Loading ...Tokyo P.2
Written by Brian David Crane on April 5th, 2008
On Wednesday, Haji had to work in the morning and I was still suffering from my cold. I decided to try and sleep the cold out of me (didn’t work). I spent a great deal of the afternoon in another Internet cafe trying to catch up a bit on work-related tasks and couldn’t shake the feeling that I was getting behind by being away.
Nonetheless, later that day, Haji & I did what I have found is one of my absolute favorite activities in whichever country I visit: Attending a professional soccer game. Having seen games in Brasil, Mexico, Argentina, and France, I was really excited to see a Japanese J-Leauge game. Haji & I were in luck. We saw Tokyo Verdy play Jubilo-Iwata, two of the better-known clubs in Japan.
It was only the 4th game of the season for both teams and the stadium wasn’t anywhere near capacity but the game was awesome. Jubilo won 2 to 1. Haji & I sat/stood in the Tokyo Verdy cheap seats (20 bucks p/person) and sang "Japanicized" fight songs - English football or Spanish futbol songs sung in Japanese - throughout the entire match along with a couple thousand other Verdy fans. Haji & I both agreed it was one of the highlights of the trip.
After the game, Haji & I made our way back to the NW side of Tokyo - Tsuruse - where his Mama-san lives. We met up with his cousin, Narumi, who I had met on the first night for some Korean barbeque and drinking. It was sort of a going-away dinner for Haji from his cousin as Haji was leaving for his parent’s house in Northern Japan the next day, Thursday.
Like just about everything I have eaten here except fish eggs, the dinner(s) were delicious. We ate horse! And cow tounge! As Haji would say, amazing!! Korean barbeque is sort-of like shiskabob (sp?) except a lot of weird cuts of meat show up on those skewers! :-) I say dinner(s) because the meal was actually spread over 2.5 locations: 1. The initial nice restaurant / 2. The Korean hole-in-the-wall restobar / 2.5. The ubiquitous Lawson’s convenience store. It was a fantastic farewell feast.
On Thursday afternoon, Haji left. I was officially alone in Tokyo. Haji was very excited to go home and see his parents & friends. He had a wedding to attend on Sunday. He also was really looking forward to fishing and seeing the some of the snow that apparently still covered the northern part of Japan.
I spent Thursday shopping and visiting a couple areas of Tokyo I hadn’t previously visited: Harajuku & Ueno. Harajuku was where the Olympic Village was located when Tokyo hosted the Olympics in the 1960s and the area’s international flavor is quite distinct. Ueno is another area of Tokyo filled with an endless supply of 6 to 10 story buildings all decorated in neon signs. Ueno is also where I met Haji’s friend Miwa for dinner on Thursday night.
Miwa and I went to a place called ‘Arabian Nights’ in Ueno. Talk about culture shock. The place was in the basement of a building and was decorated like a ‘Japanicized’ version of Aladin. They even had a genie’s bottle you had to rub in order to open the door and enter the restaurant. This golden bottle looked 100% legitimate and was wired with motion sensors. It took Miwa & I 3 to 5 minutes to open the front door. I get the feeling there was no back-up so that if you weren’t smart enough to use the bottle to open the door then you shouldn’t be in ‘Arabian Nights’. Only in Japan!
Once we finally entered, the intial culture shock I mentioned earlier went up a notch or two. Japanese people dressed like Aladin (complete with Shriners-esque hats!) working in a place straight out of the famous book Arabian Nights with the occasional (Japanese) belly dancer wandering the ‘labyrynth’ of the restaurant carrying around incense. Wild.
Dinner with Miwa was very nice. Besides working for a subsidiary of Citigroup in Tokyo, Miwa lived in Ithaca, New York for two years and has also lived in Oslo, Norway for a short time. The conversation at dinner ranged from the stifling Japanese social customs (in her opinion) to my dislike of America’s ghetto culture and how it seems to be the one American dress style you can find nowadays in any country you visit (a sad observation of mine). Talking with Miwa about the negatives in both out cultures, the thought struck me more than once that the expression "the grass is always greener on the other side" never rang more true.
As had been previously arrainged by Haji & Miwa, I crashed at Miwa’s apartment before my flight on Friday. Friday morning before I flew out, I went to the Tsukiji Fish Market. Tsukiji is the largest fish market in the world as there are some 2000 tons of seafood that change hands every morning at the market. Restaurants, commercial buyers and regular consumers come here to get the freshest seafood Japan has to offer. I had a sushi breakfast of Miso soup coupled with shrimp, tuna, yellowtail, squid, mackarel, and some other sea creatures that I couldn’t identify from the pictures in the guidebook. Without Haji here, I am flying (and eating) blind!
As I write this, we are just crossing the International Date Line. I will be touching down in Houston later for a one-night layover where I will visit some friends before heading back to Knoxville on Saturday. Honestly, I am tired and ready to go home.
As far as my lasting impressions of Japan go, I have a huge list of all things Japanese that I loved and will be posting it later this weekend. I will also be posting my pictures and (hopefully) a pretty funny short video about our trip.
Domo arigato gozaimasu! (Thank you very much!)
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