Lost in Translation

On April 2, while the world leaders are gathered in London for the G20 summit, we touched down to rainy weather at Tokyo Narita Airport (成田空港). Long queues at the immigration counters later, we find ourselves on board the Narita Express heading towards Shinagawa (品川). Buying tickets are easy, but making sense of them is tough if you don't read Japanese. The following is my Narita Express ticket. Can you tell where is my destination, when the train leaves, and which car, row and seat number I reserved?

Arriving in Shinagawa, I helped a fellow foreigner (from France) find his way to the right train. We then bought new tickets, boarded the Yamanote Line (山手線) and arrived at Shibuya (渋谷) according to plan. From there, we had to rely on the kindness of strangers to guide us to the Shin-Minamiguchi (新南口 New South Exit) at Shibuya station. The path seemed so much easier from our maps when we planned the journey back home, but we should remember never to confuse the map with the territory.

We met up with our laison - Premium Agency's Motonobu Kawashima, at the station exit. Kawashima-san bought us lunch and brought us to look for and buy the LCD TVs that we will be needing for our training. Eventually, at Akihabara (秋葉原), we managed to buy 3 Mitsubishi LCD-19MX30 TV sets. They cost 52,800 yen (800 SGD) each, the cheapest 19-inch TVs with HDMI input we could find. The expense came directly out of our daily allowance (no claim possible) :(

We also bought our Suica cards, which function like store-valued Transit-link cards for taking Japanese subway, and they can also be used as a top-up cash cards for buying things at stores. We were all dead tired by the time we checked-in at the hotel in the afternoon. Our gratitudes to Kawashima-san for helping us out that day. 川島さん、本当にすみませんでした。

At our hotel, the Tokyu Stay Shibuya Shin-Minamiguchi, we rested til 7pm then went out for dinner at a nearby restaurant. I had a set meal of delicious Rose Cutlet for 690 yen (10 SGD) with free flow of rice :) A typical Japanese meal seems to cost between 580 yen (8.7 SGD) and 850 yen (12.8 SGD). Small wonder why Tokyo is considered the most expensive city in the world. Apparently in many Japanese restaurants, you would select meals and purchase tickets from a ticketing machine, and then hand the ticket to the staff before getting a seat.

After dinner, we took a short jalan jalan to familiarized ourselves with the neighborhood. The weather is cool, but strong winds will chill one to the bone. The famous Hachiko (ハチ公) dog statue didn't quite turn out quite as I expected, but still it is a good landmark for lovers to meet at the crowded town square. Shibuya by night seems to be as happening as it is during the day. I'm sure we'll explore more of this place in time.

Some funny things I found at the hotel:

And who would've figured the following complicated mechanical contraption as the shower knob?

Oops, it's 1am and I still haven't showered :P More later.