Great fun @Tokyo Street promotion area in Pavilion KL

By Laura Lee

Tomorrow (30 April) is the last day of the two-week long Japan Art Exhibition, which is held at the Tokyo Street promotion area on level 6 of the Pavilion Kuala Lumpur. For those who still have not been to this new section of the shopping mall, do make a stop over here.

I had a most enjoyable time here when the shopping mall created some fun activities for us media to participate in so that we would get to know Tokyo Street more intimately.

Before we were divided into various groups according to the colour codes, some of us had the opportunity to have a drink first at Komugi Cafe housed in the Tokyo Street promotion area before the fun began.

There are in total 40 kiosks here while the rest are lots. While waiting for the others to arrive, some of us dabbled our hands in origami, learning how to fold a sakura.

A number of us thought that this would be one of the activities that we would be required to accomplish in this “explorace” but it was not to be so.

Don’t worry if you can’t get some of the steps correct while making your sakura as there is a helpful instructor around. Once done, don’t forget to add your sakura to the tree as you will be rewarded with a free voucher.

I didn’t pin mine up to the tree as I wanted to treasure the first sakura I made, thanks to the help shown by the instructor.

Once divided into our various groups, our first task was to dress up our chosen candidate in a kimono or yukata. Since one of the guys in our group had his hair tied up at the back and looked very much like a Japanese youth, we decided that he would be our best representative.

We were glad we selected him as we learnt later that it was easier to dress a guy in yukata than a lady in kimino. Being the first group to accomplish that, we from the red team felt very much elated.

We had to accomplish the other tasks in the various stations and were given 20 minutes at each of these stations. We had to decipher the clue given in the envelope to decide which is the selected lot or kiosk to go to accomplish our task.

At our first station, we have to figure out the different flavours of mochi that were given to our team to try. We accomplished that within 20 minutes and were told that we have a good head start against the other teams.

Our next clue took a while for us to figure out which was the kiosk meant in the clue that was given but we finally found it but there was another team there already.

We were told to wait for the other team to complete their task first before we could do ours. Our insistence of not wanting to wait for our turn paid off as the event organiser and kiosk owner cleared a space for us to start on our quest.

We were given micro-sized nano building blocks and had to make the structure specified in the picture. We wrongly placed two of these blocks and struggled to remove it. The kiosk owner had to help us get that two tiny blocks out.

When we were at Legoland in one of our media familiarisation trips and were given the opportunity to create some structures, we were given each a tweezer to enable us to remove the blocks, which were much bigger than these tiny nano blocks designed by Kawada in Japan for those aged 12 and above.

The reason given why these blocks are designed to be so tiny is “The smaller it is, the more realistic the work becomes!”

I won’t advise that these blocks land in the hands of children below the specified age group as the packaging for these nano building blocks has a choking hazard warning and stipulates that it is not for children under three years old.

When the results were revealed later, only one team managed to accomplish this task within the time given. It was certainly not us as we lost so much time trying to get the two blocks out.

In our next task, we were supposed to capture several Polaroid shots of what depicts Tokyo Street and it must have one of us in the picture. We took a photo of one us shopping at Daiso, one of favourite Japanese outlets where most of the items are sold for RM5 each.

We got a bit carried away in our photo selection for this task but had great fun nevertheless decided which kiosk or outlet to select at the Tokyo Street promotion area.

In our last task, we had no choice but to wait for the other team to finish eating the burgers before we could start on ours.

While some of us figured out the two Japanese words that we are supposed to say before we start and end our task, the others watched the demonstration on how to make the burger as they have to make it later for our team to eat it all.

We did it again within the stipulated time and rushed to deliver this envelope to the last station, which we thought was where the sakura art origami counter was.

It was not so. We finally found the correct kiosk where a man was waiting to receive our last envelope. We were so confident that we would be the winning team and overlooked the five minutes penalty for not accomplishing our nano building block task.

Although we turned out to be the first runner up, we had great fun. Our team members each received two pieces of limited edition Tokyo Street tea tray and a nano building block set.

I and some of our red team members took a picture for remembrance

The tea tray is given as a free gift to customers for every RM50 spent. There are four different motifs to select from.

One of our team members was busy shooting our participation throughout the game and stopped only to join us when we asked him to pose for one of the Polaroid shots with oversized Kitty cat and Doraemon soft toys.

In the last task, he lent us his assistance again in finishing the burger and figuring out the Japanese words. It was good bonding among us and lots of fun although we were not the champion team to take home RM3,500 worth of prizes.

Currently, also on at Pavilion KL is the KakiSeni Festival 2013 which culminates in the 10th annual BOH Camerionian Arts Awards on 1 May.

For more details on its happenings, visit www.pavilion-kl.com.

MAHB assures klia2 will be opened on 28 June 2013

By Laura Lee

Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MABH)’s release on its first quarter performance for 2013, which just came in, addresses a rumour that has been rife in the market regarding the scheduled completion of klia2, the new low-cost carrier terminal.

The airport operator said, “With regards to the construction of klia2, MAHB has noticed that some of the contractors continue to be behind schedule. The contractors, however, have reaffirmed their commitment to work towards the completion date of 28 June 2013.

“MAHB will diligently monitor the progress and will be meeting the contractors, airlines and agencies again soon to determine their readiness towards the date of 28 June 2013.

“MAHB wishes to reiterate that all stakeholders must be ready without compromising safety, quality and operational efficiency in completing klia2.”

At the inaugural flight of Air France to Kuala Lumpur on 23 April, I was alarmed when one of the industry players involved in transportation industry shared with me his concerns that klia2’s opening might be delayed possibly until the end of this year.

I was informed that of recent no photographs were allowed to be taken at the construction site of klia2.

I bumped into Express Rail Link Sdn Bhd (ERLSB) chief executive officer Noormah Mohd Noor at the Air France’s function and asked her for her comments about this matter as ERLSB has been tasked with the construction of the RM100 million ERL’s extension to klia2.

Her immediate response was, “No comments” but on after thoughts she added that on their part, they have delivered their side of the bargain and kept to the schedule.

Since I was back at the KL International Airport yesterday for the inaugural flight of Turkish Airlines, I could not help but check with MAHB communications staff and officials who were present. I was assured that klia2 scheduled opening would remain at 28 June.

From left: Tourism Malaysia director general Datuk Mirza Mohd Taiyab, Turkey ambassador in Malaysia Her excellency Serap Ataay, MAHB Tan Sri Bashir Ahmad, Turkish Airlines board member Ismal Gercek and Azmi at the cake cutting to commemorate Turkish Airlines' resumption of flights to KL after more than a decade 

One of the assurances came from MABH senior general manager (GM) of operations services Datuk Azmi Murad, who was supposed to have left for the Airport Cities World Conference and Exhibition in South Africa as he is one of the speakers.

MAHB GM of corporate planning Randhill Singh was the last minute replacement for him as the speaker for the conference session on The Global Report, which addresses the unique economic, geographical and cultural challenges in airport city and aerotropolis development.

I asked Azizah Aziz, Tourism Malaysia senior deputy director from the director general office for her comments on klia2’s possible delay in its opening. Her reply was she is happy as long as klia2 opens this year.

This new target date for klia2’s opening was mooted by the prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who had wanted it to coincide with KLIA’s launch date in 1998. He made the announcement on 5 January this year.

The earlier date set for klia2’s opening was this month (April).

At MAHB's recent annual general meeting, its chairman Tan Sri Dr Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Abdullah had reportedly maintained that klia2, which was 82%, was on track to begin operations on 28 June.

However, research houses like RHB Research Institute Sdn Bhd and CIMB Research have raised questions about klia2 being able to meet its targeted date.