Heh heh forgot to put a smiley when I wrote - was just yankin' your chain. Who doesn't appreciate a good report on love hotels?
Fantastic reports and pics.

So what were the top buys/trends in Tokyo?

The one thing I notice is that Tokyo women have a herd instinct when it comes to clothes - they all wear the same thing.
2 years ago was tweed shorts in winter/down bubble jackets. Last year and this year, they are all wearing these tights (esp. black) underneath tunics.
Several years back was the ornamental nail extensions and further back, was the "ganguro" period - deep tans with pastel eye/lip colors etc

+1.

I've been to Zojoji a couple of times and it's a pretty awesome sight. The sight of thousands of balloons flying away at the stroke of midnight was breathtaking. Especially with the Tokyo Tower at the backdrop - it changes color during the countdown. You'll also get to see (and taste) the New Year's practice of making of omochi (rice cakes) the old-school way. It will be crowded, you can smell sake in the air and I usually hang back near the gates during the countdown and I beat a quick retreat to the metro station the moment it finishes to avoid the crowds.

On the 2nd day of New Year, the imperial palace will be open and the royal family will greet (behind the glass walls at least) crowds at pre-determined times during the day. It's only open like 2 days a year and it's great fun because almost certainly, you'll spot and hear from the die-hard right-wingers shouting "tenno heika banzai" when the Emperor speaks.

As PsyCHZZZ says, New Year's is a mostly family affair. Most places close for a couple of days. My family usually spends New Year's eve watching Kouhaku (Red & White) on NHK, then watch on TV the ringing of the bells to usher in the New Year. On New Year's day, they eat osechi ryori (New Year's food - bleech for me) and then visit the local shrine to burn arrows, get new darumas (the dolls with one eye painted black), tie wishes written on paper on a tree etc. There will be street stalls set up by the local ah bengs (chimpira haha) at every shrine (fyi: shrines are shinto, are called x-jingu; don't confuse them with Buddhist temples which are x-san) which is a really fun look at local culture. Then the kids come home and get otoshidama which is like ang-pow.

You will also see fukubukuro sales on the 2nd day of the New Year. Stores wrap up these "mystery packages" and put them on sale - you won't know what's inside before you buy. But you often get great deals.

I am usually there every New Year, albeit only for a day or two. The rest of my family's there for a whole 3 weeks-4 weeks. New Year's a special time - my kids' favorite time the whole year.

Oh, just because you mentioned "marathons", another New Year tradition is the Hakone Ekiden on the 2nd day of the New Year. It's a relay road race between universities where the "baton" is a sash they they pass between the runners (sash - such girlie men) and it's like on the TV the whole day. You can only enjoy it with beer (otherwise you'll die of boredom) and edamame. Note: never go to Hakone on the 2nd and 3rd day of the New Year.

Beer and osake is very much a New Year tradition. Drinking the whole day, watching TV and passing out on the tatami with your feet under a worm kotatsu is very Japanese.

We're planning to go skiing in Kobuchizawa in Yamanashi-ken. Hopefully the weather will turn colder - the warmish weather so far has meant that a lot of ski slopes in/or near the Kanto area aren't open yet and may not even open mid-Dec.

Another option would be to take the JR Sobu Rapid Train (Blue) from NRT. Roughly 20-30 minutes longer but cheaper around 1600yen I believe. One good thing about taking the non-NEX option is that you get more local color - it stops at several stations on the way to Chiba and then on to Tokyo. However, it leaves only once every hour (I believe on the hour). NEX however has 2 trains every hour, roughly at 15 mins and 45 mins past the hour.

Keisei Skyliner is also another option, although fare is cheaper than NEX and nearly just as fast, it may not be cheaper compared to the JR SUICA-NEX deal. Keisei and JR East are the 2 train companies serving NRT.

If you are staying the one of the hotels served by the "limousine bus" then that would be another option because it goes direct to the hotel and you don't have to schlep bags at connecting stations.

This thread could also be about anything to do with Japan, no? Kinda boring if all we do is dish out travel tips. From what I've read, I know you work in Tokyo - how did you end up in your job and do you like working in Japan? (no need to go into specific identifying details)

I will be in Japan late Dec but only for 2 nights in transit.

Unfortunately I won't be in the Tokyo area - going for a short vacation in Yamanashi.
My family's already in Japan to celebrate the New Year so I will be joining them later. My kids' grandparents are getting old so it's good they spend time together while they still can. Since they don't like to travel out of Japan, my kids must go to them

Yes, I spent close to a year in the mid nineties working in Japan. At that time, there were quite a few of us expats in the Japan office so unfortunately I hung around mostly with them (non-Japanese). Most of us were useless in Japanese (I still am hopeless in Japanese) so it was natural to hang out together. I remember the yen was pretty low at that time so we all had a good time. English was widely used in the office so communication was no problem. It was funny though, although the company was not Japanese, the management was mostly local and the office culture was hybrid Japanese/Western - we wore slippers in the office, there was a whiteboard listing where/what all the sales guys were doing, and there were no cubes - all the desks were arranged in rows with the bucho's desk right at the front facing everyone.

However people didn't work crazy hours in my office. However, I remember going to one of my customers - Fuji Bank (they are no longer around). We were there for all day meetings and when we left at 9pm, 1/2 of the office was still there. The funny thing was that not all of them were working but they just couldn't go home because the boss was still there.

I'm sure you know the difference between shrines (Shinto) and temples (Buddhist). If want quiet shrines, unfortunately you're coming at the wrong time. New Year is like the biggest event in the Shinto calendar - everyone goes to the shrines the first couple of days of New Year. The temples will be quieter, but definitely not Sensoji (Buddhist) - it's nuts at this time as well because Asakusa Jinja (shrine) is right next to it.

#6 chinese say: "jump aeroplane". I've heard from some embassy fella that this is the #1 way by which Malaysians are working in NY, London and Tokyo.

You're certainly very enterprising - lots of respect. Good luck for 2010.

Interesting that your kids have Japanese names. The Japanese take a lot of care picking out names - the meaning matters and so does the stroke count. I'm assuming that they were born in Japan? If their mother is Japanese, citizenship (like Malaysia) is conferred through blood i.e. jus sanguinis, so getting them on their mother's koseki tohon is easy.

Funny you should mention about houses. Back in June, we went looking at several show houses/apartments in the Tokyo area. The tech they put into houses is amazing. Heated floors, bathroom tiles that are specially designed to disperse and evaporate water, kitchen cabinets that automatically close softly, triple-glazed windows for heat and sound insulation etc.

Some Japanese food is spicy. I've tried some variations of spicy miso ramen that is as hot, if not hotter, than any Malaysian food. Japanese Mabou (tofu) is also spicy, not Sichuan spicy, but will still make your tear a little.

Disneyland/sea - avoid weekends and Japanese school holidays if possible. Best month to go I think, in terms of crowds in Jan/Feb - but it is bitterly cold because of the wind effect from the Tokyo Bay. For me, Tokyo winters are very mild - sometimes I'd walk to the supermarket 5 minutes away wearing just a long-sleeve shirt and pants but near the bay, brrrrrr - I'd be in full battle gear.

If you go, decide on a Fast Pass strategy and as always be there 40 minutes before it opens (there will be long lines at the ticket counters/entrance). But if you get-in in the 1st 30 minutes, you'll beat the crowds later in the morning. Also, try to sneak in some rides during the parade times (lines will be short) - of course, don't miss the parades. As to how terror-inducing the rides are: Disneyland isn't a coaster park so the rides are relatively mild. But for aged parents, maybe stay away from Thunder Mountain Railroad and Space Mountain. Splash Mountain I think is OK - it is only one not-so-big drop at the end. The rest of the rides are kiddie-mild. Disneysea has 2 relatively wilder rides - Tower of Terror (my mom says she nearly died LOL when she went to the one in Orlando) and another which I forget the name but it is near/next to 20,000 Leagues Under the sea - it goes in/out of the mountain side. Too lazy to lookup the name but you'll know it when you see it (or hear the screaming).

I'm sure the guys on this board who live in Japan go through so many earthquakes (jishin) big and small, that it is a non-event for them.

I, on the other hand, have experienced only one earthquake in my life so far and coincidentally, it was in Tokyo some years back. Maybe 6 years ago.

We were staying at the ANA hotel in the Ark Hills area, you know, near the US Embassy. My wife and kids were in our room 21 floors up and I had gone down to buy something. As I was walking back, in the lobby, for a split-second it seemed that the horizon shifted/tilted. I am talking of more a sense than anything visceral. It just didn't seem right, one of those "did I just see what I just saw" moments. It was soon followed by a big bang, not sure from where or what, and some lady screaming.

(I later found out an earthquake of Richter scale 6+ had just hit Tokyo, a bigger one than in recent memory. JR trains were out of service for 3 hours and that itself makes a statement)

Of course, I soon heard hotel staff running around saying "Jishin jishin" and I knew what it was then. I was kind of smiling because I had just gone through my very first earthquake, having missed many many ones in the past despite my travels to earthquake-prone areas.

I snapped out of it soon though. My wife and kids were in the hotel room and I had no way of knowing if they were safe. The phone system in the hotel was out and these were the days before they had 3G so I had no phone on me, none that worked in Japan anyways. Elevators was also out.

So the hero in me decided to climb the stairs. Up twenty floors. Of course, the hotel staff frantically tried to prevent me but I was having none of that and used "gaijin power" (those who live in Japan will laugh at this phrase - it is well-known). In the end, a cute receptionist decided the only way I was to be allowed upstairs was to be accompanied so together we both went.

I kind of felt sorry for her. 20 floors was no joke and the world-over, somehow emergency escape stairs are always tall and high (to save money perhaps). I was in shape, having run 5x a week for some years, and she apparently, though cute, was not. So I kept waiting for her every 4-5 flights of stairs while she did her best not to huff and puff or even appear inconvenienced in any way. That's Japanese customer service for you.

At last we got to the 21st floor and we both rushed to my room. I opened the door and my son, who was still in bed said, "Is it time for dinner daddy?"

(On a more serious note, I seem to escape natural disasters. I was in Tokyo when the big Kansai earthquake hit in 1995. I was in Bangkok the morning of the Phuket tsunami, having tried several days earlier to get a ticket to Phuket but everything was sold out.)

The issue of airlines flying to Japan is complex (at least for Tokyo). It's not so much about costs although parking at NRT is among the most expensive in the world.

NRT is a slot-restricted airport (just like LHR/Heathrow). Airlines must obtain slots and this is done on a country-level bilateral arrangement or buying them from exiting airlines. NRT cannot expand (the recently built new runway nothwithstanding - this was on existing land) - there is no land. It also has flight restrictions after 11pm+.

HND also had a lot of restrictions too in the past. Little-to-no international flights (restricted by Japan's MOTA because of concerns that HND was too close to the city and also they did not want to cannibalize NRT's business) and also flight restricted at night due to noise. Recently though the japanese goverment is changing their minds about HND. SQ is already flying to it.

Added to that, there are few LCCs in Japan. Domestic I can think of 2: SkyMark and AirDo and international: maybe jeju air and cebu pacific. Japan practises protection: simply it does not want its carriers to face competition. This has long been a hallmark of Japanese trade practice: cars, finance, air transportation etc

The granting of slots is largely international politics (unless you buy the rights form an airlines that already has a slot). Apparently Japan has granted an extra slot to the Malaysian government. Now it is a tussle between AirAsiaX and MAS to see who gets it.

Simple demand-supply. BKK is a major tourist destination as well as a major manufacturing (autos, food, consumer goods) hub.

KL? Not so much. ANA(NH) pulled out of the KUL route several years ago; it still continues to fly 2X flights a day into BKK - one morning and one late evening.

Anyway JL will probably be cutting some of those routes as part of the restructuring - one of the reasons they got into trouble was they had so many money-losing routes.

You're 100% grammatically correct.

However, just in case you're interested, "otaku (house person) no oko-san (ko=child) wa..." would sound more natural and less foreign.

But tanoshi's princess IS cute. Looks like she is balling-up one heck of a snowball. Duck!

Looks like you want to fly from KL to JB?
I'd think about taking an express bus instead - might probably be faster depending on where you are in KL and where you need to be in JB.

LCCT is far from KL. Senai is somewhat far from JB city center. You need to check-in 45 mins to an hour before flight. Flight delays etc.

Hope you enjoy your vacation in Malaysia!