On our first night out!
"Konnichi wa! Which line to Shinjuku/Shibuya/Roppongi?" followed by an "Arigato gozaimasu" is how our days used to start in the land of rising sun. During the one week stay, it was something we pretty much mastered with the right intonation as an elderly Japanese man had complimented me! I usually take to new languages pretty easily but this time around it was the people that really inspired me to take to the language, place and its culture itself though I sheepishly admit that I haven't made a huge effort to understand the culture apart from some chito facts which is not such a bad start.
I was going to start in a few days to Tokyo, and I had absolutely no excitement whatsoever. I was in fact way more excited about the royally delayed Christmas gifts we were going to get at work vs Tokyo. Ruchi "This is exactly when you are going to have a ton of fun; when you feel like this" and man was she right!!!
Tokyo kept me entertained through out in spite of the dragging around my overflowing suitcase up and down the stairs at the Shinjuku station, the cramps, the cramped up hotel room, the non-indian food ;), the credit card bills...
We landed on Saturday afternoon, took an hour in the airport to figure out the cheapest way to get to the hotel. Fellow travellers, this place is frikkin expensive especially if you are Indian. You will seriously fight the urge to live in the airport. We finally decided that hiring a bus for the entire group makes sense and then a train from shinjuku to Hatagaya for Hotel Sakura.
Sakura was like a typical backpackers' accomodation. I was a bit disappointed in the beginning that everybody had their room partners but after taking a look at the size of the room ... I was glad!
*Chito fact: Hotel rooms and flats in general in Tokyo/Japan are extremely tiny. You should be prepared to die of Claustrophobia. A friend did warn me about that. He paid more for his apartment in Tokyo than the one in NY that was bigger.
We stepped out for what was supposed to be a "team dinner" but it ended up being the best night we spent at Tokyo. We had sticky rice and paid almost 1000 bucks for that; turns out we had no clue there was cover charge. How would we? We hadn't learned to read Japanese by then.
To get over the rip off we decided to do what most people choose to do - when down, down some more! We stumbled on to Agave, a Spanish tequila bar. The way to this bar is extremely shady. In a narrow by-lane lit by an equivalent of a zero watt bulb leading to a narrow winding staircase. As usual, the Indian men being the protectors of the women accompanying them decided to check out the place while we were waiting outside posing with
a Nissan Micra parked close by.
Agave, is a very dimly lit pub with an awesome ambience. If you ever visit Tokyo, you should go here. Really well done interiors. The place is filled and decorated with Tequila bottles from all over the world. I stuck to an extremely distasteful mocktail but blame me for that.
Pinka & I at AgaveTwo rounds of drinks, photo shoot for horror flicks, sharing horror stories, and a half hour later, we were back high on spirits and climbed out to see what Tokyo had in mind for us.
What followed that is something that I have never done in my life (yes today is when i declare i am not happening)! We were on our feet(either dancing or heading to the next club) till 7 in the morning.
Like most Hindus start a good event with Ganesh puja, we started with Jumanji and just to complete we ended it with Jumanji as well with Wall street, Sheesha, etc. in ...ummm... i don't remember the order!
One of the many reasons we wanted to stay back till the wee hours in the morning was again the expensive cab rides we would have to take vs a 150yen train ticket. Train ticket was the unanimous choice.
we just didn't give up!5-6 hours later we meet again in the hotel lobby for day 2. To my joy, most of us were equally eager to get some indian food and weirdly enough it wasn't too difficult to find an Indian
restaurant. Our next stop was Harajuku. I never bothered looking up the place before heading there. I am glad I didn't because i definitely didn't want to be prepared for what was at display over there. I just kept thinking that we had to meet up with another set of friends there before heading to the temple.
Walking out of the station and into the sunny main road, from my blue tommy shades, I notice a huge store that read 'GAP.' My day was going pretty well .. dancing till 6 in the morning and till MY feet hurt.. i am saying it again MY feet hurt from dancing, Indian food after starving from previous nights sticky rice, and then a place i can shop at! I quickly convinced two other friends to 'just take a quick look' inside. After quickly picking up a cardigan.. i mean common i couldn't get out of that place without actually buying something... I was hurrying over to the bridge
where we were supposed to meet the rest of the gang and instead i felt like i walked
into a crazy fashion show/sunny costume land. This apparently is how every sunday looks for everybody by the bridge at Harajuku. Everybody is out there in their best/weirdest/funniest of costumes inspired right from their traditional dressing to goth fashion to movies to cartoons. Cross dressing didn't seem very out of place.
The pedestrain path actually looked vibrant with all the lolita frocks, the Cats tights, traditional kimonos, block heels, triple layered eyelashes, red contact lenses and the click-clicks. We went crazy capturing this equally crazy display of costumes.
We had to head out from there after a while for our long ride to the temple. It was under renovation and frankly speaking none of us was as excited about it as much as we were waiting to shop around in the nearby souvenir shops. We were happy with a couple of group shots and then people split into twos, threes, fours or more.
We then head to the electronics district 'Akhihabara.' It was electronics paradise maybe for a lot of techies but to me it was the best place i could pick something useful up to take back for my brother and mother for techie and household purposes in that order. This place is definitely a must see even for somebody who is not interested in gadgets and stuff. The sheer size of the place and the range of stuff you can find in shops in this area is not a joke!
Since a majority of the gang was planning on going on the Mount Fuji trip the next day, we head back straight to the hotel. We were not ready to call it a night though so we just got busy with getting people drunk in the hotel's lobby/cafe and sharing some more horror stories, tokyo trivia et al. Some of us amidst this decided to reckon the evil spirits through the planchette. I love to listen to spooky stories, i like watching horror movies, and I equally get shit scared with the tiniest sign of paranormal activity and knowing how infamous Tokyo is for spirits, depression, &
suicide rates, there was no way i was going to be a part of it. I just don't like messing with things like that as much as its tempting at times. The next day i was treated to stories about the boys making up the whole thing, the girls crying, the girls praying in a frenzy; I am glad i gave it a miss.
Day 3
Unlike pretty much the entire group, Ra-ra, s & s, fx and I decided to not go ahead with the Mount Fuji trip. We instead slept really well, got an amazing masssage, walked the city streets in the lovely weather, had a fun conversation with a random old japanese man who liked India more than Japan, and tried to see the Imperial palace but the gates were closed so stayed happy with pictures from outside. I split from my friends after this to meet another good old friend at the Hachiko exit at Shibuya.
This was actually the first time I was travelling by myself in Tokyo. I got lost, found my way, spent a few minutes by Hachiko's statue. I feared sobbing like a little girl when I would finally see Hachiko's statue but nothing of that sort happened. I guess I made peace!
H took me through the by lanes of Shibuya, and after NY, I trusted him to show me a good time. Here is when I encountered my next set of unusual things in Tokyo - Soap baths for men; love hotels where you can check in for a few hours with your loved one.. mind you I say loved one coz here is where you take a special someone along not just some one who gives you a 'specific time' and this is a completely accepted concept and not a social taboo; Lolita is the IN thing, I mean I heard about this but to see it around was a different experience altogether; pet shops that are irresistable with the cutest pups & kittens.
It was a 20 min walk to the dinner place and i really enjoyed the teppanyaki style dinner once again (the first time though it tasted authentic, it didn't feel so coz well it was in Sydney). What I had was similar to an omlette wrap filled with chicken/shrimp and some veggies. Jap food is actually pretty good even the cold stuff you find in your regular marts.The extremely narrow street full of bars was an awesome next. It was just amazing how they had so many bars in that tiny street. The street was as narrow as your gallis in general bazaar. Exactly how you have those dozen clothes shops tucked in pretty conveniently. Come to think of it I just realise, this very minute, how normal it suddenly seems. Phirangs probably think that is interesting about India and here I am in phoren land thinking the same about their bars!
The bar we hit was H's regular, very appropriately and inappropriately called 'Tight.' Any fatter and I wouldn't fit in! The stair case was as wide as my backpack(imagine those Kensington bags that are just a little wider than the regular wildcraft ones). I climb 10 steps and turn right and I hit the wall where there is already two people standing. I turn right again on to the path that is around 8-10 feet long, kinda parallel to the stairs, and again as wide as my backpack. There are 3 bar stools here that fill up the path. Running parallel to this path is a small counter where a sweet jap stood wide grinned coz he knew my friend. I had the privilege of sitting on this bar stool that was a step higher than this path right above the staircase. It was a one foot by one foot square just enough to fit one bar stool and above the entrance of the staircase. Phew! I hope that was a good enough description. As tiny as i make it seem, I had an awesome time and didn't actually feel claustrophobic. There was apparently a time when there were 17 people in this bar!
staircase at TightI bid a very quick bye to H and head out to Roppongi for another night of revelry. I kept calling my friends to see which one of the zillion clubs they were in but couldn't get through to them. My cell gave up, there was no charge left, it was late in the night, and I had no clue what to do. I was almost in tears when I checked with yet another friendly group of young japs. The girl somehow managed telling me that I could get my cell charged in the mart right across the street. I ran in and asked the guy at the cash counter about where I could charge my cell and lo! he hands me a portable charger for the cell phone company I took the handset from. A portable cell charger! a portable cell charger, a wireless portable cell charger that you could frikkin' attach to your cell like a head set or something and not feel lost! I LOVE JAPAN!
FX called me, I figured out where they were and head straight there. Thats when i bumped into Tony, our brother from another mother that Neil befriended on our previous crazy night out. "I kept calling out to you to tell you that your friends were here but you wouldn't listen!" cried Tony. "Oh I am so sorry I was just worried and didn't hear you." Liar liar pants on fire! I ignored everybody that called out because I thought they would just ... well i thought about a ton of things that could go wrong but here he was this sweet guy genuinely trying to help me out. I
dont regret ignoring him as I still think that was the right thing to do but i do feel bad about how cynical I'd become too!
This was followed by another night of dancing, helping tipsy Bombalurina, preparing the hottie for her wedding by buying her a ticket to a special club ;), and hanging around till early morning to catch the first subway to Hatagaya.
Day 4 - monday
Most of the gang again was heading out to Disneyland, I chose to give it a pass. Pinkie who follows buddhism wanted to go to the buddhist centre in Tokyo which one of their gurus 'shen-sei' had built. I was more than willing to have a day of peace and get to see more of the regular Tokyo. This day was the most peaceful of the days I'd spent in Tokyo. I simply loved this day because of the weather; the slow pace of the day; the museum of music instruments from world over; the peaceful chanting at the centre; lovely florist shops; and the cute little gifts I got to pick all events in the order of occurence. The lovely people I met during the day who helped
us out and surprised us was just becoming a norm.
Day 4 evening to the last day in Tokyo:
One of the best things that happened to me in this lap of my trip was being with my
ever hyper friend! We got our luxurious rooms in the posh hotel on the outskirts of Tokyo where our conference was being held. The room had an amazing view. The days that followed had conference sessions during the day, and crazy nights with people dressing absurdly. I personally enjoyed the 2 in the night long walk that I took with Cothy after taking her to a place that served Indian food at 12 in the night.
Then there was the regular drill that happens at most of our conferences anyway. The
ducking when the speaker is doing the rounds picking on people who should ask him questions, the sneaking away to get a power nap in our plush hotel room beds, the bad conference food irrespective of whether its India, Australia, US, or Japan!
The one thing I am disappointed about not doing while in Tokyo was Karaoke... there is always a next hopefully until then Arigato Tokyo for the awesome time!
going crazy at our conference party
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