Tokyo from the hotel window
"Blue Man Group Crossing"
Welcome to the Magic Kingdom - - - East
The Princess and the Dragon get ready to make out
The crowd heads to the volcanoI had my first trip to Japan this week (unless you count a few transfers at Narita airport over the years http://www.narita-airport.jp/en/). While I was only there for about 48 hours I managed to get a feel for the place. Its big, its crowded and its very Japanese.
As my overnight flight from Singapore was about to touch down I noticed frost on the roofs of the buildings. Lucky I remembered to bring a jacket. It was chilly and rainy. Upon arrival I was met by my driver. A nice chap who spoke no English. I was whisked away on the 45 mile trip from the airport to the city. Traffic was heavy as we crawled out way into town, I guess as a stupid American I really didn't think of Tokyo as a waterfront city but it is. There were plenty of bridges, ships, tunnels and lots of interesting vistas as we approached downtown. Also lots and lots of buildings.
We crossed the large and impressive Rainbow Bridge http://www.answers.com/topic/rainbow-bridge-tokyo) and hit a dead stop. Lucky I was staying at the Westin which appears to be relatively close to the crossing. The side streets were full of apartments, shops, little restaurants and there were an amazing amount of outdoor vending machines selling cigarettes, tea and coffee drinks and soft drinks. There are some signs in English but not too many. On the streets foreigners were few and far between.
I got there in time to check in, shower, shave and head to my meeting. The toilet in my hotel room had all sorts of bells and whistles and reminded me of the one Homer Simpson had in the room on his visit to Japan. His said "Welcome Homer Simpson, I am pleased to accept your waste".
The rest of the day was spent in a nice windowless room learning about cheese in Asia (they don't like it). The afternoon we loaded onto a bus and went to do a few retail visits. Japan has some very large grocery stores and the variety of products is astounding. The cheese aisle was full of interesting stuff (including Kraft products). There was My Little Kitty cheese, strawberry cheese ball snacks, tiny pieces of cheese fortified with 3 glasses of milk worth of calcium and many more interesting things. I wandered off to the snack section as I know Japan as some bizarre snacks. Chips and rice snacks come in all kinds of funky flavors. I saw the usual salt, prawn, cheese and normal type stuff but then found the payoff - cool stuff like curry, beef stew, octopus and even sea urchin flavored snacks. Bought a selection for the road. I also bought some very cool animal shaped dried seaweed slices - good for mom to put in little Tomo san's lunch box. The candy row was cool too - about 100 different types of boxes with little toys and candy in them. Animated characters known and unknown to me. One of the stores had a huge section of prepared foods - sushi rolls (the whole long roll you cut yourself), a tempura bar, many unusual and unknown to me things wrapped in dough and on sticks. Kind of a Japanese Whole Foods. There were tons of shoppers - many people were wearing face masks (not sure if it was to keep from getting germs or to keep germs from spreading). It was like a hospital ward.
I learned I wasn't in Kansas anymore when I tried to use an ATM. I t seems that most of the local ATMs are in Japanese only (shocking!). After figuring out where to put my card I was presented with 4 options all in Japanese. I pushed random options hoping to get some yen, but to no avail. I would hit dead ends and a few weird alarms would go off and my card was spit out at me. I am hopeful that nothing happened. Quite possibly some unsuspecting Japanese family has just received a huge windfall of American and Singapore dollars. I was really lost in translation. Lucky we had a few people from our Japanese business or I might still be wandering around yenless.
Next we headed to Disneyland Japan! It's about 40 minutes out of the city and has Disneyland (the first one outside the US) and a newer park called Disney Sea. We had dinner at a private room in the restaurant at a hotel at the Sea.(www.http://www.tokyodisneyresort.co.jp/tds/index_e.html )
Our room overlooked the park and a large body of water surrounded by all the attractions. At 8:30 there was a show - it was Disney meets Vegas, meets soft core porn - first Mickey came out in a big boat. Talented mouse because he spoke fluent Japanese. No clue what he said. Then there were dancing waters, lovely lights, pyrotechnics and a hot looking white water Princess appeared. Her happy time was short lived as a mechanical fire spewing dragon emerged from the sea as well. Ultimately I believe the Princess and the Dragon fell in love and had her white water drowned his flames but not before the volcano in the distance erupted. Weird but lovely but weird.....
There was time for a few of us to head into the park for a few rides. We hit the volcano coaster and the weather buster virtual ride and also rode the train. As the park was closing at about 10PM there was a huge buying frenzy in the gift shops. I have never seen such a rush to buy and spend. The shelves were looking pretty bare as I wrestled a lady for a Tokyo Disney phone charm but I got out alive.
The next day more meetings and off to the airport to head home. Nice sake in the business class lounge as we waited for our delayed flight. I landed in Singapore at 2:30 AM and was home about 3:15. A long and short trip.
Now off for a nice three day weekend!
As my overnight flight from Singapore was about to touch down I noticed frost on the roofs of the buildings. Lucky I remembered to bring a jacket. It was chilly and rainy. Upon arrival I was met by my driver. A nice chap who spoke no English. I was whisked away on the 45 mile trip from the airport to the city. Traffic was heavy as we crawled out way into town, I guess as a stupid American I really didn't think of Tokyo as a waterfront city but it is. There were plenty of bridges, ships, tunnels and lots of interesting vistas as we approached downtown. Also lots and lots of buildings.
We crossed the large and impressive Rainbow Bridge http://www.answers.com/topic/rainbow-bridge-tokyo) and hit a dead stop. Lucky I was staying at the Westin which appears to be relatively close to the crossing. The side streets were full of apartments, shops, little restaurants and there were an amazing amount of outdoor vending machines selling cigarettes, tea and coffee drinks and soft drinks. There are some signs in English but not too many. On the streets foreigners were few and far between.
I got there in time to check in, shower, shave and head to my meeting. The toilet in my hotel room had all sorts of bells and whistles and reminded me of the one Homer Simpson had in the room on his visit to Japan. His said "Welcome Homer Simpson, I am pleased to accept your waste".
The rest of the day was spent in a nice windowless room learning about cheese in Asia (they don't like it). The afternoon we loaded onto a bus and went to do a few retail visits. Japan has some very large grocery stores and the variety of products is astounding. The cheese aisle was full of interesting stuff (including Kraft products). There was My Little Kitty cheese, strawberry cheese ball snacks, tiny pieces of cheese fortified with 3 glasses of milk worth of calcium and many more interesting things. I wandered off to the snack section as I know Japan as some bizarre snacks. Chips and rice snacks come in all kinds of funky flavors. I saw the usual salt, prawn, cheese and normal type stuff but then found the payoff - cool stuff like curry, beef stew, octopus and even sea urchin flavored snacks. Bought a selection for the road. I also bought some very cool animal shaped dried seaweed slices - good for mom to put in little Tomo san's lunch box. The candy row was cool too - about 100 different types of boxes with little toys and candy in them. Animated characters known and unknown to me. One of the stores had a huge section of prepared foods - sushi rolls (the whole long roll you cut yourself), a tempura bar, many unusual and unknown to me things wrapped in dough and on sticks. Kind of a Japanese Whole Foods. There were tons of shoppers - many people were wearing face masks (not sure if it was to keep from getting germs or to keep germs from spreading). It was like a hospital ward.
I learned I wasn't in Kansas anymore when I tried to use an ATM. I t seems that most of the local ATMs are in Japanese only (shocking!). After figuring out where to put my card I was presented with 4 options all in Japanese. I pushed random options hoping to get some yen, but to no avail. I would hit dead ends and a few weird alarms would go off and my card was spit out at me. I am hopeful that nothing happened. Quite possibly some unsuspecting Japanese family has just received a huge windfall of American and Singapore dollars. I was really lost in translation. Lucky we had a few people from our Japanese business or I might still be wandering around yenless.
Next we headed to Disneyland Japan! It's about 40 minutes out of the city and has Disneyland (the first one outside the US) and a newer park called Disney Sea. We had dinner at a private room in the restaurant at a hotel at the Sea.(www.http://www.tokyodisneyresort.co.jp/tds/index_e.html )
Our room overlooked the park and a large body of water surrounded by all the attractions. At 8:30 there was a show - it was Disney meets Vegas, meets soft core porn - first Mickey came out in a big boat. Talented mouse because he spoke fluent Japanese. No clue what he said. Then there were dancing waters, lovely lights, pyrotechnics and a hot looking white water Princess appeared. Her happy time was short lived as a mechanical fire spewing dragon emerged from the sea as well. Ultimately I believe the Princess and the Dragon fell in love and had her white water drowned his flames but not before the volcano in the distance erupted. Weird but lovely but weird.....
There was time for a few of us to head into the park for a few rides. We hit the volcano coaster and the weather buster virtual ride and also rode the train. As the park was closing at about 10PM there was a huge buying frenzy in the gift shops. I have never seen such a rush to buy and spend. The shelves were looking pretty bare as I wrestled a lady for a Tokyo Disney phone charm but I got out alive.
The next day more meetings and off to the airport to head home. Nice sake in the business class lounge as we waited for our delayed flight. I landed in Singapore at 2:30 AM and was home about 3:15. A long and short trip.
Now off for a nice three day weekend!
2 comments:
Sounds like an interesting trip to the land TOJO. Lena is disappointed you chickened out on taking a ride on the Tower of Terror!
Manny
WELL NOW WE HAVE TWO BLOGGERS IN THE FAMILY, BE SURE TO VISIT EMAN'S BLOG AND LENA JUST STARTED ONE YESTERDAY. WE ARE HAVING A GREAT TIME IN SANIBEL BUT TODAY IS THE LAST DAY AND WE ARE ALL QUITE SAD. WE MISS YOU TOD
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