A Couple Days in Tokyo (Part One)

The past two days have been surreal.  I feel as though I've done and seen a week's worth of things, and this trip is really just getting started.  I'll try to remember as much as possible while I write this, and give true justice to the fantastic nature of my experience here.

Full Tokyo Photo Album - click here

Day 1 (yesterday)
First I went downstairs for breakfast.  There is a "San Francisco Cable Car" restaurant attached to this hotel, and they serve a choice of either Japanese style or European style breakfast.  I opted for Euro style, which consists of an egg over easy, a small salad, yogurt, toast and sausages.  The coffee is delicious...ALL of the coffee in Tokyo is beyond comparison to what we drink in America.  Then I started the day by just walking around and exploring the area near my hotel.

My hotel is in a district called Asakusabashi, which is a relatively quaint district of downtown Tokyo.  I'm very happy with the hotel choice that I made...it's not a big tourist hotel, and the neighborhood is authentic Tokyo.  I haven't seen a single non-Japanese person within a 5 block radius of my hotel.  People almost stop dead in their tracks when they see me walking down the street, like "Holy crap it's a white guy."   With the exception of big tourist stops in Tokyo, it is very uncommon for me to see a fellow white person.  When I do, it honestly catches me by surprise.  We usually give each other the silent "nod of approval" and continue on our way...sometimes stop and talk for a minute.

After walking around, I mapped a route to Akihabara, which is the big electronics district.  Anytime I want to go somewhere, I Google map the directions and write them down on a piece of paper.  The street names are sometimes written in Japanese characters, so I just have to draw a crude map of what the route looks like and hope I find it.  Akihabara is crazy...every store is either selling electronics, DVD's, video games or anime comics.  There were suspiciously young looking girls standing around wearing ridiculous schoolgirl outfits and headbands with furry ears....they were the "hired talent" to convince you to buy lunch inside a certain cafe.  They did not allow their picture to be taken.  I visited "Super Potato," which is a world famous video game store/museum featuring classic video games.  You can buy old Super Nintendo games, Sega Genesis, you name it.  It also features arcade games, which I played a couple of.  I also stopped at a massive 8 story Sega arcade.  A bunch of guys were playing a "Gundam" game, so naturally I jumped in to join them.  After about 2 minutes an employee came over, refunded my 100 Yen, and told me I was not allowed to play.  I think they were playing in a league or something : )  Another famous store is "Gamers" which sells anime comics.  Some of the things I saw in there are WAY too inappropriate for me to post in this blog.

Later that day I decided to visit the Imperial Palace, which is near the Tokyo Station - this is the main train hub in the downtown area.  While I was walking towards the palace, some guy walked up behind me and was like "what's up." I ask "so are you American?" and he confirmed.  He was also walking to the palace so we decided to help each other find it.  His name was Josiah, and he said he was a cop from Sioux City, Iowa, visiting his brother who was retiring from the Air Force.  I told him my cousin Chris is the state representative in Sioux City and he's like "Chris Hall?  Yeah I know him, he went to North High School!"  What a small world.  He said Chris spoke to the police association and was a supporter of the local police.  We also added a third English speaking member to our group - a woman named Sarin who was from Singapore.  Afterwards we parted ways,

For dinner, I decided to walk around and find a "real" Japanese restaurant near my hotel.  I happened upon a little restaurant called "Moon." It is sort of scary to walk inside a place and have everyone just stare at you in disbelief, but I'm getting used to it.  I soon realized after walking in that nobody in there spoke a lick of English.  Luckily I have a phrase book that has been my lifeline.  However, the menu was also entirely in Japanese, so I knew I was in trouble.  I found a phrase in my book and said to my waitress:  "please decide for me."  The chef looked at me and was like "sashimi?"  I knew that was raw fish, so I just responded "Hai, OK."  They brought me out a 3 course meal that started with sashimi, then a delicious stew, and then these fried pancake looking things.  I pointed at the dishes (after eating them) and asked the waitress "namae?" which means "name" and she tells me the names.  The stew was "Nikujaga," which the phrase book defined as "meat and potato stew."  The pancake things were called "Satsumaage" which were...gulp..."minced fish patty mixed with vegetables, fried in sesame oil."  I knew something was off about the texture...but I'm still glad I tried something I would have otherwise never eaten.   The experience felt like one of the coolest things I have ever done.

I was hoping to visit Roppongi last night (the Tokyo nightclub district) but got hit with a wave of tiredness after dinner that I could not overcome.  I'll try to visit tonight.  Gotta run...I'll have another update as soon as I can.