TOKYO DIARY

Cold politics

Officials and media alike received weather warnings prior to departure from Delhi that Tokyo would be cold, very cold and therefore needed to be adequately prepared. The contingent from India aboard PM’s special aircraft ensured that these instructions were followed. Overcoats, long coats, gloves, mufflers, all the necessary paraphernalia needed to protect from the so called “biting cold” were only an arms length away only to realise when the PM’s plane touched down, that Delhi’s Palam airport, the point of take off, was much much colder than Tokyo thanks to the cloud cover and showers that kept the city reasonably “warm”. Off went the overcoat that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was seen wearing while getting off the aircraft and today, a simple bandgallah did the needful.

Sushi and Rajnikant

The PM today had a light side to his speech at the diet. While mentioning how Odori Maharaja—for the uninitiated, this means the “dancing” Maharaja, but more importantly refers to Tamil film star Rajnikan—-was famous in Japan, their special dancing robot or Odori Asimo, which was recently displayed in India, was equally famous India. The Japanese Diet understood the light side, but many of the Indians didn’t! He thereon went on to add just as Indian food was popular in Tokyo now, from the number of restaurants that had recently opened up, so was Japanese tempura and sushi back in India. Any takers?