After a nice night with the maids, I awoke the following morning at a
more reasonable hour, rather than the unacceptable noontime of the previous
day. So, you know, like, 10 AM. I’m getting better. First stop of the day: The
Tokyo Tower. This is Japan’s version of the Eiffel Tower. It stands a convenient 333 meters tall and has served since the 1960’s to help with TV and radio
broadcasting through the greater Tokyo area. As of late, it has proven itself
to no longer be tall enough for some of said functions, but that’s why we have the
Sky Tree now. These aren’t just for looking pretty, guys. It’s all about the TV
(and maybe some radio)!!!
The subway stations are super informative here. In fact, they were like
this in other Asian cities. Each one has a map of the surrounding neighborhood
and a list of every point of interest. It also breaks down the points of interest
by which exit you should leave the subway for best access to that point.
Convenient, yes. My only complaint about these maps is that they were all
oriented with respect to the reader in the station, not north = up. This is
great if you don’t have much sense of direction and want to know just to turn
right or left from where you’re standing. This was detrimental to me, though,
because I make plans with maps where north is up, and whenever I’m trying to
figure out where I am, I reference myself to the north. These maps in the
subway repeatedly turned me around and confused me when I compared with what I
had in my head from my itinerary maps. Oh, woe is me…
Anyway, the informative site list in the station near Tokyo Tower
mentioned that the Russian Embassy is nearby. I decided it would be fun to go
see that at some point this morning, if there was anything special about it
that was worth seeing. I hadn’t had breakfast yet, so when I popped out of the
station, I started looking around for a place to eat. I was in a pretty business-y
area, and it seemed that everyone but me was in black slacks, a white shirt, and
a tie. There were a couple Starbucks and other western fare. I walked past some
Japanese food stands but they had long lines, and I didn’t feel like waiting at
the moment. So I headed in the direction of the Tower. Then, to my right, there was a random wooded staircase going up a hill, and I could’t see where it went.
What would Brian Boitano do? Climb it, of course. Because in Tokyo, when you’re
flanked by symbols of modernity on all sides, you need not look far for a quick
spiritual escape. I climbed the stairs and reached a small tree-covered
courtyard to a building that could have been a shrine, a small temple, or a
teahouse. I didn’t stay to find out, because I saw something more interesting
rising up through the trees beyond it. I had no idea what this building was,
but it looked straight out of a sci-fi movie.
I needed to get a better look, but I couldn’t from this vantage point,
so I made me way back down the steps and headed down the main street and turned
on a side street that I hoped would take me to this structure. Sure enough, I
arrived at the Reiyukai Shakaden Temple. I stood in awe of it, not sure if I
should go in or not. I decided not to, took some pictures, and left. It turns
out that the Reiyukai Shakaden is an offshoot religion (or order of some sort)
of Buddhism, though it is completely a layperson religion. I’m not sure how
that works, because it has monks. And I thought monks weren’t considered laity…
It is dedicated to peace and education. From the description in front of the
temple, it seemed like it was some special order like a Japanese version of the
Freemasons. But later research explained that it wasn’t a special group of
influential rich guys or anything. The temple itself has an 8 meter tall Buddha
statue carved from one block of wood and stores 400 tons of drinking water for
who-knows-what kind of emergency. They also welcome visitors, so I should have
gone in. Let that be a lesson to you all. Brian Boitano would have entered the
temple. You should too.
 |
| Reyukai Shakaden Temple |
Ironically, after leaving the temple and heading toward the Tokyo
Tower, I passed the Tokyo Masonic Building. So I guess the Masons weren’t so
far away. Since this seems to be the area of town with a lot of embassies and
thus a lot of influential diplomats, it makes sense that this building would be
here. I read Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol recently,
so I guess I also have Masons on my mind. I continued up and over another hill,
and BOOM, Tokyo Tower. The tower has a large building beneath it that is filled
with shopping, eating, and even an “amusement park” area. Maybe I’ll get food
here afterward. I bought the double ticket package that goes up to the main
observation deck at 150 meters and the “special” observation deck at 250
meters. At 150 meters, I would find out that it was useless to go up to the top
because of a dense haze that limited visibility to only about a mile. Alas, I
would not get to see Mt. Fuji on this trip. That’s okay… I’ll climb it some
other time. Then I’ll definitely be able to “see” it.
I got in the elevator with an unfortunate-looking family of all
gingers. I nearly missed being a full ginger, though the redness of my facial
hair might suggest otherwise. My skin still has the ability to develop a little bit of color. I count myself
very lucky. As soon as the elevator door closed, a bunch of multi-colored
flashing lights turned on, a la Cash Cab, and a booming announcer’s voice
welcomed us to the Tokyo Tower. I think it freaked out one of the little ginger
kids for a second. Poor, soulless little tyke…
Overall, I didn’t have the chance to be that impressed by the tower,
with such a poor view. I know it wasn’t the tower’s fault, so I’m not blaming
it, at the risk of hurting its feelings. But apparently they have live music
some evenings in the observation deck, which is a first that I’ve seen for a
tower, especially one without a restaurant on top. So, points to the tower for
that. I did manage to see a huge temple that wasn’t on my itinerary, and I
figured I should see that while in the area, so that’s also a plus for the
tower. And I got a view of the Reiyukai Shakaden temple from above, which is a
lot different than the view from below.
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| Reiyuki Shakaden Temple, from the Tokyo Tower |
After a brief time at the upper observation deck, I headed back down to
the building below. They dropped us off on the upper deck of the building, at
the “amusement park,” which consisted of a few tiny toddler rides. Nothing
amusing for little-old me. I wanted food. So I headed down the stairs to MY
amusement park: the food court. My hungry eyes immediately alit upon a place
called Pink Dot. It was really, really pink. I mean, pretend that you are in a
baby girl’s nursery room, and pretend that the entire room suddenly lit up with
fluorescence. Nope, still not pink enough. It served gourmet waffle and pancake
meals. Bingo! I ordered a caramel banana pancake, and for the five minutes that
it took me to greedily devour this culinary masterpiece, I swear that time
stopped…
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| Caramel Banana Pancake |
After the meal, which was gone entirely too fast, I set off in search
of the big temple I had seen from the tower. After taking a few wrong turns
through some small parks and gardens (very tranquil, though), I finally found
how to get to the temple. I arrived and it was a worthwhile site. It’s called
Zojo-ji, probably because when you see it you want to say, “Gee!” in response
to its magnificence. It is the main temple of the Chinzai sect of the Shingon
school. So, obviously, it’s kind of a big deal. I’d say it was my favorite
temple in Japan. It also gave me a vantage point from which to shoot a picture
of one of the many things that makes Japan so awesome: Its ability to
seamlessly blend the modern and the traditional, the technological and the
spiritual. I’m proud of this one. It’s deep and stuff.
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| Temple and Tower. Artsiest thing I've ever done. But not really. |
After that, I wanted to find the Russian Embassy. I really thought for
some reason that it might be interesting. One of the tourist maps on the street
eventually pointed me in the right direction. I had a lady stop and ask me
about the Zojo-ji Temple and how to get to it. For some reason, even when I’m a
tourist in a foreign land, I still look like a guy who knows where he’s going.
I get asked directions all the time when I’m in Krasnoyarsk, and I feel bad
because I usually cannot understand what they’re asking me. I guess this means
I’m a confident-looking traveler. I also hope this means people won’t try to
mess with me and rip me off in some way.
I eventually find the Russian embassy and it’s no fun at all. There’s
also a big wall blocking my view of it. There are a bunch of white people
waiting in line at one of the gates, probably for various consular reasons. I
don’t think I’ve ever actually been inside an embassy. I wondered where the US
embassy was around here. I never come across US embassies when I travel. I saw
the UK embassy in Rome, but that was about the closest I’ve gotten. I decided
that in the future, if I do happen to see a US embassy, I will enter and say, “What’s
up, America?” Yes, that’s what I’ll do. And then they’ll say, “Can I help you?”
and I will respond, “No thanks. I just wanted to say hi to America. Hi!” and
then I will leave.
After passing the embassy, I continued onward down the same street,
toward what turned out to be Roppongi, the neighborhood where the foreigners go
to party. This means I was probably not going to be too enthralled by it. I
did, however, see some sort of shuttle coaster-type ride on the top of a
building. Think half-pipe style. It wasn’t working, though. I would later learn
that after building it they decided it would be too noisy and then never opened
it. Bastards.
 |
| Ride on top of a building. |
After the crowds started building up a bit, I sought shelter in my
beloved subway system and headed toward my next destination, the Meiji-Jingu
Shrine. This was definitely a more tourist-filled area, but there were also
plenty of Japanese people as well. To get to the shrine, after passing beneath
a large wooden gate (I thought of the entrance to Jurassic Park for some
reason, but no doors), I had to walk down a large and long, tree-shaded path.
Although the path was as wide as, say, a good-sized road, the gorgeous canopy
of deciduous trees managed to stretch over nearly the entire path. This pale
sun-avoider was a happy guy.
 |
| Pretty shaded path |
Along the way I passed large collections of barrels of sake and a bunch
of different types of French wine. They were offerings to the enshrined deities
of Emperor Meiji and his Empress. I’ll spring for a bunch of alcohol in my
afterlife as well, but I’ll have them poor it straight in the coffin. None of
this “displaying for all to see” shit.
 |
| French Wines |
When I reached the shrine, I decided it was nice, but it wasn’t as cool
as the other temples I had seen here. Definitely not what I expected after the
long walk. But hey, it’s an essential stop in the tour of Tokyo. I trudged back
to the subway station and decided to head back in the direction of the hotel. I
was meeting my friend Collin later that evening at Ueno station, which isn’t so
far from the station by my hotel.
I stopped first in Akihabara, because I hadn’t gotten a chance to fully
admire all of the color and electricity last night while I was enjoying
MaiDreamin. I walked around a bit, and in addition to the maid-type of girls
that stood outside, there were dozens of other girls dressed up in a myriad of
outfits, all trying to entice passersby to who-knows-what. Like my maid
experience. Most of them were just cute, not sexy. Ok, some of them were kind
of sexy.
 |
| Akihabara |
I stopped to grab a hotdog from this place that had a menu with 100
differently prepared hot dogs. I wished I could’ve stayed there and ordered hot
dog after hot dog on the menu, but I just got their main specialty dog. I also
failed majorly to take a picture of the giant happy hot dog figure out front.
Curse my stomach for distracting my documentation!
I went back to the hotel to check Facebook and make sure I knew exactly
where to meet Collin, though it would turn out that I would fail at properly
doing so anyway. Reason number 693473 why I need to acquire a smart phone. But that would make life too easy, now, wouldn't it? When it came time to meet up, we were in totally different
areas of the station. Eventually we met outside the Hard Rock Café, in the
station. I had been confused, because I had just seen the big Hard Rock earlier
in Roppongi, and I didn’t realize they would have a little one in a train
station. Boom, wrong again.
Collin and I know each other only from an extremely brief period when I
experimented with club gymnastics for a week. I was looking for a way to
practice and learn some aerial tricks that I would then incorporate into
parkour/free-running adventures. At this point, I’m still too chicken to try a
flip off of a raised platform that’s not into a swimming pool, even though I
know I can get all the way around and not land on my head. But, well, the fear
exists. I obviously didn’t spend enough time with the gymnastics. But anyway,
Collin teaches English in Japan, and, as fellow expats, we’ve followed each
other’s international lives via Facebook. He was going to take the next day off
of work in order to hang out with me, for which I was grateful. Traveling alone
has its perks, but it really is nice to see other people you know.
We ended up back in Roppongi, and now that it was nighttime, the
drunkards were out in full force. By this time it was about midnight and we
were starving. I followed Collin as he combed the streets, looking for
something that we both might like. The big issue about Roppongi is that it is
filled with a bunch of African men that all try to talk you into going into
their club and seeing the girls. We got a lot of, “Hey, you guys wanna see some
titties? I know you wanna see some titties!” They all try really hard to get
buddy-buddy with you, many of them leading with a handshake. I learned to avoid
the handshake, because it would make me feel obligated to listen to the guy as
he advertised his great “deal.” Some of the guys would grab our shoulders, and
Collin got to the point where he had to rudely tell the guys, “Don’t touch me!”
in Japanese. I response in Japanese to these guys would usually shut them up because
it showed that we weren’t just dumb foreigners who could be conned into a good
time. Of course, part of me kind of wanted to see what these strip (or
whatever) clubs might have inside, but I had read somewhere that a Japanese
strip club is just like any American strip club, which didn’t appeal to me. I’d
prefer something cute and fun like MaiDreamin again. It’s amazing though, how a place like
this could turn someone racist. It was only black guys who would accost us on
the sidewalks. Apparently the Japanese are so polite that you’d never find one
out with that behavior. Even the girls outside in Akihabara were never forward
about things, they’d never forcefully approach you, and often they seemed too shy
to even hand out their flyers unless you physically approached to take one.
We eventually arrived at a shabu-shabu restaurant that happened to have
an all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink special. My kind of place! Shabu-shabu
is a cook-at-your-table type of meal, where they provide a pot of broth that
you then boil at your table, and then you add your meat and veggies and
whatever ingredients you want to it. Then you dip the cooked pieces in some
sauce and enjoy. Shabu-shabu is actually onomatopoeia that refers to the sound
that the cooking meat makes. Collin explained to me about much of the super
cute double-word onomatopoeia that appears in this language. Again, this country and language are just a big barrel of cuteness. Even when you
answer the phone, you say, “Moshi-moshi,” which is much cuter than hello. We also
ordered down the list of drinks off the drinks menu, going through several
different kinds of makkuli (a Korean rice wine drink). We never made it past
the makkuli on that menu.
Collin’s love of Japan and the Japanese is obvious, and frankly, it
only helped to further ruin Russia for me, because the rude Russian attitude
had started getting really old, really fast. I mean, I’ve got some great
Russian friends, and I’ve met a lot of really nice people, but you have to work
hard to get to the point where they become nice to you. It’s hard to find
someone who’s just nice because it’s the proper thing to do around strangers.
The Japanese culture is so concerned with politeness, and I have yet to see
anything bad about it. Even coming off a crowded subway train, a man
accidentally stepped on the edge of my foot, and he found it necessary to stop
rushing along with the crowd and apologize profusely to me. All I could do was
smile and bow my head and say, “Don’t worry about it,” in English. Another
thing I noticed is the ease with which Collin has already grasped much of the
Japanese language. I had been working hard to learn Russian for awhile, and
then I stopped during my school in Tyumen, surrounded by other English-speaking
employees, and I never really started up again. A big issue for me is practice.
It’s hard to practice the Russian with other Russians, because they aren’t very
receptive to someone who doesn’t have a good grasp of the language. As a matter
of fact, I’ve been met with ridicule from some strangers when I try to say
something and it’s not right. And their usual assumption is that I’m just not
very smart. And I HATE it when people treat me like I’m dumb. This all makes me
less enthusiastic to practice speaking Russian in public. I see Collin, though,
who is willing to talk to any strangers, asking for directions, or anything
like that. And these people are all so friendly and positively responsive to
him. I think it has inspired me to get serious about my Russian again, although
I don’t know how much longer I’ll be in Russia. I have at least one more shift,
then hopefully my promotion, after which I’ll probably request a transfer; just
because I need some new work experiences (Russian land drilling is dead-end
work if you want to move up at all in the company).
 |
| Shabu-Shabu |
After a long meal of stuffing ourselves, slowly getting drunk, splashing
orange broth on my white polo, and talking up Japan while simultaneously
bashing Russia, the restaurant decided it was about time to close. So we
settled up and went back out on the street to more overly drunk foreigners and
more guys asking us about our preference for titties. Since it was well into
the wee morning hours, we decided to at least check out some of the actual
nightlife of this neighborhood. We came across a couple of clubs with a
significant crowd loitering about outside. One of them was called Jumanji 55
and had a statue of Predator out front. Just for that non-sensical-ness (and
maybe for the fact that there was some pretty good-looking women going in and
out, I decided we should try this place. Unfortunately, they were IDing people,
which is not a common occurrence here, because Collin didn’t even bring an ID
with him, so alas, we couldn’t see what wonders awaited us in Jumanji 55. We
were, however, allowed into the next door club New Planet, which gave two
complimentary drinks with the cover charge.
New Planet was quite small, and it was too loud to really have a
conversation, so we grabbed some drinks and just stood watching all the silly
people inside. There were a bunch of skinny European guys, some with haircuts
that reminded me of Anthony Michael Hall in The Breakfast Club, many of whom were trying to dance and get with other girls
who were trying to dance alone. I wasn’t quite drunk enough to go attempt some
dancing. Not tonight, at least.
After we had had our fill of beverages (in the form of Long Islands,
just to make it count) and we’d hung around long enough to feel quite tired
(around 4 AM), we decided it was time to get some sleep. We hailed a cab and
took it back to Collin’s friend’s apartment in Azabu, where we were going to
stay the night. (My hotel didn’t allow “guests,” nor would there really be any
space in that tiny room for another body.) Azabu is one of the most expensive
places to live in Tokyo, and Collin’s friend apparently lives there just to say
he lives there, despite having a tiny apartment. I guess they can be pretty
status-oriented here. After getting dropped off by the cab, we happened to see
a guy passed out in the street. Like, he was near the sidewalk, but not nearly
close enough to be out of harm’s way from a driver that’s not paying close
enough attention. Collin started shaking the guy, trying to wake him up,
saying, “Excuse Me,” and, “Good Morning,” among other things to try and get
this guy up. The guy finally sat up, before his head drooped forward into his
arms. Collin was about ready to have me help carry this guy onto the sidewalk,
when a policewoman on a bike rode up and asked if we had called them. No we
hadn’t, but somebody had at least seen the guy and called it in. We were happy
to be relieved by the nice officer lady and we went on our merry drunken way to
the apartment where I promptly passed out on the floor.
We woke up groggily a few hours later so as not to overstay our
welcome. Collin was hung-over, but I didn’t feel all that badly. I did stuff
myself with shabu-shabu, so that might have contributed to my better condition.
We journeyed back to my hotel, where I was able to change out of my
shabu-shabu-stained white polo into another shirt and some shorts for the long
day ahead. Today, we’ll be meeting up
with Collin’s Chinese friend, 宋志恒
(That’s how it’s spelled on Facebook. I don’t know any Chinese characters.),
and we’ll go to Kamakura and Yokohama.
We’re meeting 宋志恒 in one of the train stations on the way there, and it turns out to be even
harder to meet up with him than it was for me and Collin last night. “Look for
an Asian!” Collin says. Oh yeah, that won’t be too difficult here…. We
eventually find him and then we hop on the next train to Kamakura. Kamakura is
right on the beach, and it gives me a chance to catch my first glimpse of the
Pacific from the western side. Again, the weather isn’t very cooperative today,
and it’s not a very good day to be going to the beach. But why should the
weather ever slow us down! No sir, through rain or sleet or the dark of night,
we shall see the sites! But first, let’s eat. So we went to an Italian
restaurant. The Japanese are a proud culture culinary-wise, like the French, so
you can always count on the food to be presented well and for them to not
totally fuck up foods of other cultures. And sure enough, the Italian food is
delectable. There’s a huge group of rowdy school children packing most of the
restaurant, and of course they’re staring at us. Again, it must be because I’m
cute. Collin says it's unusual to see a class of kids as rowdy as this one. Japanese children are usually much better behaved. An older couple at the table next to us is impressed by Collin’s Japanese
when he orders food. I’m quite jealous of these skills, but I just hope that if
foreign friends ever visit me in Russia, I’ll be able to look like I know what
I’m doing when ordering food. If only the waitresses would ever actually listen
to me when I order…
After a lovely meal, we head down to the beach to play and maybe go
swimming. The sand is an ugly dark gray color, and again, the color of the sky
isn’t helping, but we decide to make the best of it and have a good time
anyway. The water’s actually kind of warm, but I don’t end up going any more
than knee-deep. Collin shows us up with some gymnastics skills, doing a few
aerials and then a round-off into a back-flip. I do one of my poor man’s
excuses for a front handspring and then fail at several attempts at a hand
stand, afraid to fall on my ass and get covered in this dirty sand, which
doesn’t seem to brush off as easily as other beach sand.
 |
| Yes we do! |
There are a couple families with some little naked kids running around
in the sand. It made me reminisce about my young childhood living in Holland,
where kids could run around naked like this and it wasn’t that big a deal. In
the US, this behavior would be met with disapproval by many onlookers. But it’s
just natural and cute here. No shame in that.
After we’ve had enough of the beach, we head to see Kamakura’s big
Buddha statue, which is the big tourist attraction in this area. Yep, other
white people all around. Oh well. We walk there barefoot, to try and let the
sand naturally brush off our feet, in the end I think it just imbedded itself
into the bottoms of my feet. I put my socks and shoes back on and I think the
soles of my feet were thoroughly exfoliated by residual sand for the rest of the day.
The Buddha was big and beautiful, but it started to rain a little, and
none of us had umbrellas (I left mine at the hotel), so we didn’t stay long. I didn't leave without making a few "Big Booty" jokes, though.What? You've never played the game Big Booty? Shame on you!
 |
| Big Buddha, Big Buddha, Big Buddha! |
We boarded the train back to Yokohama, and we stepped off into a very
sleek, modern city. There was a wild metal sculpture just outside the train
station that reminded me of a roller coaster. In fact looking across the nearby
harbor, there was a small amusement area with a couple roller coasters and a
huge Ferris wheel. I wondered if the roller coasters were open…
 |
| Cool sculpture, yo! |
We rode a long covered moving sidewalk for awhile after the train
station. It made me feel like I was in the Jetsons, where they just ride big
conveyor belts everywhere. But the moving sidewalk did end and we went into a
shopping center. Collin wanted to get his gay on and check out some clothing
deals for a little bit, so I went along with it, refusing to buy anything,
though, because I must refuse materialism that is beyond what my poor backpack
can carry. Then we went to the Pokemon store, where I knew I had to buy a
little merchandise for the proof of authentic Japan!
We left the shopping center and walked gradually toward to the roller
coaster. I started to really hope that it was working today. I haven’t gotten
the chance to really ride roller coasters outside the US, save for my first
ever coaster in Holland, the Kikkerachtbaan in Duinrell. It didn’t seem to be
running, but we went to check out the amusement center anyway (I won’t call it
a park because it wasn’t one). The place was called Yokohama Cosmoworld. The
roller coaster was referred to as the “Diving Coaster: Vanish” because it
dropped down into an underground (possibly underwater?) tunnel, of course
reappearing a couple seconds later nearby. It wasn’t much; just a couple drops
and a helix, but I needed some coasters back in my life. We decided to check
out the other much smaller “Spinning Coaster,” which was a wild mouse style
ride with hair pin turns and cars that could spin freely. Collin has an
aversion to spinning rides, so he sat it out while
宋志恒 and I rode it. It was cute and fun, and by the time it was over, it looked like
Diving Coaster had started working again. So we dashed over to that ride. There
turned out to be shoulder harnesses, despite a lack of inversions. Tisk tisk.
Too constraining methinks. Judging by the track structure, I would have
concluded that this ride was designed by TOGO International, but I wasn’t sure,
after dealing with the unnecessary shoulder harnesses. It turns out to be a
product of Senyo Kogyo Company, which I’ve never heard of. Sure enough, it’s
not too crazy. But it’s just enough to pump me up for the rest of the day and also give my feet a rest. It turns out my feet are really starting to bother me from some new shoes I had
bought before this trip. Apparently they do not provide good walking support.
Damn.
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| Vanish! |
Suddenly, Collin and
宋志恒 become really excited about something in the arcade section of Cosmoworld. I wasn't sure what, so I just followed along. We made our way into an area with a
bunch of photo booths, all covered with pictures of different models. Collin
picked one and shouted to get in. Ok, so it was a silly photo booth. Big deal….
After doing a bunch of silly, quirky pictures, we weren't done yet, though.
There’s a big photo editing process where you can add a bunch of other items to
your picture, draw things in it, customize them personally to your liking.
Anybody remember Gameboy Camera? It came out sometime in the late 1990’s and
featured the ability to add a bunch of cute silly things to pictures that you
took of people. I realized that that was an entirely Japanese thing. They LOVE
this stuff. It’s called Purikura and it’s an essential Japanese activity. It’s
also another cute name, because it makes me picture a purring kitten whenever I
see the word. After Collin and
宋志恒 had thoroughly flamboyant-ized our already-questionable photos, we printed them
and left.
 |
| One of the lesser-edited pictures. |
It was dinner time, and we headed to Yokohama’s Chinatown, since we had
a real Chinese guy with us to talk to the restaurateurs and possibly snag a
good deal, or at least pick out a tasty option. There were a lot of people
outside advertising their restaurants, and we eventually picked one that gave us an
all-you-can-eat and a drink bar option. And this was the most authentic Chinese
food I had ever eaten. I find that I actually enjoy Americanized Chinese food a
lot better. This stuff has an awkward smell and kind of a bland taste. But the
Chinese don’t miss too many body parts. I found myself eating pig’s ears and
chicken’s feet, among other things.
宋志恒 ate so excitedly, whereas Collin and I were like, “Ok, this is weird, but
whatever.” Ear wasn't that great; just really cartilaginous, as one would
expect ear to be. But we ate and ate and I could barely finish everything that
was brought to the table. It was still a worthwhile meal.
Alas, we had reached the end of our Japanese adventure. Collin had to
work in the morning and had a lengthy train ride to get back to his apartment
outside Tokyo. I had originally thought that, it being Friday night, I would go
out and party until the morning again, but maybe the food had done me in and I
was just ready to sleep. I hated to be a Friday night party pooper, but I was
travelling tomorrow, after all. So I should get some sleep. We boarded the same
train together, and then
宋志恒 left, and soon I left. Despite all that I know I didn’t get to do, this had
been a very complete visit to at least the Tokyo Metro Area.
I arrived back at my solitary confinement hotel room and laid back,
relaxed, and slept thoroughly until morning. Next stop, Taipei!
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