Nihongo wa hanasemasen.

Spends 20 hours traveling to Japan... eats at a Denny's

Nescafe? Nescalicious!

Geek here again with another 'book' of the day. Technically the day started with a very early rise and writing of yesterday's post, but we'll skip over that. Our morning started very early at 4:30 AM, when a young little miss started texting, and ultimately video calling her momma. My night's sleep was somewhat restless, but we have learned that soba (buckwheat) filled pillows are amazing. At least one of us arose chipper and ready; I on the other-hand was still fairly dehydrated and almost felt a little hungover, despite not drinking any alcohol.

Today we learned how it's really not about the major stuff, but rather the little details that make everything so different. On first blush, you could look around and think you're in any major metropolitan city (at least those I'm familiar with). When you start interacting with the city, however, and getting closer up, that's when you start to see the difference. For example, there isn't a coffee pot in the room, but rather an electric tea kettle, instant coffee, and two types of tea (oolong and green). Also, the plugs are all two pronged, no ground wire. On an unrelated note we saw no less than ten fires in residential areas during our approach and final descent into Japan.

In Japan we are taller

Two types of caffeine behind us it was time to head out and explore for some breakfast. The hotel did offer in-room and a restaurant for the morning, but both were at least ¥3,600 per person, and we're really not in to spending a lot of money on food. Oh, on currency; we (at least I) will likely reference the cost of some things, and will do so in Yen (¥). So you can put this in perspective, simply put a decimal place in two digits to the left, and it will be close enough. For example, that ¥3,600 breakfast would be approximately $36.00. So anyway; off we went in search of food.

We needed nourishment before we felt prepared for the unknown, and spotted, on the way to the hotel last night, a Denny's a mere block away. Everyone in our hotel speaks great English, and they all say everyone in Japan speaks English, so a Denny's will be just like back home. Right? Wrong! For starters, when you walk in, you're supposed to write your name (presumably, because we didn't) on a stand near the front door and sit your butt down out of the way (SFP #31). The man working the front tried to explain that to us, and did manage to get out "Please wait" gesturing to the chairs. We got that far, but still, totally missed signing in. The smell of old cigarette smoke heavy in the air had our minds elsewhere anyway. It's incredible how much of an affront to the senses that is now. Has it been that long that smoking indoors was outlawed in Illinois?

So there we waited, and soon several locals came in, followed proper procedure, and sat to wait with us. Immediately their business formal attire stood out to us, jeans and t-shirt wearing, foreigners. First thought was, perhaps many people stopped here for breakfast before work. Wait, it's nearly 10:00 AM here. Wait again, it's Sunday here. Looking back on the day, I suspect that many people do work Sundays, but never did figure out the time of day part. Another introduction to every day life in Japan came from the woman waiting across from us. While waiting, her mobile phone rang, she picked it up, grabbed her heavy winter coat (it was 59°f / 15°c outside, more later) and stepped outside, leaving her two bags behind, open and unprotected. This is normal here. 

Crime isn't really a thing in Japan, even in a huge city like Tokyo. Don't get me wrong, there is crime, but to put some perspective on it, a typical theft rate in America is 233 per 100,000 residents. In Japan this rate is 1.3 per 100,000 residents. Why such a difference? Sure, punishment for committing crimes is extremely strict. There are also a lot of policemen around, and they have several kobans (mini-police depots with 2-3 policemen stationed and ready to serve) all over the city, but it's more than that. (By the way, some of this is from personal experience, some of this is paraphrasing from others.) In America everyone is, for the most part, out for themselves. Your actions are for your benefit and ultimately of no reflection on the persons around you. Granted we all love our families and do anything for them, but the crimes of a cousin are not cast onto you. Here, however, a person is unlikely to even consider committing a crime for the amount of shame and guilt they would feel for doing this to their group. They live and exist as a social unit, not as individuals. 

"also coffee"

Anyway, back to Denny's. We were seated a short while later, given menus, and left alone until we were ready. I appreciated this approach, in contrast to the, "are y'all ready to order? Okay I'll come back," pestering. It afforded us plenty of no-pressure time to review a menu that made very little sense (wish we had taken a picture). Using pictures as guides we determined what we wanted and pressed the "Call for Service" button at our table. In prompt response our waiter ran to our table (yes, ran; in Japan Denny's wait stuff run to service you and even smile and look at you when talking) to take our order. The Art Girl started first and pointed at what she wanted, while also saying "the pancakes, number four", and after a little confusion with him speaking Japanese and her speaking English, they got through it. Then she asked for "black coffee" and he seemed to understand that so I asked for "also coffee", which surprisingly didn't seem to be confusing for him. Then I pointed to the french toast and we got through that part too.

Restaurant Table Tomato

Moments later our waiter returned with our drinks. The Art Girl got her cup of hot coffee that she wanted, and I got a glass of also coffee. Not at all what I expected. I later realized that when asking for coffee in Japanese, aiso-kohi (ay-ee-so ko-hee) means "iced coffee" and sounds like "also coffee" if you use a horribly bad American accent! And thus began a better understanding of communication and the subtle differences of what everyday objects are called. Also, for sweetness, they use a 'gum syrup' in their iced coffee that had an interesting flavor. I drank it without complaint; it was, after all, what I ordered. The food was markedly better than any Denny's I'd been at back home (the sausage didn't even taste like Windex), and the cost was right up our alley. Two meals + two coffees was ¥1,160. The host, I later realized, asked us several questions, but we had no idea and smiled, nodded, paid our bill, and probably committed SFP #32 - #35. I did, however, make sure to say arigato a lot.

After Denny's we visited Shinjuku Central Park, and the nearby area for awhile. While there we go to see the famed public facilities, which do in fact expect you to bring your own toilet paper, and really do have just a trench / hole in the floor. You'll have to beg The Art Girl for those pictures, I waited outside. Another interesting note was the number of people living in the park. Much like Toronto, however, the homeless seem to keep to themselves and not bother anyone. Another big difference from Chicago. I have no idea how the people of Japan get by without Streetwise.

Our Hotel from the Park

The park was beautiful, despite being late fall, and the flora is so different from home. The fauna, however, is just like home; technicolor pigeons and sparrows were prominent. The Art Girl took several pictures of the sculptures in the park, but those will likely surface on her art blog rather than here. From there we walked through a little bit of the city mainly around the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building before heading back through the park and on to the Shinto Kumano Jinja Shrine.

Remember, tugging on flowers
makes them upset, also, keep
the music to a low whisper

One thing of note, in the park, there was a group of four teenage girls practicing their dance moves to music, and they kept their music at such a respectable level (per the park rules) that you could only hear it when you walked close by them.

Here are a few more of my pictures from the park:

Central Courtyard

Killer bees? Not sure, let's go.

I love the trees

And here are pictures of the architecture:

Tokyo Metropolitan Building #1

Cocoon Tower on Rainbow Bridge

View South from Rainbow Bridge

Tokyo Metropolitan #2

By the way; I'm sorry the pictures sometimes line up weird  or not at all. This blogging interface is being very difficult with lining up pictures. I try but sometimes the amount of time spent lining up pictures outweighs my desire to have lined up pictures. ;-)

So after touring a couple streets we crossed over the park to the shrine, although we didn't really know what we were looking at when we were there. I had guessed the symbol we'd seen in a few places was a Shinto Symbol. There were persons in traditional garb, and a few who came by to make offerings, and prayers. It was a gorgeous building and site with attention to detail beyond anything I've seen. Even when bending to look under the front deck, the supports were carved and painted.

Below are a selection of pictures from our visit to the Kumano Jinja Shrine:

An Adventure in Convenience Mart Dining

Sushi, Potato Chips, Choco Cookie, and Brie Cracker Rolls

By the time we left the temple, hunger was setting in again. Still not wanting to spend a lot on food we decided to follow a tip on convenience mart sushi. From someone who frequents not only Japan, but Shinjuku specifically, we were advised to try the sushi at 7-Eleven or Family Mart, "no joke". Since there was one on our way back to the hotel room (below the building), we decided to roll the dice and go for it. The selection wasn't grand, but there were a few things we decided to try, then while looking for some other snacks instincts first said to grab the brands where we knew what we were getting into, but The Art Girl threw down the gauntlet and I jumped on board immediately, with the idea that we would, from that moment onward, only buy and eat foods that were not familiar brand names. So we bought a number of things to feast upon. We did, though, bend the rules a little and got coca-cola sodas.

The brown things in the front were a sweetened rice & vinegar pressed and wrapped in a sweet doughy pastry. They were quite tasty, and stood well as a very light dessert.

 These were interesting rolled sushi. The goop (for lack of knowing what anything we ate was) in the center left long strings, like spun sugar fibers while making cotton candy, when picking them up. The Art Girl really liked them, but they were just a pinch too fishy for this Geek's taste. I did still eat three of them.

 Now these really spoke to me. They had a few texture combinations and some form of either lighter, or more fresh fish. Fantastic is all I could say about them. Better than Kona Grill and only ¥360. In fact, the discussion we had was that this convenience store sushi is probably just okay by Japan's standards, but is as good as some of the better sushi available in the midwest. It's just hard to get fresh fish, reasonably priced, into the midwest.

Then there was this thing. Oh-my-god. A chocolate covered, huge puff-pastry filled with chocolate ganache and chocolate mousse. Super light, fluffy, creamy, and ridiculous. I believe my comment to The Art Girl was, "only you could get drunk from sushi and a big chocolate ball thing." There will be more of these in our future for sure.

The Family Mart was also a chance for me to practice communicating in a foreign culture. I tried my luck and walked up, responding to her greeting with, "Konnichiwa. Eigo o hannasemass-ka?", which you'll recall from my previous post is essentially, "Hello. Do you speak English?" Her reply was the international sign language for, "ehhhh, not really." So, I smiled and said, "it's okay," and we finished our transaction with an exchange of "arigato"s. 

The World's Busiest Train Station

By this point we were getting pretty tired.

After our lunch and some time with the guide / phrasebook trying to find a good response if they say they don't speak English, and only coming up with Nihongo wa hanasemasen (I don't speak Japanese), we headed over to Shinjuku Station. Known for it's shopping, and plethora of commuters. We were not disappointed, it was well worth the visit, even if we weren't ready to try out the subway itself yet. We did get some shopping done, and sorry, no spoiler pictures of any gifts, but I did find myself a really cool book. Yeah, yeah, an actual paper book. We all have weak moment from time to time. That book store, by the way, was huge! I'd say Borders should be ashamed, but, well, you know.

We also went to a department store (think Nordstroms), and I swear, they have higher resolution real life here. The lighting in that store was so bright, and meticulously color tuned that it was almost freaking us out everything was so bright and clear. I need to make it back for a picture. It was so busy and so bright, and we were so tired, we had to get out of there pretty quick. I did grab a few night shots of that area of the city, but they're not the best I've gotten so far; sorry for any blurriness.

For a time we stood and watched the bustle of the center of the station. It was mesmerizing watching so many people flow in and out so quickly. I'm not sure how, but despite being the busiest station in the world, it seems to work. We should, however, check out this station on a weekday, say around rush-hour, and see what it really looks like. We also noticed that Japanese women's fashion appears to prefer a super tall stiletto heal on a shoe that is approximately two sizes too big. Great looking shoes, usually, but in clunky awkward sizes that make them clomp around rather robotic-like. It's a phenomena The Art Girl picked up on (I had no idea until she pointed it out).

Do not do whatever this angry winged cat is telling you not to do.
Seriously... he's pissed, don't mess with him.

From there we headed back to the hotel; exhausted. Never even made it out for a third meal. I started working on this blog post, and knowing that tomorrow is the concert, going to bed early was not on my agenda (so I don't wake up too super early again), but for The Art Girl, the call of sleep was too strong.

Oyasumi nasai / Ohayo gozaimass.

Sayonara.

- Geek