during my last trip,

Airports are normally where most travelogues start and I didn't want that start, not to be different. Almost all my airport experiences are flash and fly - drop in 30 mins before departure, finish immigration and walk straight to the boarding gate and fly.

Whole of my time in the air was filled with anxiety about the hotel I was going to stay. This probably was the first time I had booked a hotel where I have never stayed before, just by looking at picture on the net. It was a risk worth taking I felt. Didn't feel like enjoying the free first class upgrade that I got. Just had a bottle of water and slipped into sleep with my iPOD singing my favourite songs.

This trip to Bangkok was at the end of a rough week, having to make a career choice. I am normally a person who trusts my judgement and listen to my heart in almost everything I do. Made up mind and signed what I thought was the best for me. I guess every travel, except for ones' made for work, has an excuse or a context and guess mine was to celebrate my new job.

I had no agenda for my 4 day trip, as all my leisure travel are, except the fact that I wanted to get some trousers stiched and look for some ideas to furnish the new house that I was getting into.

Having touched down, didn't have the patience to queue up for the normal taxi service. Went straight to a limousine, though the cost was almost 4x of a regular taxi just so that I can get to my hotel faster. When the taxi pulled up next to the hotel gate, I got down like a kid who just entered a zoo - looking up, down and around to validate my decision to stay. It was rather a very small entrance leading up to the front desk, welcome by thai women with an incredibly hospitality giving me a little hope about what I got into. It was rather a boutique service hotel with just 4 floors and the entire check-in was done manually. There were no elevators. My room was in the third floor. As luck would have it, mine was the last room on the hallway just so that my anxiety can be prolonged. The key to the room was a contradiciton to the check-in with a auto-sensor door where you flash the key in the key hole and the door opens. To my surprise, pleasantly, the room was small, well kept, lit ideally and painted handsomely. Call it anything, I am a clean freak and expect bathrooms to be of a particular standard. I have checked out of hotels in the past just because of barthroom. I held my breath and opened the bathroom door and had a sigh of relief and came back to the bed and sat down for a while to enjoy the wisdom of my decision. The hotel gave me an impression of a designer having to design a small botuique hotel with all cute things but finally having to compromise due to budget. Still, it was worth all the money, though not much.



The hotel had a DVD player and had lots of movies to rent. Mostly chic flicks and sci-fi crap. Two or three very good ones managed to sneak into the collection. It was extremely hot in Bangkok and I decided to stay in and watch a movie, take a nap before stepping out. Chose to see 'Good Will Hunting' - a film that made sense each time I watched, more so at the state of mind I was that day. The film was about priority, recongizing love and appreciating what you have now than what you don't. I felt the film could have adapted to any language for any culture. This could be and will be the only Ben Afflick associated flick I will ever enjoy.

Got out in the evening and saw the city through the prism of smoke. Looking at the cars and vans jammed up, you will be excused to think that oil prices are pre-historic. You could see a lot of motorists weaving through the traffic with their noses closed firmly, sacrificing at least 5 years of their life because of the thick pollution all around. Hardly any cycles around, understandably. I am always of the opinion that to cut down on dependency on oil - there can't be just one measure. Car pools, office buses and reduced parking lots per office will encourage less usage of cars. Use of technology to have meetings remotely. Increasing personal taxes for households with more than one car. All schools making school buses compulsory unless otherwise kids reach by cycle or through walking. Higher finance costs for funding cars. Increasing the toll. Increasing the parking costs. All these will go some distance to reduce the number of cars. All this while there is enough research happening to find an alternative fuel component that is low on carbon emission, cheap costs and scalable.

Its a common sight to spot a lot of couples, invariably a thai girl with a foreign man in the streets of Bangkok wandering towards bars and clubs. I went into a restaurant, taking the advice of the hotel concierge, that served wonderful southern thai cuisine. Spotted such couples inside of it as well and was curious to know that the waiters think about their country girls having to have dinners with strangers who kept changing each time they visited the restaurant. Not sure how I would ask him - so managed to ask him in a different way. Had to be careful with the choice of words, that he understands and doesn't misconstrue. I asked him what he thinks of single men coming to restaurants to eat like me. He said either I am a miser who doesn't want to spend or someone who doesn't know where to find a girl. There was no remorse of guilt in the way they felt. In a way, they are institutionalized to such thinking which was sad to know.

controversy that means peace

History is blotted with controversy and every nation that exists today has something that most people or some people dont agree with. Japan is not a stranger to them. The wars that it has been a part of over these years have left a few marks in doubt. Any war fought can be justified by all people who fight them. But the people who fight them cannot be judged for what they are fighting for - its more a national pride they are gaurding.

more sweeter than before....

I firmly believe one should know how to read, write your mother tongue. Those are the roots to which you belong. I have been away from my hometown for over 6 years now - the rarity of seeing Tamil anywhere in Tokyo makes it even sweeter than what it would seem back home. Of all places, I accidentaly saw this in a restaurant in Tokyo and didn't take my eyes of it for about 10 minutes. After I came to Tokyo - even the dumbest of tamil flicks appear to be classic, insipid songs become inspiring, silliest of jokes evokes great laughter. Am sure it feels the same way for all foreigners when they see a thread from their own fabric. These are words in appreciation of the language from a poet called Bharathiyar - one of the greatest poets ever to have lived.

check your mobile before you take the train...

Like in London, New York where taxi's and other forms of private transport can cost a fortune - public transport is the nerve that keeps people alive. Tokyo is not an exception. The train system in Tokyo is complex but incredibly well connected. There are numerous lines and different rail systems. In fact they have differnt train cards to access different rail routes. Upon public uproar, it has been merged to one card system for all routes.
Its rather impossible for people to remember lines and change overs unless its a regular route. Even for local commuters map or any such help becomes essential. Here is where you see the sophistication here in Japan - mobile phones (all operate on 3G) has access to software that helps you determine the passage once you key in the source and destination. within seconds, it gives you route, time, next train etc.
Downside is that the Japanese people tend to resort to these sophisticated methods by default without making an effort to think.

jan-ken-pon

In every country or culture, there are ways to narrow down choices with people for a specific team or to prove eligibility by chance. Inky-pinky... coin toss....many such forms are used to eliminate or choose opponents. For the first time I came across rock-paper-scissors here in japan in a train when two kids of less than 8 years old were playing - apparently this is widely popular (look for rock-paper-scissors in wiki). Normally, this is played between two people with 3 different possibilities:
rock v paper - paper wins as it can wrap the rock,
paper v scissors - scissors wins as it can cut the paper,
rock v scissors - rock wins as scissors cannot cut rock.
closed fist is rock.
spread fingers is paper
two fingers are scissors

must eat in tokyo!

This is one of my favourite restaurants in Tokyo. I normally go to the ebisu branch. the miyazaki chicken (smoked chicken) is their speciality. Its very near the ebisu station west exit. The website should have directions albeit in japanese.

freedom of expression

APRIL - its that time of the year where you see refreshing change in the moods of japanese people. its when spring takes over. It is as though the trees and the sun are ruled by the bitter winter and when they are let go - they express themselves for the world to know that they are free now. if only humans can express in such style and beauty - the world will be beautiful.

gateway to modern japanese architecture

tokyo tower - one of tokyo's landmarks stands tall in middle of its business district. its a stroll from my office. makes people look insignicant when you are in front of the tower. lunch in a restaurant right in front of the tower makes a perfect afternoon. in the night, its lit with themes - be it valentines, world aids day or even a tokyo bid to 2016 olympics. if you are in tokyo, you should visit the tower - its truly an amazing piece of japanese modern architecture.

taxis' and traffic lights'

am curious to see where tokyo would rank among top cities in the world if one were to count the number of traffic lights over a given perimeter, especially through residential areas. with almost 2/3rds of the working population prefer underground trains for commuting, this not an issue for them. add to the fact that taxis are awfully expensive here in tokyo. foreigners like me who prefer taxis for a shorter ride has to experience the stop/start of these taxis due caused by incessant traffic lights that bleeds your wallet. taxi drivers are not complaining. they wish they had more.

i don't live in a room!

if you are alone and living in japan, chances are that the place that you are living will be called a 'room', no matter what size it is and how many rooms there are. but if you live with your family, even if its a room, it would be called as a home. i did some scrounging on the japanese language so if the language and translation has something to do with this understanding and it did. in their language 'room' does mean a living place for single person and home is where a family live. but, i certainly dont live in a room.

rare sight in tokyo

i spent most of my life in a tropical country with just about one season all through the year - summer with flashes of rain. while the idea of snow was there, snow itself had to be in simulated domes or theme parks with artificial snow machines.
to see roads, trees, buildings, cars and bikes covered with snow on a sunday morning in tokyo was a sight to behold. cup of hot tea, listening to my favourite music looking outside the window - cant have a perfect sunday than this.
something about the white of the snow that amazes me. its purity. its serenity. its grains. beautiful. this pic does not do justice to the beauty - just as a bookmark to your imagination.

time took a break!

my train from tokyo took me to kyoto in a little over than two hours - a distance of 514km - its the bullet train. sure enough, its a bullet train. this was my first trip to kyoto. there was no shortage of people giving me their views on kyoto. you cant avoid having a sketch in your head before you set your foot there. hear say can do that to you, we even have a picture of moon.
i landed in kyoto on a bitter cold night with winds flapping violently. i didn't want to stay in a hotel in kyoto - so, scrouged the net to find a quirky accomodation - and i did. i made my way from the station to the temple where i was staying through local train. when i reached the temple, there was hardly any one to greet you but that's what i had expected. so, it was a perfect start to my kyoto trip. i was shown to my room by the caretaker in the temple. very well done up room with cozy bed and a clean toilet - this was always going to decide where i was going to stay. no tv. no room service. no phones. harldy any signal for my mobile devices. for once, i wanted to live without those peices of instruments which i felt was in control of me.
made my way to the main road to grab some dinner. surprisingly kyoto was easier to manage without japanese than tokyo. well, come to think of it, it wasn't a surprise since kyoto had learnt to live with more tourists that made them speak english.
went back to bed thinking about my next three days.
i dont want to make this a travel diary. what i really wanted to document was the beauty of kyoto and how it had to offer such great things in all 4 seasons. temples, palaces, streets, cafes - all had shades of history going back some 1000 years. and how its all preserved. i truly felt, time took a break. if time can, you should definitely do!

vend it!

technology in japan is more like an elastic, they stretch as far as it could be and still keep with in its expandable territory. vending machine technology is one such. there is no limit to what can be bought out of a vending machine. hot tea, cold tea, burgers, sandwiches, muffins, disposable rain coats, re-usable umbrella - this list can go on till dawn.
when you are on road in japan, you may not find a bin to litter but sure you would find a vending machine that could vend a surprise!

akira

Kurosawa Akira - I am not going to say anything more than what is already been said about him. Lengends like John Ford, Satyjit Ray, Ingmar Bergman, George Lucas considered Kurosawa to be the greatest ever to have weilded the camera.

Born on March 23, 1910 - youngest of 8 - he went through a difficult childhood. Charlie Chaplin like. Greatly influenced by the war and the great kanto earthquake - AK decided to write about these things that left people to believe he was a communist. He didn't know what he was, to say the truth. This blog entry is to show how AK was in love with Nature.

Nature played a great deal in his movies - the heavy rain in the opening scene of Rashomon, heavy rain again in the final battle in Seven Samurai, the intense heat in Stray Dog, the cold wind in Yojimbo, the snow in Ikiru, and the fog in Throne of Blood. AK also liked using frame wipes sometimes cleverly hidden by motion within the frame, as a transition device.

"I like unformed characters. This may be because, no matter how old I get, I am still unformed myself"

calming influence...

This a temple that you could see right out of the window from my office here in tokyo and the back of the temple leads to a graveyard. There are numerous tombstones in a small space. space management is something you can learn from Japanese constructions. This temple, for me, has in many ocassions has had a calming influence. 30-min session with myself after lunch on a spring afternoon - I wouldn;t trade anything for that.