Luck O'The Irish

2016 has been a year full of ups and downs. One of the high moment was a trip to Ireland. Thanks to my employer, I had the opportunity to visit Dublin, Ireland. Its a tiny little country but it has deep roots and hence there are more Irish outside of Ireland and chances are high that you already know someone Irish or someone of Irish descent. I hold the Irish in high regards, especially after reading this CNN article - http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/17/football/eurocup-irish-fans-trnd/. In the times where some fans across the globe behaved like hooligans, the Irish fans made the event memorable. Never the less, with this article being my only reference, my wife and I were very excited to go on a trip for 10 days to Ireland. It was a work cum pleasure trip as I had combined 2 weekends with a work week and a day off :)

A nice flight from San Jose to London with connection to Dublin.  Stop over at London was not convenient as we landed on terminal 5 and the connection to Aer Lingus was at terminal 2. Had to walk and then take bus and walk again followed by security and immigration at London. Took sometime but we managed to make our connection. We reached Dublin on a Friday evening roughly around 5:30pm. The taxi stand is very obvious and convenient. We took a taxi to our hotel Morrison in Dublin city center. I was looking forward to the tai ride as I was told that the Irish taxi drivers are fun and they strike conversations and make you feel comfortable. However our taxi driver was not Irish and he could not understand my accent. He would not talk to us at all and I was not even sure if he was taking us in the right direction. So the start to my trip was not the most comfortable. Finally we reached our hotel. It felt good to check in after a long trip. The hotel was right in the heart of city center by the Liffy river. The city feels like a mix of Amsterdam and Paris.

We went in for a stroll on O'Connell street on the first evening and grabbed dinner. Since we did not know our whereabouts we ended up eating pizza at La Pizza. *Do not* recommend it. We learnt our lesson on the first day itself to go in a bit more researched on the restaurants. Shortly after dinner jet lag kicked in and we had to retire for the day.

Next day was Saturday and I had intentionally left it open to spend time in Dublin City. We walked around the city center and our first stop was St Patrick's Cathedral. We have celebrated St Paddy's day for years in USA but this was the moment when we were at the source.

We spent sometime in and around the Cathedral. From the inside it is very similar to some of the other Cathedral's around Europe. Peaceful, artistic. This one though had some really old flags that we possibly used during the war time. We grabbed a nice meal at a hole in the wall place that interestingly served noodles. As usual being a vegetarian, I cannot do justice to local cuisine and hence have to pick places that server vegetarian food. We extended the stroll in the city center and soon reached temple bar area. This area is a tourist hotspot and a busy area. Lots of restaurants, bars, stores and people.

It was lively. Seemed like a fun place. Further along the way we reached the Trinity college of Dublin. It is one of the biggest colleges in Ireland. As passionate as I am about Liverpool, we walked up all the way to Woolshed Baa and Grill to catch the Liverpool game. On the way back we walked by the famous Ha'Penny bridge. Since Liverpool is very close to Dublin there are a few Liverpool fans around and hence they telecast most of the EPL games. It was a lot of fun. Reminded me of the Liverpool game in Amsterdam. Post game we strolled around Jarvis shopping center. It was a nice busy area with lots of shopping around. We walked a entire day in Dublin city and it was a lot of fun. Have never done this in any other city. It was time for dinner and again we had not researched on the restaurant. So it was a hail mary effort. Thankfully this time we stumbled on to the Arlington hotel. It might not be the best place to eat from food perspective but it turned out to be the best place where we could be at that night. Live Irish band performing some great music.

Every single soul in the restaurant was clapping and singing and having a great time. It is very unique of the Irish clapping during the songs and it adds on to the fun and ambience. Great fun. Great time. The food also did not seem as bad by the end of the meal. The Irish Coffee here is FANTASTIC. That sealed the long "walking" day.

It was Sunday morning and we had to wake up really early as I had booked a day tour to Belfast and Giant's Causeway for the two of us. These places are considered in the Northern Ireland and hence technically it is not Ireland. Northern Ireland is ruled by the UK where as the rest of the island is governed by Ireland. It was a cold chilly morning and we were on our way to the Upper O'Connell street where were had to assemble for the trip. It was about 10-15 min walk from the hotel. In the wee hours of the day, it was pretty chilly. We had layered up to stay warm. Soon we found our bus and were on our way to Northern Ireland. The bus driver played authentic Irish music all along the way. That tune still runs in my mind. Within 15 mins of drive we were into the famous green pastures of Ireland. Ireland is associated with the green color and after the 15 min of drive out of the city center, we understood the reason why. There is endless green land and it is beautiful. We stopped after an hour or so to grab some breakfast and most importantly to buy food and load up as the currency would change from Euro to Pounds as soon as we enter Northern Ireland. The change was subtle as there are no hard borders. But the changes in the flags was apparent. Most of the homes had a British flag in front of them. The roads had subtle changes too. From a solid yellow line, it changed to broken white line as soon as we entered Northern Ireland. Our first destination was Belfast where we had a choice between Titanic Museum or a Black Taxi ride of Belfast. My wife and I both unanimously agree on the Black Taxi ride. Belfast has a strong history and it is as recent as the late 90's. It was an active war zone untill the late 90's. The situation is tensed till date. The taxi ride would drive us through the troubled areas of Catholics and Protestants. Catholics favor the Irish and Protestants favor the British. Our first phase of the taxi ride was the Protestants side of the city. We saw the famous murals of Belfast.



It is the wall art that depicts the day to day life and says a lot about the real life situations. At the time of the war these murals were used to send out strong messages. There is a documentary on Netflix which does more justice than my write up. Recommend it to learn more about the recent history. The two communities within Belfast are divided by a 40 foot wall.

After the wall we entered through the gates into the catholic area. The difference was apparent. The homes looked different. The streets looked different. The wall art looked different. Interestingly enough there was a wall full of people  and their pictures who were murdered in this war. It was astonishing to know that these murders happened all along and as recent as some in 1998.
The taxi drivers were very passionate to describe the truth. The drove the taxis in a group of 3. One of the driver was a Catholic, the other was Protestant and the 3rd was a neutral. At each location the expert would provide his commentary. It was very enlightening and heart felt. A must do while in Ireland.
Soon after the taxi ride we drove further north to Giant's Causeway. Along the way we saw the castle of Grayjoy from the Game of Thrones. Shortly we reached the Giant's Causeway. It is an area along the coast of 40000 interlocking basalt columns created naturally due to a volcanic eruption. It is extremely pretty and unique. It has been declared a World Heritage Site. We spent about an hour and half there. The ride to Giant's Causeway is fabulous.

We had one more destination to explore before we would head back to the city center and that was the rope bridge. The bus drove us to the location where we had a bout 20 mins walk down to the location of the bridge that was made out of rope and wood connecting two cliffs with water underneath. It was windy and the bridge was moving.  Fair bit of adventure on the trip.

 
That was the end of a long trip to Northern Ireland. We grabbed a burrito bowl to go. A day well spent.

Following day was a Monday, Oct 31st, 2016 but luckily it was a bank holiday in Ireland and hence we lucked out. We decided to spend another day in the Dublin city itself. We saw the Dublin Castle. It represented a lot of art and history. It has a significant place in the history of Ireland as it was built by King John and as recent as 1922 was used for government by the UK. It reminded me of the Palace of Versailles. After the castle we walked further ahead to the Dublinia museum. Its the museum of Medieval era and the Vikings era. The Vikings had invaded Ireland and this museum gives a good history lesson on the same. Post Dublinia, we walked a lot to reach the famous Guinness  Storehouse. It is the home of Guinness beer and it is one of the element for which Ireland is famous for. Its beers. We took a tour of the Guinness storehouse where they went over how the beer is brewed. It is amazing to know the number of steps involved in making Guinness. It was a good experience to see the storehouse. After the brewery tour we made the long walk back to the temple bar area. It was buzzing as usual. Lots of light, color and buzz. Since it was a Halloween night it was even more special. Lot of people had come out on road. Dressed up for halloween it was a festive atmosphere. We ate pizza at Milano. Highly recommend and then stepped into Temple bar as well. They were playing some lovely Irish music. It was an experience to cherish. Visit the following links to listen to the music that I captured while at the trip. https://youtu.be/v_hzJ9-ZQUA
https://youtu.be/tovqWdZHC-w

https://youtu.be/v_hzJ9-ZQUA

Then came the working time. I met my teammates at work. All of them are great. In general Irish people are friendly and fun to hang out with. Had a good time with my team. Went out on one of the nights for team dinner. The restaurant was called the Winding Stairs. I have no idea what I was eating but I was told it is vegetarian. haha. Never the less it was a traditional Irish restaurant. The highlight was the dessert. It was some kind of Bread butter pudding. One cannot imagine it, you got to try it to believe how awesome it is. Days passed by and it was Friday already. Wrapped up the day with a dinner at Milano and Irish coffee at Arlington.

Following day was a long journey to the West Coast of Ireland. We started early and reached the bus stand by 7am. The destination was Cliff's of Moher and Galway. We drove through the lush green pastures for roughly 3+ hours listening to fantastic Irish music. It was a very scenic drive. Cliff's of Moher are the really huge cliff's that are about 700 ft. deep at the Atlantic Ocean. The weather was really cold due to the wind. It was difficult to walk in the wind but the scene was really beautiful. The cliff's ran for miles and it was a different feeling to see ocean at a few feet distance from 700ft height. Then we drove away to Galway. It is a nice little town on the west of Ireland. It has a very pretty town center. Lots of small shops and restaurants. It has an ancient look and feel which makes it very memorable. We had a nice traditional Irish Galway vegetable soup. It was delicious. We walked around the area for sometime and then boarded the bus to return back. It was another good day spent. We returned back and had dinner at a thai place followed by stroll at the temple bar area. We stepped in again to hear some music. This time it was rock music. The feel of the place was the same. Happy people, singing and clapping. Loved it.

It was time for the last day trip in Ireland. We made a relaxed trip to Wicklow and Glendalough. Our bus driver was really good and he drove us around the city for a while. He showed us the Victorian and Georgian architecture buildings. Very insightful. We also drove along the coast south of Dublin city. Probably it was a suburban area near Wicklow mountains. It looked very beautiful. In the land of green there was a distinct blue color of the ocean and bright sun shine. We reach the Wicklow mountains. This trip was not a destination but a jouney through the Wild Wicklow. The movie Braveheart was shot here. So if you remember the movie, it has a very very unique landscape. If feels as if you are on an extended flat mountain. Its hard to explain. Here is a picture. We took a break at one of the Irish restaurant. This was truly where I struggled as there was nothing vegetarian. The only good thing for me was that I could catch on a Liverpool game ! That was some experience. Somewhere in the wild in an Irish restaurant watching Liverpool play. Shortly after we moved on to Glendelough. It was pretty but for some reasons I could not enjoy as much. Probably it was too cold for me. Never the less we did see all of it. That was the end of the trip. We drove back to the city center. Grabbed a very good Mexican dinner at Cactus Jacks followed by the last moments at Temple bar. We walked back to the hotel with a heavy heart as it was our last evening.

The bags were packed and the taxi was ready early morning. It was time to go back home. We were on our way back to San Jose. Dublin and all of Ireland including the lovely people and the music left a strong impression on me. One of the memorable trips.

The Day I met Jurgen Klopp

Its been 18 years supporting Liverpool Football Club. Grew up watching Robbie Fowler, Steven Gerrard and many more great players of the past. Always aspired to see them in person. Meet them. See those splendid goals from the team and the players you support. Days have gone by and the players became legends. The kid in me still supports LFC. It still sings You'll Never Walk Alone nearly everyday. The team has changed. Players come and players go but the club still stands tall and I support it with all of my heart.

Then there was the day I met Jurgen Klopp. I saw the 2016/2017 squad. I am still awestruck and unable to believe that I saw the LFC players and the great Jurgen Klopp. Liverpool is touring USA for the 2016/17 pre-season and their home base for the tour was Palo Alto, California. The location is barely 20 mins drive from where I live. I was not aware of the schedule but thanks to my membership on the facebook group of LFC San Francisco Supporters club I saw a few fans had posted pictures that they took to welcome the team on July 21. A bunch of fellow supporters waited outside the hotel to welcome the team. It took me sometime to figure out which hotel are they staying but finally I got to know via some facebook messages. It was Four Seasons in Palo Alto. I was very tempted to see them and hence I left early from work to head to the hotel. I was hoping I could catch the players at the hotel lobby but unfortunately I could not find anyone. One of the LFC admin told me that the players have gone to San Francisco to visit Alcatraz. It was a little disappointing but there was also some more information on when I could get to meet the players.

It was July 22, and I I drove to Four Seasons early in the morning. I was there already by 7:15am. Wearing the red liverpool jersey and the red scarf, I was ready to meet my team. I was told that the players would head out to the Stanford training center at 8:00am. Hence the early start. I was the first one to arrive infront of the hotel. They had placed a fan waiting zone across the main door of the hotel. They expected the fans to visit the team and I was the first one on the day. One of the security guard gave me a thumbs up and indicated that I was standing at the right spot. Within 30 mins we were handful of us. All in Liverpool colors. Some had a football, some with jersey's, scarfs, banners etc. One of the security guards walked up to all of us and gave a message. I was hoping it would be a good one but unfortunately he said that the first sighting of the players would be around 9:45am. This was almost 2 hours out. We decided to wait it out. Thankfully we did. We had our first sighting at 8:45am. It was GOD who was standing out on the main door. Robbie Fowler.
I was over-excited to see him. HE walked out and was heading towards the parked bus. The fans called out his name several times to catch his attention. He saw us and walked towards us. He was kind enough to spend some time with the fans signing autographs. A lot of us took selfies with him as well. Shortly we saw Luis Garcia. The man who was instrumental in beating Chelsea in the 2005 Champions League campaign. It was a thrilling feeling. Also was amazed how short and thin was Luis. Did not expect that.

Then came the man of the hour, Jurgen Klopp, he came out to talk to some of the admin staff. The crowd was excited to see him and shouted his name multiple times to catch his attention. He waved at us and the moment was enough for some of us to feel accomplished. Klopp is a legendary manager with the kind of success he has seen with his previous club Borrusia Dortmund. Making a team with no stars and finding success defines Jurgen Klopp. He believes in building a team rather than buying stars. Which is why he is a real fan favorite. After a while he walks up to the fans, with his wide smile. You can tell how happy he was to see all of us greeting the team and him. He started off with kids first. He loves kids. He went all the way to the left of the fanzone and started signing autographs, shaking hands, interacting with the crowd and also gave us all a nice selfie each. I had mine too. Klopp is humble and humorous. My camera froze while taking a selfie. When it comes to stars you better be quick or they move on. I said sorry to him asked for a couple of seconds. All he said was "I am around take your time". It was very heart felt and shows that how he cares for the fans. Will never forget this moment.

Post his departure, the players started coming out of the hotel main door. We saw the England crew first, James Milner, Henderson, Lallana, Coutinho, Sturridge, Klavan and a few more. I got my selfies and autographs from each of them. I missed Milner as he stayed put at one corner and hopped on to the bus. Then we waited for 45 more mins to see the next set of players. This time we saw Firmino, Lovren, Markovic, Sadio Mane and more. Very exciting. They all greeted the fans and took some good pictures.

Finally we also got our group photo for the memory. Inspite of meeting so many players, the highlight and the memory goes to only one thing - The Day I met Jurgen Klopp. Hope he wins with Liverpool. GoodLuck to him and the team. Go 2016/2017.

Thin Walls

This is a real story of a friend named, Justin < fake name used to protect identity>. Life is a great teacher if you analyze your experiences. Every experience that you face in your day-to-day life teaches you something. Life taught Justin a very important lesson of life where the thin walls haunted him once again. What goes around does indeed come around.

Long time ago, Justin was bright young student, pursuing his studies at a reputed University in California. His light heartedness and jovial nature made him a very likeable figure. He had a lot of friends. This is one point at which I still argue with Justin. Were they friends or just acquaintances? After almost a decade I can say I am right, as Justin does not have many friends. While Justin was a liked figure there was a dark side of Justin that got exposed by the THIN WALLS of NATURE. At time he would badmouth people behind their back. He would make fun of them, tease them and unnecessarily speak badly about them. He did not wish ill for anybody but would indulge in disrespectful conversations and modern day gossip about certain individuals. One fine day Justin was studying in the library with some of his friends including me. As a group they decided to pick on a particular friend <Sam> who was not around. One of the other friends <Nick> gave a crank call to another acquaintance. They used rash words and the mocking laughter, which kind of made me uncomfortable, but I did not speak a word. I kept a face smile on my face and chose to do nothing about it. Nick finally hung up the phone. I thought it was over but Justin continued speaking badly and teasing Sam. This was totally unnecessary. It was a mockery and just gossips. About 10 minutes had passed when Nick realized that he forgot to cut the phone call and potentially Sam has heard the entire conversation. This is when Justin felt really uncomfortable. I could see the guilt and scare in his eyes. Never the less, we went home. Justin reached home late night. He tried to sleep but could not. At 2:30 AM he hears a knock on his door. He got a little scared to hear the knock at this hour. He peeped into the peep hole and saw Sam ! Justin told me at that time he had skipped a beat. He would have preferred a robber over Sam. Never the less, he opened the door and saw Sam with tears in his eyes. Justin tried to fake it and made small talk with Sam. “Hey what’s up Sam. What are you doing here at this hour. Do you need anything?” Sam had a smile on his face with tears in his eyes. The first thing Sam said was “Justin, brother I did not know that you had so many problems with me. Why did you not tell me earlier? I thought we were friends?” Justin was stung and shocked. He did not know what to say. Justin hugged Sam and all he could say was “Sorry Sam”. He apologized several times. Sat on the staircase with Sam. Gazing at the stars, he said “Sam I got carried away. Its not that I have problems with you. I spoke behind your back. Yes there are about 10% things, which I wish I would have told you in a clean manner but the 90% was just an extension of 10%. These words could have been avoided, as I did not mean them.” Sam was a good person. He smiled again and said, “Next time if you have any problems with me, just come straight up and talk to me before it gets too much”. He also jokingly taunted Justin to switch off his phone before dis-respecting and gossiping about anyone. The THIN WALL of cell phone taught a lesson to Justin. Justin learnt to be respectful to people and the importance of not indulging in talking behind the back. He shared this experience with me and I could feel the pain that Sam might have gone through. Sam and Justin are not in touch anymore. It is not due to this episode but its just that they were never friends and only acquaintances. While Justin learnt a lot from the experience he could not completely give up his bad habit.

The Thin Walls taught Justin a lesson again. A decade has passed by and my dear friend Justin shares another experience with me. Thin Walls haunted him again. This time he was on the receiving end. There are people around us who are our true well-wishers, but there are also people like how Justin was before. FAKE ! They put up a show in front of you but talk behind your back and disrespect you, judge you, gossip about you. Justin was in his office. He says they have solo rooms for phone meetings that go long. Justin hopped in to one of the solo rooms where he did not mean to attend a phone meeting but intended to wrap up his personal work. While he was in the room, he over heard his name 2-3 times. He started listening to a conversation happening on the other side of the wall between his colleague and his boss. They were bad mouthing Justin. Justin was shocked to here his name being taken multiple times. Words like “incompetent”, doubts on credit, jealousy and much more was very evident from the conversation. A lot of the comments being made were baseless as Justin says he had a very fitting reply to the conversation that was ongoing. Justin was in a very fragile state of mind and could not believe that his colleague, who wished him and greeted him everyday, would be the one who speaks such nasty words behind the back. Influences others and internalizes his thoughts and jealousy behind the back. Justin remembered what he had done to Sam. Even though Justin’s intent was harmless, this time he became a victim of his own medicine and the intent was vicious. The boss is a peer of Justin and is an insecure person who would get influenced easily. Justin has not yet confronted his colleague and his boss. Justin does not know if he should do what Sam did. At times Justin just wanted to walk up to his colleague and talk it out. Recently Justin came upto me for advice. My advice to Justin is to wait for an appropriate time and moment to share and honestly confess that you was exposed by the THIN WALLS. Its time to talk openly. My advice has also been to learn and grow from this experience. Now that he has been on both sides of the wall, he understands how it feels first hand. Never judge people too soon. His colleague made some baseless assumptions. He was not in Justin’s shoes and hence could not think or understand the decision process that Justin went through. Every person acts or reacts due to various circumstances. It is important to give one time and try to give them benefit of doubt. It is important to confront at a suitable time and talk it out to clean up the ill feeling.

Justin says that he is about to quit the company and its not due to this episode. There will be a good time to talk and confront about this before he leaves. I wish him good luck and I truly hope this time around he learns !!. Through Justin’s experience I have learnt to be respectful always, never gossip, never bad mouth and speak behind the back no matter how true you are, never judge too soon, always try to understand the rational behind the behavior. Humans are surrounded by Thin Walls. In an ideal world there would be no Walls at all. But such is life.

25 Habits

I stumbled across anarticle today that speaks about people who are Happy, Healthy and Successful. The title was catchy enough for me to read it. I read the 25 habits and really liked them. I certainly do not qualify for all the 25 of them. Hence there many more gaps to be filled to call myself, Happy, Healthy and Successful. I really liked the habits that have been spoken here. I have referred this article from the following website, mindbodygreen

Here are those 25 habits of people who are Happy, Healthy and Successful.

1. They don’t hold grudges.

2. They think outside of the box.

3. They go by a routine and make exercise a part of it. It takes practice to develop healthy habits and stick with them. Once you do, your internal foundation will be strong.

4. They have a supportive tribe, thereby not wasting time with negative or toxic people.

5. They don’t care about what other people think. Does a tiger lose sleep over the opinion of sheep?

6. They don’t people please.

7. They see difficult and challenging situations as opportunities for personal growth. 

8. They consider handling rejection a skill and are resilient.

9. They make time for themselves. Whether it’s getting eight hours of sleep every night, finding 15 minutes to read the newspaper in peace or an hour to go to the gym, they make it a priority — just like everything else. When you take care of yourself, you have a bigger impact on others.

10. They are spiritual. This doesn't necessarily mean religious. It could mean setting aside time for reflection through yoga or meditation.

11. They practice deep breathing.

12. They know there isn’t such a thing as “having it all,” and they’re happy about that. Wouldn’t the world be a boring place for them otherwise?

13. Fear doesn't hold them back. They're ready to take risks.

14. They know how to say “NO,” and don’t hold back. These people have learned to set boundaries. Plenty of them.

15. They learned a great deal from other people whom they admire. Either they had a great mentor, or they took note of how those they aspired to be like handled various situations.

16. They follow their inner guidance. Not only do they have a vision, but they follow it.

17. They give without expecting anything in return.

18. They aren't pretentious or conceited.

19. Passion is what drives them. They authentically believe in what they're doing.  

20. They don't complain.

21. They live by their core values in both their professional and personal lives.

22. They're happy to swim against the tide.

23. They finish what they start.

24. They don't compare themselves to other people.

25. They want you to succeed, too. 

Arigato Tokyo !

I felt like writing a post in a long time. Thanks to a wonderful experience I had while visiting Tokyo. I had to make a business trip to Japan from April 16-April 23, 2016. At first Had mixed feeling about it. I love traveling and this was a new destination for me but on the other hand, I did not have a very good experience on the food front while I was in China last year. I assumed that I will have a hard time finding vegetarian food in Tokyo as well. But it was too small of an issue to bother me. Made me excited as well as curious to visit Japan. #2 Economy in the world !!

I had returned back from my visit to the east coast only a day before my trip to Japan and it was already a hectic start. Lack of sleep, too much travel, lot of work but still exciting enough. It was the morning of April 16th. Called an Uber to San Francisco airport at 8:00AM. Regular checkin, security etc and I was ready to go, waiting at the gate for my 11:20 AM United flight to Narita. It was a good feeling to travel light. One backpack and small cabin bag sufficed me for the week. I was at the gate dreaming about how would Tokyo be. Was imagining the streets, trains, restaurants. The only impression I had of Tokyo was that it is a crowded city with extremely crowded trains :)

I had a nice little cheap economy ticket that reminded me that there is more work to be done in life to move to Business class :). Cramped up at the back of the plane with no individual entertainment system. How cool is that ! It was a 11 hour journey. The plane took off on time. Refreshments and food as usual but this time around my special vegetarian meal was really tasty. Food always makes me happy and good food make me even happier :) So had a really good start to the trip. The hours were long but finally we were an hour away from Narita airport. The weather started to go bad and there was a lot of turbulence. 30 mins to go and I felt like I am sitting in a ride at the amusement park. The plane just would not stabilize. Apparently the conditions were extremely windy out there. Finally we could see the airport strip but the plane was still wobbling left to right and back. I saw a lot of people praying for their lives. I found it hilarious but in reality it was really scary as the plane would tilt on one wing. So the first thought that crossed my mind was that the plane might land on one set of wheels and then fall over to the other set. That kind of creeped me out a bit but thankfully the pilot landed the plane. You know you have survived a difficult situation when all the passengers clap for the pilot after successful landing. It was a moment to remember. Touch down Narita !

Airport was easy to navigate, quick pitstop at the immigration counter and thankfully no bags to wait for, I was out in no time. I was instructed in detail by my colleagues on how to reach Tokyo from Narita airport. So I quickly got my currency exchanged, and followed the path to JR train line. The line to buy tickets was not so long but the processing per customer took a really long time. It was a little annoying. Never the less, goto the roundtrip ticket from Narita airport to Tokyo station and back. I was given a ticket for a train that leaves in 10 mins and had no clue where the train station was. I asked the lady if I would be able to make it to the train and in her sweet Japanese English accent she said "You have plenty of time". HAHA. I ran cause I was not sure if I had enough time. But she was right. It was easy to reach the platform. The train arrived and I got my seat. It was a really clean, good looking train. Very impressive. It was almost an hour long ride. The train passed by country side as shown in the picture below.

Soon the train arrives at Tokyo station. I was informed that it will arrives in the 3rd level underground. Hence I will have to come up 2 levels above. I had the map in mind hence started looking out for any signs pointing to Yaesu North gate or Nihombashi exit. It took me sometime but I managed to navigate the maze. I exited the Nihombashi gate. I saw the bus stand and also the Marunouchi Tower diagonally on the right. I knew I was in the right spot. Per the map I was supposed to walk towards the tower and beyond to reach my Pearl Hotel. It was an easy walk to the hotel.

I checked in to the hotel and my colleague Katsumi Sato (Sato-san) arrived at sharp 6pm as promised. I dropped my luggage in the room. I knew the rooms would be small in Tokyo but did not anticipate them to be really small. May be it was just my hotel. Cheap stuff ! Sato-san had arranged dinner at an Indian restaurant. It was very thoughtful of him. He said that he knew I would be tired after the long journey and I am a vegetarian hence Indian food would be the best option for the first night. We walked into a restaurant named Dakshin. It was primarily a south Indian restaurant but also served north Indian food. Sato-san had left his order on me. So I started off with masala dosa and vada :). He really liked it. Then for the main course, I got my vegetarian Uttapam and he really wanted to have Indian curry. Apparently Indian curry is famous in Japan. So I got him fish curry and Butter chicken. It was amazing to see how much he ate. He thanked me atleast 10 times for making him eat the curries. Had a good filling dinner. Never expected this out of Japan. My first meal in China was a bowl of boiled green peas :) Cant help but compare, this trip was on a roll. Sato-san explained me the agenda for the next day and we ended April 17.

I was jet-lagged as usual and woke up at 3:30AM. Sent a bunch of emails and tried to kill time untill morning. Got ready by 7:30 AM and went to the lobby for hotel breakfast. I got my first taste of food problems. The person could not understand that I am a vegetarian. He kept asking me fish or chicken and I tried explaining him that I am a vegetarian and cannot eat either of the two. At the end I think he got frustrated of me and sent me in to the restaurant. They offered me breakfast minus the main dish which I realized later on was fish or chicken. Never mind. I got some break, coffee and salad. And oh yes, very bad scramble eggs. I think I drank atleast 3 cups of coffee that day. I guess I have become American. Soon it was 8:50AM and Sato-san as usual was on time to pick me up from the hotel. We walked to our partner company where the first meeting was hosted. It was an internal meeting. I am very impressed with the way Japenese go about doing business. They explained me the agenda for the day and the rest of the week. Explained the customer situation per day. They also made me go over my content that I would be presenting to the customers so that they can acquire the knowledge ahead of time and can be more prepared infront of the customer. Sato-san bought me a Japanese green tea. We wrapped up the internal meeting by lunch time. Then came the million $ question. What will Viral-san eat ? !! They discussed among themselves for 10 mins in Japanese and final agreed on Thai food. We wanted on the streets of Tokyo. Very clean, neat. Everyone is walking around in suit and tie. You never know who is the CEO of the company vs an ordinary employee. Everyone is sharp and well dressed. I was wearing a suit too ! This must be 3rd or the 4th time in my life wearing a suit. I hate suits. Kind of uncomfortable but blended well with the locals. Walked  to the Thai restaurant. Sato-san spoke to them in Japanese and explained that I am a vegetarian who eats eggs and altered one of the dishes. It was something like pad thai. It looked delicious when it arrived and it indeed was very delicious. I ate all of it with chopsticks ! That was kind of new to me. I do eat with chopsticks but not a regular eater. But this trip I wanted to make sure I eat as much as possible with chopsticks.

Post lunch we departed to the customer site. Had to complete 3 more meetings. We hopped onto the train which looked like the one in the picture on the right. Very neat and clean. On the way from the train station to the customer location we came across nice cherry blossom trees. Cherry blossom was over 2 weeks ago but there was a little glimpse of light pink flowers.

The day quickly passed by. We wrapped up 3 meetings. Short travels by train and taxis. Most noticeable thing was the humbleness and the politeness of the people. Prior to every meeting, the customers and us would exchange business cards formally. Everyone would stand up and walk around the room to meet and greet and exchange the cards. A short introduction while exchanging the card. Interestingly you stayed bowed down throughout the brief moment of card exchange. That is the mark of respect for each other. I really liked that part of being humble and respectful. During the presentation, I would explain my slide and then Sato-san would translate it into Japanese. A one line english explanation would result into atleast 2-3 mins of Japanese translation. I wonder what was being translated. HAHA. Hopefully it all made sense. Atleast the customer looked more convinced after the translation. After the long day, Sato-san, Alick and I went for dinner. This time to the Italian restaurant. Sato-san was convinced that I will find something vegetarian at the Italian place. I noticed there were a lot of Italian places. Apparently, Spaghetti is almost like a noodle and a popular pasta in Japan. I ate some kind of vegetarian pasta as well. They had to specially make one for me. We ended April 18 after a nice meal. 

Next day Sato-san was ready with a rental car at sharp 7:50AM as we had to drive about 2 hours to the city of Yokosuka. He brought me the Japanese tea and we hit the road. It was impressive to see that there was not much traffic in a crowded city like Tokyo. All vehicles are eco friendly and hence there is near zero pollution. Very different from my home country India or China. The air is pure, clean, the surrounding is modern. Tall buildings, glass buildings, almost felt like the city was just built a year or two ago. It felt very new as it was spotless and ever shining. On the way to Yokosuka we crossed the scenic Rainbow bridge which is shown in the picture here. Very pretty site. 

Quickly we were out of Tokyo and onto the country side. We passed by the cities of Kawasaki and Yokohama. As a kid grown up in India, Kawasaki always meant a motorbike and Yokohama only meant car tires. It was good to pass by the actual cities in Japan. On the way there was beautiful country side with trees on both sides and a clean road passing by. We reached Yokosuka. Wrapped up the customer presentation. Same rituals of business card exchanges, bow down before and after the meetings. Great tradition. We returned back to Tokyo right after the meeting as we had to get back to the city for the next meeting in the afternoon. Sato-san returned the rental car at Tokyo station and we went for a late lunch. This time we experimented with Japanese cuisine. As usual they discussed for 10 mins on what will Viral-san eat :) Finally they suggested hot Japanese sobu noodles with fried tempura. I picked up my chopsticks and cleaned it all. It was different but good. My team was happy that they could find me something local to try. We wrapped up lunch and hopped on to the train for the next customer visit. Same drills and bows and presentation. By this time I think I started understanding Japanese or atleast interpreting human brain. I did not need Sato-san to translate the customer question back to English. I managed to interpret the question and answer. I felt good and they had a good laugh as well. We got back to Tokyo in our office. Time for some Japanese tea and then dinner. This time it was a Japanese-American fusion dinner. They had best of both worlds. Salads, Sushi's, french fries and more !! The unique thing about the restaurant was that we were required to remove our shoes before entering. The streets were nice and well lit at night. They looked as shown in the picture.

April 20 was an average day. We changed 2 trains to reach some remote suburb location. Ate spaghetti made presentations to the customer, travelled back long hours on the other side for another customer meet. Too much travel of local travel this day. The evening was good. We went for Indian cuisine again. I ate lots. Post dinner Sato-san toured me in most popular Ginza area. It is like the Champs-Elysse of Paris. In my opinion, much bigger, much better. We ended the April 20 after a stroll at Ginza.

 April 21 was the big day. It was time for our day trip to Osaka city. Sato-san met me at the hotel at 8:30 and we walked to the Tokyo station. It was time to board the super fast Shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka. I have been on Thalys from Paris to Amsterdam, also on the Chinese super fast but for some reasons I was more excited to ride Shinkansen. Our ride was 2:30 hrs at more than 300 kmph. I felt the thrust when the train picked up speed. It was a great experience. We reached Osaka city around lunch time. The local team was ready to pick us up at the Osaka station. As usual they had 10 min discussion on my food. Then we landed at a Japanese place. All meat items were replaced with vegetables. They missed the soup though. I tried the soup and found that it possibly had some meat sauce / oil. I left it alone and had the rest of the food. Some margin of error is acceptable. My team was really taking good care of me. Hats off to them. Osaka gave me a feeling of my hometown Mumbai. Rains, people walking with umbrellas, small stores on the way. We walked in rain for 15 mins to reach the customer location. Made a good presentation. The customer was happy. We then killed some time in a local cafe untill the next meeting which was also in Osaka. Wrapped up the second meeting and we headed back to the Shin-Osaka station for our ride back to Tokyo. We grabbed some packed food from the station itself and had a dinner in the train. It was a tiring day and we ended April 20 post arrival from Osaka.

The next day was the last day for customer visits. April 22. We met at the hotel and walked to the partners office for a short internal meeting. We walked to the Tokyo station for another long local commute. We we somewhere on the outskirts of Tokyo. Ended up in an Italian restaurant and I possibly had the best Spaghetti ever. I have never had such tasty pasta in US or for that matter India. Since I have not been to Italy, I assume they have the best. I have only US and India to compare. Really good food. Thats when I realized how much I have been eating and enjoying here in Tokyo. Food keeps me happy :) Post lunch we met the customers with Japanese tea breaks in between. We ended the last day of customer visits with some really good Thai food. Followed by a visit to Ginza. We walked around and took some pictures. Yes the first picture is myself with Alick and the next one is myself with THE SATO-SAN ! We became good friends over the course of the trip. Alick is a Chinese national and Sato-san ofcourse is Japanese. We spent a lot of time enjoying Ginza and also enjoyed some Japanese Karaoke. It was a memorable experience. Will be cherished.

 Final day April 23. I was really tired by then due to extensive travels and lack of sleep due to jet lag. It took me some effort to wake up. I had to pack up as the checkout time was 10:00AM. I managed to get ready, pack my stuff and check out by 10:30 AM. Dropped off my bags at the reception. I wanted to see the imperial palace with was around 25 mins walk from my hotel. So I walked to the palace. On my way I grabbed a coffee. I realized one strange thing about Tokyo on the last day was that there are no trash cans on the road. I wanted to trash my coffee can and could not do it. I had to unfortunately carry it all the way to the palace and bring it back. Finally found a can in a mall. Walked back to Tokyo station which was 5 mins walk from my hotel. Grabbed some lunch at the station. Post lunch, I went back to the hotel, picked up my bags and depart Tokyo on 1:03pm Narita express back to the airport. I was happy to go back home and meet my wife but at the same time, I knew I was going to miss Tokyo. It left an impression on me. I loved the city. I loved the people. I loved the food. I will get back to Tokyo someday. Inspite of not doing anything touristy, I feel I saw and felt a lot more of Tokyo doing local stuff. In my entire trip Imperial Palace was the only tourist destination I visited. I learnt a lot from Japanese culture. Especially Respect, being humble and being polite. Lastly I cannot forget and any amount of appreciation would be less for the effort put in by Sato-san and Yamada-san to take care of me throughout the trip. If it was not for them I would not have enjoyed the place as much. Arigato Sato-san & Yamada-san. Arigato Tokyo !

Here are some more pictures that I took along the way.