Tokyo Street 2014

I used to feel the charm of the place in the previous visits. It was after all something quite different. Nice selection of Japanese food, great café and just chic ambience.

That was a couple of years ago. Moving on, there seemed the much of the same. Same shops and the quality of the outlets had pretty much deteriorated. A couple of new restaurants but they were non-halal.

I didn't mind the non-halal issue, but I would've preceded it to be segregated clearly. Had a separate wing where one could go and enjoy such food. Building the outlets together at one area just create confusion and for me suspicion as I couldn't trust the whole area to be halal as such.

That to a certain extend had put me off having meals there. I still loved the café but the numbers were dwindling. We were down to one at the minute withbanither Japanese-themed café located at the central walkway of level 6.

Down to the bottom line, Tokyo Street should be a themed outlet and should run around on that novelty, as an attraction of all things Japanese. There were promotions going on all the time but they were located outside the main area. Something of an afterthought and it was always business as usual for the vendors inside as if they were separate from the effort of the promoters of the event going on elsewhere. Things felt detached and disorganized.

I felt that those running Tokyo Street should look into this and tow all the vendors to be in line. When there were promotions going on, everybody should be involved. That was clearly not happening yesterday when I visited the place. Without this effort, Tokyo Street would lose its charm and turn into any other themed street stalls. And you could get that in Chow Kit...

Berjaya Times Square Slideshow

Write-up of the visit here.

Sad Imbi Plaza

Imbi Plaza used to the center of all things digital back in the 80s. And it was still at its heyday until the early 2000s. The combination of regular raids by the authority and the wide availability of digital downloads made the business of bootleg software which thrived there then bit the dust.

Right next door, a more legitimate - emphasis on the word more - IT center was opened, Low Yat Plaza. This forced most of the vendors at Imbi to either clean up their act or ship out. My usual dealer left for Berjaya Times Square across the road.

The restaurants were still opened

As it was now, the three story mall looked empty. Some of the shops looked abandoned. I remember back in its glory days when the place was packed, and you could get anything IT there. I had built PC from parts from the shop there before it became fashionable.

I remember waiting for new games released on 5.25 inch floppy being sold there - illegally of course. We couldn't get our hands on original, not to mention how expensive those were back then. All those walks to and from my house at Jalan Bellamy those days. I was sure a few of my friends also had find memories of the place...‎

Berjaya Times Square

The last time I was at Times Square was when I just returned from Atlantic and needed a new Micro SIM card for my Nexus 4. I went to the DiGi store as it was one of their flagships. I haven't been back there ever since.

It was CNY eve, and there were plenty of people and some of the shops were winding down for an early closure. Surprisingly, I found that more shops were opened there compared to 2009 when I came to visit the indoor playground rides. It was going through a period of transformation then and a lot of the shops there were unoccupied.

I also remembered the nightmare of finding a car park spot here. Luckily, I parked at Pavilion and walked here.

I didn't realise how huge the place was. Almost 11 stories of shops, an Imax cinema, indoor theme park. There was also areas for bazaars and small stalls lining the corridors. One of them was called Central Park which looked neat from the upper floors.

I must admit that the place appeared gloomy at the upper levels - some seedy-looking shops there, but the lower floors looked full of live.

I spent the afternoon trying out my camera and the dizzying rows of escalators caught my attention. It could've been mistaken to a grand hotel rather than a shopping mall instead - yes, there was a hotel on one of the wings.

The theme park however looked to be run down and some of the rides looked to be permanently closed. One whole wing looked to be covered - I really didn't know what was going in there. Even the famous indoor roller coaster seemed to be on hiatus.

All in all, the place could do with a makeover of some sort. It was at a risk of doing a slow death....

Slideshow of the outing here.

Walking around Starhill

The last time I walked around Starhill Gallery must be about a couple of years back. I went to the cafe on the ground floor since then, but that was about it. Not really my cup of the this place with its imposing architecture and much more imposing price tag on the items on show, not really a place for a weekend shopping trip.

The Debenhams here was still going strong, plenty of items, much like the chain in the UK. But that was almost all that I could afford. Plenty of boutiques and high end restaurant here, plus some really rediculously expensive home furnishing items occupying the upper floors! Complete madness.

Intimidating no matter which angle you look at it ....Are those edible?We were there killing time before berbuka at Marriott next door. Even window shopping gave me headache here ...... But in terms of ambiance, the place was top notch. A place to meet and be met, especially at the cafes downstairs.