My first evening Kotone made her way from Kanagawa [outside of Tokyo] to me in the Akasaka area of Tokyo's Minato-ku ward. Let me kick a little knowledge your way. My cousin lives in the Kanagawa prefecture, and within that in the city of Hiratsuka. That is about an hour [by car] to an hour and half [by train] travel time away from me.
Image from Wikipedia:
Her cousin, Masako arrived at my apartment [through Kotone's Mom's side, Kotone and I are cousins through her Dad's side because her dad and my mom are siblings--we share an adorable Baba] and together we left for dinner in the Roppongi area. Roppongi is a 10 minute walk from my house and it's the foreigner area of Tokyo. The entire experience of living in Tokyo has been utterly fascinating already. Everything is just so STIMULATING! There are new sights, new lights, new language, new people, new styles.. the old mixed in with the new all around me. I see people walking around in summertime kimonos (apparently there was some kind of summer festival happening this weekend, and traditionally people put on their summer kimonos) mixed with foreigners from around the world. People from Europe, Africa, America.. it's very cool and completely new.
I feel as though I may not be freaked out whatsoever because this all still feels like an amazing dream, like a vacation does. Afterall I haven't been able to personalize my apartment yet and it looks like a hotel room anyways. Besides that, I've been able to go out and experience all this new stuff while understanding the language which has significantly cut-back on the fear factor for me. I feel very lucky to have this skill, and frankly it's making life easier here.
So back to last night.. we went out to this Japanese spot to eat, hmmm what kind of food was it? I couldn't figure it out, but Masako had made a reservation for us and though the menu was completely Japanese(i really really hate that I can't read.. i can't order off most menus cause it's exclusively in Japanese, so continue to rely on those around me) Masako and Kotone ordered everything for us to share. We started with some shredded daikon radish in a light mayonnaise sauce mixed with caviar. It was fresh and light. Next we had bite-sized egg pancakes mixed with onions, then uni wrapped in nori with lightly cooked rice in soy sauce. You know that delicious flavor when rice gets hard from being pan-fried in soy sauce, i want to call it slightly burnt but it's not quite that. Well, I've always been a bit apprehensive to eat uni since it's sea urchin, because it's orange, and cause it looks kinda like
orange goo. The plate arrived and Kotone exclaimed in delight, 'I looooove uni!!' then wrapped the nori around the uni and took the entire bite. Then Masako professed her love and ate hers. Well, obviously that doesn't leave much of a choice.. haha and after their incredible show of affection i dove in. Uni tastes like the ocean, and frankly combined with the soy sauce and fresh crisp nori, it was delightful. The final course arrived and it was an omelet like meal with onions, eggs, veggies, octopus covered in sweet tonkatsu sauce. Fabulous!! It was a great meal, washed down with some icy cold Asahi beers in chilled mugs.
The best part of the meal was just hanging out with the girls. Kotone is a lot like me. She is so talkative, energetic, very intelligent and has a great sense of humor. Masako is quiet, very intelligent as well and more on the majime [serious] side. She is also 28-years old, and just all-around very sweet. Together we all hung out and had a nice chill time. We talked about anything and everything. They're so easy to talk to, conversation just flowed as they got to know me and vice-versa. They
wanted to know about my family, what Philly is like, what I like to do, my job.. everything. It was great though, and I really don't think I can express well enough how comfortable it is to relax, not look at your watch, eat good food and hang out.
After dinner, we decided to grab drinks. It's amusing because you hear so much about how the Japanese have advanced technology but it seems everyone has their iPhones! The cell phone technology is relegated to phone/e-mail/internet device from what I've seen, so it seems that the Americans have just been late to join the party. Anyways, wherever we were going, Masako would pull out her iPhone and be searching for the next location as we walked. Kotone doesn't come out to Tokyo too often, and not Roppongi because she parties more in Yokohama, closer to home.
On our way to drinks, Masako asked if I'd taken pictures in a photobooth. I mean I had.. but an American one. Well, well, well to my surprise the Japanese booths are targeted towards young women and they boast an automatic software that makes your eyes appear bigger [appealing to the Asian persuasion-- look at Japanese anime], photoshops away the flyaway hairs and blemishs, and let's you add pictures and whatever you like. Take a look! I have the pictures with me now, they print out as adhesive stickers.
Japanese Arcade Adventure
We went to this spot called the Heartland, and as I mentioned earlier, the Roppongi area consists mostly of foreigners. The bar was cool! They had a couple djs spinning and had a Heartland beer on special (i couldn't figure out if they brewed it themselves but it seemed to be theirs), and what I found amusing was that they loved
spinning 90's jams and reggae.. perfect for me on a hot summer's night!! We had a great time, and hanging out turned into a dance party. We chatted to lots of different people, and had fun together.
Heartland bar part 1
Heartland bar part 2
Interestingly enough, some guy was talking to me and he was an American. Well this guy asks me where I'm from, I say Philly, he's from there too.. lived at 10th and Fitzwater and reveals he went to PENN. When he asked my name, and introduced himself in turn i told him, 'Doesn't matter. You're Penn kid.' Hahaha, i was totally busting
his balls for being a Penn kid it was great. He didn't know how to handle it at all. Silly Penn kids.
Next when I was on my way to the bathroom I saw this Japanese guy wearing a Yankees cap. OF COURSE i'm going to say something. He definitley didn't look like he spoke English, so while I could've said something to him in Japanese obviously I'm going to mess with him in English! My suspicions were confirmed when I was saying things like, 'bandwagon' and 'Yankees suck' and he just gave me some confused looks.. :) The most difficult thing I continue to encounter is trying to figure out how the toilets flush. Control pads on toilets, bidets and strange buttons throw me off, but I'm getting used to it. I've figured out the toilets pretty well [mostly].
Well the girls and I ended up staying out pretty late at the bar..until we were pretty drunk. It just kinda happened! We walked out and I realized I needed to derail any potential hangover so I announced it was time for curry! I wanted to eat curry and we had to figure this out. Out comes Masako's iPhone as we strolled and laughed, until we found the destination her iPhone had pointed us to.... an UDON shop! It was fantastic. It was 3:30 in the morning and the place was PACKED with late night revelers getting their udon on. We sat down and ordered three big bowls, I got my curry udon and it was amazing. Cheap, delicious and quick. Fantastic. The service in Tokyo really is unrivaled too, i'm just beginning to get used to it but am still finding it difficult to let my guard down. These servers/hostesses are very nice and very attentive. You don't even tip in Japan--- see what I mean about it being like a dream?
Udon decisions decisions
And it arrives!
The evening ended around 4:30am when we made our way back to my apartment. As I fell asleep, I remember thinking how it was way too bright. This truly is the land of the rising sun, because it was about 5 in the morning and the sun was up and lighting the world so bright and early. This is something I'm still becoming accustomed to. Fortunately I've wisened to using an eye-shade, and it's made a major difference.
No comments:
Post a Comment