Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Back in Tokyo! Yoroshiko Onegaishimasu!



After postponing my flight 2 times (due to "Acts of God"... yup! The typhoon Ondoy, aka Ketsana left me stranded in the second floor of my own home for almost a week), I have finally made it to my second home.

I rode Philippine Airlines and was pleasantly surprised to see that they have upgraded some of their planes! Now, not only business class passengers get their own personal TV! YUP, if you're lucky enough, you get the same feature with fiesta class! Not only can you choose your own movies on demand, they also feature games such as Bejeweled, Tetris, etc... (Long gone are those free deck of cards!). There's also radio stations and a number of good CDs you can choose from. You can even create your own playlist. Pretty cool, huh? I dont recall Singapore Airlines having this in economy? Hmmmm... :)

The plane to look for is a Boeing 747-400. 4 hours can go by so quickly... :)




P.S. The practical application of "Yoroshiko Onegaishimasu"

The first few days of this trip has been meeting new co-workers. Thank goodness I brought a new set of business cards. Man do they go fast. A typical business introduction goes like this...

1. There is fumbling (each party awkwardly fumbles for their business card, sometimes it takes so long that Im just standing there waiting...)
2. The awkward stance (you and the person being introduced stand face to face for a few seconds)
3. The speech (he/she introduces himself while holding his/her business card facing you and with two finders of each hand, you dont have to understand it. Basically they say where they are from and their name. Most business cards have an English translation anyway.)
4. The bow (self-eplanatory)
5. The do over (I do the exact same thing he/she did. If Im brave, I try it in Japanese -- "Watashi wa Hahn Regina des". Although I havent been brave this trip yet)
6. And... the final words (this is when they and/or you say either, "Hajimemashte" - "Nice to meet you" or... "Yoroshiko Onegaishimasu" - "Please be nice to me", honestly... I find this statement a little strange, dont you think? Who says "Please be nice to me" after an introduction? Another one of those Japanese things I dont think I'll ever get.)

Yes Tokyo, I am back... Yoroshiko Onegaishimasu.

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