Letter from Porto: Jewels of the Duoro and gold in the silver market
I am on my first river cruise. As I write this, our ship, Queen Isabel, has just crossed the deepest lock in Europe, the Carrapatelo Dam, at 35 metres. It’s quite an amazing experience, watching your boat rise to meet the other side of the river, and you marvel at the engineering feats that have m [...]
Letter from Tokyo Station: Japan serious about rail, AirAsia about China and Watson about augmenting
Something unexpected happened on my travels in Japan last week. The train service from Tokyo to Shin-Osaka ran three minutes late. You should have seen the look of consternation on passengers’ faces and my Japanese friend said to me, “So sorry, this is very unusual.”
Where I come from, thre [...]
The Millennial Traveller: Peatix’s Emi Takemura on life beyond your startup
The road to success always looks smooth from space. However, every self-made entrepreneur knows that if you look closely enough, pitfalls, dead ends, misleading loops and seemingly insurmountable hurdles invariably riddle the path to eventual success.
At WIT Japan & North Asia 2017 last week, [...]
How Katsumi Sakakura conquered himself to bring Japanese cool to the world
It was two days before Katsumi Sakakura was due to perform at the opening of WIT Japan & North Asia 2017 in Tokyo and I was curious to meet the artist who had captured my imagination with his performances which blend, as he calls it, “screen power with human power”.
In dress and look, h [...]
Letter from Karuizawa: Of domestic sausages, chowa and online battles
Karuizawa is an hour’s train ride from Tokyo. The hill resort is a popular summer retreat for Tokyo folks looking to escape the heat and stress of city life. At WIT Japan & North Asia, there was a lot of talk about the need to disperse tourism beyond the main centres of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto [...]
Letter from Tokyo: Why did you come to Japan? A tale of Japanese influence on youthful dreams
On the Japan Airlines flight over from Singapore, I caught a television programme made by Tokyo TV called “Why did you come to Japan?”
Clearly launched on the back of the inbound boom to Japan, it basically catches visitors at Narita airport unawares, asks them their reason for coming to the [...]
The Millennial Traveller: Lost in your own re-imagination?
I do not fast but I have always had fond memories during Ramadan as a child. My mother would take us to our cousins’ apartment late at night, where we’d sit around a table and help my aunt bake a phenomenal number of batches of sugee cookies and honey cornflakes, which she would later sell to he [...]
Goodbye MISA Travel, “last of the Mohicans”
The revocation of the travel agency licence of MISA Travel on May 30 is indicative of the growing challenges facing traditional travel agencies in Singapore.
In its advisory, the Singapore Tourism Board stated that the notice was served “as it has ceased to carry on the business of a travel age [...]
Letter from Amsterdam Part 2: Fear of ghosts and bikes, and trends that rock in Asia
In Amsterdam, I stayed at the Grand Amrath Hotel. It’s reputed to be haunted. I didn’t know it because unlike 80% of travellers who read reviews before they book a hotel, I didn’t do any research.
I stayed there because it was the hotel of choice for the Phocuswright team. It’s a very [...]
The Millennial Traveller: Traditional air miles are getting us nowhere
Growing up, I remember my sister and I finding ourselves giddy with excitement, unable to sleep the night before our annual Singapore Airlines flight to Europe.
As a kid, I loved to fly. Thirteen hours of endless games and movies, flight attendants serving us copious amounts of peanut packets (a [...]
