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Welcome to Shoppaholic Boutique
Rabu, 25 Januari 2017
Kebaya Panjang Warna Kalem
A high speed getaway like no other
I stepped away from the check-in desk, boarding pass in hand. My flight was scheduled to depart Shanghai in just more than two hours, but instead of heading to the gates, I turned to walk away.
If I timed it right, there was a chance for one last adventure before I left China. I wanted to ride the fastest commercial train on the planet.
Shanghai's magnetic levitation train connects Pudong International Airport to the city's metro system, hitting speeds of 430kph, twice as fast as most private planes. As the only publicly accessible maglev in the world, it’s a technological wonder you'd expect to find in a theme park, not on a transit map.
The train station sits in the middle of the airport, with signs guiding the way in Chinese and English along with a cool graphic of a train floating above a rail. It's not artistic license. Instead of running on wheels, maglevs glide, eliminating the drag of friction. And the science is surprisingly simple. Anyone who has ever played with magnets knows that positive and negative poles attract each other, while two positives (or negatives) push each other away. Maglevs harness that repulsion by rapidly switching on and off electromagnets to propel the carriages forward at astonishing speeds.
I'm no trainspotter, but as a transportation nut, this was something I had to try.
It took several minutes to reach the station, where I found a ticket machine and surveyed my options. A roundtrip cost 80 yuan, much less than a pass for Shanghai Disneyland, I reasoned. There was even a first class option, but I passed it up, figuring that on the world's most advanced train, economy is hardly slumming it.
And then I looked at the map and hesitated, realizing what I was about to do.
If everything went as promised, I would rocket 30km away from my boarding gate. When I arrived at the Longyang Road station less than eight minutes later, the idea was to exit and immediately catch the next train back. If all went as planned, the entire 60km round-trip would take less than 20 minutes.
If not, there was going to be an interesting conversation with an airline representative explaining why I had my missed my flight.
This was my last chance to bail. Sucking in my breath, I shoved a 100-yuan bill into the machine.
A moment later I stepped into a gleaming, gold-pillared entrance hall. A digital clock counted down the seconds to the next departure. Thanks to my hesitation at the ticket machine I had just missed the previous train, and it would be nearly eight minutes until the next one arrived.
Before the clock reached one minute, a sleek, white, four-carriage train hummed into the station. The doors slid open and I stepped into a clean, modern vehicle with blue corduroy seats. Nice enough, but nothing remarkable except for a digital clock and speedometer at each end of the carriage.
The moment the countdown clock hit zero, the doors shut and we slipped out of the station.
The train immediately accelerated, and, like a high-tech drag racer, it kept accelerating. In no time, the speedometer reached 100kph, then 200. With each milestone, the carriage grew more animated. I’d expected my fellow travellers to be nonchalant, flipping through their smartphones and ignoring the marvel of the trip. Instead they were giddy as school children.
At 300kph, passengers began standing in the aisle, posing for pictures in front of the speedometer. Landscape smeared by the windows. Inside the car, a white noise hum grew louder. "I feel like I'm flying,” yelled out Tin Nguyen, a visitor from California.
A moment later, we topped out at 431kph, hovering there just long enough to bask in the wonder. Then the train began to slow: 300kph, then 250. At 100, it felt like we were crawling.
I grabbed my bag, readying for a quick transfer. When the doors parted, I rushed toward the exit, but instead of turning left to leave the station, I turned right.
I slid my fare card into the turnstile, hurried to the platform and was surprised to find myself at the same carriage I had just exited. I could have stayed on board, saving the price of a roundtrip ticket. A maglev rookie error.
On the return journey I noticed new details about the experience, like the traffic that crawled on the highway parallel to the tracks and then disappeared into a blur as we gained speed. About four minutes in, several passengers rushed to one side of the train. I pried my eyes from the speedometer and noticed a momentary smudge out the window. It was another maglev speeding by in the opposite direction.
The train slowed, and soon I was retracing my steps to the terminal. This time I dutifully headed to security and immigration, which moved painfully slow. When I finally arrived at the gate, about half the flight had already boarded.
I slipped into line behind a couple I recognised from the check-in queue. They looked bored and a little glum, weighed down with bags from duty free. I couldn’t see what they had purchased, but I had no doubt I was going home with the better souvenir.(bbc.com)
Japan gets first sumo champion in 19 years
Japan has formally named its first home-grown sumo grand champion in almost two decades, in a boost to the traditional wrestling sport.
Kisenosato, 30, was promoted to the top-most yokozuna rank after his win in the first tournament of the year.
He is the first Japanese-born wrestler to make it since Wakanohana in 1998. Five wrestlers from American Samoa and Mongolia have made it in the interim.
Foreign wrestlers have come to dominate sumo, amid a lack of local recruits.
Kisenosato, who comes from Ibaraki to the north of Tokyo and weighs 178kg (392 pounds), has been an ozeki - the second-highest rank - since 2012.
After being runner-up on multiple occasions, he finally clinched his first tournament victory - and thereby his promotion to yokozuna - in the first competition of 2017.
"I accept with all humility," Kisenosato said in a press conference after the Japan Sumo Association formally approved him.
"I will devote myself to the role and try not to disgrace the title of yokozuna."
What is sumo?
Japan's much-loved traditional sport dates back hundreds of years.
Two wrestlers face off in an elevated circular ring and try to push each other to the ground or out of the ring.
There are six tournaments each year in which each wrestler fights 15 bouts.
Wrestlers, who traditionally go by one fighting name, are ranked and the ultimate goal is to become a yokozuna.
Many Japanese fans will be pleased to see a local wrestler back at the top of a sport regarded as a cultural icon.
As yokuzuna, Kisenosato, whose real name is Yutaka Hagiwara, joins three other wrestlers in sumo's ultimate rank - Hakuho, Harumafuji and Kakuryu.
The trio all come from Mongolia, following a path forged by sumo bad-boy Asashoryu, who was Mongolia's first yokozuna in 2003.
The last Japanese-born wrestlers to reach the top were brothers Takanohana and Wakanohana, who made it to yokozuna in 1994 and 1998 respectively.
In recent years, sumo has been hit by falling numbers of Japanese recruits, partly because it is seen as a tough, highly regimented life.
Young sumo wrestlers train in tightly-knit "stables" where they eat, sleep and practise together and are sometimes subjected to harsh treatment in the belief that it will toughen them up.
In 2009, a leading coach was jailed for six years for ordering wrestlers to beat a young trainee who later died, in a case that shocked the nation.
Those at the top of the sport are also expected to be role models, showing honour and humility - and can be criticised if they get it wrong.
Sumo must also compete with the rising popularity of football and baseball, which have vibrant leagues that draw crowds of young Japanese fans.
But the sport is attractive to wrestlers from other nations, who can earn a good living. Wrestlers have come from Estonia, Bulgaria, Georgia, China, Hawaii and Egypt, as well as Mongolia and American Samoa.
As a child, Kisenosato was a pitcher in his school's baseball club before he chose to train as a wrestler at a stable in Tokyo.
He made his debut in 2002 and, reported Japan's Mainichi newspaper, the 73 tournaments he took to become a yokozuna are the most by any wrestler since 1926.
Speaking to reporters after the tournament victory on Monday that sealed his elevation, Kisenosato said he was pleased to be holding the Emperor's Cup trophy at last.
"I've finally got my hands on it and the sense of pleasure hasn't changed," he said. "It's hard to put into words but it has a nice weight to it."
South Korean anger over nude Park painting
A nude painting of South Korean President Park Geun-hye has caused anger, as a political scandal continues to grip the country.
The painting, part of an exhibition at the National Assembly, was torn down by supporters of Ms Park on Tuesday.
Inspired by Edouard Manet's Olympia, "Dirty Sleep", also shows Ms Park's close friend Choi Soon-sil as a servant bringing her flowers.
The two women both deny accusations of colluding in corruption.
Ms Park was impeached by politicians for her role in the scandal last year and stripped of her officials duties. The constitutional court has until June to either approve the decision or reinstate her.
Ms Choi is accused of using her relationship with the president to extract donations from corporations to foundations she runs. She has been charged with attempted coercion, abuse of authority and attempted fraud.
The painting at the centre of the row shows Ms Park sleeping while the Sewol ferry, which sank three years ago killing nearly 400 people, most of them students, goes down outside the window.
Ms Park has long been criticised for her handling of the disaster.
On Wednesday, the floor leader of the main opposition party condemned the lawmaker who organised the exhibit saying parliament "would have not remained silent if someone had drawn a nude painting of former President Roh Moo-hyun when he was impeached", Yonhap news agency reported.
Also on Wednesday there were dramatic scenes at the special prosecutors office, where Ms Choi had been made to attend questioning. She has refused to attend for a month, citing ill health.
On arrival, she shouted to reporters that she had been pressured to admit guilt.
"I am being forced to confess committing crimes jointly with the president," she said, according to local media, while being escorted.
A spokesman for the special prosecutor said the allegation of coercion was "completely groundless".(bbc.com)
Gunmen launch fatal Somali hotel attack
Ten people have died and more than 50 are wounded after a car bomb and gun attack at a hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu, a senior minister has said.
The attack took place at the Dayah hotel, where some members of parliament were thought to be staying, police said on Wednesday.
Somali security minister Abdirizak Omar Mohamed said the four attackers had been killed by security forces.
The Islamist militant group al-Shabab has said it carried out the attack.
Ambulance workers say they have counted 28 bodies in the hotel and a further 43 people are injured - including seven journalists - although there is no official confirmation of this figure.
Eyewitnesses said the attackers had used a vehicle laden with explosives to blast their way into the hotel and once inside they started shooting.
Shortly after the first blast, another vehicle exploded, killing and wounding more people who had gathered in the area.
Survivors described how hotel residents hid under beds and others jumped out of windows to escape the attackers.
Hassan Nur told the AP news agency: "They [the gunman] kicked down room doors and at some point posed themselves as rescue teams by telling those inside to come out, (only) to kill them.''
Police officer Colonel Abdiqadir Hussein told Reuters that security forces had later managed to secure the building.
"We have rescued the people and concluded the operation at Dayah hotel," he said.
"The security forces are now inside the hotel."
The hotel is located less than a mile from Somalia's presidential palace and is popular with dignitaries.
The attack comes at a time when the country is preparing for indirect elections where MPs are set to choose a president.(bbc.com)
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