We crashed pretty hard last night. So hard that in all honesty I couldn't have written any more if I wanted to. Even if I could have, though, I really didn't have much to say at that point. I was on a plane for 12 hours, and a bus for 2 more hours. I was uncomfortable, tired, and sore. The last thing in the world I wanted to do was blog. Oh, the things I do for you guys. <3.
Today, however, things finally got underway. We woke up around 5 AM courtesy of the jet lag, unable to go back to sleep. When I tried, I ended up diving into a nightmare where I was about to graduate high school but couldn't because I somehow forgot to go to my AP English class for half the semester. How this could have happened is beyond me, but I was more than relieved to burst out of that dream and awaken back in Tokyo. Let's get this party started!
We got things underway by exploring the area. I tried several times, unsuccessfully, to convince Lisa to go to Akihabara because I had a craving to buy some games. I tried everything from "I can't read the menus at the restaurants, let's go to a district where I can" (partially true), to "I won't buy anything" (blatant lie). It didn't end up working since she knows my tricks, which was for the best regardless. We went to one of the 24-hour convenience stores to pick up some drinks, as we were already completely parched from walking around Shinjuku for an hour or so. I ended up getting Calpis (NOT Cow Piss) Water and Lisa ended up with a peach nectar. Both were delicious and we'll probably end up getting those drinks again tomorrow. With that taken care of, we ventured back out into the wilds of Japan and noticed - everything was STILL closed (by now, it was 9:30 AM).
One interesting thing about Japan - for as hard as these people work, they sure don't get up early. The Tokyo Salaryman Commuter Army (hereafter referred to as TSCA) doesn't hit the streets until 9:30 AM or later. Most of the stores don't even open until 10:30 or 11:00 AM. Restaurants are pretty much the same deal, except for the 24-hour shops like Yoshinoya (more on that in a moment), coffee places, or places that serve morning set meals to snag the commuter crowd - and there are less of those than you'd think given the size of said commuter crowd.
As two fully rested gaijin who were up since daybreak courtesy of jet lag, we found the late opening of the stores to be more than a minor inconvenience - it was a down right pain in the ass. Lisa got frustrated that we weren't "doing anything interesting", I got frustrated because there was nothing interesting to do. After a little back-and-forth, we decided the best course of action would be to grab a bite to eat and go back to the hotel to wait out the store openings. Unfortunately, we ran into a small snafu. You see, a lot of these smaller chains in Japan don't have English menus, kana menus, or even hiragana menus... that's right. The moment you step in the door of one of these places you are most likely going to be _blasted_ with a full 100% Kanji menu. For a person like me who can actually read some kanji and all the kana, this is a huge pain in the ass, because not only can I not read half the menu, the parts I can read I'm not even sure I'm pronouncing (and thus ordering) correctly! And unfortunately, the only place that seemed to be open at the time - Yoshinoya (a big chain) - was currently up to its ears in TSCA and I wasn't about to go in there and try my best gaijin deer-in-headlights impression.
Needless to say this was frustrating - but I had a plan. We went back to the hotel and I installed RikaiChan (a kanji dictionary/lookup tool) on this laptop. Then I pulled up Yoshinoya's menu from their website and went to town. From this I was able to deduce the items we wanted (gyudon/beef rice bowl) and the size (small). Then it was easy-peasy from there. We charged in, gaijin-smashed our way to the seats, and I spoke up clearly:
"Nami-gyudon wo futatsu kudasai."
Easy as that. Within five minutes we were chowing down on the BEST $2.80 meal in the world. Take THAT, Sam's Club Pizza. If only Rochester had a Yoshinoya. I can dream, ne?
Unfortunately, when it came time to pay I was stuck with a huge handful of different coins, which the guy at the counter started plucking from (without my permission I might add, I was perfectly capable of counting it out myself). Accidentally, he grabbed a rogue penny still left over from when I was in the US (mistaking it for a 10 yen coin), and stopped us at the door. I was really embarrassed, even though it wasn't techically my fault. I handed him the 10 yen and we were out the door.
We walked around a bit more, found some game centers. I got to play Tatsunoko Vs Capcom arcade version (actually the Wii version is superior) and even Gaijin Smashed the hell out of a local player using my team of Ryu and Morrigan. Yep. I beat a Japanese man - at a fighting game! Amazing, I know. Unfortunately, he put in another coin, causing a rematch, and he unleashed his latent Nihonjin Smackdown Power(tm) using a team of Yatterman and Batsu. Never in my LIFE have I played anyone who loves to use low jab so often. There was no way to knock that guy up in the air for my Combo of Doom. So I lost, and then played some BlazBlue (actually not as good as I thought it would be) and Otomedius (still crazy fun). We went upstairs soon after that and tried out DDR X, which in this arcade had an entire setup which both flashed large sets of stage lights (not just the ones on the machine - these were hooked up to the sides too) and fans blowing on the players. It was easily the most comfortable game of DDR I've ever played. Not sure what I think of the new interface though. It all seems a bit - much - like it's compensating for something...
Back to the hotel for a bit of rest, and then to Yadobashi Camera to look at game prices. One thing to keep in mind here if you're a gamer traveling in Japan: EVERYONE SETS THEIR OWN PRICE. In the three places I've already been, I've seen price differences from a few hundred up to a couple thousand yen - so make sure you shop around, especially if you plan on buying used games. Anyways, I found some stuff I want, but I put off buying it until the trip to Akihabara tomorrow, since I want to make sure I'm getting the best deal.
We then were off to meet Satoshi at Takadanobaba station. I hadn't seen him since his last visit to Rochester, and since he was promoted he's not on rotation to travel over there anymore, so it was nice to see him. We got coffee to catch up, and then went to a Yakiniku restaurant. Now, for those unfamiliar with Yakiniku, it works like this. They bring a charcoal grill to the table. You order raw meat and veggies. You cook said raw meat and veggies on the grill. It's delicious and not very expensive - especially when sharing. This was my first time trying beef tongue, which actually (aside from being a little chewy) tastes like - you guessed it - beef. It wasn't bad at all. Lisa was a bit hesitant at first but ended up trying it as well.
After dinner we went to Shibuya for karaoke. Shibuya is the young peoples' district where people go to unwind after work. It's a cheaper, younger Roppongi, I suppose. We met Jun-san, Nobu-san, and two people I hadn't met before: Misa-san and Aya-san for karaoke. Note: it's really good to see that IBM is hiring women into technical positions. Misa and Aya are both technical/semi-technical workers, and there is a general attitude that companies in Japan will only hire men for technical positions (hiring most women as OL - office lady - secretary jobs), so I'm very glad to see this is changing.
But anyways, back to Karaoke. Each floor of the place we went was "themed". There was Cinderella, Moon Princess (a Japanese fable), Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty. Our karaoke booth was on the Snow White floor. Um...OK??? Fuzzy animals and bright vistas? At a karaoke bar?
Not a chance.
I don't know what version of Snow White the Japanese read, or who the hell translated it into Japanese - but whoever did must have been on imported opium, because as far as I know, Snow White has nothing to do with the Seven Deadly Sins or gothic poetry - were the dwarves really that evil???
This was on the wall of our karaoke booth - an advertisement for one of the drinks available at the bar: Pride Tonic. There was also Sloth Fizz, Red Envy, etc, and each one had a corresponding gothic Engrish poem on the walls of the hallway.. But this one was especially blatant:
I had to explain to our hosts why Lisa and I were laughing when we saw it. All we could say is that there are a lot of people in America who would have been disturbed and/or offended by that poem.
We sang karaoke. Lisa did amazing. I sucked monkey butt. That's about all I can say there :).
And with that...yeah, I need sleep.
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