Left.....and Back

6 months ago, I couldn't wait to fly to Tokyo.

1 month ago, I wished I wasn't going.

3 weeks back, I have panic attacks every day and night

2 weeks back, I couldn't wait for this project to end.
24 May - I finally lay to rest in peace at night

Now - What the abso-fark-lutely hell am I doing here....?

Those familiar with my Japan saga will know how serious it is for me to actually irked at the sight or mention of anything remotely nihon. 1 month ago, I really really thought this project was going to pieces. The mere thought of going to Changi airport tears me apart.

In summary, it had been an eye-opener and I actually felt I learned something from this exercise. The feedback from client was generally positive although there were several kick-ass problems.....well they are interested to have us back again for next year...if its Moscow, Cheryl can be the new akong and assist (hahaha)...if its Bangkok, my boss will laugh his way to the bank. If its Taipei, I will laugh my way to Lonely Travel.com and start piling the research just like I did for Tokyo - and be an expert soon. Heh.

Highlights:

17 May

- God of Accuracy was nice, just bit put off by its Japanese-ness

- Say my goodbyes to the gang

18 May

- Packed and figured I will have to pay excess baggage, Altogether I had 5 items including hand carry

19 May

- KNN, paid S$249 for excess 6 kg. In reality, it exceeded by 12 kg actually
- Flight was so-so, transited at Taipei and realised how old and 80's the facilities were

- No shops, no view, no people. Boring, luckily I was equipped with a book

- Arrived at Narita at 11pm, drizzling and hopped onto limo bus

- Thats when my nightmare started with rain. I have several rain issues throughout my travel.

A few words to describe my first night ordeal: Raining, unfriendly people, small room, hungry.

Realising there was no porterage service, I took deep breaths and hauled everything to my room. Realised I was paying 4 star price for a budget size room - and still apparently this was 1 of the economical accommodation around Shinjuku........

20 May

Raining - yet gungho enough to TRY finding for Hilton hotel in the rain w/o knowledge of actual location. Should be pretty easy, I thought, yeah sure, its just 500m straight ahead, but I didnt count on the strong wind that blew my umbrella inverted and instead of sheltering me, collected rain water instead.

So I braved the rain alone in my walk to Hilton and the streets were totally deviod of humans. By the time I reached Hilton, my entire left side was wet.

Nevertheless, I was prepared for a long tiring day. Took the subways and JR trains with Japan colleague and boss - took the opportunity to learn the routes as we had to get around ourselves in subsequent days. By night time, my foot was swelling.

This is the route I take to Hilton from hotel 5 times a day for first 2 days...its quite a nice walk actually, especially at night where it super cooling. I like the city view at night bcoz all buildings are 70% lited, feel very cosmopolitan...talk about conserving energy....

There's another bird's nest in Tokyo apparently...not just Beijing

Adrian - here's Kuromonto lunch...its rather tasty actually, although a wee bit small portion here...

Happo-en stingy portion of sashimi at buffet. This is the horrendous venue that served us 30 pcs of sushi for 60 pax. Huh! Quality over quantity? No wonder my boss LOATHES all things japanese...

Giant pao - To be honest I think the food isnt too bad, its rather appealing visually-wise. But I never thought my main bugbear for this trip would be food. For weeks I imagined disastarous situations with the entire project - anything, but FOOD. Imagine running outta food 20mins into dinner...we knew it was coming and hid ourselves for a good half hour...of course by then the client's happy face turned the other way. And my poor boss had to face the music and literally begged the kitchen to churn out whatever edible stuff...but, who wanna eat mushroom rice and soba noodles and tamago??

THIS is the venue with the supposedly VIRUS ......now all mysteries are solved!

This is the group we toiled and sweat and lose sleep over - at least they are a decent and humble bunch...very well behaved. Our nightmare is standing on the 2nd row, 2nd from the left.

Picturesqe moment. By then this was the last dinner we were hosting for them. We were not as jumpy and nervous, and I was enjoying myself. I kinda stopped wishing this was over

As the stupid restaurant does not do basic setup of tables, we had to hunt around for cheap flower displays. Finally got hotel to do this up and lugged 20 cups to Happo-en. Man! they wanna charge us like $50 for ONE display set...

My Hilton room-This is the 2nd hotel i stayed in.

View from the top - Mori Tower
Its kinda funny how I manage to steer the sightseeing program to visit those places that I planned on going...for free and saves me time for other shopping!

How cool eh? Panasonic welcomes us!!

Poster at Fuji TV - Takuya Limura is EVERYWHERE in Japan

First free night out in Shinjuku!! I love the neon lights...its different from the Hong Kong, Taiwan, much less Geylang...There's no sleaziness and not too garish

This is my 3rd hotel - crapmy Toyoko Inn where I was rather disappointed.
- Welcome pack is disappointing
- Hotel room damn small
- Location is a bit off - You gotta throng through the nightclubs and gentlemen's clubs, and lady pimps and men pimps and blacks on heat...but it was an eye-opener, depends how you see it
- Most of all Lenus, their breakfast of 2 rice rolls with different seasioning SUCKS!! :(

My boss had a fren there who lived in Japan for 17 years - brought us to this small restaurant and ta-daahh, i present horse meat! The red bit is the meat, the white bit is the meat around the back area, which is rather chewy. Actually there isnt much taste, just that it was chewy, but Steph didn't quite take to it...

Nice tamagoes!

Steph and mine first meal on Freedom Day 1 - all from Isetan Food Hall

The funny thing was, during this trip, we ate mainly don and sushi. We didn't get to eat ramen at all coz always couldnt find 1 near us when we wanted to eat. Which was a pity.

The fren brought us to a street bazaar held along an alleyway between 2 buildings.
Bananas dipped in rainbow colours.

Afterthoughts

After this exercise, I realised that we have been like lil froggies swimming in our own well..the world is such a big place and its really a learning experience working in Japan and with Japanese. And I must say Singapore contractors are still the better lot as they work efficiently and not as rigid.

One thing though about the jappies, they WILL deliver whatever they promised. Its like an honour to them.

I still like Japan as a place to visit, but will not look forward to working with Japanese as they follow rules stricter than a discipline master. In some ways, that is good, yet most of the times, we just wanna hurl vulgarities at them.

Japan has always quite fascinated me, with their repressed geekiness, over-the-top culture, their obscence obsession with school girls/porn, vending machines and 2-faced personalities. Their patriarchal society still has not changed much and will never. Like asians, they are only more accommodating to westerners.

All in all, I definitely feel i learnt more about Japan and its culture after this trip. And so, while i do miss it, its also time to explore about great cities.

November 2008.

:)