Chachu's column #23:  Made in Japan

(continued from CC#22..)

"What do I have to do here?" I would ask my Japanese client.
"What can you do here?" would be the terse reply.

These two questions would set the tone for the rest of my month long stay in Japan. Even after my return, when my colleagues asked the purpose of my trip, I would not be able to give them a reasonable answer. While the ambiguities over the purpose of my trip continued, the stay provided ample opportunity to have a first hand look of Japan.

The weekdays were hectic, with very little spare time to do or see anything else. The only amusement I got was my regular visits to Sega amusement centre. The centre had many coin-operated machines in which you had to move a level horizontally and vertically; the goal was to catch a soft toy in the lever using two motions of the lever. For each game, one had to put 200Yen (80Rs). I thought the game was very costly given the low probabilities of winning. I won once and put an end to such amusements. Still, not to deprive myself of these pleasures, I went there almost every second day and cheered the potential winners who tried their luck with the machine. Some of them disliked my presence in close proximity, while others cheered my cheering. Anyways, I maintained a distance so as to avoid affronting someone's privacy. Apart from game centers, there was the popular pachinko centres. These were a type of casinos, where people smoked and played like maniacs. I too made many rounds to various pachinko centers around my hotel. Despite numerous attempts, I could not understand the objective of the game. Once, I brought coins worth 500Yen (200Rs), but soon found them worthless. When I went to return the gaming coins for money, I was flatly refused. I was told that gambling was illegal in Japan and there was no way the gaming coins could be exchanged into hard cash. Some research into the subject provided interesting facts. Almost thirty million Japanese played Pachinko. Though gambling was illegal, there were means to get the loot converted into hard cash. An average pachinko centre had about 100 to 200 gaming machines. At any given time, almost seventy percent of the machines were occupied with people having tons of loot near their seat.

The first weekend saw me in Akihabara, the Electronics capital of Japan (and probably the world). My company colleagues visiting Japan felt it customary to stuff themselves with the electronic goodies offered by the country. The longer the stay, the better the stuff. A week's stay at Japan allowed one to buy a simple camera. Extend it to one month and you could pocket a digital camera. Three months stay allowed you to buy a Sony handicam. The 'Made in Japan' tag was much sought after. Japan epitomized quality and the tag 'Made in Japan' a guarantee that the stuff could be taken without much deliberation. However, much to our surprise, the Japanese superstores were flooded with goods from Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea and Taiwan. The 'Made in Japan' tag was hard to find. We later came to know the reasons. Japanese items were too costly for the ordinary Japanese. Thus, while countries like US of A savoured Japanese delicacies, we had to be content with products of Southeast Asian countries. I too brought a digital camera. Immediately, the analog camera was relegated to some remote corner of the suitcase and was not used since then. Apart from cameras and handicams, the battery-sized MP3 players were also very popular. The Japanese were seen sporting the designer headphones in the local trains. The other end of the wire attached to the miniature MP3 player was buried deep inside the pocket. Walkmans were getting obsolete very quickly.

The second weekend saw me in Tokyo Disneyland. By train, Disneyland was an hour away from our hotel. The mass rapid transport system offered by Japanese Railway (JR) was easily one of the best in the world. The clocks could be set by using the arrival time of the trains. The frequency of trains varied from every two minutes to every twenty minutes (depending upon the hour of the day, the passenger load and direction of travel). We too used the trains to commute to our client's office. Our journey was always against the flow. In the morning, when everyone headed for Tokyo, we went in the opposite direction. Similarly, at night, when the tired souls returned to the suburbs, we moved towards Tokyo in near empty trains. The local trains, which we used, moved at speeds of 140kmph (the speed of the fastest train of India - Rajdhani). The express trains moved at twice the speeds. It was a phenomenal sight to see the express trains whiz past us while we stood on the railway platforms. The railway stations too were no less than a tourist spot.

Almost every big station had shopping malls and food courts associated with them. Multi-level railway lines were quite common, with up to 3 levels of train running one over other. All the important places were well connected by the JR network. A first time visitor was always awe struck by the efficiency with which the system worked. While I was in Japan, there was a major train accident in India. After the accident, when a senior executive of Indian Railways was quizzed about the frequent rail accidents in India, he said that Indian railways was the best in the world; just that the gigantic size made it vulnerable to occasional accidents. (Once during a rail journey when I asked my client whether there were rail accidents in Japan, he said they do occur but they were rare. I wonder what is rare? Once in six months or a year or a decade or more?)

Returning to Disneyland resort, a visit to Japan was deemed incomplete without going to the Disneyland. I added to this maxim - 'the upbringing of kids was incomplete without regular visits to Disneyland'. The resort was right next to a railway station so reaching there was not a problem. The first reaction at the sight the Disneyland resort was that of wonderment. Once inside, there was no end to fun and enjoyment. It was a weekend and it seemed the whole Japan had poured on to the resort. (While it seemed that more than a lakh person had come there, some research pointed out that the resort had 18million visitors annually. This translated into 3.5lakh persons every week or about fifty thousand daily). Even though we reached there at around nine, we knew that we would not be able to see the whole resort. The resort was divided into many areas, each catering to a particular theme, like timberland and cartoonland for example. Entry fee was about 2000 rupees and all rides inside the resort were free. Just that one did not have enough time to take all the rides. Each ride had a long queue, which was followed diligently. Despite the queues, no one bothered to jump queues or take shortcuts. Apart from the rides, long queues could be seen at every stall, be it for popcorn or for ice cream. (This aspect was visible throughout the stay in Japan. Only once did I see two brawny men violating the queue and buying some goods. The man in front of queue was ill equipped to tackle this situation. He kept quiet. On my return, when I was in a queue for buying a ticket for a movie, I saw a parallel queue formed. I asked the last person to stand in queue; the man obliged. Then, two more people joined the queue. When I persuaded them to form a queue, they refused. Note that this was the most happening mall to grace the land of Gurgaon. But malls did not teach civic sense, nor did money. When the line moved and I raised my voice again, the offenders were chided by the cinema staff. They then agreed to follow the queue but refused to move; they said they would wait there till their turn came. When my turn came and I purchased the ticket, they said that I was a DON. I did not reply.)

Five of us had gone to the Disneyland and since four of them had a camera, about a quarter of our time went in taking photographs. Those who had digital cameras did not bother to reload the reels. Only battery required attention. The whole day went like that - taking rides, seeing a 3D movie, standing in long queues, eating French fries and drinking coca-cola. In the afternoon at around three o'clock, there was day parade, which was quite similar to the one we have in Delhi on Republic day. From two o'clock, people spread their mats on grounds and took prime positions to watch the parade. Many of them were seen fixing their tripods to shoot photographs and movies. Since we were not the early bird, we did not get the worm. The rear position implied that many photos got disrupted by the flowing hairs and hands of people. Nonetheless, we managed a few good photos (see web links for URL of photo uploaded on the net).

In this night too, there was a cracker show followed by a night parade. The parade saw men and chariots, decorated with lights, waltzing across the narrow course of the resort. Apart from cameras and handicam, the mobile cameras were also in vogue. (It was said that mobile cameras had provided impetus to a stagnating cellular industry. About half of the 120 million Japanese had a cell phone. Almost all phones had a coloured screen with facility to send and receive emails. The I-mode service, provide by leading operator NTT Docomo had the lion's share of the subscriber base. The third generation mobile phones too had made an entry in Japan. In fact, Japan was the first country to launch third generation mobile services.)

At about ten in the night, we left Disneyland, tired and exhausted, but fully entertained.

The third weekend saw me in Odaiba, an island resort located in heart of Tokyo. The place offered huge shopping malls, a science museum, an artificial beach and plenty of food. An automatic, overhead train took us to Odaiba. There, we did some shopping, went to a museum and ate burgers and French-fries.

As time and money ran out, I decided not to go anywhere in the last weekend. Though there were temptations like Mt. Fuji, Sea paradise resort and a place that had replicas of Seven Wonders of the World, I left them for another visit to the Oriental superpower. Luckily, the last weekend saw a major festival in our suburb. The street in front of the hotel was transformed into a mela, lined by stalls on both sides. The stalls offered noodles, see food, fruits and a host of other delicacies. There were amusements for kids who could pay a small amount to catch few fishes to keep them as pets. Then there was
a parade, dance programs and groups that played excellent percussion instruments. Our hotel owner offered to be our guide. She took us to various programs, which we thoroughly enjoyed. In the festival, I desperately longed for papri-chat and gol-gappas but none could be found. I had to be content with noodles and pine-apple.

As time for my return drew nearer, I become quite excited. On the very last day of my stay, when a farewell party for my return was scheduled, the system our company delivered to our client stopped working. I could identify the location of the problem but could not solve it. The client's client was take our system back to Europe and it became very critical for the system to be up and running. Even after two hours of brainstorming did not solve the problem. Then I suggested the system be  uninstalled and re-installed. The idea bore fruit and the system came up. Soon after, another problem came, which too was solved only minutes before we were to leave for our party. Sanity had been regained and we went for my farewell party.
In the party, the client wore a different demeanour. We exchanged lot of pleasantries. When the party was over and I thanked them, they said, "Come back again!"