Wi-Fi or SkyTV – I needed at least one. The UEFA Champions League Final was on that night, and I was flying ANA to Tokyo.
I was travelling from Mumbai to Tokyo for my summer internship at Mercari. Left for the airport at 4 PM with a departure at 8:15 PM. Traffic was unusually heavy for a non-working Saturday afternoon, and I ended up reaching the airport at 5:45 PM. Check-in and security didn’t take long, and I was near the boarding gates by 6:30. I decided to wait in the lounge. Protip: always carry a MasterCard – free food and drinks.
As soon as I boarded the flight, I checked the entertainment system. SkyTV was disabled. I accepted my fate of missing the finals and decided to watch a movie- The Butterfly Effect. My flight’s departure got delayed by an hour. After the flight took off, I realised that SkyTV started working. With my plans of sleeping destroyed, I braced myself for the match. The match was disappointing (save for Bale’s bicycle), thanks to Sergio Ramos’ love for clean play.
Having barely slept, I arrived in Japan with numb legs. Emily-san from Fourth Valley Concierge was waiting to pick me up; the other interns had already arrived. We took a bus to Ginza station and then a train to Tameike-Sanno station. Our apartment was somewhere in Roppongi. We picked up the keys and went in to freshen up. Seeing the apartment for the first time was a delight – I really couldn’t wish for better.
Emily-san and Tanaka-san took us out for lunch and showed us around. I started falling in love with Tokyo immediately. Most of the afternoon went to unpacking and getting used to my new home. Figuring things out was a challenge since almost everything was documented in Japanese – from the toilet seat temperature controls (yes, those are a thing) to the TV remote. The waste segregation system was its own puzzle, and I wisely pushed that off for later.
I called over Prateek in the evening, who lives only an hour away. He was doing his research internship at the University of Tokyo. We went out and explored the locality, hopped across a few convenience stores and got a few ready to cook items for dinner.
I retired to bed early, super excited for my first day at work.