Tokyo by surprise

Japan is currently on a high from winning the bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games.

Japan is currently on a high from winning the bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games. This was evident from the mood at last month’s Japan Association of Travel Agents’ TABIHAKU Travel Showcase, which took place in Tokyo from September 12 to 15. Since I was invited to TABIHAKU Travel Showcase as media and speaker, there was no time to be idle even when I was supposed to have been asleep. This is not a complaint, by any means. I know that this is the nature of the job. It entails the perpetual sense of always being on the go.

So, when the opportunity to take a pause came as happenstance on my last day at TABIHAKU Travel Showcase, I took it as a much-needed down time. Consequently, it produced my only chance at a destination piece for this trip to Tokyo since I missed the familiarization trip that I was scheduled to be on in order to prepare for my presentation as a member of the media panel discussion.

Tokyo is undoubtedly one of busiest cities in the world. People come to Tokyo for the allure and mystery of partaking in an organized chaos. People come to enjoy the crowd and the busy streets. Judging by the movement of the large crowd that exited Tokyo BigSight, the venue of JATA’s travel show, on that early evening of September 14, 2013, they were all headed towards the same place–the nearest train station. I surmise this is true for all of the city during the so-called rush hour. Having been on a multi-city journey covering three continents in the last four weeks, playing squeeze-me-in-a-train-during-rush-hour was not something I was keen on partaking, thanks to the brilliance of one Adrian Mangiboyat, who was the liaison between JATA and the invited foreign journalists, I got acquainted with “Tokyo by Surprise.”

A few steps away from Tokyo BigSight is a ferry dock. Adrian decided to go back to our host hotel, Prince Hotel in the Shinagawa area, through what he simply described as a “more scenic route.” I am ever so glad he had such foresight because the experience was the exact opposite of how it would have been had we gotten on the train. This was not an instantaneous realization, however. It unfolded rather slowly, albeit the journey commencing with a musical treat of loud singing and banging drums. I enjoyed the musical treat performed by Japanese “pirates” in Samurai outfits, but I ended up wandering about the ship. As a result, I found myself gazing at a city that look unfamiliar at first but soon revealed itself as a city I have been to before. In my solitude for most of the hour-long ride, I was introduced to a version of Tokyo that seemed like an enchanted land with specks of colorful dusts hovering all over it. Literally.

The ship I shall refer to as “Tokyo by Surprise” was the calm before the storm (of commencing a two-day air travel), the culmination of a trip that can only be described as fitting both under the billings “wonderful” and “tumultuous.” It was the chance encounter that a worn out traveler desperately needs after a long journey. “Tokyo by Surprise” literally took me by surprise. It took me out to sea, then twisted and turned in perfect timing allowing me to revel on the beauty of Tokyo’s skyline at night. It was a romantic voyage made even more whimsical by the Olympic Games colors, illuminated all over the city, to commemorate the city’s winning bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games. The seemingly an optical illusion effect was most dramatic on high-rise buildings and structures, as you can imagine it would be from the vantage point of a passing ship. Every moment warranted a picture. So, I took them. The result? I have a collection of a few pictures that are alike but, in truth, aren’t as they were taken at different times. I snapped as many pictures as I could and simultaneously took moments of doing nothing but admire the sight that was beckoning my eyes. I had a moment, a much-needed one.

Click here to view the raw pictures I took on “Tokyo by Surprise.” Notice the progression from the obligatory picture-taking in the beginning to the manic camera-clicking towards the end.

JATA’s event attracted its biggest audience yet–131,058 visitors to Tokyo BigSight, topping the previous record of 125,989 set in 2012. It also set a new high of 1,353 booths representing 730 businesses and organizations (new record) from 154 countries and regions.

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Nell Alcantara

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