Japan: Day 1 - Tokyo

The official day 1(26th June) in Japan started a bit late: 11 AM to be exact. Actually I think I woke up at 5 AM and left the bed around 7 AM because my physical body was still in the Eastern Time. The time from US to Japan is the maximum and this time I really found it difficult to adjust soon enough. Generally travelling from west to east than the other way round and incidentally my whole trip has been from east to west starting and ending at Chicago.

There was one thing that I found interesting about the toilet. There was a tap on top of the flush with which one can wash his hands while filling up the flush. Later I noticed it was pretty common all over Tokyo. After having cornflakes, banana, ladoo and several biscuits for breakfast, Prakhar and I started to make my travel plan for that day. The original plan was to go to a park situated in the middle of the city, Korakuen and then go to Odaiba, which later changed to Asakusa and Skytree.

For going to Korakuen, I had to get off at Iidabashi station. But as soon as I exited the metro station, I did not expect to be amazed at such a scale. There was a high roller coaster cutting through building leading to a question whether that roller coaster was built first or the building. I was in awe for some time and stood there for 10-15 min just to see the ride whether it was functional and indeed it was! Tokyo Dome was situated just beside it which was a huge baseball stadium from the outside but where rock concerts are also held (Coldplay). After roaming there for a bit, I went to find the entrance to the park. Even though I could see the park just next to the Dome but the entrance was all the way around.

Massive roller coaster passing through buildings 

The entrance fees was 300 yen and the park was indeed beautiful. It was quiet away from all the city noise. The only sound that I could hear now and then was the sound of the children screaming from that roller coaster. The park was so dense with trees that I could hear the rustling of the leaves, chirping of the birds and sound of the wind while it was so quiet there. There was one particular bridge over the water through which a tortoise was peeking out as if to say hello or goodbye to every person passing over that bridge. Then there was a bridge named half-moon bridge which was semi-circular in shape and one can see the other half in the reflection from the water. Also there was a pathway just inches above the pond with many big fishes on the side as if to scare us. There were places inside the park where it was suddenly so dense and dark with trees and with only me around. The park was full of lovely trees although their names were written Japanese.

Gollum fishes

Tortoise bidding adieu and welcoming

Half moon bridge

Dense park

Now time for food came. Debating whether to take the boring metro or to fight with hunger and walk a little bit more, I decided to walk. Walking by, I came across a big crossing and had to cross a skywalk to go over the other side. There was a burger place which I decided not to go and entered a mall in search for food. There was a shop full of women’s cloth upon entering the mall. There was a Wendy on rooftop but still I thought that there ought to be more. Maybe it was written but I was not able to read. There was arrow pointing downstairs for more restaurants in Japanese. I went there and then came the kind of restaurants that exactly I had been hoping for. The ambient and the restaurant architecture all resembled to ones I had seen in movies. I decided to go in a Thai restaurant and ordered a stir fried spicy minced chicken with basil on rice which was delicious as soon as I tasted the first scoop. And the good part is that however tasty the food is, you don’t have to leave a tip even if you want as it is against the Japanese culture. “In many cases, maybe most, tips may be politely refused. Just remind yourself: a price is a price.”

Thai food

Thai restaurant

Following, I decided to go to Asakusa and Skytree instead of Odaiba as I was already getting tired and wanted to spend a fresh day and more time at Odaiba. As soon as I exited the Odaiba metro station, a 4 year back flashback started immediately. Last time when I came here, it was rainy all day and I was with 5 other friends. This time, it was sunny, I was alone and the crowd was much more. I took the usual route having all the shops but this time I actually saw what were the exact things that were there and tried to remember the spots where we took the photos of one other last time. Last time, I didn’t try that fortune sticks because we were like too ethical as it was written there to pay 100yen to try. This time, I saw many people do that thing without paying so I also did that. After spending sometime at the temple, I went to take the route for Skytree.

Asakusa entrance

Asakusa market

Sensoji temple

The initial portion and the final portion of my walk were quite similar to the route we took last time as I could remember the landscapes and layout of the area. I was already getting so tired that I had to take a brief rest every now and then with a total of 3. I was glad that I didn’t go to visit Odaiba in this kind of situation of mine. Although, this I didn’t happen to take a road which lead to dead end last ime. Finally, after a lot of walking came the Tokyo Skytree in its full glory. Last time, as it was raining, the upper portion of the skytree was covered in clouds and we couldn’t see even the full Skytree but this time it was not the case. The whole structure was fully visible. I didn’t go to the top and after spending some time at the bench, I took the metro for Shibuya.

Skytree from a distance

Passing over a bridge

Skytree from closeup

It was maybe a 20 or 30 min ride from Skytree to Shibuya and even for that time, I was not able to sit upright in the metro. I remember I was starting to lean either to my left or right after every few minutes. Overall, the second half of the day was full of nostalgia filled with my previous visit to Tokyo.

There was a dinner party at one of the Prakhar’s friend which was like 1 hour far so decided not to go there as next day, I had to go to Kyoto. Prakhar met me at the Komaba Todai-mai station to give me the keys to the apartment and showed me the way. I went home and in a little bit fell asleep as soon as I laid on the bed after eating some snacks but not a proper dinner. 

Japan: En route - Day 0

It was the much awaited ANA flight out of Chicago ready to be taken on 25^th June. Abhishek helped me board my luggage in the Reindeer shuttle (the second baggage was free as the driver didn’t carefully check the ticket). It was a carefully calculated risk either to lose 15$ or to save 10$. The bus duration was 1.5-2 hours full of Spotify music. I arrived at the Terminal 2 around 12:30 PM Chicago time but the ANA boarding was not to open until 2:45 PM and I had to sit there for another 2 hours. While waiting there, I met a person from Lisbon, Portugal who had come to Chicago for a conference and was doing a job or postdoc in Lisbon. Finally, the counter opened after a torturous 2 hours and I got my boarding pass after which I got through the security and immigration within no time.

Chicago airport

Endless waiting at Chicago airport

The flight was at 5:15 PM and I had to wait at the gate for another one and a half hour. But eventually, when the flight came, it was a super cool Star Wars ANA flight which I later realized was not so common to board on. To sum up, in order to make sure not to miss the flight, I started the journey to the airport so early that I had to wait at least 1.5 at every major step.

Star Wars ANA flight

The flight experience was also amongst the best till now. It had the maximum leg space that I had till now, the air hostesses were the kindest (or it’s just the Japanese effect), it had good food (with a menu beforehand), live camera giving the feed of the path in front of the plane and most of all, it had good and some of the latest movies. That was the reason that made me watch 3 movies in a single flight of 11 hours, my personal best. Movies included Logan, Madaari and John Wick: Chapter 2. Incidentally, while the plane was flying over North Dakota while Wolverine was also in North Dakota in the movie.

Just over Chicago

Although the flight started at 5:15 PM, there was daylight throughout the flight except maybe for the last half an hour or one hour after which the flight ultimately landed at the Haneda, Tokyo. It was by far the smoothest flight with the best service experienced by me till now.

Landing at Tokyo Haneda

The immigration was quick at Tokyo and got my baggage within 10 minutes. After some effort, I got my phone connected to the internet at Haneda and made contact with Prakhar. He informed me about the route that I was supposed to take and told me that I should stay at Shibuya for some time and then go to the Komaba todai-mai station as he would be late running some errands. I bought the tickets with the help of a Japanese helper and boarded the train. Fortunately, the train also had wi-fi. I got off at Shibuya, took the Hachiko exit with the two bags. Eager to come out of the Shibuya station to see the Hachiko statue, I was so glad to see the crossing. It was busy, crowded fully as expected although the statue was not so impressive. I expected the statue to be a lot in the center, rather it was behind a pillar and was kind of hidden from the view. Waiting there for about 15 min, I started to search for the Keio Inokashira line which I was not able to find. Not so desperately but badly wanting to speak some Japanese, I asked one Japanese group of youths for the direction. Initially, they also didn’t know where the line was but asking the station-master people, they understood the location and as expected of Japanese, they accompanied me to the Keio line.

Shibuya crossing

Boarding the Keio line, I got off at Komaba todai-mai station. As soon as I exited the station, there was Prakhar standing there smiling with his bike and talking to my dad. After he forced me to touch his feet, we walked to his home. I was on the bike but its chain soon fell off while changing gears rapidly on the uphill. So, we both started walking and soon reached home after a lot of turns in the narrow lanes.

Home was a lot smaller than I expected from seeing the photos. Upon reaching, push up competition and while I cleaned the room, Prakhar cooked the food. After eating, talking (in low voice) and packing the new things, I went to sleep almost immediately. 

At home

First Triathlon (Sprint)

It took place on Sunday, April 9 2017. I was in my office the previous day and it was 3.45PM. Suddenly, I remembered that the registration of the triathlon was from 3-4PM at Hosdon's Bay company. I was in a dilemma whether I would be able to complete it or not as I was not 100% fit. Then I decided: fuck it-I will do it. Went to the shop and got my registration done. Had a good night sleep and went to the Corec the following day. After getting all the markings done and getting the tracker, I went to the Acquatic center.

A length of 50m looks small but when I warmed up it was not so small. After the warm up, my head was spinning. Earlier at IITK, I only swam in the deep and its length was 35m. The highest distance I have covered was 1km, so I was pretty confident that I would make it. So around 9.45AM, my turn came and I jumped down the swimming pool. The start was not so good and I was struggling to keep my body straight with all the spectators around me. The surprising thing that I found that it was not a small triathlon. People from all around Indiana and even Illionis came to participate and everyone looked professional. After completing the first 50m (at reasonably fast pace), came the next 50m and it was the most terrifying 50m I have ever done.

Not having done enough rest after the first 50m, I started to come back almost immediately and after the first 3-4 strokes, I felt that I was not able to make it. It was a test of endurance!! Breathing almost every 2 stroke and feeling at loss of breath at times, I somehow managed to reach the end. And took adequate rest before proceeding further. This time I swam slowly as I swim normally and it was easy this time. At this I saw a girl swimming backwards as it is more relaxing. I swam the 4th lap pretty comfortably. Took a rest for some time and then started to swim backwards for the starting of the 5th lap. After some distance, I switched to freestyle and completed the fifth. I adopted the same strategy for the last 50m and I was out of the swimming in 12 minutes.

Now came the cycling part. I put one some clothes with my camelback on me. It is a little bit too big for the bottle support on the cycle as it kept on getting out. I had to run to the purple line with the cycle and then begin cycling. I think cycling was the easy part, maybe that's because I was not trying to compete with other people who were overrtaking me all the time and had obviously better cycles. It was a bit difficult to get on the slopes at times but I kept on cycling. Previously, the highest cycling that I have done is 80km in a day, so I was pretty sure that I could do it. Fortunately, the wind was blowing perpendicular to me otherwise it would had been a nightmare to bike. While returning, a volunteer stopped me and told me give him his tracker as I was not wearing a helmet. After thinking a while, I said take it. Anyway I was not getting a good rank or anything. I just wanted to finish it. There was a small bridge overhead me at one time and the road was not in a perfect condition there. As I went through it, my camelback mounted off and its cap broke. But nevermind, I picked it up and went on to complete the 2nd leg of the trialthon.

Now came the running part. As I had no water with me, I first drank 2 cups of water and ate a banana and then went on to run. It was not running, rather slow jogging. But the people in front of me were also at the same speed, so I felt at least I am competing :P. Earlier, when I did 5km was for the adventure club and I remember my first 5k which was treacherous. I managed to complete in 42min as far as I remember. But subsequently, the next year, we had to do 10km and then the first 5k was fine but the next 5k was torcherous. But my time went on improving and it was about 60-65min for 10k. Now, I was jogging around the intramural fields, to Armstrong, to the Engineering fountain and back, to MSEE and towards the Co-rec and then a last detour and then the finish. The running part was not that hard (although I did not run swiftly) and I completed without stopping.

At the finish line, I met one couple who congratulated me on completing it and gave me advice on how to train for triathlon in the future. He said that he was the one who was cheering me up in that 2nd lap of 50m in swimming. As I sat near my cycle, a woman came to congratulate me.

It was one heaven of a experience and would love to do it again, although not in the near future. The whole race took me somewhere between 1hr 55min to 2hr. It was a test of true endurance. Now I feel that to complete the triathlon sprint is not difficult but to continuously improve your time is very hard. It was one of the best experiences ever and a feeling of self satisfaction.

Before the start of race

After finishing the triathlon

Smokies: Day 0

Just hours from now, it would be my first road trip in the US. It was raining although the forecast in the Smokies was good with temperature around 13-14C and the increased bear activity warning on the website was a terrible excitement for me. I even searched for bear repellent sprays and watched all the videos on how to stay safe from bears in the wild! After having fried potatoes and flatbread for lunch, I packed my bags and went to PMU to wait for Jayant in the rain. We rented a Chevrolet Malibu from Enterprise which was located near the Purdue airport. 

It was raining and we were on the way to Bloomington to pick up Aditya. It took us a little more than 2.5 hours to reach Bloomington because of the rain. Finally we reached Aditya's home and after eating a chicken burger as our dinner, we were on our way to the Great Smokies. There was a new GoPro in the car which got delivered that afternoon and we started exploring the different gears it had. 

Stop at Walmart

Stopping at Walmart at one of the exits, taking some fruits as our snacks and then stopping at a gas station to get the fuel refilled and have some rest. Going through the whole of Kentucky, passing near Nashville and Knoxville and stopping just outside of Gatlinburg, we arrived near the Smokies at 11.30PM after 6-7 hour drive. Having booked a Days Inn motel beforehand, we crashed at the beds and went to sleep before we knew it.

Driving through Gatlinburg, next day

NYE 2017 in Chicago

Another year gone!
Another box of mixed memories remain.
A new year to look forward to.
And the start couldn't have been better.
A New Year's Eve in Chicago.

This is the first time that I am celebrating a new year outside India, probably outside Lucknow and Kanpur. Coming home on 30th December (with still no plans), I asked my roommates about their plans. No one had any plans so I suggested going to Chicago to see the countdown and fireworks for the first time. We immediately booked the Greyhound and tried to have a two night of sleep anticipating a colorful beginning to another awesome year.

Next day, after carefully studying the weather forecast of Chicago and linking it to the days activity, I decided to forgo wearing lower thermals which I greatly regretted later. After a mundane 2.5 hours bus ride, I got to see the skyscrapers as if each one was competing amongst each other to be the highest. The building which won this competition was Willis tower followed by the Trump tower. This is the second city with skyscrapers, I have visited after Tokyo which was in 2013.

THE Trump Tower

Willis Tower

Seeing the metro there reminded me of the Spiderman movie and the scene where he tries to stop the train with his spiderwebs. The holiday decoration in the city reminded me of the movies which are set in this period such as Serendipity, Friends, Home Alone, The Holiday, Sleepless in Seattle etc.  On reaching the world-famous Cloud Gate, we found a skating rink full of people showing off their skills, learning, falling but most importantly enjoying their time. Meanwhile, I was just awestruck by the beauty and the massiveness of the Bean, which is made of small portions of steel but looks continuous. It was an hour and a half wait to rent the skating shoes, so we decided to go to the nearest Giordano's to eat the Chicago's favorite deep-dish pizza.

Skating rink outside the Bean

Deep-dish pizza @ Giordano

I was extremely hungry but when the pizza arrived after a 30-40 min wait, it was worth the wait. All the veggie things were stuffed inside of the crust although almost every pizza looked the same from the outside being reddish in color. Having eaten a delicious pizza, all of us went to the NYE event "Chi-town rising". The event took place on a bridge just opposite the Trump tower. As soon as the DJ hit some popular note, the whole bridge started shaking because of the large number of people jumping and dancing. But at 11PM came Sir the Baptist and that was the worst thing ever in 2016.

Countdown started

Finally, the moment came closer and at 11.59PM, the star slowly started rising and reached the top at midnight. Immediately, a shower of fireworks started from the opposite end. It was so cool! There was one particular firework in which flower of firework emerged from the parent firework and everything happened in slow motion. It was as if the time slowed if not stopped. I don't know whether that was intentional but I felt like this. After about half an hour, the crowd started to disperse because of the cold.

We had no place to stay for the night and hence hoped for a late night movie show but with no success. After a short walk to Navy Pier, my friend and I went to a pub. The plan was to spend the time there till it closes down and then go to a Subway nearby which was open round the clock. After drinking Holy water and feeling a little booze, Amogh suggested to take a stroll in the city which sounded like an excellent idea. At 3.30AM, we stepped outside in the now desolated and windy city of Chicago. I was little bit scared (because of the crime rate in Chicago) but very excited at the same time. The city never looked this beautiful before! We crossed the Trump tower and decided to go inside it and so we did. It is situated at one of the best locations. After taking a riverwalk and abandoning it midway (being reminded of the crimes in Chicago again!) we went to the NBC building and fooled around there for a bit. The decorations in the city reminded me of the countless movies that I have seen and imagined myself in one of those roles. It was such a refreshing experience and this small stroll in the heart of the city proved to be one of the best experience of the trip.  After around one hour, we went to Subway for a nap.

After drinking Holy Water

Chicago in the night

Inside the Trump tower

NBC building in Chicago

Fortunately, the owner there didn't say anything to us. Shortly afterwards, a homeless came and starting asking for a sandwich to which he was denied. He sat there giving examples of us refusing to leave. I was also taken aback fearing that owner might ask us to leave as well but he didn't and gave a warning to the homeless by calling to 911. The owner turned out to be a Gujrati and we had a little chat. It was around 6.30AM and we went to Navy Pier to see the sunrise. It was probably the coldest sunrise I have seen till now with my body shivering while trying to enjoy the sun come out from Lake Michigan. Since the bus was at 1.45PM, we had to kill time and decided to watch the critically acclaimed movie 'La La Land'.

Freezing cold at Navy Pier

Where water meets ice

Trump tower again!

The movie had it all. Music, emotion, comedy, dancing, cinematography, screenplay, storyline, locations, you name it and it had it. Remembering about the movie and listening to its songs now makes me want to watch it again. It had a special connection with the audience maybe something we can all relate to like failures and hope. I haven't seen such a good movie in a long time and am extremely thankful for everyone involved with movie for making such a movie. After the movie, we booked a cab and reached the Greyhound station.

That was the last day of 2016 and the first day of 2017.