Day 3: I fell in love with the Japanese people

I have always liked the Japanese. They are polite, soft spoken and pretty nice to me (I think mostly because I usually look lost and I can work pretty impressive doggy eyes in times of need). But today I realized they are seriously, I mean Seriously Sweet people!

This morning I left Kobe and took a flight to Tokyo. I had to take a bus from the Tokyo airport to the meeting venue. Usually there is a ticket vending machine at the bus stop. Having found none, I waited for the bus, assuming that I can pay the driver directly which is sometimes the practice. When the bus arrived, the driver asked me for the ticket. I was like... er... I dont have one because there is no machine around but I would be more than happy to pay him the money and get my ticket. Obviously language was a barrier but after gesticulating for approximately 4 minutes, I got him to understand what I was trying to say. He replied, "3000 Yen". I took out the cash and gave it to him. He called an airport official standing around there and talked to him. That guy took the cash from the driver and ran off!

I must say I was concerned for a few minutes but then the chap came running back waving my ticket, complete with a receipt. They actually helped me buy my ticket (which I should have done myself) from somewhere inside the airport terminal. I mean, who would do that? Definitely not the Indians, or the Singaporeans, or the Europeans or the Americans. The best case in other places would be asking me to get the ticket myself and if am late, requesting me to take the next bus! But no... the Japanese are different.

And the niceties didn't end there. During lunch at the meeting, I casually mentioned that I have a bit of time tomorrow morning to roam around Tokyo...and asked for suggestions on some interesting places to visit. Before I knew it, I was sitting with a folder collated by a colleague, on 5 different options I can explore within the time I have tomorrow morning. Each with travel options and maps. Each with contact details and fares. Each with a list of things to do. The lady gave me an entire folder! All because she wanted me to "have a good time in Tokyo." She even apologized because one of the museums in a garden is not currently operating but the garden itself is nice. Well!

Moving on to other special things that happened today, I discovered that the toilet bowls in Tokyo have an additional "flush sound" button with the picture of a musical note on it. With this you can control the volume of the sound of the flush. Not sure what the practicality of the function is, but I still think they are damn cute and I love the Japanese for their fancy ideas!

Met three very, very nice people - Kenneth, Mariko-san, Shuichi-san who gave me a 8-course Japanese dinner complete with sake.

997 more to go.