Going Down South

After our brief stint in Delhi, we went back to the airport at a very early hour to catch a flight down to Kochi/Cochin, India. How early was it? Well, this picture was taken about an hour into the flight at cruising altitude, so there you go. Our experience at Indira Gandhi International was not much better the second time around, either. Just physically getting into the airport was met with a lot of attitude. A guard at the door looked at our tickets with the most annoying look on his face. There was actually a literal eye roll like how dare we try and enter the airport to try and catch our flight. I simply do not understand it. People at this airport treat us like we are idiots even though we are doing everything they ask of us. When in the security line, Nicole was told she was in the wrong line, (but I wasn't). Apparently there is a separate line for women than men. Why? I haven't the foggiest. At this point, I had attitude. Half of Nicole's bags were already through the x-ray machine, and I said, "Well aren't we all going to the same place?" I ask too many questions.

Then we had to put special tags on all of our carryons that were scanned. And the man looked at me like I was an idiot because I didn't know this was common practice. The purpose of these tags is not clear. Like I know it's to mark each bag as being scanned by the machine, but if you're through security, it's very clearly implied that it has been scanned. It seems very redundant. I am not sure what it is, but there is certainly a lot of attitude at the airport -- especially directed toward us, presumably due to the way we look. Perhaps this is how middle eastern people feel when dealing with TSA.

Once actually on the plane, things were fine. We flew Air India, which Nicole was a little concerned about, but we even got served breakfast during our three hour flight. A breakfast of paneer and chickpeas, but a breakfast nonetheless. We touched down around 815am and jockeyed for position to exit the plane (again, lines are a silly notion here).

It was a small airport, and since we just had carryons (all tagged naturally), we breezed through the terminal and met with Nicole's filmmaker partner in India, Uma. I awkwardly captured the moment in this bad picture. I wasn't ready and hastily fired off a shot. I will make up for it later. She had arranged a driver for us and we all went to our hotel in Thrissur, which took over an hour. The weather down here is much more humid and tropical. It also has more of a small town feel, albeit just as chaotic. There are still a lot of horns. Soon we will meet back up with Uma for lunch at her house. I'm excited. Nicole is scared. In any event, both of us are now taking Pepto Bismol on a regular basis.

Visiting India's Most Famous Building

After a night of limited sleep, we groggily got into our car that drove us 3 1/2 hours from Delhi to Agra. There was a lot of honking and traffic rules are not necessarily existent. Our driver was very skilled, however. He maneuvered around buses, trucks, tuk tuks, and even a cow or two. I read an Indian newspaper enroute. Given our issues yesterday, it was interesting to read numerous articles on India's issues with respecting women. Upon arrival in Agra, a guide met us and helped us take care of the tickets and everything before entering the grounds of the famous Taj Mahal.

Perhaps it was our tiredness or the long drive, but it was all very surreal. This was such a famous site in front of us, that we almost couldn't believe we were there. This time of year is notorious for fog, so we were fortunate to be able to see it clearly. I could have done without the crowds, but since we are not British royalty or the president of Israel, it didn't seem likely that they would close the place down for us, even though we are Bricole, everyone's favorite celebrity couple.

The guide was very informative about the building, art, and architecture of the temple. At one point, we also walked inside the mausoleum where Shah Jahan and his wife (the reason the Taj Mahal was built to begin with) were laid to rest. Inside, workers would yell at people taking pictures because, as signs put it, "No photography allowed out of respect for the site". But apparently blowing whistles really loud to get people to keep moving is fair game.

In any event, we finished up by walking around and taking a few more pictures, including this one, which might be my favorite. I liked the colors of the women walking toward the monument. With thousands of people at the site, taking the exact same pictures, it was hard to get a photograph that stood out.

We could have visited other sites in Agra, but we both decided to hop in the car and head back to Delhi. Every bank or ATM we drove past had a line at least 20 people deep. This whole demonetization thing is making things complicated. A month or so ago, some of the most commonly used currency denominations were removed from circulation under the pretense that it would combat so called "black money," but it seems to be creating a lot of new problems.

Luckily they took credit card because currency is hard to come by. We literally pulled over in the middle of a back street where a man walked up with a card machine. I was reminded of a scene in Million Dollar Arm where they do a major business transaction in the middle of the street. It is called bypassing the system in the movie. "Indians love to honk and bypass the system" according to the film. Eventually we found ourselves back in smoggy Delhi. And to address some of my concerns in the previous post, Nicole was treated much better today.

Maybe everyone is just grouchier at 2am. Hopefully our airport experience tomorrow goes a bit smoother. We have a 5am flight down to Kochi/Cochin in southern India.

So until then, we will try and get a decent night's rest. The bed is very comfortable and our room probably three times the size as our Tokyo hotel. You will, however, note that the walls of our bathroom are transparent. There is evidently a shade to rectify this issue, but it doesn't work, so now it's just rectums.

Judgements Made

Should I judge an entire country by our experience upon landing at New Delhi's airport? No. Am I going to anyway? Yes. You see, it all started with customs. We were in line for a while only to be told we were in the wrong line because we had e-visas. We were given attitude like this was an obvious mistake on our part, but the line for the e-visa was at the far end of the customs hall out of view from every passenger entering. But that was strike one. Then we continually kept getting cut off by people who don't believe in waiting in line. Strike two.



Then when our driver finally showed up to take us to our hotel, he was eager to wrench my backpack out of my hands even though I said no, but did not seem too concerned about the 30 lbs that Nicole was still carrying on her back. The trunk was almost shut with Nicole's bag still on her back. In the car, all questions were referred to me, even though Nicole had technically paid for the hotel and the driver. "How are you, sir?" Nobody cares how Nicole is. I knew there was certainly some sexism inherit in Indian society, but even I hadn't expected it to be so blatant. It took almost three hours from our plane landing to arriving at our hotel (which is only a mile or so from the airport). So far, I'm not particularly impressed with the efficiency, lack of respect for lines, and misogyny. But I guess that all comes with the territory. I hope our opinions can be shifted tomorrow, but I'm keeping my expectations low.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

The temperature seems to be dropping every minute we stay in Japan, particularly after the sun goes down.

We first took the subway up to Akihabara this morning to check out the Sega building for some fun games. We basically arrived at rope drop (10:00) and could have had our pick of anything including a new version of some game called After School Audition, which appeared to be some kind of DDR dance game type thing with school girls as characters. Whereas Americans queue to catch a glimpse of the latest Battlefield or Call of Duty games, the Japanese seem to favor fantasy and dancing. In any event, Nicole and I didn't play anything. Nicole was still bitter about being foiled with the crane games during her last visit. #rigged #blamerussia
After Sega, we checked out lenses and cameras at Yodobashi Camera, but came out empty handed. There was a compact digital camera that Nicole liked, but discovered the menus were only available in Japanese.

After Akihabara, we continued to the Yasukuni shrine, a site famous (or infamous) for its political controversies. To summarize quickly, it is a shrine dedicated to the spirits (kami) of Japanese war dead, particularly those from WWII. Numerous Japanese prime ministers have visited the site to honor these war dead, which is seen as a slap in the face to China and Korea, who suffered war crimes and other atrocities under Japanese occupation. We briefly set foot inside the Yushukan museum next to the shrine, but didn't get past the lobby. Like many sites referencing the war in Japan, there's a bit of revisionism -- without taking any responsibility for the war or acknowledging the consequences of their actions. In the brochure I picked up, it mentioned the small Ohka jet aircraft that was used by Japanese pilots to attack American vessels. Nowhere is it mentioned that this was purely a suicide aircraft flown by kamikazes, but sometimes the details just aren't important . . .

Later in the evening, we walked through the Shiodome subway stop to see these christmas lights and then continued on to Akabanebashi to see the Tokyo Tower, which was also supposed to have a display starting at 730p, so we went to look for dinner first. Nicole had a hankering for pizza, so we had a place picked out, but despite the available tables and chairs, we were told by the host that because we didn't have a reservation, we couldn't be seated. This is because Italians are, by nature, quite lazy and do not want to do any more work than they have to.


We killed some time and returned to the subway stop just to stay warm until it approached 730. For whatever reason, the winter display on the Tokyo Tower is a single heart that lights up on the side of the observation deck. I guess it is a sort of tradition for couples to visit the base of the tower when the lights shut off at midnight as it is considered good luck and eternal happiness to witness this event. But in the winter, one only has to stay up to 730pm, to see the lights turned off and the heart lit up. We then had pizza at a restaurant next to our hotel since we could no longer handle the cold. And that is that.

Dinner Time

Thanks to our lack of skills with the Japanese language, it took us a while to find a place to eat. There were numerous restaurants in the area, but we didn't want to go into one that was filled to the brim and with a line out the door, since it was actually quite cold outside. Most of the menus were entirely in Japanese with few pictures to fill in the gaps. We were about to go downstairs into one when a man emerged and a confused exchange took place. There was some kind of miscommunication and he was instructing us to go to the restaurant upstairs, which was a completely different establishment with completely different menu. Eventually we found a place whose name was entirely in Japanese, but they had one sentence in english claiming to have an english menu. After another confused exchange we were sat down at a booth that was encaged in its own sort of room. Also, when I was trying to shuffle around the sliding door to sit across from Nicole within the semi-enclosed room, it appeared that I was being instructed not to do this and to sit next to Nicole instead.

We became those people who stare at an empty booth across from them while they awkwardly eat their food. Nicole ordered buckwheat noodles and I got beef ramen. We both at least put a decent dent in our food. After a while, the unique Japanese flavors that pervade all taste and smell in this country reached an apex for our American taste buds. Fortunately we each had a Kirin to wash it down. After our dinner, we briskly walked back to the hotel to warm up. Nicole casually pointed out a few Italian restaurants on the way back. Perhaps she is trying to hint at something . . .

*Burp* Oh, hmm. Tastes like miso.

Something Fishy Going On

Due to jetlag and the time zone difference, we had no difficulty in being out the door by 6am. We walked to the Tsukiji fish market, which is a massive complex where fishermen show up to auction off giant tuna, octopus, or anything else found in the sea. It was supposed to have shut down last spring, but it's still ticking due to logistical issues with the proposed new location. Since I was here back in 2001, the rules have somewhat changed. The public is no longer allowed onto the premises until 10am, so we were a bit early. We walked around Ginza and back to the hotel where we napped and tried again.



As you can see from my video, it's a bit congested, even after all the auctions have taken place. I can understand why they wouldn't want just any person roaming around and taking up space when everyone is trying to work.

We returned to Ginza to look for a christmas ornament. We are attempting to find an ornament from every place we visit together and we missed out on Japan last time. Luckily we are ridiculous people and are back in the same year. One of the main streets in the Ginza district was closed off to cars, so it was a bit more relaxing than dodging bikes and carts inside the fish market.

Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful with the ornament hunting. We did see some, but there was nothing distinctly Japanese about them. In fact one of them had the stars and stripes on it. No good. I ate some sort of chicken katsu-esque thing from 7-11 for lunch and then we checked out the Sony building.

Sony had redesigned the exhibits since our May visit as a sort of history museum starting in the 1940s. As we progressed through time, we saw betamax tapes, walkmans, discmans, digital cameras that recorded to 3.5" diskettes, and this little gem here -- the Sony airboard. It was in the Sony showroom during my visit back in 2001 as the next big thing, a portable TV for businessmen or students. So, it was interesting to see it displayed again as a piece of Sony's history.

Then we began the slow walk back to our hotel. Our progress, however, was foiled by a protest and counter-protest taking place on the streets. Not knowing any Japanese, we were at a loss to try and figure out who we would be more likely to support. One group was all elderly folk, who presumably had more conservative ideals. Across the street was a group of young people waving imperial Japanese flags, so who knows.

Not knowing the language is difficult. The protests could have been about anything from concerns about pensions to blaming Mexicans for stealing jobs. Either scenario is equally as likely given my knowledge of the Japanese language.

Now we are going to try to find a good ramen place for dinner. There are probably 500 within a mile of our hotel, so it shouldn't be too difficult. What will be difficult is adapting to is the business culture of eating rapidly and bolting. The idea of loitering in a restaurant or cafe is more an American or European idea. Ready set eat!

And the Great Adventure Begins!

Bricole, everyone's favorite celebrity couple, are on a great journey around the world. It didn't start out that way. We were trying to arrange some kind of India/Sri Lanka/Maldives trip, but it was too expensive and the flights were . . . complicated to say the least. It's not easy going to the complete opposite side of the world. Flying east or west made little difference. Having previously had good luck on Delta going from LAX to Tokyo in business class, we decided to try that route again on our way to India. Initially we had intended to just stay in Tokyo for one night as an extended layover, but then the airline gave me an extra day off prior to my vacation days, so I suggested we make it two nights. Then I was able to pawn off one of my standups (quick overnight flights) to another pilot and the loads on Friday weren't looking good, and just like that, we decided to make it three nights in Tokyo.

The seating arrangement was a bit unique. It was a 777 and despite having seats next to each other, Nicole and I couldn't really see each other since the seats were arranged diagonally away from each other. But it could certainly be worse. In fact, I feel a bit guilty on how lucky we are to even be doing this trip. We are going to Japan for the second time in just over six months for an extended layover. Upon landing, this foreign land was oddly familiar to us. Nicole had eyes like a hawk when spotting our stop on the metro map.

We arrived at our Tokyu Stay Hotel in the Shimbashi district. The Tokyu Stay chain is intended primarily for business travelers who require a sort of home away from home (albeit a really small home). The Shimbashi neighborhood we are staying in this time is significantly different from Shinjuku. When we walked outside to get food, the sidewalks were packed, and we counted two people out of 1,000 that weren't Japanese. We bought some dinner at 7-11 and ate it back in our tiny room.

We are on the top floor of the hotel, so we have a nice view of the intersection and train tracks below. It's nice being in a new part of the city. We feel more immersed than before when we stayed in a more touristy area. I even used one of five Japanese words that I know when I had to get the attention of a businessman in front of me who accidentally dropped his glasses onto the escalator. "Sumimasen!" I was helpful. Who knows what we'll do tomorrow. I look forward to just taking it easy, despite the hustle and bustle going on below us.