A Bit of Time
in Tokyo...
in Tokyo...
February 19, 2008
What a great start to my time in Japan – so far things are going quite smoothly.
At first I had to figure out how I was going to get in touch with Dave once I arrived. But I saw it as a bit more important to get on the Narita
Express that was leaving in a few minutes so I didn’t have to wait around for the next one. One of the men in my car was a Westerner so I
thought I would give something a shot – I asked him if I could borrow his phone and give him however many yen he wanted for the call. He
told me not to worry about it at all and asked if I had the number. And so just like that I was talking to Dave and we agreed to meet at his
subway stop at 5:30pm. Well, that sure just made things easy.
When I got off at my stop, it turned out my phone-friend was also getting off. He lives near Dave’s stop (he’s from Germany but working
here) so he guided me to the transfer of train lines and then showed me which train I would want to get on. This was very helpful and very
needed information. As my new English friends I met in Australia would say ‘Bless that man’s cotton socks’. (Though they would say that I
would say it ‘Bless that man’s corn socks’ because I couldn’t understand their accent when they said it.)
How fun was it having Dave and Masayo greet me at the train station? They took me back to their place to drop my stuff off. Their place is
so cute! Quite small but very nice. There is, however, enough room for me to make a bed out of couch cushions on the floor. Oh – and then
there’s the oh-so-fun Japanese bathroom that they have. I’ve missed these.
We went out to a great Japanese restaurant in the Ginza area where we put our shoes into a locker upon arrival and were led to our table
(and each table was like your own little compartment). They were in charge of ordering and let me just say that they did a great job. I was
reminded that, contrary to popular belief, Japan is not the country to come to in attempts to lose weight. We had fresh tofu wrapped in
cheesecloth (absolutely delicious compared to the packaged stuff we have at home), bacon-wrapped asparagus, salmon nigirizushi (basically
salmon nigiri but I think the salmon was cooked), minced meat with a glaze on skewers, some great marinated root veggies, green salad
with fruit and a mayonnaise dressing, a pitcher of beer and some other things that I can’t even remember at the moment.
We walked around a bit after and they showed me just how popular Krispy Kreme is out here – it was 10:30pm on a Tuesday and the line
was snaked around. Apparently, they said that queue was nothing compared to what it used to be.
What a great start to my time in Japan – so far things are going quite smoothly.
At first I had to figure out how I was going to get in touch with Dave once I arrived. But I saw it as a bit more important to get on the Narita
Express that was leaving in a few minutes so I didn’t have to wait around for the next one. One of the men in my car was a Westerner so I
thought I would give something a shot – I asked him if I could borrow his phone and give him however many yen he wanted for the call. He
told me not to worry about it at all and asked if I had the number. And so just like that I was talking to Dave and we agreed to meet at his
subway stop at 5:30pm. Well, that sure just made things easy.
When I got off at my stop, it turned out my phone-friend was also getting off. He lives near Dave’s stop (he’s from Germany but working
here) so he guided me to the transfer of train lines and then showed me which train I would want to get on. This was very helpful and very
needed information. As my new English friends I met in Australia would say ‘Bless that man’s cotton socks’. (Though they would say that I
would say it ‘Bless that man’s corn socks’ because I couldn’t understand their accent when they said it.)
How fun was it having Dave and Masayo greet me at the train station? They took me back to their place to drop my stuff off. Their place is
so cute! Quite small but very nice. There is, however, enough room for me to make a bed out of couch cushions on the floor. Oh – and then
there’s the oh-so-fun Japanese bathroom that they have. I’ve missed these.
We went out to a great Japanese restaurant in the Ginza area where we put our shoes into a locker upon arrival and were led to our table
(and each table was like your own little compartment). They were in charge of ordering and let me just say that they did a great job. I was
reminded that, contrary to popular belief, Japan is not the country to come to in attempts to lose weight. We had fresh tofu wrapped in
cheesecloth (absolutely delicious compared to the packaged stuff we have at home), bacon-wrapped asparagus, salmon nigirizushi (basically
salmon nigiri but I think the salmon was cooked), minced meat with a glaze on skewers, some great marinated root veggies, green salad
with fruit and a mayonnaise dressing, a pitcher of beer and some other things that I can’t even remember at the moment.
We walked around a bit after and they showed me just how popular Krispy Kreme is out here – it was 10:30pm on a Tuesday and the line
was snaked around. Apparently, they said that queue was nothing compared to what it used to be.
Masayo and Dave at dinner.
Beautiful desserts in a food hall.
Dave must 'stand' out in Japan.
