The 12th Tokyo Crazy Country Dance Festival hosted by Hiro Suzuki, ran from 20-22 April this year.
On the 8th of April, I received an email from Hiro, but it wasn't until the 9th that I checked my inbox. The email said that if he paid for my travelling expenses, etc, would I be interested in attending his event (and teach) like I did before, in 2008. I looked quizzically at Allan, my husband, and he said 'Go for it!' :)
It was kind of a mad rush from then on until I boarded the plane to Tokyo on Tuesday night, April 17. On the 10th, right after my morning class, I got all the necessary documents together, went to the photo studio to get my mugshot taken, and headed straight to my ticketing agent in KL where she showed us (Allan & I) how to fill up the form for visa application to Japan (policies for application have changed since 2008). She checked to make sure all documents were in order and then told us to hurry.....the embassy closes at 4:30pm. We hailed a taxi at 4pm and rushed to the Japan embassy. Made it just in time, got our queue number and waited for our turn to submit my application.
The reason for all this haste was because the day after, April 11th, is a national holiday to celebrate the coronation of our 14th King. Added to that a Japan visa application takes 3 working days to process. Which means that if I submit on April 10 (Tues), I'll only get the visa (if approved that is) on April 16 (Monday), since Weds is a public holiday. I needed to fly Tuesday night! And I wasn't about to purchase the air ticket until the visa is securely in my hands. But as my good fortune would have it, the embassy would be open even on April 11 as they're not following all the gazetted holidays in Malaysia. To cut a long story short, I got my visa on Friday, bought the air ticket the same day and started packing for Tokyo. :D
Next came the travel jitters. I've travelled alone only once, that was to Sydney, but even then I was to meet Allan there so that wasn't too bad. This time, I'd be travelling alone and upon arrival I'd have to get myself onto a bus to Shinagawa Prince Hotel where Hiro will be meeting me. All of this seemed extremely daunting especially since there may be some difficulty in communication as I don't speak Japanese.
To prepare myself for the journey, I printed the necessary information about the limousine bus that would take me to my destination.....floor plan of where the ticketing counters and bus stations were located at Terminal 2 Narita airport....price of ticket... etc. I also armed myself with a Japanese phrase book...lol! I'm all set!.....I hope... ;)
