As I write, I'm sitting on the upper deck of a United Airlines 747 on my way back from Singapore. The flight so far has gone from Singapore to Narita (Tokyo) then on to LAX. Time starts to have no meaning after you've been sitting a plane for 18 hours or so. I promised pictures from Singapore... so far I have not had any time to post any (obviously). I have to admit that Singapore was a great city to visit and work in. I spent more money than is allowed, but am bringing back some great tailored suits, lots of gifts, and a new cell phone that will work everywhere that I will be traveling. If you are interested, look up the Nokia 6680. It's a great phone that you can't buy in the US. The US version, 6682 is a sad excuse for a phone that looks neat but won't work in Japan or about 1/2 of the rest of the world.
I guess I should get back to updating the team's progress... ala Amazing Race. After splitting into two factions for Thanksgiving, the end of November found our teams reuniting in Yokosuka for the start of a whirl-wind three weeks of fun, adventure, pain, stress, and much hard work. After a week of long days full of productive meetings, several nights searching for some real food in Japan, and more than my share of near accidents with Japanese on bikes, I headed to Tokyo. A guest star on our show, Danielle, had arranged for some of the team to spend a night at the Navy's hotel in Tokyo, the New Sanno Hotel. Compared to the New Yokosuka, the New Sanno is a four-star hotel! As you may notice, the Japanese are very fond of adjectives. They don't necessarily need to go with things, for example, an old hotel might get a face lift and be called the "New Yokosuka Hotel". Anyway, the hotel is pretty close to Roppongi. Best described by William Gibson as a part of Tokyo that was new 30 years ago. It now has the warn gritty feel of over-used, acid-washed concrete mixed with loud bars and crowds of people milling from place to place. As our small band of misfits (Danielle, Matt, Erin, and I) wandered the streets of Roppongi, we found a number of interesting bars and clubs with such unique names as "The Gaspanic Bar". We were also harassed by many of the local bar owners who would constantly beg us to come in. During our experience, one of our merry band (to be left unnamed) discovered the bizarre effects of a distilled beverage known as Absinth. I personally had heard of Absinth while in Prague. It has a long history of causing blindness and death in those that drink too much. Although it smells like licorice (or anise) it apparently tastes like a mixture of battery acid, sugar, and the carbon dust that comes out of some diesel engines. The effect takes a few minutes but gives the imbiber a feeling of euphoria and mellow happiness. For the next few hours, for them, everything was "cool".
I seem to have gotten out of the habit of keeping score while in Japan, so here's a new list:
- $6 bottles of water purchased in Roppongi: 4
- Number of times the absinth drinker said "cool": 42
- Japanese women with Jennifer Aniston haircuts: 17
- Strange Cuban men named Lazlo who accidentally showed us his butt: 1
- Pictures of above mentioned butt that Danielle took: 2
- Number of strange men on the street in Roppongi asking to "hug" Danielle: 2
The next day (actually later the same day... we got back to the hotel around 4:00a) Matt and I were headed to the airport where we met up with Neetu. We all flew to Singapore where the adventure continued. I think it took about three days to get the smell of Roppongi off my clothes.
The Singapore Team, as they will now be known, arrived into Changi Airport in Singapore at a few minutes before midnight. After wandering around cluelessly for about 20 minutes, they found the exit. Their task for the night was to find a cab and get to the Hilton as quickly as possible. Upon securing what looked to be a very old Toyota Crown taxi cab, the crew loaded their luggage into the trunk. As I may have mentioned, we don't travel light... fortunately, the driver had some bungee cords to secure the trunk lid.
More on Singapore in the next post....
Ahhh... the green glow of Absinth
