Akasaka Tokyu Hotel
Tokyo, Japan
15 June 1973
Dear Mum & Dad,
Well here I sit in a very plush office all to myself at the Nauru Consulate in Tokyo. The desk is teak, circular purple visitors’ chairs & my chair, black in heavy upholstery. Built in furniture at the back & paneled walls. The reason for me writing a letter from here is that there is very little to do right now because the Consul is not due until this afternoon. I got quite a surprise to see him at the Okinawa airport where he joined the Air Nauru flight to Kagoshima. He was to spend the night there & fly to Nagasaki this morning & on to Tokyo in the afternoon. I caught a Nippon Airways flight (Boeing 737) from Kagoshima to Tokyo last night arriving at Tokyo at 7.30 pm local time. The Consul’s secretary met me at the airport & we took a taxi to the hotel. I was very tired with good reason, I think, considering I had left Nauru at the equivalent of 5 am Tokyo time. I really crashed to bed but woke up with the daylight, which is my usual routine on Nauru, being consistently about 6.30-6.45 am, but this morning at was 4.45 am (mad).
There are so many interesting things to mention I don’t really know where to start. To begin with, Air Nauru was full to Okinawa, a very rare occurrence, the reason being a lot of Chinese workers from NPC were returning to Hong Kong. The President had traveled on the plane from Melbourne to Nauru the previous day so the front section of the plane was configured into the Presidential suite. This is achieved by partitioning off the front 12 seats area & installing two big lounge chairs facing each other with a table in the middle on one side, & a three seater lounge on the other. What I am trying to say is that I traveled in the President’s chair. How is that for 1st class travel?
The first stop was Ponape in the Caroline Islands, part of the US Trust Territories. A terrible airport but from the air the island itself looked interesting.
We weren't allowed off the plane at Guam (without US visas). It is a real arsenal for the Americans & as you probably know they are using it for a bombing base for Cambodia. In the short time we were there 3 B52’s headed out & a couple were returning. From the air it looks well developed with tall hotels fronting the beach & a lot of modern buildings. It has a population of 60,000. The car park was full of American cars with the exception of one, an EH Holden, the same as mine.
We finally arrived at Kagoshima, coming in right over the top of a smoking volcano. Unfortunately the sky was very hazy & visibility was pretty poor. By Kagoshima I was the only one to go through Customs. The Consul who I mentioned flew from Okinawa to Kagoshima had said he would see me in Tokyo the following day & indicated the direction to take to the custom’s desk. By the time I had gone through the routine he had disappeared. I had really expected him to hang around but suddenly I felt a bit lonely. The whole trip had been quite a friendly affair & now suddenly nobody but non English speaking Japs everywhere. I immediately went searching for the Nippon Airways desk to check my bag in & confirm my flight to Tokyo. I had a wait of nearly 2 hours. In all that time & in fact until I reached Tokyo I didn't see one European, a very unusual experience.
The trip from Kagoshima to Tokyo was uneventful except for a bit of turbulence. An officious airport official searched my hand luggage & required my passport before getting on at Kagoshima. It is routine to check against hijackers. By the time we reached Tokyo it was dark. We flew through cloud most of the way anyway. The hostess would announce “we are now flying over such & such a city” which was very interesting to hear but not to see. It is the first time I have seen planes stacked at various altitudes. As we approached Tokyo in the cloud & dark & supposed to be the world’s largest city I was thinking hell I hope the pilot knows what he is doing. We flew in over Tokyo Bay & seemed to be just skimming the water. The airport actually projects out into the Bay. It was raining cats & dogs there & it was straight out of the plane into a bus. The airport is surrounded with neon signs & buses & planes seemed to compete for the right of way.
The taxis here are suicidal & it was more good luck than good management that got me to the hotel in one piece. On Thursday morning (it’s now Friday) I caught a cab to go to the Consulate & he got lost. It was quite fascinating because we were pelting down narrow little winding streets, up & down hills, nearly collecting a couple of pedestrians & just missed a lot of accidents. The total cost of the trip was ¥460. The trip back to the hotel with a cab that knew where to go was ¥170.
As well as the normal city buildings & the more interesting little shops made from wood scattered throughout the city I’ve seen the DIET building which is the main parliament for Japan. The highlight of the whole complex is a building that looks remarkably like the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne. It was the headquarters for Imperial Japan during the war. The Emperor’s Palace is in the centre of the city, quote “inside the formidable 15’ thick walls are 250 acres which contains residences for the Imperial family & its retainers” There is a moat running right around it all.
Just a couple of quickies, the roads are not the best & not any extremely high buildings because of the earthquakes situation. I am sitting with my fingers crossed!
Last night I took a trip to the top of the Tokyo Tower, very much like the Eiffel Tower in Paris only the Tokyo Tower is 60 feet higher, great view though too smoggy to see Mt. Fuji. I hope to travel back to Kagoshima via Kyoto (the ancient capital) & Osaka on the bullet train. That’s the express that hits 120 mph.
I have a neat colour TV in the room. Tokyo has about 10 channels (only one broadcasts completely in English) Apparently the other channels, for some programmes broadcast in English & Japanese & you can buy an adapter to pick up the English version. There is one English speaking radio station & that’s the American Forces station.
I am exhausted with all this writing. I’ll let you know all the rest of the trip probably back on Nauru.
Hope you are all well,
Love Greg
No comments:
Post a Comment