Category: Uncategorized

As we were approaching our long National Day weekend, my wife and I had planned for a 3-night vacation trip to KL, the capital of Malaysia last week.

For many years, we had traditionally stayed in S’pore to gather at my sister’s place for a family potluck dinner and watch the NDP fireworks from her balcony. All of us would also wear red T-shirts to celebrate the occasion. But her condo was en-bloc’ed last year and she had to move out. Also for this year, our younger son was joining his group of friends for a trip to the Cameron Highlands. So my wife and I decided to plan for a weekend getaway to KL too.

Our last trip to KL was in 2019 to attend my niece’s wedding. This was just months before Covid hit us and the global lockdowns happened. It was a lovely big family group road trip. We enjoyed eating a lot while celebrating the grand wedding in style.

We decided to take commercial coaches to and from KL for this trip. They now have luxury coaches that cost about 2.5 times more than no-frills buses. We took a day of leave and left on Thursday morning to beat the crowds to spend 3 nights in KL and return home early on Sunday.

The pickup point was at Jurong East and a bus took us through the S’pore and Malaysia immigration stations via the second link where we transferred to a luxury coach for the 4+ hours ride to Berjaya Times Square. A concierge served us breakfast and drinks on the bus and we had a 10-minute toilet break in between.

With Grab easily accessible, we went to the service apartment we had booked via booking.com. It was a one-bedroom 500-square-foot apartment with a living/dining area and a kitchenette. The condo was new, construction was completed in 2023 and it was full of Airbnb guests like ourselves.

We immediately set out to Lot 10 food court for a late lunch and shopping around the Pavillion Bukit Bintang area. In between, we decided to have a beer for a tea break to watch the shopping crowd. It was so cosmopolitan, much more than S’pore. We saw many tourists from the Middle East, China, India and South East Asia.

We just had to eat durian hat tempted us with many such shops on our walk back to the apartment ;-). We rested for a while before heading to the famous Alor food street in the evening for a sumptuous seafood feast. As expected, we over-ordered whatever we fancied and ate too much. We ended the night with a drink at a nearby bistro that had a live band playing pop music.

The next morning, we had a slow and easy morning visiting the gym and chilling in the room. The famous Oversea restaurant we wanted to visit opens at 1130. It was a short walking distance away from the condo for a late brunch meal. After lunch, we walked around the Pavillion area again to do more shopping. I went for an expensive scalp treatment while my wife was busy shopping for clothes for our boys.

After depositing our shopping stuff in the apartment in the late afternoon, we headed to Bangsar to check out the bohemian place that reminded us of S’pore’s Holland Village. It was a quiet, laid-back atmosphere known for its drinking holes and Nasi Kandar food. We had a drink and then settled for a disappointing dinner. We headed back to Alor again as we wanted to have durian for dessert and try the squid stick I had eyed the night before.

On the final day, we had a relaxing morning before trying to beat the crowd to the 1100 opening time of the famous Heun Kee clay pot chicken rice for lunch. Then it was to KLCC for more shopping and a 90-minute foot reflexology session. We then walked back to the apartment to rest and prepare for the highlight of the trip, a degustation dinner at Petaling Jaya.

We went a bit earlier before the 8 pm dinner time slot and they recommended a nice cocktail bar beside it called Terumi, the tender bar. Nice avant-garde bar counter with exotic cocktail concoctions. Dinner was at Chipta 11A Curated Dining and we chose the MYR 500 per person menu and ordered a nice bottle of sake. It was sitting at the counter watching the chefs prepare each dish in front of us. It was a long 2.5-hour dinner affair. I was a bit knocked out by the whisky cocktail and sake by the end of the night…

We had to pack and get ready for an early morning 0730 coach ride back to S’pore. It was uneventful and we reached home by 1 pm, refreshed from a nice and lazy long weekend vacation. I am amazed at how vibrant KL has become during this trip.

Malaysia seems to be at the beginning of a boom with IT data centre investments and an increase in tourism. I really hope that they will finally get it right this time and leverage their proximity to S’pore to make it a win-win result for everyone. It has so much upside it can offer and develop once it eradicates the old corruption problem and catches up with the many years of stagnation and decay. There is so much potential ahead of them if they do it right this time after so many false starts. Hopefully, they have seen the power of the synergy between Shenzhen and HK to aspire to be the same now between Malaysia/Johore and S’pore.

It’s time to pivot again soon for my halftime adventure. Within the next 6 months, I hope to transition to the next phase of my life journey. I am positive that many new doors will open in front of me and new life experiences to keep me occupied and engaged with what life has to offer me.

What a mad few weeks of American political news cumulating to an explosive 180-degree turn of sentiment in the last few days.

We witnessed the shooter who almost managed to assassinate Trump, then the victorious “fight, fight, fight” photo with blood streaming down his ear to the 4-day RNC convention rally that convinced many he would win the presidential elections. This was followed by a loud call for Biden to step down after his missteps and poor debate performance. Meanwhile, Trump decided to choose JD Vance as his vice president nominee, seen as an obedient and inexperienced candidate who would do the bidding of Trump.

Biden eventually announced that he would not stand for election at 1 pm on Sunday and endorsed Kamala. The Democrat media machine spun into full gear and she received the fastest ramp-up of support ever for any candidate within days. More than $100+ million was raised and 60% of the donors were doing it for the first time. This led the GOP to a mad scramble to do damage control as all their advantages seemed to have evaporated overnight.

Some say it was Dark Brandon’s multi-layered strategic chess game that did a rug pull on the other side in the final hours as they assumed they would win after the assassination attempt. It was like the setting up of a trap for the overconfident opponent to fall into. This episode could be a political case study for years when the dust settles down.

Trump now has a lame-duck vice president whose inexperience is showing when he tried to attack Kamala. The aggressive campaign mounted by Kamala has now volleyed and returned any shot that Trump had thrown at her. He is even trying to back away from the next presidential debate in Sep.

The political miscalculation of the attacking points used for Biden is now coming back to haunt Trump. With Kamala replacing Biden, he now becomes the oldest presidential candidate who continues to fumble with his speech and his constant lying is more apparent now. The pointed fingers have now turned back at the accuser.

The things that Trump used to attack Biden previously are now fair game for the Democrats to use against him in return. An assured political victory just a week ago is now not such a sure thing anymore. Was this all planned? They say that in politics, anything is fair game. But the best chess master is the one who plans many steps in advance.

We will now see an intensifying battle between the 2 parties to gain points in the narrowing poll differences between Kamala and Trump. It will be a battle royale fit for TV as each lashes out and tries to score by focusing on the weakness of the other.

An interesting 4 months ahead where all forms of dirty tricks may be used and more name calling too. Trump may stoop to new lows to rally his base. Both will use social media to control the narrative to sway undecided voters to their side. We can certainly see a resurgence of Gen Z first-time voters coming in big waves to help decide the outcome.

It will be an interesting fight to the finish as democracy is on the ballot ticket and the rest of the world will keenly observe to see where America is heading for the next 4 years. Let the battle begin!

I attended an event on Wed evening that was organized by a group of old boys from my Alma Mater. That was the highlight of my week. It was fun and stimulating as the topics of the speakers of the event were so close to my heart.

Not only because it was a gathering of old boys and girls that made it so easy to connect with (thanks to our common school heritage) but the speakers in the event had also talked about the topics I strongly believe in – Sustainability and Artificial Intelligence are converging topics and slowly becoming subsets of each other. They may eventually help to address the existential threat that we are facing on earth – climate change.

A few months ago, a cohort of classmates from the Secondary 4 class of 1984 decided to step up and form the Raffles Business Network (RBN) to tap into the alumni network for the benefit of the school and its old boys. It was a long time coming as the previous incumbent alumni leadership team had been largely passive and unwilling to make full use of the power of the alumni to tasp it for the potential to organize beneficial activities to pay it forward back to the school.

This large untapped resource is so full of diverse experienced people from all sectors who can contribute back to society in a meaningful way. Many are also on the halftime journey may want to pivot to a higher purpose in life rather than just on material gains alone.

This group of commendable old boys from the class of 1984 is determined to change all that. They question why other schools can do a better job of engaging their alumni, even though ours has a richer and deeper legacy of more than 200 years of history since its founding in 1823. If not now, then when? That was their war cry.

They actively engaged the various parties of the alumni network and associations, to brainstorm on collaborative workstreams rather than as standalone parties that currently are not communicating with each other for years. A comprehensive game plan was also mapped out as to how they can engage alumni members to come together to work for the good of future generations.

One of the initiatives was to create a mentorship program where seasoned alumni can be matched with those who just started in their careers to provide career coaching. The other was to curate events for business networking to get alumni from all years to interact and form connections.

They reached out to old boys and girls for venues to organize these events and attracted a lot of alumni to sign up. The first event was a roaring success even though there was a charge of $25 per head. More than 100+ attended and there was even a waitlist.

This week, they had their 2nd RBN event that was kindly sponsored by the Bank of Singapore (BOS), titled “Shaping the future of finance”. Again the response was huge and 130 attended. Coincidentally, there were so many prominent alumni in the BOS team too, starting from the CEO to important members of the management team.

The speakers also talked about relevant topics like AI and Sustainability, and how they are converging into a rising area of focus in the near future to provide solutions to solving big-picture issues like climate change and new tech/medical breakthroughs. A prominent CEO of a successful homegrown quant fund also spoke about how his industry has evolved.

The after-event dinner was a great way for all of us to connect with various alumni from different years. Given that we were from the same school, it was easier to establish new business contacts due to our common school heritage.

I had the pleasure of talking to so many people and sharing about our company’s sustainable investment fund. It was also refreshing to meet some younger alumni and knowing what they are doing in their careers. Some were freshly out of school and phasing into uni life soon. We shared our life experiences with them and offered our perspectives on career choices.

Overall, an interesting evening of fellowship and meeting new friends who share a common history of having attended a school with a rich 200+ years of existence. I felt revitalised by the event, knowing that the school is continuously producing highly motivated graduates for the future of our country.

It makes all of us want to give back to the school in various ways to ensure that this rich tradition is maintained and enhanced by new efforts from RBN.

Auspicium Melioris Aevi – Hope of a better age.

Watching American politics unfolding into the Nov Presidential elections is like death by a thousand paper cuts. Non-Americans can genuinely see the slow decline of the once-great nation imploding from within as a divided nation fights against itself.

This week on Thurs, it was the first presidential election debate hosted live by CNN. We see 2 old men battle out on stage to get voters to decide who will be the best candidate to lead America next. One lied through the 90 minutes and avoided answering questions by pivoting to nonsensical matters. The other had a slow start, stuttered/froze up, and blabbed incoherently at times.

As one commentator had summarized, it was an embarrassment for America on the world stage. Is that what it has become? A nation with such low selection standards for the role of the most powerful person in the world.

The country has basically split into 2 camps of diverse and opposing views. Each side stops whatever the other side proposes, damn the view of the majority. The refusal to talk and compromise to get to a middle ground of constructive debate and discussion seems alien nowadays. What happened to adult supervision and being bi-partisan in the government? We see petty fights as a total waste of time with sanctioned inquiry committees going nowhere. It is a total embarrassment for all to see.

What really amazed me is the raw lack of morality and basic human ethics the MAGA supporters have been displaying for Trump. Facts are twisted or false narratives are termed “alternate facts”. The refusal to accept factual data is astonishing. Double standards are applied. Trump can do no wrong but the other side cannot do the same. Even the religious conservatives seem to bend over backwards for him if the end justifies the means.

The extreme left of the Democrats are also at fault for causing the divide. Trying to force their “wokeness” on the majority causes the conservative right to push back hard by siding with the orange one, regardless of his many shortcomings. The take-no-prisoners attitude from both sides hardens each party to dig in and create a moat around their entrenched beliefs, be it right or wrong. The refusal to talk to the “enemy” fuels anger and accusations, giving rise to absurd conspiracy theories that spin out of whack on social media.

If you refuse to follow the rule of law, you cannot insist that the other side have to. If you commit a crime, you cannot brush it under the carpet and go after the other side for similar slip-ups. All these imply to me that America is on a slow decline to give up its superpower status as the moral arbitrator on the global stage.

As outsiders, we have seen the other side of America’s one-sided might in many countries. It seems like an “I can do anything I want to you but you can’t” attitude. Many have questioned the hypocrisy of certain actions and if it was more about self-interest rather than taking the moral high ground of democracy. BRIC countries are more wary of US intentions and are ganging up to provide an alternative path of over-dependence on the almighty US dollar.

With the Nov presidential elections only 5 months away, I can only imagine what sort of chaos can build up in the next few months. AI fake videos on social media could run amok and confuse everyone. No one believes the official news media anymore and instead rely on their own “trusted” sources aka Facebook, TikTok and the rabbit holes they have fallen into.

It is indeed terrifying times to know that any individual can easily create and spread disinformation to the masses by the clicks of their keyboards. Bad actors with an agenda to harm will aim to inflict maximum damage with minimum effort. We are into wild times ahead…

On a happier note on the personal job front, we have finally completed all the required procedures and administrative steps to launch our first sustainable investment fund after many months of preparation. The fundraising stage can start as we gather firm commitments to subscribe to the fund.

Private equity has had a tough year as interest rates remain high after the Fed rate hikes in 2022. People in the market have also mentioned that several existing PE funds have difficulty trying to execute their exit strategy. Without a low cost of financing to provide leverage, forecasted returns for potential buyers can be nonexistent. This in turn has made investors wary of getting into PE funds.

But yet we will try to raise funds in the next few months anyway. I see that the stars are aligned in our favour to pursue the sustainability cause. Climate change is real and our fund’s investment in renewable energy assets is in the right direction to encourage an adoption to minimize global warming. The fund will be a new asset class with real ESG assets that cannot be accused of greenwashing while providing investors with an attractive yield. It’s low risk and bond-like returns will certainly provide an ease of mind that can appeal to investors with a sustainable investment mandate.

For my current job, I had to read up on sustainability topics and understand the urgency of climate change and why we are running out of time to provide future generations with a livable earth.

The more I read, the more I learn of the reasons to be afraid of if there is no coordinated global effort by all countries to work together to solve this existential crisis or all of us and our children will suffer.

We have seen the visible results of record-high temperatures from 2023 to now as historical records are broken easily. The trend is clear and temperatures are rising to the point of no return if no drastic actions are taken soon. No one wants to take the blame but it is easy to point the finger at others. We have to work together to turn the tide or this will be a losing battle.

So what is climate change? Thanks to many years of uninhibited global industrialization and the ignorance of its side effects on nature, we have been adding greenhouse gas (GHG) into the atmosphere at an alarming rate. This pollution of the atmosphere with the 7 types of GHG (mainly Carbon dioxide (75%) and Methane 15% plus 5 others) has resulted in the trapping of heat within the skies above us. They have formed a blanket of heat insulation that has caused global warming. The record temperatures we see now are a direct byproduct of more GHG being released.

What we need to do now is to aim for carbon zero/neutral as a future goal so that we will not add more harmful GHG into the environment. That is why we see 2030 and 2050 years being branded as milestones for getting carbon-neutral by many countries.

Governments have been using carbon tax as a disincentive to get polluters to clean up their act. The private sector voluntary carbon market is taking too long to develop global standards and authorities must step in and co-ordinate now to get meaningful progress and action.

Singapore has raised its carbon tax from $5/ton in 2023 to $25 this year by 5x and will continue to raise it to $45 in 2026 and 80-100 in 2030. Companies like electricity generating companies (gencos) which emit more than 25,000 tons of GHG per year will be liable to pay this tax. About 50 have been identified as Scope 1 direct emitters of GHG. They will pass this cost downstream to indirect consumers of their products (ie. consumers of electricity) – termed Scope 2 emitters. Scope 3 is for the rest of the end users for “other indirect emissions”.

This carbon tax, while politically friendly to citizens initially, targets large corporations. However, the trickle-down effects will eventually affect everyone in the food chain by raising overall prices as the cost is passed down. For now, companies that can show efforts to remove carbon will be able to register carbon credits for sale to the polluters who want to buy them to offset and reduce their carbon tax.

Burning fossil fuels is the most damaging and releases GHG into the air. Coal and oil to produce electricity, cars burning gasoline and using fire to clear forests for agriculture are some major actions that need to be drastically reduced. Most countries like S’pore use gas/LNG to produce 95% of their electricity needs as it is the least polluting fossil fuel. Yet the burning of gas does also produce methane and CO2.

For cars that use gasoline, data has shown that it is only 25% effective in converting that to energy for use while EVs (electric vehicles) are 75% effective (3x). Hence the big incentive to get more EVs on the road. The issue of EV batteries being highly pollutive to manufacture will be minimised as more used batteries are recycled over time. The components of the used batteries can be reused again. Alternatively, old batteries can be repurposed for other uses, such as home batteries for power storage of home solar panels.

With ever-increasing demand for electricity, the power-hungry data centres will consume more as AI and new chips turbocharge new developments. Crypto mining was once a big consumer until it was banned in most countries or forced to evolve, for example, ETH which moved from proof of work to the friendlier proof of stake.

The big picture of climate change does not look good. We are moving too slowly to stop the freight train of global warming. America blames China and India for huge increases in carbon pollution. China blames America for hundreds of years of polluting the world and then wants them to foot the bill now.

Everyone is looking to renewable energy as a way to become carbon neutral. Solar, Hydro and Wind are the way to go as they are sustainable resources that do not emit GHG when producing electric power. Nuclear power will have to make a comeback soon as they have the highest efficiency of 90% with hardly any pollution and is the most reliable. China is at the forefront of this initiative. As a side note, China produced more new solar electricity in one year (in 2023) than the total combined solar renewable energy America had produced since Day 1!

We need to step up the game to fight global warming and reduce/remove carbon from the atmosphere, or else Earth will be like a frog in a slow boiling pot suffocating from climate change as it heats up to unbearable human conditions.

All solutions to reduce our carbon footprints, like nuclear, must be explored and greater global co-ordination efforts are needed to make the world focused on this existential crisis of our modern times for the sake of our future generations.

It was a tense and long Friday (07 Jun). I was about to meet up with some old friends for breakfast and discuss investment ideas when I received an urgent call that my dad had injured himself while exercising.

Their domestic helper called me to say that an ambulance had sent him to the hospital as he had a fall. She was panicky and almost in tears that it had happened under her watch.

My sister and I quickly rushed to the hospital’s A&E department to check out what had happened. I was shocked to see that there was so much dried blood on my dad when I saw him as I tried to figure out what happened.

He had decided to go for a morning exercise for the first time, by himself without informing the helper. He walked around the block and then went to the exercise park to try to use the machines there. Apparently, he missed a step and fell. There was a deep cut just above his right eye. A good samaritan came to help him immediately.

He was still alert and gave his home number for the person to call to inform our helper. Meanwhile, an ambulance was also activated to transport him to the nearest hospital for immediate treatment.

We had to register him as he had no identification on him and the hospital required the next of kin to provide the information so that they could pull up his past medical records before treating him. We did what we could and the doctor recommended that they do blood tests, scans and X-rays. Given his age at 95, a fall may be a traumatic event on his body and it was better to err on the safe side to do a thorough checkup.

My sister and brother-in-law stayed behind to observe him as I had to rush back to the office. It turned out to be a long day at work with multiple meetings and long discussions which I had difficulty concentrating on.

The doctor called me later that morning to update me on their findings. It seems like he also tested positive for COVID-19 and hence will have to be warded because of his age. It was also necessary to keep him for observation because of his bad fall and he needed stitches to sew up the deep cut above his eye.

After my meetings ended around 5, I rushed to his place to collect a bag of items that my sis had packed which he would need for his stay in the hospital. It seems likely now that it will be for at least a few days.

At the hospital, he was still in the A&E area waiting for all the test results even though his room was ready. He will be putting up at the NCID (National Center for Infectious Diseases) building since he tested positive for COVID-19. He had not eaten the whole day as he did not feel hungry. I made him eat some of the porridge which was provided for dinner and made him drink more water to avoid dehydration. He said his lungs felt dry.

By now, his right eye had swollen up quite a lot as they had done a scope to check that it was not damaged by the fall. They had also applied stitches to the cut above that eye which had caused a lot of bleeding. He had also suffered some fractures around his right eye and nose because of the fall. The eye doctor confirmed that his right eye was not damaged by the fall.

He was finally moved to his room at 7 pm and I settled him in before leaving for the night. Visitation was limited to only 2 persons and the hours were 12 to 2 pm and 5 to 8 pm.

The next morning, the doctor in charge called me to update me. The swelling has gone down. The eye and plastic surgeons were also looking into his case for the first time. They will follow up with appointments later next week to assess his next course of action.

By Sunday, the swelling had subsided even more. That was when I realised that the cut above his eye was quite deep as one can see many stitches holding together the flap of skin where the cut occurred. We would want to recommend to the doctor to let him remain in the hospital for a few more days when he reviews his case on Monday morning.

Life is so fragile as I had discovered in the last 12 months seeing my parents deteriorating physically and mentally as they move to the next stage of ageing. My mum, at 90 years old, had seen dementia creeping in fast as she loses her short-term memory and repeats herself. She cannot remember names and becomes unaware of the environment around her.

Our parents have been living alone together for many years. We could see the stress in my dad as he had to not only take care of himself but my mum too, whose condition had worsened considerably. Our family finally convinced my dad we had to hire a domestic live-in helper for them last Dec and chose one with him after several video interviews.

Things have turned out well in the last 5 months with someone looking after them full time. It has also given us peace of mind knowing that their comfort and day-to-day needs were been taken care of.

This was a new experience for us siblings as we were never prepared for the speed at which their physical and mental health had deteriorated. If one of them had passed on suddenly now, the other survivor would be helpless and unable to take care of themselves and would require support.

I never thought about this stage of life and ageing as it seems so far away until it hits you personally with our loved ones we are close to. It was funny that roles would be reversed when the child became the parent and caregiver.

We must cherish the remaining moments we have left with our parents and make the most of it. Our siblings need each other as a support group to chip in as best as we can so that our parents’ lives are as comfortable as possible in their twilight years.

Nvidia did it again and announced another back-to-back quarterly financial result that blew everyone’s mind this week. The stock price surged another $100+ to cross $1k each, adding another $200+ billion to its market cap. At $2.6 Trillion today, it is now the 3rd largest company in the world, just behind Microsoft and Apple.

Its results are astounding for such a large company of this size, to achieve explosive financial numbers that are off the charts quarter on quarter compared to a year ago. Its gross margins (see table below) are an astonishing 78% as the demand for its H100 chips is so huge that the waiting list creates a big profit margin for each chip sold. Every big company that is serious about AI and Cloud computing will need its chips to power their data centres.

Can this trend continue? There is a high probability it will because Nvidia announced its newer and more powerful Grace Blackwell chips 2 months ago and they will only be shipped later this year. That will likely lead to another explosive quarterly result in Q3 and Q4 as orders will pile up in advance for the newer Blackwell chips.

I foresee that there will be more room to go for the stock into the second half of the year. The just-announced 10-for-1 stock split will make it more accessible for new investors to jump on the AI train. The CEO has indicated that there are more things in store to be announced. They are also partnering with PC companies like Dell to create AI-ready personal computers and laptops. The demand for Hopper and Blackwell chips can easily keep their production line occupied for at least a few quarters as the nearest competitor AMD is only trying to catch up to the mighty Nvidia…

===========================================================https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-announces-financial-results-for-first-quarter-fiscal-2025

• Record quarterly revenue of $26.0 billion, up 18% from Q4 and up 262% from a year ago 
• Record quarterly Data Center revenue of $22.6 billion, up 23% from Q4 and up 427% from a year ago
• Ten-for-one forward stock split effective June 7, 2024

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) today reported revenue for the first quarter ended April 28, 2024, of $26.0 billion, up 18% from the previous quarter and up 262% from a year ago.

For the quarter, GAAP earnings per diluted share was $5.98, up 21% from the previous quarter and up 629% from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share was $6.12, up 19% from the previous quarter and up 461% from a year ago.

“The next industrial revolution has begun — companies and countries are partnering with NVIDIA to shift the trillion-dollar traditional data centres to accelerated computing and build a new type of data centre — AI factories — to produce a new commodity: artificial intelligence,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “AI will bring significant productivity gains to nearly every industry and help companies be more cost- and energy-efficient while expanding revenue opportunities.

“Our data centre growth was fueled by strong and accelerating demand for generative AI training and inference on the Hopper platform. Beyond cloud service providers, generative AI has expanded to consumer internet companies, and enterprise, sovereign AI, automotive and healthcare customers, creating multiple multibillion-dollar vertical markets.

“We are poised for our next wave of growth. The Blackwell platform is in full production and forms the foundation for trillion-parameter-scale generative AI. Spectrum-X opens a brand-new market for us to bring large-scale AI to Ethernet-only data centres. And NVIDIA NIM is our new software offering that delivers enterprise-grade, optimized generative AI to run on CUDA everywhere — from the cloud to on-prem data centres and RTX AI PCs — through our expansive network of ecosystem partners.”

Given that the value of JPY had weakened by 15% since our last Japan trip in Aug 2023, we decided to plan another trip again. This time it was to a city we had never visited before.

My friends were always talking about Fukuoka and how wonderful it was. It has lovely weather, cheap and high-quality Japanese standard food and service where every toilet looks like an armchair console that has flushing jet water.

A good friend had recently made it his 2nd retirement home base there. He will spend up to 3 months with his wife in Fukuoka this year. We met them there during this time and they shared about their experiences in the city. We had an incredible dinner on our last night with them which cost a fraction of what we normally pay back home.

19 Apr, Fri – We took the 1 am flight and landed in Fukuoka 5.5 hours later at 8 am local time. The Uber ride to the hotel was about SGD 25 to drop off our luggage as we could only check in after 2 pm. We walked about 25 minutes to Canal City as a first stop before heading to Hakata Station to shop. Then it was back to Hotel Okura to check in to have a nap to recover after the overnight flight.

Our younger son joined us from Seoul that evening after spending a month there for his overseas hospital internship and vacation. He will join us for a week here before meeting his friends in Osaka before spending a month in Beijing for his 2nd hospital internship. We had a lovely Izakaya dinner filled with all our favourite side dishes that go well with alcohol before ending our first night in Fukuoka.

20 Apr, Sat – We started the morning by taking a cab to the Fukuoka Castle Ruins. It was the remains of the Fukuoka Castle, which played a significant role in Japanese history. It was built in the mid-17th century and was destroyed during a battle in 1877. Then it was to the famous Ohori and Maizuru Parks where there was a mini weekend fair with multiple ongoing activities.

We decided to try the famed Hakata ramen at the small 10-seater shop called Hakata Issou Gion. We needed to queue in the rain for about 45 minutes before finally getting our bar stool seats. More shopping around Hakata Station before we had a nice seafood Kaiseki (JPY 6,900) set for dinner at a place near the hotel which the concierge recommended. They offered the live squid sashimi which was still moving when served LOL. It must be the weather or the nice pillows and firm bed but we all slept well that night.

21 Apr, Sun – It was the beginning of our 4-day, 3-night road trip outside Fukuoka as we went to the Times car rental to pick up our Nissan Note hybrid car (car number 8997) at Hakata station. Travelling northeast, our first stop was the Nanzoin temple, a 45-minute drive away. The highlight was the 41-meter reclining Buddha, supposedly the biggest bronze statue in the world.

Then we proceeded to the main highlight of the day, our overnight stay at a glamping site called Glamp Dome Fukuoka Fukutsu. It was about SGD 750 for 3 adults, including a BBQ dinner and breakfast. As it was still too early to check in at 3 pm, we found a nice place beside it for lunch. Again, for less than SGD 90 for everything, we had a fantastic seafood-loaded Japanese meal.

It was still raining when we checked into our accommodation. There were 16 unique glamping tents which looked luxurious from the outside. We had a sleeping quarter and a separate building for a bathroom and dining area for our BBQ dinner and breakfast.

For the rest of the afternoon, we gathered at the activities centre for a free flow of drinks, played Jenga and made potato chips. There were also pizza-making and other activities to while away the rest of the afternoon. We started our BBQ dinner at 730 pm and had quality family time cooking our meal together. It was an unforgettable evening at a cool glamping site.

22 Apr, Mon – We checked out early by 9+ after breakfast as we had more than 2 hours of driving to reach our destination at Beppu, southeast of Fukuoka. Along the way, we visited a Wisteria park to see the purple-hanging flower blooms that occur at this time of the year after the cherry blossoms a few weeks ago.

We arrived in Beppu early and went to the YouMe mall for a late lunch before visiting the list of onsen hot spring attractions. It was the main highlight of the town. There was an earthquake tremor near this area just a week ago and things look alright now. Dinner was a simple Izakaya meal along the town’s main road, a short walking distance from our hotel.

23 Apr, Tue – On the road again to Yanagawa, another 2+ hours drive southwest of Fukuoka. We had a stopover at the famous Yufuin floral village and went for a walk around the scenic lake. The main street at Yufuin was filled with shops and food selections which we roamed for slightly more than an hour.

On the way, we decided to visit a strawberry farm to pick some fresh fruits off the plants as it was a wishlist item my wife wanted to do. The Chikushino strawberry picking farm offered an all-you-can-eat session for JPY 2,000 or just a Jpy 800 package for 40 mins where we will picked and pay for the fruits by weight.

We reached Yanagawa and discovered that it was an old and not happening town with a lot of canals. The highlight was the famous Unagi restaurant where we had an early dinner.

24 Apr, Wed – As we were not able to extend our car rental by another day to go to Itoshima, we had to return it at Hakata Station at 1000. After dropping off our luggage at Hotel Okura, we started our day trip to Itoshima by train.

The first stop was to visit the Ichiran Ramen Museum and have lunch there. We walked about 2.5 km to the nearest bus stop to catch a ride to see the Sakurai Futamigaura Couple Stones along the coastal area. The beach weather was pleasant and we just chilled there before taking the bus back to the main town area to check out the cool Instaggramable Ocean House place for sunset drinks and a light dinner.

25 Apr, Thurs – Our son’s last day with us before joining his friends in Osaka. We just chilled the whole day shopping and cafe hopping, checking out 2 hip but affordable places for dessert and drinks. We had a Japanese Nabe hotpot for dinner that was recommended by the hotel. Then we sent our son to the Hakata bus station to take his overnight bus to Osaka Universal Studios. We also had a Yatai supper on the way back as some push-cart food vendors were stationed next to the hotel.

26 Apr, Fri – Finally, my wife and I met up with my good friend and his wife. They love Fukuoka and were spending a month here plus another 2 more in May and Oct. Their first trip here was last year and they liked the weather, slow pace but high quality of life and low cost of living in this city.

We met at the subway station for a 25-minute ride to visit Dazaifu town as a day trip. This was the old ruling capital of Kyushu while Fukuoka was a trading port that did commerce and trading then. It was a pleasant place filled with many students doing education outings that day. There were a lot of shrines and long walking trails to enjoy a day trip there. We headed back to Fukuoka by mid-afternoon and did more shopping plus a Dr Stetch massage session and a simple Izayaka dinner.

26 Apr, Sat – This was the last full day for us in Fukuoka. We will have a morning flight home the next day. We took it easy and visited the Fukuoka Tower which was a landmark building that enabled us to get an aerial view of the whole city. The day ended with a lovely dinner with my good friend and wives at a place they recommended which was very good and value for money – a Kaiseki set for JPY 3,500 per person!

Overall, we had a very good introductory first trip to Fukuoka. The weather was wet most of the time but improved in the later part of the vacation. It must be the fresh air and food that made me sleep better and feel well-rested. Sleeping for up to 9 hours a day was easily accomplished here…

I don’t know how my friend can spend up to 3 months here but I guess it suits his retirement lifestyle with the high Japanese quality and standards with affordable expenses. Seeing the JPY depreciating 15-25% in the last year against the SGD certainly helps.