is born with a set of both good and bad "coupons". It will be good to "spend" the bad ones first while I am young and then enjoy the good ones later. Looks like my set is all filled with that bad ones. I don't know how many more times I must keep moving house. Seriously.. Fuck me and my life!

Blame it all on stress

Uuurgh!! I hate my face! The acne is really going beyond control despite my effort to avoid junk food and fast food for the past 2 months. I am sure it is because of stress either directly or indirectly. I am so tired that for the past week, I had been falling asleep without bathing or brushing my teeth. Yucks!! Perhaps one day worth of oil clogged my pores and thus caused the pimples. Sigh.. On the flip side, it basically means that I had enough sleep. But the whole week, I feel very irritated, edgy, and angry at work. It is all symptoms of my inability to cope with stress :(

I finally knew the address of my new place. After passing by the place, my mood just plunged even further. I know that HDB flat will not be better than my current landed house but I am still in denial mode. There is some sort of construction work near the flat and the unit is rather low. I don't know if it will be dusty, noisy, and full of pests. Sigh.. To make things worse, the block number is 441 and the unit number is 411. According to my friends, the numbers don't mean something very good in Chinese. Something about I want to die or I confirm will die. 'Lucky' that it is not the 4th floor. I will be seeing the room this coming weekend and I don't know if it will make me happier or even more emo. I gotta start thinking about packing my toys for moving too. Sian..

It is not good to have all this stress pent up inside me. I tried to escape with toys but it just provided temporary relieve as when I realised the amount of money I spent, I will get even more emo. Anyway, my spending for February again shot up the roof as I purchased Final Fantasy Chrome for Cloud, Aerith, Squall, and Rinoa. The happy news is that I got them cheaper than the prices I previously saw here. On eBay, I saw Final Fantasy IV and VIII Cold Cast which I had not owned yet. I failed to get FF VIII which was sold for USD 717.07. Sigh.. I was crazy enough to bid up to USD 707.07 just for a toy. I managed to win FF IV one. I will keep the price as a secret :) Will take pictures and write a review about it after it arrived. Likely I have to pay further for the customs.

I happened to pass by Seimon-Cho in Junction 8 when I saw Kuroko no Basuke plushie! I always find Tetsuya 2 to be very cute. I decided not to buy when I found out that only the display piece was left. The following day I went to the branch at Plaza Singapura and again there was only one which was the display piece. Due to the overwhelming stress, I decided to just buy it nonetheless yesterday. I even decided to get Kuroko as well although I was not interested in buying him in the first place. Guess what: Tetsuya2 was already bought!! Sianz!! Kuroko was still there though but no point for me in buying him because the one I really want is the dog. Emo.. Thinking about checking their IMM branch tomorrow. Haiz... Why am I so fickle minded sia!!

I want them :(

By the way, it is kinda late to mention that I had watched the LEGO movie about 2 weeks ago. I am not a fan of LEGO but the trailers look interesting enough as there are plenty of comedic and witty dialogues. Of course it is a bonus to see popular characters like Batman, Wonder Woman, Gandalf too. The movie is corny and funny at the same time. The trailers don't like as really the script is hilarious. The movie is distributed by Warner Bros and since DC comics is under them, no wonder that a lot of DC comics characters are featured. Initially, I thought that the movie is rather nice as a family and comedy movie. The plot is not too bad for a typical adventure story targeted for children. Unfortunately, the end just ruins everything for me. Everything that happens in the movie is just a figment of imagination of a real boy playing with his father's LEGO sets. W.H.A.T T.H.E F.U.C.K! Yes.. just because of the ending, it really spoils everything for me. I will love it better if they would just do away with the human's imagination part. Bleah..

Anyway, my opinion matters not because the movie is a huge success in box office worldwide. They will even make sequels! Will I watch the sequel?? I don't think I will. I hate it when after going through the emotional roller coaster, everything ends with "It's all a dream" or "It's all only in imagination". Pui!

Tired but happy

My aunt, cousin, and sister just completed their visit to Singapore. They were coming because my aunt went for her last post-surgery check up. Looks like now she is confident with her knee and she will not have any reason to visit Singapore again in the near future. It has been very tiring for me as I went to accompany them after work. I usually do not want to "waste" my leave to go out with them on weekdays but perhaps I am really in an emo mood recently that I took half a day leave on Friday to go out with them.

After the talk on Wednesday, I forced myself to meet my aunt to pass over her SGD that she gave to me previously. It was quite a wasted trip because on the next day, almost all the money was returned to me. Haha.. To help me earn points, I will offer to pay for her shopping with my credit card and she would return me the cash. On Saturday, I was accompanying my sister to buy things for my mum and dad and hence I missed another chance to get more points with my credit card!!

Only on Saturday that my sister mentioned that my dad was looking for a horse figurine. I thought he was looking for a Wind Horse figurine as according to Lillian Too's horoscope book for 2014, it will be good to have that figurine to improve luck and wealth this year. I told her that I passed by a cart selling feng shui horses at Harbour Front Center when I went to deposit money in the bank on Friday. If she mentioned it previously, we would not need to make another trip there! That cart is selling a Bejewelled Wind Horse figurine for $88. The auntie could speak English but I disliked the way she spoke to me. Yes people judged people from the outward appearances. I was only wearing t-shirt and bermuda which made me look like a school boy with no money. We passed by another shop which was also selling at $88 but the pushy woman said she would give a discount till $69. We took note of the scratches at the "gem" so I was not very keen. My sister seemed to reluctant because the woman was irritatingly pushy as well but I kept telling her that we should check Bugis out too.

Guess what, in Bugis we found it for $58 only nia!! Lol.. In the end, my dad bought the Kubera riding a Wind Horse for $100. It is considered King of horses and hence "more powerful" than Wind Horse alone. Haha.. I was the one that ended up with the Wind Horse :) I am quite crazy about figurines sia.. Haha.. I was also looking for that one but when I went to Bugis last month, I could not find any. I also bought a Bejewelled White Elephant. Wind Horse is more for windfall luck while the White Elephant is more for success in work and career. Well, not sure how true they are but just for fun, when asked whether I wanted to buy both, I jokingly asked how much discount they would give me. I spent $100 for both. I think the shop has to thank the overpriced shops at Harbour Front that made me did not really bat an eye when I knew this Bugis shop was selling almost half price. See how if my luck will be much better this year.

Bejewelled White Elephant.
A website recommends not to have this in bedroom without saying why. But I only have a room here leh :(

Bejewelled Wind Horse

A disclaimer: I am still a Catholic so ultimately I still believe in Jesus. I am not worshiping other things. I don't really "believe" but if these figurines really help to improve chi energy and feng shui etc, why not? Haha.. My dad and sister often tease me to get citrine to attract luck. Money is not an issue but I dislike yellow. Everytime I go to a gemstone shop, I always change my mind because I don't think I will like to wear yellow citrine bracelet. But I like figurine so I don't mind displaying them. They have the same purpose anyway. Moving to the figures, the saddle can be removed to reveal a compartment. I don't have Chinese old coins or ingots so I put my citrine tumbled stones instead. Beneath the horse, there is an opening to put a paper with my wish on it. Hmm.. not sure if I should put as I will be embarrassed if someone sees my wish. Lol.

I was thinking of using their hotel breakfast coupon this morning. But because I felt tired, I decided not to. Sadly, despite my tiredness, the first thing that I remembered when I reached home last night was that I forgot to pass over my father's original documents of name changes that I borrowed for my PR application! Sian.. Perhaps that is God's way to force me to wake up early and attend 7am mass again today. Lol. I had the free breakfast at Tung Lok Restaurant at Orchard Parade Hotel. The choice of food was rather limited and I only had limited time before my aunt had to go to airport so I did not really enjoy. Well, the bacon+chicken sausage+scrambled egg+hash brown did make my stomach full until dinner time. We were quite lucky to get a taxi which has boot completely empty and could fit 5 luggages. Initially I thought one of the luggage had to be placed on the front seat and I did not need to go to the airport. Yay! Since the front seat was empty, I went lor. I was very tired and despite my effort not to fall asleep, I was quite embarrassed to keep leaning on the guy next to me. Lucky only my arm was against his arm and not my head on his shoulder like what happened to one girl who fell asleep and kept leaning her head against my shoulder when I was still in JC. Lol.

Disappointed with Amiami and Square Enix.

I am a huge fan of Final Fantasy and has been collecting a lot of Square Enix merchandises mostly from their Final Fantasy Play Arts and Trading Arts Kai Mini. I even own 2 Squall Final Fantasy Dissidia Play Arts Kai figures to have one at home in Jakarta and one with me here. Everything is positive when all is well but true tests of greatness are in times of adversity. Disappointingly, my Final Fantasy Trading Arts Kai Mini: Ace came with manufacturing defects! Fuck!

I tried e-mailing them for possible parts replacement. There are 4 addresses listed at the back of the box and since I am not in US, Euro, or Hong Kong, I sent to the most generic email which is meant for their Japanese support. They just replied me with questions where I made my purchase and where my location was. After I provided them with more details, I received no more replies until I sent them repeated email. The answer I received was: we only provide support to Japanese customers. What the fuck! Then why the heck are they even selling these things internationally?

Never mind, I tried Hong Kong support then. It was actually answered by the same Japanese branch! Jeez. Seriously why the fuck list so many emails when ultimately only support for Japan is provided! I asked them if international shipping is their concern, they can ship it to my Japanese address. Again.. No fucking reply.

Okay, enough expletives for the goddamn manufacturer. I bought it from Amiami and this shop turns to be a bigger fucker. There are a lot of hate for Amiami with their policies as they don't allow cancellation of pre-order (no big deal for me as I don't pre-order things I don't like) and they ban people sharing the same address (yes! there are cases where family members or friends sharing the same address get banned!). I am fine with them so far until this last straw that broke the camel's back.

They only offered me a 200 JPY refund for such a huge defect. Oh please.. I know it is not Amiami's fault for manufacturing defect but they should have offered help with replacements. They expected me to pay for return shipping. Go eat shit man! Looks like Square Enix did contact them as Amiami told me not to email manufacturers directly as it will put them in trouble. I was like o_0 what the fuck? Are they selling things illegally? I am emailing the manufacturer directly because you are not providing any help for your customers at all!

Amiami is the cheapest among other Japanese online shops and that is why it USED to be my number 1 choice. However, after comparing their policy with CDJapan or Hobby Link Japan, I finally decided that I will avoid Amiami from now on. HLJ would pay for return shipping and would arrange for replacement in case of manufacturing defects. Even if there are missing parts, they will try to contact the manufacturer's replacement. Even CDJapan which is quite crazy with their overpriced shipping fee will pay for return shipping for for manufacturing defects. I guess for expensive items, it is really not worth it to buy from Amiami since their policy just sucks.

Not to mention that my Figuarts Zero: Kagami that I bought from Amiami arrived opened and resealed. The top flap had the "dent" which means that it had been opened previously. I emailed them about it and there was no reply. I decided not to pursue that further because it was very minor. Sigh..

Anyway, the 200 JPY refund that I accepted was also given in the form of Amiami store credits. Not only they fucked me up with their lousy support, they want to fuck me up further by forcing to purchase from them again -__-. I know that Amiami has a lot of spies on the net so even if they read this and decide to ban me, I don't really care. I just hope that this will help to damage their reputation and prevent new buyers from using them.

Looks like to patronise local shops will be the best choice. I believe they will allow a one-to-one exchange for manufacturing defects and shipping will not be an issue as I can bring the item back to the shop.

I don't mean to bash Amiami and Square Enix but this is an honest post from an absolutely disappointed ex-fan of Amiami and Square Enix.

Blunder

February seems to be always a bad month for me especially when it comes to this one person. Last year, I was very angry because she did not let me to skip workgroup meeting. The meeting date coincided with one of my colleague's birthday. Because I was not allowed to skip the meeting, my colleague had to cancel her leave and came to work on her birthday to cover me at work! Sigh.. I was just an insignificant member and my presence (or absence) made no difference. But working or not working on a birthday makes a huge difference for that person. I still remembered the blackmailing words "If you think that medication safety is not important bla bla bla...". I decided not to be crazy as I did not want my colleague to get a call from superiors to cancel her leave so that I can attend the meeting.

This year, it is still with the same person but with regards to different matters. There was a mistake discovered in the drug name changes that we were doing. I am sort of "the one in-charge" of this so it IS my fault. I am not denying it. But what really makes me upset is how she makes it sound as if it is ENTIRELY my mistake. I checked the drafts and I did that mistake right from the first draft which was subsequently checked by 2 different people (one of them being herself!). Jeez.. I don't like to point fingers.. Yes you are also equally guilty for not catching the error when checking so there is no need to make it sound as if it is entirely my fault. Sigh.. I don't even know why I must be the one sending email regarding a "project" of this scale! I thought it should be her sending all the emails pertaining to this as the workgroup head.

Perhaps I am a perfectionist and I am just being too hard on myself. I, too, have my face and pride. I find it very embarrassing to make such a mistake, having to admit it publicly, etc. Sigh.. Don't know if I should just quit and change job.

My meeting in the afternoon was another cause of hidden anger within me. I am just so sick of all these customer service. People are so two-faced in front of the bosses and always say things which put customers as first priority. While I agree that customers are important, my staff are important too and I will always think about them too! The rest were just saying things or suggesting things which look good on them without thinking the inconveniences that they would cause to the staff on the floor! Pfft!

I was basically the biggest asshole in the room: my customers are the worst and my staff are the lousiest bla bla bla.. Fine.. your customers are so great and your staff are so bright. Bleah.. I really wanted to get out of this lousy workgroup. It is difficult for me to do well here anyway because I don't even believe in these hypocritical version of customer service anyway.

At times like this, I just wish that I am a working ant: just do ordinary work like everyone else, don't do anything extra, don't do anything that can cost me mistake and reputation, keep a low profile, and keep my mouth shut! The outcome will be the same anyway :(

NUStalgia

I went to NUS LT 31 to attend a HMDP talk and it was a trip down the memory lane. Upon arrival, I felt kinda awkward and old to return to NUS with office attire. Aaah.. I missed attending lectures (late) just wearing free NUS T-shirts, bermudas, and sandals. But as I was walking back to Kent Ridge MRT station after the talk, I was suddenly swept by emotion and felt nostalgic about NUS. 

Without realising it, NUS actually has a special place in my memory. I suddenly remembered the times I went back from school back to PGP on foot at night, be it after CCA, after mugging or printing something in library, after mugging at the canteen, etc. The toilet at level 2 of the Science Admin building also reminded me of my emo FYP times. That level was the link to the building where my FYP lab was located. I did not notice a lot of changes other than the plants on the road outside LT 27 which basically prevent students from jaywalking! There are a lot of changes in front of NUH but as it was already night, I could not explore what the new buildings are.

For the past 10+ years of my stay here, I spent:

~2 years in CJC Hostel (with Orchard, Bugis, and Toa Payoh as my main playgrounds)

~2 years in Victoria Hall (with East Coast Park, Siglap, Changi Airport, Marine Parade, and Suntec City as my main playgrounds)

~2 months in Sembawang Hills Drive (hmm.. a middle of nowhere near Ang Mo Kio and Upper Thomson)

~3 months in Sembawang (with Sun Plaza as my main playground)

~4 YEARS IN NUS!!

~6 months in Toa Payoh

~2 years and 3 months at my current place (Upper Thomson near Shunfu) before moving on in 3 weeks time T_T

No wonder why NUS is so special to me as I spent a very very long time there. Aaaah~~~

By the way, when I left my office, I bumped into a drug rep who happened to be going to NUH to pick up her husband. She offered me a ride and with thick skin I just said "Of course! Thank you very much". Haha.. Some of my colleagues who were also going home saw me on the car so it will be quite embarrassing tomorrow. But oh well.. Haha.. 

Lucky Starbucks :)

I went to Starbucks last week to try their Chestnut Macchiato before it is removed from the menu. I think it should be removed anytime soon after CNY. When the receipt was printed, I was 'chosen' to give a feedback online and as will receive a code for a free tall drink as a thank you. Yay!!! Lucky!! Perhaps all the feng shui thingy for this Year of the Wood Horse is true since the prediction is for me to be luckier this year. Haha.. Okay I know it sounds very childish of me to be so happy over a free drink but for someone who hardly wins any lucky draw, it really made me happy. For the past 26 years of my life, I have only won 2 lucky draws: 1 in my JC days when I supposedly won a soap (but it was mixed up with an mp4 player) and 1 last year when I won 2 Gold Class movie tickets from my credit card purchase.

I over-napped, rather than overslept, last night from 9pm till 430am. Haha.. Thus I decided to go for 7am mass rather than continue sleeping and go for the later ones. With 9am and 1100am plans to go mass are usually disrupted by my sleep and the 530pm disrupted by my laziness, attending 7am one seems to be a viable alternative. Lol.

After mass, I went to redeem my free Starbucks drink. I also ordered their egg white+mushroom+cheddar wrap for breakfast. I usually don't order food from Starbucks so in the end, because of the free drink, I spent money on them too. Lol.. Anyway I ordered food so that I could use my card in the hope that the free drink will be counted as a purchase for my card. Cheapskate me. Hahaha...

Time to payback my sleep now..

FromJapan (Review)

After joining myfigurecollection.net (it shall be known as MFC from here onwards), I discover another Japanese proxy other than the so-far-so-good Goody-Japan and the shitty Shopping Mall Japan (the reasons why I say shitty can be found here and here. This proxy is FromJapan.

FromJapan is only charging 200 yen per item or auction bid and that is considered the lowest among the other proxies. In addition, if you win more than 1 item from the same seller, there is no proxy charge for the 5th item onwards. However, as FromJapan as multiple accounts to bid for items, there is a chance that the different items are bid using different accounts and you may not get this combined items advantage. It is all random. This is especially good when I want to purchase low value items like anime books. Goody-Japan charges a minimum 600 Yen and that can even be more expensive than the price of the books itself. In a mere 2 months, I bought more than 30 anime books through FromJapan! Haha.. I don't want to calculate the total I spent as it will definitely make me emo.

For domestic shipping, users can choose to pay for cheaper (uninsured) method as well as safer (insured) method. Taking a book as an example, cheaper domestic shipping can cost less than 200 yen while safer method can cost 500-600 yen. So this is another feature that I like.

For international shipping, FromJapan also offers FedEx as a shipping option. FedEx is actually cheaper than EMS for small but heavy items like book as FedEx charges by volume while EMS charges by weight. For my first shipment which weighs about 9 kg, EMS would cost me 9400 yen as opposed to 2994 yen by FedEx. The difference is really mind-blowing. Users can also indicate the amount they want to declare in customs form for every single item!! Cool, isn't it?

FromJapan also provides regular, light, and extra secure packing. Other proxies may use "excessive" packing materials to ensure safety of items but this may not be very desirable if you want to cut shipping costs and you know the items are relatively "damage-resistant" eg. books. Thus light packing is useful. However, any damage will not be insured if this method is chosen. Extra secure packing, as its name suggests, will also incur extra costs. FromJapan uses old/used boxes for shipment. So in the event that they have to use new boxes for shipment of your item, you have to pay 500 yen extra. So far, thankfully, it has not happened to me yet.

The other good things about FromJapan is user's total control over placing and withdrawal of deposits as well as direct control over sniper and real-time bids. In addition, when it comes to paying for the item, I can choose not to use the deposit but to make a separate payment. This is good for my calculation of expenses. Why is that so? Let me illustrate: I can put a 10000 yen deposit and say bid for 5 items. I can make 5 separate payments for the 5 items and thus I know how much exactly each item costs me. I can then refund my deposit in full. In addition, their invoice provides a very good breakdown for every charges incurred. Cool!

FromJapan also rewards users based on the amount of items purchased through them. The reward is 3-10% off for delivery cost via EMS or FedEx for users who have bought items worth 40000-400000 yen respectively. Although I don't think I can hit the 400000 yen spending and I only get a small discount, it is still a nice gesture.

Do you notice the small banner on top of my blog? Yep, FromJapan also allows to invite people to use their services. I can get 300 yen per new user who signs up and uses FromJapan services. Zero so far leh!! Haha..

Customer service wise, they will reply email daily as long as it is sent between 1000-1900 Japan time. I think they close on weekends and public holidays though. Unfortunately, when you have a question regarding an item, they will just read the Japanese item description and "translate" it for you rather than asking the seller. No mention of customer service will be complete if you never have incidence of broken item. That also happened to me and it did ruin my impression of their customer service.

What happened? Due to backlog over Christmas and New Year holidays, it took 2 weeks for my items to be packed since I requested them. Note that before this period, when there was no backlog, they packed items quite fast. So after these 2 weeks, they informed me that one of my items was damaged. That item cost me close to 8000 yen and their email was not exactly very nice or helpful with the following message: "However, we are not able to guarantee that the seller should accept the return of item or refund". What the hell! I chose safer (insured) domestic shipping for a reason and if they are unable to contact the seller, then at least they should contact the domestic shipper! I find it unbelievable that they did not check items upon arrival and notify damages immediately. By the time they emailed me, it was almost 1 month after item arrival so it might be too late to report for any damage and from my point of view, that should be their responsibility, and not mine!

Anyway, after 3 weeks, I finally got my refund so I am happy for that. However, I am still disappointed with the fact that they did not even show me the photo of the damaged item. They also did not inform me whether they returned the item or they claimed an insurance from the shipper! If they had a refund without the need of sending back the item, then that item should me mine after all! I am not being greedy here to want both the items and the refund. The reason why I want to know the details is because the item in question is something rare: Final Fantasy Chrome Koyo Koyo with a small serial number #0070 and I got it for quite "cheap" at 7543 yen. With no details provided, I can always suspect that perhaps their staff want this item and can always pretend to say that the item is damaged while they keep the item!

Another negative point about FromJapan is that they charge another 5% of whatever charges if payment is made via PayPal or Credit Card. This makes things worse for buyers as PayPal or Credit Card already has unfavourable currency exchange rates in the first place.

So in summary, FromJapan's pros:

-Provide users with a lot of options for customisations from the choice of domestic shipping method, packaging of items, international shipping method, and customs declared values

-Full control of placement and withdrawal of deposits as well as both real-time and snipe bids

-Relatively quick response time by the customer service team

-Great search engine function (I did not mention this above but FromJapan's search engine is the first proxy's search engine that can give me meaningful search results)

-200 yen proxy fee and a maximum of 800 yen fee for multiple items bought from the same seller on the same day (provided all items are bid using the same account which unfortunately users have no control of)

Their cons:

-5% additional charges (not only from price of item but also from domestic shipping, international shipping, and bank transfer fee!) for payment paid using PayPal or Credit Card

-Did not check of item condition upon arrival
-Unable to split items which comes as "a package" from the seller

-Unsatisfactory approach for damaged item: sounds unhelpful and no details provided to the buyers about the whole process

-Merely giving translation of item description, rather than asking the seller directly, for any questions asked pertaining to items

Despite the hiccup, I will still use FromJapan for their pros. I personally prefer FromJapan for cheaper items like anime books for their low proxy charge and FedEx as a choice for international shipping. However, for expensive and fragile items, I will stick with Goody-Japan who checks every item upon arrival and is very exceptional with their handling of damaged items.

Again, neither Goody-Japan or FromJapan solicits me for my opinions. Haha.. I hope this can be useful for people who are considering proxy options. I am not sure whether I am lucky or unlucky to always experience damaged items with so many different parties. It is really a rare occurrence and most reviews never mention how different companies handle cases of damaged items. Thus, I hope my posts have been helpful for people to consider the possibility of receiving damaged items and weigh the risks and benefits of proxies appropriately.

Lastly, it is time for shameless advertising. Should you decide to use FromJapan, please do so through the link on this blog so that I can get 300 yen. Lmao..