Tuesday 6 November 07
Kumamoto
“Aaaaahhhhh… yes… yes… exactly here… no… please a little bit up around the neck… oooohhh, this is so nice”.
The deep massage kept going on relaxing every muscle in my back. This is the best massage I got in my life, and all my previous preservations about massage are not really founded.
I have always thought that getting massages from anyone other than an intimate partner is just pure awkward. The feeling of strange, professional hands touching me while I am naked in a vulnerable position was never something that appealed to me. Anyway, people have always thought that I am a bit weird about this and I never wanted to correct them.
But here I am, getting the most soothing massage that sucks away all my tension and tiredness after the days of training. I have just come out of the hot springs; I was wearing my kimono and getting this incredible treatment.
Oh, this is so heavenly that I think I can stay here for a real long time. But my massage is bound to end at one point and I will have to go back to real life.
But let me introduce you to my masseuse before you get too curious (and that applies especially to Rania). Her name is “Matsushita”. She is a beautiful massage chair that you will never find outside Japan and she will give you the massage of your life for 15 minutes only for 200 yen. A good deal, don’t you think? Another one of those things that gave us the feeling we are on another planet over the past few days.
As far as cultural shocks go, I think I have had my share… I ate muscles in Paris, had a fight with a bedwin in Amman, was held at gun point in Baghdad, had goat meat with spaghetti in Somalia, lived in a tent in Mozambique and crawled in a rain forest in Sumatra… And that is only to name a few… But this place is the only one that gave me the “out-of-earth” feeling I am having now.
It is not only the little things that one sees, not only the technologies - that are by the way beyond imagination. It is something really hard to pin down and name. What I didn’t know when I was sitting on my massage chair was that within an hour, I will get a lesson in Asian culture over a few beers, and from my new friends.
By 9:00pm, we were convened at the usual spot, the smokers’ corner. Alex and Hervé were there alongside Saito, Mamiko, the doctor with really big glasses, and Kim from the Korean Red Cross. Kim started this whole conversation by saying that it is strange to be a foreigner in a kimono (also saying that it looked good on me…). And we very rapidly moved to talking about culture and differences. I told them about Syria, about how we live and how we think, about Islam and our culture. They were listening to me as if I was from another world. It hit me that not only I felt that they come from another planet, but they felt the exact same.
They then told me so much about the differences among Asian countries, Korea, Japan, China and others. We have a stereo-type about Asians, they are all the same. But to my surprise, they are not at all. I have always known some little things about the differences but never in such details as I heard today.
Yes, it is different. I guess you cannot find two groups more different than Japanese and Syrians in terms of religion, social values, behaviour, life, thinking, and cooking. But we share one thing very strongly. We both feel that the others come from another planet, not really thinking that the other planet might simply be… us.
I will drink a toast for Carolyn Stephens, my ethics teacher in London. She has always told me, when I start babbling about such things, that you have to always know that YOU are the other, not them… Cheers, Carolyn…
07 November 2007
06 November 2007
The next last samurai...
Monday 5 November 07
Kumamoto
I had a good night’s sleep finally. I woke up a couple of times afraid that I missed my alarm but it was still very early in the night. I finally got up at 6:30am with enough energy to start the day.
The breakfast was interesting, as if anything in this country hasn’t been so far. Soup, rice, and several kinds of fish. I hesitated in the beginning to have fish for breakfast but then I thought… what the hell… if in Rome.
I saw people in the Kimonos provided in the room coming out from the hot springs… It is probably a good idea to go down to the hot spring instead of the morning shower. I should try that this evening after the dinner party. And I should get the Kimono on and get a photo in it.
I had sometime after breakfast to get nervous about my presentation. It is amazing how I still get nervous as it is my first time presenting every single time I am in training. I know the presentation by heart now and I can even do it without the power point but I still get nervous like a teenage girl going to her first date. I like to think that this is healthy and that this is because I am passionate about the work and training but it is still an uncomfortable feeling. How on earth can I get people to forget their prejudices, distinguish between clinical medicine and public health, think logically about health, ignore their training, change their concepts and behaviour, and be passionate about what they are going to do in 105 minutes?! I guess I can only try.
I bought a Lipton apple ice tea from the vending machine (surprise!) and went in. It took me a minute or two to get in the mood and start going smoothly. I know that I enjoy teaching and I get so much in the role and I know that not all people are comfortable with my overly interactive method. But the Japanese are more resistant than anyone I have worked with. I have been told that they here expect a more lecture approach than my very open self. But what I was getting was very attentive, but blank faces. No feedback what so ever and certainly not the conversation style presentation I try to make.
I finished the presentation a little bit frustrated. I have bitten a good half an hour of Hervé’s time. I guess he hates me as he can present about dead bodies less than he would like to. But what the hell.
I was surprised outside with quite a few people coming and telling me that they loved the presentation and that it was very interesting and informative. That improved my mood a little bit and I was happier now. From this point on in the training, I will be around to answer people’s questions and have chats about what it is to work on health in disasters. I guess this part I like more than the class room.
The lunch was another Japanese feast. Although I really like Japanese food, but I think it will take me quite a while to crave it again. It is raw fish, dried fish, grilled fish and then some steamed fish. But I guess this is what you get when the country is an island. I was happy to eat most of the things they gave me but I just couldn’t swallow some kind of a small fish with shiny skin today that I had on the side of the tray. Anyway, The cultural experience goes on.
Nothing much in the afternoon except that the bloody jet-lag hit me so hard again. It takes quite sometime to get over this. I read once that practically one is screwed when travelling more than 6 time zones east. I have travelled 8 time zones and I am so screwed.
The evening was a whole other story. We had a formal dinner and we met the director of the Japanese Red Cross. Then down to buffet-style dinner. More and more fish but it was quite delicious. I had some raw horse meet with onion and pickles. I was hesitant to eat raw horse meat but everyone insisted that I should try this very famous traditional dish from Kumamoto.
Women were almost all dressed in traditional Japanese kimonos. Those, as they told me, are not the real ones, only summer light ones. It seems the real formal kimonos are quite complicated and hard to wear. Anyway, it was interesting as I was suddenly sent a few hundred years back. I guess I looked silly in my suit and tie among them.
What was even more interesting than the food was the sake. One of the traditionally dressed ladies got me a glass of sake which she volunteered to add some water to it so I can tolerate it. It is a delicious drink. For some reason I thought it would have a very strong taste like Arak and that I wouldn’t like it, but on the contrary, it had a hint of a taste and gave me a real good feeling.
One of the funniest parts of the evening was when I was standing with Alex, Dr. Suzuki, Bob from Australia and a couple others. I was telling them about Damascus, Umayyad mosque and the fact that Prophet Yahiya, who is also know to Christians as John the Baptist, was buried inside the mosque. The reaction came from Dr. Suzuki who seriously looked at Alex and said: “He has two names, just like Batman, sometimes he is Batman and sometimes he is Bruce Wayne”. We laughed at that for hours.
At about 9:00pm, Alex and I decided to go and get ourselves in the hot springs. We left dinner and went to our rooms where we changed into our own kimonos (the manly ones!) and went down. It was below in the first floor at the side of the building. Reaching there, we saw two doors leading to the two separate springs, one for men and the other for women. Not a word in English to tell us where to go. There was a blue sign on one door and a red sign on the other. It took us a few minutes to decide to enter the blue door. We were a bit afraid but to our relief there was a stark naked guy rubbing himself inside.
We stripped and went in. There was a shallow pool where we dipped in and started fantasising about being Samurais in for a dip after a hard day of fighting. It is amazing how men always fantasise about being warriors or soldiers. Anyway, it did feel like we were samurais except that we were different in shape and colour!
Finishing the springs we went back in our kimonos to find Hervé, Dr. Suzuki, Satu, and Mamiko in the smokers’ corner. So we joined, got a few beers from the vending machine and went in a two hours conversation about all kinds of silly things. We talked about the ICRC and the Federation, the work, travel and many other things.
The chat went on until about midnight… I called Rania and she told me about the day. They have made my closet and she tells me that it looks less like a disaster site now. I am happy with that. Rania and I both love Amira’s visit, the poor woman is just too much of a mother, she spent her “holidays” here cooking and helping us. I do not mind that at all but at least hope that she enjoyed them.
Sleeping now… That was long waited.
Kumamoto
I had a good night’s sleep finally. I woke up a couple of times afraid that I missed my alarm but it was still very early in the night. I finally got up at 6:30am with enough energy to start the day.The breakfast was interesting, as if anything in this country hasn’t been so far. Soup, rice, and several kinds of fish. I hesitated in the beginning to have fish for breakfast but then I thought… what the hell… if in Rome.
I saw people in the Kimonos provided in the room coming out from the hot springs… It is probably a good idea to go down to the hot spring instead of the morning shower. I should try that this evening after the dinner party. And I should get the Kimono on and get a photo in it.
I had sometime after breakfast to get nervous about my presentation. It is amazing how I still get nervous as it is my first time presenting every single time I am in training. I know the presentation by heart now and I can even do it without the power point but I still get nervous like a teenage girl going to her first date. I like to think that this is healthy and that this is because I am passionate about the work and training but it is still an uncomfortable feeling. How on earth can I get people to forget their prejudices, distinguish between clinical medicine and public health, think logically about health, ignore their training, change their concepts and behaviour, and be passionate about what they are going to do in 105 minutes?! I guess I can only try.
I bought a Lipton apple ice tea from the vending machine (surprise!) and went in. It took me a minute or two to get in the mood and start going smoothly. I know that I enjoy teaching and I get so much in the role and I know that not all people are comfortable with my overly interactive method. But the Japanese are more resistant than anyone I have worked with. I have been told that they here expect a more lecture approach than my very open self. But what I was getting was very attentive, but blank faces. No feedback what so ever and certainly not the conversation style presentation I try to make.
I finished the presentation a little bit frustrated. I have bitten a good half an hour of Hervé’s time. I guess he hates me as he can present about dead bodies less than he would like to. But what the hell.
I was surprised outside with quite a few people coming and telling me that they loved the presentation and that it was very interesting and informative. That improved my mood a little bit and I was happier now. From this point on in the training, I will be around to answer people’s questions and have chats about what it is to work on health in disasters. I guess this part I like more than the class room.
The lunch was another Japanese feast. Although I really like Japanese food, but I think it will take me quite a while to crave it again. It is raw fish, dried fish, grilled fish and then some steamed fish. But I guess this is what you get when the country is an island. I was happy to eat most of the things they gave me but I just couldn’t swallow some kind of a small fish with shiny skin today that I had on the side of the tray. Anyway, The cultural experience goes on.Nothing much in the afternoon except that the bloody jet-lag hit me so hard again. It takes quite sometime to get over this. I read once that practically one is screwed when travelling more than 6 time zones east. I have travelled 8 time zones and I am so screwed.
The evening was a whole other story. We had a formal dinner and we met the director of the Japanese Red Cross. Then down to buffet-style dinner. More and more fish but it was quite delicious. I had some raw horse meet with onion and pickles. I was hesitant to eat raw horse meat but everyone insisted that I should try this very famous traditional dish from Kumamoto.
Women were almost all dressed in traditional Japanese kimonos. Those, as they told me, are not the real ones, only summer light ones. It seems the real formal kimonos are quite complicated and hard to wear. Anyway, it was interesting as I was suddenly sent a few hundred years back. I guess I looked silly in my suit and tie among them.
What was even more interesting than the food was the sake. One of the traditionally dressed ladies got me a glass of sake which she volunteered to add some water to it so I can tolerate it. It is a delicious drink. For some reason I thought it would have a very strong taste like Arak and that I wouldn’t like it, but on the contrary, it had a hint of a taste and gave me a real good feeling.
One of the funniest parts of the evening was when I was standing with Alex, Dr. Suzuki, Bob from Australia and a couple others. I was telling them about Damascus, Umayyad mosque and the fact that Prophet Yahiya, who is also know to Christians as John the Baptist, was buried inside the mosque. The reaction came from Dr. Suzuki who seriously looked at Alex and said: “He has two names, just like Batman, sometimes he is Batman and sometimes he is Bruce Wayne”. We laughed at that for hours.
At about 9:00pm, Alex and I decided to go and get ourselves in the hot springs. We left dinner and went to our rooms where we changed into our own kimonos (the manly ones!) and went down. It was below in the first floor at the side of the building. Reaching there, we saw two doors leading to the two separate springs, one for men and the other for women. Not a word in English to tell us where to go. There was a blue sign on one door and a red sign on the other. It took us a few minutes to decide to enter the blue door. We were a bit afraid but to our relief there was a stark naked guy rubbing himself inside.We stripped and went in. There was a shallow pool where we dipped in and started fantasising about being Samurais in for a dip after a hard day of fighting. It is amazing how men always fantasise about being warriors or soldiers. Anyway, it did feel like we were samurais except that we were different in shape and colour!
Finishing the springs we went back in our kimonos to find Hervé, Dr. Suzuki, Satu, and Mamiko in the smokers’ corner. So we joined, got a few beers from the vending machine and went in a two hours conversation about all kinds of silly things. We talked about the ICRC and the Federation, the work, travel and many other things.
The chat went on until about midnight… I called Rania and she told me about the day. They have made my closet and she tells me that it looks less like a disaster site now. I am happy with that. Rania and I both love Amira’s visit, the poor woman is just too much of a mother, she spent her “holidays” here cooking and helping us. I do not mind that at all but at least hope that she enjoyed them.
Sleeping now… That was long waited.
05 November 2007
Very Japanese!
Sunday 4 November 07
Tokyo – Kumamoto
I could wake up today despite the jet-lag. I was so afraid that I wouldn’t be able to wake up that I set up two alarms on the mobile phone and one in the hotel room. I watched BBC news and had a shower and went down for breakfast. As always, the most enjoyable part of being in a hotel is the breakfast. I had some kind of a sweet fried egg with chilli French fries and a lot of bacon.
We left the hotel in the shuttle at 7:40am. I was sure that our flight is at 9:30am but that soon proved to be wrong. We comfortably arrived at Haneda airport on 7:50 just to find out that I was wrong and our flight was on 8:15. We started a frantic run to the check-in desk where the ladies were so nice and we managed to check in and run to the gate. We were in the plane in a record time and we took off. I spent the next two hours reading more of Keegan’s history of warfare. The description of the pre-historic warfare is fascinating and also depressing in a way.
We landed in Kumamoto fearing that we will not have our luggage because we boarded late but the two suitcases came on the belt first and we were out to see people receiving us in a few minutes. We were received by Japanese Red Cross people, one of them took us to what seemed like a typical old-style Toyota Land Cruiser but which gave a whole other picture from the inside. First, this one had four doors rather than the normal two, but this was not the strangest thing, it had an automatic gear, and a GPS with a fairly large screen.
The 10 kilometres trip to Kumamoto Red Cross training centre took about 20 minutes on a fabulous mountain road. As our colleague told us, the prince of Japan is visiting Kumamoto which meant the main road was closed for security reasons. We took a narrow mountain road that went on several quite high bridges revealing amazing valley, river and waterfall scenes. The mountains are covered with heavy foliage and faded from real dark in the back ground in layers going lighter towards the horizon. The scenes looked like a feathery watercolour painting.
We reached the training centre and the first thing to be noticed inside was more vending machines. Japan apparently has the highest rate of vending machines in the world with one machine for every 23 people (about 5.5 million machines in total). In the past 24 hours I have vending machines for soft drinks, coffee, beer, liqueurs, fast food, chocolate, fried food, sushi, cigarettes and so on. One hardly needs to look for a shop with all the machines around.
No rooms until the afternoon so we went around and met people and then settled down with our laptops and wireless internet in the meeting room. We were called to lunch quite early at 11:40am were we had Udon, a soup made of thick noodles with fried tofu with Tempora, rice, pickles, salad and fruits. It is heavenly to have such good Japanese food as the “normal” food.
Soon enough, at 1:30pm, the sessions started with introductions. In addition to the 23 Japanese participants, there were 8 other participants are from Hong-Kong, Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea and Australia.
Introductions and welcome from the Japanese and a funny little speech by Dr. Suzuki about how Japanese do not pronounce English properly that he delivered in very funny English.
Alex’s presentation was quite good but too long and I was hit again by the jet-lag in the middle of it so I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I went out and tried to wake up. It only went worse in Hervé’s presentation and I felt that I am going to die if that goes on any longer. The problem is I couldn’t sleep peacefully in the back as both of them were asking me questions all the time while presenting.
I got a call from Rania on my Skype at one point and it was really strange as it was 5:00am in Geneva. I tried to answer but I heard strange noises from her side with no one speaking. I worried a bit so I called her only to find out that she was asleep and it was little Garfield who was calling. My cat is calling me from half the world away. He apparently jumped on the table and Rania has forgotten the laptop on and while he was enjoying his sleep on the keyboard he made the call. It was funny, I guess he heard my voice from the speaker and got confused. I have always suspected that Garfield is actually a human in a kitten disguise… now I know.
The highlight of the evening was a traditional sitting dinner Japanese-style. It was pure fascinating with the extremely uncomfortable on the little pillows. I was sitting between Chris from Australia and a nurse that I cannot even pronounce the name of who worked in Kumamoto hospital.
The dinner was quite diverse with some sashimi to start with, and the Japanese colleagues were surprised that we foreigners like raw fish and can use chop-sticks but I guess they only under estimate the spread of their culture abroad. Then two kinds of soup and a few little things just to go to the main dish of the evening. This was a little stove with an alcohol lamp inside, kind of like the idea of the fondue stove. A metal plate was over that with pieces of meet, onion, eggplant and noodles. It had a metal cover so it was cooked both by grilling and with the steam inside. It was delicious.
After dinner, I talked to Rania and she was walking among vineyards close to Geneva with her mother, Christine and Sue. They seemed to have fun. Of course, what’s better than walking in the nature and having free wine directly from the barrel! I wish I was there, but Rania said that we should make that little trip on our own. She was there with a group called active mates that organises hikes and activities in Geneva.
It is time for bed, I am a bit embarrassed to go to bed at 9:30pm but I have the jet-lag as an excuse. Alex was already in bed so I had to change very quietly and go to sleep. Good night Kumamoto, and I hope I do well tomorrow.
Tokyo – Kumamoto
I could wake up today despite the jet-lag. I was so afraid that I wouldn’t be able to wake up that I set up two alarms on the mobile phone and one in the hotel room. I watched BBC news and had a shower and went down for breakfast. As always, the most enjoyable part of being in a hotel is the breakfast. I had some kind of a sweet fried egg with chilli French fries and a lot of bacon.We left the hotel in the shuttle at 7:40am. I was sure that our flight is at 9:30am but that soon proved to be wrong. We comfortably arrived at Haneda airport on 7:50 just to find out that I was wrong and our flight was on 8:15. We started a frantic run to the check-in desk where the ladies were so nice and we managed to check in and run to the gate. We were in the plane in a record time and we took off. I spent the next two hours reading more of Keegan’s history of warfare. The description of the pre-historic warfare is fascinating and also depressing in a way.
We landed in Kumamoto fearing that we will not have our luggage because we boarded late but the two suitcases came on the belt first and we were out to see people receiving us in a few minutes. We were received by Japanese Red Cross people, one of them took us to what seemed like a typical old-style Toyota Land Cruiser but which gave a whole other picture from the inside. First, this one had four doors rather than the normal two, but this was not the strangest thing, it had an automatic gear, and a GPS with a fairly large screen.
The 10 kilometres trip to Kumamoto Red Cross training centre took about 20 minutes on a fabulous mountain road. As our colleague told us, the prince of Japan is visiting Kumamoto which meant the main road was closed for security reasons. We took a narrow mountain road that went on several quite high bridges revealing amazing valley, river and waterfall scenes. The mountains are covered with heavy foliage and faded from real dark in the back ground in layers going lighter towards the horizon. The scenes looked like a feathery watercolour painting.
We reached the training centre and the first thing to be noticed inside was more vending machines. Japan apparently has the highest rate of vending machines in the world with one machine for every 23 people (about 5.5 million machines in total). In the past 24 hours I have vending machines for soft drinks, coffee, beer, liqueurs, fast food, chocolate, fried food, sushi, cigarettes and so on. One hardly needs to look for a shop with all the machines around.
No rooms until the afternoon so we went around and met people and then settled down with our laptops and wireless internet in the meeting room. We were called to lunch quite early at 11:40am were we had Udon, a soup made of thick noodles with fried tofu with Tempora, rice, pickles, salad and fruits. It is heavenly to have such good Japanese food as the “normal” food.
Soon enough, at 1:30pm, the sessions started with introductions. In addition to the 23 Japanese participants, there were 8 other participants are from Hong-Kong, Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea and Australia.
Introductions and welcome from the Japanese and a funny little speech by Dr. Suzuki about how Japanese do not pronounce English properly that he delivered in very funny English.
Alex’s presentation was quite good but too long and I was hit again by the jet-lag in the middle of it so I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I went out and tried to wake up. It only went worse in Hervé’s presentation and I felt that I am going to die if that goes on any longer. The problem is I couldn’t sleep peacefully in the back as both of them were asking me questions all the time while presenting.
I got a call from Rania on my Skype at one point and it was really strange as it was 5:00am in Geneva. I tried to answer but I heard strange noises from her side with no one speaking. I worried a bit so I called her only to find out that she was asleep and it was little Garfield who was calling. My cat is calling me from half the world away. He apparently jumped on the table and Rania has forgotten the laptop on and while he was enjoying his sleep on the keyboard he made the call. It was funny, I guess he heard my voice from the speaker and got confused. I have always suspected that Garfield is actually a human in a kitten disguise… now I know.
The highlight of the evening was a traditional sitting dinner Japanese-style. It was pure fascinating with the extremely uncomfortable on the little pillows. I was sitting between Chris from Australia and a nurse that I cannot even pronounce the name of who worked in Kumamoto hospital.
The dinner was quite diverse with some sashimi to start with, and the Japanese colleagues were surprised that we foreigners like raw fish and can use chop-sticks but I guess they only under estimate the spread of their culture abroad. Then two kinds of soup and a few little things just to go to the main dish of the evening. This was a little stove with an alcohol lamp inside, kind of like the idea of the fondue stove. A metal plate was over that with pieces of meet, onion, eggplant and noodles. It had a metal cover so it was cooked both by grilling and with the steam inside. It was delicious.
After dinner, I talked to Rania and she was walking among vineyards close to Geneva with her mother, Christine and Sue. They seemed to have fun. Of course, what’s better than walking in the nature and having free wine directly from the barrel! I wish I was there, but Rania said that we should make that little trip on our own. She was there with a group called active mates that organises hikes and activities in Geneva.
It is time for bed, I am a bit embarrassed to go to bed at 9:30pm but I have the jet-lag as an excuse. Alex was already in bed so I had to change very quietly and go to sleep. Good night Kumamoto, and I hope I do well tomorrow.
04 November 2007
What the hell!!!
Saturday 3 November 07
Tokyo
Taking the first few steps out of the plane, everything looked reasonably familiar. It was like any other airport except for the Japanese signs. But I was yet to be surprised.
Alex and I stood in a long queue for passport control, but that went rapidly enough. I was looking at the 3 men and 1 woman behind the desk processing passports, and I started thinking that art indeed is just a replication of reality, and we see it as imaginary just because we probably do not know reality that well. Mangas, the famous Japanese cartoons look very unrealistic to us, but I looking at the way those four looked, with their wild, yet very carefully organised hair, and the way they moved and acted, I could see that it was so amazingly similar to the cartoons, that is if one is able to look beyond the blue and green hair of the mangas of course.
Everyone was passing right through but I was stopped. It was the bloody Syrian passport in action again. I was sent with a very friendly young man to a side-room where he took my passport, Swiss residence permit and the invitation from the Japanese Red Cross and disappeared for about 15 minutes. He showed back just as I was about to start worrying and gave me back the papers with an additional “permit to enter” sticker on my passport. The only disturbing thing about it is that he used an empty page of the passport which means that it will be full even sooner.
Went out, found my suitcase and Alex and started our Japanese quest. Alex has bought a Lonely-Planet book about Japan and was enthusiastically reading it on the flight. We asked a taxi driver who offered his services for the price to go to the JAL city hotel near Haneda airport and it was 26,000 yen (about CHF260) so we went for the shuttle which was only 3,000 yen. We waited for about 10 minutes and an orange bus took us on the highway. A woman was at the bus station with a wireless microphone giving the time and destinations of next busses. She was a bit clumsy, almost tripled and then dropped her microphone a bit later.
I managed to call Rania from the mobile. Thank God for Palm and the quad-band phones. Alex’s phone didn’t work so he borrowed mine to call his girlfriend.
In Haneda airport we were supposed to take a taxi to the hotel but we decided to have a smoke first. We couldn’t smoke in the open so we had to go to a smoking room outside the airport with double doors and about a dozen people inside. It didn’t make so much sense that one cannot smoke in the open but had to concentrate the smoke in a closed room with no ventilation, but that wasn’t the biggest surprise we had in Tokyo that day.
We arrived at the hotel at about 9:40am. The hotel looked good from the outside. I paid the taxi 1,750 yen and took the luggage in. Kyoko from the Japanese Red Cross was waiting in the hall since 9 o’clock. We wouldn’t be able to get our rooms until 2:00pm. We left the luggage in the hotel and went out for a tour of Tokyo which Kyoko nicely offered to guide us through.
We walked to the station and took the monorail to Hamamatsucho station from where we walked to the Japanese garden. A nice traditional garden with traditional trees and flowers that one usually sees in Japanese ink art. In this part of the city, one cannot smoke in the street. There are dedicated “smoking-stations” where people stop and smoke. They are still struggling in Europe to ban smoking in pubs while it is normal here that it is banned in the street.
From the other side of the garden we took the river bus in a 45 minute cruise to Hinode pier and then up north on Sumida-Gawa river towards Asakusa. From there we were in the older part of Tokyo. A little walk and we were in a very busy street with many little shops and restaurants. We were planning to eat at a famous Tempora restaurant but there was a 50 metres queue in front of it so we looked for a less busy one. We had an a delicious lunch of Tempora which was made of a big bowl of rice with what seemed to be sweet soy sauce and then on top there was four different pieces deep-fried in batter, those were a prawn, a piece of squid, some kind of a fish and an egg-plant. We had the Tempora with Meso soup and Asahi beer.
We walked then to the famous Kaminrai-Mon gate with a huge red paper lantern that led to little street-market with souvenirs and food. From there we were by the Senso-Ji Temple. I went in, through a coin in a huge box where everyone was throwing coins and then picked up a luck-stick. My luck was “regular” and my future was not clear yet… Fair enough.
From there, we walked back to the main street where we could see a parade passing by with people in traditional clothes. We manoeuvred our way through the crowds to the tube station towards Akihabara.
Akihabara is an unreal place. On a Saturday, there would be no traffic allowed into the wide streets and people can walk around. It is “the Mecca of electronics” as Wikitravel says. I really wanted to go there just for the fun of it but also to buy a Dictaphone. Every “shop” is anything between 3 and 9 floors of all kinds of electronics from PCs to any kind of apparel one would imagine. I really wish Khalid was here, he would have lost himself for days.
I bough a little Japanese version of Olympus Dictaphone for much less than what I would have paid in Geneva and we left soon enough as Alex and I were on the brink of collapsing. The jet-lag was hitting hard now.
Back to the hotel and we were planning to sleep for a little while before we go out again to check out Tokyo’s night life. I went to bed about 5:00pm thinking I’d wake up before 7:00pm to go out with Alex. I woke up an hour later than I wanted and I was quite tired. I called Alex and we agreed to only have dinner out rather than go down town. I also called Hervé from the ICRC who arrived after us and we agreed to meet down.
We went out and walked around the hotel in Haneda area until we found a nice looking restaurant. It had a little water garden outside and a big wooden gate. Inside, it turned to be a Korean restaurant where the chef was standing behind a big grill with several kinds of raw fish and chicken were ganging from the roof. We were received by a waitress who spoke little English who took us to a little room with a table. The whole restaurant was divided into little room with separators in between. We had grilled fish, fish soup and grilled rice with beer. The meal was very nice.
We went back to the hotel where I tried the voice recorder I bought from Akihabara. It took me quite some time to turn the language to English. I looked the model up in the internet and it turned to be a version only for Japan.
I watched some BBC World. There was a very good documentary about Allan Johnston’s ordeal and kidnapping in Gaza and then news and analysis about Musharraf announcement of marshal law and stopping the constitution in Pakistan. I thought about Ahsanullah and his family in Karachi and I really hope he is doing well… I should send him an email.
One of the very amazing Japanese things is the toilet… which I will discover later that is almost standard everywhere. I found a photo on the internet for it (http://larve.net/2006/08/anti-leeching/mark_image.php?url=2001/05/06/22_33_12.jpg). There are buttons for everything including one that shows a very nice looking bottom with water splashing it, and the seat is heated. The super-toilet was somewhere I wanted to spend time on while I could.
Read a few more pages of John Keegan’s “A history of warfare” about the war of the Aztecs, their ritual killings and cannibalism. I got frustrated because looking at that one cannot help thinking that violence can actually be embedded in human nature. I refuse to believe that because it makes the picture grimmer than I can handle. It was the religion of the Aztecs that required them to give human sacrifices to please harsh gods. I cannot help wondering weather all religions are just the same, too many sacrifices for too vague promises.
Tokyo
Taking the first few steps out of the plane, everything looked reasonably familiar. It was like any other airport except for the Japanese signs. But I was yet to be surprised.Alex and I stood in a long queue for passport control, but that went rapidly enough. I was looking at the 3 men and 1 woman behind the desk processing passports, and I started thinking that art indeed is just a replication of reality, and we see it as imaginary just because we probably do not know reality that well. Mangas, the famous Japanese cartoons look very unrealistic to us, but I looking at the way those four looked, with their wild, yet very carefully organised hair, and the way they moved and acted, I could see that it was so amazingly similar to the cartoons, that is if one is able to look beyond the blue and green hair of the mangas of course.
Everyone was passing right through but I was stopped. It was the bloody Syrian passport in action again. I was sent with a very friendly young man to a side-room where he took my passport, Swiss residence permit and the invitation from the Japanese Red Cross and disappeared for about 15 minutes. He showed back just as I was about to start worrying and gave me back the papers with an additional “permit to enter” sticker on my passport. The only disturbing thing about it is that he used an empty page of the passport which means that it will be full even sooner.
Went out, found my suitcase and Alex and started our Japanese quest. Alex has bought a Lonely-Planet book about Japan and was enthusiastically reading it on the flight. We asked a taxi driver who offered his services for the price to go to the JAL city hotel near Haneda airport and it was 26,000 yen (about CHF260) so we went for the shuttle which was only 3,000 yen. We waited for about 10 minutes and an orange bus took us on the highway. A woman was at the bus station with a wireless microphone giving the time and destinations of next busses. She was a bit clumsy, almost tripled and then dropped her microphone a bit later.
I managed to call Rania from the mobile. Thank God for Palm and the quad-band phones. Alex’s phone didn’t work so he borrowed mine to call his girlfriend.
In Haneda airport we were supposed to take a taxi to the hotel but we decided to have a smoke first. We couldn’t smoke in the open so we had to go to a smoking room outside the airport with double doors and about a dozen people inside. It didn’t make so much sense that one cannot smoke in the open but had to concentrate the smoke in a closed room with no ventilation, but that wasn’t the biggest surprise we had in Tokyo that day.
We arrived at the hotel at about 9:40am. The hotel looked good from the outside. I paid the taxi 1,750 yen and took the luggage in. Kyoko from the Japanese Red Cross was waiting in the hall since 9 o’clock. We wouldn’t be able to get our rooms until 2:00pm. We left the luggage in the hotel and went out for a tour of Tokyo which Kyoko nicely offered to guide us through.
We walked to the station and took the monorail to Hamamatsucho station from where we walked to the Japanese garden. A nice traditional garden with traditional trees and flowers that one usually sees in Japanese ink art. In this part of the city, one cannot smoke in the street. There are dedicated “smoking-stations” where people stop and smoke. They are still struggling in Europe to ban smoking in pubs while it is normal here that it is banned in the street.
From the other side of the garden we took the river bus in a 45 minute cruise to Hinode pier and then up north on Sumida-Gawa river towards Asakusa. From there we were in the older part of Tokyo. A little walk and we were in a very busy street with many little shops and restaurants. We were planning to eat at a famous Tempora restaurant but there was a 50 metres queue in front of it so we looked for a less busy one. We had an a delicious lunch of Tempora which was made of a big bowl of rice with what seemed to be sweet soy sauce and then on top there was four different pieces deep-fried in batter, those were a prawn, a piece of squid, some kind of a fish and an egg-plant. We had the Tempora with Meso soup and Asahi beer.
We walked then to the famous Kaminrai-Mon gate with a huge red paper lantern that led to little street-market with souvenirs and food. From there we were by the Senso-Ji Temple. I went in, through a coin in a huge box where everyone was throwing coins and then picked up a luck-stick. My luck was “regular” and my future was not clear yet… Fair enough.
From there, we walked back to the main street where we could see a parade passing by with people in traditional clothes. We manoeuvred our way through the crowds to the tube station towards Akihabara.
Akihabara is an unreal place. On a Saturday, there would be no traffic allowed into the wide streets and people can walk around. It is “the Mecca of electronics” as Wikitravel says. I really wanted to go there just for the fun of it but also to buy a Dictaphone. Every “shop” is anything between 3 and 9 floors of all kinds of electronics from PCs to any kind of apparel one would imagine. I really wish Khalid was here, he would have lost himself for days.
I bough a little Japanese version of Olympus Dictaphone for much less than what I would have paid in Geneva and we left soon enough as Alex and I were on the brink of collapsing. The jet-lag was hitting hard now.
Back to the hotel and we were planning to sleep for a little while before we go out again to check out Tokyo’s night life. I went to bed about 5:00pm thinking I’d wake up before 7:00pm to go out with Alex. I woke up an hour later than I wanted and I was quite tired. I called Alex and we agreed to only have dinner out rather than go down town. I also called Hervé from the ICRC who arrived after us and we agreed to meet down.
We went out and walked around the hotel in Haneda area until we found a nice looking restaurant. It had a little water garden outside and a big wooden gate. Inside, it turned to be a Korean restaurant where the chef was standing behind a big grill with several kinds of raw fish and chicken were ganging from the roof. We were received by a waitress who spoke little English who took us to a little room with a table. The whole restaurant was divided into little room with separators in between. We had grilled fish, fish soup and grilled rice with beer. The meal was very nice.
We went back to the hotel where I tried the voice recorder I bought from Akihabara. It took me quite some time to turn the language to English. I looked the model up in the internet and it turned to be a version only for Japan.
I watched some BBC World. There was a very good documentary about Allan Johnston’s ordeal and kidnapping in Gaza and then news and analysis about Musharraf announcement of marshal law and stopping the constitution in Pakistan. I thought about Ahsanullah and his family in Karachi and I really hope he is doing well… I should send him an email.
One of the very amazing Japanese things is the toilet… which I will discover later that is almost standard everywhere. I found a photo on the internet for it (http://larve.net/2006/08/anti-leeching/mark_image.php?url=2001/05/06/22_33_12.jpg). There are buttons for everything including one that shows a very nice looking bottom with water splashing it, and the seat is heated. The super-toilet was somewhere I wanted to spend time on while I could.
Read a few more pages of John Keegan’s “A history of warfare” about the war of the Aztecs, their ritual killings and cannibalism. I got frustrated because looking at that one cannot help thinking that violence can actually be embedded in human nature. I refuse to believe that because it makes the picture grimmer than I can handle. It was the religion of the Aztecs that required them to give human sacrifices to please harsh gods. I cannot help wondering weather all religions are just the same, too many sacrifices for too vague promises.
Going to a new world...
Friday 2 November 07
Geneva
I woke up about 4:30am to be able to go to the airport on time. I had a taxi waiting for me at 5:15 and I had to say the last goodbyes to Rania and Garfield. This trip seems easier to handle than the ones before because I know Rania will not be alone on this one. She is planning to go to Italy tomorrow with her mother to Mc. Arthur Glenn designer outlet shop where they will have the feminine pleasure of wandering in a village with dozens of designer shops supposedly selling their products at huge discounts.
The taxi was waiting outside on time. The driver, a medium built black man with close shaved hair helped with the luggage. I waved goodbye to Rania and the car took off. A pretty clear street this early in the morning and the airport was just 15 minutes away. I paid CHF 36 for the trip. It costs almost exactly the same for the trip every time no matter what time or day or what is the state of the traffic.
This is the first time I travel anywhere with Air France. I didn’t know before that there is a separate terminal to go to France where the French police where in the airport checking passports before the check-in. The Swiss has little sense of the traditional “sovereignty” where you do not let foreign officers control the situation on your territory, and the French have little sense of the traditional “security” where you do not tightly control the flights and trains while leaving all car routes completely loose.
The usual waiting took place in the airport. I had a coffee and a croissant at a little café in the gate. This terminal differs from others in this same airport by the fact that there is no smoking area which means I will not be able to roll a cigarette until Paris CDG.
Later, I met Alex and we took the plane to Paris.
In Paris, the airport was quite busy. This is a strange design for an airport it is necessary to go through passport control in order to go from one terminal to the other, hence the need for a visa even to go in transit through Paris. Fortunately for me, since I have been living in Geneva, there have been no problems with the European visas and I have one that will work until mid-next year.
We finally had the smoke and went back into the terminal. While waiting before the electronic gate, Alex told me a story from when he was going to Cuba with the French Red Cross and he was stopped in this same airport by a customs officer trying to look strong by intimidating a Red Cross person. I think that is quite normal, what would one expect from a uniformed officer who needs no qualifications and is given the power to control the gates.
The trip to Tokyo was the longest of my life. More than 13 hours on an Airbus plane from Paris to Tokyo with a quite unexpected route. We went north east first then levelling east, passing through Norway, Sweden and then Finland to enter the Russian air. We flew very close to St. Petersburg and then east over the Urals towards what appeared on the map on my screen as the “west Siberian plains”. The route took us south by south-west over Mongolia to finally go to Japan from the North.
I watched 2 movies on the flight. “License to wed”, with Robin Williams doing a dodgy pastor who wants to guarantee that a couple in love would actually survive their marriage. A chick-flick with a twist and Williams did his usual funny self. I quite like it when he does a comedy for the sake of it without much to prove. The second movie was part of the “Transformers” with the alien robots that can transform to cars and helicopters and trying to save humanity from other alien robots trying to take it over. It is either I am getting old for this or it is real shit. It is not really a kids movie as the comics were intended to be, too violent and trying too hard to look real and make sense, but it is also not too much of an adult movie because it is just silly. I guess it would be enjoyed by young men in their early twenties, and this is an admission that I am from another generation, and older one. But I guess it is agreed now that a generation, in social terms is shrinking while it is being prolonged in biological ones. Which in other words make me OLD.
I had two patches of sleep on the plain. I had two seats for myself and did my best to have a semi-comfortable sleep. This didn’t work very well but I guess I cumulatively slept for about 6 hours on the trip. It got a bit boring in the end but we finally touched down in Tokyo Narita airport at about 6:50am.
Geneva
I woke up about 4:30am to be able to go to the airport on time. I had a taxi waiting for me at 5:15 and I had to say the last goodbyes to Rania and Garfield. This trip seems easier to handle than the ones before because I know Rania will not be alone on this one. She is planning to go to Italy tomorrow with her mother to Mc. Arthur Glenn designer outlet shop where they will have the feminine pleasure of wandering in a village with dozens of designer shops supposedly selling their products at huge discounts.
The taxi was waiting outside on time. The driver, a medium built black man with close shaved hair helped with the luggage. I waved goodbye to Rania and the car took off. A pretty clear street this early in the morning and the airport was just 15 minutes away. I paid CHF 36 for the trip. It costs almost exactly the same for the trip every time no matter what time or day or what is the state of the traffic.
This is the first time I travel anywhere with Air France. I didn’t know before that there is a separate terminal to go to France where the French police where in the airport checking passports before the check-in. The Swiss has little sense of the traditional “sovereignty” where you do not let foreign officers control the situation on your territory, and the French have little sense of the traditional “security” where you do not tightly control the flights and trains while leaving all car routes completely loose.
The usual waiting took place in the airport. I had a coffee and a croissant at a little café in the gate. This terminal differs from others in this same airport by the fact that there is no smoking area which means I will not be able to roll a cigarette until Paris CDG.
Later, I met Alex and we took the plane to Paris.
In Paris, the airport was quite busy. This is a strange design for an airport it is necessary to go through passport control in order to go from one terminal to the other, hence the need for a visa even to go in transit through Paris. Fortunately for me, since I have been living in Geneva, there have been no problems with the European visas and I have one that will work until mid-next year.
We finally had the smoke and went back into the terminal. While waiting before the electronic gate, Alex told me a story from when he was going to Cuba with the French Red Cross and he was stopped in this same airport by a customs officer trying to look strong by intimidating a Red Cross person. I think that is quite normal, what would one expect from a uniformed officer who needs no qualifications and is given the power to control the gates.
The trip to Tokyo was the longest of my life. More than 13 hours on an Airbus plane from Paris to Tokyo with a quite unexpected route. We went north east first then levelling east, passing through Norway, Sweden and then Finland to enter the Russian air. We flew very close to St. Petersburg and then east over the Urals towards what appeared on the map on my screen as the “west Siberian plains”. The route took us south by south-west over Mongolia to finally go to Japan from the North.
I watched 2 movies on the flight. “License to wed”, with Robin Williams doing a dodgy pastor who wants to guarantee that a couple in love would actually survive their marriage. A chick-flick with a twist and Williams did his usual funny self. I quite like it when he does a comedy for the sake of it without much to prove. The second movie was part of the “Transformers” with the alien robots that can transform to cars and helicopters and trying to save humanity from other alien robots trying to take it over. It is either I am getting old for this or it is real shit. It is not really a kids movie as the comics were intended to be, too violent and trying too hard to look real and make sense, but it is also not too much of an adult movie because it is just silly. I guess it would be enjoyed by young men in their early twenties, and this is an admission that I am from another generation, and older one. But I guess it is agreed now that a generation, in social terms is shrinking while it is being prolonged in biological ones. Which in other words make me OLD.
I had two patches of sleep on the plain. I had two seats for myself and did my best to have a semi-comfortable sleep. This didn’t work very well but I guess I cumulatively slept for about 6 hours on the trip. It got a bit boring in the end but we finally touched down in Tokyo Narita airport at about 6:50am.
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