Tokyo 2011, Day 2

The next day we again had trouble leaving the room on time and got to the restaurateurs’ street less than an hour before we had to be at the theater. This street, which I forget the name of, is full of ceramic dinnerwear, pots and pans, and fake food made to look like real food which people buy to use or display at their restaurants. In Japan most restaurants have a visual menu outside the main door as well as the written menu inside. The visual menu is plastic food created to tempt the taste buds of passersby and look very realistic. My sister really wanted to buy a few pieces but when they’d gone during the week things had been closed. This time we found one store open in the first block and she got something and I picked up a keychain of a small crepe. (Trust me, you should not come to Japan without trying one of their crepes. Hm, my favorite is the strawberries and banana slices with cream and chocolate sauce topped with whipped cream and wrapped in a thin French-style crepe. Delicious)
Our next stop was the Japanese National Theater to see a traditional kabuki play. Unfortunately I have no pictures of that as cameras weren't allowed. The traditional theater of Japan, it is based on the acting, not the story. Coming from the Western idea that the acting complements the story, it was hard to see a play where the story complemented the acting, which was the real art. It was also impressive to see a “Living National Treasure” on stage as one of the actors. It was also hard to follow the story as the day only showed three parts of a ten part story, which is typical. Counting two twenty minute breaks, we were in the theater from a few minutes before it started at noon to 4:15 when the third part ended. It was a good experience and was interesting to see a number of Japanese patrons wore the basic kimono to the traditional theater. I felt a little under-dressed in my good jeans and nice shirt but other people were in less formal wear and no one commented on my outfit so I guess I wasn’t doing anything wrong. After a trip to a Christian bookstore where I finally found The Screwtape Letters and a good trip to Mcdonalds, in which we each tried the local sandwiches not offered in the States, we went back to the ryokan. They were going to stay another night and fly down to Okinawa that Monday but I had work the next day and gathered my things before saying ‘bye and taking the train back to my place. As usual, got started later than hoped as we took a while to finish our conversations and I got back to my place at ten but it was a good weekend and I had a lot of fun with my sisters.

Tokyo 2011, Day 1

Last weekend both of my sisters came up to see me. They’d spent much of the week in Tokyo seeing the sights and on Friday afternoon we met in Kamakura and I took them to my new place where we would all sleep for the night before going up to Tokyo for the next two days. After I gave them the (rather short since there’s not a lot there) tour of my apartment, we tried to go to CoCo’s, a curry franchise (the food is the bottom picture and it tastes better than it looks), for supper. A favorite of the locals and the Americans around here, the place was full and the night was cold so we went to a ramen shop down the street. Honestly, I’d never had the ramen there, I’m not much for most soups, but I’d heard rave reviews from those I work with and my sister’s wanted to get the “Japanese experience”. I don’t blame them since one of them was only going to be in Japan for less than a month and I loved the shrimp fried rice the ramen shop sold so we went to eat there. I finally tried some of the ramen there, as we sampled each other’s meals, and it was good but we all agreed that the shrimp fried rice I ordered was the best choice of the three. After that I led them to a bar not far from my place and got us a chuhi to share. They didn’t feel much like drinking alcohol so I only ordered one and drank most of it (they were rather tired and didn’t want the alcohol to make it worse) but I wanted them to try it. The chuhi is a drink I have only found in Japan and can be bought like a soda in a can at any convenience store but around my place, it’s the favorite drink. A mix of club soda, flavored syrup, and a shot or two of strong liquor, depending on how strong it’s ordered, the drink seems like soda and sneaks up on a person. It tastes like a soda and a lot of people drink two or three before it starts to react with them and for some people that is too many. It’s not unusual for people to try it, decide the chuhi tastes good but is weak, and chug another one or two before the effects quickly overtake the person who’s never tried it before. A lot of Americans get very drunk their first night trying chuhis but I only ordered a regular which we each tried/shared so we didn’t really feel it. After they’d tried the chuhi it was time to get back to my warm room to catch up and get some sleep. The next morning we were planning to see my work and be on the train to Tokyo by ten in the morning.
Um, yeah, we left my place late, had breakfast at Cinnabon, and I gave them a tour of my workplace. We got lunch at a convenience store before boarding the train about noon for the two hour train ride up to Shinagawa Station where they had stored their suitcases for the night. On the way we went through a “learn your strengths” list my sister had found in a book and I realized how long it’s been since I had a good debate on psychology, especially about analyzing ourselves and each other. Each one of us has studied psychology with different aims in mind and it made for a very good conversation. My oldest sister is a drama teacher who works with children and young adults as well as doing some acting on the side so she’s studied psychology from a viewpoint of how people learn and how to teach children while my middle sister is in graduate school to be a Christian counselor to actually help people deal with any issues they may have. I just study psychology because it helps me understand people. (If you know me, you probably know I’m a very blunt person and like to know why people do what they do.) Psychology also helps me develop characters for the stories I write but I never intend to use psychology beyond that, except to play devil’s advocate with my friends. Three different perspectives on one topic and the ride just flew by.
After we (okay, my middle sister) navigated us through the Tokyo train system to the place we were staying, we dropped our stuff and went back on the train for the origami museum. We got there less than an hour before it closed at six p.m. and explored some. I’d never realized the intricate folding that could be done to make paper dolls that looked like the real ceramic court dolls sold in Japan or boats full of soldiers or full landscapes of places or crabs. We sat in front of a master folder who folded things like dragon heads and a traditional new years decoration and a puppy and a few other things before we got to pick one to keep and look around the store. I picked the dragon head and also bought some beginner origami books to add to my list of techniques I intend to learn but have yet to get around to before we left. After dark already, we decided to go to Ahkiabara, the area known as electric town. There we could buy just about anything with a current in it and we saw things like usb ports that looked like pieces of sushi, a screen that worked like an etch-a-sketch, antennas and gps gadgets for cars, and a shop that sold robots and parts to make them. By the time we left the neon town behind we were pretty hungry and finally found a sushi place to eat. In an area that didn’t see too many Americans, the patrons at the restaurant and the workers were very helpful. We finally ordered two plates of sushi to share and they brought out some pickled radish pieces for us to try for free. All was very good and we were ready to go back to the ryokan we were staying at. A ryokan is a traditional Japanese hotel with shared restrooms and the traditional shower/tub facilities. In Japan the tradition is that you shower outside the tub and then relax in the tub that is usually a one person Jacuzzi. Quite nice with the carefully manicured ground you could see through a small window by the tub after a long week at work.

Tokyo Trip, Day 1

A few months ago I went to see my middle sister and her husband in Tokyo for the weekend. She was visiting and I’m only a few hours away by train so it worked out well. I rode out after work to meet them at Starbucks in Kamakura, Japan. True, I’d already visited there nearly a year before but that was at someone else’s planning and it’s just such a lovely place I had no problem visiting there again. Since it was the beginning of December and rather chilly we decided not to go to the beach there. They had visited the main temple while they waited for me to get done with work so we decided to go to eat first. My sister, B, had a guide book of the best places to visit in Japan that she borrowed from the place they had been staying so she looked in there and found a great Japanese curry place known for its cheesy chicken curry. It was only a few blocks away from the Starbucks so we walked it and it wasn’t long before both me and my brother-in-law, G, were wondering aloud about her map reading skills. She took it as the mostly joking that it was and we made it to the restaurant to eat their amazing curry. She ordered the cheesy chicken curry, G ordered the beef curry, and I decided to be exotic and try the scallop curry. Yeah, my mistake. The plates came out with a pile of rice next to a gravy bowl of curry so it was easy to try each other’s sauce on our rice. I must admit that while the scallop curry wasn’t amazing, it wasn’t horrible and B and G’s food was amazing. I will definitely have to go back there for more than a little taste of the good curry. They served our tea in a way I hadn’t seen before which intrigued me. They had a glass bottom with one of those round candles that you can pick up at almost any home decoration place in the States lit and they put the hot tea on top in a glass teapot. The effect was to keep the tea hot and you can see the color of the tea with the fire reflected through the tea.
After we had eaten we got some ice cream and decided to go to Hase which was two train stations over and was known for a number of temples. We found it, despite my bad directions, and got to the temple B really wanted to see seven minutes after it had closed. Supposedly the temple was known for hundreds of statues and its gorgeous garden so we stood looking through the slits in the fence for a few minutes before B sadly agreed to move on and we walked a few blocks to the Great Buddha. This was another place I had gone already but it was as a quick day trip to prove I could navigate the train system and I had been on a time limit so it was nice to slowly wander the grounds at night and take night pictures. Even though it was after dark, B wanted us to go for a multi-mile hike from one part of the city to the other but G and I managed to talk her out of it. Much as I love the outdoors and walking at night I wasn’t willing to go on a hiking path that likely didn’t have many lights. Besides, I was kind of tired and still had my backpack on with all my stuff for the weekend. Unfortunately her way of compromising was to walk back to the other train station by a main road. Yeah, that took another hour but gave us more time to talk.
We got on the train and managed to find seats. I noticed and tried to hide that I was falling asleep in the hot train talking to them. I managed to stay awake through the trip and made it to the train station we got off. Unfortunately the station was Ikeburo Station, one of the busiest train stations in Tokyo, especially after dark. I hate crowds and tried to keep close to B and G as they led me where we needed to go before I hyperventilated. I got out on the street and calmed myself down while we walked to the hostel they had gotten rooms in. Yep, I can now say I’ve slept in a hostel. Now, when you think of a hostel you are probably like me and think of everyone sleeping in one room and sharing a single bathroom. Well, that may have been another floor but they got a three person room so the three of us shared a room and everyone in the floor shared two shower stalls, a female bathroom, and a male bathroom. It really was rather cool. Being in Japan we slept on the floor on separate mats maybe two inches thick under blankets about an inch and a half. The blankets and mats were wrapped snuggly in sheets so they were easy to launder and we were given small towels to use and return so they could launder and replace if needed. The towels, though not bigger than a hand towel, dried me all the way off, even with my long hair, and the beds were surprisingly comfortable.
By now it had been many hours since the curry meal so we tried a nearby restaurant that was part of a chain similar to Denny’s in the States. However, it was closed so I introduced them to the cheap way travelers eat in Japan: convenience stores. We found a 7/11 or the like and picked up some food (I picked up a rice cake with meat inside and a large meat dumpling, B picked up something she thought was interesting, and G picked up a plate of spaghetti they heated behind the counter for him) and picked up a few cans from the local liquor store since the convenience store didn’t have a very good selection. We took our meal and ate in the lobby of the hostel we were staying at. I’ve never understood the fun of sitting at a bar drinking and talking all night but we finally headed up to bed about midnight. I don’t know if the alcohol mattered much since none of us were even tipsy going upstairs but it sure was fun to just sit and talk to them for a few hours, even if we did need to get up late to accommodate the late night. It was the weekend and sleeping in is what the weekend is for.

Tokyo Trip, Day 2

As stated in the post for day one of my expedition through Tokyo, Japan with my sister (B) and her husband (G), we stayed up late talking the first night so we woke up late Saturday and started our travels about 1230 in the afternoon. Hungry, we tried a place nearby that is called Jonathans but is similar to Denny’s back in the States. Unfortunately it was full and we’d have at least a half hour wait before even getting seated so we decided to go to the next location on our trip to eat. The location was heralded as a nice little street full of cafes near a lovely little park locals gathered in to relax away from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo. The street started out as a street of cafes and we picked a café that served Japanese style Italian food. I got a delicious cheesy spaghetti and I forget what the others got but we all loved our brunches and ate in the patio watching the people passing on the street. Eventually we had to get up though and we followed the street until it turned into a shopping street where I found a kind of funky native Australian store. Eventually the street ended in the park which turned out to be a large public park developed around a small lake. In the lake were paddle boats you could rent for a few hours, some shaped like normal paddle boats with no roof while others were shaped like larger than life swans and held two people. Instead of renting a paddle boat we decided to follow the lake and see what else the oases of nature had to offer before returning to the busy streets again. Turned out that the park was a cultural focal point on the weekends when artists of every type set up to create their art, sell it at a makeshift art faire, or earn a little money for entertaining like the jugglers or the violinist. A popular place to walk dogs, I was impressed with the artist who had the idea to sell hats for dogs as well as a few jewelry makers selling their wares on tables or carefully organized tablecloths on the ground along the sidewalks. After an hour or more we reached the end of the park and had to head back to the busy streets of Tokyo. However, before we got back on the train we each got a Japanese version of the crepe. Usually fruit and cream or ice cream wrapped in a thin but sweet pancake, the Japanese crepe is an excellent dessert or mid-afternoon snack and I was quite happy with my strawberry/banana/cream version before getting on the busy train.
Our next stop of the day was supposed to be a train station close to four large shrines. We walked around a lot looking for those shrines but never found them. Eventually we gave up and walked down a well lighted outdoor mall looking for food only to find a small temple surrounded by family graves. In the States a family grave likely brings to mind a tomb or building where the urns of family members are kept. In Japan a family grave means a single monument with wooden plaques (similar to human sized tongue dispensers) with the person’s name written elegantly in kanji down the plaque. I’m not sure if the urns were in the monument but my guess is that the graves were more of a place to remember the dead than visit them as many Americans like to do. We wandered around the temple for a few minutes and took pictures of the statues but we were hungry. We didn’t find food in that mall/street (or as the guide books call it: an “arcade”) so we headed back to our hostel, got food at a convenience store again and went to our room to watch a few episodes of Castle, one of my favorite television shows that they hadn’t tried yet.

Tokyo Trip, Day 3

On our third and final day together in Tokyo, Japan, my sister (B), her husband (G), and I had to be out of our hostel by 11 in the morning so we woke up early, Skyped home to our parents, our oldest brother, and his wife before packing our stuff and checking out. Used to travelers, the hostel had a place we could store our bags during the day as long as we got them that night. We did that and head out to Shinjuku Station to look for a bookstore, grabbing breakfast on the way. B wanted to find a copy of the travel guide we had borrowed from the hostel all weekend and had been told about a huge bookstore near Shinjuku Station. Unfortunately we can’t read Japanese and wound up getting lost until we asked a few people for directions and found the store whose fourth floor had English books, including travel guides to Japan. They decided to buy another travel guide than what we had been using and we walked on, and on, and on,… After a few hours and when our feet were starting to complain my sister’s map finally said we were nearly to the shrine she had set for the day’s expedition. G and I decided it was lunchtime (beyond that really since it was early afternoon by then but we finally saw restaurants after about two hours of walking residential streets). We compromised by getting fast food so we’d have more time to explore her shrine. We wound up trying Freshness Burger, which being Japanese meant it had really small portions, and the burgers were great. Finally refreshed from a half hour of sitting and full stomachs, the three of us set out to explore Meiji Jingu, a shrine dedicated to an emperor and his wife who helped bring the western ideas of the late 1800s into Japan when it needed a quick modernization. We didn’t realize we went to the shrine on the weekend of the Shichi-Go-San Festival, or the 7-5-3 Festival, where girls aged three and seven as well as boys aged five are dressed up in traditional outfits and taken to shrines or temples to pray for good luck on the children. It was fascinating seeing all the traditional outfits (the parents are often in traditional dress as well or just suits and semiformal dresses) as well as the shrine itself.
After we left the shrine, we walked a down the street (I believe it was Harajuku street but am not sure as I didn’t write the name down in my notes) that was full of brand name western stores like American Eagle, just to say we’d gone down a famous street. That done we headed back to our hostel to pick up our backpacks and go our separate ways again. First we decided to get supper and chose a pizza place. Unfortunately it didn’t have an English menu so we had fun pointing at Japanese kanji and hoping we got something good. It worked out and we each managed to get good pizza, even if the pizzas were small, and we had a fun hour before separating at the train station, me on my way back to work and them off to a few days in Kyoto, Japan before heading home.

My Birthday, Friday

For those of you on Facebook, you know I got to Tokyo, got a hotel, and went clubbing.  You also know I got back safe.  This is to fill in all the missing info. My birthday was Friday, January 22 and I'd decided the month before that it would be the weekend I finally got to Tokyo and have been planing it since then.  Most of December I was debating where to go and if I should invite anyone for the full weekend.  During the holidays I decided to invite my friend Alex and our friend Brian, whose birthday was this past Wednesday.  My plan was that we'd get a triple room with three twin beds and I reserved a hotel for three.  Then I talked to Brian and he said He'd stay at a friend's house at night and could hang with us during the day so I didn't need the extra bed.  Oh well, I'd made the reservation already.  Well, last week I lost my credit card (I think I accidently threw it out with my tray.  I feel smrt.  :) ) and took the oppertunity to cancel those reservations and set up a cheaper reservation that was for a small two bed room with barely enough room for the beds but I liked the location and figured we wouldn't be in the room much anyways.  I was figuring we'd be getting out of work early afternoon like usual.  That would work since checkin time around here is early afternoon and I hadn't asked for a late checkin.  unfortunately, I learned last Thursday that work wouldn't get out until late afternoon at earliest and with changing and taking the train, we wouldn't get to the hotel until at earliest 6 o'clock.  That got rid of any chance of sightseeing Friday in the daylight, which was one of the reasons I wanted to get to Tokyo.  Call me crazy but I still want to see the cultural stuff when I go to a famous city, not just party and sleep.  I was kinda worried about the timing, but I figured it would work well somehow.  Then last Friday I was told that the contractors were coming Saturday so I had to sit in my cold workspce from about 8 am to 3 pm all weekend and up until Wednesday watching them work.  The problem had them stumped until Wednesday afternoon so they tweaked this and that all week and left Thursday morning telling us that we needed a new part but that the part we had now would still work if we maintained certain conditions and our boss would have to request a new piece and another visit from them.  Yay.  So Friday morning dawns andmy system broke.  Yay.  The contractors were here all week messing with things us lowly maintainers aren't supposed to touch since we don't have the "specail training" needed to work with small chips, just the large modules.  (My theory is that the companies just don't want to loose the contract and money they get from not letting us do our own work but sending others to do what they say we can't. )  We had the proper conditions to make the thing work, now we had another, very different problem.  My theory is that they didn't connect everything correctly but I'm too new to see what goes where perfectly.  I looked anyways but saw nothing off to me.  Then one of my bosses told me that the high boss may want us to come in Saturday if it isn't better.  That would completely kill my weekend.  not only could I not sightsee on Saturday, but I couldn't stay in Tokyo on Friday night.  I would have to be at work by eight which means there by 730 to change after an hour plus train ride and twenty minute walk.  I'd have to be out of my hotel by about 5 after cleaning up my stuff, possibly packing everything.  So much for sleeping in or staying out late.  Li'l B does not do well on little or no sleep.  I nearly cried.
However, the boss never said anything before I was dismissed for the day about 230 pm and my lowest level boss told me that if that needed someone to come in, they could call him in.  They don't have my phone number.  I left before he got furthur word.  However, Alex and Brian didn't get out of work until about 4 and we didn't get out in town until well after 6.  I'd called the hotel and been told that they'd hold the room until 8.  Well, the other two decided on sushi for supper so we went for convayor sushi at Daei Mall.  Conveyor Sushi is Japan's version of fast food, sorta. The room has one huge table surrounded by bar stools on one or thre sides, depending on room size, and tables connected to the main table on the fourth side, or some variation of design.  The inner wall of the table supports a small conveyor belt that circles the table.  The sue chef (sorry, that's probably spelled wrong) stands in the middle of the table and makes small plates of two individual size sushi, usually the same type, and puts them on the conveyor.  When the plates come around, the customer picks up the plate and eats the sushi.  If someone wants a specail plate, they can request it for no extra charge.  You pay by plate, which are color-coded to say price.
After we paid for the meal, we got on the train to Tokyo.  We finally got to Tokyo closer to 10 pm than to 9, well after the 8 o'clock deadline to check in.. a quick call to the hotel got no answer so Brian went on to his friend's house and we went to Roppongi, the big club area in Tokyo.  We were first ent to Hotel Ibis which wad a nice location and really nice hotel, but a little expensive for us so we turned around and found the Hotel Arca Torre.  It's a hotel on the same block as the subway station, it's right on the main street, and a better price.  we wound up getting a small room with a double bed and mini bathroom (the tub is just big enough to sit down in if wanted and there is barely room to turn in the bathroom) but it has some floor room for us to mess up, which is nice.  as annoying as it can be to live in a mess, somedays perfect order just needs to be ditched.  Heaven help us if I ever get truely OCD, I will truely drive myself fully insane.  We spent a few hours lolligaging around and doing hair and makeup (Alex did my makeup and my hair basically had a tussled look helped by mousse).  We left the hotel about midnight to go to a club that she'd heard about.  The DJs were very popular and the music was awesome but there weren't many people there and it was rather small for my taste.  The room was basically a two floor room with a dancefloor a little longer than my hotel room is with a large bar by the door, a smaller bar by the stage, and a few tables people were playing musical chairs with.  We met some friends of hers that were fun, unfortunately one thought he wanted to get with Alex and was already nearing drunk when we got there.  I learned that although I can tolerate more alcohol than I thought I could, I can't pick up other people's rythym.  I can move to the music, but when one of her friends tried to dance close to me and teach me how he wanted to dance, I couldn't follow.  Happened before with my ex.  I just can't work on other people's beat.  It took me many months to learn to march with others and that is as they shout out the rythym.
Anyways, we left about 230 am when Alex was starting to weave standing up but not before the guy had proclaimed his undying love for her.  apparently allshe needs for guys to love her (or get obsessed) is to ignore them and tell them she doesn't want them.  Lucky girl.
We left to realize the trains shut down at midnight so we took a taxi back to the hotel to realize it had been close enough to walk to then decided to get some sushi for snack.  there was a sushi shop on the corner so we got food and went to bed earlier than she had panned but she slept 'til 930 this morning so it wasn't too early. We got up and went looking for brunch.  We found a good restaurante that served mostly soup with thick or thin Odon noodles with a little meat and a few spices.  It was actually pretty good, a quiet but good flavor and filling noodles.  After that we went back to the hotel to be told that the room was getting clean and could we return in ten minutes? so we went to a nearby bookstore that was an interesting blend of English books and Japanese books.  It is now 330 in the afternoon, Alex is sleeping on the bed behind me as I type and I am munching on the raisen clusters my mom sent in the latest care package.  Hmm...is there anything more divine than chocolate covered raisens?  Well, the candies designed to taste like chocolate covered strawberey shortcake is pretty good...  Hm, there may be a challenge coming....  :)
Well, That's all so far, check again tomorrow for what I do Saturday night.  This is Li'l B signing off to do more explorations.