The second week was primarily spent working. I'm talkin' 12+ hour days... The cycle basically became:
- Wake up at 0700
- Eat
- Catch the 0800 Azusa Limited Express train to Tachikawa
- Start meetings at 0900
- Eat lunch at 1200
- Work until 2100
- Eat dinner/take the Chuo Line back to Shinjuku
- Catch up on other work.
- Sleep
- Repeat
On Sunday, I checked out of the old classy hotel
...and checked into the fresh new place where the rest of the project team was staying
1.5-years in the making...
Fried Chicken Ramen joint that I found near Shinjuku Sanchome Station
My favorite conveyor belt sushi restaurant (located under Shinjuku station's Central West Exit)
Catching the last Chuo Line train from Tachikawa
Shinjuku Station Tunnel to the Tokyo Metropolitan Govt Building. I've never seen it so empty...
The end of the Cherry Blossom Festivals wrecked havoc on hotel choices this time around, and we wound up in the Roppongi area for the first week of the meetings. The hotel was next to the US Embassy, and it was pretty nice. There were tons of special police (with reallly long batons) walking around and getting ready for the Obama-san visit...
Meanwhile, there were hundreds of small side streets around the hotel with cross walk signals, which made jaywalking very tempting. However, knowing that Tokyo Police had beatdown sticks, and did this, I ended up crossing streets only when appropriate. ^FACT CHECK - There were actually only three crosswalks...
The first week was spent witnessing some testing that our supplier was running. Somewhere in the middle of the week, my co-worker realized that there was a Yomiuri Giants vs Tokyo Swallows series in progress. We went to a Family Mart to get tickets, and luckily, the kid that worked there spoke Chinese. She helped us navigate the universal ticket machine at the store.
Thus, we ended up at Jingu Stadium, one of the oldest baseball stadiums in the world (Babe Ruth played there!). It was probably one of my most favorite things ever. Beers were had, and takoyaki and yakitori were devoured.
The left/right fields were reserved for the cheering clubs from each team. Each club would cheer when their team was on offense (think of a friendly European football chants). We chose the home side purely by accident, and it was fanfreakingtastic. All the cheers were in Japanese, except for the expat they got from the MLB. They reserved "LET'S GO, BALENTIEN!" for him.
Here's some footage from the stadium:
On Friday, my co-worker left for the airport to head back to Seattle. After work, I ventured off to Roppongi Hills to check out the Andy Warhol exhibit at the Mori Art Museum. Similar to other Japanese museums, photography was prohibited. They did allow shots of his BMW M1 Art Car, though, which made me very happy. ^hot stuff
dat wing.
On Saturday, I went to the Tsukiji Fish Market and had myself a little sushi breakfast. So oishi.
So oishi
Such oishi
Much oishi
Oishi
Afterwards, I visited one of my favorite photo stops, Yodobashi Camera. They have new lenses sitting around, so I tried out some of the new Zeiss offerings. They were alright.. ^FE 24-70mm f/4.0
Then it was off to my favorite udon stand. There was a short line. I patiently waited.
In the evening, I met up with some friends in Northern Tokyo
What does one do after waking up from a lovely jet lag induced nap at 7:30pm? Process some photos and post them, obviously.
Exactly half of April was spent in Tokyo. How was it spent? Well, on airplanes, trains, in assembly lines and conference rooms, and with some excellent colleagues and friends.
Time warp at SeaTac
The first leg of the trip was spent on an old AS B737. I had reserved a window seat up front, but was somehow bumped into the middle seat of the last freaking row. It probably had something to do with the fact that I didn't check in until 2-minutes before check-in for the flight closed.
Lesson learned...
At least I got my 0.5-oz bag of pretzels and got to chat with the line of people waiting for the lavatories. Fab stories were shared.
A: "Doesn't this suck?"
B: "Yeah, totally."
Just kidding, I only chatted with the person seated next to me. He was an engineer and we had the same work computer. The convo went more like this:
A: "Oh dear god, the Dell Precision M4600?! why are you lugging that brick of lead around?"
B: "It's my work computer"
A: "My condolences."
B: "Thank you."
Things got a lil better at LAX. My next flight required me to check-in at the new Tom Bradley International Terminal. It was pretty hyped up earlier this year, and I was expecting greatness similar to SIN, BKK, or HKG. Well, it's still a work in progress as everything before the terminal is still under construction, but at least they had some neat art installation.
But boy, the Star Alliance lounge was nice. All airports should have alliance lounges; rather than airline lounges. ^Overheard in the dining area: Tell her that she can't eat dirt!
Remember that old and busted 737? Check out this shiny new hotness. I know, I know, I'm a fan of locally sourced airplanes, and I had stayed faithful for about 2.5-years...but EXCEPTIONS MUST BE MADE! LAX reallllly needs to clean its windows...
The other exciting part? It was an SQ flight.
When I took my seat, I realized we were in a line of A380's from LH, AF, and EK. It was a pretty impressive sight to see. Unfortunately, the windows on the upper deck are pretty small and have a crazy amount of space between the inner window and the outside of the plane, so getting any sort of photo is tough. Oh well...
The flight had some pretty rad movies. Despicable Me II was great. As was that orange juice. Also the sock/booties. Movie reviews will come later.
The LED lighting scenes were a nice touch. The interior could have used some wash lights on the bins though. One realllllly cool thing = the bins have a motorized assist mechanism that activates when you close them.
Other exceptions? Photos of food. I don't take photos of my food... unless I'm on an airplane, and the meal was prepared in a fancy airplane kitchen. ^Seared lamb in black pepper sauce. Those Steam Ovens work!
The SQ galleys also had Iacobucci Espresso Makers, so cappuccinos were consumed with my ice cream and macarons.
After dinner service, I started wandering around the airplane. The lead flight attendant asked if I wanted a photo of my seat, but I explained that I was curious about their galleys. While they didn't allow me to take any photos of their galleys, one of the flight attendants took me on a tour of them. The AFT galleys were RIDICULOUSLY LARGE. And the amount of ovens downstairs was also crazy. Also, cart lifts were used. All very neat!
We talked shop, they complained about stuff, and praised the 777 :-D
I didn't snap too many photos of the cabin, but I did snap this shot in the FWD upper deck lavatory, cuz it's also huge, like so many things on this plane...
When we landed at NRT, there was another A380 ready for the next segment of NRT-SIN.
FFWD 15 days. On my return leg, I found a nice area to planespot.
There was also a neat Japanese painting of triple deck jumbos. Check out those onsen!
The jetway had some pretty nice views of the plane
