Temperature shock in Tokyo

I was coming from 30C weather in Manila, with low humidity and blazing sun. For start, I took a cab to the wrong terminal. Luckily I got there 3h before the flight and had to rush to take a shuttle to the correct terminal across what I thought was the longest transfer ever, with stress heightened and bladder full. Eventually I rushed tot he ANA counter in front of which there was no queue thank heaven. After checking in my luggage and relieving myself to all that could distract me from this vacation, I was on an incident free flight.  I had taken a light woolen coat, pink to suit the season.

Arriving late afternoon in Narita, I was excited with the now familiar sight and smell, yet still disoriented from the change of pace. And most of all I was taken aback by the weather. It was 0C with light slush and I could not see any sign of buds on the barren trees lining the streets .I instantly regretted not checking the weather at destination before packing. I was hoping it would feel like the height of spring for those flying from snow buried Canada.

R&J's flight would land late afternoon, so I was not expecting them before 19:00 or even 20:00. It would give me time to find the hotel, rest and set a meeting point with E-san. At Tokyo station, I was finding my way to the hotel thanks to the public wifi, but somehow I was brain freezed and could not find the way. I kept walking back and forth to the bus terminal in front of the station, to eventually get into the line for a taxi. It was snowing and windy and I could not see myself dragging my suitcase in the then fading light of the early evening to the hotel.

The white glove clad driver opened the back passenger door, got out to put my suitcase in the trunk and to close my door. Then with the hotel address (printed in Japanese), we drove literally for 7minutes (lots of roundabouts and one way streets) to Villa Fontaine. I was relieved to be in the warm lobby of the hotel. It was a business hotel and lots of soap and other accessories available in the lobby (shampoo, toothbrush, cotton buds, etc...). After a warm shower and wearing all the warmest clothes I tried to memorize the way back to Tokyo Station.

As dinner time approached I walked to Tokyo station to meet with E-san in front of Daimaru. I was within wifi reach and we would not look too suspicious waiting for each other. After 2 years since 2015, we would meet again in Tokyo.

 E-san knew of this Okinawan cuisine place under Tokyo station (which boasts a whole city of eateries) and we settled for drinks to catch up. It was nice and warm indeed in the south and a nice touch from E-san. Later on as R&J landed and made for the hotel, we eventually met after a game of hide and seek in Tokyo station many levels underground streets.

Subjects of conversation got drowned in the drinks and warmth of the place, and we soon had to go sleep, while E-san had to go across town to western districts to her apartment.

And so we went our way, passing by Nihonbashi one more time to snap the dragon statue for kilometer zero.

Japan 2017 edition with R. and J.

I have never imagined visiting Japan in a week. But that was exactly what happened April 2017. From being used to plan for 3 weeks  and 2 weeks visit, this was my first non solo week long trip to Japan.

I cannot remember when we decided to go, but I know I bought my ticket to Narita knowing I would be in Manila for a few months. So it was exciting for me to have a shorter flight with ANA to look forward to. Also we planned for the hanami season, to see flowers bloom and enjoy some mild temperatures, from March 25 until April 1st 2017. Or so we thought anyway.

In terms of logistics, I would be leaving my apart hotel in Manila Makati Citadines and keep my luggage at work and travel with only one suitcase. I would be changing room in the same hotel upon my return. This was a good break to make sure i didn't accumulate too much as my stay extended 2 months already!).

Considering the length of our stay in Japan and the ticket prices, I planned for a loop starting form Tokyo, going to Kanazawa, Kyoto and back to Tokyo, using a week JR pass and hotels for about $100/night max on average.

Accomodations:
Tokyo: Hotel villa fontaine (Nihonbashi Mitsukoshimae)
Kanazawa: Hotel Nikko Kanazawa
Kyoto: airbnb new listing in Higashiyama
Tokyo: Remm Roppongi

Under the sea, around Olango Island, Gilutungan island and Nalusuan island

When the alarm pulled me away form my comatose state, my fever was gone and my sore throat was somehow bearable. My island hopping tour booked with Island Trek tours travel agency was about to start after an early breakfast and check out at 07:00 am. The weather was cloudy but it also meant it wasn't scorching hot. The drop off was at a small port near a covered market. Some bread was bought before boarding the motorized

The boat

View from the port

Another boat and how they approach the port

Like a loud motorbike speeding on the highway, we got out of the port, across the mirror like water, like insect sliding on oil. We almost crossed path with a large cargo ship, also traveling between the islands to some faraway destination. It was still early morning and I was glad the sky was cloudy to temper the heat. We approached Olango island, a sanctuary and conservation area. We stopped away form the island, never setting foot on land. As soon as the motor stopped, 3 men embarked and I was soon feeling outnumbered with all 5 men onboard. The new passengers were actually shellfish, sea urchin and shell craft vendors, each promoting their produce. It was overwhelming and soon I let go of all my cash, save for a few pesos coins. In my swimming suit and about to snorkel, I was in no position to oppose any shopping.

How I spent all cash that day: sea urchins, shells and fresh coconut

Freshly caught and grilled unidentified shells

Upon diving into the water (jumping in more like it), the under water world and its quietness felt like paradise compared to the infinite chatter of the men onboard. The sea water was also a good medicine for my blocked nose.Snacking on sweet and fresh sea urchin (6 for 1500PHP) and some weird shells (1500 too for those, ripped off) that at times were very fishy, I was ready for the next island before a hordes of foreign and loud divers invade the surrounding waters.
(to be continued..)

A convalescence in Lapu Lapu, Mactan island

This would be my first trip outside Manila by plane. There are many airlines to the islands from Manila of course, from Air Asia to Cebu Pacific, to Philippines airline, to AirSwift. The important information to check was the airport terminal.

This time the flight departed from terminal 4, home of domestic flights. I was warned about traffic on Saturday departures so left really early, around 06:30am, to get too early at 07:00 at the airport. The first surprise was to be screened by security with metal detectors, and signs indicating firearms were prohibited. A bit wide eyed and sleepy, I managed to get passed the first check to get into the check in hall. The donut shop was only selling donuts by 3, and I didn't feel like having a sugar rush that early in the morning. Slowly the hall filled with passengers eager to explore islands and get tanned. There were also a group of seminar goers, with inspirational t-shirts:" we only live once so live right".

Eventually, after some delay and being redirected to check in at the counter (online checking and printing your boarding pass was not enough), I was headed towards my first island adventure.

Getting into air asia aircraft

Destination: Mactan island, Costabella Tropical beach hotel, in Lapu Lapu town.
Just seeing the body of water surrounding the island when landing made me feel relaxed. As I did so, all the fatigue and exhaustion from irregular sleep pattern caught up with me. The weird shift coordinating the evening team in Manila and the night shift in Panama finally revealed its price.

I summoned a driver uber upon arrival, although grab seems to be the most advertised option, green signs and logo placarded on every wall of the arrival hall. Driving through traffic of local jeepneys, carts, bikes and uniformed children, we finally arrived at the resort.

The breakfast hall was everything I envisioned, being a huge terrace by the pool, and a light breeze to cool my ongoing fever. Being early afternoon though I ordered the recommended local fare, lechon (roasted piglet), some vegetable rolls, and the mandatory ripe mango juice.

Restaurant with capiz chimes singing in the breeze

Vegetable rolls (front) and lechon (back) for lunch

An afternoon nap seemed proper after such a feast, even if the beach was tempting with its quiet bay, but I had to take advantage of the fact that there were not too many kids at the pool to disturb my lazy slumber.

Poolside room with 2 double beds

Unfortunately, by the time I hit my second sleep cycle, an end of year party started downstairs, and no amount of stuffing myself into the pillows or closing my ears by sheer will power could help me sleep again. Fighting headaches and thumping beats, I was cursing everyone downstairs, and even the band playing off tune, until exhaustion and stuffy nose got the best of me and I passed out, probably around 22:00. There was no other choice if I wanted to enjoy the rest of the trip.

Inspirational murals and ceiling art for commuters in Dela Rosa pathway

Like any business center, Makati area can be a bit empty during the weekends, especially on Sundays. Although I would have been interested to compare the pedestrian traffic of incoming workers versus going home workers, I was glad I didn't need to go through it. However seeing the murals and ceiling paintings on this highly used pathway made me curious about the pace, attitude of commuters.

The pathway is a long elevated, roofed walkway that spans between the Legazpi street to Greenbelt mall. A long part of it is along Dela Rosa Street, and also serves as parking lot and office building access. It is a convenient alternative to walking along the high car traffic Ayala Avenue, and has convenient stores, vending machines, ATM machines, several food joints, and green plants to enhance the landscape of glass and metal.

Bougainvilliers, cactuses to make a parking lot preppy

Some greens to line up the grey buildings

Small garden area to stroll by

The green plants would probably lower the stress of traffic below, as well as the sights of dreary buildings around. What caught my interest and enthusiasm though was a the colourful paintings on the ceilings and walls on some parts of the walkway, mainly on the Dela Rosa street portion.

The first time I saw them it excited my sight, leaving me entertained by the variety of shapes and colours. It made me wonder if the commuters would see them. Walking this path every day in a catatonic state in the morning and evening, some commuters would not even remember seeing anything but grey walls. But on this section, they would catch colours and weird shapes here and there, between crowds, and may be curious to look up and come back to life.

Upon watching closely, most of the murals had inspirational and encouraging messages. They could make you smile, you could agree with them, or just admire the art. I am truly grateful to the artists who painted those delightful scenes.

Smile more!

Hustling nine to five

Be well

In this age of digital information overload, it was refreshing to see messages that conveyed messages that touched the heart and soul by its richness and effort put into making them: simple messages, but truly heartwarming  in its composition.

Makati astronaut

The pipes, the utility boxes were all part of the paintings, and it was a challenge sometimes to distinguish them apart from the walls or ceilings.

Goooood morning everybody

Floating lotuses

We're not here for a long time, we're here for a good time

There are many more on the walls (#delarosamurals) and it makes for a nice walk on Sunday to check out creativity get a new eye on things. There are also underpasses in Makati, and I will make sure to look up and check those out once I have seen all the ones on the pathway. In general though the walls are quite entertaining with ads while the ceilings are decorated with artfully painted graffiti. It made me want to pain walls as well, in a catharsis like dance of paint splashing and smudging...

A rainy afternoon stroll in BGC

After a short nap to recover from the morning rowing, I decided to get back to BGC, Bonifacio Global City, as it promised much original and local shopping in its Market Market premises. It took about only 15min from Makati to get there, but it cost double the price fo going to Mall of Masia across town (230PHP). I supposed there were more traffic at that time.

My main objective was the Market Market mall, with its food stalls filled with specialties from the various regions of the Philippines. But before that I ended up in the fashion market stalls, where very affordable clothes (100php) awakened my dormant shopaholic tendencies. I needed a blue t-shirt for the next day rowing practice so all I could see was blue. After acquiring a top I could probably fit in, I explore the mall which was terribly crowded.

When I got outside, I understood why everyone and their hair got indoors: it was raining enough to make puddles. It took me a while to get oriented and eventually walked toward the High Streets area, which is an outdoor shopping area with restaurants and shops on both sides of a park stretching from 11th avenue to 5th avenue (yes, they have numbered avenues). The streets were empty and glistening with rain.

There were some interesting building dominating the skyline, but mostly there were constructions.

The little park in the middle was shiny silver with rain and empty, adding to the melancholy of the weather.The area was famous for its murals as well but I could only find one of them.

It was a lovely stroll, without the smell of pollution, or the pressure of hundreds of other pedestrians to navigate. I had nothing to buy and didn't feel like joining the other visitors inside the Mind Museum nearby.

So I grabbed another taxi, which got pulled over as soon as I got in it. The driver got caught making an illegal u-turn, and got away with it with 100php fine. It was another  eventful ride where we got stuck into traffic for 15min, and instead of taking 15min, the return to the hotel took almost 45min and it was dark by the time I got to the room.

Rowing with the Manila Dragons in Manila bay

What do you know about dragonboat? I didn't know much apart from the fact that you needed to row on pretty colourful boats and that there was a dragonboat festival or race wherever I lived. Yet I have never attended one.
Dropped on foreign land, suffocating in a forest of skyscrapers, I had promised myself to try this watersport. I had meant to join a couchsurfing event, but upon mentioning it at work, my boss wanted to see it as well and wanted to introduce me a former colleague of hers that did dragonboat regularly.

And so on a Friday evening I had a short night nap, to wake up at 04:00am, to be at the lobby at 4:40am and be picked up by my boss. She came with another Japanese colleague and her 7 year old daughter (gasp!) who was fresh as a flower. I was prepared for everything but the rain that day:
(non whitening) sunblock lotion
water
flipflops
hand fan
mini towel
phone
cookies
sunglasses
plastic shoes

We crossed town to Manila bay with the driver expertly slaloming in fluid traffic (a rare situation since my arrival a month ago). It was still dark humid outside, but the temperature was comfortable. We got tot the meeting point early, and walked around puddles in the big parking lot of Manila CCP centre to grab some breakfast in an empty KFC. S-chan hated Jollybee, the local chicken chain, but seemed to enjoy KFC, so she got herself a drumstick and mushroom soup for breakfast while the ladies got coffee. My brain was still on sleep mode so no hunger was registered at 5:15am.

There were many cars and rowers in the parking lot by then, and the teams would have their own colours to identify themselves. We were introduced to our team, or at least the team that J was member of: The Manila Dragons, wearing red on Saturdays. Other teams were blue, yellow, orange and green.

As dawn timidly showed the city's outlines, we jogged 5 laps around the parking lot for the beginning of the warmup.N-san and myself were feeling warmed up fast, thanking the weather to be cloudy and cooler than usual, allowing us to only sweat after the 2nd lap. By the end of the 5 laps, I was already drinking half my water bottle and sweating as much. However the warmup continued with dynamic stretches and x sets of :
1min jumping jacks
5 squats
5 jumping squats (squat, push up, jump)

By the 2nd set I was getting out of breath, tired of jumping jacks and was doing steps and moving only my arms. After the 3rd set, I was getting dizzy, and by the 5th set I blanked out, barely standing and staying conscious. During water break N-san and I were laughing it off, depleted of energy to talk or comment. The other members reassured us that it was almost over, but to watch out for the next day's soreness (no kidding!).

Eventually, after surviving millions of jumping jacks while dawn turned into day, and loosing my mind over my painful calves, it was time to start land rowing. Or at least the regular team members got some rowing movement training by the warm up coach (who didn't do any of the jumping jacks or warm up, which angered N-san). My mind was in such an open/free mode after all that jumping, that I understood tagalog  from the body language and intonation of the coach that they needed to use their lower body as well when rowing. As example, he even cited the Japanese team which won the Palawan race the previous weekend. Apparently they rowed quite calmly without the frantic rhythm other teams were using, because they prioritized form and technique to rowing speed and power.

After trying out the movement with a stick and a wooden paddle, we headed towards the water and were given a tiny life-jacket and a wooden paddle, used for training sessions. During races, carbon fiber paddles are used, which are much lighter.

With national team coach, N-san, S-chand and J

Although there was no breeze to flip our hair or refresh our very warmed up bodies, the stench of the sewage water that end up in Manila Bay attacked our nervous system and permeated our senses. Sadly dirt was everywhere, and although the boats were pretty, we could not forget about the smell around us. We also had to walk on gooey dark stuff, which we did not wish to identify, before hopping on the boat. We sat at the back, in front of the steering person. In the front, a signal person was also monitoring and coaching the rowers during practice.

We were taught the movement in water, in slow motion first, before joining the pace of other rowers in front of us. Unexpectedly the sitting position was very uncomfortable, as one had to put all the weight on the outside of the boat, extend the outside foot and row. As a nice surprise though, once everyone rowed, the water had little resistance and it was nice advancing in the still water, with a nice breeze on our face. The smell still was not enjoyable as we inhaled and hoped for that fresh and clean odorless oxygen.

A bit further of the coast, more teams were practicing and rowing in sync, racing each other and preparing for the following week's competition. The national coach was in the other boat and from time to time both boats would get closer to get instructions, before racing each other or getting individual practice. Rowers would row by pair, and the signal person would correct, comment  the rowers. We beginners even had our turns. It was fun exercise, but I realized there were much splashing water when I rowed, which was disgusting given the stench surrounding us. To be added to the equipment for future practice would be a hat, swimming goggles and face mask.

By 8:45am we finished the practice, got back to moor and took some celebratory photographs, with invitations to come back (it was 50PHP as non-member). I was eager to come back for practice and the companionship of the team members. The team was very friendly and I am grateful to have experienced such exercise, despite the less than perfect water/air conditions. We all tried to wash our feet and hand, getting rid of any speck of dirty liquid that touched us. As we hopped into the car to get back to our lodging, we felt filthy.

We still had to drop S-chan to her dodgeball practice (the reason she was up at 4am?) in Bonifacio Global City, another modern area of Manila full of expats, before getting back to Makati. So it gave me a quick view of the area.

I was back at the hotel around 9:30am, rushed for the hot shower where I scrubbed myself until I was red, grabbed breakfast and had a nap. For a dragon, I was out of fire...and there would be more rain