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Travel: From Fukuoka airport to hot spring heaven in Beppu Hells

Tuesday, December 4th, 2012

After a scrumptious meal at CoCo Ichibanya, we made another unplanned stop at the Tosu Premium Outlets before continuing towards our first night in Kyushu – Beppu.

* All photos in this post were taken with a Nikon D800 DSLR and AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED lens.

Window dressing for Dog Dept, one of the shops at Tosu Premium Outlets.

The town of Tosu lies at the crossroads of two major expressways of Kyushu.

Some familiar brands at the Tosu Premium Outlets.

One runs north-south from Fukuoka to Kumamoto and beyond, while the other runs east-west from Oita to Nagasaki.

So it’s an ideal location for Premium Outlets.

People commuting long distance from one part of Kyushu to another tend to go through Tosu and it’s so convenient to just make a quick stopover.

We’d already planned our final hotel stay in Kyushu to be in Tosu before flying out of Japan.

But since it was on our way to Beppu, we decided to take a quick preview of what the outlets had to offer.

As an outlet shopping mall, the Tosu Premium Outlets seemed pretty run-of-the-mill, with the usual brands that we see at other similar malls.

Another unplanned stop to take a preview of the Tosu Premium Outlets.

But we’ll be taking a closer look at the end of this trip so maybe we’ll discover something special.

Miyuki – a local restaurant in Beppu whose owner doubled up as enthusiastic tour guide. This photo of its exterior was shot at ISO 6400 with little noise.

After Tosu, we continued our drive towards Beppu, the seaside town known for its hot springs.

Trying out the local fare – especially the Dango Jiru soup, which is made with flattened wheat flour dumplings.

Here we had a little bit of difficulty locating our hotel among the tiny and complicated streets in the area.

Checking out the shops and wares of You Me shopping centre in Beppu. Everybody recommends it – for its free parking in town, from which to visit other sights.

Contemplating whether to make a stop at Uniqlo. This shot was deliberately over-exposed to get a high-key effect that puts the focus on the boy in the car and the brand.

So we asked a local who promptly got onto his motorbike to show us the way to the family-run establishment called Happy Neko – where we had booked a studio apartment complete with kitchen and launderette facilities.

Bukkake is served in the food court – here it’s a legitimate and traditional Japanese dish, not a genre.

The Czech proprietor, Bibo, sat down with us to tell us about the places to visit, food to eat, and things to do during our 2-day stay at Beppu. He spoke perfect English.

So we headed out for dinner at a local restaurant, whose owner plied us with more brochures, travel magazines and recommendations on what to do during our stay.

The owner was a one-man-show: owner, chef, steward. He had visited Singapore before and immediately associated the Merlion with our island nation.

After dinner, we popped into the huge shopping mall in town – YouMe, before visiting the Hyotan onsen spa near where we stayed – an apt and restful end to a long day of travel.

Tomorrow, we shall visit the Beppu Hells – eight natural hot springs that tourists all over Japan come to visit.

Tags:Beppu, Bukkake, D800, driving, Food, holiday, Japan, Japan 2012, Kyushu, Nikon, onsen, rental car, travel, vacation
Posted in Cameras, DSLR, Events, Food, Gadgets, Holiday, Japan 2012, NIKKOR, Nikon, Photography, Photos, Shopping, Travel | 1 Comment »

Travel: Flying out from Changi Singapore to Fukuoka in Kyushu

Monday, December 3rd, 2012

The direct flight from Changi Airport Terminal 3 in Singapore took slightly more than six hours to reach the International Airport in Fukuoka, where we collected our rental car.

* All photos in this post were taken with a Nikon D800 DSLR and AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED lens.

SIA SQ656 flies 5 times a week direct from Singapore to Fukuoka – 0105 hrs to 0810 hrs. This is the golden sunrise from the plane’s window.

We paid for the air tickets using the UOB Prvi Amex card which entitled us to a free airport limousine transfer from home to the airport. We did have some problems getting them to change the date of the limousine to the correct day, but the service from the driver was excellent.

First thing upon arrival is to pick up the rental car. Take an free airport shuttle from the International Terminal to the Domestic Terminal and then cross the road.

First thing upon arrival is to pick up the rental car. Take a free airport shuttle from the International Terminal to the Domestic Terminal and then cross the road.

The flight itself was unremarkable and upon landing we promptly collected our rental car from Nissan Car Rental outside the Domestic Terminal.

First stop after picking up the car is to visit the supermarket to stock up on supplies, especially bottled drinking water.

First stop was the supermarket to top up supplies and to get bottled water, before heading to our first stop – Beppu – a seaside town 2 hours’ drive from Fukuoka.

We’d discovered CoCo Ichibanya during our visit to Kyoto and Nagoya some years back and the children loved it.

We didn’t get far before we came across an outlet of the CoCo Curry house.

CoCo Ichibanya has since expanded into Singapore although we haven’t had the chance to check it out back at home.

That’s our favourite Japanese curry house so we decided to stop there for lunch – that’s the kind of flexibility that a self-drive holiday gives you – you can make unplanned stops at your whim and fancy.

Tags:CoCo, curry, D800, driving, holiday, Japan, Japan 2012, Kyushu, Nikon, Nissan, rental car, SIA, travel, vacation
Posted in Cameras, DSLR, Events, Gadgets, Holiday, Japan 2012, NIKKOR, Nikon, Photography, Photos | 1 Comment »

Travel: First to set off for vacation, last to return home

Sunday, December 2nd, 2012

Every time we set off for a family vacation, guess who gets to set off first, and is always the last to return home?

Cliff gets to set off for his staycation before us and only returns home after we’ve returned and settled back at home. Photo taken with Nikon D800.

It’s Cliff of course – that’s our resident Golden Retriever.

Before we set off for our family vacation, we have to pack him off to his boarder – which costs as much as our own hotels.

Cliff smacking his lips at the thought of going on staycation? Photo taken with Nikon D800 and AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II lens. I love the shallow depth of field of this lens at its constant f/2.8 aperture.

We wonder if he misses home and us, but secretly concedes that he probably enjoys his staycation as much as we do our vacation.

What with the other dogs at the boarder to ~~hump~~ interact with.

And we usually pick him up after we’ve come back from vacation and have unpacked and settled down.

So guess who has the longest vacations in the family?

Tags:Cliff, D800, dog, holiday, Japan, Japan 2012, Kyushu, Nikon, travel, vacation
Posted in Cameras, DSLR, Events, Gadgets, Holiday, Japan 2012, Lens, NIKKOR, Nikon, Photography, Photos, Travel | No Comments »

Travel: Planning an impromptu 2-week vacation in Japan – one week before

Saturday, December 1st, 2012

So we decided that there was a 2-week window to grab a quick break. But that’s like one-week away. Is it possible to plan the usual DIY self-drive holiday at such short notice?

Aerial view of Fukuoka, our gateway to Kyushu.

The answer is yes, with the advent of the Internet. Here’s a recap of what I did for my own holiday.

Cutting it close

I booked the air tickets the day we decided to go for the break, the car rental the next day, 3 hotels on the third day, and the remaining 3 on the fourth day.

The remaining days were spent planning the itinerary for each stop.

It’s as close to the date of departure as I’ve ever tried going on a self-planned, self-drive vacation.

First the obvious, decide how long you’ve got and where you want to go. In my case, we’ve long wanted to visit Kyushu in Japan, and the window of opportunity available was roughly two weeks.

If you’re thinking of visiting Japan, I recommend this site called japan-guide.com. It has comprehensive descriptions of popular tourist spots all over Japan, as well as travel tips for Japan.

Even more useful is its forum where vacation planners get their queries answered in detail with advice from a community of fellow travelers, as well as useful links to resources – such as timetables, rates etc – outside of the website.

Next book the air tickets. The availability and price of last-minute tickets usually determine whether your vacation destination will become a reality.

Cameras of choice

For this vacation, I’m entrusting our memories to the Nikon D800, with the AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED and the AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II lenses.

That’s almost 4 kg of camera gear but for the sake of image quality, I believe the 36.3-megapixel full-frame camera and two FX lenses from Nikon are worth every ounce of their weight.

Besides, we have the rental car to carry the gear between sights.

For a second camera, my wife will be carrying our trusty Olympus E450 with the ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 kit lens.

I use Zuji.com to get a feel of the airlines plying Singapore and the possible stops and the price range, then if there’s time, check competing sites or the airline’s website for better rates.

For Kyushu, it was pretty straightforward, only Singapore Airlines fly directly there from Singapore – to Fukuoka. It’s straightforward until you hit the SIA website. For a premier airline, it sure has a terrible website for bookings and reservations – plenty of long waits.

Next is the car rental. I use ToCoo car rental. It helps you check the rates for multiple car rental companies with cars available in the cities where you intend to pick up and drop off the car. But you’ve got to compare rates manually yourself.

Computing on the go

For computing, I’m bringing along the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Ultrabook, a BlackBerry PlayBook, and the Seagate 1TB Backup Plus.

The X1 Carbon is sleek in design, wonderfully thin and light, yet powerful enough for surfing Web and running Photoshop and Dreamweaver CS6 for photo-editing and blogging back in the hotel room.

The 7-inch PlayBook keeps the children entertained with game apps, and serves as an e-book reader. Its biggest bugbear is that it’s the Wi-Fi version and does not have 3G, but I don’t use 3G data in Japan anyway.

To store and back up the 40MB RAW photo files generated by the D800, I brought along the 1TB Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive. The 2.5-inch plug-and-play drive constantly backs up the hard disk and makes posting photos online a breeze.

Usually, I pick up the car at the airport, drive off to the first destination and return the car at the airport I’m flying off from. If the pick-up and drop-off locations are different, check if a surcharge is levied and how much it is.

Fuss-free music

For music in the hotel room, we’re bringing along the Jabra Solemate portable speaker. Instead of lugging stacks of CDs around, simply download your favourite tracks onto an SD card and plug it into the Solemate.

What I like most is we can play our song collections and playlists wirelessly from our smartphones, tablet and Ultrabook via Bluetooth. It’s portable, easy to use and the sound quality is superb.

Finally, book the hotels. I know some Japanese so I used to browse Japanese booking websites and hotel websites directly, calling them on the phone for enquiries and reservations.

This time round, I discovered that my favourite accomodation-booking website for Europe holidays – booking.com – now has quite extensive list of hotels in Japan. Enough to find hotels that fit your budget in most places in Japan.

I like booking.com because of its clear information and easy booking. So even if you don’t know ANY japanese, you can still find and book accommodation easily.

Smartphones

We don’t use smartphones an awful lot, but for the record, we’re bringing along the Android Sony Xperia ion and an aging iPhone 3GS.

I’ve left the Nokia Lumia 900 at home because Nokia maps does not have the navigation map for Japan, and I’m renting an English GPS with the car anyway.

Another website that I tried last year – hotels.com – seems to be only beginning to move into Japan, with poor selection and high prices. I’m hoping there coverage and pricing will improve over time.

Once you’ve gotten the flight, car and hotel bookings out of the way, what remains is the physical packing for the big day.

Tags:Backup Plus, Carbon, D800, holiday, ION, Jabra, Japan, Japan 2012, Kyushu, Lenovo, Nikon, Olympus, Seagate, Solemate, Sony, travel, ultrabook, vacation, X1, Xperia
Posted in Apple, Audio, Cameras, DSLR, Events, Gadgets, Holiday, Japan 2012, Lenovo, Lens, Lumia, NIKKOR, Nikon, Nokia, Notebooks, Olympus, Phones, Photography, PlayBook, RIM, Seagate, Sony Mobile, speakers, storage drive, Tablets, Travel, Ultrabooks, Xperia, Zuiko | 1 Comment »

Survey: Cloud gaining traction in Singapore with adoption on the rise

Friday, November 9th, 2012

The 3rd annual VMware Cloud Index shows 84% of respondents have adopted or are planning to adopt cloud solutions.

Infographic showing the findings for Singapore from the VMware Cloud Index 2012. Click to enlarge.

The 84% cloud adoption rate shows an increasing trend from 63% in 2011 and 53% in 2010. The findings were released in conjunction with the annual vForum in Singapore.

“Organisations in Singapore are increasingly recognizing the strategic role that cloud computing can play in enabling them to be more productive, stay competitive, and enter new markets,” said Nicholas Tan, country manager, VMware Singapore.

Of the respondents who have not implemented a cloud initiative but were planning to, 55% plan to implement within the next 18 months.

73% of respondents in Singapore said their business outlook for 2012 and 2013 would include growth and expansion, or consolidation with some growth, signaling more potential opportunities to increase cloud adoption.

77% described cloud computing as a top priority or highly relevant to their organization, and 88% agree that cloud will empower their business by simplifying access to IT resources.

69% agree that their organization needs to pursue cloud initiatives or risk falling behind competitors.

“By leveraging VMware solutions on a subscription basis from our telco and service provider partners such as Fujitsu Asia and SingTel, customers can have their data reside in Singapore, and only pay for the services that they consume,” said Kevin Pratesa, director, Service Providers and Public Cloud, VMware ASEAN.

When rating the top reasons for implementing cloud computing in Singapore, respondents strongly rated the need to empower the business by simplifying access to IT resources (80%); supporting a more mobile and flexible workforce (77%); and ensuring that they only pay for the IT they actually use (77%) as factors driving cloud adoption.

The VMware Cloud Index 2012 revealed that the barriers to cloud adoption in Singapore continue to persist and include data privacy, residency, or “loss of control” (72%); cost (69%); and availability or performance concerns (67%).

Despite growing cloud adoption, only one in two respondents (50%) in Singapore agree that their organization is investing in training for cloud-related skills, and 32% say their company is actively seeking to hire new IT staff with cloud computing expertise.

Tags:Asia Pacific, cloud, data center, data centre, Japan, research, study, survey, trends, vForum, virtualisation, virtualization, VMware
Posted in Cloud, Enterprise IT, Events, Figures, Seminars, Study, Technology, VMware | 1 Comment »

VMware Cloud Index 2012 underscores cloud importance in Asia Pacific

Wednesday, November 7th, 2012

The 3rd annual study by VMware shows cloud computing entering a new stage of evolution in the region as it highlights the growth and importance of cloud as a business enabler.

Infographic showing the findings for APJ from the VMware Cloud Index 2012. Click to enlarge.

The results of the study was presented at the annual vForums in Asia. Here are several key trends revealed by the VMware Cloud Index.

Key trends for APJ

Despite global economic concerns, nearly 80% of respondents in Asia Pacific indicates that their companies’ business outlooks for 2012 and 2013 include some growth and/or expansion.
VMware Cloud Index 2012 findings for Singapore. Click to enlarge.
Cloud computing is seen by respondents as enabling the business to optimise IT (85%), reduce costs (80%), and supporting a more mobile and flexible workforce (81%).
The CIO is increasingly empowered, with 44% of them cited as a final cloud decision maker. CEOs remain the top decision maker at 52%, but this is down 6% compared to 2011.
71% of respondents state that cloud computing has made their jobs less complex.
Top barriers to cloud adoption are data privacy, residency, or “loss of control” (69%); security (64%); and cost (62%).

Businesses in APJ (Japan and Asia Pacific region) are forecasting business growth and see cloud computing as an integral part of their strategy.

“There is a transformation taking place in the industry and the datacenter has become a more automated place,” observed Andrew Dutton, senior vice president and general manager, VMware Asia Pacific and Japan.

There is an increased readiness for cloud and indication that it can provide competitive advantage, with 67% of APJ organisations believing that they currently have the skills and infrastructure necessary to manage a private cloud.

68% stated that without pursuing cloud initiatives, they could fall behind the competition.

With 83% of organisations stating that cloud can empower their businesses by simplifying access to IT resources, companies are looking to leverage cloud computing as a business enabler.

“VMware’s software defined approach to the datacenter not only helps organisations address concerns about integration, hybrid management and security, but also allows business leaders to leverage cloud computing in a way that aligns to their business needs,” Dutton added.

On the other hand, IT today is struggling to impose governance, control, access and self-service over heterogeneous cloud services.

VMware is working to solve this challenge – with the introduction of the software defined datacenter as the tenet to cloud computing.

IT has also evolved from its traditional role as a builder of services to become a broker of services and infrastructure capacity.

In the era of the enterprise hybrid cloud, there are new and increased responsibilities for IT, and CIOs will need to be at the helm to bridge the gap between business and IT and manage this transformation.

About the VMware Cloud Index

The 3rd VMware Cloud Index in 2012 is the largest regional cloud-related study in Asia Pacific.

VMware

Headquartered in the Silicon Valley, VMware is a global leader in virtualisation and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the Cloud era.

With 2011 revenues of US$3.77b, VMware has more than 400,000 customers and 55,000 partners.

Forrester Consulting and ITR (for Japan only) were commissioned to conduct the annual research in September and October 2012.

Approximately 6,500 senior IT practitioners across the APJ (in eleven countries/regions: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand) were surveyed this year.

Check out the infographics for your region here.

Tags:Asia Pacific, cloud, data center, data centre, Japan, research, Singapore, study, survey, trends, vForum, virtualisation, virtualization, VMware
Posted in Cloud, Enterprise IT, Events, Figures, Seminars, Study, Technology, VMware | 2 Comments »

The Disaster Recovery Survey 2012: Asia Pacific and Japan

Tuesday, May 8th, 2012

81% of businesses in the Asia Pacific and Japan might NOT be able to recover lost data and systems in the event of a disaster. New independent research sponsored by EMC points to outdated backup and recovery infrastructure.

The survey also found that 71% of all organizations had lost data or suffered systems downtime in the last 12 months.

Vanson Bourne interviewed 2,500 IT decision-makers in private and public sector organizations in Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, The Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

Each organization ranged between 250 and 3000-plus employees and represented a variety of industries including manufacturing, retail, financial services and telecoms, among others.

These findings highlight the need for backup transformation from antiquated technologies that are not suited for today’s data growth or availability expectations.

A move to next-generation backup and recovery solutions ensure continued business operations in the event of a natural disaster, malicious activity or more routine and common disruptions to IT systems.

In fact, the research showed that the causes of systems downtime are often the commonplace disruptions to IT, such as hardware failure or data corruption, rather than natural disasters or other major incidents.

Other key findings are summarised below:

Hardware failure (60%), data corruption (49%) and loss of power (44%) were cited as the primary causes of data loss and downtime.
42% of organizations cite loss of employee productivity as the most likely consequence of data loss and downtime.
44% of organizations who store a backup copy offsite for disaster recovery still use tape for recovery, and 37% still use CD ROM (although 62% now use disk-based storage).
83% of these organizations want to replace tape all together, highlighting the need for next generation backup and recovery.

Commissioned by EMC and conducted by independent research company Vanson Bourne, ‘The Disaster Recovery Survey 2012: Asia Pacific and Japan’ looks at the state of backup and disaster recovery in the region to understand how well companies are prepared for data loss and systems downtime.

For the full report, visit EMC’s website here.

Tags:Asia Pacific, Australia, China, data, Disaster Recovery, EMC, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, loss, Malaysia, research, Singapore, study, survey, Thailand, The Philippines
Posted in Announce, Enterprise IT, Figures, storage drive, Study, Tech news | 1 Comment »

Remembering the earthquake-tsunami-nuclear disasters in Japan

Monday, March 12th, 2012

It’s hard to imagine one year has passed since the triple disasters struck in north eastern Japan on 11 March 2011.

I can still remember vividly the terrifying footage of the earthquakes that started it all; the gruesome images of the tsunami rolling in and cars in its path being swept aside; and the subsequent alarm arising from the melt-down at the nuclear plant in Fukushima.

Amidst news updates of the repeatedly futile attempts to bring the melt-down under control and to stem the release of radioactive materials into the atmosphere, the greatest consolation was the quick and generous response of other countries to offer aid for the disaster victims – as well as the steadfast and stoic resilience shown by the victims themselves.

Photo tribute to the victims of the disasters and the volunteers.

Although saddened by the tragedy like many others, I put together a compilation – at that time – of some photos that I’d taken over the years in Japan.

“Photos that bring to mind some pleasant memories of a beautiful country with a wonderful culture, and most importantly the hospitable and kind people that I’ve had the privilege of encountering in Japan.

In the mass of depressing scenes depicting the horrors of the disasters, hopefully these photos will help remind us of the beautiful Japan.” March 27, 2011.

I’d hoped that the images would slightly ameliorate the depression caused by the horrors of the disasters.

It seems apt that one year after that fateful night, we should take pause from our hectic lives to remember the victims of the triple disaster, who had perished or who are still suffering from the aftermath.

May the passage of time heal the terrible wounds and losses that nature has so terribly dealt them.

Below is the photo remembrance that I compiled last year – my own little contribution – terribly insignificant compared to those who had risked life and limb physically helping out at the scene of the disasters.

May we also remember these selfless workers and volunteers who truly displayed the greatness of the human spirit.

(more…)

Tags:contribute, earthquake, Japan, nuclear accident, photos, tsunami
Posted in Opinion, Photos | No Comments »

Apple profit almost double after iPhone’s Verizon debut

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

Profit for the second quarter almost doubled due to iPhone sales via Verizon, even though sales for newly launched iPad 2 were below estimates because of supply shortage.

Fears of growth being affected by supply disruptions from Japan’s earthquake and tsunami were also allayed.

	2nd Quarter	A year earlier	Bloomberg survey
Net income (almost doubled)	$5.99 billion, $6.40 a share	$3.07 billion, $3.33 a share	$5.04 billion, $5.39 a share
Sales (up 83%)	$24.7 billion	$13.5 billion	$23.4 billion

Apple began selling the iPhone through Verizon Wireless in February, and launched the iPad 2 on March 11.

Demand for the iPad has been so strong that Apple has not been able to make enough, leading to sales that were lower than what most analysts predicted.

	2nd Qtr	Analysts predictions
iPhones sold through Verizon	18.7 million	16.3 million
iPads sold	4.69 million	6.1 million
Mac computers	3.76 million	3.6 million
iPod media players	9.02 million	9.8 million

“Apple is ramping up production as it prepares to start selling the tablet computer in 13 additional countries this month”, Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook told Bloomberg.

Still, sales of products in the country may be $200 million lower as consumers coping with the temblor and tsunami buy fewer gadgets, he said.

Tags:Apple, iPad, iPhone, Japan, smartphone, tablets
Posted in Apple, Figures, iPad, iPhone, Phones, Tablets, Tech news | No Comments »

Japan earthquake-tsunami-nuclear disaster: photo remembrance

Sunday, March 27th, 2011

At last, the death toll from the triple disaster in Japan has passed 10,000 – with 17,000 more unaccounted for. Many people like myself are tremendously saddened by the tragedy.

Here’s a simple collection of photos that I’ve taken over the years in Japan – photos that bring back pleasant memories of a beautiful country with a wonderful culture, and most importantly hospitable and kind people that I’ve had the privilege of encountering.

In the sea of depressing scenes depicting the horrors of the disasters, hopefully these photos will help remind us of the beautiful Japan.

I love visiting Japan. It is a wonderful place to bring a family with young kids. It is clean, safe and systematic. No need to worry about food poisoning, walking late at night, or the trains to be late.

As you can guess from the many photos taken in Japan that I’ve used as illustrations for my photo-editing stories, I visit Japan an awful lot – almost every year with the family. My wife and I have lived in Japan before and we love the culture and the food, and especially – the sincerity of the people we’d met during our stay.

Most of the photos had appeared in previous photo-editing articles. I know there are a lot of workers and volunteers out there risking life and limb to help with disaster relief right now. This is just a little something that I’d like to contribute in my own way.

Each of the photo contains a link to a charity for victims of the disasters to make it convenient for you to make a contribution should you wish to. None of the charities linked to are related to me in any way. Please do your own checks on those charities before contributing.

Help the victims of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters in Japan