A few days in Tokyo: Arigato!!!

Lauren, Heidi and I spent the last couple of days in Tokyo. It was great there, even if chaotic and almost overwhelming at times.

Wednesday evening we found our way into a small restaurant where we jumped at the waitress who welcomed us with a well-pronounced English “hello.” The hostess held our hands through the meal, trying to explain a few options as best as she could in extremely limited English and finding us dishes that met our vague “noodle” or “shrimp” descriptions. One of the highlights of our entire time in Tokyo came at the end of that meal when we stood up to leave, leaving a tip on the table, and the entire restaurant yelled goodbye and gozai-mas to us. It was uncomfortable and quickly headed for the door. When we were across the street and nearly half a block away, we heard our hostess yelling at and waving to us from the door, so we turned and waved back at her. We waved and yelled “arigato” to our hearts' content until we finally realized that she was trying to tell us to come back to get the money we left on the table. Google later confirmed to us that you do not tip in Japan. Oops.

On Thursday morning we went to Tsukiji, the largest and most famous fish market in the world, also the topic of a case study I did for an anthropology/international studies class I took at DePaul. It was crazy to see all of those fishermen, dock workers and food artists all conducting their business in this massive wholesale market filled with local restauranteurs, family folk and tourists like us. My shoes smelled after walking through the fish guts and nasty puddles of questionable water, but it was worth it to taste the best, freshest tuna I’ve ever had. We also spent time near the Sensoji temple and in a traditional Japanese garden, though the zen-ness of the experience was dampened by some heavy landscaping construction.

Thursday afternoon and evening, we spent tons of time walking around Shinjuku and Shibuya. Those are business and sort of touristy districts with tons of neon lights, LCD advertisements on buildings, and obnoxiously bright and loud arcades filled with business people playing video games. We may have spent close to an hour just watching the absolute madness of the big intersection in Shibuya. Literally thousands of people who cross that intersection every time the lights turn green. It is insane and the videos we took probably don’t do it justice.

This morning, Friday, we had delicious coffee and sandwiches for breakfast and then headed back to Shinjuku on a mission to see Mount Fuji. It took us forever and a day to find the Park Hyatt, which is on the 1,000 Places to See before You Die list. I will tell you, though, that you can go ahead and cross that hotel right off the list because nothing about it was that impressive and unfortunately it was too smoggy to even see Fuji. Finally we headed to the airport on a train with 100+ of the most adorable school children I’ve ever seen – all in dorky bright yellow hats and extremely well-behaved. We also happened to sit across from a guy who would be our flight attendant later on our plane to Bangkok. He played with the kids and took pictures of them, of course smiling and making the requisite peace signs. It was excellent.

Aside from the details of exactly where we went, I think my main memories of Tokyo will be the extensive but easy train/subway system (with its extremely long walks to make transfers), the bright lights and colorful streets, and the friendly Japanese who were always willing to help us out with their limited English skills. I had learned maybe 8-10 Japanese phrases and words, but only used about half of them. Otherwise we made do with lots of hand gestures and smiles.

Now it’s Saturday, 18 October at 3:00 a.m., or Friday the 17^th at 3:00 p.m. in Chicago. I just got to the AU campus in Bang Na, Thailand and got settled in my room. Dr. Supa picked us up from the airport and we arrived at the campus pretty seamlessly. We even got our rooms right away. So thus far, I’m pleasantly surprised that things are going according to plan. Maybe this sweet, disorganized lady has her act together after all. I'm excited to find out.