TOKYO

Warning: this is a LONG post and consists of the first two days (Tuesday and Wednesday) in Japan.

Picture: Bernie, Brooke, Ethan, Jeff, Keith, Jenny, Me, Rachel and the Ice Bar

Day 1: The ship arrived in Yokohama at around 8:30 AM but did not start calling seas (deck halls) to go through customs until 10. Since my sea was the first sea to be called in Hawaii, we were the last one to be called to leave the ship in Japan. By the time we all got off the ship it was around 1 PM. The goal- get to Tokyo as quickly as possible, find our hotel, drop off our stuff and hopefully get to walk around for a bit before dinner. The reality- four hours spent using our rail pass, transferring trains three times, clearly getting lost a couple of times, and finally making it to Tokyo station. Next goal: get to the Sakura Hotel. We got a map and instructions consisting of grunts and hand motions that gave a general idea of the Hotel’s location. After about 45 minutes of walking around the Jimbocho section of Tokyo and being sent in various directions by countless Japanese shop owners, we gave up and took a taxi.

The Sakura Hotel in Jimbocho- more of a hostel than an actual hotel. The four of us girls (me, Rachel, Jenny, and Brooke) booked a four person room at this hotel. It consisted of two bunk beds and communal toilets and showers. It cost 100 yen (about 90 cents) to rent a shower towel for the stay. I’ve never stayed in this type of hostel/hotel before but was surprised to find it very accommodating. There was free internet, a 24 hour café, and a very useful lobby staff. The cool part was that about twenty other SASers were staying at this hostel, four of whom were our guy friends (Keith, Ethan, Jeff, and Bernie).

Though I had been cleverly or not so cleverly maneuvering my way around Japan for the past six hours, I did not have time to properly acknowledge that I was in Japan. Looking back some highlights from the train travels (which looking back I could repeat in probably an hour, not four) included seeing the Yokohama Giants Baseball Stadium and players, lots of Japanese school children in uniforms riding the trains back from school, relatively no English, packaged squid sold in Seven Elevens, barely any homeless people or trash cans, and really cool vending machines. After settling in we were finally able to venture out without a specific purpose and observe and live.

We ate dinner at local restaurant (I pointed to the dish that most resembled chicken fingers and rice) and made a rule that we would only eat our food with the silverware they provided us. Disclaimer: I have never used chopsticks in my life. Watching me sip soup from a smaller soup bowl (no spoons), and use chopsticks to get rice into my mouth was comical. Being the trooper that I am, I was eventually able to consume my meal. Dinner was followed by purchasing alcohol from the seven eleven: 300 yen bottled wine/ 700 yen bottled sake/ 500 yen canned Sapporo- our own version of Japanese high living. After going back to the hotel, meeting the boys and drinking, we made our way to the Roppongi section of Tokyo.

Roppongi is a younger section of Tokyo with lots of nightlife and bars. We heard that SASers were going to a four-story bar/club/karaoke/ping pong table facility called Muse and planned on starting there. After being dropped off by the cab a couple blocks from Muse we began walking towards the bar. Two noteworthy things happened on this walk. 1) I needed to use a bathroom so we all went into a store and asked for the bathroom. The Japanese man said “showers” and I nodded my head yes- I assumed he knew I need to use the bathroom. After making me take off my shoes and handing me a towel and Kimono bathrobe did I realize that he thought I wanted to take a shower. American tourist mistake number one: ask for toilets not bathrooms- bathrooms are interpreted in the most literal way possible. 2) The boys more than us girls were really hassled by club promoters to go into their clubs. As opposed to the US or Mexico where club promoters are annoying, in Japan they actually touched and pulled you. I thought this was very reverse from the typical silent, introverted behavior that most Japanese practiced.

Muse turned out to be a bar with a main floor and a basement with bathrooms- not the four floor super-club that we thought it was supposed to be. Despite this the bar was fun and it was nice seeing some other SASers in a different country. Friends come first and when one of our friends began feeling sick (interpret that as you please) we returned back to our hotel in a series of cab rides. Though the night ended a bit prematurely the bonus of staying in a $40/night room was the free internet. I was able to email, check facebook, and go on AIM at my leisure instead of being limited to paid internet time. Note to Mom and Dad: learn how to skype, it’s easy I promise. I had the honor of meeting a lot of my friends parents through skype- the time difference made this possible. 2 AM in Tokyo translated to I think 10 AM the day before on the East Coast. Parents, Jackie, Eva, even Sam- I’d love you guys to get with the program… you’re all hot commodities.

Thursday was a national holiday which meant that Wednesday morning was the only possible time for us to go to the Tokyo Fish Market. By morning I should explain that it meant 5 AM. 3 hours of sleep and a long day ahead we somehow managed to take a subway and get down to the Fish Market by 5:30 AM. The Fish Market was honestly one of the coolest things we saw in Japan- hundreds of Japanese men all selling, killing, auctioning, slicing, and sawing fish. The fish here were HUGE. It was insane to see wander form booth to booth and look at all the seafood- some of which was still alive and fresh about to be carved up. Another disclaimer: the smell of fish after a night of drinking is not recommended. Also the fish market could be better described as a war zone. If you are not constantly on your guard you are likely to be killed by the thousands of motorized scooter carts carrying fish and supplies from place to place. Though I am not a fish eater and did not partake in this experience, my friends were able to walk right outside the fish market to sushi bars that were open at 6 AM and eat fresh (as in fish that was literally killed within the past hour) sashimi at their leisure. Made it back to the hostel by 8 and slept until 12 PM.

From 12 PM- 3 AM we were on a very busy schedule. We managed to have lunch (McDonald’s for me), and visit the Imperial Palace, Shibuya, Asakusa, and Akihabara, Tokyo Tower, Ginza, dinner, the Tokyo Ice Bar, more bars, and Karaoke. Imperial Palace: pretty cool. Kind of what you would expect. It more of less consisted of Japanese architecture, a huge garden and field, some stone walls, and lots of Japanese buildings. The grounds were actually a lot more spread out than I thought they would be. There were guards all over the place and overall it was awkwardly quiet. It was definitely worth seeing but probably would have been nice if it was the middle of spring instead of cold February.

Shibuya: Japan’s Time Square. Max had told me to be on the lookout for the biggest walking intersection in Japan (some people say the world) and to take a picture from the Starbucks that overlooks the intersection. Mission accomplished. After standing in the middle of the intersection, stopping and holding up our hands we managed to take pictures of each other in shifts of twos. Shibuya in general is a wild place. This is an insane representation of the changing attitudes about conformity. All of the young Japanese here wore crazy, bright, over-accessorized outfits. These kids clearly wanted an identity of their own. Apart from Roppongi this was the first time in Japan that it felt really lively. We walked into a nine floor mall, Shibuya 109, and were overwhelmed by everything. Shibuya buya buya is legit. I would give it two touristy thumbs up.

Asakusa: an area filled with tourist shops and booths. For any fellow Los Angeles residents it reminded me of the Alley Downtown… lots of side shops, tunnels with shops, booths selling different treats, etc. We stopped at a candy store here and were told to try Chinese mooncakes- we received a type of pancake bean sandwich that was definitely NOT a Chinese mooncake though it may have been the Japanese version of one. I did get some cool Japanese candy though. Asakusa was also the location where I purchased a Samurai Headband so that I can fit in at Benihana’s and my JAPANESE FLAG. 2 countries and 2 flags, so far so good. A sign of generosity: a nut store owner let me use his phone to make reservations at the Ice Bar for later that night. He called for me and had made sure the man spoke English.

Akihabara: The electronic district of Japan. Just whoa. We went into this ten story main building that was like Best Buy on drugs. There was literally every type of electronic and brand ever made in addition to a lot of new stuff. We were able to purchase a five way headphone splitter so that we could ensure our LOST viewing pleasures on the train ride to Kyoto the following day. Thoughts on Akihabara from Jenny, “I would come back to Tokyo just so I could spend an entire day in this one store.” For all you technology junkies out there, your life may become complete if you visit Akihabara.

Tokyo Tower and Dinner: Reservations for the Ice Bar were at 10 PM. It was 8:05 when we made it back from Akihabara. We thought it would be cool to go to Tokyo Tower at night and see the view of Tokyo at night. We quickly showered and changed into going out clothes and made our way on the subway to the Tokyo Tower. We got out from the subway and were able to see the Tower in addition to lots and lots of fog. Our ambitions of seeing the tower were quickly destroyed. No point in paying to go up a tower to not be able to see anything. Plus it was 9:15 by this point and we were supposed to meet more people outside the Ice Bar at 9:45. Dinner consisted of a random restaurant that had sushi and pizza. I ordered a cheese pizza and received what better resembled a cheese quesadilla. Regardless it was edible and my kind of food. 10:20 and obviously late for the Ice Bar.

Ice Bar: I’ll be honest and say that I wanted to go to an Ice Bar because I’ve seen lots of pictures of friends who have gone abroad, at the Ice Bar in London. It was one of those things I wanted to do so that I could say I did it… plus I thought it was an extra bonus that this Ice Bar was in Tokyo. Anyway the Ice Bar turned out to be a little disappointing. It was only a single small room. Despite that, the fact that you are given huge ponchos, gloves, and boots to keep from freezing in the -5 degree Ice Bar interior kind of trumps the small size of the bar. Everything was made from Ice- the stools, the tables, the drink/shot glasses, the bar, the walls… it was cool and needless to say pictures were taken. So it’s official: I have now been to the TOKYO ICE BAR!

After the Ice Bar we made it to a local bar called Club 300 (every drink was 300 yen which was by far the best deal we had on drinks the entire time in Japan) that was an actual Japanese Bar. We were the only Americans in the place. In the background of the bar they had huge TV screens playing American music videos which I thought was pretty cool. After staying here for a bit we made our way to an Irish pub. It was starting to rain instead of mist like it had been earlier, and as we were walking to the next bar a Japanese couple came up to me and handed me their umbrella. Before could even react they had already walked away. It still amazes me that complete strangers would give me their umbrella. Post Irish-Pub the group split, two of the guys went back to the hotel, leaving us for girls and two boys. We went to Karaoke bar that was really fun. Singing Journey has a different feel to it in Japan than it does in the US. After Karaoke we taxied it back to the Sakura, set our alarms for 7 AM (we were determined to make the 8:33 train to Kyoto) and slept for four hours.