Tokyo 3-4-5, with a birthday in between (unproofed and uncorrected version)

“heeheeheehee, butter?” she said. Her laugh was the kind of high-pitched schoolgirl giggle I thought only existed as a stereotype, a kind of anime myth, but nope, here it was, in full skittish glory. To complete the image, her petite pink nailpolished hand covered her mouth in a dainty gesture. The amused tittering was shared by her co-worker, like asking for butter on my bagel was the most insane and inappropriate request ever. I even thought for a second that maybe “butter” sounded phonetically like a dirty Japanese word. 

She crossed her arms in an “X,” the universal Japanese gesture for “no.” As in, “No, I will not be having butter with my bagel.” I slinked away and out of the cafe as they continued to laugh their light stacatto laughter of cruelty.

Score: Japanese counter girls 1 - Denis 0

Even now, Nicole feels the need to mock me with the laugh. Oh the laugh…

I ate my bagel plain, and an unadorned bagel is a sad thing, especially an unadorned Japanese bagel.

To help me get over my wounded sense of self, we went to one of the largest food halls in Tokyo, located in the basement level of the Seibu department store in Ikebukuro. Cole knew that this would cheer me up because besides eating food, looking at food comes in as a close second in my ranking of food-related activities (don’t ask me what comes in at third–finger painting with soy sauce?).

And the food hall did not disappoint. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen so many types of edible goodies packed so closely together (Barcelona?), from mysterious jellies and cakes (could be mochi) to gyoza, tempura, sushi, grilled eel (oh, the grilled eel) and pastries, among much much more.

 

In fact, we were so overwhelmed by the massive crowd and number of choices (and the complete lack of seating didn’t help either), we actually decided to pick up lunch at a supermarket close to our hotel and bring it up to our room.

Gyoza: even the Japanese supermarket specimens are better than the restaurant versions back home (this is true of most sushi too).

A variaty of fried rice with bits of veggies and seafood.

“Feeling better?” Cole said to me while we ate.

“I guess so, but the echoes of the laugh will forever haunt me.”

or so went our completely made-up conversation.

Anyhoo, after our patched-together lunch, we headed out to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. As the name implies, the museum is dedicated to the history of Tokyo, from the Edo period to the present.

 

Kabuki.

Old Japanese currency.

All of the exhibits were contained within one large space, seperated by two levels. Everything was really neat (and by neat I mean interesting, though they were also neat as in coordinated and clean) and we took our time looking at the items, so much so that we ran out of time and missed the modern section. The 1930s and onward will have to wait until next time I guess.

 

As usual, we were drawn right to the printing and publishing section of the museum. Yep, wherever we are, we’ll find the books.

Model of an Edo-era bookstore.

A little more modern.

Standing.

 

Outside of the museum.

After the museum we walked around town for a bit, sweating like crazed monkeys (they sweat a lot I hear) and eventually time passed as it’s prone to do, and we were ready for dinner.

Dinner was again at our little udon place under the tracks.

Beef bowl w/ udon, does it get any better? Beef bowl consists of strips of marinated beef, cooked down with onions, on top of white rice.

And with that day three was over.

As an aside, I don’t think I’ve mentioned how clean Japan is. So…it’s really clean. Litter barely exists, and there are people cleaning the sidewalk and floors everywhere we go. Really, when’s the last time you cleaned your sidewalk? Also, Tokyo must be the only city I’ve been where my nose doesn’t get all sooty after using the subway. Blowing my nose after London was like coal mining, but here, no soot at all! I can almost feel my body suffering from pollution withdrawal. Must make sure to get my fill once I get to China.

Ok, now that that’s over, we’re onto day four:

August 9th, otherwise known as my 28th birthday

The main part of the morning was spent getting to and then exploring the Ghibli museum, the museum of the Miyazaki production company, known for many of my favorite movies such as Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, and Princess Monenoke (yeahyeah I know, I’m super-asiany). Because of its popularity, we booked our tickets way in advance, back in June or so through the Japan travel agency in the Mitsuwa supermarket in Edgewater, NJ.

The museum was a bit out there in the burbs, in Mitaka, maybe a 30 minute train ride outside of Tokyo. The neighborhood was cute, and a nice change of pace from downtown Tokyo. As for the museum itself, well…let’s just say that if you like to being overrun by never-ending streams of Japanese children while simutaneously suffering slow asphyxiation, then a visit to the Ghibli museum on a weekend will do wonders for you.

Maybe I’m being harsh. The rooms showing the original art could have been nice (no picture-taking allowed inside, sorry), but it was impossible to see anything over hundreds of little kids crawling on top of each other. The short film we saw inside was fun, and I found out that the new Miyazaki film was about a goldfish princess who wished to be human (and I can’t wait to see it!), but all in all, I was relieved to get out of there.

It says “New York.” Not a deli like I hoped, but a pachinko place.

We walked around Mitaka for awhile and I spotted a Yoshinoya. For some background: Yoshinoya used to have a restaurant near 23rd street, and it was my favorite lunch spot back when I worked in the Flatiron building. At least twice a week, I would go there for a beef bowl or a chicken teriyaki (the real kind, not the bits of chicken of mall teriyaki), but sadly it closed, and the only other Yoshinoya was in Times Square, or denis-kryptonite-land. My Yoshinoya closed at least three years ago, so it had been some time since I had gotten one of its beef bowls.

When we got in though, as much as I wanted a beef bowl, I saw a special for eel rice and I couldn’t resist.  I wound up eating half of nicole’s beef so it didn’t matter anyway.

Ginza was our next destination, which sounds funny because we had been staying Ginza all that time, but we hadn’t really gone out to Ginza-proper. Saturday was the perfect day to roam, because the main roads are closed off from cars on the weekends.

Japan has a definite fetish for high-priced designer brands, you can’t go anywhere without bumping into them. I think I actually said, “Do they really need two Louis-Vutton stores fifty feet from one another?”

“Yes, yes they do,” cole responded in complete seriousness. And you know…I think they do.

For the grand finale of the b-day, we searched high and low for a suitable mid-priced sushi restaurant (hey, we’re going to be teachers after all, not investment bankers or anything like that, must pay some mind to budget), and we decided on this cute one where else, but near the train tracks. I rattled off my quick checklist for sushi restaurants, and by checklist I mean only my singular requirement…is the place busy? Yes? Check.

We ordered one sushi combination, and another assortment of just tuna nigiri. Oh my God (sorry for those of you who may be religious and/or do not like using the lord’s name to illustrate the divine nature of fresh sushi in Japan, but hey, it was that good). I know we weren’t at the most expensive place ever; it wasn’t Nobu or anything, but compared to the bunch of expensive sushi spots I have been to in nyc, this little no-name restaurant under the tracks blew them all away.

The fatty tuna (the closest pieces to the left), I have no words. In fact, there were different grades of fatty tuna. The medium fatty tuna was enough to make me pass out in delight, but high fatty tuna…I can’t take it, even typing about it now gives me the shakes for another piece, I’m like an addict. If you like sushi, you must have a piece of toro in Japan. First one isn’t free though, more like 400-500 yen.

That one piece of tuna was enough of a birthday present, but to be having it in Tokyo? with cole? with further Japan and China adventures to come? Couldn’t ask for more. Not a bad b-day at all.

For those of you who enjoy extended monologues (two houses, both alike in dignity…), day five, or the final full day of Tokyo is up.

Harajuku and Shinjuku

The guidebooks, the travel channel, America’s Next Top Model–all agree that Harajuku is the hub of Japanese street fashion. I say, “Cosplayers on a Sunday? Sure why not.”

 

But, the cosplayers were hard to find, maybe ten in the morning is too early for Naruto or Cloud or L of Death Note (I hope you don’t know what I’m talking about, if you do then I’m sorry, but you must be a nerd). No great loss; my main goal was to visit the Meiji Shrine.

 

Entering the Meiji Shrine area, for the first time I didn’t notice the outside city. This park had real trees, and had the feel of a forest if not the actual area of one.

Cole cleansed herself before entering the shrine, as was proper. She declined to swish around the water in her mouth and spit.

Classic example of Asian posing.

Not winking. Sun was shining into my eyes.

One of the few pictures we have together.

Although the Meiji Shrine was a reconstruction of the original, it was built with all the same details as the first. It wasn’t just a tourist destination either, while we were there, at least two weddings were going on, along with the Shinto version of a baby Christening.

Lunch break. Very good ramen.

 

Our next stop, Shinjuku, had plenty to see too.

Shinjuku is known as the glitzy/seedy side of Tokyo. It has all the flashy bits, which includes the main red-light district of Tokyo.

 

Look, a coach store.

Cole and I didn’t see anything all that shady, maybe because we weren’t looking, maybe because we were already pooped out.

I did see this though, across the street.

In our tired state, we went to our most natural environment…a bookstore. The Kinokuniya bookstore in Shinjuku had seven levels, and the entire sixth floor was devoted to foreign books. It was blissful being surrounded by novels again. They even had a paperback version of Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, which isn’t even out in the US yet. I couldn’t buy the hardcover because of the extra weight, but I was more than willing to buy the paperback. Another surprise was that the Kinokuniya carried a fair amount of books from my former employer.

A few of the books I worked on.

I made it to Japan! Does this mean I’m famous? Er…no.

And that’s it, the end of Tokyo. It was better than I imagined, and I’ve been wanted to visit Tokyo for a long time now. Eventually, we’ll come back. I’m sure of it.

Next up is Hiroshima, where cole and I would seriously consider living, and where I had my first use of Mandarin in Japan…great success!