Frustrated, but wasnt sure whether to be with myself or with the Hotel guys, I was yet to be confident & sure of myself, that it was the hotel's fault, after having made elementary mistakes in the past I trusted my self a little lesser as compared to the hotel, I mean come on, they have so many people checking in and out of their Appartments every day ! a mistake on their part was the least you could imagine, confused and tired I dared to step out loaded with 3 heavy duty bags and stood out side the main enterance, just in case your wondering, nope there was no reception !Looked left and Right saw no telephone booth, "screwed" first word that hits me, then from a distance I saw a middle aged man, jogging on the road, surprised yet concious to seize the opportunity I tried to stop him and ask for a phone booth's direction, the guy simply kept running, smiled at me as though he thought I was saying "Hello !", waved at me and continued to run, puzzled & not knowing what to do, I started walking, at a few steps I saw a Bar, for the first time since I entered Japan, I get to see a board with english on it, the board said "Wine Sakaba", I saw a guy on the inside look at me, I called him out for help, the guy says, "hai, dojo" meaning "Yes Please", I said I need Mobile or a phone booth, noticing I speak english he called for another guy, the guy turns up soon enough, "hello", I said I need to make a phone call, "where telephone ?", he said "booth very far, no close". "I stay in B-Site" I said, the guy exclaims in response, "aaah aaaa sososo, B-Sit-o ! hai !!".
I continued conversing, "No Key, door no open, You have mobile, cell ?", he happily offered me a cell phone, and I made the phone call, the guy was a little restless, after all, call rates in this country are no cheap deal, I pacified him and said "call free, no Yenna, Siro (zero) Yenna". He looked like he took a sigh of relief.
I called up the office of the Appartment, they said they would do something and check, as the details provided to me were correct, mean while I hung up, the guy introduced himself, "Huji ...Huji Yoshimura", I replied to him with mine, and said "Arigato", he smiled, and asked where from "Amarikka ?" , "No " I said India, Taj Mahal, which again made him exclaim "aaah aaa sososo, Taj Mahal !, (I now happpen to know that people in Japan recognise India by Taj Mahal and Sharukh Khan.)
Mean while Mr Huji San too tried his in-genius ways to retrive keys, but alas, no use, now I had prepared my self for a chilling one hour wait, then out of no where, a sliding door opens, a short guy pops out and says "Sumimasen, Mr Niketo, (they have a habit here of saying O after every word ending in "t"), I try opening, and he punches the same code, this time under the box with letter L, and opens the box, gasp ! I said, almost fainted, how on earth was I supposed to interpret "H" as "L" ???
Not making any more logic of the scene, I decided to thank Mr Huji San, and our new friend the care taker of that place, Mr Tomho San, and crash land at my room.
Enter room, hungry, tired and half dead...what lies ahead ? Watch this space...
