28 Mar 2006 - Japan (Tokyo) - Day 1
After all the adminstrative mess-up, I finally get on board a plane heading for Japan via Bangkok around 8.30pm. The trip was a last minute kind of thing. Shirli just informed me on Thursday that I should take over her place as she was too busy to make it for the trip. Up till monday, I didn't get any details and the eTicket.
But recieved a call to inform me that I should be on the plane at 9.30am. Well, they booked me on another flight, and I was to go at 8pm that day.
Trip to Bangkok is 2 hours, stopover for 1/2 hour and thereafter homerun to Japan till 6.30am (Tokyo time 7.30am. Theirs is 1 hour ahead).
Ticket was actually business class, so the flight was rather comfortable. Seated behind me was Monk. He also going Tokyo on Business? Anyway, the trip was pleasant, the stewards and stewardess were extra nice. They even call you by name and kept checking on you if you want this or that. A little pesky at times, especially if you want a shut eye.
I first sighted the land of the Rising Sun, when the sun was rising. (no kidding). At that time, it was around 6am, when I spied the approaching coast and the wavy water below.
I reached Tokyo around 7.30am. Temp outside was 8 degrees. Yikes, I didn't come prepare for this kind of weather. However, it was quite cooling and tolerable and the temperature did get a little higher later in the day. From what I had read, I could go to my hotel using the friendly Airport bus. I duly changed money and got my bus ticket for 8.30am. Had some time to kill before the bus would arrive. I walked around the arrival lobby and decided to go up to the departure hall to see if I can re-schedule my flight back on the 29 Mar. The counter girl was very friendly(they all are) and managed to change my flight to the 30 Mar, 9ish. Mission accomplished, I went to wait at the bus lot for my bus. (Friendly type)
The bus fare cost me 3,000 yen. That converts to about $45. Not cheap for a bus ride at all. However, I heard that the Taxis are a no no, so better not try. I later observed that Taxis start the fare from 660 yen. That's about $10! During the bus trip, it was acutally quite a long one. First impression of Japan: it was rather grey and drab. The building are all built very close to one another. The roads there, got a bit of traffic jam. On the way, I saw cherry blossoms. I had been lucky (to be discovered later on). Cherry blossom blossoms only 7 days in a year. To be able to see it was quite a rare treat.
On my arrival, I checked into the hotel. I also asked to extend my stay 1 day later. The girl helped me to contact Ms Fusae and I arranged with her to meet me at 11am.
I went to get refreshed, rigged up my computer and ran down to meet her. Problem here. All the power sockets are 2 pin type. Couldn't charge anything. Ms Fusae was a pleasant middle aged lady from Docomo. She spoke English well and we chatted along the way to NTT decomo. It was a short way, and the air was nice, but a tad cold.
At the Docomo headquarters, I meet the whole gang for the first time. We board the bus and got on our way to ?, for the F1 meet. What good fortune I have. I met my long time NS buddy, who is also incidentally the MD for GV. Wow, he actually remembered me after all these years. We had a good chat and caught up with the years. It had been, let's see, more than 20 years. I also got to know a whole bunch of people, but the info was too much. Couldn't remember half of them.
We reached F1 meet and participated in the Drive and Ride event. It was a F1 renault team sort of publicity + press conference. The place was filled with Newsman and people associated with NTT and iMOde. Kenneth confessed that he also had some difficulty piecing together why we were participating in this event. We guessed that it was a bit of a "thank you" for helping out with iMode and a bit of publicity/marketing and part buying our continuing support for the iMode program.
The highlight of the afternoon was to get on a F1 renault while the F1 team brought us for a short obstacle spin around. Wow, the ride was no joke. You had to put on a helmet in the car. The G forces while the car was making sharp turns was something more potent than a rollercoaster ride. I was holding on to my camera while I got tossed around the backseat. The skills of these guys were unquestionable. The whole event was complete with show queens and drama effects (like the car crashing out of a TV screen). I didn't really know what the fuss was about these guys...but I realized that they are actually the world champion F1 drivers. Lots of people would have died to take our place. (to have been chaffeured around by the world F1 champion..isn't that cool or what?)
After the event, we took the bus back to the hotel. I learnt a bit more about Japan from him, having been here for like the 14th time. We were supposed to go back to the hotel to rest and meet at 6.30pm for dinner. Having got a bit of time, I decided to brave the metro system and check out the Shinbuya area (for tackle shop). I got some help in trying out taking the trains at tameide-sanno station which is like some 50 metres away from the hotel. With his directions, I made my way to Shinbuya station. Actually, it was quite ez once you had gotten the logic of it.
Shinbuya was a amazing place. Talked about Singapore being crowded. This place, beats us hands down. When the traffic lights turned green, the people crossing was totally chaotic. The big LCD screens, neon lights were also 1 step more advance than our best effort at orchard road. This is city living in one of the finest cities in the world.
So, of cos, I couldn't find the tackle shop. Even tho I had the correct shop name, no one knows about it. Showed how dense the number of shops in the area. After walking around for a while, I gave up and decided to return when I had more specific directions.
Went back, washed up and promptly met the group for dinner. Nagasa san brought us to this Japanese restaurant in Rongpongi hills. Very modern and high end place. The food was nice but unusual, some sort of 300 years old recipe. We stayed for some 3 hours, having a good and informative chat about all sorts of things. Here, I got to know the people better. The team seems to be made out of mainly the iMode team from Starhub, the iMode team in Japan (NTT) and the content providers (me, kenneth(GV), alvin (ocbc securities), philip (zuji)). Over here, Alvin and Philip shared about what a good time they had visiting the fishing market at Tsukigi. I decided to try it out tomorrow morning (reach there 5am). This is the MARKET that you see in many Japan hour episodes.
At the end of the dinner, there was a medium drizzle and we had to grab a cab back to the hotel. There we parted with pleasantries. Most them would be returning back to Singapore tomorrow.
But recieved a call to inform me that I should be on the plane at 9.30am. Well, they booked me on another flight, and I was to go at 8pm that day.
Trip to Bangkok is 2 hours, stopover for 1/2 hour and thereafter homerun to Japan till 6.30am (Tokyo time 7.30am. Theirs is 1 hour ahead).
Ticket was actually business class, so the flight was rather comfortable. Seated behind me was Monk. He also going Tokyo on Business? Anyway, the trip was pleasant, the stewards and stewardess were extra nice. They even call you by name and kept checking on you if you want this or that. A little pesky at times, especially if you want a shut eye.
I first sighted the land of the Rising Sun, when the sun was rising. (no kidding). At that time, it was around 6am, when I spied the approaching coast and the wavy water below.
I reached Tokyo around 7.30am. Temp outside was 8 degrees. Yikes, I didn't come prepare for this kind of weather. However, it was quite cooling and tolerable and the temperature did get a little higher later in the day. From what I had read, I could go to my hotel using the friendly Airport bus. I duly changed money and got my bus ticket for 8.30am. Had some time to kill before the bus would arrive. I walked around the arrival lobby and decided to go up to the departure hall to see if I can re-schedule my flight back on the 29 Mar. The counter girl was very friendly(they all are) and managed to change my flight to the 30 Mar, 9ish. Mission accomplished, I went to wait at the bus lot for my bus. (Friendly type)
The bus fare cost me 3,000 yen. That converts to about $45. Not cheap for a bus ride at all. However, I heard that the Taxis are a no no, so better not try. I later observed that Taxis start the fare from 660 yen. That's about $10! During the bus trip, it was acutally quite a long one. First impression of Japan: it was rather grey and drab. The building are all built very close to one another. The roads there, got a bit of traffic jam. On the way, I saw cherry blossoms. I had been lucky (to be discovered later on). Cherry blossom blossoms only 7 days in a year. To be able to see it was quite a rare treat.
On my arrival, I checked into the hotel. I also asked to extend my stay 1 day later. The girl helped me to contact Ms Fusae and I arranged with her to meet me at 11am.
I went to get refreshed, rigged up my computer and ran down to meet her. Problem here. All the power sockets are 2 pin type. Couldn't charge anything. Ms Fusae was a pleasant middle aged lady from Docomo. She spoke English well and we chatted along the way to NTT decomo. It was a short way, and the air was nice, but a tad cold.
At the Docomo headquarters, I meet the whole gang for the first time. We board the bus and got on our way to ?, for the F1 meet. What good fortune I have. I met my long time NS buddy, who is also incidentally the MD for GV. Wow, he actually remembered me after all these years. We had a good chat and caught up with the years. It had been, let's see, more than 20 years. I also got to know a whole bunch of people, but the info was too much. Couldn't remember half of them.
We reached F1 meet and participated in the Drive and Ride event. It was a F1 renault team sort of publicity + press conference. The place was filled with Newsman and people associated with NTT and iMOde. Kenneth confessed that he also had some difficulty piecing together why we were participating in this event. We guessed that it was a bit of a "thank you" for helping out with iMode and a bit of publicity/marketing and part buying our continuing support for the iMode program.
The highlight of the afternoon was to get on a F1 renault while the F1 team brought us for a short obstacle spin around. Wow, the ride was no joke. You had to put on a helmet in the car. The G forces while the car was making sharp turns was something more potent than a rollercoaster ride. I was holding on to my camera while I got tossed around the backseat. The skills of these guys were unquestionable. The whole event was complete with show queens and drama effects (like the car crashing out of a TV screen). I didn't really know what the fuss was about these guys...but I realized that they are actually the world champion F1 drivers. Lots of people would have died to take our place. (to have been chaffeured around by the world F1 champion..isn't that cool or what?)
After the event, we took the bus back to the hotel. I learnt a bit more about Japan from him, having been here for like the 14th time. We were supposed to go back to the hotel to rest and meet at 6.30pm for dinner. Having got a bit of time, I decided to brave the metro system and check out the Shinbuya area (for tackle shop). I got some help in trying out taking the trains at tameide-sanno station which is like some 50 metres away from the hotel. With his directions, I made my way to Shinbuya station. Actually, it was quite ez once you had gotten the logic of it.
Shinbuya was a amazing place. Talked about Singapore being crowded. This place, beats us hands down. When the traffic lights turned green, the people crossing was totally chaotic. The big LCD screens, neon lights were also 1 step more advance than our best effort at orchard road. This is city living in one of the finest cities in the world.
So, of cos, I couldn't find the tackle shop. Even tho I had the correct shop name, no one knows about it. Showed how dense the number of shops in the area. After walking around for a while, I gave up and decided to return when I had more specific directions.
Went back, washed up and promptly met the group for dinner. Nagasa san brought us to this Japanese restaurant in Rongpongi hills. Very modern and high end place. The food was nice but unusual, some sort of 300 years old recipe. We stayed for some 3 hours, having a good and informative chat about all sorts of things. Here, I got to know the people better. The team seems to be made out of mainly the iMode team from Starhub, the iMode team in Japan (NTT) and the content providers (me, kenneth(GV), alvin (ocbc securities), philip (zuji)). Over here, Alvin and Philip shared about what a good time they had visiting the fishing market at Tsukigi. I decided to try it out tomorrow morning (reach there 5am). This is the MARKET that you see in many Japan hour episodes.
At the end of the dinner, there was a medium drizzle and we had to grab a cab back to the hotel. There we parted with pleasantries. Most them would be returning back to Singapore tomorrow.
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