The week leading up to the trip was hectic with me in DC for a business trip. I flew back Thursday at around 5pm, finished packing my stuff, picked up our friend who was traveling with us and headed up to LA. By the time we made it to bed it was way too late. The next morning the airport shuttle picked up the 4 of us and away we went!
12 hours later we were in Tokyo. We grabbed our luggage and proceeded to the limousine bus stop only to find that we had missed the last bus by a few minutes. Our vacation package included transportation now completely useless.
Even though I expected to be dropped off at the hotel by the limousine bus, it was a good thing that I copied some general directions to the hotel from the nearest train station. It always feels good when a little extra effort pays off. The stations in Tokyo are wonderful, with everything clearly labeled in Japanese and English! What would I do if I didn’t come from an English speaking country… or worse, a non alphabet using country. I’d be spending hours trying to figure out what the symbols mean. Before long, we figured out the stop we needed to our destination.
An hour later we popped out of the station, taking the nearest exit we saw. Unbeknownst to us, stations can be rather large, and if you arn’t careful you could come out in a completely different neighborhood. Fortunately for us, we picked the right side to come out because the map placed outside the exit showed that the Tokyo tower was right behind the building in front of us. Our hotel was conveniently located near it. Within 10 minutes we were checked in and in our room.
I was warned to expect small hotel rooms in Japan, but the ones we got were just a bit smaller than in the US, only the bathrooms were small. The fully functional bidet and the fact that we were given Shiseido shampoo/conditioner/body wash made up for the size.
As we freshened up to go out for dinner, Jae’s cousin, Ed called us. They had arrived in Japan earlier that week from Australia and we had plans to meet the next day for dinner, but since they missed their event that evening they had time to hang out that night.
Ed’s girlfriend Claudia had spent some time in Japan during college so she knew her way around and most importantly the language. She took us to Roppongi where the night life is most active for some BBQ. As we walked to the station we noticed how empty and quiet the streets were. Our group of 8, usually considered pretty quiet back home echoed our chattering and laughter up and down the street. Central Tokyo, 11 pm, yet it was quiet, well lit, clean, and felt very safe. Roppongi on the other hand was hopping. People, taxis, lights everywhere, but still very quiet, no honking or yelling.
Claudia took us to a place that was located in the basement of some building. We went down a street, and then all of a sudden, turned and down a narrow flight of stairs. I wouldn’t be able to get back there again on my own. After briefly waiting we were shown to a Japanese style room where the table was set in a depression on a tatami covered floor/seat. We had to take off our shoes before entering, but once seated there was room under the table for our feet.
Since she could speak the language, Claudia ordered a bunch of stuff for us and we spent the next hour or two grilling and eating. We were tired before but now wide awake. The food was excellent, really good pickled cucumbers, salads, and the meat too. I’m not too good with types of meat, but whatever we got was good, even the tongue.
We ate so much that I was half afraid to look at the bill, but it turned out to be quite reasonable, around $25 per person.
After dinner we walked around the area, then to a small cafe for some ice cream and cake. Ordering was as easy as pointing at the picture and holding up an index finger for 1.
As we were finishing up, one of Claudia’s friends showed up, he came from the birthday party Claudia and Ed missed earlier that night and wanted to stop by to say hi. For learning English only in school as a second language, we were all rather impressed with his grasp of the language. Grammar was great, just a little uncertain on the pronunciation. Bravo.
By now, it was way past midnight and we had no more energy to go on, all the subways had stopped for the night so we took the taxi back to the hotel while Ed and Claudia continued their evening at a club with their friends.
Japan was off to a pretty good start already!
Sidebar: Japanese politeness
As we were taking group pictures on the sidewalk, a guy in a hurry half ducked and walked across the view of the camera, we didn’t say anything as we were taking quite a bit of time but waited for him to pass. Upon reaching the other side he suddenly became embarrassed, stopped, turned around and started bowing to us while apologizing profusely. His lady friend who had stopped walking so that she wouldn’t block the camera’s view started giggling which only made him bow some more.
