We slept in a bit this morning and left at about 10am to head to the fish market, Tzukiji. The subway in Tokyo was much easier to figure out than in Kyoto because most of the stations in the areas we were in had transliteration and the maps were clearly laid out. We also had an awesome free tourist booklet from our hostel that had attractions and how to get there. We made a plan to get sushie at Tzukiji but wanted to see the main market before it closed in the morning. The market was really cool. A lot of old timey fish stands and weird dried sea products like huge squid and every kind of fish cake variation imaginable. There were tourists, mostly domestic tourists or Chinese, and some business men going for an early lunch.
We wanted to get a little hungrier before eating lunch so we set off to find a pretty park we found in the tourist brochure thing. The park was called Kiyu Shiba Rikyu. It was a Japanese style garden like the Silver Plaza, except the well manicure trees and grass contrasted tall buildings instead of temples. We were getting hungry at this point and very hot, so we didn't spend too long in the garden. It was a nice place though and cool to see a space of green amidst the shiny metal skyscrapers.
We walked back to the fish market, Tsukiji, along these "business parks" (Amelia called them). Tokyo looks like New York but with more levels. There are promenades above and below street level connecting the buildings. It gives the city more of a modern feel, because the promenades are cleaner and newer than US city sidewalks and because being above ground is futuristic and shit.
By the time we made it back, it was almost 2pm and the market looked totally different, almost all of the stalls were closed. We wanted to get sushi because what better place than a fish market in Japan. We found a cute place in the market which even had air conditioning (thank god). We got a mixed sushi plate to split and a couple extra rolls. It was delicious, although Amelia appreciated it a bit more than me. I was happy to have sushi and it was good, but I've think I've lost the palette for being able to tell what's good and what's better.
Still hot in the afternoon humidity and heat, Amelia and I wanted to go shopping in Shibuya assuming there would be airconditioned malls. Shibuya is where the famous shot of Tokyo with all the lights and stores is, so we wanted to get a photo op. Also, Shibuya is near Harajuku of Gwen Stefani fame. I don't really know what Harajuku actually is and Amelia wasn't sure but we were tourists and felt it was our American duty to go try to find it. So we got off in Shibuya and walked around the shopping. Amelia wanted to go in an arcade again to find DDR (so that she could show off her skills), but we never found DDR! Our cousin Nate told us that it was out of style. The styles in Japan are intense, he said that if something was in you would see it everywhere and once it was out people would often just throw their clothes away. We did do another photobooth pic though without Emily. I'm really impressed by the amount of easy to use photoshop like tools you can use to manipulate the picture. They could make your eyes look bigger or put highlights in your hair or change the background. The Japanese are really not fucking around with their advanced technology.
We did not unfortunately find a mall in Shibuya though and eventually went back to the hotel at like 4pm because we were too tired from walking around outside. We read our books and used the internet for a couple hours before showering and getting ready to go out. Emily had given us a recommendation for where to go out, apparently a place that was usually hopping and fun for non-Japanese speakers because of the number of ex-pats: Roppongi.
We stopped along the way to get a snack before dinner and some more of the delicious Japenese vodka grapefruit cocktail things. Drinking it public is convenient, although some quick Google-ing showed us that apparently even though it's chill in Kyoto its considered low class in Japan... Oops. Guess we were those Americans. We also spent way longer than normal in the store because I was trying to remember what the Japanese character for pickled plum looked like. They have these delicious rice balls wrapped in seaweed, but most have fish or meat except the pickled plum which is delicious and tangy. We opted for a red bean and rice ball instead because it was easily recognized.
We took a 45 minute subway ride to Roppongi but things didn't really seem hopping. Could have been because it was a Thursday night or it could have been because we asked a boring person for a recommendation on where to have fun... It was still early though so we go dinner. Our plan had been to get ramen but our ramen-blogging cousin did not return out email, so we agreed on sushi again. After all, I only had another day of my self defined period of non-veganness and sushi in Japan is pretty delicious. Neither of us were particularly set on trying ramen (sorry, Devon). We found a random sushi place that was reasonably priced. We had a few beers along with our dinner. It was delicious, I think my appreciation for sushi grew every time we had it. When we got the check though it was 1500 yen (which is about $15) more expensive than it should have been. We tried to figure it out with the waiter, but he hardly spoke English and we obviously don't speak any Japanese. Luckily we had been sitting at the bar and the sushi chef knew exactly what we got. Our night in shining apron came to our rescue and we figured out the correct tally for the bill with no hard feelings- it seemed like more of an honest mistake than a purposeful tourist trick.
Amelia and I set off down the street on a quest to find some fun. Amelia really wanted to karaoke but it was box karaoke so we needed a crew and finding a crew needed to be step 1. Along the street there were a lot of Nigerians who are apparently hired to try to bring people into bars. Amelia fell for it and we went to an empty bar playing reggae music. We were the only patrons. I wanted to leave, but I think Amelia felt bad and I didn't want to be an asshole either. The bar tender was a Japanese-Brazilian guy so we chatted with him while we had one beer before leaving. He gave us some recommendations for where to go, one which sounded like "Hispanic" with a few letters switched around (he had a heavy Brazilian and Japanese combined accent) so we were like "ok sure" and just set back out on the street to find something on our own.
The only people we saw around our age were two gay Germans. They were just heading to dinner and didn't seem intent on going out, but were helpful in pointing out a few places in their guide book and giving us some recommendations for karaoke (should we happen to find a crew). One place they said they passed that seemed to have people was an American themed bar with middle aged ex-pats. Well, some people is better than no people, so we found the bar.
We started chatting with a group of men who were about 40... the sort of age where it's not really polite to ask. They were interesting enough and had been living in Japan for a few years or more. They were all friendly and helpful in finding places to go- except Keith who was a total debbie downer. "Are you looking to have tonight? Because you might as well just give up now," was his general message and potentially his exact words. Cool Keith. Nobody likes you. But we had some good convos about Twitter with the other guys.
Inside we also met some guys who seemed about our age. There were two British guys and two Americans talking to them. You can always tell if someone's American by the patterned frat tanks. The Americans were down to go find somewhere to go out, they had just gotten to Tokyo that day and wanted to find a fun place. They were even down to do karaoke if we couldn't find a fun bar to hang out at, which showed they were flexible and in a mindset to have a good time even if it was some silly karaoke.
We walked back down the area of the street with all of the Nigerians. The American boys were clearly sketched out by them, but one Nigerian guy mentioned the name of a club, "Gas Panic", and I realized was the one the Japanese-Brazilian had suggested. Yes, the club was called Gas Panic- a horrible mixture between a flatulence joke and a Holocaust reference (Amelia's words). The drinks were only 300 yen, so even if it sucked at least the drinks would be cheap. The music was some very housey but tolerable and got better as the night went on.
It turned out our male companions were Harvard people, but they weren't that pretentious. One had just graduated and the other was a rising junior. The one who just graduated was in Japan for the summer to study Haikus and was going to law school in the fall. "I know I sold out" was how he prefaced going to law school... which I guess goes to show the difference between Penn and Harvard. They were fun to hang out with even though the kiddo kind of wanted to dance with Amelia and she wasn't having it.
The subway closed at midnight so at 11:45 we needed to decide whether or not we wanted to stay out. The boys told us that they were planning on cabbing back to their place which was only 15 minutes away so we could stay with them if we wanted. Because our subway ride was long, we thought that sounded like the best option that would allow us to stay out since I thought our cab could easily have been $100 USD.
Once we had danced ourselves out, the kiddo had already left so we cabbed back with Mr. Haiku. I was kind of worried about the kiddo, but Haikus said that the kiddo had an amazing way of always making it back. We hopped in the cab and the cab driver had no idea where the area their hotel was in was. Because Haikus had just arrived in Tokyo less than 24 hours before, he also didn't know how to explain to the cab driver where it was. Luckily Amelia and I had the map, but with the language barrier we still had some major struggles, especially because the map didn't have the detailed map of where they were staying. The cab driver drove around for almost an hour and had to get out of the cab to ask for directions not once, but three times. Eventually we made it.
Lo and behold, the kiddo was already there which is good that we didn't need to worry about him. Also he had a head start and probably didn't take the longest cab ride ever. Apparently their hotel had some mineral baths and we planned to soak in them for a bit before going to bed but then the people who were working their were like "yeah, obviously it's closed at 3am on a Thursday, you stupid Americans" in nicer, more broken English so we gave up and went to bed.
In the morning we commuted with the business from Bumblefuck nowhere, Tokyo, Japan to the center of town. It became clear to us, that the boys had been bad at estimating distances, didn't realize their hotel was on the outskirts of Tokyo, and we should have just gone back to our hotel which was probably easier to get to from Roppongi than theirs, although theirs technically may have been closer. I made a sort of Queens to Manhattan sort of analogy. Oh well, no harm no foul and we made some new friends.
-Ilana
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