New Cityscape Album

Just set up 2 new photo albums: Cityscape: Color and BW pix of the environs of Crowne Plaza Galleria Hotel in the Ortigas Center, Quezon City, Philippines. Would look better if I know how to arrange the sequence of the pix.

Art in the Park 2009: A cool way to start the Philippine summer

Had a great time at Art in the Park 2009, set up by the Museum Foundation of the Philippines. Found new, exciting eyefood at really reasonable prices, some edgy enough for this jaded eye. Loved the Technological Univ of the Philippines booth (have some shots of the work but will post them when I notify the artists), the White Box Studio, the Ilustrador ng Kabataan [INK] and Ral Arrogante’s booth in particular. Am sure i missed some too.

 To see some of the pix I took, please go to the photo section of this blog.

Finding another hotel in Tokyo, Part 2

So far, I’ve been sinfully lucky with my stays in Tokyo (knock on wood).

1. The first time was BN (before Narita), in an overnight stopover. The JAL flight booked me a room free-of-charge at JAL Hotel Nikko off Haneda Airport. I went up to the counter and was greeted by a smiling man holding my passport. It had apparently slipped off in the shuttle from the airport and been safely, quickly delivered back to me.

It was a surprisingly peaceful hotel and I still remember my first look outside my room window. It was of a small wooded area. It was autumn and the slightest of rains was falling, softening the outlines of wet, green trees. The view had the quality of watercolors.

2. The second time was a student hostel in Kichijoji. I was coming home from a year spent in Germany. My girlfriend who was studying in nearby International Christian University made all the arrangements and booked a ryokan-style room, a fairly large space clean of everything except a large closet for luggage and tatami mats that we would use to cover the whole floor area at night. It is difficult both to describe and forget the nights spent rolling around all that space, effectively removed from the real world by paper screens (shoji).

3. The third time is described earlier in this blog, making a late decision to attend a printing convention and finding room in  a clean, efficient hotel just a stroll away from the convention site.

4. The fourth time is the topic of this blog entry.

After taking a short ride with a jolly cabby eager to practice his English, I found myself in front of Tokyu Stay Shibuya Shin-minamiguchi. The reception counter had a middle-aged gentleman who quickly found my reservation file. As I said earlier, I booked my room by e-mailing the hotel directly. All correspondence was in English, even the advice to take the airport bus and a cab, rather than getting lost in the labyrinths and stairways of Shibuya station.

I was asked to pay for my stay in advance and after 5 minutes, found myself in an L-shaped room. The door opened to the kitchenette that was, like the rest of the L-shaped room, immaculate. Smoking was allowed but the room smelled neither of smoke nor of cooking oil. I checked out the bathroom. The white shower curtain was meticulously folded into pleats set on the lip of the tub. I found this detail so exquisite that I delayed taking my shower, going out to the small balcony instead, then lighting up a cigarette and cracking open a can of Sapporo Dry I had bought in the airport. In the distance, between buildings, one of the many trains that service Shibuya Station was coming in. Later in my stay, from the balcony, I was to make a time-lapse video of such a train leaving the statiion with its brood of office workers at the end of a workday. The balcony, small as it was, would serve as my beer-and-smoke place, allowing me to keep my living area clean and view the small sidestreet whose quiet, solitary walkers hid the fact that just a short corner away was the busy, buzzing intersection of Shibuya.

Finding another hotel in Tokyo, Part 1

This review’s a bit late but after the Tokyo bookfair (TIBF), I came home to a mess of work and haven’t had the chance to write this till now.

When I was planning my trip there, my first choice was Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel, which I reviewed here earlier. It was a painless walk to the Tokyo Big Sight convention center and I was quite happy with the room and service. However, one month before the fair, the hotel was fully booked. After waiting a week or two, with no change in the No Vacancy situation.

Rather than mope and look for another option in the Ariake area, I decided to take the opportunity to see the rest of Tokyo. In my previous stay, I’d gone to Lalaport Mall, the Tsukiji Fish market and, from there, Ginza. This time, I resolved to see Shinjuku (a place of romantic memories) and/or Shibuya. Ariake is fine, but the immediate of envirions of the convention center are quiet and empty during nights and weekend and i wanted an urban buzz this time.

I tried checking out the Washington Hotels in Ginza, Shinjuku and Shibuya. Few rooms were available in these hotels and when I thought I had found one in Washington Hotel Shinjuku, I came across an unhappy review in either Virtual Tourist of Trip Advisor. Finally, I took the advice of the historian Rey Ileto, now in Singapore but a frequent Tokyo visitor.

It was Rey who mentioned the Tokyu Stay chain. I checked it out and chose Tokyu Stay Shin-Minamiguchi. Other Tokyu Stay branches were fully booked. Basically it wasn’t much of a choice but it turned out to be a good choice.

ACCESS

from airport •••  Unlike the previous hotel, Tokyu Stay Shin-Minamiguchi is not directly served by the Ariport Limousine Buse service mentioned in an earlier blog. Again,I asked travelers from Trip Advisor and Virtual Touristfor advice and then e-mailed Tokyu Stay Shin-Minamiguchi directly. They advised taking the Limousine Bus to Cerulean Tower and then taking a cab from there. (The Limousine Bus also services Shibuya Mark City nearby, I was to find out.) After I took the cab, I realized I could have walked it and avoided the daily traffic jam (well, I did want some urban buzz). The walk would have been downhill for the most part but hey, I was arriving with a suitcase and going to a hotel i had never seen before.

 to Tokyo Big Sight Convention Center ••• Since I was not on Odaiba this time, I knew the commute (as opposed to a stroll) would be longer and more expensive. Still, it was painless: just one trip basically if you pick the right train. Shibuya Station is one of the busiest stations in Tokyo and is served by JR and numerous private lines. One walks an easy couple of minutes to the relatively recent Shiinminamiguchi entrance of Shibuya station to take the Rinkai Line. You can see a basic location map here. I estimate that one of every 3 trips brings you directly to Kokusai-Tenjijo Station near Tokyo Big Sight. Otherwise, one can get off at Ebisu and change trains from the same quay. In other words, I traded quick, painless and no-cost access to the convention center for about an hour’s commute to it but access to more exciting sections of Tokyo.

Next blog: The Tokyu Stay Shibuya Shin-Minamiguchi apartment hotel and why I enjoyed it. In the meantime, you can check out the photos of the hotel and my room there.

15th Tokyo International Book Fair 2008

Last July, my office sent me to the Tokyo international Book Fair held, as usual, at Tokyo Big Sight (see my previous blogs and photos from the International Graphic Arts Show below). It was pretty much a Japan-centric fair although I did make some interesting book trade people from Spain, Iran (I first met Lily in the Abu Dhabi Book Fair) and, of course, Japan. There were also many well-made Japanese books, most printed on their beautiful yellow/cream offset paper but since, I can’t read Japanese, I had to be satisfied with admiring their physical appearance.

My main interest in going there was to learn more about digital and Print-on-Demand publishing. I was disappointed though: although the Tokyo Book Fair site promoted a Digital Publishing Exhibit, this was basically made up of hardware and software vendors pushing all types of printers, scanners and so on. The typical hard-sell one sees in Graphic Arts Shows. What I was looking for were discussions and fora about how publishers today can make a business out of these products, including the protection of copyright for digital documents. I remember that the great Frankfurt Bookfair hosted such a forum a few years ago but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend.

Also, It was high summer it seemed and either the Tokyo Big Sight administration were trying to cut energy consumption or something was wrong with the air-conditioning. At any rate, entering the Book Fair (it’s run by Reed Expositions) brought no relief from the steamy weather outside. Still, I was in Tokyo and my stay in Shibuya more than offset the shortcomings of the fair.

Click here for photos of the TIBF.

Beach Hotel, Singapore

Had to make a quick visit last June 2008 to attend a booklaunching and the installation of a plaque to mark the Philippine national hero Jose Rizal’s stay in Singapore.

It must have been convention time too since all the old haunts were booked. In the pinch, a friend found us rooms in Beach Hotel at the corner of Beach Rd and Liang Seah St. (We were bringing the books.)

Photos of the hotel are in the Photos Section.

Not quite what I’m used to but quite serviceable for the rough and kewl. A Chinese friend of mine referred to it as a Chinese hotel but not quite sure what that means. In the lift, one sultry night, found myself amidst four 6-foot transvestites, dressed to the teeth, glittered and giddy as hell. Sybaritic Singapore?

Pros
Great location, walking distance to Bugis Junction Mall, Suntec, National Library and a wide variety of restaurants
Lots of night action
Hot-Air balloon site just around the corner
Friendly staff

Cons
Not as clean or bright as the hotels I’m used to in Singapore (see photos)
Wifi available but at a price
1 coin-operated computer at reception
Personally, I prefer the City Hall area

Manila Int’l Book Fair: Gintong Aklat Keynote Speech by Ric de Ungria, part 2

Continued from previous post

Also available at http://indioink.multiply.com

Gintong Aklat keynote speech by Ric de Ungria 

Still and all, even if we do dip into local publications and scholarship, we appear clueless as to what to do with ideas we’ve read. We are at this point still very good consumers of ideas but very poor developers and producers of these. Perhaps this is due to the lack of and respect for criticism and the critical outlook that should help guide us in the choice, evaluation, validation, and furtherance of ideas. 

Specifically in the field of the arts in this country, everyone wants to be an artist or a writer and no one wants to become a critic. A proper appreciation and understanding of criticism remains a heavy psychic baggage of our culture. As it is, our criteria for merit and excellence remain ambiguous, fluid, and undefined—all the better for a culture that sits in darkness and moves sideways on haunches and hunches. Even in the choice of our National Artists, we have to defer to politics and executive prerogatives, so we end up with legitimate and illegitimate kinds, so to speak, of National Artists. If it’s not negotiable, it may not be true at all. 

Varied and many, indeed, are the strange ways we have devised to avoid facing up to truths we don’t want. Without hard truths to stare us down, we are freest and most contented; with truths hard by, we become murderous.  Where, pray tell, is truth in all these new books that come out every year?

As disseminators of culture, knowledge, and information, you may find all these things bitter pills hard to swallow. But these issues may be beyond your control at all. Or these may be among the many contradictions inherent in your business in this special country of ours and which you may perhaps have learned to cope and live with, in your own special way. The lucrative textbook industry, for instance, helps educate future professionals who will leave the country immediately after graduation to work elsewhere in the globe. The advocacy for intellectual property and copyright remain as a voice in the wilderness where photocopied textbooks and texts in the classroom and pirated movies and computer programs and games in the living rooms have found a niche and established themselves as the norm. 

How can truth hold up to these? The truth may be simple enough, but it is not cheap.

Again, to be truly a national industry, your growth must involve publishing in the regions where there remains a pressing need to recover, develop, and sustain local knowledge that should help locate the missing pieces in the uncompletable puzzle that is this nation. Your distribution system should also be far-ranging than what it is today—even if you can never be sure if only six people would buy your books. That, in any case, would be a good start, especially in areas that SM will never find worthy enough to erect a mall in.

These are dark and trying times, indeed—literally and metaphorically—and it’s easy to fall into despair and cynicism in the face of work that remains to be done. But the comforting thought, ladies and gentlemen, is that—despite the virtual lack of a critical thinking, and not merely a reading, public—the attempt to create a meaningful sense of ourselves and of our history out of the shards of our lost traditions and indigenous knowledge continues in the work you are doing in this business. The unearthing and gathering and examination of narratives and poetries that define the range and limits of our imagination and creativity as a people remain a worthy and priceless task in a country that has still to find the correct balance among contending truths and between the push and pull of reason and emotion. The matter of money might have been there initially, however little the returns may be in this business. 

But eventually, I imagine and I hope, you must have broken through the great wall of emptiness and absurdity that attend and threaten any worthy human endeavor—the better to give it shape and character—and settled down with the hope that somehow the threads of all these texts produced every year will be picked up and find themselves woven into a tapestry where discourses of all kinds can be discerned as fitting triumphs of the Filipino imagination.

Artistic and intellectual creations entail long and laborious processes whose purposes are not any more edifying and ambitious as the sheer and simple satisfaction of its artist-producer. I like to think that you, producers of artistic and intellectual products, are like artists in this regard who are of this time and yet not of this time, having gone ahead to a time when everything shall have been prepared for and the ripeness is just there for the plucking. 

For instance, this Gintong Aklat award that you have initiated and nourished for many years now. In this country where publication is highly selective and competitive and a published book is already an achievement of a kind—however smudgy and full of errata or misalignments it may be—honoring the book not merely as an intellectual and artistic creation but as an intellectual and artistic creation embedded in the physicality and materiality of paper and colors and ink already involves a next and sophisticated level of relationship with and valorization of the printed page. The book as book, with a specific weight and size and binding and texture and color of paper and a cover and the pages within so designed as to have an artistic value by and in themselves. 

Very few are conscious of the well-designed book as book, and very few actually care for it. But for the few who do care and are in the know about book design and the well-made book, this award is a moment of grace and reprieve from the drudginess of politics and life around us. It took foresight and inspiration to conceive of this award—for like art and all crafted things, the making of books must always be pushed to its edge of beauty and pleasure. In this regard, I salute you and your association for this added dimension in the appreciation of books—a dimension that is valuable yet invisible, unappreciated yet intrinsic and necessary in elevating the business of publishing books to the level of art.

This award is just a small corner in the entire universe of books and book production, but it helps restore to our jaded spirits the power of art to surprise and delight with details where god is supposed to reside. In a country where there is little respect for honor and truth, the fact that some people did care enough to get something done right in so insignificant a thing as a book is testament enough that human passion for the beautiful object remains a truth in itself that gives off light, bravely and briefly as it may be.

Congratulations to the winners of the Gintong Aklat this year!

Thank you very much.  

Manila Int’l Book Fair: Gintong Aklat Keynote Speech by Ric de Ungria, part 1

Also available at  http://indioink.multiply.com

Last Friday, Sept 12, was the first day of the Manila International Bookfair. It was also the day the winners of the Gintong Aklat Book Awards sponsored by the Book Development Association of the Philippines were announced. Unlike simple writing contests, it awards the best *books* of the year which means that not only the contents but also the physical construction of a book are taken into account. In addition, the board of judges includes not just writers and academics but book trade professionals who understand book production. Factors such as binding, paper and price are taken into account. I don’t always agree with the choices but I do agree that it’s an important contest and the only one where the book as a made object is given its due.Am posting in two installments the piece written by the keynote speaker for this year’s bookfair. Ric de Ungria, Commissioner of the Arts NCCA, UP-Mindanao professor and former chancellor of the same and one of best poets of the country.

Here’s the speech:

Recent events in our history, specifically in the past twenty years or so, have more than less convinced me that ours is a culture not of ideas and intellection but of emotions, hints, and suspicions. Our predilection is for the unsaid or the merely implied, the shadowy and adumbrated, the peripheral and the underground as appropriate instruments to counter what has been perceived as the given brutality of power and force exercised by the few oligarchs and pseudo-monarchs in appropriate political positions. The dynamics in our culture is such that there seems to be always an agon between the outer and the inner, between the overt and the secret, the official and the unofficial, mainstream and underground—with the outer and overt and official conceived of as tyrannically powerful and repressive, and the inner and secret and unofficial wielded as a submissive and abiding force whose time will eventually come. The complexity of the interplay between these two “forces” has remained inexhaustible and a source of inspiration for our inventiveness that has spanned the gamut from the ludicrous to the ludic.

Our basic stance is subversive of any established order, and the reality of our daily life is rooted in infringements of various kinds tolerated and even elevated to the level of norms—from blatant disobedience of simple traffic signs and rules, to secret deals and agreements at the highest levels of the echelon that explode in the faces of the players when exposed to the public. Witness the aborted Memorandum of Agreement between the government panel and the MILF, which has plunged the peace process in Mindanao into a crisis and cost deaths to civilians and soldiers alike and displacements of hundreds of thousands of families in central Mindanao. “If you were the MILF,” Mayor Rodrigo Duterte of Davao had remarked, expressing the sentiment of many Mindanaons, “after a gestation of five years, talking laboriously for five years, tapos sabihin na, ‘Oh no, the MOA-AD is just a piece of paper,’ and as a matter of fact, ‘they [that is, members of the government panel] were not given the authority to sign.’ If you were the MILF, would you be happy to hear that?” Little wonder that given the kind of governance that this sad republic of ours has, who wouldn’t want to break away from it?

Our memories are full of treacheries and betrayals, and our ideal is martyrdom for a cause that should not have been put on the pedestal of grievance had our civil life been shaped and ruled by simple observance of basic laws and rules of public conduct. But we prefer to move with stealth, duplicity, and cunning, and make a show of conservatism and righteousness to make up for our deep lack of a strong moral center. Of course, the majority of us have their religion to fall back on, but even in that realm we know how to play the gods.

All these may appear to be bad sociology simplified for dummies by a poet, but this poet thinks we’ve allowed ourselves to be played with as such for as long as he can remember. And at no time in our history had we been placed in such a moral quandary—or muck, or nadir—and at such tragic scale of helplessness and inaction than the one we are in at the present time. There is certainly no lack of imagination on our part to cope with this kind of predicament, but in our present case, we seem to be facing a blank wall—and making the best of the cracks and fissures we see on it.

I mention these things here because I want to locate the publishing industry to which you belong within such dismal state of affairs as I see it.

One can go over statistics in your sector—which, by the way, is just beginning to appreciate the importance of data and data gathering in your field (which is something we should all be thankful for)—and see its continued though slow flourishing or progress in terms of revenue, gradual increase in number of stakeholders or new publishers, and in the number of books published by the year. This is all heartening to note, especially for an academician like myself. But the fact remains that, for all the increasing richness and variety of publications you have made available to us the reading public through the years, we still have to see an intellectual culture forming before our very minds—one fueled by discussions and debates not only in the academic world but also in the realm of newspapers and magazines—and helping sustain a healthy public opinion and pointing at directions in the rational formulation of principles and policies for governance. For isn’t a rational life and an intellectual culture in the service of truth and the common good among the basic end products of books and literary? But one can think of many reasons for this abysmal lack.

Outside of Manila, the culture remains mostly oral and informal, lending itself immediately available to blogs and egroup discussions that appear to have improved on barbershop or streetcorner disputations of yore. In Mindanao, egroup discussions on the present situation—fervid and informed and varied—have overtaken the news and are well on the way to developing a dialogue among intellectuals and other stakeholders in the island. (Whether the discourses will turn towards a plan of action remains, however, to be seen.) The wealth of such informal discourses is simply staggering, and media and the book industry would probably do well to address this new source of information and knowledge as viable contributions to the knowledge economy.

While a number of good local books have been made increasingly available to the public, the public, including the underpaid academic, has not found them affordable enough to spend enough on them. This is embarrassing but true, given the difficult, unkind, and unequal economic opportunities in the country. But the money, or lack of, is not all there is to it. The more shameful thing is that given a degree of purchasing power, most people will opt to buy foreign books than local ones. Not only is there glamour and sophistication in being up-to-date with bestsellers in the American market, there is really no interest at all in matters Filipiniana, which have never really been a part of our breeding in our formative years. Having been the first among our Asian neighbors to grow up globally in Americana, most of us have really very little choice but to sustain such global interests above the local ones. It is hoped that the present cultural mapping project at the NCCA should lay soon enough the groundwork for a cultural literacy program from elementary to college that will help instill a sense of pride in the Filipino student for the achievements in his own varied culture and in the exploits of his culture bearers.

 continues…

Lalaport Mall, Toyosu, Tokyo

One of the places I visited was Toyosu in southeast Tokyo. It can be reached by the Yurakucho line as well as the Yurikamome monorail line of which it is one of the terminal stations. There are lots of small, great-smelling restaurants and large discount shops. Beside it as well, is the beautiful and quirky LalaPort Mall with its own ferry port, a TokyoHands crafts store branch, and loads of well-designed shops and restaurants (see photo section of this blog). We ate in the beautiful Sushitsune restaurant on the top level. This was recommended to me by the guard at the Ariaka Ferry Boat port beside Tokyo Big Sight in Ariake. LalaPort also has an annex which houses the Aoki Fine Foods store which reminded me of the basement food halls of Mitsukoshi in Ginza and Harrods in London. I could have spent days in this area.

Finding a hotel in Tokyo, Part 3

Having made all the arrangements, nothing was left except to fly to Tokyo.

We were booked on Northwest (Flight 20), the Manila-to-Tokyo leg being the first part of a longer flight that would end in the USA. We picked the airline because its departure and arrival times would give us more time during our short stay in Tokyo. It definitely was not because of the service, which was just adequate on the way there but horrible on the way back. I tried to tell myself that the flight attendants on the return flight (19) must have been tired from the
 long flight from the USA, but when dinner was served, one flight attendant (who looked and sounded like a Japanese-American type) asked me whether I would prefer the chicken or the beef. When I asked in turn how the beef was cooked, she drew out the beef plate, stuck her finger on the plastic wrap and said, "Like this." Then she giggled, totally unaware of how crassly she had behaved. But I've wandered from the story.

Prior to our departure from Manila, I checked the limousine bus schedule on their website: we would arrive in Narita at 1.20pm and the bus would leave at 1.50. The next departure time from Narita to our hotel would be at 3.50pm. I just had enough time to to send e-mail to the hotel saying that we might arrive at around 5pm (3.50 + the 70-minute bus ride). Being used to the chaos of arriving in Manila's airports, I doubted we could make it to the 1.50 bus trip.

Happily enough though, arriving in Narita was a breeze. I had to wait a few minutes for my colleague, but we still had enough time to pay for our bus ride and get to the hotel at around 3.

Check-in at Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel was smooth and pleasant. We were greeted with bows and courteous smiles by both the concierge and the pretty ladies at the reception counter. There was absolutely no problem with our reservations– I was even given a room at a higher floor as I requested. This assured me of a great view of Ariake, Tokyo Bay with "mainland" Tokyo gleaming in the background.

Considering that the IGAS 2007 convention was going on at the time, the mood in the hotel was calm and relaxing.

The room, a single, was snug– some would say small but I was not planning to spend long waking hours there anyway. The large window that dominated the room kept it from feeling claustrophobic. Besides, it was not much smaller than those of some hotels in Europe.

Some websites had warned of the absence of a garment closet, but I was traveling light anyway and had lived off my suitcase before. The bathroom was clean, had a shower, a tub and the fanciest toilet seat I've ever used (warm-water bidet/cleaning spray with water pressure control).

There was no mini-bar, just a small empty ref that we were encouraged to stock. The desk held a flat-panel TV and a hot plate. Below it was a small cabinet with both Western and Japanese teacups, glasses and a small pot we could use to brew tea or cook instant ramen with.

All the TV programs were in Japanese but the opening screen informed me that I could purchase a Y1000 "virtual home theater" ticket from a vending machine in the lobby. This would allow me to watch an unlimited number of shows for the whole night. Shows included American and international movies, TV shows and even Japanese adult
movies. (Note: In most adult movies in Japan, private parts are obscured through computer pixelation, so I did not bother checking these out.)

I also saw an ethernet cable and connection port. Wired high-speed access to the Internet is free from your room– you have to bring your laptop though. I didn't and this was worth a few minutes of regret. (On the ground floor, in a small room, there is bank of computers you can use to surf as well as a photocopier/printer. One or 2 of the computers are set in English. It costs Y100 for ten minutes with a separate charge for using the printer.)

The staff, contrary to some comments in some web-based travel sites, were helpful and easy to talk to, never making you feel that your stupid questions were an inconvenience. I usually encountered those in the afternoon shift and must mention Mr Jonsoo Kong who was especially helpful in giving directions and making suggestions about
what to do for our last few hours after check out. (Check out was before noon but we could leave our luggage in the hotel. Since our flight out would leave at 7pm, we had a few hours to visit some other sites in Ariake but this worked out quite well. After all, right beside the hotel were 3 train stations and we got back to it with enough time to freshen up and even to visit the Panasonic Show Room nearby.)

Since there was no mini-bar, and almost everything, from snacks to liquor, could be bought from hotel vending machines or from at least three convenience stores all within walking distance of the hotel, check-out was a breeze. You simply stuck your room key card into a machine which would then issue your receipt. The only thing we had to
prepare for was our limousine bus trip back to Narita (you need to book the trip a day before).

All in all, our stay in Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel was as smooth as silk and as pleasant a green tea ice cream– a source of peaceful pleasure. For business travelers who have to attend a convention in Tokyo Big Sight, nothing can beat this hotel in price, proximity and efficiency. For some families who want to visit Tokyo Disneyland, the hotel is close enough to make it worth considering, but I would visit their website to ask about the size of the room.

Hotel Room Photos in Photo Section of this blog

Okay. I've completed the upload of my hotel room photos and annotated them with comments about room details. You can find these in the Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel album in the Photos section of this blog. Or you can click on the photo above.

Still uploading photos

I am currently uploading photos of my room in Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel. Thanks for your patience. I should be done in a few days.

Finding a hotel in Tokyo, Part 2

Having decided on a hotel, it was now time to book a room.

Fortunately, Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel has a website where you can make reservations. The site is available in both English and Japanese. You can access the website here.

It's a fairly straightforward site with a small map showing the hotel's location.

Once you fill in the reservation details, you click the SEARCh button which brings you to a page the shows all the available room configurations and their prices. Select a room by clicking GO. This brings you to a page listing the room you selected.

Clicking the NEXT button brings you to a form page where you are asked to fill in some personal information (there is a secure server option). This is an important page because, when filled out correctly, it starts the confirmation process which will provide you with a reservation number. When filling out your phone number filled, don't use the plus (+) or slash (/) signs normally associated with area codes. Also, the address fields allow only a limited number of characters.

Once you get through this though, your confirmation page will come up and you will be given a reference/reservation number. You will need this to make further correspondence easier. You will also receive e- mail listing your reservation details.

A great thing about this is that no credit card information or advance payment is desired unlike some online hotel booking sites.

This worried me at first, since we were traveling during peak season, and previously, the hotel web site showed very few rooms available. Then, I also had to change my reservation dates since my colleague had to change our dates of departure.

To make changes in my reservation, I made a new reservation on the website. Then I sent e-mail to further confirm it. The hotel (through Kaoru Highuchi-san) replied promptly but to double-check the reserv ations change, I then made a
telephone call. The person answering the phone was polite and sharp. She quickly transferred me to the Reservations desk where another lady who spoke English clearly, quickly looked up my reservation details using the reference number I dictated out to her. She was clear, efficient, polite and friendly.

Reassured, I then proceeded to use the Net to look up other useful information for my stay:

Information about Narita airport (You can even download floor plans of the airport!)

Getting from the airport to the hotel and back (The limousine bus is the best buy. You can check here if your hotel is served by it.)

rail links (Hyperdia even has an English interactive site that allows you to plan a trip using the one station as a start point and another as a destination. You will receive information about trip options, departure and arrival times, where to transfer, and travel cost!)

subway/monorail links:  Yurikamome monorail line; Rinkai subway line

Tokyo Subway Map 

Info about Tokyo Big Sight

In all, I was able to use the Net to make all the necessary arrangements and gather loads of useful information for my stay.

My next blog will describe my arrival in the hotel. 

Finding a hotel in Tokyo, Part 1

[Note: This post should have appeared earlier– last week in fact. I tried to post it via e-mail. Unfortunately this blog's hosting service (i.ph) hasn't been able to make it work yet.]

Before I begin, I should first say that finding a hotel outside your home
country is much easier now since it can be done online. Still, the results
of your search depend on how well you think about where to stay. I've used
trip advisor and hotels.com to help narrow my search and achieve some sort
of focus. In fact, viewing hotels on online booking sites help you
understand where  you are staying, thus refining your ideas of what you
really want.

I also visited the main focus of my trip: the Tokyo Big Sight website
which had lot of information as to access, including a helpful map of the
Odaiba area.

Still, once you've decided on your hotel, it would be best if you could
find the hotel's own website as well, if it has any.

In most cases, for convention visitors and simple tourists, especially
those on short schedules and budgets, the main issues will be:
    1) price (or better still, value)
    2) hotel comfort and facilities
    3) location (price of travel, convenience, proximity to inexpensive
        transportation)

For this Tokyo trip, I managed to zero in on:

    1) Hotel Nikko Tokyo (1-9-1 Daiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo TOKYO, JP 135-8625).
It can be found on the [ http://www.jalhotels.com ]www.jalhotels.com
website, although its listed address is wrong– someone typed in their
Ginza branch's address. It boasts of an "every-room-with-a-view-of Tokyo
Bay" concept and sits right beside the Daiba Station of the Yurikamome
monorail line, the 5th stop from Tokyo Big Sight's Kokusai Tenjijo Seimon
station.

   2) Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel (3-1 Ariake, Koto-ku, Tokyo,
Japan, Tel: +81 3-5564-0111) Its mother website (it's part of the
Washington Hotel chain) is  [ http://www.wh-rsv.com/english/index.html
]http://www.wh-rsv.com/english/index.html. This appeared to be a simple
business hotel but it had the advantages of:
        a) being right beside Tokyo Big Sight where the IGAS convention we wanted
                to attend was
        b) costing about half of Hotel Nikko Tokyo
        c) having 3 stations also right beside it

Eventually, 2 things outside my control decided for me (this happens often
in business travel).
    1) My colleague had to change his day of departure and Nikko Tokyo did not
            have single rooms available on our arrival dates.
    2) The office approved the lower accommodations budget.

And so Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel was it.

In my next posts, I'll talk about finalizing my booking in the hotel and
how my stay turned out when I finally got to Tokyo.

Taking a business trip to Ariake, Odaiba in Tokyo

During the last week of September, the week of the Autumn Harvest Moon, I had the opportunity to attend a trade fair for printing and pre-press machines and technology. In my next blogs, I will share my experiences: from finding a hotel online to photos of the various sights I was able to cram in during my short 4-day, 3-night visit. I will touch on the places I managed to get to: Ariake on the man-made island of Odaiba, where both Tokyo Disneyland and the Tokyo Big Sight Convention Center;  Toyosu , the lovely terminal town of the Yurikamome monorail with the eye-food-full Lalaport mall nearby; the famous Tsukiji fish market; the Ginza in central Tokyo and Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel which served as my hub and resting place while I was in Japan.  

Frankfurt Book Fair Time

It's Frankfurt Book Fair time again.

For your convenience, here are some links:

Frankfurt Book Fair Main Page (English) 

New Children's Books 

Abu Dhabi Book Fair 

Photos from Claudia

It took some time but the CD from Claudia Kaiser finally arrived in Manila from Germany. There are more photos here of the participants and guests to the Abu Dhabi bookfair.

Photos from Dan and Victoria, and Rudy

I've added a new photo album– this time with photos taken by Dan and Victoria Israel and by Rudy Gunawan (thanks!).

10 Things I liked (+ 9 I didn’t like) in Abu Dhabi and its Bookfair

1. My new friends (aka business contacts) Camaraderie among the international group and late night get-togethers
2. Discussion Forums eg Rights & Translations, Tolerance as  Pre-Condition for Peace, Quick Rights, Translating New Realities, "Small Markets", Insight India,  Promotion of Reading
3. The trip to the Emirates Palace Hotel with the Louvre Project Exhibit
4. Automatic Restaurant and its arugula salad
5. The afternoon break from 1 to 4
6. The dinner party at Royal Meridien
7. The Belly Dancer at Marrakesh
8. The Fair's Business Center and its lovely women-in-charge who rarely imposed the 10-minute Internet limit
9. A walk along the Corniche
10. The Carrefour Spice Section & IKEA at Marina Mall

What I didn't like

1. The cancellation of our introductory meeting (several members of the group thought this would have helped the group get to know each other and the bookfair better).
2. Book theft at the fair
(Zorzal Argentina lost a large number of books; Sexto Piso Mexico, 1 (a translation of Proust); Gagasmedia Indonesia, about 5; and Cacho Publishing House Philippines all but 14 books, my table (!) and a blank book for taking down notes. There was no clear procedure on how to report these losses.
3. Inability to meet and communicate with book people from UAE
4. Taking 2-3 days to get the complete materials for our stands (sign, tables, chairs)
5. My last day at Hotel Millenium (See previous blog below)
6. Marrakesh bar at the hotel (They try to make you pay for things you did not order. I also saw a local complaining about the same thing on another night.  Pity: it has great food, great live music and a lovely interior.)
7. Taxi drivers
8. The Bookfair bus non-schedules (Once, while I was riding with Jamila, the bus driver made an unscheduled stop to buy tea and pastries.)
9. 20+ dirhams for a beer (sells for about 4 dhms at Spinneys but you need a license or someone with a license to buy. Next time, the doorman at Millenium said, just say that you are billeted at the hotel.)

Last Day at the Millenium

(To comment, click on the link in small print at the end of the entry.) 

Just wanted to share with you my last adventure on my last day in Abu Dhabi.

As you probably remember, there was a nice buzz at the breakfast tables during the last weekend after the fair. New friendships had been made; old ones, strengthened. People were leaving, hugs and waves were being exchanged. Also, there was a little undercurrent of worry about the possibility that Etihad'd direct flights to Frankfurt would be cancelled.

So, as with all groups of travelers, bits of advice and information were being shared. It was at breakfast, while eating my 8th scrambled egg in 8 days, for example, that we learned of Etihad's convenient and free airport pick-up service for those who traveled business class. This would end any worry for travelers, like me, who would depart late at night. Because of this information exchange, for example, Rudy, Eduardo and Alexandra would be able to get to the airport together without having to worry about the strange ways of Abu Dhabi's taxi drivers.

It was because of the perils of late night departure that I decided to check my booking at the hotel. I went to reception and was reassured (they even let me look at the computer screen) that I was booked to stay for the whole day of my departure (Monday April 9). Calm and confident, I even let Alexandra leave her luggage in my room the day she was about to leave.

On April 8, having made arrangements for Etihad to pick me up at 11pm, I decided to visit Marina Mall and left the hotel at 3 in the afternoon. Everything seemed set for a relaxed final day in Abu Dhabi.

Wrong!

When I returned to my room at about 7pm, happy at not having the will power to resist the temptations of IKEA and tired at lugging 2 kilos of Arabic and Turkish coffee beans for my wife, I was surprised to see that my card key would not open my door to Room 306. A minor problem I thought.

Wrong again!

I was received at the reception desk by an Asian lady– not Filipina this time!– who with sad eyes told me that someone had called the hotel between 4 to 5pm to say that they would not pay for my April 9 stay.

The sound of a tired jaw dropping.

I said how unfair this all was. My poor suitcase was still in the room waiting for its Papa to pack it but I could not get to it. The call came way after check-out time, way after even LATE check-out time. The lady could not name the man at first, so I had her call Martina S who in turn said she would make a call.

While waiting, the lady agreed with me and said that it was indeed unfair, that the hotel had indeed told me earlier that I was booked till the 9th.

Finally, she went to the backroom and talked to another someone. Coming out, she said that it was not my fault, and that the hotel may have been partly to blame for the misunderstanding– and then she asked me how much time I needed to fix everything.

I said I needed 2 hours to pack. She gave me till 9.30 in "my "room– enough time, it turns out, to pack, shower and drink 2 beers.

At 9.25, I called reception to 1) prepare my bill and 2) to send a bellhop over to take my luggage.

When I finally checked out, I noted quietly that they did not present me a bill for the beers. I did not ask again. And now, I will wonder for the rest of my life– or at least for the next 30 minutes, whether the free beers were their apology or another oversight.

I bring this up not just to cry over milk already spilled but to underline the paradox of the Abu Dhabi Bookfair. As publishers, editors, writers, translators and dealers in books, we process information. We love it, we form it, we pass it on, we make our living from trafficking in it.  We spent the fair learning more information from the discussions and promising to share information in the future.

Yet, the bookfair and its host city was also marked by a lack of reliable information and contact with the hosts, most notably with the cancellation of our first meeting where we could have gotten to know each other from the beginning and asked the many questions we had. When I tried to change my departure date, the hotel, after calling Etihad, provided information different from the one the Etihad Main Office provided me face to face. One of our colleagues took a cab to the Meridien only to be returned to the Millenium because the driver could not find it. On the 2nd to the last day of the fair, when I returned to my stand to find most of my books stolen, there was no clear information or procedure as to what to do. Dear friend Magdi, pointed out the Fair director to me and said I should complain directly but I was rushing to my own embassy to donate the missing books (but this is another story). When Leopoldo tried to redeem his coupons, he was told they would be redeemed not immediately but eventually, but no clear date was set.

And so I have written this little story about my last day in Abu Dhabi and the paradox of its bookfair– not to exact  revenge  (well maybe a little) but to share information that could help our next stay in this city of the gazelle as worthwhile as I am sure it can be.