Busy April weekends!

Whew, what a month this has been - non-stop activity, barely a second to catch my breath! We got back from Japan - an amazing but hectic, tiring vacation - and dived straight into a whirlwind! April is always special, 2 special birthdays - my mom and Ajey! This year even more so - Ajey hit the big 4-0 - but hold on, I'm getting ahead of myself, more on that in a little bit!

A day after we got back to Suzhou was the Shanghai Marathi Mandal's Gudhi Padwa celebrations. I usually steer clear of all these Marathi Mandals - too much politics and backbiting for my taste - but this program was too good to pass up on! Dilip Prabhawalkar, one of the greats of Marathi film and theatre, in person!! A 2 hour program followed by lunch at the Puxi Marriott. Mr. Prabhawalkar presented 'Chimanrao te Gandhi' - 'From Chimanrao to Gandhi' - a synopsis of his career bookended by the 2 characters he is most identified with. Both iconic roles - Chimanrao, warming the hearts of so many Maharashtrian families, and Gandhi, catapulting Mr. Prabhawalkar to national fame! A delightful couple of hours, as he shared anecdotes, and even acted out a few scenes - no props, no costumes, no makeup - but changing his personality through body language and accents! Simply amazing! Mr. Prabhawalkar also spent a day in Suzhou, and we had the opportunity to sit down to dinner with him - such a down-to-earth person, it almost felt like we were entertaining someone's favorite uncle rather than a famous celebrity!!

The biggest event of the month - well, not really an event, more of a landmark - Ajey's 40th!! After all the buildup, the day itself was kind of low-key. Started off with midnight ice cream cake from Coldstone, always a favorite!! Landmark birthday or no, Saturday mornings are always earmarked for Manasi's swimming - followed by rugby training! Rugby, where did that come from??!! Well, the annual Dulwich community rugby tournament was next weekend, and Ajey and Manasi had been both convinced to play - hence the much needed training! Predictably, watching from the sidelines, I was tempted to join in too - come on, it looked like so much fun - and before I knew it, I was officially part of the team!

Of course, Ajey was on the phone a lot - birthday wishes from friends and family pouring in - most mysterious was a call from a local florist - flower delivery for the birthday boy!! We didn't get home till 1pm, all the time wondering about the flowers - lucky for us the delivery person agreed to wait - and there it was, a big, beautiful bunch of roses sent by Ajey's parents! What a sweet gesture!! I love how roses smell, and as I walked in with the bouquet, I took a deep breath and inhaled the unmistakable aroma of - wait for it - cigarette smoke!!! Only in China!!! Quite a simple explanation, though - the delivery guy must have sat in his van with the roses, smoking like a chimney, waiting for us to get back - infusing the roses with the smoke!!!!

We were to have a dinner with our Suzhou friends, and they showed up at 6pm to pick us up - bearing with them an unique gift! A big box filled with 40 different kinds of beers - an awesome 40th birthday gift!! Dinner was at Amigos - our favorite Mexican restaurant in Suzhou! Sizzling fajitas and margaritas - the perfect combination! An evening to remember - thanks the H family and AM (SM, we missed you!) for sharing our special day and making it even more special!! To round of the evening, we headed over to Mahjong night with another group of friends - seems like it's been ages since I've played, I really miss playing regularly!! Sunday - another dinner - this time a farewell for DH - he'll be missed here in Suzhou, but I'm so glad he's going back to his family in Peoria!! Absolutely packed weekend - nothing like what I should have planned, but great fun, nevertheless!! Happy Birthday once more, Ajey!!

Hard to believe, but the next weekend was even crazier! The fun started on Friday night with Quiz Night at Dulwich!! Our team this time was fairly mixed - 2 Americans, 1 Brit, 1 Japanese and 2 Indians - win-win all around!!! The questions are simply all over the place though - some fairly straightforward, some a little more tricky! My favorite of the evening - In which body of water can the Islets of Langerhans be found?? Hmm, Scandinavian sounding name, maybe somewhere in Norway, Denmark - has to be somewhere North - Arctic Sea, Bering Sea...??? What do you think, any guesses?? If you named any sea anywhere in the world - you would be absolutely wrong!!! Islets of Langerhans are part of the pancreas in the human body - high school biology, anyone!! It's one of those - you know that you knew it after you hear the answer!! Fun, fun, fun!! Needless to say, we did not win - we were nowhere close - but it's all in the playing, right?!! Too bad we didn't take any pictures!!

As forecast, Rugby Day dawned bright and sunny - not!! It was overcast, and grey and raining incessantly - I was hoping that they would announce a rain day and postpone the tournament - what I didn't know, rain apparently makes rugby even more fun, so no postponements! The morning was the kids tournaments, a total of 12 teams - few from Suzhou, some from Shanghai and even Nanjing. I was slowly beginning to understand that this was a serious tournament, and not just some friendly games - just what exactly have I signed up for?!! Manasi's team did really well - in fact, they remained unbeaten and went on to win the Gold!! A lion's share of the credit must go to the boys on her team who have been playing rugby regularly for the last couple of years - but still, a gold medal is a gold medal, and winning is sweet!! Go, Manasi!!

As the morning progressed - no sign of the rain letting up - the teams for the afternoon games started arriving. Real rugby teams - with real uniforms and real rugby players!! Seriously, just the sight of them was enough to turn my knees to jelly!! The first team that we played was from Shanghai - and they simply steam-rolled us! We had no idea what hit us - all our training (rolling eyes) flew out the window!! Not a pretty sight!! The only consolation we had was that this team went on to win the whole thing - so losing 8-0 was really not bad!! It got better though - no, no, we didn't win, that would have required a miracle - we just lost better! From 8-0, to 4-0, to 2-0 and then finally 2-1!! The grass was slippery from all the rain - the men all wore cleats, but us women with our sneakers kept sliding all over the place! Couple of nasty tumbles, but luckily no serious injuries!! To my surprise, I had a wonderful time - rain and all! Strange as it may sound, there's nothing like losing dismally to build team spirit and camaraderie!!

That's the weekends - but I should have had more than enough time to finish my Japan blogs, you would think! Well, I started a new project - any new project, I kind of go a little crazy in the beginning, spending every possible waking minute on it - and this one has been no exception! This blanket wasn't really planned, but I stumbled across this gorgeous design on a blog - and when a trip to Wuxi flea market was planned with my friends, why, it was almost like the universe wanted me to make my own rainbow blanket!! 100 rmb and 12 yarn colors later, I'm well on my way! Most of my other projects are in sober, muted colors - ok, ok, maybe even a bit boring - this explosion of color is a little hard to handle. Also, I've been obsessing about color combinations a bit too much - I'm sure a little randomness wouldn't hurt - but it's so hard to give up control!! Here's a picture of the progress so far...

And the other thing that has been consuming me? Yes, a new series of books - after all the hoopla surrounding the new season of Game of Thrones, I picked up the first book in the series from the library. Instant addiction. The series is called 'Song of Fire and Ice', and 'Game of Thrones' is actually the first book - I've gone through the first 4 in record time, and am almost done with the 5th - eagerly awaiting the release of the last two!! I'm utterly spell bound - it's been a long, long time since I've lost myself so completely in a book!! I'm almost sure I'll get around to posting my thoughts on the series sometime soon - so watch for it on 'Have blog, will write'!

So now that I'm almost done with 'Dance of Dragons' and my initial new project fervour has settled down into a more steady rhythm, I'm going to finish up my Japan blogs - quite a few stories left to be told! The month of May promises to be as exciting as April was, so lot more updates coming your way! Stay tuned!

Universal Studios, Osaka

Universal Studios

Right from Day 1 - since we started planning for Japan - Universal Studios was firmly on the list!! Ajey and I had been to the one in LA many, many years ago - but he really wanted to take Manasi, she's old enough to go on all the rides now! As for me, I was so glad to have dodged the Tokyo Disney bullet, that I would have agreed to anything! Besides, with my itinerary chock-a-block with all the things I wanted to see, I guess Ajey and Manasi deserved a day of fun! So Universal it was!!

Getting there wasn't a problem - remember our magic key, the JR Pass? Working out the logistics - from the Shin-Kobe station where we were staying, we could only get to the Shin-Osaka station. The Metro line for Universal was from Osaka station - so we walked from our hotel to the Sannomiya station and then took a JR train to Osaka, and then the Metro to Universal. Of course, we could have saved ourselves the walk, gone to Shin-Osaka, then a train to Osaka and then Universal - which is what we ended up doing on the way back! That morning, however, we still hadn't discovered how awesome the train network really was!

It was a Monday - so we weren't too worried about the crowds. Although, when we bought our tickets, the FastPasses were all sold out - that should have been enough to warn us!! The biggest attraction was the Amazing Spiderman ride - we figured we should get that one off the list, before exploring the rest of the park. The boards outside said the waiting time was 2 hours - but all the other rides we had passed also had similar waiting times - so we decided to go for it. And then we were in line...waiting, waiting, waiting.... oh, look, we're entering the building now....and then back to the waiting!!! 4 hours - I kid you not - 4 hours we stood in line for this 'Amazing' ride!!

Amazing Spiderman....

...even more amazing was the line!

It wasn't too bad when the line was outdoors - but once inside the building, it had been decorated to look the Daily Mail offices - which meant narrow stifling corridors winding through and TV screens with snippets of the Spiderman cartoons - too bad they were in Japanese! As if the wait wasn't bad enough, the corridors really got to me - at one point, we were single file, no windows and low ceilings - deep breaths, push that claustrophobia down!! Seriously, someone needs to check the fire codes for this building!! Was the ride finally worth it?? Well, yes and no - it really was awesome, the effects are amazing (cliche, much?) - the best part is the freefall from a New York skyscraper at the end, with Spidey's web to the rescue at the last minute - but I kept thinking, 4 hours, I waited 4 hours for this??!!

Just 1 ride in, and we were all kind of exhausted! At this rate, we would be lucky to even get couple more rides done before closing time! It did get a little better - we didn't have to wait more than 90 minutes for any other ride! And surprisingly, we checked off most of the ones we wanted to go on!! The best ones, of course, are the 4D - Terminator and Shrek were the next on the list after Spiderman! Seriously, how awesome would it be to watch full length movies in 4D? Amazing what can be done with puffs of air, water droplets and moving seats! Those spiders scurrying along the floor in Shrek? - even I pulled my feet up for a second!!

The Jaws ride is more for laughs, and so is Backdraft - although, Manasi was a bit scared by the pyrotechnics! I begged off Jurassic Park - 15 years later, I still remember getting drenched, and then having to walk around in wet jeans for the rest of the day - instead I enjoyed a nice quiet hour with a cup of coffee and a book, while Ajey took Manasi to see the giant T-Rex before plunging 30m down a water slide! Shivers!! Of course, we skipped the whole Snoopy-Hello Kitty-Sesame Street part of the park!! The evening ended with the Magical Starlight Parade - in my opinion, this is easily the best part of the day! The floats are really so magical, fun for kids and adults alike!!

 In a million years, I would have never imagined I would go to Universal Studios in Japan!! Seriously, I could go to Universal Studios any time - no reason to add that to Japan! Also, most of the shows are in Japanese - of course, we've seen all the movies, and we don't really need to understand the dialogue, but still - it would be nice to know what the entire room is laughing at!! And a strange thing - there didn't seem to be too many tourists around - most of the crowd was Japanese, no Caucasian faces, no SE Asians (apart from us, of course)! The food turned out to be another surprise - for the last 4 days, we had managed to eat like kings - so it was a bit of damper to be faced with a choice of hot dogs, hamburgers or pepperoni pizza!!

To be honest, I would have preferred spending the day actually in Osaka - but Manasi was so happy, that it made up for missing the sights of Osaka! Another sign our little girl is growing up - an entire day at Universal Studios, and she did not ask to buy a single souvenir! The last couple of times at Disney were a nightmare - with her asking for anything and everything that she could see, and then pitching a fit when she didn't get it! This time it was all about the rides - and that made Mom and Dad really, really happy! So, not a bad day at all!! Now if only I can find the time to squeeze in a visit to Osaka Castle...oh well, another one for the 'Next-time' list!!

Shinkansen to Kobe...

Shinkansen

High speed trains - G trains in China, TGV in France - almost a been there, done that feel for us! The shinkansen, however is special - it is after all, the pioneer in this field, and right up to 2011, Japan's shinkansen network boasted of the highest number of passengers annually! What happened in 2011 - why, China caught up, of course! We have all heard about how punctual these trains are, and how comfortable - what strikes me as the most incredible is the shinkansen's safety records - 50 years of service, 2 derailments (one due to an earthquake, one due to a blizzard) and zero passenger fatalities! Yes, that's right - zero fatalities! I'll take these stats over air travel any day!!

Of course, this paragon of virtue does not come cheap! Good news for tourists, though - the Japan Rail Pass, which can only be bought outside of Japan, and is available in 7 day, 14 day and 21 day durations - an absolute must-have to travel in Japan! With our vouchers in hand, we headed to Tokyo Station - the rest of the process was easy as pie! The JR office has a separate counter to redeem JR Passes, and after looking at our passports, the very nice JR agent handed us our key to the magical kingdom of train travel in Japan! At this point, I still wasn't completely convinced about the benefit of the JR Pass, but over the next few days, as we blithely flitted to different cities - well, it truly is the key to train travel in Japan!!

Waiting on the platform for our train to Kobe - seriously, I had never thought that the words 'railway platform' and 'quiet' could ever go together - but like in the other places we had been to, the noise level was at a minimum. The train arrived, the cleaning crew got in before we could board - again very efficient - really delightful was the discovery that all the seats were on pivots and could be turned to face the direction of the travel!! My mom would especially love this here - she always hates to sit with her back to the engine in Indian trains!! Takes about 3 hours to get to Kobe from Tokyo - and the landscape didn't vary much! Buildings, buildings and then some more buildings! I wonder how they keep track of city limits?!! Mount Fuji eluded us once again - the day was rainy and overcast - I guess I just have to put that on my list for 'next time'!!

View from our room

In Kobe, our hotel, ANA Crowne Plaza, was located right across from the Shin-Kobe station - couldn't be any more convenient!! Surprisingly, here too, we had to wait an inordinately long time for our room - what is with these hotels?!! In the end, we did get a get a room with a gorgeous view of the Osaka Bay - and the hotel staff were genuinely sorry for the delay!! After freshening up, we set out to explore Kobe - and we had our very own 'personal guide' to show us around! A really good friend of ours, AD - we go way back, right to our first years in Peoria - was in Kobe on a business trip, at the same time, in the same hotel! Well, AD and his family lived in Kobe for 5 years while we were in France -  and this is almost a second home to him! He graciously showed us the 'sights' - and we were able to get a local's view of Kobe that no tourist guide would have been able to provide! As much as I love and depend on wikitravel.org, it does have its limitations!

We took the Metro to a place called Harborland - a mall with awesome views of the Kobe Tower and Kobe Maritime Museum, and then we made our way back to the hotel on foot. After getting in our typical tourist photos with the Kobe Tower - the 'no-going-up-towers' rule is still in effect - and the Maritime Museum was closed for the day, so moving on! There's another museum here - more of a memorial, actually - 1996, the Great Hanshin earthquake, magnitude 7.3. Kobe was the worst hit, a large number of its ports destroyed, a section of the elevated Hanshin expressway literally toppled over. The memorial has actually preserved some of the original damage to the port - horrifying to see the concrete blocks sheared away, lampposts twisted, and metal railings completely bent out of shape - even more horrifying to imagine this devastation multiplied a hundred-fold! The outdoor exhibit also displays images taken right after the earthquake - that Hanshin expressway just lying on its side, as easily overturned as a child's Lego bridge - seriously unbelievable! Even more unbelievable - the amazing spirit of the Japanese - in just a few years, they have completely restored and rebuilt the city! Absolute respect!!

Kobe Tower

View of Harborland from Kobe Tower

Earthquake memorial

Earthquake memorial

Sannomiya - our last stop on the Kobe Walk - is kind of like the heart of the city, the most happening, in place in Kobe! Tons of restauarnts, bars and nightclubs - all kinds of fun to be had here! Our dinner options ranged from the famous Kobe beef (yeah, right!) to sushi - and of course, we ending up eating at an Indian restaurant, Sona-Rupa! Yes, we're totally predictable when it comes to food!! Back at the hotel - AD was not only in the same hotel, but on the same floor as us - and was a big help in planning for the next few days. Kobe was going to be our base - and we got plenty of advice on what to do, where to go! Tomorrow - by popular demand - Universal Studios, Osaka! Coming up soon...

Konichiwa, Tokyo! - Part II

Spring in Japan is not to be missed - the cherry blossoms are of course the biggest draw! The blossoming of the sakura is monitored closely and newspapers report the best places for viewing every day! A picnic under these beautiful trees is a must for the Japanese people every spring! The sakura hold an important place in Japanese culture - the intensely beautiful blossoms, and the short-lived flowering period - a celebration of the ephemeral, transient nature of life!

There are a number of great places to view sakura in Tokyo - to be honest, the entire city is covered with these cherry trees - the distinctive white flowers are kind of hard to miss - but to get the full impact, a visit to one of the many parks is a must! Our concierge recommended going to the Yasukuni Shrine, and then walking over to the Imperial Palace - so that's where we headed! This Shinto shrine seems innocuous enough, but has been the center of controversy a number of times - it is dedicated to those who lost their lives in service of Japan, unfortunately, these include some war criminals from WWII! One curious thing I noticed - after paying their respects at the altar, people would step back and clap their hands a couple of times - maybe similar to the ringing bells in  our Hindu temples?

Yasukuni Shrine

Admiring the cherry blossoms, we started walking in the general direction of the Imperial Palace - actually we didn't know it, but we were walking in the outer gardens of the Palace! This area is home to embassies and consulates of a number of countries - including India - it was a pleasant surprise to the 'Incredible India' posters and of course, the Indian flag! A very picturesque walk - a wide canal lined with cherry blossoms on either bank. Have I mentioned how quiet the Japanese are? There were so many people out to admire the sakura, but there were no raised voices, no hustle-bustle, no pushing or shoving and absolutely no littering! Very serene, very soothing - almost soporific! We must have walked for over an hour here - by the time we finally reached the entrance to the Imperial Palace, we had had our fill - both of the cherry blossoms and the walking! Besides, I had also promised Manasi that we would go souvenir shopping, and a 10 year old's patience with sight-seeing can only go so far - so no Imperial Palace! In any case, the sakura were heavenly - take a look at the pictures!

I did go a little crazy with the pictures!! Since we had walked so much yesterday, today was planned to be a little easier - Senso-ji Temple, and then we were done! On the way there, we accidentally missed our stop - and got off instead at the entrance of the Tokyo Skytree Mall. It seemed a shame to just walk away - so decided to explore a bit. This was a pretty cool mall - had both an aquarium and a planetarium - what really delighted Ajey was the World Beer Museum! This place, literally, sold beers from all over the world - they even had a world map showing where all the beers came from! We would have liked to watch a show in the planetarium - too bad they were all in Japanese!! We were almost ready to leave, when again by accident (got on the Up elevator instead of Down) we found ourselves on the 8th floor roof garden - and an absolutely incredible view of Tokyo Skytree Tower!!! This going-with-the-flow thing seems to be working better than my detailed itinerary!!

Tokyo Skytree

Senso-ji Temple is one of the oldest and most significant Buddhist shrines in Tokyo. Between the giant outer gate - "Thunder Gate"- and the inner temple gates is the Nakamise-dori, almost as famous as the temple itself! Nakamise-dori is lined with stalls with all kinds of souvenirs and of course, food! From kimonos to scarves, Japanese dolls to Hello Kitty merchandise, fake samurai swords to umbrellas, magnets to key chains - every possible Japan souvenir can be found here! Truly, the best place to get all the shopping done!! Unlike China, there's no bargaining - and what a relief that was! We did not go inside the temple, instead spent a few quite moments in a nice little pavilion in the courtyard - again very peaceful, very serene!

"Thunder Gate"

Nakamise-dori

Senso-ji

That was our 2 days in Tokyo - what I saw, I liked! Yes, it's another big city - but it has little pockets of peace, and it is charming in it's own quiet way. Time to move on, though, to our next city in Japan - Kobe! Coming up soon!

Konichiwa, Tokyo! - Part I

The visas did come in on time - sigh of relief - Japan, here we come! A last minute crisis with the washing machine almost derailed my packing - but finally, Thursday morning, we left right on time to get to the Pudong airport. This Spring Airlines was going to be interesting - we had booked our tickets sight unseen, only because of the great deals - I have to admit there was some anxiety! In the end, it wasn't bad at all - the plane was fairly new, the stewardesses very pleasant...yes, the seats didn't recline, but it wasn't really that uncomfortable! They are quite strict about the luggage allowance - 15kg total per person - incentive to pack smart! Beginning of this vacation, and I'm already wondering where else Spring Air flies to!

The only drawback in flying Spring to Tokyo is that the flight lands in Ibaraki airport - about a 90 minute bus ride away from Tokyo. The airport itself is pretty well organized - although, the customs and immigration process was slow, slow, slow! - almost seemed like we were going to miss our bus! And of course, it took much, much longer than 90 minutes - once we reached the outskirts of the Tokyo, the traffic was so bad, we were crawling along at a snail's pace! No surprise the Metro system is so good!

We finally staggered into our hotel at 6pm - almost 12 hours after we left Suzhou - only to run into something totally unexpected! Our hotel - Intercontinental, Tokyo, mind you - didn't have a room available for us. Oh by the way, they had already charged us 3 nights stay for this absent hotel room - details, details! When they finally figured out a room for us, it was on a smoking floor - 5 minutes inside, and all 3 of us had raging headaches! So back to the reservations desk again! After another longish wait - a 'higher up' stepped out to talk to us - he wasn't exactly rude, but there was a glimmer of something not nice - it was either the smoking room, or another room that didn't have the bed preferences we had asked for. And no, they wouldn't refund our money - so we could pick one of the rooms, or else! Not cool, Intercontinental, was expecting much better! Later that night, we found an Indian restaurant right around the corner - amazing what butter naan and chicken tikka can do for drooping spirits!!

After the Burj Khalifa, Ajey and I have a deal about not going to any more towers - so instead, the next morning, we walked to Roppongi Hills. A mall,with an observation deck with views of Tokyo city, and sometimes even of Mount Fuji (weather permitting)! Roppongi was quite impressive - tons of restaurants - a very urban, upscale neighborhood. After a not-so-quick lunch at TGIF, we made it to the observation deck. No Mount Fuji - was much too hazy - but did get to see Tokyo Tower, and the Rainbow Bridge in the distance. Our ticket included the entrance to what was possibly the weirdest museum I have ever seen! Seriously, a Lexus car lit up with strobe lights, a room filled with lighted balloons - most exhibits were totally baffling! We could have also gone to the Mori Museum of Art - but philistines that we are, we chose to pass - heading to the Metro station for the next destination on itinerary (remember the itinerary?!)

Roppongi crossing

View of Tokyo Tower from Roppongi Hills

Japan has always known to be really technologically advanced - so a visit to Electric City in Tokyo is a must! Like any big Asian City, the underground Metro system is highly developed - complex yet very convenient. Unlike other cities we have explored, the Tokyo Metro was quite pricey - in Beijing, for 2 RMB, you can do unlimited exchanges, however, in Tokyo, we paid between $2 and $5!! There are daily passes, and in hindsight, we should have just bought a 2 day pass - but we weren't really expecting to travel that much by Metro! Anyway, Electric City - wasn't just a building like I had thought - rather a main street and a network of side streets with all kinds of electronic items for sale. With a vague idea of looking for a new phone for Ajey, we wandered into a few of these stores - but the prices didn't really seem to be any different form anywhere else. So we walked, and walked some more, and then a little further - so far the day was not turning out as we planned!! Coming up next - Shibuya!

Electric City

The Shibuya crossing - the Times Square of Tokyo - is known as the world's largest pedestrian crossing. More interestingly, the Shibuya station is also home to the statue of Hachiko - the Akita made famous by the movie 'Hachi - A Dog's Tale'. I've yet to see a movie about a dog which doesn't leave me sobbing - Manasi and I watched Hachiko together, and the film absolutely broke our hearts! So we eagerly stepped out of the Hachiko exit at Shibuya station - all we could see was a large mural depicting Akitas. Where's the statue? Maybe on the other side of the square? We walked over to the crossing - and I don't know about Times Square, but the sheer number of pedestrians was mind-boggling! We crossed back and forth a few times - all the time keeping an eye out for Hachiko - but no luck! Finally gave up - Manasi was crushed - she had been looking forward to this all day! She was so disappointed that we decided to go back for one more look - and there he was, partially hidden by the buses parked around the station - Hachiko in all his glory!!

Shibuya crossing

Mural outside Hachiko exit

Finally - Hachiko!

First day in Tokyo - and we had walked our feet off!! The Metro is really convenient, but what with walking between different platforms, and going up and down a million stairs - just getting from 1 place to another is completely exhausting! Technically speaking, the nearest Metro station from our hotel was a 5 minute walk away - well, the entrance to the station was 5 minutes away - once underground, we walked at least 15 minutes before we got to the actual station. Spent so much time underground - we were beginning to feel a bit like moles at the end of the day - surfacing for a few minutes, then diving back into the tunnels! Sure was glad to take a taxi back to the hotel after dinner - I don't think I would have made it back on the Metro!

As always, I'm rambled on a bit - and I have to finish our Tokyo travels in a second post! Part II coming up - don't go anywhere!!

Getting ready for Japan

I love to travel - love going to new places, exploring new destinations - but the planning part of any vacation is definitely not all fun and games! Of course, it would be easier to go to a travel agent, tell them where we want to go, give them the dates - and let them deal with all the drudgery! But after our Egypt vacation, which we booked through a reputed and highly recommended agency - no names here - let's just say that the whole experience was underwhelming, to say the least! So no more agencies - meaning that I get the dubious honor of planning all our vacations from A to Z! Of course, it's a lot of work, and I often occasionally make mistakes - but on the whole, it feels good to be in control!!

The biggest decision, inevitably, is the destination! While Ajey and Manasi would be more than happy to head to a beach resort and chill, I usually have more ambitious locations in mind. Like taking the Trans-Siberian railway from Beijing to Moscow, and if that weren't enough, the train actually goes through Mongolia  - I seriously can't think of anything cooler than that!!! My adventurous spirit is limited to urban locations though - any suggestion of roughing it or the dreaded 'camping out', and I'm in full retreat mode - Ajey, on the other hand, would find this kind of actual adventure exhilarating!! So there's the dilemma - finding the right balance between adventure and luxury - a little more than a beach vacation, a little less than a fullout jungle trek! What a tightrope to walk - it's a wonder that we manage to go anywhere at all!

Going to Japan, surprisingly, was a rare, unanimous decision for us! What we do when we get there is still the subject of furious debate, though - oh well, plenty of time to figure that out! Anyway, Japan - first thing, of course is plane tickets! We recently discovered a low-cost airline, Spring Air (thanks, JM!) - when they say low-cost, they mean it - the seats don't even recline! Still, it's only a 2 hour flight, and the prices are unbelievable!!! Shanghai to Tokyo - for about $100 - doesn't get better than this! Of course, they don't fly to Tokyo's Narita International Airport, rather the flight lands at Iberaki airport which is a 2 hour bus ride away from Tokyo - the low airfare trumps everything else, though! Another advantage of this airline - the price doesn't change if you book one-way or return - so we fly into Tokyo, but our return tickets are out of Osaka - love the flexibility!

A huge attraction in Japan is travelling by the world-famous bullet train, the shinkansen - and Tokyo to Osaka seems the perfect way to experience this! And God forbid we should have an inexpensive vacation - to balance out our low airfare, the train tickets are really expensive. We were advised to buy a 7 day rail pass - and this actually turned out to be more than our one-way plane tickets! Well, I guess the only way to get our money's worth would be to take a lot of trains!! The Japan Rail Pass is actually a great idea - just remember that the pass has to be bought before you actually go to Japan. Pay online, and the JR Pass company will FedEx the vouchers to you (anywhere in the world!) - the vouchers then have to be redeemed for the actual Rail Pass at a convenient (I hope!) location in Japan! Couple of anxious days while I waited for the vouchers - even though I buy so much stuff online, I'm still not entirely comfortable with it - what a relief when they arrived, along with a very handy booklet with all train schedules and all locations of JR offices! Whew, one more thing checked off!

Next on the list - hotels! Manasi, of course, being of the new entitled generation thinks even a Marriott is a 'regular' hotel - she knows nothing of the economy hotels (Motel 6, Super 8, Red Roof Inns - fond memories of travel on a shoestring budget!) - it takes nothing short of a luxury resort to impress her! To be honest, I, too, like staying at the bigger 'brand' hotels - no surprises, the service and food is always excellent! These days, we have been staying at Crowne Plaza whenever we travel - not been let down a single time yet - so that's what we ended up booking this time as well! I was a bit tempted to try the local Japanese ryokan hotels - but chickened out in the end! So - 3 cities, 3 different Crowne Plazas!

Doing great here - air tickets, check! Train pass, check! Hotels, check! Now for the biggest item on the list - the tourist visa! Manasi, courtesy of her US passport, can sashay in - but Ajey and I have to apply for yet another visa! For a change, we didn't have to go the Japanese Embassy in Shanghai - instead we filed our application in the Wuxi Citizen Center! Must say that this government office really, really impressed me - everything clean, shiny and organized! I was dying to take a picture - but didn't know if it was allowed or not! And I'll admit this, anytime we have anything to do with the Government here, I'm a little intimidated - better safe than sorry, is always my motto! Anyway, notwithstanding my weird paranoia - we handed in our paperwork, the application fee and our passports - everything seemed to be in order!

Except it wasn't - a couple of days ago, we get a phone call asking us for a detailed itinerary of our visit! Well, I've already handed in our flight itinerary and all our hotel reservations - how much more 'detailed' can you get? Much, much more - as in what we're doing every waking moment we spend in Japan! 'Detailed itinerary' - am I the only one who finds this more than a little strange?! Strange or not, that's what they wanted, and after a day of research - I did come up with a detailed itinerary to hand in! Sorry, Ajey and Manasi - we have an itinerary now, and like it or not, we're sticking to it!! This was 3 days ago - we're supposed to leave next week - record breaking levels of anxiety right now!! We have been assured that our passports will make it back in time - but until they do, I won't be breathing easy!!

Didn't I say planning a vacation is never easy? Touch wood, everything has always worked out for the best in the past! And after all the planning and anxiety, all our vacations have been so memorable - yes, even Egypt! So watch this space for updates about our visa - and of course, our vacation in Japan! Signing off!!

Visa, visa, visa...

Here we were, Ajey and I all set to drive to Shanghai tomorrow to apply for our tourist visa to Japan (yes, we're going to Japan during spring break - yay!) - stop by the embassy, drop off the application, then spend couple of hours doing lunch and some shopping - what could be more perfect?? Well, I thought it might be a good idea to actually take a look at the Japanese Embassy's website to confirm hours of business, documents needed, visa fees - all those pesky little details! And what do you know - the website is available only in Japanese or Chinese - no English!!! After struggling with Google Chrome for a few minutes (few minutes, couple of hours - whatever!), I hit on the solution - why don't I just call??? Good plan - except - should've seen this coming - the automated answering service? Only Japanese or Chinese!!!! No English!!!!

Lucky for me, I know a wonderful person who not only is Japanese, but also a good friend - one distress call from me, and several more calls later, MW was able to come up with the information that we didn't need to go upto Shanghai at all - we could hand in our application in Wuxi. Has to do something with our Chinese resident visa being based in Wuxi - I don't know, I'm just happy to find out before we drove all the way to Shanghai! Seriously, this had never come up in all the searches I did to get the visa information - must have been hidden in the fine print!! And yes, note to self - don't wait till the day before to look up visa information on the official website!! It was just a few months ago, when our Dubai visa application kept me up for a few nights - and now this! You would think that after applying for so many different visas, things would get easier - but no, each time is a new adventure!

For the last 15 years or so, it almost seems like I'm always in the process of applying for some visa or the other! The first ever, of course, was the F1 student visa to the US - this was the one that changed my life forever! It seems a bit silly now - but at that time, the hype and glamour surrounding this visa was indescribable! The queue outside the US Consulate in Mumbai - some people had actually slept on the pavement so they would be first in line - the small waiting room inside, the officer asking questions in a molasses thick American accent, the relief at being approved - and yes, the apprehension and the dawning knowledge that this was just the very beginning of a very long journey!! The H1 work visa followed the F1, as did the Permanent Resident Card or Green Card. Our relationship with the nice people from Immigration Services continues to date - not being US citizens we are required every so often to fill out a bunch of legal forms, not to forget the fingerprinting!! Oh well, the only way out of this is to become a naturalized citizen - but that would mean giving up my Indian passport - and that's not happening, for sure!!

Moving to France was a lot easier - with the new EU regulations, we could travel to most European countries with our EU resident card. We never did make it to the UK - the visa requirement was a big part of that!! And although we drove unfettered through most of continental Europe - ironically, my funniest visa story does come from our time in Europe! The summer before we left France, we decided to take a cruise to Greece - the perfect vacation to end our perfect years in France!! The itinerary included Italy, Greece, and surprisingly a day's halt in Croatia. Italy, Greece - both EU, no problem! Croatia - visa required for Indian citizens. After spending hours on the phone with travel agents and the cruise people, I was assured that I did not need a Croatian visa, as long as I agreed to stay on the ship for that one day! That seemed to be no hardship, so we went ahead with our reservations - our first cruise, exciting!!

Of course, in Venice as we tried to board the ship, we were told we couldn't get on without a Croatia visa. Deep breath - seriously, I need to somehow find a Croatian embassy and get a visa in the few hours before the ship depart??!! Oh no - no running around necessary - for the paltry sum of $200 each, we could get our passports stamped with the visa, right there on the dock! No paperwork, no waiting - visa on demand!! The whole thing reeked of a scheme to fleece unsuspecting, captive travellers like us! After all, what's the worse that we could do - our cruise was fully payed for, there was no way we were walking away!! Not to say that we gave in easily - we waited on the dock for better part of the day, with a line of senior officials coming ashore to mouth platitudes! The high point was when Ajey started to propel Manasi towards the entrance - she has a US passport, she should be able to get on the ship, and Manasi clinging to me for dear life, really thinking her dad was going to make her go by herself! Did I mention she was 3 at the time?!! At the end of the day, there was no option but to pay - the only consolation was that we made them work for every penny. And yes, we did spend a day in Croatia - after all this, wild horses couldn't have kept me away!!

I do understand the need to get visa, I really do - and I also understand bilateral relations between countries, and reciprocal visa agreements! But lot of times it feels like we're being penalized for holding Indian passports - we need visa for every single country we might want to visit, except maybe Nepal or Bhutan! These days, with our travel schedules - a good chunk of my time is spent in researching visa requirements of different places! At the very least, a standardized process for all countries would have made life much easier! And maybe, a frequent flier visa process could be initiated?? I will admit that sometimes I do envy my American friends who can visit most countries with just their passports - that would be so wonderful!

A parting anecdote - when we decide to move to India, I was ecstatic that for once, there would be no visa issues to deal with! Our house-hunting trip, we landed in Chennai at 3am and drove to Asiana hotel - exhausted, jet lagged! The clerk at the check-in desk kept fiddling with our passports, flipping through the pages randomly, comparing Manasi's US passport with ours - I finally lost patience, and asked him what he was looking for. He apologetically confessed that he needed to see our visas - yes, that's right, the one thing I thought I was getting away from!!! Ajey said later I over-reacted, and the poor man was just doing his job - but the word 'visa' acted like a red flag - I most emphatically stated that we had Indian passports, and as such, we were Indian citizens, free to come and go from our country as we wished, and that no-one better dare ask me for a visa here!! 'Emphatically stated' - who am I kidding - I was yelling a little, if a little actually means a lot. Not my finest hour, but in my defense, I was had been on a flight for over 15 hours, it was the middle of the night, I was tired and I just needed a room - right that very instant!!

To Wuxi tomorrow then - and hopefully, there will no glitches (fingers crossed)!! And maybe I'll even convince Ajey to go to Ikea after we're done...