The First Impression

As we left from Mumbai (Bombay at that time) the flight was lightly loaded. Though we were let to check in, we were allotted nice seats, near the right window and in the front portion of the aircraft. I had an earlier experience of travelling to the USA, otherwise I was pretty inexperienced with international travel. We both were excited. There was a brief stop in Delhi. A few people got down and a lot more boarded. Now the flight was almost full. There were no videos in front of the seats, but there was a projector that was projecting on the front wall. I was able to watch the flight position as it was moving. After about an hour, dinner was served. We were somewhere near Kolkata, we had not yet opened the dinner plates, and it happened! Suddenly the flight experienced a fall. We lost about a thousand feet in a few seconds. I had lost touch with the seat below, I was floating about an inch above. I could see the dinner plate floating in the air. I tried to catch it with both hands. Can't say whether I was trying to save the plate or hold on to it for support. :-)  Though I was protected by the seat belts, there was a strange feeling in the stomach. Remember a roller coaster ride? Well, but on the ride, we expect it. Here it was completely unexpected.

Within a few seconds everything was back to normal, as if nothing happened. I was expecting some announcement from the pilot. There was none. I checked with the crew member. She said “This is normal, Sir, we went through an air pocket.” I can tell you, it was not normal. However, in a flight you better believe the crew. What else could be done?

As the sun broke out, we were floating above our dream destination. I tried to check out whether the sun looks any different in the land of the rising son. I was disappointed, it looked exactly the same. After the immegration formalities, we approached the customs counter. Nobody said any word, but every bag was opened and thoroughly checked. As one customs officer was packing the bags again, another one said “Sir, welcome to Japan. How do you plan to go to your hotel room? Please let me know if you need any help.” Wow! This is the only time in my life I saw a customs officer that was so nice, polite and helpful. “Thank you sir, my friend will pick us up from the gate.” I tried to be as confident as I could, after the tiring journey and the half night sleep.

We put the bags on the trolly and started rolling out. Everyone was moving fast, and was in a hurry to go home. There was a round information kiosk, at the center of a large arrival hall. We decided to wait near the kiosk. As we started looking for Jay, we noticed that almost everyone went towards the railway station, a very few went towards the taxi stand. We were the only two, standing and looking around for a familiar face. 

After a few minutes, a familiar face showed up walking out of the gate of the railway station with a couple of jackets. So far we were inside a covered area and did not feel the need, but it was cold outside. Jay was very excited to receive us, probably we were the first guests he was receiving in Japan. 

Searching for a ticket counter to exchange our voucher with a JRail pass was easy but time consuming. The pass was a small booklet, same size of the passport, our names were written with hand, and the expiry date was stamped in large and bold font. The jackets, the passports and the JRail pass had become parts of our body for the next whole week. As we collected the passes, a gate on the left hand side opened and we stepped out into the railway station.

A train was waiting on the platform, since Jay was with us, we did not have to check anything, we just boarded behind him. The train was very spacious, and contained designated open areas to keep our bags. The journey was very smooth, and the train was crowded but silent. I was trying to look outside and talking to Jay at the same time. The names of the stations were difficult to read and remember. At most of the stations, people were getting down, and nobody was getting in. “This is an airport express, and the tickets are costlier, so only those arriving from the airport use this train.” Jay explained.  After a long journey, we got down from the airport express which was almost empty by now. The next train had less seats and a lot more space to stand. It was not very crowded, however we noticed that the trains going in the opposite direction were packed with people.

A few minutes later, we got down at “Kawasaki”. The name sounded familiar. At that time the Kawasaki-Bajaj bikes were very popular in India. There were hardly any people at the station. “Japanese people are very particular about time, everyone reaches the office exactly on time, as a result every place is crowded before 9 AM, and deserted after 9 AM. This place is about thirty minutes from the city, that means this station will be very crowded at 8: 30 AM.” Jay explained.

“This is the Tokaido main line, Kawasaki station, this will be your gateway to the rest of Japan. Actually our home is very close, but we cannot walk because there is a river in between.” We started pulling our bags and walked towards Keikyu-Kawasaki station. It was another small line station about 200 meters from the main kawasaki station. We noticed a shopping plaza and several small shops along the road. We boarded a train going in reverse direction on the Keikyu Kawasaki line, crossed the river Tama (Tamagava) and got down at Rokugodote. 

As we got out of the train and walked a few steps we were out on the road. That is where I saw the real Japan for the first time. It had rained, and the roads were wet. The air was humid, but not very hot, and it smelled something different. The roads were very very narrow, and traffic was almost none. Maybe because we were in a small town. We just started walking towards home. 

Land of the rising sun - Jumping in the flight, literally

While I was thinking about cash, I remembered having seen a CitiBank office in the neighbouring building. Maybe someone in the bank will help me somehow. I jumped over to the CitiBank office. The lady at the counter was very nice and gentle, but politely she refused to help me. “Sir, you have a citibank credit card but you are not a citibank customer, I am not able to help you.” No cash on credit cards, no ATM machines either, something no one will believe these days.

Unhappy, I came back to the TCI office, I was helpless and could not think of a way to produce so much cash. I decided to take one more chance. I went back to the lady at the counter. “Madam, I don’t have that much cash. As you know it is very expensive to travel to Japan, and perhaps this is my only chance in life. If I don’t get a JRail pass I will be confined to home. Only you can help me now, can you please do something?”

“Sir, I can not authorise a personal check, let me check with the manager.”

“Ok”, that means at least there was someone who could, I imagined.

She came back in just a couple of minutes. “Sir, my manager is not ready to authorise a personal check.” It was a firm answer. 

“Can I talk to the manager?” 

“Well she is busy right now.”

“Madam, you know my situation, you are the only person who can help me now.”

“Let me check with her.” The lady went inside, and came back with another lady, which should be the manager I guessed.

“Sir, we don’t accept checks from individual travellers.” She provided one more clue, as she denied my request.

“I am a senior executive in this company in Pune, TCI is our sole travel agent, and we do a whole lot of business with TCI, this is a very small amount compared to that. Your office in Pune was closed for a couple of days without any notice. Otherwise I would not be in such a bad situation.”

I could see a change on her face as I mentioned the name of my company. Also the fact that I knew so much about the business relation between TCI and my company, showed that I was really in a responsible position. “I agree with you sir, but I still don’t know you. Ok, I will accept your check if it is backed by a guarantee from your company on a company letterhead.”

That worked like a charm. From their office desk, I called up my office in Pune. Luckily Veera, the finance person was available to pick up my call. She talked to the TCI manager directly and confirmed that she will arrange for a letter in half an hour. Meanwhile, I told the manager about my flight schedule, and requested her to move fast. 

Things moved swiftly after that, my check was accepted, the vouchers were prepared and stamped, receipt was printed. “Everything is ready, as soon as I see the fax from your office, I will give you your documents. Till then relax and be seated.” My flight was at 3 PM, check in time was at 12 noon, I was one hour away from the airport. It was already 11 AM by now. Where was the time to relax? But there was no option. I have to wait till the letter arrives. I explained to myself.

In about thirty minutes, we were all set and jumped into a taxi. “Man, drive as fast as you can, we are already late by 30 minutes.”. “I will do my best, let’s go zoom.” We must have reached Dadar in fifteen minutes and it started to rain. It was completely unexpected, unseasonal rain with gusting winds. No one was prepared, and that resulted in a traffic chaos. We must have lost about thirty minutes by the time we crossed the crowded area.

As we reached the airport, it was already very late. There was no time to look at the watch. “Thank you so much, keep the change.” Both of us jumped out of the taxi, and ran towards the main door. A lady with a white sari and with an “Air India” badge was waiting at the door. She looked at both of us. “Are you Mr Vaidya?”, It was surprising to see that she knew me. “We are all waiting for you. Can I see your passports? Here is your boarding pass.” As she said, I noticed the couple of boarding passes in her hand. 

She handed over our bags to a bell boy. “Don’t worry about your bags, they will reach your flight. Follow me.” Running as fast as we could, and passing through the security and customs, bypassing the queues, three of us hurried to the gate.

“Bye bye, wish you a happy journey.” We were seen off, and before we could say anything to thank her, we were pushed into the flight. The door closed behind us, and the flight started to move just as we jumped in our seats.

* Though a lot of Indians complain about the services of Air India, I always had a good and pleasant experience with the airline. After this incident I have travelled several times by Air India, and I prefer the airline over others when an option is available.

Land of the rising sun - Buying the JRail pass

When I tried to find more information about the JRail pass from my travel agent, this is what I found -

JRail pass is a must for a tourist visiting Japan. At the cost of one Shinkansen (bullet train) ticket you can travel for the entire week, using any form of public transport including Shinkansen. This is unbelievably cheap. The pass can be used only by a person who is visiting Japan on a tourist Visa. You need to buy a voucher from TCI, and the voucher can be exchanged for a pass at designated train stations in Japan. The pass cannot be purchased after you enter Japan, you must buy it in India. 

Many things related to the JRail pass are still valid, except that now it is available from many sources. You can buy online, or from multiple travel agents in India, or from specific locations after entering Japan.

Anyways, I called up TCI office in Pune, and found out that it is a simple process, just takes few minutes, you can pay across the counter and buy once you show your passport and valid Japan Visa. Oh ok, that means I need to wait till I have the visa in hand.

My departure was scheduled on Monday afternoon 3 PM. I went to the TCI office on Friday, just after receiving the Visa in hand. The office was closed, there was nobody to be seen. It was the middle of the day, so I was not expecting this. After a few minutes a security guard showed up. “Everyone in the office including the office manager are in Goa for a company event. The office will be closed today and tomorrow. The earliest you can find anybody is on Monday morning.” It was very obvious from his tone of voice that he was quite disgruntled as everyone other than him was enjoying in Goa, and he was in office on duty.

The nearest other office was in Nariman Point in Mumbai. “Is the office in Mumbai open?” I asked the guard. “It should be. I can’t say for sure, but the Goa event is only for the Pune office.” At least there was a ray of hope. There was no way I could have reached the Mumbai office on the same day.

“We need to reach the airport by noon on Monday, if we could reach the Mumbai office early in the morning on Monday, then we can buy the voucher and go to the airport directly from there.” I discussed it with Varsha. At that time travelling to Mumbai was not as easy, and a trip on Saturday to buy the pass would have meant loss of a day. We needed some time to finish the packing of bags, including some last minute purchases.

Comfortably by Sunday evening, we reached my in-laws place in Thane. “I can come with you to the TCI office in case you need any help.” My father in law offered to help. “Also let me know if you need any cash, I can arrange.” I saw no need to trouble him, he would have to take a day off from office for such a simple thing. I thanked him and politely refused his help.

Next day morning we picked up our bags and reached the TCI office before the office was open. We were greeted nicely by a security guard, and were asked to wait till the counter opens. The office was cozy and we relaxed while we waited. I was the first customer to be attended when the counter opened.

I showed our passports and the visas. “Yes, this is perfect. Let me fetch the JRail voucher book. How are you going to pay? It will be twenty seven thousand and something.”

“By personal check” was my prompt answer.

“We don’t accept personal checks, we accept only cash or bank drafts.” I could smell the trouble brewing. 

I was carrying my Citibank credit card. At that time credit cards were not common in India, and I was one of the privileged few to have one.

“We don’t accept a credit card either.” That was a shock when I showed her the card. Today, nobody will believe this; but at that time credit cards were not very common.

“I can issue you a voucher just in a few minutes after you pay the cash. Please proceed to the cash counter and pay.”

There was no way I could have paid that much cash. I was in Mumbai, a different city and the avenues were limited. My father in law must have left his house for his office, and it was not possible to connect with him till he reached his office. There were no cell phones. He was very resourceful, and he could have arranged for cash, but there was not enough time. I regretted denying his offer yesterday.

If I had travelled to Japan without a JRail pass, the tour would have been a waste of time.

Land of the rising sun - The invite

It was an extraordinary day in my life. I was checking my email from home early in the morning, and was ecstatic to see an invitation to visit Japan, the land of the rising sun.

My close friend and past colleague Jay had relocated to Japan just a year back. Before he moved to Japan we had worked together on building a new business unit. We travelled together on business visits and had discussed several plans for growing the business over the wee hours of night after the business meetings were over. Jay had moved to Japan in order to build his career, however a part of his heart was still with us. We used to exchange emails regularly, and I used to provide him updates on the progress of our plans that we built together. Phone conversation was very expensive and not financially possible.

As I was already aware, homes in Japan are really small, and it is very difficult to host visitors without making some arrangements. Jay’s neighbour and his colleague in Japan was visiting India along with his family during a particular week, and his apartment was available for stay. Before inviting me Jay had talked to Navin about sparing his apartment, and Navin had agreed wholeheartedly, without thinking even once. 

If I could plan my trip exactly during the same week, it was possible to stay with Jay.

I had never thought of visiting Japan. There were many difficulties. Staying and eating in Japan is very expensive, and a trip using the normal tourist way of travelling would have been out of my reach. Very few people in Japan know English, or any other language I knew, and learning Japanese was very difficult for me. I had heard horror stories about Japanese food, and getting Indian food in restaurants was out of question.

Jay solved all my problems.

“You can stay with us, so you don’t have to pay for accommodation. Dinner will be at home and you can carry packed food for breakfast and lunch. Radhika will be very happy to cook for all of us. I will plan for all of your visits, I have visited these places before and I can give you very detailed instructions to complete your every day trip, without knowing Japanese. It is a summertime, it will not be very cold, and if required we have a couple of extra jackets. Only thing that remains is the cost of travel, if you can pay for the flight from Mumbai, and a JRail pass for a week, you are all set.”

There was enough time to plan the trip. The first thing I did was to check with my wife, she was very excited at the thought of visiting Japan. She knew Jay and Radhika very well and did not have any hesitation to accept their invitation to stay with them. Next thing was to check the business calendar, since I was planning well in advance, the calendar looked pretty clean during those days. Same day I talked to my manager in the office and applied for one week leave. The manager was very supportive. Our daughter was very young, and we were pretty sure that she would not enjoy the trip. My parents agreed to take care of her for a week.

I called up my travel agent, and checked the price of flight ticket and a JRail pass for a week.

And it was “Clear to go”.

Invitation letter, tickets, visa, purchasing yens everything was just a formality, which was taken care of, except the JRail pass, which is a separate story altogether.

The story of an incredible journey - Day 8 and 9 - Yet another nice experience

The target for next halt was Satara. It was just eighty kilometres away. Given the long and tiring journey completed yesterday, it would have been impossible to travel more than that. It was about noon, when we reached Umbraj, and turned left towards Pune. At that time the Mumbai Bangalore highway was only two lanes, and we faced a lot more traffic. Most of it was trucks.

I remember counting down every kilometre as we crossed a milestone.

Based on the experience yesterday, we caught up with a rickshaw driver near the ST stand. We were asking for a place like a temple where we can stay overnight.

“You will not be able to stay in a temple. This is a city full of temples, but they will not let you stay.”

We had a key that could open many doors, we showed our I Cards. 

“Oh you are from COEP? Engineers? Take this small road on the left and go straight to the district collector’s office. Many engineers visit that office, they will help you.”

He had logic, and he was confident. But we were not convinced. 

“Why would the collector office help students on the road?” I said to Sandesh.

We thought for a few minutes.

“Anyway it’s worth trying. My father is a government servant. We can use that connection if required. Maybe we can find someone to help.”

We went straight to the collectors office, we showed our I Cards to the peon, and told him we want to meet the collector sahib. He asked us the reason. We waited for about fifteen minutes, and then were called inside. The officer inside was not the collector, but must be someone with authority. We explained to him about the trip and the reason for the trip as an educational excursion.

“You cannot stay in the government rest house. Satara is a central place and the rest houses are always full.”

He did not sound like he was showing us the door, so we had a ray of hope.

“There is another place, where revenue officers visiting the collector office for office work stay overnight. It is not a government rest house. It is run by the revenue officers club. Everybody staying overnight contributes rupees ten per night. I will send someone along with you, so that they will allow you in.”

“This will be better than the rest house, sir. Thank you for your help.”

We couldn’t believe our luck. The place was very nicely maintained. There were a couple of others staying there, they did not bother much about us, they were busy with their own plans of entertainment.

The fun will be over tomorrow. We thought as we slid into our beds for a good night's sleep.

By now we had got into the habit of getting up very early. Like a routine we started. The road was mostly flat, the ghats were pleasant as it involved sliding down. Around two pm, we reached Pune and somewhere before Swargate, stopped at a south Indian restaurant for lunch.

“It’s finally over.” was the thought as we gulped idli and dosa. 

“Bye. Bye. Don’t expect to see me in college, at least for a week. I will need that much time to recover. I hope Anil and Ajay have reached safely by now.” 

I turned left toward my room and Sandesh turned right towards Hadapasar.

The story of an incredible journey - Rest of Day 7 - Pleasant experience

It is hard to say how long we were lying down. After a seemingly long time, a fleet of road repairing machinery and a bunch of trucks crossed us slowly. We got up from the lying down position, some of the labourers in the truck recognised us and started waving their hands, we waved back in response.

As the road became empty, we realised something for the first time. A significant time had passed without any other vehicle crossing the road. With the repair crew gone, there was no one on the road. We were not able to trace any vehicle lights all along the road that we could see. It was just the two of us, on the bicycle in the middle of the jungle, and we did not know how far we had to go before finding a suitable place for rest.

“We need to get going. We don’t know whether it is safe to hang out in the open.”, 

“Agreed, let’s go.”

The road ahead was quite nice and sloping downwards. The efforts required to push were relatively low,  It was about an hour before we could see any sign of civilisation. “Koynanagar” was the name of the place. The town was a little bit inside from the main road. We decided to try our luck in the town. We went to the bus stand, found one rickshaw driver and enquired about a place to stay. He pointed us to the government rest house.

At the rest house we were received by a middle aged caretaker.

“Yes, you can stay here, I have a room available. However if any government officer shows up, you will have to vacate the room.” he replied.

“It is already late in the evening and a chance of anyone coming up is really low, but it’s my duty to keep you informed of the rules.” 

“We don’t really need a room, we can sleep here in the veranda.” We were trying to save some money. We showed our college I Cards.

“No. You can't sleep here. It is unsafe to sleep in the open. Also as per the rules you have to register and pay for the room.” He was quite firm in his response.

“The rooms are very cozy, you will get hot water. I will prepare dinner for all of us, come back in half an hour.” He opened one room for us.

The room was large, good for an entire family. We were getting more than what we asked for. We filled our hungry stomachs, after a hot water bath. 

“We will be leaving very early in the morning.” Sandesh said to the caretaker as we paid for the room and the food.

The story of an incredible journey - Day 7 - The mistake

While all other friends were still sleeping, myself and Sandesh got ready for the return adventure. Sushil's parents were awake, and his mother prepared a cup of tea for us. When we started the air was a little warm and humid, and full of smell from the sea shore. The normal morning sounds were yet to start. As we moved from Ratnagiri to Hathkhamba, we were facing east but there was no sun to face because we crossed the eastward journey before sunrise. By the time we turned left on the Goa highway toward Mumbai, we had caught up a nice rhythm and good speed.

The journey towards Chiplun was faster than we expected. It was just the two us, and both of us were energised with the three day rest. By now we were used to the highway travels and the truck drivers that crossed us at a high speed. The roads in Konkan are narrow, and a bicycle in the left lane meant a bit of irritation to the drivers. To overtake us they had to take extra caution, and also had to lose speed sometimes. Understanding their difficulties we were cooperating with them as much as possible, allowing them to cross maintaining their speed, but it was not always possible.

Wasting very little time for breakfast in between, we reached Chiplun just before noon. As per the plan Chiplun was our destination for today.

“What are we going to do for the rest of the day?”,

“We have travelled only 90 kilometres so far, we can definitely go a little more before we call it a day.”

It is hard to say who was saying it to whom, but it looked like both of us were thinking on the same lines.

While we were having lunch in a roadside shop we evaluated our options. One was to go north towards Mumbai. The next possible place for an overnight stay was “Bharana naka” or Khed which was about 30 kilometres. The other road was going towards the East. We could have crossed the Ghats within 40 kilometres. We decided to take the new route. There were several advantages. We could have crossed the ghats on the first day itself. As we were fresh and energetic, it made sense to travel the difficult part first. We could have travelled through a different region, seen different places, and yes, without thinking much, we decided to take the new road.

The road before lunch was covered with trees, also it was early hours in the morning. As we turned right, the situation changed completely. Since the direction of travel changed towards the east, shadows of the trees refused to cover the roads. With a full stomach and hot sun and tired limbs, we started to feel the difference. After a journey of a few kilometres, the ghat started. The road to Koyananagar is also known as  the “Kumbharli Ghat”. It is a fairly long ghat covering more than thirty kilometres in length.

Something completely unexpected was waiting for us just around the first bend.

“Loose gravel and a smell of molten tar”. Yes, the road repair work was in progress. “My God, this is going to kill us.” 

Hot sun, loose gravel (khadi) on the road, boiling hot tar on the surface, wood fire that was used to boil the tar and the smoke added to the steep upward slopes. Initially there was a hope that once we cross the repair zone, we will be OK. The repair zone did not seem to end. The work was going on simultaneously at multiple places. There were zones where it was just impossible to paddle the bike, that required us to walk and push the bicycles along with us, making sure that the feet did not slip off the chappals and touch the ground. We did sympathise with the labourers who were working all day and in many cases bare feet.

We reached the top or the place called “Ghat Matha” exactly at 5 in the evening. Now a days you will see a small shop selling tea / coffee etc, at "Ghat Matha". Many years ago there was nothing. The moment we noticed the downward slope in front of us, we literally threw away our bicycles, and jumped on the ground lying flat. The support from the ground and whatever little grass that was there, was feeling like a 'Thai massage' to our feet.

The day was not over yet, but there was no more energy left. It will be prudent to take some rest and get started again in some time.

* For comparison, Khopoli is 61m above Lonavala is about 622m above MSL, so the Khandal ghat is 541 meters difference. Travel distance is roughly 15 km. 

Whereas Chiplun is at 7m above MSL, and Koynanagar is at 897m above MSL. That is an 890 meter difference and the on road distance is 30 kilometres. So it was like climbing Khandala ghat two times. That was after cycling 80 KM from Ratnagiri.