Single Livin'

I can't express how blissful it feels for me to wake up, pull open the curtains, throwback the balcony doors, put on some Gangstarr and dance while making an omelet in my little kitchen.

Is this what it's like to be an adult? Am I domesticated? I don't know the answers to these.. but I do know that living alone is agreeing with me so far. :)

What better way to celebrate your first night, then with dinner + drinks?

Upon my arrival to Japan, I already had the company of my cousin to look forward to. She and I had been speaking on occasion, and she was just as excited as I was to meet!

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.

Challenges of communicating from abroad

I’m beginning to learn for myself, having a blog is hard. Because I try to practice what I preach, and am very often preaching the utilization of social media within work, for personal use and whatever you might fancy.. I'm having a tough time reconciling with just how much time a personal blog requires in maintenance and dedication.
Since my arrival in Tokyo late last week, I’ve been busy thinking about what I want to share with everyone. I keep my camera with me as much as I can, and to remember what I want to share with everyone for later but the problem I am now seeing is just how time-consuming it can be to live something, then to sit down and write about it. Not only to write about it, but to do it justice when capturing in words and video. This blog for me has already been a bit of an experiment but as time goes on tick, tick, tick.. more and more is happening around me.
With that, I just wanted to share that although I may not always be very good at posting I will do my best. I realize in being abroad and so far away from those that know me, everyone wants a piece of the action. People justifiably want to know what’s happening in my world, in a world they’ve yet to experience themselves. So I will continue to carry on as an ambassador of sorts, to bridge my world with yours—with one request. Please be patient with me if I’m slow to upload and update.

Yours,
Sara

The first day - Karajan Plaza Market & Brunch

My very first morning in Tokyo I was surprised that I awoke feeling fresh and ready to take on the world. Because I hadn't slept much in the time leading up to my arrival sleeping happened quite naturally (although perhaps because it was aided by my friend melatonin).

The video of my first day adventures happening upon a market at Karajan Plaza was too large to upload here, so here the video is on YouTube.

Day 1 at Karajan Plaza, rice buying at the market

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Welcome to Ark Towers

I arrived around 8pm Tokyo time (7am US time) last Friday July 30th, and was slightly beyond zombified. Having traveled through time like Marty McFly in the DeLorean, my body still thought that it was early Friday morning, when the world around me was Friday night. That night I struggled for about 25 mins. to order a pizza because I was just so hungry... but couldn't figure out how to use my Japanese phone in my apartment!! Eventually having sussed out what each mysterious button on my phone did, I was able to dial Pizza Hut.

The pizza I ordered was bacon, sliced tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, green peppers, garlic chips, basil and black pepper. It was delicious! To give you an idea of what a medium pizza costs, it was 2400 Yen . That roughly translates to $27. Ouch! Fortunately when all you need is some sustenance to put you to sleep, it's reassuring to know that regardless of what continent you may be on fresh and fast pizza is there to the rescue!

Here was a brief video I took when within the 1st hour of my arrival. The view from my balcony, and glimpse of my apartment.

Above the Clouds, Above the Crowds

The trip started out for me at 9am bright and early on a Philly morning at Philadelphia International Airport. My flight was departing at 11:10am to Minneapolis, Minnesota before I continued the rest of my journey onto Narita with a 2nd flight. The trip was 3 hours, and very quick. I was particularly excited because when I had reserved my business class trip, the domestic leg automatically bumped me up to first class. However, when I reached my seat it really wasn't as glamorous as I'd anticipated..

The seat infront of me was marred with ink from errant pens that had gotten away from the people who had come before me.. or maybe they had done it deliberately out of boredom? Couldn't figure that one out, but I see the argument for the latter. The 1st class area of the plane was divided 1 seat on the left, 2 seats on the right. My seat was on the left side, standing alone so I was sandwiched between the window and the aisle. My first impression when i arrived was of the small white pillow, light blue polyester blanket and pint-sized water bottle stacked on my seat. The flight itself was fortunately very uneventful. The most action I saw on this trip was the very large man snoring across the aisle from me, who would softly snore for a while, go quiet and stop breathing, choke and repeat the cycle. The other mildly intriguing thing I encountered was my first airplane meal.

I had a couple of options, but went with the chicken ceasar wrap as it seemed the safest choice. The lunch arrived in a bright green wrap, innocuously lying on my tray beside salt and pepper, a bottle of water, and pre-packaged caramel brownie. As soon as I bit into the wrap something tasted.... strange. I couldn't tell bite-by-bite if I was actually tasting bleu cheese, or if they were trying to emulate bleu cheese, what I did know was that I couldn't find evidence of bleu cheese in my wrap as I forged on. By the very last bite though -- sweet relief! Confirmation there was cheese responsible for the distinct flavor I had been experiencing. Phew.

After a brief period of downtime at the Delta lounge in Minneapolis [a a 1 hour delay for take-off as they fixed the navigational system], I was on a plane to Narita International Airport outside of Tokyo!

The moment I walked into the Biz class cabin things were noticibly different. My 1A seat was snuggly tucked in the front corner next to the windows, with ample legroom. As soon as I sat down a flight attendant popped up out of seemingly nowhere to ask if I wanted a glass of champagne. I didn't realize until that moment, but 'Yes..! A glass of champagne would be delightful.' Even my first impression of the seat was different from the last. A large down blanket, full-size pillow, amenities kit (slippers, eye shade, Korres face cream & chapstick, pen, tiny tube of toothpaste + toothbrush), noise-cancelling headphones and the promise of a new life in a new place waited me.

The trip was 12 hours and 15 minutes. Departing at 3:10pm on Thursday, July 29th I would arrive in Japan at 5:25pm Friday, July 30th. Crazy hours! Because I was so excited in the newness of everything, I hardly slept the entire flight. Every moment was so unexpected, it made my 12 hour flight go by much faster than it would've otherwise. After take-off I was supplied with pretty much anything my little heart could desire. Endless supply of water bottles (again the mini-size Dasani bottles> don't they worry about wasting so much plastic?) for dinner a three course meal of Thai coconut soup [it was cold and suspicious] and tuna sashimi with sesame seeds, for the main course beef tenderloin and shrimp scampi [not bad, the meat was really really rare though, like i found a cow in a field and bit into him] and then an impressive dessert cart with ice cream sundaes, cakes and parfaits.

I napped for only about 2 hours the entire trip. My Japanese culture and language sensei had advised me before leaving Philly that I should take the melatonin sleep supplement you can pick up at Vitamin Shoppes, and to take one in time with the Japanese time zone to prevent jisaboke -- translation: jetlag! So I did this, and had also purchased 'No Jet Lag' on the advice of the Vitamin Shoppe employee. It's some natural type supplement you take every 2 hours during a long flight that is supposed to aid in preventing the detrimental effects of jetleg. On the flight I watched 3 movies on my personal monitor. I finally had the chance to catch-up on films I'd been hoping to see for months. First up- Roman Polanski's murder mystery, The Ghostwriter. Then The Hurt Locker, and finally CrazyHeart. It was a nice way to pass the time.

All around me the shades were drawn and people were in various states of consciousness. The seats I hadn't realized had hoods on them, so when you reclined you retreated into your egg-like pod. I half-expected Mork to pop up from one of these sleepy eggs and say, 'Nanu-nanu'!

From the moment we came in for the landing, I was glued to the window. I was utterly riveted from the moment I saw Japan, by the square-like farms all around the airport, that grew into larger pieces of land separated by winding roads, houses, and buildings. It was obvious that Narita was far, far outside of the city, and this area was a bit more rural than what I would be living in. Nonetheless, it was love at first sight.

Once I landed I almost immediately encountered difficulty in navigating through the airport. Not to say that they didn't have a clear signs in both English and Japanese at every turn, I just find it difficult to make my way through windy airports. After trying my Japanese out on a few people [things were looking up-- we communicated! they understood me!] I made my way to immigration. In fact, the lovely older lady who directed me to my lane commented on how well I could speak and would get by in Japan. From there I made my way through, retrieved my luggage and then to customs! I got through there with no problem, and worked my way over to the exit of the airport. At this point I had done quite a bit of reading up on the best method for me to make it to my apartment. It seemed my best option would be to take the limounsine bus that would travel to the ANA Intercontinental Hotel, located next door to my apartment building. When I came to the ticket counter, I faced the challenge that I continue to face everyday. Do I make my request in Japanese or English? With Japanese there's a risk I might not understand completely, and with English the risk that they may not. Ultimately I went for English-- they work at the airport so I figured they must be well-versed in other languages. I was able to reserve the ticket, and then had a couple of questions, where do i go from here, how long to Tokyo? So I dove into Japanese. This has been my experience in Japan, use English, gauge the person's skill then switch to Japanese.

After 1 1/2 hour on the limousine bus I came off, with the nearly 24 hours of being awake hitting me hard. It was about 7:30pm in Japan on a Friday night and I was weary and ready to change out of the clothes I had been wearing for the last 20 hours.

This is where I hit my first real snag in the trip. When i exited the bus, a helpful ANA intercontinental employee answered my question for directions to Ark Towers by pointing me towards the hotel. I didn't know if that was right judging by the maps I had studied, but decided I'd listen to this guy because after all... i was fresh to Japan. Well I walk in the direction he had me go, struggling with my 2 suitcases, 1 large bag, backpack, and computer bag. I mean it was ugly.. i was struggling to walk with a huge amount of weight on my back, while pulling suitcases with a bag each on top. I realize I have no idea where I am, and going so I ask the hotel's front greeter where I am and where Ark Towers is! She pulls out a map and directs me in the opposite direction.

At this point I'm getting delirious and she walks with me to the street to further emphasize the location and where I should go. Sadly as she walks me to the street, I drop my bag and it takes me a couple minutes to right myself before I can go on.

I go down the street where she had pointed and make an errant turn. It was the worst feeling. Here I was super-tired, struggling with heavy luggage and I just don't know where to go [I know it could be far worse, but at that moment I was feeling pretty down]. I'm just struggling to turn myself and my bags around when out of nowhere, the first guy comes swooping out of no where profusely apologizing and helps me with my large suitcase + bag, telling me he's been trying to find me because he sent me in the wrong direction!

It was a truly trimphant moment. Only, he didn't really know where he was going. At that point I didn't really care because I could revert to auto-pilot and follow this guy while he asked people directions in his impeccable & native Japanese. He knew the general direction, but not exactly where we should be. Eventually after discovering that he is a speedy person, racing up hills this way and that and with me struggling to catch my breath and to keep up.. We made it! I was home.

And that was that.

Apartment selection

On Tuesday May 25, I received an e-mail with the apartment listings the vendor that my company had hired to aid me with the apartment process had selected. Struggling with my options, i called my uncle in Tokyo, spoke extensively with my mother, and set-up a meeting with a colleague who had just returned from living in Tokyo himself. That was all good until I learned from Yumi, my go-between for these apartments that she needed a final answer to my choice by Monday, May 31st as the locations had been 'tentatively secured' and she could proceed with the contract. Adding to the difficulty was that it was Memorial Weekend, and did she mean by Monday my time, or Monday her time?

There were many pros and cons to my top 2.

Somerset Azabu East- washer/dryer, dishwasher in the room. A lovely corner balcony, rave reviews and close proximity to Tokyo Tower. A swimming pool, large queen bed, and adjacent to a grocery store. A subway trip that wouldn't require a transfer, 10 minutes on it until my destination. Cleaning services 1 a week, and breakfast included in the rent. (43.32 sqm)

Ark Hills- swimming pool, spa facilities, a location that is central for young professionals. Close proximity to 5 subway lines, laundry facilities on the floor to be shared with all. Grocery stores 2-3 blocks away.A large balcony that ran the width of the studio apartment, and provides great light into the apartment. A subway commute to my office that would take 10 minutes with a transfer at Yotsuya. Cleaning services 2x a week and breakfast Monday-Friday downstairs, included in the rent. (46.05 sqm)
Ark Towers Services and Facilities

Ultimately, after much struggling and 3 solid hours surfing the internet for as much information as I could get,I went with Ark Hills. The floor plan layout was more attractive, because as both choices were studios, Ark Hills had the bookcase between the bedroom and living area that allowed a bit more separation. Also it sounded like quite an experience to live in the lovely Ark Hills complex for a year.



P.S. My Mom was pushing for this option because it was better reinforced for earthquakes. She had done research and found a prediction of greater number of earthquakes projected for the area in the next couple of years.