Friday, November 17, 2006
Before I continue with the final chapter in my trip to Tokyo, I'd like to take a moment and point out that today, on November 17, 2006, Jeff Buckley would've turned 40, if not for the tragic drowning accident in Memphis on May 29, 1997. For those who would like to do something to commemorate his life, make a Golden Promise in your life, and celebrate Jeff :) He has been, and will always be an inspiration to all.
Day 4 (June 21, 2006)
This time, we dragged our lazy asses out of bed by 8am. We had to. We were heading back to Singapore this afternoon, and we still had too much to see! But would we be able to do it?!
We dragged ourselves to the Girandole Restaurant for our last breakfast in this grand hotel. We didn't want to drag ourselves down, so we had a light breakfast of eggs, cold cuts and cheese. Topped off with 3 very refreshing cups of coffee (Jesus, the Japanese really know how to make an amazing cuppa), we were ready for the day ahead.
Our first stop? The Meiji Shrine, right in the heart of Harajuku. Though there were a variety of other shrines located around Tokyo, the Meiji Jingu Shrine was known to be the oldest, and also, one of the biggest. We walked down to Shinjuku station, and spent a couple of puzzled minutes looking at the ticketing system. In the end, we decided to go the main office, and purchase the tickets from the nice looking gentleman behind the counter (who thankfully, spoke enough English to tell us which station to walk to). By the by, a warning to you all: If you're in any Tokyo train station during the peak periods, remember to wear protective padding. The commuters are vicious. They take a very direct brisk walk when they get in and out of the station. This man that appeared to be in his 50s slammed right into us, and just kept on walking as if he hadn't made any contact with us! Mind you, my shoulder was still sore during that train ride. I don't think they do it on purpose though. It seems more like their culture there. When in the city, keep moving :)
The train ride was quick, and it was a relief to find out that the Meiji Shrine was right next to the Harajuku station when we got out (Thanks to the middle-aged black guy in a weird yellow spandex top and MC Hammer pants selling umbrellas outside, who also spoke perfectly fluent Japanese. Honestly, do you really think I could've made up something as elaborate as that?). It was already close to 10am, so there was virtually no one around. It had been drizzling the entire morning, so the air was cool and damp. A long, wide gravel path lead us straight down to the temple, which was a large wooden majestic affair. It was incredibly serene in there, where all you could really hear was the sound of the gravel beneath your feat, and the soft tap-tap of raindrops on the leaves. We took a moment to soak it all up, and take a variety of pictures. We said a final prayer and paid our respects, and then made our way out.
Next stop, the highly talked about shops that make up Harajuku! It was only around 10-ish in the am, so not many stores were open at the time. The road we were walking along seemed kinda dead really. That was before we came upon Takeshita Street. How do I describe it? Well, you guys know what Bugis Market looks like right? And how large it is? Well, for Takeshita Street, triple it. It's a narrow single lane for people to walk up and around in, with shops all along the sides, which, after going in, opened up to bigger and more stores sometimes. This was where the youth of Tokyo came to shop. I'm telling you this place had a shop for everything! Denise and I were quite impressed by the fact that there was even a costume shop for dogs. Ever envisioned seeing Lassie in Gothic lolita style? Well, this place gave you that chance :)
We walked and snapped pictures like crazy. It seemed like this colourful alley wouldn't end, and honestly? We didn't want it to. I lost count of the number of sneaker shops I had to tear myself away from. I love my sneaks *sighs* What's cool about a lot of these shops is that everything was original. There weren't any fake brands or knock-offs here in Tokyo. Teenagers here wouldn't go for that sorta thing. You know what was cooler? A lot of these places also offer the option to personalise the gear you buy. Ever wanted your name stitched in fine style across the back of your Nike Air Force Ones? :) There was only one way to describe the shopping along this street: Mouth-watering. If you thought the shops were weird though, you really have to check out the people wearing them. If you think it looks peculiar in pictures, nothing quite beats seeing them in real life :) And if trends were anything to go by, then apparently the trendy thing to be eating right now are crepes. There were a variety of those stalls just littering the sides of Takeshita Street.
We finally reached the end of the street. Only to find out that it opened up to a main road. And along the main roads were a staggering number of shops. We had barely tickled, much less scraped, the tip of the iceberg walking along Takeshita Street...
Since we had a little time left, we decided we would cross the street and inspect what looked like a continuing alley on the other side. There weren't as many shops there, but they had quaint little homes inside. What stood out for us in that alley was this old-school melon green Volkswagen Van. It was really well maintainted, and looked like it had never left the 60s. So with that, we turned around and headed back to the train station.
Wow, looks like we had timed it just right. We were back in Shinjuku and walking towards our hotel, with an hour or so before the bus brought us to the airport. We bumped into the Polish girls, Joasia (pronounced "Yo-Ush-Ah") and Karalina (pronounced "Ka-Rah-Lee-Nah") who were one of the pairs of contest winners we had managed to have a decent conversation with during our stay. Apparently, their flight back was in the evening, so they were just starting to head out to do some last-minute sight-seeing. We hugged our good-byes and wished each other well :) Since it was already around lunch time, we decided to grab some food in the ever-trustworthy basement. We decided on this tempura place, since we realised that we hadn't had any since coming here. Sadly, this was one of the few times we were disappointed. Though it looked great, the tempura wasn't all that appetizing on a whole. We both felt that they hadn't deep fried it proper as it felt kinda soft, and it lacked a certain freshness to the taste buds.
We made our way up to our room and finished off our packing. We decided to give a tin of Bengawan Solo biscuits and a Thank-You note to the organisers from The Promotional Edge who had planned such an amazing program for us, and who had prepared the additional prizes. So, to sum up the rest of the trip, we said our good byes, we got on the bus, arrived at the airport and checked in our bags, had one last meal (which completely made up for the disappointing tempura earlier), and got up into the plane. I'll admit right now, it was painful to leave. There might have even have been tears involved. I'm not saying :) There was something about Tokyo that I really enjoyed. I'm not sure if it was the incredible balance they had with their culture and heritage, even in a modern city like Tokyo, or whether it was how colourful and interesting the people and the places were, or whether it was just being given five-star treatment for the four short days we were there. Personally though? I'd say it was all of the above :)
THE END
Epilogue
Oh hell no that wasn't quite the end! :) Here are a few interesting developments that occurred soon after we came back. Thanks to Germaine, Lime magazine caught on to my trip, and asked if I would like to do a short article about my meeting with Tom Cruise (which I agreed to write). What was cool about that was that they liked the article so much, that by the time you've read this, I've already gone up to Malaysia to interview the Pussycat Dolls, and more recently, Stacie Orrico when she was in town. Come on, how cool is that? :) I wonder if it's 'cause Tom passed me some of his mojo when he shook my hand...
Remember the Polish girl Joasia that I had mentioned earlier? Well, come December 7, 2006, she'll be here in Singapore! How cool is that?! She's going back-packing in Myanmar and Thailand, before swinging by here as a side-trip. She'll be here for a good three days, and will be bunking at Denise's place for the duration. We're really excited, since we've never had a friend from overseas come visit before :)
So that's it. Really. The End. Granted, a 4 day trip took more than 4 months to write, but what's important is that it's finally written :) You guys aren't going to believe all the other stuff that's been happening here for the last couple of months, but that, is another story :)
Day 4 (June 21, 2006)
This time, we dragged our lazy asses out of bed by 8am. We had to. We were heading back to Singapore this afternoon, and we still had too much to see! But would we be able to do it?!
We dragged ourselves to the Girandole Restaurant for our last breakfast in this grand hotel. We didn't want to drag ourselves down, so we had a light breakfast of eggs, cold cuts and cheese. Topped off with 3 very refreshing cups of coffee (Jesus, the Japanese really know how to make an amazing cuppa), we were ready for the day ahead.
Our first stop? The Meiji Shrine, right in the heart of Harajuku. Though there were a variety of other shrines located around Tokyo, the Meiji Jingu Shrine was known to be the oldest, and also, one of the biggest. We walked down to Shinjuku station, and spent a couple of puzzled minutes looking at the ticketing system. In the end, we decided to go the main office, and purchase the tickets from the nice looking gentleman behind the counter (who thankfully, spoke enough English to tell us which station to walk to). By the by, a warning to you all: If you're in any Tokyo train station during the peak periods, remember to wear protective padding. The commuters are vicious. They take a very direct brisk walk when they get in and out of the station. This man that appeared to be in his 50s slammed right into us, and just kept on walking as if he hadn't made any contact with us! Mind you, my shoulder was still sore during that train ride. I don't think they do it on purpose though. It seems more like their culture there. When in the city, keep moving :)
The train ride was quick, and it was a relief to find out that the Meiji Shrine was right next to the Harajuku station when we got out (Thanks to the middle-aged black guy in a weird yellow spandex top and MC Hammer pants selling umbrellas outside, who also spoke perfectly fluent Japanese. Honestly, do you really think I could've made up something as elaborate as that?). It was already close to 10am, so there was virtually no one around. It had been drizzling the entire morning, so the air was cool and damp. A long, wide gravel path lead us straight down to the temple, which was a large wooden majestic affair. It was incredibly serene in there, where all you could really hear was the sound of the gravel beneath your feat, and the soft tap-tap of raindrops on the leaves. We took a moment to soak it all up, and take a variety of pictures. We said a final prayer and paid our respects, and then made our way out.
Next stop, the highly talked about shops that make up Harajuku! It was only around 10-ish in the am, so not many stores were open at the time. The road we were walking along seemed kinda dead really. That was before we came upon Takeshita Street. How do I describe it? Well, you guys know what Bugis Market looks like right? And how large it is? Well, for Takeshita Street, triple it. It's a narrow single lane for people to walk up and around in, with shops all along the sides, which, after going in, opened up to bigger and more stores sometimes. This was where the youth of Tokyo came to shop. I'm telling you this place had a shop for everything! Denise and I were quite impressed by the fact that there was even a costume shop for dogs. Ever envisioned seeing Lassie in Gothic lolita style? Well, this place gave you that chance :)
We walked and snapped pictures like crazy. It seemed like this colourful alley wouldn't end, and honestly? We didn't want it to. I lost count of the number of sneaker shops I had to tear myself away from. I love my sneaks *sighs* What's cool about a lot of these shops is that everything was original. There weren't any fake brands or knock-offs here in Tokyo. Teenagers here wouldn't go for that sorta thing. You know what was cooler? A lot of these places also offer the option to personalise the gear you buy. Ever wanted your name stitched in fine style across the back of your Nike Air Force Ones? :) There was only one way to describe the shopping along this street: Mouth-watering. If you thought the shops were weird though, you really have to check out the people wearing them. If you think it looks peculiar in pictures, nothing quite beats seeing them in real life :) And if trends were anything to go by, then apparently the trendy thing to be eating right now are crepes. There were a variety of those stalls just littering the sides of Takeshita Street.
We finally reached the end of the street. Only to find out that it opened up to a main road. And along the main roads were a staggering number of shops. We had barely tickled, much less scraped, the tip of the iceberg walking along Takeshita Street...
Since we had a little time left, we decided we would cross the street and inspect what looked like a continuing alley on the other side. There weren't as many shops there, but they had quaint little homes inside. What stood out for us in that alley was this old-school melon green Volkswagen Van. It was really well maintainted, and looked like it had never left the 60s. So with that, we turned around and headed back to the train station.
Wow, looks like we had timed it just right. We were back in Shinjuku and walking towards our hotel, with an hour or so before the bus brought us to the airport. We bumped into the Polish girls, Joasia (pronounced "Yo-Ush-Ah") and Karalina (pronounced "Ka-Rah-Lee-Nah") who were one of the pairs of contest winners we had managed to have a decent conversation with during our stay. Apparently, their flight back was in the evening, so they were just starting to head out to do some last-minute sight-seeing. We hugged our good-byes and wished each other well :) Since it was already around lunch time, we decided to grab some food in the ever-trustworthy basement. We decided on this tempura place, since we realised that we hadn't had any since coming here. Sadly, this was one of the few times we were disappointed. Though it looked great, the tempura wasn't all that appetizing on a whole. We both felt that they hadn't deep fried it proper as it felt kinda soft, and it lacked a certain freshness to the taste buds.
We made our way up to our room and finished off our packing. We decided to give a tin of Bengawan Solo biscuits and a Thank-You note to the organisers from The Promotional Edge who had planned such an amazing program for us, and who had prepared the additional prizes. So, to sum up the rest of the trip, we said our good byes, we got on the bus, arrived at the airport and checked in our bags, had one last meal (which completely made up for the disappointing tempura earlier), and got up into the plane. I'll admit right now, it was painful to leave. There might have even have been tears involved. I'm not saying :) There was something about Tokyo that I really enjoyed. I'm not sure if it was the incredible balance they had with their culture and heritage, even in a modern city like Tokyo, or whether it was how colourful and interesting the people and the places were, or whether it was just being given five-star treatment for the four short days we were there. Personally though? I'd say it was all of the above :)
THE END
Epilogue
Oh hell no that wasn't quite the end! :) Here are a few interesting developments that occurred soon after we came back. Thanks to Germaine, Lime magazine caught on to my trip, and asked if I would like to do a short article about my meeting with Tom Cruise (which I agreed to write). What was cool about that was that they liked the article so much, that by the time you've read this, I've already gone up to Malaysia to interview the Pussycat Dolls, and more recently, Stacie Orrico when she was in town. Come on, how cool is that? :) I wonder if it's 'cause Tom passed me some of his mojo when he shook my hand...
Remember the Polish girl Joasia that I had mentioned earlier? Well, come December 7, 2006, she'll be here in Singapore! How cool is that?! She's going back-packing in Myanmar and Thailand, before swinging by here as a side-trip. She'll be here for a good three days, and will be bunking at Denise's place for the duration. We're really excited, since we've never had a friend from overseas come visit before :)
So that's it. Really. The End. Granted, a 4 day trip took more than 4 months to write, but what's important is that it's finally written :) You guys aren't going to believe all the other stuff that's been happening here for the last couple of months, but that, is another story :)
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Yes yes, I'm quite aware of how late I am. A variety of parties, insane projects, and work (yes, that's right, I'm working) got in the way. And now, without further adieu :)
Day 3 (June 20, 2006)
Okay, we overslept, but sweet God it had been a long day yesterday. Think it was around 11 that we finally dragged ourselves out of bed. We realised that we had to make up for lost time. We decided we didn't want to waste time scouring the streets of Shinjuku for a restaurant, so we headed down to the basement, where there were restaurants aplenty for the office crowd that made up the bottom half of the Park Hyatt (which was the Shinjuku Park Tower). After walking a couple of rounds, we popped into one of the more generic Japanese-looking restaurants, ordered up some noodles and rice, and found to our gleeful delight that we could smoke inside! It was a good meal :)
So what was the plan? Well, Denise and I decided we would use up our Tower Records vouchers. We marched down to Shinjuku station where all the major stores were located and proceeded up to scour for our CDs. At first, we thought that Tower Records was located at Takashimaya Times Square. Words can not even begin to describe how much bigger it was (though I know a lot of women say that about me too :) ) than the one we have here. We also found the Books Kinokuniya and HMV, but no sign of Tower Records. After walking around for more than an hour or so, and Denise picking up a couple of really nice tops from this basement factory outlet, and various Japanese traditional desserts from the delicious basement, we found out that it was way over on the other side of Shinjuku station. Heh, silly us :)
Check this: The Tower Records there is a whopping SEVEN storeys high! The same goes for the Books Kinokuniya and HMV there as well. Here's the most peculiar thing: While in the DVD section, we saw them promoting a DVD on cats. They were showing shots of it on the TV screen, and basically, all there was to this "movie" was of a day in the life of a cat. That's it. A cat eating. A cat sleeping. A cat playing with a ball. A cat playing with another rubber toy. And the best part is? There's more than one episode. If you don't believe me, check it out here. I guess it doesn't take a whole lot to entertain the Japanese public...
We finally narrowed our selection down to 3 CDs. DJ Shadow's "Endtroducing...", Sergio Mendes's "Timeless", and Zero 7's "The Garden". Here's another thing we noticed: Did you know that American imports are cheaper than the Japanese releases? For example, you had the American import of the new Pearl Jam album going for at least $10 less than the version covered with Japanese text (which was going for around $30+). Curiouser and curiouser...
After we finished using up our coupons, we decided to take a breather and grab a cup of coffee. The nearest place we saw serving was a Starbucks. If I recall correctly, Denise ordered a caramel latte, and I decided to be adventurous and order a white chocolate macchiato. HOLY SWEET MOTHER OF CRAP, that had to be the BEST cup of coffee I've ever had in my LIFE. This is how good it was: Denise, who hates white chocolate, loved it as well, and could NOT get enough of it. Words can not even begin to describe how good it was. The balance of flavours, the texture, the body, everything! It was just perfect! And now, to this day, I dream about that one cup of coffee *sighs*
Oops, it was getting late, and we had to be getting back to the hotel to get ready. Oh, didn't I mention? Tonight was when we'd get to meet Tom Cruise :) We hurried back and washed up and changed, and met up with the rest of the winners in the lobby at around 5:45pm. Looking sharp, we headed down to Cinema Mediage in Odaiba Marine Park, where we would be meeting the man himself, and watching the movie.
So this was supposed to be where the trip climaxed. Denise and I had been standing at the VIP lobby for at least 60 minutes since we had arrived, and we were getting a tad impatient (to say the least). And we weren't the only ones. Huddled together in a group were the other nine pairs of contest winners.
People from American, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Korea, Poland, Mexico, and Sweden, all standing shoulder to shoulder. Mind you, it sure as hell wasn't in an effort to keep warm. We had been told by the kind organizers that Mr. Cruise would breeze in, stand up in front, have his picture taken, and leave. To get us together was to waste less of his time. So we stood and shuffled our feet, making small jokes on who would stick up donkey ears behind him, and wondering just how tall he would really be :)
Then, without warning, he arrived. Tom Cruise walked right in, all smiles and cheer. He came towards our group, hands outstretched, shaking the hands of the guys in our group, while giving big bear hugs to the girls, all the time asking each of us where we were from, and how we were. My very first thought? “Wow, he doesn’t look as short as I’d imagine him to be.” My second thought got lost amidst the stampede that was the other contest winners...
As the rest of the group swarmed forward to get his autograph (or basically just touch him), I hung back a bit first, since there was just way too many people surrounding him. As I looked around, I suddenly noticed that coming up from behind were J. J. Abrams and Keri Russel, director and co-star of Mission Impossible III respectively! Seeing an opening, I made my way up to them, grabbing a random pen from someones pocket and quickly asked them each for an autograph, while telling them how much I loved their work on television. Conveniently enough, when the others finally noticed them, the dust around Tom settled a little, and I made my way towards him to ask for an autograph as well.
While giving me his signature, I asked him how he was holding up, and how he managed to remain so energetic. He replied in a sincere fashion that he just loved what he did. The opportunity to meet different people, and meeting the fans that had given him so much support. It was weird that 10 minutes ago, we had been making fun of him, but the moment he walked in, all jokes evaporated. Seriously, you cannot help but like him. He oozes charisma and charm. (Denise and I agreed later that it was an alien mind trick. He worships them doesn't he?) A girl from the American pair was sobbing like a baby at meeting him. The team from Korea did not speak much English, but their schoolgirl giggles spoke for themselves. Denise was quite content with the hug she received :)
After another five minutes, it was over, and we all went into the theater to catch the movie. In regards to how I felt after finally letting the experience sink in, I will say this much: He’s the first person I have seen who can pull off wearing a completely white outfit without looking like a golfer. Or a pimp :)
Honestly, I really enjoyed the movie, though I felt it ended a little too abruptly for me. All in all, I found it to be a good combination of the first and second Mission Impossible movies. One thing about the cinema though: The sound was AMAZING. The clarity and balance it had was better than anything I've ever heard. From what I hear, that was supposed to be the best cinema in Japan, so it wasn't entirely surprising.
We all headed back to the hotel, and we were starving. When we arrived at the hotel, Scott, the liason for MTV Korea asked if we'd like to join them, as they were heading to a Japanese restaurant near our hotel for food and a drink. We agreed, but decided to wait for our liason first. Once we had all assembled, we headed down to the restaurant, and found with Scott the Korean team, the MTV Japan liason, and the Japanese team. There, we hungrily tucked into our food, and Denise finally had her sashimi (which, come to think of it, we were surprised we didn't decide to have earlier in our trip). So after the food was done, came the copious amounts of beer, and yummy sake :) We were entertained with stories (and translations) by Scott. Check this: Scott is an American caucasian. Yet, he speaks the most fluent Japanese and Korean. Between the Korean and Japanese teams, he was switching back and forth effortlessly. Both teams commented on how he spoke as if he was native to the two countries as well. I had mad respect for him.
Jesus, was it already around 3 in the morning? We still had some more sight-seeing to do the next morning, before our flight back to Singapore in the afternoon. So quite happily, we returned to the hotel and passed out in a very content slumber...
Finally, the last chapter in the Tokyo saga, coming next! (or soon, at least)
Day 3 (June 20, 2006)
Okay, we overslept, but sweet God it had been a long day yesterday. Think it was around 11 that we finally dragged ourselves out of bed. We realised that we had to make up for lost time. We decided we didn't want to waste time scouring the streets of Shinjuku for a restaurant, so we headed down to the basement, where there were restaurants aplenty for the office crowd that made up the bottom half of the Park Hyatt (which was the Shinjuku Park Tower). After walking a couple of rounds, we popped into one of the more generic Japanese-looking restaurants, ordered up some noodles and rice, and found to our gleeful delight that we could smoke inside! It was a good meal :)
So what was the plan? Well, Denise and I decided we would use up our Tower Records vouchers. We marched down to Shinjuku station where all the major stores were located and proceeded up to scour for our CDs. At first, we thought that Tower Records was located at Takashimaya Times Square. Words can not even begin to describe how much bigger it was (though I know a lot of women say that about me too :) ) than the one we have here. We also found the Books Kinokuniya and HMV, but no sign of Tower Records. After walking around for more than an hour or so, and Denise picking up a couple of really nice tops from this basement factory outlet, and various Japanese traditional desserts from the delicious basement, we found out that it was way over on the other side of Shinjuku station. Heh, silly us :)
Check this: The Tower Records there is a whopping SEVEN storeys high! The same goes for the Books Kinokuniya and HMV there as well. Here's the most peculiar thing: While in the DVD section, we saw them promoting a DVD on cats. They were showing shots of it on the TV screen, and basically, all there was to this "movie" was of a day in the life of a cat. That's it. A cat eating. A cat sleeping. A cat playing with a ball. A cat playing with another rubber toy. And the best part is? There's more than one episode. If you don't believe me, check it out here. I guess it doesn't take a whole lot to entertain the Japanese public...
We finally narrowed our selection down to 3 CDs. DJ Shadow's "Endtroducing...", Sergio Mendes's "Timeless", and Zero 7's "The Garden". Here's another thing we noticed: Did you know that American imports are cheaper than the Japanese releases? For example, you had the American import of the new Pearl Jam album going for at least $10 less than the version covered with Japanese text (which was going for around $30+). Curiouser and curiouser...
After we finished using up our coupons, we decided to take a breather and grab a cup of coffee. The nearest place we saw serving was a Starbucks. If I recall correctly, Denise ordered a caramel latte, and I decided to be adventurous and order a white chocolate macchiato. HOLY SWEET MOTHER OF CRAP, that had to be the BEST cup of coffee I've ever had in my LIFE. This is how good it was: Denise, who hates white chocolate, loved it as well, and could NOT get enough of it. Words can not even begin to describe how good it was. The balance of flavours, the texture, the body, everything! It was just perfect! And now, to this day, I dream about that one cup of coffee *sighs*
Oops, it was getting late, and we had to be getting back to the hotel to get ready. Oh, didn't I mention? Tonight was when we'd get to meet Tom Cruise :) We hurried back and washed up and changed, and met up with the rest of the winners in the lobby at around 5:45pm. Looking sharp, we headed down to Cinema Mediage in Odaiba Marine Park, where we would be meeting the man himself, and watching the movie.
So this was supposed to be where the trip climaxed. Denise and I had been standing at the VIP lobby for at least 60 minutes since we had arrived, and we were getting a tad impatient (to say the least). And we weren't the only ones. Huddled together in a group were the other nine pairs of contest winners.
People from American, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Korea, Poland, Mexico, and Sweden, all standing shoulder to shoulder. Mind you, it sure as hell wasn't in an effort to keep warm. We had been told by the kind organizers that Mr. Cruise would breeze in, stand up in front, have his picture taken, and leave. To get us together was to waste less of his time. So we stood and shuffled our feet, making small jokes on who would stick up donkey ears behind him, and wondering just how tall he would really be :)
Then, without warning, he arrived. Tom Cruise walked right in, all smiles and cheer. He came towards our group, hands outstretched, shaking the hands of the guys in our group, while giving big bear hugs to the girls, all the time asking each of us where we were from, and how we were. My very first thought? “Wow, he doesn’t look as short as I’d imagine him to be.” My second thought got lost amidst the stampede that was the other contest winners...
As the rest of the group swarmed forward to get his autograph (or basically just touch him), I hung back a bit first, since there was just way too many people surrounding him. As I looked around, I suddenly noticed that coming up from behind were J. J. Abrams and Keri Russel, director and co-star of Mission Impossible III respectively! Seeing an opening, I made my way up to them, grabbing a random pen from someones pocket and quickly asked them each for an autograph, while telling them how much I loved their work on television. Conveniently enough, when the others finally noticed them, the dust around Tom settled a little, and I made my way towards him to ask for an autograph as well.
While giving me his signature, I asked him how he was holding up, and how he managed to remain so energetic. He replied in a sincere fashion that he just loved what he did. The opportunity to meet different people, and meeting the fans that had given him so much support. It was weird that 10 minutes ago, we had been making fun of him, but the moment he walked in, all jokes evaporated. Seriously, you cannot help but like him. He oozes charisma and charm. (Denise and I agreed later that it was an alien mind trick. He worships them doesn't he?) A girl from the American pair was sobbing like a baby at meeting him. The team from Korea did not speak much English, but their schoolgirl giggles spoke for themselves. Denise was quite content with the hug she received :)
After another five minutes, it was over, and we all went into the theater to catch the movie. In regards to how I felt after finally letting the experience sink in, I will say this much: He’s the first person I have seen who can pull off wearing a completely white outfit without looking like a golfer. Or a pimp :)
Honestly, I really enjoyed the movie, though I felt it ended a little too abruptly for me. All in all, I found it to be a good combination of the first and second Mission Impossible movies. One thing about the cinema though: The sound was AMAZING. The clarity and balance it had was better than anything I've ever heard. From what I hear, that was supposed to be the best cinema in Japan, so it wasn't entirely surprising.
We all headed back to the hotel, and we were starving. When we arrived at the hotel, Scott, the liason for MTV Korea asked if we'd like to join them, as they were heading to a Japanese restaurant near our hotel for food and a drink. We agreed, but decided to wait for our liason first. Once we had all assembled, we headed down to the restaurant, and found with Scott the Korean team, the MTV Japan liason, and the Japanese team. There, we hungrily tucked into our food, and Denise finally had her sashimi (which, come to think of it, we were surprised we didn't decide to have earlier in our trip). So after the food was done, came the copious amounts of beer, and yummy sake :) We were entertained with stories (and translations) by Scott. Check this: Scott is an American caucasian. Yet, he speaks the most fluent Japanese and Korean. Between the Korean and Japanese teams, he was switching back and forth effortlessly. Both teams commented on how he spoke as if he was native to the two countries as well. I had mad respect for him.
Jesus, was it already around 3 in the morning? We still had some more sight-seeing to do the next morning, before our flight back to Singapore in the afternoon. So quite happily, we returned to the hotel and passed out in a very content slumber...
Finally, the last chapter in the Tokyo saga, coming next! (or soon, at least)
