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Thursday, December 23, 2010

JAPANESE HOSPITALITY

A few days before our Japan trip, I purposely planned to play golf with Emi (a newly found Japanese) so that I can take the opportunity to learn a few Japanese words and get some travel tips from her. She warned me that most Japanese will shy away when asked either for directions or information. Since it came from a Japanese, I took that quiet seriously and did a lot more research on transportation, places to go to etc. than I would normally have done before any other trip. Despite that, we still needed a lot of help when we got there.
TOKYO STATION

Upon arrival from Narita airport, with minimal Japanese (non-existent actually), we managed to get to Tokyo all by ourselves until we got to the metro stations. Tokyo metro stations are more complex than what I am used to - London, New York, even Moscow subway was easier to understand!
While trying to figure out how it all worked, a Japanese gentleman approached us and asked whether he could help us. We jumped at the opportunity but didn't expect him to spend more than 30 minutes helping us. But he did.
He managed to get us the refund for the tickets that we wrongly bought, showed us the office where we can get a day pass and even brought us to the platform where we were supposed to catch the train to our hotel in Hanzomon. What a guy! I couldn't help but request to take a photo with him for I could never repay his kindness, but I hope the photo will remind me of his hospitality so that I can offer him a prayer of good health and wealth.



KYOTO STATION

It was so big that we couldn't even figure out how best to get out of the station. I left Franco and Tasha with the luggage and started scouting for someone to assist us. Armed with just a smile and the name of the hotel, I spotted this young Japanese guy. He had no idea where the hotel was but he was with us good 15 minutes to help us figure out the direction to the hotel. When we parted ways, we wished him the best of luck in his boxing career.




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