Tokyo

I left home at 3 o’clock, our son Adnan cried and seemed not willing to let me go. I gave a kiss both to Aisha and Adnan, and of course my beloved wife, Dewi, and closed the door. I still could hear Adnan’s screaming from outside of the house when stepped out.

It took about an hour to reach Shin Osaka station and fortunately I still could catch shinkansen Nozomi No.32 at exactly 4:00 PM. The seat next to me was empty and some others are too. This weekend is not so crowded because no special events in february or march. I am sure shinkansen will not be this way on april or may in the golden week.

The bullet train took a brief stop at Kyoto, Nagoya, Shin Yokohama, Shinagawa before I stepped out of the train at 6:33 PM. Typical Japan, exactly on time! Very comfortable short trip.

This is my first Tokyo in 2009, the last time I came was 8 years ago, 2001 december when I paid a visit to a friend, Heri Kusendang and Yayat (where are you guys?). I remembered nothing about this most crowded city in Japan except the humid air and many foreigner faces even to compare to Kobe or Osaka.

Some India-looks-faces-people carefully watch my faces when I sat in bar counter in a family restaurant next to hotel I stay. They probably examine whether I am an India or not and finally conclude “I am not” because they quickly move out of the restaurant without saying any words. I  ordered a crab casserole (they say 蟹ドリア=”kani doria” in japanese) after confirmed that they don’t put any meats inside the meal. The staff seems to get used to foreigners’ special order which refrain from eating some ingridients although they probably do not understand why. I was once asked by a japanese colleague at work, “why don’t you eat pork? Is it because you treat pig as a holy animal?” I just smiled at that time and explained that we don’t consume pork because it is one of Islam’s rule. The reasons are still God’s secrets, but we do believe that there must be some reasons if it is forbidden to consume the meats.

I finished my dinner and stopped by Lawson’s buying coffee & milk for tomorrow, a morning without Dewi’s made coffe.

Tomorrow is company’s open house for this year’s recruitment. I hope we can get best candidates to work for Mandom Corporation and continue the tradition of our company.