My KL Diary

  Behaviors of Japanese People in KL Recently, a Japanese ramen shop opened in my neighborhood. I tried it out on a Friday evening a week ago. It was tonkotsu ramen, and they had many options with subtle flavors, but I didn't want to bother, so I had regular tonkotsu ramen and three gyoza. It wasn't particularly tasty, and the price was about the same as IPPUDO, a famous tonkotsu ramen shop in KL. (Actually, there is an IPPUDO at three level above in the same building.) I don't think I'll be frequenting that shop again. Looking around the seats, I saw a lot of Japanese people. There was a group of older men among a few groups of young people and couples. (Although they were older men, they were probably younger than me.) They were drinking beer and talking loudly. This kind of scene is rare in this country, so they stood out a lot. I thought they were noisy, but at the same time, I remembered that I had been in a similar situation at a bar in Shinbashi, Tokyo, just a we...

  I returned to Japan from October 20th to 25th. On this trip to Japan, I flew from KUL before 2AM to KIX (Kansai) after 9AM, and returned from HND (Haneda) at 11PM to KUL at 6AM. I used AirAsia night flights for both the outbound and return flights. Since I was sleeping most of the time on the plane anyway, it was convenient to have the whole daytime available after arriving. Something strange happened on the return flight. At Haneda, or any other Japanese airport, you are required to check in at the counter again even if you have already checked in online (because they only handle paper tickets, I don't know if it's a system or legal issue). I had no choice but to check in at the counter around 8PM, but at that time, the AirAsia flight I was planning to take announced a two-hour delay (according to the monitor display and the explanation from the counter staff). I heard a group of three Japanese women talking nearby. "It was a blessing in disguise that they delayed it by...