After the conference, I had a couple of days by myself in Tokyo. So what do I do for fun? I go visit the United Nations University in Shibuya. Great idea, I met some cool people there and got good info about some interesting courses they organize. Perhaps I can also get my department networked with the UNU, we’re in need of some good literature on globalisation and sustainable development…

Of course, before visiting UNU I had to change hotels. True, the good people at the Sakura Tower had reserved my room for two extra days after the conference, but they didn’t change the US$400+ per-night price tag, so I thought to myself, what to do? Difficult decision for me: to pay 50, or 400 dollars a night? :) In the end, I decide in favour of the latter. And what an experience this was, my new hotel was in fact a traditional Japanese inn, the Ryokan Kangetsu Japanese-Style Hotel. I loved it there. The website says something about the staff being polite and helpful (I’d booked this over the net back in Romania, so I was familiar with the info on the website). Let me tell you, they were more than just polite and helpful! Any Romanians reading this will sympathise, we’re not really used to excellence in customer service. These people spoke almost no English at all, yet did an excellent job of making me feel welcome to their inn and to their city, helped me with maps and made as certain as they could I wouldn’t get lost and I had everything I needed.

The UNU is in Shibuya-ku, a great part of Tokyo, with an incredible Blade-Runner-like cityscape. There’s the main Shibuya subway station with I-don’t-know-how-many exits, a network of flyovers for pedestrians over roads, with other suspended roads on top and more trains over the top of all of this; and under the ground there’s… the underground, of course. Or subway, in Japanese. :) Click here to visit a page of several small images of busy Shibuya, courtesy of Schauwecker's Guide to Japan.

Imagine me racing against time to get to the UNU headquarters on time through this maze of Japanese signs, people looking like they don’t have a moment for me and lots and lots of vehicles, from cycles to high-speed trains. I finally made it, and spent a couple of hours or so there in good company, getting lots of useful info.

After that I went walking around Shibuya and later made my way to Akihabara. Akihabara is heaven. Really, no question about it. It’s full of electronics, gizmos, digital toys you can play with for a lifetime. And enough of them to last many lifetimes. MiniDisc players as big as an MD case. MPEG4 video camera smaller than my fist. 75 GB hard disks. Huge flat hang-on-the-wall TVs/monitors. And the Baby of laptops (true, you can get these anywhere, but I played with it in Akihabara), the tiniest of the Sony Vaio’s. Not to mention those wonderful cellphones the Japanese carry around with them. Yes, they all look like kids’ toys because of their colour, but they are great. And to think they will roll out 3G this spring, with things like full live videoconferencing on a wrist watch that also has instant Internet access and is Bluetooth enabled (in fact, the headset that comes with it is wireless – Bluetooth). Oh, the joy!!! (For more details and to experience Bliss, go to NTT DoCoMo’s site.)

In the evening (for it was getting dark by now) I was supposed to meet up with Chizu and her father for dinner somewhere near Ginza. Before that I went to see Asakusa, which was great as well – a traditional temple and souvenir shopping street (I will not discuss Tokyo prices here, but they are scary…). Ginza is impressive in that there is so much glitz there, and so much expensive merchandise that (Japanese) people actually buy… you know, names like Gucci and Armani and many others that I can’t remember and which are not all that familiar to me.

However, there’s a little story that only I could be the author of, and it is chronologically located between the Asakusa and Ginza stops. Walking around Asakusa I endeavoured to actually buy one or two souvenirs from the shops there. I spent just about all of my Yen there (which is not to say I actually bought anything much), and found that I needed to change more dollars. It was about 5:30 pm. You can guess what happened: there was nowhere to change money. The banks close at 5pm, and that’s that. I could not have imagined this… I tried my Visa card in one ATM. I tried my MasterCard in another. I tried them both in yet another, all different banks. I went to another bank’s ATMs and picked up the help line phone. I asked if they spoke English, and the woman said “Please wait.” I waited and listened to ‘hold’ music for five minutes. Then I heard some strange noises coming from inside the wall in front of me. Next to the ATM was a door. Suddenly, the door opens. A man comes out. I say ‘hello.’ He looks at me and utters something in Japanese. I pick up my Visa card and point to the ATM. He waves, and says, ‘No!’. I understand… I am stranded in the middle of Tokyo at night with no money.

Actually, no money is inaccurate, but almost true. I have some ¥200 on me (about US$2). I walk around. I go to a hotel to see if they will change money. They will not, nor will the next hotel I try. They want my passport, and I show it thinking they need it for ID in order to change money, as they do in Romania, but all they are thinking is for me to get a room…

Finally, I go down a subway station and figure that I have the ¥170 I need to get to Ginza… and from there I can make it on foot. I do that, and all is well in the end. Chizu is very kind and understands that I am an idiot, lends me money until the next day and all is well.

It was great to meet her father too. He is a professor of Maths and Business, and has written like 10 books, 14 volumes each or something!!! Bloody incredible!

An interesting and – in the end – very pleasant evening ends. You can move on to my last day in Tokyo…