September, 2023

I saw Lost in Translation a decade ago and by then the movie was already a decade old. Its remarkable that the movie not only still holds up, but also how a lot of us low effort weebs continue to flock to landmarks in the movie. Although my visit to the New York Grill at the Park Hyatt Tokyo was on the last day of my trip to Japan, I had the movie and it's themes starkly present subconsciously in my head throughout my journey across the Land of the Rising Sun. 

Points to Note

1. This fall trip to Japan was planned around the 2023 Japanese Grand Prix

2. I visited the country with my cousin who is also a major F1 nerd and all together a stand up guy

3.  We stayed in Nagoya, Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo

4.  Even though I felt Kyoto was the most complete touristy location over all; Tokyo intrigued me more and I cannot wait to go back

5. We had some EXCELLENT meals in Japan. As a fortunate enough traveler, I can not stress enough about how easy it was to get a high quality meal everywhere we went. Further, how accessible it was to plan and go out for fancy meals as well. Accessibility to be largely driven by a greater availability of such restaurants/joints and the overall hospitality of the Japanese people

6. Culturally, my major Japan influences have been Lost in Translation and Pachinko (the book). I was pleasantly surprised by how both these media capture the essence of the people and the country so well

NAGOYA

We flew into Nagoya via a connecting flight from Hong Kong where we spent the early morning hours downing a few too many glasses of champagne like responsible travelers who managed to book business class seats and were amazingly upgraded to First on our first(!) leg of the trip from Delhi to Hong Kong. 

Sidebar - In my head, the coolest people are always the ones at the airport, who have stories of delayed baggage and obscure interactions with immigration officers. The wanderlust kinder in me yearns for eternal travel in a factory line manufactured luxury experiences where grabbing a quick plate of scrambled eggs from a machine in a lounge is somehow a desirable experience to avail. I fully understands the superficiality of the whole thing, but I still cannot deny how much of a treat it feels. Maybe its because of something hopeful like the feeling of never ending adventure. However, it continues to 

Back to Nagoya

We were in Nagoya to watch the 2023 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix due to happen at the Suzuka Circuit. All research prior to the trip was quite clear that staying in Nagoya would be the ideal setup for attending the GP throughout the weekend. We stayed at a cheap Comfort Inn (Meiekiminami) about 10 mins walk from the train station from where we would take our daily train to Suzuka to the circuit. While booking the hotel I had remarked to my cousin that this was probably the smallest room in size that I have ever booked and golly it was tight. At no point during our 3 night stay were we able to open both our suitcases at the same time; also if we had one bag open we would lose access to the bathroom as the galley was that narrow. However, if I were to go to Suzuka again for the GP, I would not hesitate staying here again as the prices were reasonable, it had an excellent ramen bar right next to it where people lined up during meal times and right at the end of the street had both an excellent corner bar that had whisky highballs on tap and a great chicken karaage place which was serving free gyozas to all diners who would order anything on the menu the night we landed.