pakdoktergolfblog: A Family Reunion in Tokyo...

Raena, despite starting work just 4 months ago, was able to take a 2-weeks vacation, stretching just before Christmas through the New Year. And she was lucky to be able to fly home as the severe winter storms had earlier closed down so many European airports including Edinburgh and London Heathrow.

Rastam, on the other hand, was only able to get a 4-day long weekend break for the New Year and had to cancel his original plan to return home.

As pakdokter's children have not met for the last 2 years, pakdokter and partner decided that we should all meet up for a Family Reunion in Tokyo.

Tokyo winter , like everywhere else probably, was quite cold this year. When we touched down at Narita at 7 am , its temperature was reportedly -4 degrees Celcius. The cold wind was biting on the face and ears. The only missing element was the snow.

We took the Airport Limousine bus to Tokyo Station which cost 3000 yen each. Pakdokter slept through most of the journey due to the interrupted sleep on the plane as breakfast was served at 4 am when pakdokter had just slept for 2 hours at the most.

We found some empty left-luggage cabinets at the Tokyo Station and woke Rastam up ( who was still sleeping at 9am that morning after a late night out at his company's year-end party at a 'racy' joint in Roppongi) to meet us at Shibuya, as pakdokter had to take him to the Malaysian Embassy to have some legal documents signed and witnessed by the Consel Officer of the Embassy.

Rastam at the Hachiko Monument in Shibuya....

We met up at the Hachiko Monument of Shibuya - of the the famed ''Dog and Professor" story which had been made into a movie starring Richard Gere. This place is also one of the most popular landmark/trademark of Tokyo - the hundreds of pedestrians crossing the streets in all directions everytime the traffic lights went red......

We went for a quick lunch at the 'Pepper Lunch' restaurant where all of us had their signature beef steak and rice set meal. Pakdokter noticed that there were quite a lot of Indonesian customers in the restaurant as well as on the streets - a reflection of the fact that Indonesia is now one of the strongest emerging economies in the world today.......

After lunch pakdokter and Rastam walked to the Malaysian Embassy, ony to discover that we could only sign our documents during the morning working session. So we would have to return tomorrow morning.

We rejoined the ladies who had already started shopping in Shibuya and finally went back to Tokyo Station to retrieve our luggage and took a taxi to Shimbashi where Rastam had booked 2 rooms for us at the Shimbashi Super Hotel. We had stayed at this chain of low-cost hotel when we toured Hakodate in Hokkaido last autumn and was happy with its service and facilities. Although the rroms were small, they were adequate and we would not complain considering the price and the location. This one in Shimbashi is just a 5-minute wak from the JR train station on the main Yamanote Circle Line. You can go to most of the main sites of Tokyo on this line.