Tokyo Trip Afterthoughts...

Like all business trip schedules, this recent trip to Tokyo consisted of the usual routine of movement between hotel, office and restaurant. But this time, six reasons made a great difference to the trip.

Firstly, this visit to Toyota Tokyo Office provided me with the opportunity to meet up with several ex-colleagues when I was in the Asian operations. It was great to see them again, especially Ms. Satake, my Japanese counterpart for several years.

Secondly, I got to eat puffer fish for the first time! That evening I visited my ex-colleagues, Ms. Satake, Ms. Hirai and Ms. Kono invited me for dinner at a nearby restaurant that specializes in puffer fish. The dinner course was served with puffer fish skin appertiser (it tasted better than it sounds), sashimi and the main course,'nabe'(raw meat and vegetables cooked in a pot of boiling soup). We finished the meal with a cup of sake flavoured with grilled fin. The dinner was really good.









Third and surprisingly, I could still carry the entire dinner conversation in Japanese, although not without much help from my hosts. I'm out of practice for months.

Fourth, a colleague fron African operations invited some of us to Karaoke on our last night in Tokyo. We did horrible off-keyed renditions of English pop music but had a great time.

Fifth, we had a few hours of free time before our departure flight back to Lebanon on the last day. We decided to ride the roller coaster in the amusement park of Tokyo Dome City. After which we visited Shinjuku for shopping.

Sixth, I had the chance to shop for stuff for cooking like tsuyu, wasabi, soba noodles, and morinaga chocolates. Now I can prepare some donburi and noodles for my meals.

In Shinjuku, I learnt that the game 'Final Fantasy 12' is due in the stores soon. I stopped playing since Final Fantasy 8. Now, it really started to sound oxy-moronic, just when are they going to release the final 'Final Fantasy'?