Ogenki desu ka?

I am very well, thank you!

I just returned from a pretty awesome work trip in Tokyo. Gosh, I miss that city already. The last time I was there (also for work) was 5 years ago. To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to travelling again so soon after my China trip so right up to the time I got on the plane, I was still grumpy but the minute I landed in Narita and saw how systematically they arranged all the luggage on the conveyor belt by size (as opposed to how they threw my bags around in India), I knew this will not be a difficult work trip at all.

First of all, my hotel room (in Capitol Tokyu in Akasaka) is huge (I was expecting a shoebox) and has an awesome view of the city + a temple.

Then of course, I had a hundred buttons in my toilet room. I actually Whatsapp my friends back in Singapore to check which buttons I should be using.

Frou: What does "oscillating" means? Will the toilet seat oscillate, or my butt?

Maro: The water shooting up your arse will!

Frou: Really? Let me try.... OH MY! Oh, you're right. And there is a nice jet of warm air aftwards. Oooh.. I never had air up there before...

So my first day is free (i.e. I don't need to go into office) so I took the opportunity to go to the Ghibli Museum as I am a big fan of Studio Ghibli's animations such as Totoro and Ponyo. The museum is all the way in a surburb called Mitaka and to get there, I need to change subway lines at least a hundred times. As you all know, Tokyo has one of the busiest and most number of interlocking subway lines and I was also a bit jetlagged (it was a red eyed flight) but somehow I managed to find my way to Mitaka only to realize that I needed to take a further shuttle bus. To my absolute delight, a bright yellow bus with the cheeky face of "Long Mao" (Tiger Cat?) turned up. It was the Long Mao Bus from Totoro! Haha! I had a good laugh.

This is what the museum looks like. According to the guidebook, this is one of the "principles" of the museum:

To make such a museum, the building must be...
Put together as if it were a film
Not arrogant, magnificent, flamboyant, or suffocating
Quality space where people can feel at home, especially when it's not crowded
A building that has a warm feel and touch
A building where the breeze and sunlight can freely flow through

It goes on to say:

The museum must be run in such a way so that...

Small children are treated as if they were grown-ups
The handicapped are accommodated as much as possible
The staff can be confident and proud of their work
Visitors are not controlled with predetermined courses and fixed directions
It is suffused with ideas and new challenges so that the exhibits do not get dusty or old, and that investments are made to realize that goal

Well, they got the "treat children as grown up" right. Hundred of kids were running amok inside but no one stopped them. Thankfully, they are Japanese kids so their "amok" is very mild and they are all very "kawaii" so they fit into the whole ambience.

After my day out in the museum, I went and met Lioness for dinner at an izakaya restaurant in Shibuya called 35 steps - because to get to the restaurant, you need to go down 35 stepsm literally! An izakaya is basically Japanese tapas (food that goes with your drinks) and we tried many different things. The food was really good - fresh sashimi, kimchi tofu and they had live mackeral which they cook using a blow torch in front of us. I was busy eating and catching up with Lioness & her man so didn't manage to take any pictures!

The next day onwards, I have to start work proper and this means I only had time to eat my "typical work food" which are basically food you grab quickly when you have a chance to eat, which isn't on most of my work trip especially breakfast. So I stocked my hotel room with "typical work food" from 7-11, and can I say that the Japanese really got it right. Even their nonsense food taste good. I had this funny tonkatsu sandwich on white bread with the sides sealed (see below pic on the left) everyday with my vitamin C, instant coffee and local news and it was a pretty awesome meal. I also couldn't resist buying the sweet stuff even though I don't have a sweet tooth - just cos they looked nice.

I am not going to talk about my work in Japan because that is BORING... but anyway, when I had a chance to run off, I headed down to Meijin Jingue Shrine in Harajuku. It was a really nice walk into the shrine and along the way, I met a couple who were getting their wedding pictures taken and it looked like a set from a period drama. Everything was done so properly and gracefully, and the bride looked like an angel except my Japanese friend told me the white headgear she was wearing was actually meant to cover her "horns" - the Japanese believe that women have little monster horns on their head which explains her flare ups when she gets angry so the headgear was to make sure her little monsters horns are under check. My Japanese friend also fed me a few useful snippets about visiting a Japanese shrine - apparently you shouldn't walk in the middle of the gates (see left pic below) because that's the path reserved for the Shinto God. Visitors must always walk at the side of the gate, but not before taking a bow. We also did the bow, clap clap, bow ritual and threw a coin for good luck. It was all very charming and serene. Great way to de-stress and get some good energy.

I also managed to go back to the Ninja Akasaka restaurant that Lioness brought me to 5 years ago. It was still as cheesy and entertaining as before i.e. ninjas flying everywhere, ninjas cooking my food, ninjas doing magic tricks at our table. In fact I think I wrote a blog entry about it back in 2006 - ahh, that's right, here it is. Gosh, that was 6 years ago, not 5!

I also had to do a lot of walking around the city - for work! - so I managed to catch a few glimpses of Tokyo's trademark sights such as Hachiko, the Prada building, and many more. 

I was actually sad to board the plane on my last day but a little glad because I was extremely exhausted since it has been a full on trip. Thank gawd I had a nice little cubicle with 180 degree reclinable bed on SQ so I watched episodes after episodes of 30 Rock with glasses after glasses of Virgin Mary (my default airplane drink) all the way home.



A fast and furious trip - but very enjoyable. I hope it won't be another 5 years before I go that way again.