Metamorphosis in Japan - 2 - Weekend Trip to Tokyo

Dear friends,

It gives immense joy in meeting someone from your own country when you are abroad.

After two quiet days at work, I planned a weekend trip to Tokyo. Multipurpose – to meet Narsimham and Gangadhar and to get a prepaid mobile phone if possible.

Gangadhar is working for a project in Japan for which he visits frequently. This was his 9^th visit. He stays in a hotel in Tokyo and travels to Shibuya or Shiki. Narasimham is working for the same project as I am now and he stays in Tokyo too. He travels to Shibuya and Shiki as per the requirement. Mine is a stable location in Higashimatsuyama, so I stay here and the plant is 5 minutes walk from my apartment.

Higashi is a quiet, small town some 50 km north of Tokyo. One can easily travel to Tokyo by taking a train in Tobu-Tojo line and buying a ticket for Ikebukuro(heart of Tokyo). Train is available every ten minutes from morning 7 till evening 11. It takes 40 minutes to reach Ikebukuro. As I have mentioned earlier, ticketing in Japan is mostly automatic through vending machines. I had learnt to buy the ticket (the hard way as you may recall). So I boarded the train at around 8.45 am from Higashi station. Train journey in Japan is itself a case study. Mobiles are very strictly prohibited for talking as it may inconvenience your fellow passenger. Trains are never late and the journey as quiet as a cave in the Himalayas. People either fiddle with their mobiles/ipods, read a book or the most common thing to do is sleep. It is so freaking silent; I could hear my body cells multiplying !

I just told you trains are never late. Well well, Sanjay factor comes into picture. This train passes from Kawagoye, Shiki to Ikebukuro. Just before Shiki there was a small earthquake. Earthquakes in Japan are as common as strikes in India. The train stopped, no one panics, all are in their positions. After a 2 second quake, everything is still. But the train starts after 25 minutes after making sure everything and everyone is ok. The travel is resumed.

I reached Tokyo at about 10.20 am. Then I walked to Gangadhar’s hotel. You just walk in Japan. Taxis can drain you wallet in no time. Gangadhar and Narasimham were eagerly waiting for me in the hotel lobby. Gangadhar had a plane to catch at 3.00 pm and had an airport bus at 11.00 am. So after seeing him off, Narasimham and I walked to his apartment in Ikebukuro. It's a good 25 minutes walk. On the way, he showed me a Pakistani grocery shop. I talked with Shehzad(the shop owner) in a typical north Indian slang and he was ecstatic. In his typical ‘Pathani’ accent, he offered us free Maaza(that was my main aim, beer would have been better) and helped me pick up some Indian spice.

Narsimham’s hospitality was awesome. He cooked lunch for us and meanwhile I called my family for the first time after reaching Japan from his smartphone. After a scrumptious meal, we rested for a while. He had all the information about Japan. His research was deep and facts correct. He had all the idea as how to get a prepaid connection in Japan without a hassle. So we took off to the shopping center near Ikebukuro station.

Tokyo is a very crowded city. Shopping streets on weekends are more crowded than ‘chor bazaar’ in Mohammed Ali road – Mumbai. Only difference being, its 100% safe.

Executives in street shouting their mobile plans, launch of Iphone 5 and other stuff.

It was a no brainer for us. As per Narasimham’s research, only one service provider issued prepaid connection to foreigners on availability of their residence card and passport – Softbank Mobile Company. We went to the counter, it took us a while as we had to fill form in English and everything was in Japanese. But I did get my connection.

Then we dispersed. I took my return train to Higashi. The train experience – the same without earthquake though.