Tireless (as ever) in Tokyo

It is as cold (Baguio weather, yes!) in Tokyo as it is hot (over-hot, oh no!) in Manila, which is just perfect for a three-day working holiday (actually, more work than holiday) for the three of us (including GMA 7 VP for Production Wilma Galvante and S.O.P./MTV Asia guy KC Montero) invited by Universal Records boss Bella Dy-Tan to cover the press conference for (complete with one-on-one interviews) and the launching of Britney Spears' latest (Her second) album, Oops! I Did It Again. (her first, Baby One More Time, has so far sold more than 22 million copies worldwide.)

KC and I left last Sunday afternoon along with Bella, Wilma, Bella's sister Kathleen Dy (Universal Records Marketing Director) and Peter Chan (Universal Records International Label Manager) on PR 432, taking off at the new international airport at 3:15 (flight delayed because the PAL cabin crew belatedly discovered that a seven-month-pregnant woman was on board without the necessary papers) and landing at the Narita Airport three hours and 45 minutes later (at a little past 8 p.m., Tokyo time being an hour ahead of Manila) after a smooth flight. (KC, all six-foot-two of him, was packed into an aisle seat and passengers -- and the food cart -- going to and from the rest rooms would bump into his protruding leg which got a big bruise -- from the food cart -- as a result.)

As soon as we cleared customs, guess who we would bump into at the Narita lounge -- Tokyo-based (former singer) Bobby Valle, there to fetch the chef of his and wife Chieko Kimura's international club and their restaurant who flew in from Manila after a two-week vacation.

So, straight from Narita, Bobby whisked us (KC, Wilma and Bella, Kathleen and Peter having gone separately to the Akasaka Prince Hotel where we were billeted in an airport taxi) off to the international club where more than a dozen Filipino entertainers, all clad in baby-doll pink lace dresses, were celebrating a special occasion with the club's mostly-Japanese clientele. It's the same club where only recently Glydel Mercado and Leandro Baldemor performed for three weeks to considerably big crowds (later, the two performed in other venues with Bobby and Chieko in their traditional Japanese song-dance act) and where Priscilla Almeda is scheduled to have a show sometime next week.

Like most of the clubs and pubs in Tokyo (and other cities around the country, I presume), Bobby and Chieko's club is smugly located in a basement, so even if the music becomes ear-splitting as the nightly shows reach the climax, just above the ground not a sound can be heard, leaving the neighborhood unperturbed by the basement revelry that usually lasts up to the wee hours of the morning.

You see, Tokyo is a very quiet city and, according to Bobby as he later drove us to the Akasaka Prince Hotel in his big, expensive Rover-like car, "Even the highways are soundproof, so residents along the way can live in peace without any disturbance from the noise of passing vehicles."

The Britney Spears presscon, showcase and one-on-ones were scheduled Tuesday and Wednesday so Bobby, together with Chieko, picked us up at the Akasaka Prince late Monday afternoon and gave us a quick city tour of sorts, pointing out to us the world's tallest Ferris Wheel (a spectacle of multi colors as dusk dissolves into darkness -- well, not quite dark because Tokyo by night is a "City of Lights" to behold, somewhat but not quite like Paris), the beautiful building near a winding bridge where the city's garbage is turned into fertilizer, the newly-opened Aqua City (which we would visit the following night) complete with cool promenades and shopping malls, the Tokyo Tower, the imposing Fuji TV station with rows and rows of OB vans parked at the ground floor, making Wilma Galvante's mouth water with envy ("Akala mo," said Wilma, "mga firetrucks na nakahilera!"), the architectural wonders we passed along the way and, from atop a tall bridge, the cities of Yokohama, Nagoya and others flickering like millions of fireflies circling the sea around Tokyo.

We ended up at a newly-opened island restaurant at the end of a 20-plus-miles long undersea tunnel built with compact precision -- look, ma, no leaks! The place is shaped like a ship and from its decks, we could see more of the cities yonder even if, as I've just said, they were merely like millions of flickering fireflies. When we arrived before dusk, we caught a glimpse of Mt. Fuji in silhouette.

It was springtime, all right, but we missed the cherry blossoms which, we were told, bloom only once a year and last no longer than two weeks. Very beautiful, but very ephemeral, not lasting long just like most good things.

Wednesday night, Bobby and Chieko brought us to a store which sells everything -- name it, it has it! -- at reasonable prices and that's when you wished you went to Tokyo with a bulging wallet. But window-shopping can be as fulfilling as actual shopping, can't it be?

It was, just like the last time I was there, a tireless time in Tokyo, thanks to the ever-hospitable Bobby and Chieko who, when seeing friends around their city, manage to check on what's going on in their club and in their restaurant through their cellphones (in fact, they're forever on their cellphones!).

Oh, yes, besides the presscon and the concert and the one-on-ones, Britney Spears was also given platinum awards and plaques by Universal Records companies from all over Asia, with Bella and the Universal Records Philippines representatives presenting the 18-year-old pop superstar a quadruple-platinum award (more than 200,000 copies of the Baby One More Time album sold in the Philippines).

KC and I came home ahead of the rest yesterday afternoon on the first PR flight (431) out of Narita, made smoother and more pleasant by the all-smiling PAL staff which included Hector Tabuena (Flight Purser); Ed Fajardo, Randy Angeles and Danilo Tan, flight attendants; Beth Punzalan, Cynthia Stehmeier, Vina Sanchez, Myra Velasco, Cherie Corpuz and Marichu Gimenez, flight stewardesses.

(Note: For more on Britney Spears, watch for Conversations with Ricky Lo on Sunday, May 7.)