Tokyo

Our flight touched down at Narita airport at 1735 hours on a windy Friday with crosswinds certainly measuring close to 20m/s. As our first venture this far east was about to begin and a long flight of almost 10 hours about to end, we were eagerly waiting for the landing when gusts of crosswind engulfed the A380 aircraft and it swerved under the pressure. As I peered outside to see if LA could be spotted on the other side, we were brought to the ground with a thud and the human and machine struggled with nature to put things in order. Soon, we were walking out of the plane with a smile and overheard the crew remarking that it was a scary landing!

The first impressions of the airport was colorless but orderly and the long queue at immigration did move quickly. Walking to the luggage counter, we found to our surprise that they neatly stacked with the handles pointed up and the baggage tags facing us to enable easy identification. So thoughtful!

Our taxi driver, sent us a text message with pictures of vehicle, exit gates to be taken, pedestrian crossing and the number plate! Upon meeting him, we found that he did not know a word of English and realized that one does not need to be conversant in the language for effective communication. By this time, it was dark and we passed through the city streets simply absorbed by tall buildings illuminated by lights and passing through several bridges with tall sound barriers.

Dropped off at the Toshi Centre hotel, we found it to be business like and exceedingly compact and we had the first touch and feel of the hands free Japanese toilet. There was just enough room for the bed and movement in the room without brushing into each other was impossible. Our first experience first hand of the Japanese hands free WC was a pleasure with heated seats and an incredibly clean after effect! Getting out, we walked in the fresh evening air just getting a small feel of the city, for a bit as we planned to take off to Kyoto in the morning.

Walking towards Roppongi, an area bustling with people and throbbing with activity, amidst the glitter of lights and chatter of people loosening up for the upcoming weekend, we walked past a club called Tantra.

Walking inside the first thing we found was a dancing Nataraja! We did venture inside the premises for a quick drink. The tables were filled and the atmosphere was informal and friendly. Businessmen were unwinding and unzipping amidst the chorus girls. A couple of hostesses, trying to make eye contact finally settled down for some easy conversation and we watched the pole dancers performing. OCD seemed to be the order of the day, with every performer coming with her own wet wipe to literally and figuratively wipe the slate clean before her act. At the end of 3 dances, the OCD set in again and a chappie cleaned the floor and wiped the mirrors clean. All this while the rest of the audience continued to pursue their respective activities. This was indeed a novel experience.

Finally, as we stepped out, it was raining heavily and the club bouncers were kind enough to hail a cab for us and explain the destination for the return trip. The city was still settling down for a long night ahead but unfortunately, we could not partake it all.