Monday, October 09, 2006
The Tokyo Chronicles: Getting into Japan
Relatively eventless flight..for me at least since my last 2 flights out of India had been delayed over 12-24 hrs. This one was on time and absolutely boring. There were a couple of other guys from my office I had never run into before. Still, it was reassuring since they had been in Japan before. At least, I woud'nt have to figure out a way to get to my hotel on my own...like that first time in Chicago.
Shopping in Singapore airport: well, it's more expensive than WalMart, that's for sure. The listed price on a Creative Vision W 30 GB was about 700 S$ which is about 440USD. The price of this product in US is about 399 USD!!
Also, they did'nt have the Shure E2c in any electronic shop in the entire airport. Sigh...
Landing in Narita was a nightmare because of the storm in Tokyo..it was one of the roughest landings I've had in the recent past. Mid-air is something totally else (was in a Delhi-Mumbai flight in Nov last year and got into turbulence because of air pockets over Jaipur. Literally lifted a foot off the seat. And then put my foot on the floor just as all the passengers were lifted about half a foot into the air! )
Got to the immigration counter and realised a little belatedly that all my documents were in my checked in baggage. This happened because we were allowed only 1 carry-on baggage at Bangalore. I was forced to pack in my laptop bag...and all the documents + visiting cards with it. So there I was smiling sheepishly at the lady in the visa counter who was looking at me incredulously. No invitation letter. No visiting card. No proof of employment documents. Luckily, I pointed to the other 2 guys from my office who were in the next 2 counters. That smoothed things a little. Also, I fished out my identity card and she broke into a smile. Phew! Of course, I got a strict admonishment to carry all documents on person. Lesson learnt.
The bus ride to the Westin Tokyo was interesting....I saw all these cars pass by and EVERY ONE of those cars had a GPS receiver. Hmm...some insight here...don't know what.
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Shopping in Singapore airport: well, it's more expensive than WalMart, that's for sure. The listed price on a Creative Vision W 30 GB was about 700 S$ which is about 440USD. The price of this product in US is about 399 USD!!
Also, they did'nt have the Shure E2c in any electronic shop in the entire airport. Sigh...
Landing in Narita was a nightmare because of the storm in Tokyo..it was one of the roughest landings I've had in the recent past. Mid-air is something totally else (was in a Delhi-Mumbai flight in Nov last year and got into turbulence because of air pockets over Jaipur. Literally lifted a foot off the seat. And then put my foot on the floor just as all the passengers were lifted about half a foot into the air! )
Got to the immigration counter and realised a little belatedly that all my documents were in my checked in baggage. This happened because we were allowed only 1 carry-on baggage at Bangalore. I was forced to pack in my laptop bag...and all the documents + visiting cards with it. So there I was smiling sheepishly at the lady in the visa counter who was looking at me incredulously. No invitation letter. No visiting card. No proof of employment documents. Luckily, I pointed to the other 2 guys from my office who were in the next 2 counters. That smoothed things a little. Also, I fished out my identity card and she broke into a smile. Phew! Of course, I got a strict admonishment to carry all documents on person. Lesson learnt.
The bus ride to the Westin Tokyo was interesting....I saw all these cars pass by and EVERY ONE of those cars had a GPS receiver. Hmm...some insight here...don't know what.
Labels: Tokyo
