It’s a small world…

About a month ago, we got an invitation for a welcome party for a new Singaporean ambassador coming to Japan, Mr Tan (Not me!). I didn’t quite know what to expect from such an event, but the prospect of a free meal dangled like a carrot in my head. So today, it is off to Hotel Otani in Tokyo. The hotel is very near Tokyo Tower and Roppongi, where the Singapore embassy is located. Walking from the train station to the hotel, we spotted familiar places which we walked passed on our previous trek to Tokyo Tower.

When we entered the ballroom, it was as if we were transported back to Singapore. The chatter of Singlish filled the room, and the spread on the tables included Indian curry, Hokkien mee and the likes… Scanning around the room, the first familiar face jumped out at me; Chen Xia, a girl from NTU whom I met at some tutorials. Even tough we hardly spoke during tutorial, we were soon bantering away like long lost old friends. She is working at Sembcorp now, and is on business in Japan with her boss. While munching away at my food, I thought I noticed that a particular smart looking guy with an AC look… and I was right… but what I didn’t realize, was that he was also my trainee before during NS! Soon our little ad-hoc group were joined by more young Singaporeans either studying or working in Japan. It wasn’t long before we found ourselves chatting with Mr Tan (Not me! The ambassador!). The ambassador proved to be a jolly person to speak to, and our conversation topics ranged widely… that was until his attention was drawn away by his secretary who introduced another VIP to him.

With a full stomach and a renewed sense of nationality, we took our group photo with the ambassador and left. We even coerced a promise for a house warming party after the embassy has completed its renovations!

Now we find ourselves out of the hotel and not knowing where to go. Looking at the local map, we decided to head for a prominent temple. The temple grounds were quite large and you can feel an aura of peace and spirituality there.

Temple grounds


Tranquility

Unfortunately, I committed the common tourist sin this time. I came, I looked, I took photos and I still don’t know anything about what, why, when or who built the temple. Even so, I felt quite connected to this temple… to me, it represented the most authentic cultural monument that I have visited so far. From the worn out cobbled stones, I can deduce that this temple has been around for a long time. And I found myself stepping through the main gate several times, trying to picture the view presented to me if I had time traveled several hundred years back, imagining the daily life of the monks then.


I guess that juggling the two roles of work and sightseeing is getting to us, we sat in a small park for another hour before deciding to head home. (I had, in particular, a pretty busy week at work.)