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     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)