Sakurada Kenyukai @ 9th AKT

The Sakurada Kenyukai (Tokyo) with Sherm.

These sensei came from Japan, Vietnam and Hong Kong to volunteer as judges for the tournament. I spoke with Sasahara sensei and understood from him that they make these trips on their own expense simply cos they like the opportunity to share kendo with a gathering of kendoka from our ASEAN region.

Shermaine trained with these same gentlemen for several months during her stay in Japan. Old Sakurai sensei (who made her restart her basics for a period) came looking for Sherm holding forward her old NUS namecard that he has supposedly kept close to his heart.. such a charmer..

I got to keiko 3 of them that day. I only put on my bogu after encouragement from Sasahara sensei since I hadn't been in training for over a year. But what a way to have a reunion exchange than between clashing swords! Thanks Isshiki sensei, Iwatsubo sensei and Yasumuro sensei (how could I forget to use ni-dan waza against nito)!




This is Sasahara sensei.

I was introduced to him by Chan sensei during my first trip to Japan for the University Kendo Gathering in 2002. Ever since then, I would contact him whenever I went to Japan with my bogu. He would personally meet me and drive me to Abiko dojo (his hometown dojo just on the outskirts of Tokyo).

Later, when I introduced Sherm to him when she went over for a year, he brought her to the Sakurada Kenyukai (which comprise of sensei who may have resided in Singapore or South East Asia at some point in time, among others). During her year there, she made strong ties and shared much kendo chat (over beer of course). We were glad for the opportunity to meet them once again at this year's 9th ASEAN Kendo Tournament held in Singapore.

I encourage all Singapore kendoka who plan to visit Tokyo with bogu, to send Sasahara sensei an email. Although he now resides in Hong Kong, keiko will be arranged I'm sure.

Rise of the young entrepreneurs

I've noticed something recently. I know a disproportionate number of entrepreneur/business owners who are younger than me. It seems odd that I can hardly bring to mind any entrepreneurs my age or older.

There are a number of reasons for this phenomenon and I would like to speculate on them here.

1) Having capital. A lot of these younger friends are people I got to know around the Seletar Hills area. This means they come from rich families who may have been able to provide them the initial starting capital or a support buffer in the case of failure. However, as I can only draw experience from my personal pool of friends, this factor may be limited.

2) A change in attitudes. Shermaine and I discussed this recently, on how the younger people we know at work seem to be less inclined to doing grunt work, and more inclined to doing "glory" work. We speculated that this could be due to a change in school syllabus and the emphasis on problem-based learning (yet my mother says she's noticed students in recent times are more about wanting to memorise given answers than finding out answers).

3) Encouraging entrepreneurship. The climate in Singapore was rife with talk of entrepreneurship and "being your own boss" sometime in early 2000 onwards. The availability of talks and programs on these topics probably further encouraged the bold and fearless.

4) Brick and mortar. Despite the rise of the internet and social media, the businesses of these younger friends I know all tend towards brick and mortar type. These range from eco-retail to coffee houses and burger joints. From what I know, perhaps they all have websites, I'm unsure if other social media like Facebook or Twitter actually helped in spreading the word, but from what I know, some of them became more well-known after traditional media featured them. Otherwise, perhaps the existing networks that are available currently just naturally brought them to light. More research on this would be interesting.

For myself, I was always searching for the one unique idea that I would be able to build a unique business around. But out of these people I know, most of them seem to be doing normal businesses, ie. F&B businesses. But what stands out is probably the way they position the business, ie. packaging or getting the right appeal, knowing who your clientele will be, etc.

Having this knowledge, would it now make it easier for your to take that step toward becoming your own boss, or pursuing that business venture you always thought of getting into?

So we bought a car last nite..

After weeks/months of watching car prices and deciding which would be the most cost-effective car to have, and whether it would be full-license plate or weekend one, I finally made the legs go walking to Ubi Automart. I SMS'd mom, and got Shermaine to meet us at Paya Lebar before heading there.

Initially we were eyeing a 3-4 year old weekend Kia Picanto for about $13,000 range, but a <2 year old OPC one became a big consideration as it was only priced at $24,800 (opening price). Furthermore, it still had over 1 year of warranty left with Cycle & Carriage, it was black (the colour we shortlisted) and was the newer model with leather upholstery with red trimming! The clincher was.. its mileage was less than 5000km which is extremely low!!

The salesman, Tony from Creative Auto, was quite a hassle to deal with at first, since he needed to know our offer before we could test-drive the vehicle. It was unusual to me as I felt I wouldn't have the confidence to make a bid if I couldn't get some reassurance from a test drive first.

Luckily enough, while checking out the other shops for a similar offer, I saw an ad online for the exact car earlier, and it was offered at $23,800 (1K cheaper)! So after a fruitless walk to see other options, we returned for a 2nd look. We used the internet price and cut it down a bit more to a price that made Tony happy enough to let us out for a drive.

When we got back, we proceeded to talk shop in the air-con office. Of course Tony wasn't about to settle at just our offer and tried many ways to get us to up the price to $23,000. But the tag-team combination of Sherm-Mom-Me got him to eventually cave at $22,500.

Next, Tony listed the upfront fees that needed to be settled.
1) Transfer Fee
2) Insurance
3) 1st installment
4) Agreement fee

Waitaminit... what's this "agreement fee"?? According to Tony, "its like the 'registration fee' you pay at dealers for brand new cars". Eh??!!? So he goes on to say how they don't charge GST for cars because that would drive up the price of cars and no one would buy, so they need to take an amount to compensate, and that it would be listed and itemized in the receipt, so there's no cause for worry.. WTF?? It doesn't make any sense!! Whether the company is GST-registered or not, you should factor that into the price of the car already, its not the customer's onus to help the company settle their GST burden!

I stormed out to call some friends, managing to reach Mark. We pow-wowed and talked about this 'agreement fee' and concluded that there was no such thing. During this time, Sherm was working Tony over, appearing to help Tony realise that we've come so far in the discussion only to be balked at this unexplainable fee, and that it would be such a waste to lose the sale this close to making it. She's good la!

So I returned and made my stand, I'm not paying this fee. And he simply OK'd it, and cancelled it out. WARRAO!! So buyers beware! (This forum discussion addresses this same issue of admin fees, kopi money, football money and GST charges.)

And now, I await the bank loan application to be approved (I got a call soon after from a Derrick from Maybank, and he assured me the approval would be immediate) before getting my keys. We'll have our new-old car of our own! We've already agreed that we'll name the car Blackavar, taken from Watership Down. My first debt - one of the essential milestones of growing up. =P


Anyway a good tip when buying a car, is to know that sales people don't just make money on the price of the vehicle per se. There are 3 ways:
1) price of vehicle
2) insurance commission
3) trade-in value of current vehicle

Click this link for more information on how to negotiate for a car.

They wanted to take in my van for $5000. Good thing I had an offer above this already, so I knew how much another dealer was going to take it for. No way! We'd just trade it to the other dealer for more.

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I must commend Shermaine for having all the essential skills of good bargain management - able to be soft and yet firm, keeping a rational mind, and being persuasive. She really complements me in this regard! I must also thank my mom for being the complete opposite and giving the sales guy the impression that we MIGHT take whatever he threw at us. With this combination of 2 women on either side of him and a sour-faced decision-maker, we triumphed! Hooray!!

Wedding Blog: Chronicles of Dax & Sherm

Catch up with what's been happening with us Wedding-wise! Read about the hotels, the packages and the preparations, and soon, the photoshoot and big day itself!

Our day has been booked for 4th Dec 2011, keep up with us as we head into our 14 month pre-wedding adventure!

Chronicles of Dax & Sherm