Hey Fiknatics,

To all the mothers out there, I hope it's not too late to wish you a Happy Mother's Day. I hope you had a wonderful time spent with your family, be it at home or at your favourite makan place! I promised you guys I would tell you about my trip to Japan, so here is a little story of what happened.

The land of the rising sun - never in my life have I been there. So you can imagine how excited I was when told I was going for the Spider-Man 3 world premiere in Tokyo, Japan ......YATTA! A friend of mine told me it was spring in Japan and it wasn't cold anymore, so I decided to pack light, but brought a leather jacket juz in case. ....and my, oh my was I glad!

I did my homework on the cast of Spider-Man 3 so that I would be a bit more well-versed when I did my interview. Did you know that Tobey Maguire is a vegetarian, loves yoga and was paid $26 million for Spider-Man 1 & 2? I wonder how much he's getting for Spider-Man 3! Man, I wish I was the LABAH-LABAH MAN! It was to be my first ever attempt in life to actually interview anyone and it had to be people from HOLLYWOOD. Imagine how nerve wrecking it was! I also did a bit of homework on how to speak and ask questions in basic Japanese, so I was quite excited to try out the language once I got to Japan.

It was a nice weather when I arrived at Narita Airport at 7am. For the first time in my life, it was cold outside a building, but warm inside. Yes, yes I know...the malays would say..."Jakun pulak budak ni" meaning, "This boy is so fascinated".....well, memang jakun! The journey to the Ritz Carlton hotel, Tokyo, where I stayed was about 2hrs so I decided to take a short nap!

When I woke up, I was in the heart of Tokyo. Strangely, like in a dream, I observed that almost every man on the street was dressed in a black suit with a black tie...Kinda like the guys from MIB. You see them at every junction and side-walk.....does everyone dress that way to work in Japan? Even at Macdonalds?....I wonder? (Obviously I found out they don't....silly me) When I was out and about, I realized it was almost impossible to spot a rubbish bin on the streets! And we take this for granted back home.

Arriving at the Ritz Carlton, I checked in to my amazing room on the 47th floor overlooking Tokyo. The bathroom was so big, you could fit a bed, tv and study table. Sheesh....I'm gonna get a house with a bathroom like that someday. (Easier said than done of course....but with patience and hard work, it might juz happen for any of us!) The view was even more amazing at night. It's like looking down at stars....yes looking down....I slept with the curtains fully open and it felt like I was in space! (maybe I'm going overboard with the description but you get the idea lah.)

It was to be 2 full days of work to get the full coverage on Spider-Man 3 and I was more than ready for the whole experience. On the first day, they brought me to this huge spider sculpture at Roppongi Hills where the gala premiere was held. The sculpture kinda reminded me of the aliens from "War of the Worlds" but nonetheless was pretty interesting.

Next we had to stand by for the red carpet event. This was when it got interesting.....very interesting. It started raining and the temperature almost immediately dropped to 5 degrees! Yes sir... it was freezing! And what was worst, we had to wait for the cast for almost more than 2hrs to appear on the red carpet whilst being entertained by some dude doing magic tricks on stage. Sheesh! An hour into the waiting, my body started shivering and my fingers went numb.

I chatted up with other shivering humans at the red carpet who were painfully waiting for the stars too. There was one particular guy which caught my eye and I'm sure everyone else's too. A Japanese man in a pink furry coat, pink pants and pink slippers, who kinda reminds me of the pink lady...you know who. He started interviewing me on camera when the T-shirt I was wearing (Labah-Labah man t-shirt) fascinated him. I tried to explain to him what it meant but I realized someone had to explain to me first what HE was saying! He was a nice guy though and I had fun "talking" to him.

Finally the stars arrived and I interviewed them briefly about their thoughts on the movie. I even saw Jensen Ackles "Dean", the guy from Supernatural. It was amazing how Kirsten Dunst could wear an off-shoulder dress in the freezing cold weather. Two thumbs up for you, missy! When we finally got into the theatre for the world movie premiere, after almost 5hrs of standing and waiting, I finally got to be one of the lucky ones to catch Spider-Man 3 first! And boy, it was worth the wait!

On the second day, it was time to interview Tobey, Kirsten, James and Sam the director. Initially I was nervous but after I stepped into the first room to interview Tobey, it became kinda fun. They were all curious about what my t-shirt (Labah-Labah man t-shirt) meant especially Kirsten. The funniest interview was with the director, Sam. The moment I stepped into the room, he started interviewing me! He asked me how the movie was... if it was too long, too many things happening, etc, etc. He was so concerned about my reaction to the movie that I almost forgot I was supposed to interview him.(Of course he's so concerned, he directed it...but he did a good job definitely.) After I was done with the interview, I had to film the press conference and travelled around to a few more locations to film and then it was..........done, wooooo hooooo! YATTA!

The next 2 days, it was time to explore Tokyo, well some of it. I went to Shibuya, Shinjuku and the famous, Harajuku. I even went to the Tokyo tower. Apparently, it's suppose to be a romantic site similar to the Eiffel Tower. Well, I wouldn't know cuz I was alone!

Getting around was quite a task because the subway map is almost impossible to understand. I did tell you that I practised how to ask questions in basic Japanese right? Well, I didn't really anticipate how I'm suppose to understand them when they answer me.......haha! Somehow I managed though. Thankfully traveling wasn't that bad for me because the places I wanted to go were pretty close to each other....PHEW!

It rained on most of the days there but on the final day I was there, a miracle happened. The sky was clear and blue, and the sun was shinning brightly, yet the temperature was cool. I love you GOD! Now I was able to do some shopping!

I did most of my shopping in Harajuku and Takeshita Street. Most of the time, I have very little patience for shopping. I had to keep telling myself that it was the last day of my trip in Japan and that my friends would kill me if I didn't buy something and somehow it worked! I bought a few interesting things there and the best item was a funky Leopard print Nike shoe!

Being a fan of sushi, I was really looking forward to eating at the local sushi place. I found a particular sushi place which served nice, cheap, authentic Japanese sushi. (how much more authentic can it get right, I'm in Japan! Well, I was more particular about the price lah) I ended up finishing more than 15 plates of sushi. It was just too good!

Tokyo looks so much more lively at night with lights shining and blinking at almost every corner, juz like Las Vegas. (From what I see on TV of course, never been there.) In the day....it looks pretty dull, except in Harajuku.

The last day took the most out of me.....all that shopping.....no more, no more! I promised myself no shopping for a few months! Of the many things I observed in Japan, it seems that everyone is always so dressed up and stylish, and most of the girls actually looked like pop stars. Wow! I wouldn't be able to tell the difference if I actually saw one. Somehow, I managed to drag my shopping bags back to the hotel and packed all the things into my luggage. (hey what can I say, I got skillz). I had a good sleep, overseeing Tokyo for the last night and in the morning it was time to head back home.

I really enjoyed the whole experience of interviewing other celebrities and given the chance, I would definitely do it again! A part of me was sad to leave Japan but like they say.....there's no place like home and I was glad to be back home.

Love,

Ignorance is a selfish excuse, work hard and make it on your own.

posted by cher @ 11:21 PM   12 comments