Spent 2 weeks in Tokyo

Do you see anything in these fancy railings? Look carefully. Redlight district, Amsterdam
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I had 2 week working remotely for the Amsterdam bank in Tokyo. It is very nice to sort out all my mails and utility bills. Raining season, but not so hot yet. I still managed to bike to work in our office in Kojimachi. I have had a haircut the very next day I landed, going to the hair salon introduced by a friend, managed to use my broken Japanese to communicate, even chatted with the staff. The hair style is very short (I feel like a high school student again), the only problem is that I have to come back to the same hairdresser in 2 months. Ha ha ha ha. Every foreigner in Tokyo should have a set of Pimsleur's Japanese learning lessons.

One afternoon slightly after 5pm, the fire alarm sounded in our office and I was thinking, hey, not again, the fire drill is just kicking off in the very bad time. Wait a minute, it turned out there was indeed a fire in our building, everyone needed to evacuate from the building via the staircase. Unfortunately our office is in the 10th floor and I was wearing 3 inch heels. Anyhow, I limped down stairs and found that there were lines of firetrunks along our street, Shinjuku dori, both sides!! Fire marshals and firemen running around in full gears (hey, these firemen are not as sexy as those in TV!). I cannot even yet see any smoke or any signs of fire. But people gathering around our building, it is almost festival-like, very hard to leave and go home. Anyways, nothing is burned and no one is hurt, I biked home out of borden (no alcohol, no party).

I met with Mai, we went to the top floor pub in Park Hyatt, where the movie "Lost in Translation" was filmed. She is so well-connected in hotel business, they waved off the cover charge and sent us some free chocolates. We drank and talked, I biked home from Shinjuku slightly past midnight The streets of Tokyo are deserted, so tranquil and peaceful. I paddled as fast as I can, enjoyed the light cold breeze.