Today was such a wonderful day at Tsukuba.
In true essence of the conference, in the morning I took a 45-minute brisk walk down the park connector just outside the hotel, covering about 5km. I didn’t bring my sports shoes, so I had to walk in my office shoes and office pants, and t-shirt. So it would have looked as if I was hurriedly walking towards a place to do some tai chi.
The park connector was cool, and had both a walking and cycling trail. I went all the way to this park known as Doho park, which, in its heyday in the 70s was probably like botanic gardens. It now remains in neglect, with creepers all over the place and untrimmed plants growing out of crevices. In fact, this sense of neglect and “old-great-civilisation” is what I get throughout Tsukuba. It’s cool.
Once that was done, and once we ended off a some conference lectures and a policy meeting at 2pm, our delegation leader told us that we were off for the day! The other VIP decided to organise a trip to a shopping centre a few stations down for shopping and dinner, and we did just that.
It was a really immersive experience. I had long thought of going to Japan ever since I was smitten with anime on TV six years back. But it was just a “good-to-have”, not a “I’ll die without it!”. Fate had it that I would visit Japan. I breathed in the spirit of the people, environment, their noir technology and “kawa-eeneh” (cuteness) as much as I could. Although I very much missed my wife and son back home, today it felt as if it were a tryst between me and Japan. I have tried to capture as much of this spirit as I could through my photos, which I will put up once I return to Singapore, Insha Allah.
We went to Kashiwanoha station, just 9 stops from Tsukuba station. The train is at least 50% faster than MRTs in Singapore, probably due to the need to cover greater distances.
At Kashiwanoha station, I saw a big fat McDonalds’, and about 20 metres from the station, we saw the place we had come to visit: Lalaport. I have no idea why they named it such, but some of the shops inside gave me a clue – a lot of them were baby/toddler shops. [Just a footnote here: except for Zayed, Japanese babies are the CUTEST creatures on this planet. For a people who just love cuteness, God has blessed them with the cutest of children! Alhamdulillah!]
Lalaport was fantastic – everything Japanese was there, and so were many things from the West. They had really cool mini posters for The Dark Knight, Ironman, Wanted which people could just take. For free.
We had dinner at a restaurant that served only one dish – Japanese eel (unagi). The restaurant had two dedicated waiters and presumably one Master chef, whose sole reason for existence was to make the finest unagi for his customers. A first-time unagi eater, I was pleasantly surprised at its tenderness (tastes just like fish!) and tangy taste of the sauce.
Tomorrow is the final day of the conference, and day 1 of a 2.5-day study trip in Tokyo. The day where I will see my wife and son is coming soon, Insha Allah…
In true essence of the conference, in the morning I took a 45-minute brisk walk down the park connector just outside the hotel, covering about 5km. I didn’t bring my sports shoes, so I had to walk in my office shoes and office pants, and t-shirt. So it would have looked as if I was hurriedly walking towards a place to do some tai chi.
The park connector was cool, and had both a walking and cycling trail. I went all the way to this park known as Doho park, which, in its heyday in the 70s was probably like botanic gardens. It now remains in neglect, with creepers all over the place and untrimmed plants growing out of crevices. In fact, this sense of neglect and “old-great-civilisation” is what I get throughout Tsukuba. It’s cool.
Once that was done, and once we ended off a some conference lectures and a policy meeting at 2pm, our delegation leader told us that we were off for the day! The other VIP decided to organise a trip to a shopping centre a few stations down for shopping and dinner, and we did just that.
It was a really immersive experience. I had long thought of going to Japan ever since I was smitten with anime on TV six years back. But it was just a “good-to-have”, not a “I’ll die without it!”. Fate had it that I would visit Japan. I breathed in the spirit of the people, environment, their noir technology and “kawa-eeneh” (cuteness) as much as I could. Although I very much missed my wife and son back home, today it felt as if it were a tryst between me and Japan. I have tried to capture as much of this spirit as I could through my photos, which I will put up once I return to Singapore, Insha Allah.
We went to Kashiwanoha station, just 9 stops from Tsukuba station. The train is at least 50% faster than MRTs in Singapore, probably due to the need to cover greater distances.
At Kashiwanoha station, I saw a big fat McDonalds’, and about 20 metres from the station, we saw the place we had come to visit: Lalaport. I have no idea why they named it such, but some of the shops inside gave me a clue – a lot of them were baby/toddler shops. [Just a footnote here: except for Zayed, Japanese babies are the CUTEST creatures on this planet. For a people who just love cuteness, God has blessed them with the cutest of children! Alhamdulillah!]
Lalaport was fantastic – everything Japanese was there, and so were many things from the West. They had really cool mini posters for The Dark Knight, Ironman, Wanted which people could just take. For free.
We had dinner at a restaurant that served only one dish – Japanese eel (unagi). The restaurant had two dedicated waiters and presumably one Master chef, whose sole reason for existence was to make the finest unagi for his customers. A first-time unagi eater, I was pleasantly surprised at its tenderness (tastes just like fish!) and tangy taste of the sauce.
Tomorrow is the final day of the conference, and day 1 of a 2.5-day study trip in Tokyo. The day where I will see my wife and son is coming soon, Insha Allah…
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