Tokyo

The last stop, at least for now...

Or is it?

I met with Bill and Stephane last night, and it all went really well. The position has expanded from being a South East Asia Operations Lead to APAC Operations Lead, which is, obviously, a larger role, and I should be getting an offer this week. I could even potentially be starting as early as August 1, in Singapore!

I just sent them a list of things I'd like included in the package, something that, strangely, I'd never done before. If it all comes through, I should be a pretty happy little fella. I shouldn't jinx myself, but I think I've got a pretty good chance at getting everything I want.

So, it could be Singapore in 10 days... and I even told them about Roger and Vero's wedding in Italy that I'd like to go to end of August, which they were fine about.

Tokyo was just as crazy as I'd expected it to be, though it it wasn't as alien as I was expecting. Certain things were in English, and there was some level of spoken English too. There were more recognizable Chinese characters than I'd expected too. But, I was disappointed to not see vending machines for the wild and wacky (e.g. used panties) . Staying in Shinjuku, a red light district was just as colourful as Manchiu and Makiko had promised. Love hotels, 'gentlemen's clubs', aggressive touts, and curtains that hid kinkiness for sale from plain view. Girls in crazy gothic outfits with ghostly pale makeup. Punks with tatoos and piercings. Intricate hair-gelled dos all around, and plenty of cowboy boots. All this of course mixed with the ubiquitous suited and brief-cased salary-man.

It rained almost the entire time was there, but I managed to wander around Shinjuku as soon as I'd dropped my bag off at the hotel. I searched for ages for just the right kind of place to have some dinner; would it be sushi, deep fried goodies, noodles, tepanyaki, Japanese curry. You can see how making a choice was hard! Eventually, I settled for a little sushi place, nestled between a couple of nightspots for the lonely male. It was also interesting to see clubs where women go to talk to, and be flattered and flirted with, hosts: handsome young fellas that I couldn't help but call rent boys (the customers were definitely women though).

Well, I've only got a minute left, so I'll wrap it up.

Until the next stop, adios!