Jan. 2, 9:28 AM

Already this AM we’ve had an episode of Ojamajo Doremi and an episode of
Dragon Ball Z. Goku has a girly voice!

4:00 PM

What a great day!

We decided on doing Tokyo Tower early, because the weather was nice right *now*, if you know what I mean. Plus, evening brings smoggy haze – mornings are usually better for sightseeing anyway. We knew that we were tempting fate by wanting to see the Tower, that clearly there’d be an alien or demon invasion, or my energy woukd be sucked away, or something else horrible, because, hey, after all I *do* watch anime, but we wanted to see it, dammit!

We, with some help offered by a random passing woman (who reacted favorably to
Pattie’s blonde roundness, as all people seem to) we made our way to the southeast –
oddly referred to as Central Tokyo. We had a fairly long walk, because ultimately the
woman had been wrong, but we could see the Tower, so we knew where to head. On the way, we passed a little fox spirit shrine tucked in between buildings, so we stopped, prayed and left them shiny money to play with, or trade for dog biscuits or something.

As we got closer, we found yet another shrine/temple complex thing, with bunches of
little shrines and offering places. It was clearly a mixed bag, with a really elaborate shrine to one god of good fortune, and teeny little ones to others, including a Buddha for kids, who was surrounded by Mickey Mouse and Hello Kitty dolls.

The line at the Tower wasn’t too long, by which I mean it was really long, but
didn’t yet run outside the waiting area. We decided just to go up to the Main
Observation Deck, which was actually two stories. It was cool – they had the usual signs telling what you were looking at. Fuji-san was very clear, which made Pattie happy. We were, as usual, the only foreigners there, which surprised us, because there isn’t a day of the year where you won’t run into foreign tourists at the Empire State Building. The line for the Upper Deck was way too long, or we might have done that too – it was up another 100 meters. We were at 150 meters at this point. Tokyo has lots of little clusters of high buildings. Nothing like NYC’s dense conglomeration of skyscrapers.

From the observation deck we found that there was a large temple/shrine complex right
across the street, so we headed there after taking in the floor filled with little booths of ticky-tacky crap. It was such crap we couldn’t even find anything bad enough to buy as a souvenir for friends. (Mostly because we couldn’t figure out how to carry the 3′ tall fiber optic Tokyo Tower/clock thingy home.)

On the way to the shrine, we bought an imo (sweet potato) from a street vendor. They
have a distinctive call they use to hawk their wares, but of course, this is the 21^st century…he had his recorded and playing from speakers on the truck. The imo was really good – I love sweet potatoes in any form.

The temple/shrine complex was called the Zenjo-ji; it was the Tokugawa family shrine.
The first Tokugawa Shogun, Ieyasu, had it moved here from further away to “protect” the southeast of the city. Ieyasu is the Shogun in almost all samurai stories we see, as well as being the model for Torinaga, the Shogun in James Clavell’s Shogun. He was an interesting example of extreme micro-management. He set up laws that regulated everything from when people could change their winter for summer clothes, what colors they could wear and even what names they could take – and we’re not just talking court etiquette here. These laws applied to everyone, and were different for every class, trade and region. He made rules for *everything.* Kind of
creepy, really. Everything he did affected Japanese culture for the next 400 years and still has repercussions today.

The Temple was really nice. It’s a big tourist attraction and at New Years was
pretty was pretty hopping. Lots of music, and stands and even a performing monkey –
which was actually pretty dull, as it just walked back and forth, but hey, how often do *you* see a performing monkey?

We bought O-mamori, good luck charms, and ate soba noodles for long life and listened
to the monks play instruments and chant at the Temple, walked the grounds, made friends with a child (the only child the entire time we were there who smiled at us and didn’t hide. She even said, “Hi!” and “Bye!” and waved at us when we left.) The grounds were beautiful and festive. There were hundreds of little statues decorated with crocheted bibs and hats in red, which we guessed were for children, and we later learned we were right. I tried to strike the gong over the temple door, but didn’t put enough oomph to it and got a kind of “buh” noise. We also watched the priests bring out the charms and arrows and papers and stuff that people wanted to burn. There were even purses which, assumably, had failed to become filled with money last year…or maybe they just hated the purse. Or the boyfriend who gave it to them. Who knows?

After we had savored all the joys the Zenjo-ji had to offer, we decided to go back to
Asakusa to the Senso-ji, with about a million other people. Pattie wanted to see the
shrine to Tanuki (a sort of a badger spirit) but it appeared to be closed, so we just
enjoyed the crush of people (and I do mean *crush* the placed was mobbed, as it
traditionally is this time of year.) We got stares every time we spoke, as usual. We were the only gaijin, as usual, until we were leaving when we passed two Spanish women, one of whom was in kimono, which was interesting. There were quite a few women in kimono there, and a few men, too. We were both glad that some women still bother getting dressed up.

The crush of people on the Nakamise-dori – the road that leads from the Kanarimon
Gate to the temple – was really amazing. It was one of those crowds that if you left your feet, it would keep carrying you along. We threaded our way through the crush, to the amusement of everyone around us, mostly just surfing the humanity. Eventually we went back to the hotel. We opted for dinner in, because we were so tired, as usual.

On TV right now is a Japanese Beatlemania with one guy – the one playing George
– who keeps singing in Japanese.

Next time:Me, Myu and 1000 four-year olds

New Years Day

Morning TV selections – have I mentioned how distracting TV is here? There were days we were barely able to tear ourselves away from the variety shows, or the gymnastics horse-jumping competiton…how *does* one avoid New Year’s Day? By watching TV of course!

Changed channels – 30 children at a time doing a three-legged race kind of thing…only it’s a 60-legged race.

Because this morning is cold and grey and a major holiday, we’ve decided to take it *really* easy. We’re not going to bother with Tokyo Tower today – we wouldn’t be able to see anything anyway. When we get going, eventually, we’ll try to find the local Buddhist temple. Or not. We have to leave so they can clean the room, anyway.

We’re now watching (a very dull) show on onsen. Pattie wants to go on one – not me, I’m not big on baths much.

I have a new magic power! I can tell a plot complication from a mile away. We’re watching a drama about a boy and a girl who switch bodies. So, she’s doing judo and he know wants to do ballet. The kids are doing a good job of acting as the other gender.

We’re back from a long, amusing and productive walk. Pattie wanted to see Sunshine 60 (a mall not too far from here) and I wanted to visit a local temple. The temples were not touristy and we didn’t want to bother the people visiting graves and worshipping, so we ended up walking around and through the surrounding park, right through the tent city of homeless people. It was pretty large – about 25-30 guys living there.

At Sunshine 60, we wandered aimlessly, much as we would at home at a mall on New Year’s Day. We found the Sanrio store, were creeped out by the variety of Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel for sale (yes, the boy Hello Kitty has a name…) and noted that Swatches are not really regional, despite what the guy at Newark Airport said.

Oh, forgot to mention – last night at the train station, we were approached by a young, Japanese woman who was a Jehovah’s Witness, with a Watchtower. Some things are universal…

We had lunch at Ojyuja, a place in the mall’s food court, and I had the world-s best katsudon. It was incredible! Perfectly crunchy outside, tender cutlet, the miso was good and we had a nice variety of four appetizers: tamago (sweet egg omelet), a pickled veggie/octopus/shrimp thing, pumpkin and something Pattie thought was a potato, but could have just as easily been an eyeball for all we knew. Pattie said that if it had been an eyeball, it would have been pupil up, for presentation. It was probably a potato.

Amusingly, as we wandered Sunshine 60, we learned that tomorrow a new Sera Myu (live action Sailor Moon Musical) begins. I want to go, just to see Uranus and Neptune, of course. There was a “Sailormoon World” setup there, so we went in and watched the little munchkins all dressed up as Sailor Senshi…it was spectacular. I bought some Sailor Uranus keychains (she was clearly not the most popular with the 4-year-old crowd…) and P bought Sailor Moon’s Sera Myu locket and we had a good laugh or three. I said that if she wants to got to Fuji, fine, but I want to suffer through, erm, watch a Sera Myu.

We also watched some wonderful mall-type entertainment. Originally, the man who came up with the idea of the mall, envisioned them as a kind of all-weather town square. It took a while, but that’s what they basically are, now, if you think about it. With performances of local groups doing “cultural” things. (At my local mall, I’ve seen the NJ Symphony Orchestra, Santa, a Hispanic dance and song troupe and many other culture-type things.) We were able to see a guy doing a dance as a dog demon (with white fluffy hair, ala Inu Yasha) and a female Taiko drumming troupe. (And what I wouldn’t have given to get them to Yuricon…)

We made our way back onto the streets and found the local Manga no Mori (a manga store chain) and dropped more yen on manga, cause we didn’t have enough already, obviously. Now we’re back in the room relaxing.

TV continues to entertain. We’re watching a “Whose Line Is It?” kind of show, except that it consists of the host giving a first line and the participants having to fill in the rest of the Haiku. They are cracking themselves up to the point where they are falling over in hysteria. Other than the first line, I cannot understand a word, but they are having so much fun, we’re enjoying watching them. Now they are asking questions of each other. I was able to follow one joke. Something along the line of, “Biji-san, are you like god?” “Yes!” (They all say “yes!” because they have signs that say “Yes” in English and they can’t say “no,” apparently.) “Bzzt, you are like a corpse.” Where “corpse” is a word that can also mean “Buddha.” Hysterical, isn’t it? And they could not stop laughing. I love this show. The ten guests are arranged in two rows facing each other – one in dark colored traditional men’s clothing – the other row in traditional men’s clothes in neon colors that are blinding.

Iron Chef personalities we’ve seen so far on TV:
Prof. Hattori (twice)
The Italian Guy on the tasting panel
Rokusaburo Michiba
Hiroyuki Sakai

Dinner is alien-flavored ramen (I’m serious – you should see the commercial!) and endlessly amusing TV. We were having so much fun watching TV the evening just slipped by.

Morning Musume has made it to 38 jumps and they are getting tired and angry. They’ve been on 4 shows so far. 3 live, one taped. Make that 5 shows, 3 live. And the guy with the stage thing.

In a perfect endidng to our night, Shomuni is on. But the show went on so long I fell asleep before the end. I assume that the Office Ladies of the second section saved the day one more time and they all live happily ever after.

Next time: Once more, with feeling

Interlude

This is a good place to stop and talk about the toilets in Japan. I know, every single Westerner who has ever visited Nippon in the latter part of the twentieth century (or beginning of the twenty-first,) has had to mention the bathrooms in Japan, but mostly because, although we’re warned in advance by every other travel writer on the planet, it’s still a shock to stumble off a plane after 14 hours (not including the extra few at the airport) and be confronted with a “traditional” bathroom. It’s basically a urinal set into the ground. I imagine that guys don’t have too much problem with it, but for women, it’s a bit more complicated. If I were in the habit of wearing skirts, it might be a little less difficult, but with pants it was a fairly steep learning curve. Anywhere we went, it was a crap shoot as to whether we got a “traditional” or a western-style toilet. Except in temples, shrines, and other old places…those we had *no* chance of a western one. We did a quick market research poll with the one Japanese person we could ask about it (poor Emi…) and she stated unequivocally that she like western ones better. So, despite all our faults as a culture, we’ve done one thing, at least, right.

I might as well also mention breakfast, while I’m at it. Of all the things that I’d be facing in this entirely new country, the only thing I was really worried about was …breakfast. I feel pretty strongly about my three squares and I don’t function without brekkie. The first two days in Tokyo we ate at the hotel, because we didn’t have much mental wherewithal to do anything different. After the second heinously expensive, yet bland and uninteresting breakfast, we decided to take matters into our own hands. Every night as we headed home, we’d stop at one of the local combi and buy stuff…usually for dinner, as well as the next day’s breakfast. Pattie favored egg salad sandwiches, while I preferred the combo-packs of tuna, egg and ham and cheese. These made a great breakfast, I have to say. For dinner, I picked up whatever I fancied, sushi, rice balls, ramen noodle (alien flavored – we kept a label to prove it!) or any number of other items, mostly fresh food. I had katsu salad, or whatever they had made that night. Ya gotta love 24/7 places for this – you can always get reasonably priced food that doesn’t entirely suck there. (And now you know *why* egg salad sandwiches make me nostalgic for Tokyo. We ate a lot of ’em.) You may wonder why we didn’t eat out at various restaurants every night – but trust me, we ate as well as any of the young yuppies who filled the 7-11 every night. But the real reason was simple – we were utterly exhausted every night and we didn’t have bazillions of bucks to spend on nice places to eat – even if we were capable of figuring out the menu, which was yet another crap shoot. But really…why? We ate a really nice lunch every day out, and we were glad to have cheap places to eat at night, when we dragged our sorry, tired asses back to the hotel.

Which brings me to Day 5, Part 2.

We armed ourselves with a guide from the Cheap Bastard’s Tokyo Shopping Guide and headed out. This site is a mixed bag – it’s got directions, but it’s of the “Look, I’m so cool, I’m cursing in public” variety of sophomoric humor. Nonetheless, the directions for Ikebukuro were *brilliant* and I heartily recommend this site if you plan a trip to any of the sections of Tokyo and want to know where to buy anime and manga related goods. Have I mentioned that there are few streets that have names and almost none of the buildings have numbers? Best bet – take a map and get good directions.

We hit up the Info Desk for a little local information – the two women who helped us were hysterical in a way that is completely untransferable to text, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. We set out and had no problem finding the first landmark, a closed bookstore. From there we walked down the coolest street in Ikebukuro, a little alley full of game arcades, restaurants, food stalls, stuff stores and more game arcades. We loved this street and visited it repeatedly, because you can never have enough of crowded streets with New Year’s revelers playing on crane games for cheap toys, IMHO. We were immediately sidetracked by an arcade with One Piece toys, which was deafeningly loud. We watched some guy play the Taiko drumming game, where you try to drum in time to the music. There was also a game where you are taking a dog for a walk…I’m totally serious. We did not play that.

The first anime store we found, Animate, was closed, but the next, K-Books, was open. There were actually several K-Books – one anime store, one manga and one doujinshi. We dropped a few thousand yen on extremely cool items we needed desperately, as you can imagine. The doujinshi were arranged by audience, and there was a feeding frenzy in several of the yaoi sections. I decided to go elsewhere, while Pattie fished.

We stopped at a Family Mart to get supplies for that night and the next morning, and absolutely thrilled the girl at the counter no end with our foreign antics. She probably went running home and told her boyfriend. But we didn’t know what (if anything) would be open the next day (New Years, in case you forgot) so we wanted to have food just in case.

We decided to try our luck and walk back through the Seibu side of the station, and hope we didn’t get lost. It worked! We were so pleased with ourselves. We wandered through some of the Tobu side food displays…like Harrods in London, Seibu and Tobu sell high-end food on the bottom floor. We couldn’t afford most of what we saw, but if we had had to buy a high-end food gift, we saw some cool ideas. The sake’ area was packed and they were handing out samples. We watched ’em decant warm sake from wooden buckets right into bottles. If I liked sake, I could have been plastered by the time I walked through that section of the store.

We walked back through the station and bought a new bag to put all the dirty laundry in, so we could pack all the toys and doujinshi we had bought. The sales guy was SO excited to tell us our total and change in English.

After dinner in the Metropolitan Plaza (calzones, because we could) we dragged our tired, sore asses home and scrapped our nascent Temple-going plans, because we were beat. I had bought snacks and drink to celebrate the New Year, if we made it up that late…we didn’t.

We spent the evening watching really awful “top ten” type shows, because I love suffering and the only anime on was Doraemon.

Next Time: How to Avoid New Year’s Day

New Year’s Eve

It’s 6PM � we’re watching Da!Da!Da! on TV. P and I were talking about how TV on New Year’s Eve is always excruciating. She called it a “babysitting nightmare.”

The bus tour was pretty good. We didn’t see much, but we got a nice ride around. Between that and the fact that we *finally* got to walk around Ikebukuro and orient ourselves, I feel like I’m getting the hang of Tokyo. Six months here and I’d be perfectly okay. LOL

The bus tour started with a long trip around Ikebukuro, which was kind of cool, if unintentional. Then we had a long, winding trip in and around a bunch of other neighborhoods, all of which were fascinating. Some were really high-end and modern; some were old-fashioned, with traditional-style houses and many temples and shrines. The really expensive areas don’t look it, because so many they tend to be crowded and old.

Eventually we pulled up to the bus terminal where, after 15 minutes, we got back on the same bus (of course) and set off on the tour.

The first stop was the Meiji shrine. It was very empty, as tomorrow would be New Year’s Day and the place would be mobbed. We were able to see the decorations for the festivities…and we saw a guy walk by in a white, double-breasted suit, wearing sunglasses and carrying a cane. I stared openly at him, because if he *wasn’t* Yakuza, then he was playing one on TV, I swear. We bought a few Omamori, knowing full well that we really needed to get them after the New Year…but a lot of these became souvenirs for friends, so we figured it didn�t matter so much. (I know, that’s cold…) Pattie bought a charm that looked like a little shrine – it was for passing the college entrance exams. We got lost on the way back and were late getting back for the bus. Not surprisingly, we were mortified, so we were especially on time and not a pain for the rest of the trip.

The Meiji shrine was actually interesting, from my perspective. The spirit of the place (kami) was in the place itself, and the shrine itself, not in any statue that I saw. We threw coins, bowed, clapped and prayed. The tour guide had shown us the fountain where Pattie and I purified ourselves. Satuo-san said that we didn’t have to wash our hands in the basin – we were purified when we paid. We threw money at the kami (they like this) and prayed. Sato-san told us that the Japanese aren’t religious, they just went to temple and made wishes. I don’t think there’s much difference, myself. :-)

After that, we headed over to the Imperial Palace. Apparently, the reclamation of Tokyo Bay actually began with Tokugawa Ieyasu. The Palace was closed, because tomorrow being the New Year and all, they’d have several tens of thousands of people trooping through to be waved at by the Emperor, which is really kind of cool, if you think of it.

Our tour guide, the afore-mentioned Satou-san, was a scream. He said that since his name meant “sugar” in Japanese, we should call him “Sugar Daddy,” and then said that he was sweeter than the other guide, whose name meant “salt.” As we passed the Ginza, he told us that the biggest (and thusly, the most expensive) building was his, and the next biggest was owned by his brother. He then went on to elaborate – he was the president of a pharmaceutical company which was working on a cure for baldness (he said as he rubbed his balding head) and he did this for fun on the weekend. We all laughed, but after he stopped speaking, Pattie and I just stared at each other, wondering. Wouldn�t it be funny if he actually *was*? Satou is one of the three most common names in Japan, so I’ll never know.

His best lines of the day were as we passed the Russian Embassy. He told us that between the Embassy and the Japanese-American club on the other side, were underground tunnels, so that every night during the Cold War, the two sides could get together and party. At the end of the road was a raised police box that he said was from the late 60’s when there were quite a few riots. The box was raised, so the police could see the mob coming down the road towards the Embassy. Satou-san told us that the police watched for riots every day from 9AM to sunset, but if we rioted before or after that, there would be no police.

One last Satou-san story – as we passed the National Police building, he said that since there was so little crime in Japan, all the police in the country were inside, watching TV. Every time he told us a story, he would pause, then say, “Its in my imagination.”

As we passed Harajuku, there was a *really* long line of young women – we don’t know for what, probably a store opening. Satou-san mentioned that Harajuku was a popular place for young women…and therefore a popular place for young men.

From the Palace, we went to Senso-ji Temple. This was very cool – Pattie said it was “a lot of bang for your buck.” Along with the main temple, there were many smaller shrines and statues donated privately. The street in front of the temple is the very famous Nakamise-dori. It’s lined with cheesy little over-priced knickknack shops that sell shit you don’t need for too much money. There were a fair amount of people wandering around the grounds, but in the next few days, the place would be wall-to-wall people. We thought we might go back, just because it was so cool.

Pattie took an Omikuji, a fortune, at the temple. It was “good luck” and we were very happy. We decided not to push our luck and I did not take one. We had a snack (two different types of dango) but decided not to stay, because we wanted to do the rest of the bus ride to see more of town. We got back on the bus, where the two New York-style kogals on the tour were very late and bitched that we didn’t wait for them – when every other tour they’d ever been on had waited. I turned to Pattie and asked, “They’re in the habit of being late on all their tours?” These two were stupid, loud and rude the entire time…which actually made me feel kind of good. They were so horrible compared to everyone else, the little slip P and I had made, when we got lost sort of looked less pathetic.

After the tour landed us in the Ginza Pattie and I decided that the shopping center of Tokyo had nothing we cared about, so we headed back to the hotel to eat, rest and shop locally. If we felt up to it, we were going to try and make it back to the Senso-ji that night for New Years…but we knew that it was unlikely. We were both crashing by 10 every night. We had a light snack and decided to start hitting the anime and manga stores hard. It was time to get down to business.

Next time: 100 ways to spend money

The Cosplay area was located on the roof. To get there, you left whatever Hall your were in, which was always the furthest one possible, walked about a mile to a middle area, where you were wound around in a circle (apparently so yopu could get to know the other people on their way up to and coming down from the Cosplay area,) up an escalator and out onto the roof…where you wandered aimlessly for a while snapping pictures that you would later wonder what they were of.

People were posing for animal crackers, clustering in little series-related groups. We snapped a few pictures of some pleasantly plump Senshi, & a few One Piece characters and other random stuff. Like the drooling hentai fanboys taking a picture of a provocatively posing bunny girl. There were some things that were consistent with American cosplay…some series that you could just gurantee you’d see: DBZ, Ranma, Evangelion, Sailor Moon etc – all the basic “gateway” anime.. While walking around, we saw a Rei from Eva, and I pointed and said to Saiko, “Kyo no Rei,” (Today’s Rei) because we had seen at least one every day. Some things are universal. LOL

Pattie awarded best in show to a really spectacular Lady Oscar and Marie Antoinette from Rose of Versailles. I awarded my Best in Show to a faboo Mr. 2 from One Piece. Not only was his costume really good, he was prancing and mincing around on his toes just like Mr. 2 Bone Clay should. All Oscar and Marie had to do was stand there.

By far, the most overcosplayed series was Prince of Tennis – there had to be a hundred of them on any given day. Considering the ease of the costume  – a blue sweatsuit with “Seigaku” on the back, it wasn’t all that surprising. Some sports store was making a fortune with Seigaku Tennis Club workout clothes, I’m sure.

While we fought our way out to the Cosplay area, we passed through the Corporate area – lots of anime and manga companies had booths there. There was a real press of bodies, and Pattie and I were laughing as we squeezed through, past a long, crowded line of guys, past some idol singing a song on a stage, while other guys sang with her, shouting “We love you Mima!”: (OK, OK, they weren’t, really – that was a little anime joke. But they were shouting “Hey” and jumping up and down.) When we got through, Pattie and I were like. “Wheeeee! Can we ride again??” After we passed through, I turned and realized that the crush was for the Gainax booth. Ah, that explained it.

We had exhausted all the joys Comiket had to offer (of course, we hadn’t – we would have needed another three days to do that for real. And I still smart thinking of all the stuff I didn’t get – and the stuff I didn’t know was there until too late, like Haibane Renmei.) Anyway, Saiko and Emi led us to Odaiba – one of the stations in the reclaimed area of Tokyo Bay, now mostly given over to massive malls. We met up with Takami, another friend of Emi’s, who we had met last summer. Takami is a very funny person and she and Pattie absolutely crack each other up. Pattie’s Japanese and Takami’s English make for some really hysterical conversations…to be fair, Takami’s English is better than Pattie’s Japanese. But the two of them are endlessly entertaining. I keep swearing that at Yuricon, I’m going to set the two of them up at a table and charge people $5 to watch the “Pattie and Takami” show.

Odaiba Aqua City is basically a mall. The stores were about half the usual stores you’d see in any other mall. We had coffee and cake at a cafe’. Pattie spied a sticker store and was all psyched, but when she got there, the stickers were all exotic – from America. We heard the “Ketchup Song” in the mall – if a friend hadn’t played it for us right before we left, we wouldn’t have recognized it.

We detoxed for a while, and Takami approved of my haul of doujinshi for the day. After it got dark, we headed out to the Fuji TV building that we had passed everytime on the train. The building looks like four thick towers with two cross ways and a big ball suspended in the middle. First we headed for the store, were pattie and I bought One Piece stuff. (Nami, Nami, Nami!!!) Emi taught Pattie to make a gesture and a noise that were apparently VERY funny, because some comedian did them. (We later saw that comedian on TV, but he never did the thing he was famous for.) Then we went to the rooftop observation deck (which prompted a very funny conversation between Pattie and Takami about the observation dick, which led Pattie to ask Emi to tell Takami that dick meant penis, which Emi misheard as peanuts.Poor Saiko probably thought we were insane.) We walked around and didn;t participate in the Love Stamp Rally, but we did see Tokyo Tower and all of Tokyo at night, which was very beautiful.

When we came down from the building, we headed back to the train station. Saiko left us, so the four of us were left. We got on the train and Emi asked if we were hungry. By then I had been through three waves of sick, tired, hungry, etc., but all I really wanted right then was to go back to the hotel, so of course I said, “Sure.” And when she asked if we wanted to be Indiana Jones, inside my head I was screaming “no!” So I said “yes” without hesitation. The smile on Emi’s face made me worried as anything. I figured that this was payback for making them eat peppers and sausage sandwiches at the New Jersey Shore.

So, the four of us headed to Shinjuku. I couldn’t even begin to tell you where we were, or how far we walked. All I know is that the evening was dark and cold and full of lots of little shops…all selling cell phones. LOL And stuff being sold on the streets…crap that no one needs or wants, but we all end up buying anyway. Eventually, we ended up at a skanky little alleyway. All the “restauants” were one step away from being open-air street stands. Some only had plastic strips to prtect the patrons from the wind. We squeezed ourselves into a counter with an actual door, full of older guys with large bottles of Sapporo beer. Emi said, with a grin, “Women don;t come here often.” No…you think? LOL We were delighted and so was everyone in the place. Not only did four women show up – two were gaijin! Yeeha! The guy at the end of the counter was grinning from ear to ear and waving at Pattie and me like crazy.

Emi was explaining what they had and she said they agemono, aka fried things – she said, “pork and…” and everyone in the place started calling out random food items in English – beef, chicken, tofu, shrimp, on and on…and everyone was laughing hysterically, including Pattie and I. Emi waved at the little plastic bins on the shelves in front of us and said that we could order from them too, but that she’d order us rice and soybeans. We were totally cool with that, and Pattie and I picked the bin in front of us as looking interesting and tasty (it had bacon, how bad could it be?) The guy cooking kept calling out whatever he was making in English, so we knew what it was. It was a hoot.

The rice had curried soybeans and jellied consomme’ with a slice of ham – which was alot tastier than it sounds. The bacon dish had chicken and tofu and was pretty amazing. Emi ordered eel (anago, not unagi) and tempura parsley, which was absolutely fabulous. Takami said it was called “tomorrow leaf” and Emi said, “No it’s not.” Everything was incredible, but there was too much food. I felt bad that I couldn’t eat more. But we gave the place something to talk about for a few days, I bet. Or perhaps a few weeks.  LOL And the bill for this feast? $2/person.

We got back to the hotel at about 8:30. We had a bath and moaned around the place. Tomorrow will start early – we’re doing a 4-hour bus tour, but we’ll be on the bus for more like 6 hours, since they’ll be picking up at a bunch of hotels and we’re first. We hope it’s a comfy bus….

Next time: The Wheels on the Bus….