When I got off the plane, I was wearing a brown blazer on top of a good shirt and jeans. It served me well on the plan, what with all of the blowing cold air coming out of the vents and all. When I stepped off though, due to me having to lug everything around I started sweating profusely. I mean, I was dragging everything through customs, through the terminal to find a place to rent a cell phone, over to buy a train ticket to the city, etc etc. I had a handkerchief to wipe off the sweat, but it was a little disconcerting to have to draw attention to myself–even more than I normally would as the weird foreigner.
On the train I found a spot, but gave myself something of a wide berth. The row of seats normally sits 8 Japanese-sized people. So…with me it could only hold 7. Ha! That makes me sound like a bloody giant. No…I just wanted space. That and who would want to sit next to the sweaty foreigner? Exactly.
Well, my friend told me to call him after an hour on the train (the ride is about 75 mins or so). Thing is, no respectful Japanese person would ever use their phone on the train. Sure, they might text message or play games on it, but no one ever has conversations. I guess it’s a matter of manners, right? Knowing all this, I was perfectly content to just call my friend as soon as I got to my station. That was fine and all, but somewhere along the way I was hit by a wave of fatigue and sleepiness. I wasn’t really in the mood to have to wait another 10 minutes or so when I got to the station. At that point, I decided to just be the rude foreigner. I mean, as much as they think it’s rude, I was banking on the fact that they’d be a little bit more lenient on someone like me. So, I waited for the crowd on the train to thin out a little bit, I pulled out the cell, ducked my head and made the call. When I was done, I took a peek around and saw a few people staring. When the next station came and people filed out, the guy sitting next to me grumbled and moved over the other side of the 8-wide bench. Ha.
Umm, you could say my friend’s place is…cozy. Cozy–meaning small. Small–meaning Japanese. He kindly made room for me–I’m using a futon on the floor, but man there isn’t much room to swing a cat. Well, I suppose you could, but the cat would be banging the walls. Though if you’re swinging a cat, are you really interested in its welfare? Hooooonestly. Anyway, with my luggage lying around, there isn’t much room to step around. So, I’m really grateful to him for allowing me to stay.
After dropping my stuff off, we went out to exchange our vouchers for our Japan Rail Pass. We headed to Tokyo station and wandered around for a good few minutes. The first few exchange points we went to were closed because it was late, but we eventually found one. My friend did all that talking with the clerk. I’m impressed with his language skills, let me tell you. After getting our passes we started booking seats on the bullet trains. Because we planned out our itinerary, we were able to tell the clerk straight out which
trains we wanted and what our departure times are. We made it dead simple for him, which I found kind of funny. Take that, bureaucracy!
For dinner, my friend wanted us to meet up with a colleague of his and his colleague’s friend. We decided on eating at an izakaya around Shinbashi–but just didn’t know which one. Shinbashi seems to be where all of the salarymen gather after work to drink their sorrows away. We wanted that kind of experience, apparently. Prior to actually meeting with them, we were walking over to them and passed by these cobble stone pedestrian roads lined with restaurants and people enjoying themselves. It all looked pretty awesome. I was kind of pissed with myself that I forgot my camera. I mean, there was some stuff out there that was picture worthy. In particular, we were passing by this dive bar called Budweiser Carnival that looked sort of like Hooters. Inside, someone was belting out Dancing Queen by ABBA. The waitresses were dancing around in their tight shirts, and the patrons were waving their hands enjoying the spectacle. God, that was so random.
We met up with the others at about 9 pm and started wandering around looking for a good izakaya. We scoped out two places. When we finally decided on one place, we noticed that it was fully crowded, so we cancelled that plan. We went to the other, but before we could go in someone came out and said “closed!” and formed an X with her arms emphasizing the fact. Bad timing, we thought. We wandered around some more and stopped by this grilling place. It looked pretty intriguing, so we gathered in front to see what we could find out. We wonder out loud if they were open, but as soon as we did the place shut off the lanterns in front. God, how unwelcoming. We walked off, guessing that they’d probably turn on the lanterns again when we were out of sight. I suppose I can brush it off. I mean, it’s certainly not a personal thing–some places just don’t want to serve foreigners. Fact of life here. I’m sure there are lots of underlying reasons but it’s not my place to change anything.
Well, we eventually did find a place, and really the food and service there was just awesome. This place did a good job of making us feel a bit welcome. We ordered a big load of dishes (small plates, reminding me of dim-sum). The final bill came to just under $80 for 4 people, which is really a good deal.
Anyway, that was my first night in Tokyo. None of this experience so far has made me feel any less shy about trying to use the language. I’m trying to accustom myself to the fact that I’ll never really blend in. So, I’m going to try to enjoy the place, fully knowing that I’m going to get the curious looks and the blatant point-and-stare type reactions.
Well, today is Sunday morning. I have plans to visit the RC church in Roppongi. After that…not sure what I’m going to do except wander around a little bit and possibly get lost on my own. My friend will give me a call when he’s up and we’ll be able to meet up for food and other things. As much as I don’t want to rely on him for everything, since I know the resource is available, why shouldn’t I use it, right? The rail tour starts tomorrow. It’s going to be crazy.
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