Tokyo: Shiseido (2/5)

… continued from previous Tokyo: Disneyland (Day 1/5)

Okay, today is the day we “work” … that is, if you call attending a forum in an exotic faraway land work. To me, real work is like, you know, tapping the rubber tree, mining the coal or listening to Peter Andre’s comeback album. So obviously, today’s event is hardly “work”. And that brings me to the reason why we’re in Tokyo in the first place: to attend the Shiseido Whitening Forum.

We meet up with Kagami-san on Tuesday morning at the hotel and stroll down to Ginza. We’re going to visit the House of Shiseido. House of Shiseido was first built as a pharmacy, but since 2004, it’s been turned into a museum dedicated to all things Shiseido.

There’s a mini-theatre where you can watch Shiseido TV ads through the ages, check out the products and see how the brand’s advertising evolved over the year. There’s also a library containing books on cosmetic culture and artworks.

To understand Shiseido is, to a large extent, to understand Japanese culture, so it isn’t a bad idea to pop by for a visit if you’re ever in Ginza … you know, take a break from buying all those Burberry bags. Haha.

From the House of Shiseido, we walk on to the Shiseido Parlour – ah, the home of the oh-so-famous Shiseido cheesecake! When we arrived in Tokyo the day before, we each had a gift bag waiting for us in our rooms. Inside was a beautifully wrapped package containing three cheesecakes from the Shiseido Parlour.

After I tasted it (read: devoured all three at the speed of light), I understood why people say, if you ever go to Japan, you must try the Shiseido cheesecake. Omg, it was delicious!

And so now, here we are at the Shiseido Parlour along a main avenue in Ginza. It was originally a soda fountain over a century ago. Today, it’s a swanky place to dine and is well-known for its Western food (Japanese style!). Hmm. Obviously not the place to go if you wanna go el cheapo … unless you consider curry that costs 10,000 yen (that’s RM400) el cheapo la. But since we aren’t picking up the bill, we happily wallop the lunch in our private room.

After lunch, we head to the Tokyo National Museum for the forum.

One message I pick up at the forum is that Japanese women take beauty very seriously. I mean, sure all women want to be beautiful but not every woman makes the effort to cultivate a beautiful appearance. And beauty, to the Japanese, is fair flawless skin. I think back to the women I’ve seen since I got here. I can certainly see that skincare is big business here. Coming from a very selekeh country, I’m impressed by the obvious care Japanese women take in their appearance. They’re so well-groomed – perfectly applied makeup, perfectly styled hair. The eyelashes on these women, I tell you! Long eyelashes and big baby doll eyes (enlarged by their obvious skill with the eyeliner) … all against a backdrop of fair flawless skin. I shudder to think what life will be like for the few unlucky enough to be cursed with problem skin … in a sea of porcelain faces, that’s gotta be tough on the self-esteem.

But for all their beauty, I find that Japanese women all sport the same look. They all fit into this cookie-cutter mould: typical smoky eyes, pale lips, flawless skin, long brown hair and slim figure. Maybe that’s why you have those who revolt and go the totally opposite way with their weird hairdos, goth makeup, strange clothing and all that. The antithesis of conventional beauty, I guess. There’s a ‘freak show’ every Sunday in Harajuku where all the young people come all decked out in their finest (read: weirdest) attire – the perfect time for people-watching!! (We visit Harajuku tomorrow but it’s Wednesday so no ‘freak show’ for us. Shucks.)

We wrap up the day with a dinner and then, it’s the end of the “work” day for us! We decide to go for a drink in Roppongi later that night since early next morning everyone’s flying back to KL. Everyone, that is, except me, Elsa and Liling – we’ll be extending our stay for another three days (*insert big smile here*).

Roppongi is a happening area with bars where people go to chill and have a drink. We’re cautioned that there will be lots of blacks (Africans) hanging around there and they aren’t exactly a calming presence, if you know what I mean (*raise eyebrow here). They move in packs and exist solely to buat kacau. So, the advice is: no eye contact and move fast!!

We have drinks at this bar called Gonpachi. It’s adorable! It’s rather quiet today but oh, I love the ambience of the place.

We order some snacks … zaru tofu (edible), octopus and okra in pickled plum (weird) and fried chicken (good).

By the time we finish, it’s past 1am. The last train is at midnight, so we wind up taking the cab back to the hotel. Need to get back and get some rest – tomorrow’s the Big Transition. Tomorrow’s also one day closer to that traveller nightmare experience I was talking about in my previous post!

Continued in Tokyo: Harajuku (Day 3/5)