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What you are looking at is my attempt to deliver to friends and acquaintances a taste of my Tokyo experience this December (2000). I went there to a conference organized by the World Bank’s Global Development Network (GDN) and got lots of interesting information – some of which has, in the meantime, become knowledge ;-) – and networked with many interesting and friendly people. After the conference, I had two days by myself in the great metropolis, and consequently got a chance to experience it. Click here to follow my tracks through Tokyo. I apologize for any imperfections/errors in the pages you are about to see. A Little More Background, before you begin your virtual trip: As a cultural experience, this has certainly been the most unusual of my life until now. It’s not that studying in England for five years was not interesting, or extremely useful and enlightening. It’s not that traveling to the USA or to Italy or even Hungary next door hasn’t been fascinating, either. I think this time has been different for two major reasons: one, that Japan (or Tokyo, at least) is almost like a different planet when compared to anything else that I’ve seen. It should be borne in mind that although many people say the States is like a different planet when compared to Europe for example, to my subjective self the US is a reasonably familiar place: I have good, close American friends, I’ve worked with many Americans and I get lots of American media – both entertainment, in line with the rest of the world, and work-related. Romanians often say that “the West” (Western Europe) is like a different planet, but you can be forgiven, in my mind, if you don’t see a world of difference between a nice Romanian town and something similar in Austria or Germany. The second reason why this experience has been different for me is the fact that this time was the only time that I was really and truly by myself in a completely alien place. Odd as that might sound, whenever I traveled anywhere else, there was always someone there that I knew in advance and whom I could rely on. This time, there were good people there whom I could have relied upon with any problems, but I didn’t know them. The difference is subtle, but it’s there and emotionally I felt that it counted. That’s not to say I didn’t have a great time. I most certainly did! And this small website is here to give you an idea of what it was like. Go back up and click your way along my path through Tokyo. |
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