In this country where the well-disciplined and well-mannered people have braved and survived the recent earthquakes, expect big and colourful signboards at the top of buildings and shopping malls, sidewalk ramen stalls bursting with people in their working suits, electric scooters, rows of bicycles lined up on sidewalks everywhere and cool kids with their funky dressing that may be deemed as an ah beng back in Singapore. It is very different from the old-world aura of impatient, inconsiderate and intolerable behaviour that has cast a dark and rusty shadow on our country.

For the first two days in Tokyo, we stayed in Shinjuku, a happening suburb 30 minutes away from Tokyo Big Sight where the 42nd Tokyo Motor Show (TMS) 2011 was held. Every single one of them was cocooned in their