tokyo. ive always wanted to visit tokyo but never quite gotten round to it cuz i was distracted by romantic europe, nouveau australia, exotic africa and trashy south east asia.
so tokyo. at long last.
however what started out as an intended romantic getaway with the man i wanted to spend my life with, slowly degenerated into a trip that i dreaded.
we booked the trip months in advance. was some cheap deal on zuji. that locked-jaw typa deal that allowed no refunds. the you-can-be-diagnosed-with-terminal-cancer-and-they-still-wont-refund-you-your-money type of deal. we thought we were good. spent many a night doing research on the net for things to do/see in tokyo. we were psyched.
then, we broke up. or rather, he broke up with me. “we dont fit”, he said.
time check: one month to tokyo trip. i was broken, in every way humanly possible.
there should be a law somewhere that limits grief. a rule book that says its alright to wake up sobbing like a wreck, but only for a week. that after one month you will no longer feel this twist in your guts and rapid heartbeats when you think of him. there will be no fine imposed if you throw away all things that remind you of him cuz it cuts you fresh again to see it. that it is okay to measure the time he’s gone, the same way we once measured the time we had been together.
twas a black november for me.
then i decided okay. he’s not coming with me, he’s lost out. my ticket was still valid. i decided that i’d be a brave padawan and explore tokyo on my own.
however friends, when they heard of my decision, insisted that i’d feel lousy if i embarked on a solo journey fresh from a broken heart. and one particular sweetheart, Rico, started to flex his PR muscles and rounded up all his friends in tokyo to take care of me. sharon au, who’s in tokyo studying now, was sucha sweetheart too: started to plan an itinery for me. i started to feel a little excited. and blessed to have such lovely, strong support.
icing on the cake: i asked the ex for monetary compensation and he agreed. (i mean HELLO, YOU dont wanna go to tokyo, i for sure shouldnt be made to go alone right?) so with the mooolah in hand, i bought TWO airtickets for a friend and my bro’s girlfriend STEPH. along they came as my travel buddies 
when we got to tokyo, sharon was the first to meet us. took us out to a nice traditional japanese foodhouse. she’s such a darling la. also met up with cyril takayama and his lovely wife jane who took us out to nice jap bbq dinner. made alot of fab new friends along the way:
(L-R): Me, Sharon, Steph. Sharon was such an amazing tokyo guide (she speaks fluent jap), confidante and girlfriend.
(L-R): two fab acadamy dancers, Kike and Brad.
LOVELY PEOPLE. Brad+Kike own a dance studio called the FAB ACADEMY and we bought Moet after dinner and raided the dance studio. did hoops, burlesque dancing and had waaaay too much fun.
Cyril and me @ this kickass jap bbq restaurant on roppongi. catch Cyril on AXN’s Simply Magic (yours truly also innit)
that’s jason, an amazing dancer with the australian ballet. and next to him, cyril’s lovely wife jane. who’s also a freakin amazing dancer. jane’s a riot! x
thats me trying RAW COW’S LIVER!!! innards, raw or not, is really not my thing lor. but cyril kept pushing me to try and what the heck, im on a holiday so i went for it. it was surprisingly delisssssh i must say! sweet meat. not slimy at all! of course it was heavily seasoned but who cares. it was yum!
conquering harajuku. thats me on the left. and lil bit of my friend zach on the right.
steph and i and our fav okasan who made our dinner at her restaurant such a heartwarming one. we cant remember name of restaurant but it was on kabuki-cho in shinjuku. most def heading back to visit her. x
darling steph and i at the top of Mori Tower with breathtakin view of tokyo tower and city behind us.
2 travel buddies.
6 days in tokyo.
7 new friends.
1 broken heart, healed.
when life gives you lemons, you bloddy hell turn them into lemonade yo! when life f*&ks u up, you grab f*&k by the balls and tell it to piss off. all things happen for a reason. one door closes another one opens. blah blah. all so true.
tokyo, thank you for giving me clarity, confidence and peace of mind. i left my heart with you. i will be returning, wait for me.
p/s: i will be uploading an entire album of photos taken of my trip to tokyo, on the shanrozz facebook page. if you havnt hooked up as our friend, log on to www.987fm.sg and click on my DJ profile pic and there you’d see a link to add us on facebook. xoxo
RYAN LEE
