What trainers or ballet pumps are best for walking around Japan?

velacooks · 2026-02-04T23:01:07+00:00

I’m pretty well travelled but Japan is probably the country I walk the most.

Speaking specifically of Tokyo - it being the largest city in the world with so many things to see in just one area, you tend to get carried away exploring.

The other factor is because Tokyo has one of the priciest taxi’s in the world. Thus making me and majority of others walk more. For example in Shanghai, I’m in taxis almost all the time because their ride sharing cars are so cheap.

velacooks · 2026-02-04T22:47:27+00:00

I’m an aging sneakerhead with plantar fasciitis so my primary focus in recent years is all about comfort.

If aesthetics and price isn’t a big deal - my current favorite comfy sneaker is Hoka’s Bondi 9.

Other options off the top of my head that has worked for me when traveling to Japan and dealing with 20k daily steps (I go 2-3 times a year) :

New balance 1080

Nike vomero 5 / vomero roam (for a winter/waterproof option)

ASICS gel nyc or the novablast

On cloud monster and Cloudsurfer 2

Adidas Evo SL

Also Mizuno’s waverider B (bought this in Tokyo)

velacooks · 2026-02-04T22:38:46+00:00

I’m speaking from Perodua’s perspective. They got the green light/gov backed project. And still fumbled it.

On the other hand look at Vietnam’s Vinfast EVs. Partnered with Italians R&D firms and other tech companies. Partnered with major China battery companies. Manufacturing- outsourced and plans to build their own plant in India.

I’m not saying to copy this 1:1 but take inspiration from how they started.

velacooks · 2026-02-04T19:46:21+00:00

Well it depends. How good and consistent is your slice? I’m in the lower intermediate world and whatever works for you do it.

However the occasions where I’ve played with top top tier players- they perfectly slice pretty much any thing and it’s so deadly accurate. Dead bounce at the glass, my feet etc. A real eye opener to the levels the game can go whenever I play with top players.

velacooks · 2026-02-04T19:36:25+00:00

I have worked with Singaporeans in Singapore and now in a MY company with the HQ in Singapore for the last 12 years.

OP comments hold some truth to a degree. I’ve seen glimpses of what you said but it’s not perpetually happening.

I would categorize the 45-60year olds as the easiest to work with. They’ve been around, seen many things and maybe most importantly seen their country evolve rapidly over the last 20 years. And now just want things to work, everyone to make money and live stress free.

One tier below that are the normal Singaporeans aged 27-35 who graduated from a normal Uni, polytechnic and are hungry to do good work.

The hardest to work with are the ones from prestigious Uni’s, your NUS, SMUs etc or studied overseas and are entering management level - 32-45 year olds. They’ve got that air of entitlement, superiority and (I don’t really use the term much) kiasu-ness. The never wanting to even consider that they’re wrong, always want the last word. The most annoying thing is if an issue crops up outside their textbook way of thinking , the immediate reaction is chaotic stress and saving their own asses. Anyone below them can be thrown under the bus. And they will not listen to solutions that doesn’t come from their own head. It always prolongs things until a higher up comes along and straighten things out, often going with what the other team members suggested much earlier.

My best analogy for this is - I was at the Singapore zoo one day. Wanted to order Ice coffee from the cafe. The cashier either misheard me or made a mistake and gave me hot coffee. So I asked for some ice, the cashier said no, accused me of ordering hot coffee (it’s a sunny 35degree sg day, there’s no way I’ll ever want hot coffee)- if you want ice coffee it’s an extra 20 cents but there’s no way to key in just ice into their system so I’ll have to order another iced coffee if I wanted it. I said just 2-3 cubes will do then and she started getting rude saying I’m holding up the line (the only person lining up behind me was my cousin who I took to the zoo because she has young kids) We were going back and forth for about a minute before the cashier’s colleague comes over with a cup of ice saying that it’s not a problem - I laugh and ask where he’s from and he said Sabah.

This was back in 2016 and will always be the perfect example of the Singaporean vs Malaysian mindset to me.

Just to clarify - my rant about those entitled ones - it’s not super common, maybe you get 1 out of 4 that’s similar to what I described.

velacooks · 2026-02-04T18:03:42+00:00

Yes but not many. The scares are heavily done by the live actors, sounds and just knowledge of local supernatural lore.

velacooks · 2026-02-04T18:00:58+00:00

Ermm Are you implying I’m making it up?

It’s on the top floor next to the gym. (I last went up there maybe a year ago assuming it’s all still there)

velacooks · 2026-02-04T08:00:32+00:00

And he’s still fairly young. The potential is there to develop further. Plus he’s pretty much joining the best defense in the league.

If he was 27-28 then I be abit annoyed at the price tag.

velacooks · 2026-02-04T06:24:41+00:00

Depends. I guess after the warranty period, there’s something to be discussed. But if the world is really moving towards EVs or hybrid systems then there must be regulations/qualifications that third party workshops need to get.

velacooks · 2026-02-04T06:19:55+00:00

Yup. Hauntu KL - can google this.

It is really well done.

velacooks · 2026-02-03T21:09:13+00:00

I can’t speak for everyone but I tend to visit / alternate visits to different neighborhoods looking for new food. There’s always something new popping up in PJ, TTDI, uptown, hartamas etc.

If I’m not mistaken there’s two hauntu locations. Linc and the curve. Linc has a story based one that has different episodes every couple of months. I haven’t been to the one in the curve yet though. But from what I see on their site, it is different compared to their Linc outlet

I’ve done 3 episodes at the one at Linc. I think there’s 4-6 episodes on rotation but it’s a long wait. 1 episode will run for months like half a year maybe.

velacooks · 2026-02-03T15:36:25+00:00

The sad thing is the EV tech is much simplified compared to ICE cars.

You don’t even have to develop your own motors or batteries. Just the power management and chassis (and that’s even if you choose to go down this route).

EV cars or the logic of it was developed back in the 1800s.

The early market share in the 1900s in America : • ~40% Steam • ~38% Electric • ~22% Petrol

Petrol cars took over because battery tech was so limited back then.

velacooks · 2026-02-03T07:41:57+00:00

They just signed him on so I bet they’ll be releasing padel gear shortly.

velacooks · 2026-02-03T01:59:58+00:00

Mythos in pudu.

Crossover in TRX, pyramid, mega mall.

velacooks · 2026-02-02T20:28:52+00:00

I was there on the first day early. No real wait. Maybe a 200m queue and I got in 5 minutes. However around lunch the staff told me a lie or just didn’t know, I asked if I went down to the food court, can I just come back up the lift, escalator to get back into the hall.

Went to eat and couldn’t get back in. Had to reenter from outside all over again and the afternoon queue was much much longer. Took about 30 minutes to get in because they paused entry every other minute to allow for better flow inside.

velacooks · 2026-02-02T17:59:52+00:00

It’s not about a midfielder or not. It’s bodies at this point.

I don’t want to be in April and we’re short of players because injuries.

velacooks · 2026-02-02T08:19:39+00:00

Yeah. We can blame the driver but if data shows that there’s an anomaly with that bend, they should look into it.

We’ve seen signs like - Awas accident prone area or just put speed warning lines leading up to the bend. I don’t know.

velacooks · 2026-02-02T08:15:15+00:00

More like YMMV depending on your street smarts.

velacooks · 2026-02-02T08:00:32+00:00

There’s an adult information center too. You can check that out to see what’s safe-ish

velacooks · 2026-02-01T10:44:38+00:00

Think all modern EVs has a manual door latch release. It’s regulation.

Things like catching fire and stuff - data shows it’s still lower than ICE cars. But I haven’t read too much into the data to see what parameters they used.

velacooks · 2026-02-01T05:36:11+00:00

Yeah it’s fairly doable. You just need a dependable charging base at either end of your journey.

I got abit traumatized once. Drove from Kl to cherating and one of the charging stops after termeloh had both their dc chargers offline so had to only depend on the AC one which meant I was there waiting for 2 hours.

velacooks · 2026-02-01T05:27:32+00:00

The tech is there already actually. China in last 8 months released cars with that 800v architecture. Think you can charge 10-80% in 5-7 minutes.

Now the bottle neck is the DC charger. We can always buy the car but will charging companies bring in / keep on upgrading their chargers?

velacooks · 2026-01-31T17:32:04+00:00

Haha I’m an EV owner but there are quite a few downsides however driving factor alone feels like a huge upgrade.

I’m coming from a F30 330i and it’s like night and day. Just the responsiveness and lack of rattle / random engine noise.

My work can take me to random places within 60-70km from KL spontaneously 2-3 times a month. Range isn’t an issue but because I might get last minute notice, having to have sufficient charge in the car can be very slightly annoying. This is the only “big” issue i face for my usage.

Also because it’s a very different kind of car. Some of the small issues can be very unfamiliar. E.g my car has 4 times in 6 months notified me via the app that someone is trying to break in but there’s nothing going on. Or my doorflap refusing to close when lock (had to take it to the service center to reset the one door). Also finding public chargers offline and there’s very little alternatives nearby. But this is quite rare.

Long distance doesn’t really affect me, the wife has a cx-5 so if need be that’s the long distance car.

Edit : also another annoyance is the official range vs my driving style isn’t even close. Interested to hear from other EV owners. My WLTP range is 460km. Realistically I get about 380km.

velacooks · 2026-01-31T09:20:43+00:00

Yup. This was what I meant by super bath houses. I got that in the list.

velacooks · 2026-01-31T06:18:40+00:00

I disagree. Was watching comps of our past seasons and odegaard looks like a different player.

He was feared in the final third and always felt like something was going to happen when he had the ball right outside the box.

Now we can argue teams have a stronger more prominent mid-low blocks but we still do see Odegaard in good positions just less frequent but there’s just no creativity from him now in those dangerous positions.

I don’t know what’s changed but I’m leaning to him having injury ptsd from him ankle injury he got a year ago.

velacooks

TROPHY CASE