BA,
wanted to let you know that a few yrs ago i also accompanied hubby to tokyo when he had to go there for 2 weeks for work. and very typical of the japanese style of working lor, he had to work from 9am to midnight everyday, and there was one day when he worked till ard 3am leh! so everyday i gotta go out kai-kai by myself lor.
when we arrived there it was a weekend, so we went out with 2 of his colleagues (i am very close to both of them & they both speak perfect english) so i learnt how to navigate ard tokyo from them and they showed me on the map all the train stations and how to get to all the popular shopping places lor.
so for the next 2 weeks i went ALL OVER tokyo all by myself in the daytime lor! take the trains by myself, and went shopping by myself. even eat lunch by myself. altho most of the menus are in japanese but usually got pics lor, or outside the restaurant they will have those "fake" replicas of the food, so you can choose by looking at the pics lor! haha! i have to say the japanese ppl are some of the friendliest ppl in the world, and they will really go out of their way to help you or explain things to you. even if you have communication barrier they will still try to help you.
i have to say this is soooo unlike the french ppl lor (sorry hor, don't mean to offend any french ppl here, but i also accompanied hubby to paris once & same case lor, i had to go ard by myself, and i have to say most of them are really snobbish & unfriendly & unhelpful. i didn't enjoy myself there AT ALL. i find the city is SOOOO over-rated!!)
ok, back to tokyo, one of my fave cities! then his japanese female colleague was sooo nice to meet me almost everyday for dinner lor, to keep me company. luckily she's a very fun, outgoing and chatty person leh, so we got along great. she brought me to many "interesting" places every night leh! once we had dinner at this nice place, ALL the diners were women. then she told me this place specialises in serving female clientele only, and ALL the staff (waiters, cooks, etc) are VERY good-looking guys! wah!! so shiok man!! we spent hours eating dinner there!! hee...
then another night we went to Roppongi to meet a female friend of hers for dinner (Roppongi is famous for their clubs, karaoke bars, etc). the friend is this Japanese lady, VERY pretty and immaculately dressed. makeup, hair all perfect. and i noticed she was wearing a very expensive Rolex watch and some Bvlgari jewellery. we had a barbeque dinner and had a good time, then the frind had to go off already. after her friend left then she told me this friend of hers is a high class escort! her clients are all those very rich businessmen, locals & foreigners. wah!!
oh yes, and then one of the night my hubby and his colleague had to do work at their client's office (Merril Lynch Japan) which was like a 1-hr train ride away. and by the time they finished it was ard 3am and no more trains liao, so the only option they had was either hire a cab to take them all the way back to tokyo city, or stay at one of those "capsule" hotels for executives.
so the female colleague of his suggested that she take her dad's car then we figure out how to get to the Merril Lynch office ourselves and go pick them up, then we all can go for supper! wah, it was such an adventure leh! 1st we had to print out like 10 maps from the internet (so kiasu!), then i had to be her map reader while she drove. aiyoh...it was sooo funny! but sooo fun!
until today hubby & i always talk abt tokyo, and we know we wanna go back there again some time soon. he's even seriously contemplating working there, but i am reluctant for him to work there cause the work culture there is quite bad and i worry that he will be worked to death and also me & dd will never get to see him.