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.
