Farewell drinks (2004-03-20)
This is the third and final entry on Fung Kam Hay's visit. (He is on the plane back to Sydney right now as I write this blog.)
Last night was Fung's final night in Tokyo. KL didn't get off
work
till 9 pm so we got together at 10. We went to Bellovisto on the
40th floor of Fung's hotel for farewell drinks but there was a long
line so we decided to grab a bite somewhere first. KL took
us to a building near Shibuya (
) Center Street where an entire second
floor is occupied by ramen shops. We ate at this one called
Kamado becaue we've seen it on TV. The noodle was great, the pork
slices had a smoky flavor but the soup's too oily and came out lukewarm
which is a big turnoff.
After we ate we went back to the bar. We got there at 1120 pm
and surprisingly there was still a line, though a short one. (The bar
closes at midnight.) We waited five minutes before we were seated
at our table. It was dark inside and soft music played in the
background. Very large windows wrap around the place offering
spectacular night lights of the city below. The drinks are quite
expensive but in a
setting like this, you'd expect that. Ten minutes before closing,
people were still streaming in and no one was asked to leave even when
it's past midnight. We finally left before one o'clock and went
back down to Fung's room and stayed there for another half an
hour. We left the hotel around 0130 am.
We walked the short distance to Shibuya station to hail a cab.
Even at such late hour, the street was still full of people.
There were four or five people waiting for taxis about fifteen
feet in front
of us. Five minutes later a man wearing a black suit, a black tie
and a black coat who obviously had a few too many drinks came to join
us. He mumbled a few words, tottered to those few people and
started rounding them up to form a loose line behind us! And they
all listened to him even though a couple of them were there before
us!! We
didn't pay much attention because we didn't think the line would
stick. Soon a taxi came, the door swung open automatically ( You
don't ever have to open and close the door of a taxi in Japan) and a
young punk-looking guy in black leather outfit and heavy silver jewelry
made the move to get in. Our tipsy leader then put his arm around
his shoulders and told him we should have the taxi because we were
there first, talking in a way like he's his old pal. KL and I
would've been happy to let him take that cab AND close the door for
him. The leather man giggled embarrassingly and went to join the
line! The boozy crusader shoved us into the taxi and
smiled. Put a drunk, a punk, some eager people waiting for a cab
at one thirty in the morning anywhere in this world, I doubt you'd get
an episode played out quite like the one we had witnessed. Only
in Japan!
The taxi ride was uneventful but what's inside it was very
impressive. Not only was there a GPS device mounted on the
dashboard, it was voice-activated. The driver "told" the machine
our address and a cartoon lady appeared on the screen talking back to
the driver. The screen then displayed the route home in 3D image,
every single traffic light, building, road and turn were accurately
shown, navigating the
driver to a smooth drive. It's so neat. When will every
taxi in the world be fitted with such a useful system I wonder.
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