Hasta La Gadget!

Following our previous post on Taxis in Asia’s most developed cities we decided to take the bumpier road and provide a round up of taxis in four of Asia’s emerging metropolises.

1- Bangkok: Tuk-tuk

Overview: uncomfortable, overpriced and inefficient. You are better off taking a regular taxi. Then again tuk-tuks have become synonymous with transportation in Bangkok and worth taking for a short ride just for the experience.

Price: Should be negotiated with the driver before riding. Be prepared to haggle tough… then again you will still get ripped off whatever price you agree on anyway.

Pimped out disco light tuk-tuk.

Bonuses: Interesting pimped out interiors with various kinds of decoration. A great way to experience the heat, congestion, and intensity of Bangkok, but probably not recommended if you are severely jet-lagged or hungover.

Haggling with a tuk-tuk driver.

Warnings: Often drivers will ask you to visit a shop (or two, or three) so that he can receive gas coupons from the shop owners in exchange for bringing them business, so always refuse this and insist on going to your destination. Avoid picking up tuk-tuks right outside of tourist areas and instead walk a couple of blocks and hail one off the street.  Be prepared for a bumpy ride so don’t indulge in too much Thai food and beer before riding!

2- Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon): Motorbike taxi 

Overview: In Ho Chi Minh its better to be on a motorbike than off one, as its often much safer to catch a bike ride somewhere than try to walk it. Motorbikes are also more capable of navigating through the chaotic and dense traffic, narrow backstreets and old neighborhoods than the buses or regular taxis.

Price: Its always good to ask a local friend or hotel staff about the average price of getting from A to B by motorbike taxi, obviously expect to pay a bit more than locals and be sure to settle the price before jumping on and strapping your helmet.

Bonuses: relatively cheap, safe, fast and exciting. What better way to experience getting around Vietnam than they way most locals do!

Warnings: The driver may pretend to know your destination and instead take you somewhere else and hope to escape with his fare before you realize so make sure you are at the right place before paying! This happened to me a couple of times. Most importantly- always wear a helmet! Its the law in Vietnam so don’t suffer the penalty fine.

Average price from Ho Chi Minh Airport to downtown: Around 70,000 Dong ($US3-4)

3- Mumbai: Taxi

Overview: widely available, safer, cleaner and more comfortable than auto-rickshaws and for the most part fairly priced. Older taxis such as the black and yellow Padmini, ubiquitous with old ‘Bombay’ are slowly fizzling out of the traffic scene in favor of newer air-conditioned models.

Price: Rs19 ($US0.35) for first 1.5Km, Rs12.35 ($US0.23) per additional Km.

Bonuses: Cheap, metered, and several cab companies including MeruCabs and TabCab offer services allowing you to book pick ups online and through the phone which is often allot more reliable especially if travelling for business or getting to airports on time.

Warnings: If taking a regular taxi rather than a fleet taxi then always make sure that the driver re-sets the meter, especially if he is using a mechanical meter. You can check for the reliability of the rates by carrying a ‘rate-card’ available at the airport since some drivers will carry a fake rate-card with higher prices. Often drivers are reluctant to take you short distances, in this case offer them a flat rate. Most importantly do not get into a taxi if they say the meter is not working!

4- Kathmandu- Taxi

Overview: Kathmandu isn’t exactly a sprawling metropolis but the fact that taxis in and around the city take you across some spectacular Himalayan scenery is worth a mention. Most taxis in Kathmandu are small, cozy Suzuki Marutis which barely fit two passengers let alone their luggage.

Price:most drivers are willing to go by meter for short trips at the rate of Rs 8 ($US0.09) for every 200m although to/from major tourist destinations you have to negotiate the price. Since Nepal is a poor country and prices in general are cheap its not worth arguing to much to save a few cents.

Bonuses: a cheap, convenient way to get to cross the emerging city, access amazing Himalayan views and check out historical towns. From my experience taxi drivers in Kathmandu were super friendly, invited us to lunch, smoke and educated us about Nepali life.

Warnings: By law taxis are required to go by the meter, but in a corrupt state as Nepal officials have turned a blind eye to this. Not going by the meter for longer journeys means you will probably be asked to pay 5-10 times the metered price so negotiation is necessary. But if you are in a hurry just settle the deal quickly otherwise you will find yourself wasting time haggling or arguing about using the meter. If you have a larger budget its worth using transport arranged by your hotel, tour operator or company.

E-commerce in China is massive and drastically expanding but not all of China’s online buyers and sellers are located in urban areas.

Image via Allianz

According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, China’s urban population has surpassed the share of rural residents but there are still more than 656million people still living in China’s rural areas more than twice the total population of the United States.

Not only does this present a huge potential as an untapped market with rising pockets of wealth but also demonstrates further possibilities for the expansion for e-commerce in China.

The following infographic bellow by Alibaba demonstrates the sheer size of China’s current e-commerce activity.

The video bellow also produced by Alibaba showcases an example of how e-commerce has enabled farmers to access markets around the country and to sell their goods at more competitive prices. It follows the story of one particular entrepreneur Du Qianli who explains how his Taobao organic foods online store is helping poor farmers in China’s Taihang Mountains earn extra income.

Mr. Du details in the video how many producers in rural China suffer from shrinking local demand and need to sell their goods further afield in order to survive and to become prosperous. Opening e-shops on Taobao is easy for them thanks to the company’s self-learning courses and help from a network of fellow rural entrepreneurs like Du.

Unlike in the United States and Europe where e-commerce supposedly threatens the future of small local and rural business, in China e-commerce presents a wealth of opportunities. Entire towns and cities in rural areas are thriving on e-commerce especially as it is decentralised and enables producers to sell nationwide.

Challenges
Of course buying and selling millions of goods in a country as large as China presents many logistical challenges. Compared to other emerging economies such as India, China’s rural infrastructure is relatively well developed and constantly improving. Yet as ATKearney reports in order to sustain the current rises in e-commerce activity in China the logistics infrastructure needs to grow to support this.

UPDATE: This post was a joke. Kind of revealing how all of the “weird Japan” posts get some much attention…and depressing how little skepticism this one received!

Clearly the Japanese recession is now at its most extreme, and the so-called “Abe-nomics” is only making it worse. Now even fresh college graduates are giving up on a good life as soon as they receive their diplomas!

In Japan, university students typically begin job hunting a year or more before graduation through a rigorous multi-step process with the desire of being taken on as the next batch of employees for a large corporation. But with fresh graduate spots at these big companies becoming more competitive many students are finding themselves unable to find the job they desired, or any job at all for that matter.

Japan Jon Fair. Image via Sankei news

Faced with the reality of poor career prospects and uncertain economic burdens many students are searching for alternative ways to make their lives and futures seem more stable to at least create the illusion of the planned life that fulltime employment used to provide in Japan.

According to the Asahi Shinbun newspaper, A burgeoning industry of “life advisors” now specialize in guiding these directionless students and new graduates to plan out the rest of their lives, right up to their funerals. With young people less interested in sex or even dating, and economic troubles ahead, many have simply given up and have accepted their fates.

Owari Made is the first company behind the life advisor concept, started by Shinu Soushiki (pictured above along with his office), an entrepreneur whose family owns several funeral parlours and who himself has over 20 years as a pensions advisor.

“I recognised that many young people today want that sense of closure about their future and I want to guarantee a stable and happy life for them. Retirement is that time in life when you have worked enough to have everything, if we can provide young people with that from the start they can just be content with working.”

Before graduating, students give legal (power of attorney) permission to life advisors to sort out everything from a place to live, to funeral arrangements and what will happen to their belongings after they die. So, essentially (in legal terms) they are already dead.

Japanese Cemetary. Image via gakuranman.com

To begin with these young people move into single room modules in specially-designed complexes that are designed to become retirement homes once all the residents grow old, complete with convertible walls, bathrooms, and fixtures made for the different stages in life. So they will essential be living in the same room for the rest of their lives, but surrounded by peers who have also essentially given up on the type of life their parents had.

As depressing as this sounds, it is actually a very secure investment on behalf of the young person as they will never have to worry about buying or renting properties since this room is guaranteed to them until they die. Staying in the same complex also enables these single dwellers to develop good relationships with the other residents over several decades.

The type of students who seek out these life advisors are those with no intentions to have kids, have no interest in sex, having partners or experiencing any great change or uncertainty in life. In a recent poll commissioned by the firm, a surprising 40% of Japanese college students expressed interest in the idea if they are unable to get a full-time job.

Kazushi (pictured above), a 3rd year economics student from Keio University commented that “This seems like the ideal solution to deal with all the unknowns of the future. My parents knew what track their lives would take, and I greatly desire that kind of knowledge myself. Otherwise what’s the point?”

Mariko Saito, a final year student at Waseda had already received her plan from the life advisor “It’s better than expected! I couldn”t find a job at a good company but know I have a place to live after I graduate and I can relax and just find any job from now on. My salary goes directly to the advisors, but they know much better than me how I should live my life.”

Once you are registered for this service it is hard to opt out as you will need the approval of all the other residents should you want to sell your module to a 3rd party. Also the contract term stipulated by the life advisor, just as a marriage is ‘until death.’ Once you die all of your belongings and any other assets you may own go directly to the advisor, except certain family heirlooms.

Mr Soushiki has already started a pilot residence in Chiba prefecture with last years rejected job applicants, now just freshly graduated from University are about to enter the rooms that they will likely live in for the rest of their lives.

It would be interesting to see how popular the life advisor service becomes in Japan based on the ever more dismal prospects of securing post-graduate employment at a large firm.

Last week we checked out the Tokyo Design and Craft Market where exhibitors showcased products created using a combination of Japanese traditional craftwork and the latest in wood, metal and textile production technology.

Some exhibitors in particular displayed some very interesting products and designs that had applied this blend of tradition and modern often typically associated with Japan.

Kaminokousakujo (the paper workshop) seems to have taken origami to the extreme with their Kamigu brand which enables people to create a wide range of useful products (featured bellow) from just one sheet of folded paper.

Lite Lite: an Paper LED flashlight

Paper dust-pan and brush

Paper vase and airvase

stick-on planter

Paper glasses

Another exhibitor at the market Nagare had rebranded the Japanese art of furoshiki: often described as the “origami of waterproof cloth”. Originating in the Edo period, furoshiki was used by people to wrap up their belongings and protect them from getting wet while they enjoyed public baths or furo.

Nagare Fukoshiki

Nagare meaning flow refers to the way in which water slides right off the surface of the cloth as the products are designed to protect against rain and other liquids. As such Nagare can be used as a shopping bag, makeshift umbrella, stain-proof tablecloth and napkin. Since the material used repels liquid from both sides it can also be used to transport liquids and to water your plants.

There are many ways to wrap and tie a furoshiki to make the most of its many uses as the video bellow demonstrates.

Nagare furoshiki demonstrates the ideal mix of simplicity, Japaneseness and modern textile technology.

Luthier (pictured bellow) was another exhibitor that caught our eyes.

With wood sourced from the forests of Hakone and crafted using traditional techniques, Luthier created products with a useful purpose such as business card cases, tissue boxes, bowls and musical instruments.

These three exhibitors captivated our attention for the main reason that they have enhanced traditional Japanese crafting techniques to make useful products for everyday use. As they can be directly associated with the duality of Japan we’ve also seen a great interest overseas in modern products using traditional design and methods.

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Many of us have that dream of building our own home. But not everyone is an architect or a builder. More importantly constructing a house can take several weeks. Recognising the need for efficiency and our desire to build-it-ourselves several companies around the world have began offering prefabricated houses that can be constructed in very little time.

At this years’ Retail Tech Japan convention in Tokyo last week we passed by Hokusei offering the latest in efficient house construction.

Hokusei’s “Super-wood techno construction method” uses their “nexus next generation super wood block” technology that enables you to assemble a prefabricated home just like a puzzle in less than a week as in the video bellow (in Japanese).

According to Hokusei the biggest feature of the nexus block is that they can be unassembled and reused to build another structure should you be bored with your house or sick of your neighbours. The nexus block’s diamond shape disperses pressure and is apparently ideal for supporting structures that can withstand earthquakes and also provide insulation (picture below).

Of course in order to build the house yourself you would still need to employ construction professionals and use building equipment such as cranes but the main point is that you save time and money.

In the areas devastated by the 2011 Tsunami in Northern Japan where reconstruction has still not taken place even after two years prefabricated homes may be a great alternative for those families still waiting to move back to their hometowns.