You can click on "photos"
to get
directly to the photo page.
Tokyo continues to be a culinary feast.
Diane is out doing her thing every day and gets back to the hotel
before we get back from work around 6:30, or so. The routine is
to find out who is going to dinner and then to decide where to
go. This, you may imagine, is not necessarily an easy task given
everyone's likes and dislikes. I figure I'm pretty lucky in that
I eat almost anything.
Diane and I had an evening by ourselves last week and we went to a
sushi place in Belle Vie we have come to favor. Although service
is wonderful all over Japan, it was really noticeable the evening we
were in the sushi place. It was very crowded and just about every
seat at the bar was taken and almost all the tables. There were
five sushi guys (or whatever they are called) behind the U-shaped bar
and three servers for the tables (and they also served the drinks to
people at the bar). We were in there for about 1 1/2 hours and
these servers never stopped moving, even almost running at times.
Always with a smile. Always greeting everyone who enters the
place (not a very big place). As a matter of fact, when you walk
in, everyone, servers and sushi makers, say 'hello', or whatever it is
they are saying in Japanese. Think Waffle House. ;-)
I have long been impressed with the service provided in Japanese
hotels, restaurants, and shops. I think the only place
I have detected some people who aren't very happy to help would be in
the subway and train stations. If you don't speak Japanese they
really don't want to bother with you, although I have also
encountered some nice folks who would try to understand what you are
asking for and try to help.
The entire team (Art, Merle, me, Diane, Jim, Carol) went to eat a
Korean BBQ place that we like. We got a big table with two grills
built in and started to order. Diane and I ordered for our grill
and Carol ordered for the other grill. We pretty much ordered the
same stuff, such as marbled beef, ox tongue, veggies, chicken, but
Carol also ordered some pig's knuckles that she misconstrued as having
some meat on them. They looked like pig's feet and there wasn't
much, if any meat on them.
It was Carol's last night on Tuesday night and we ate at Trader Vic's,
which is a restaurant in the hotel. Before anyone who knows about
Trader Vic's asks me how we could eat at Trader Vic's on an 8000Y
(about $80 at current exchange rates) meal
allowance given that some of us checked it out back in 1999 and decided
that
12,500Y steaks were not for us, let me explain. Tom, a former
colleague,
doesn't give up so easily and I heard that he found out they served
dinner in the bar area (which looked like a restaurant to me given we
were in a paneled room and couldn't even see the bar). It's a
4-course meal for 3700Y, plus drinks. Still pretty pricey by the
time drinks are added in, but not as bad as 12500Y. The ambiance
was great, the service was great, the food was great, the price was
great. We enjoyed the evening.
Merle, Jim, Diane, and I finally got to Moti's Indian Restaurant one
night (the one in Akasaka). Merle's wife, Linda, arrived on
Thursday. We ate at the yakitori and tempura restaurants in the
Belle Vie building on Thursday and Friday. I'm not sure why we
haven't frequented the tempura place more often. It was a great
meal.
The weather was pretty good last week and I was able to walk to work
almost every morning. I really love my routine of walking to work
, stopping at Starbucks for a cappuccino and scone on the way.
Almost every morning I pass this same little boy. He can't be any
older than my 8-year old grandson Richard. This boy is dressed in
shorts, short-sleeve shirt, floppy hat, and has a small backpack on his
back. We meet at just about the same place each morning.
Talk about a routine. You could set your watch by me and this
kid. He just kind of eyes me and keeps going. I say
ohayougozaimasu and he just nods and keeps walking. He wasn't
about to talk to a gaijin.
One morning, Diane was up so she walked with me and got her tea and
scone. We ate in the Starbucks and then she continued on with me
up and over the bridge that connects the two sides of the road. I
go down a staircase in the middle because this is where the road splits
and IBM is in the middle section. She went back to the hotel to
start her day.
Saturday was a nice day. Art, Merle, Linda, Diane, and I went to
Yokohama for the day. I had been there twice before, one of those
times with Diane. It's about an hour from the hotel and has one
of the largest Chinatowns in Asia. As we meandered through the
main street, we checked out some stores, took lots of pictures of the
buildings and gates, and checked out the restaurants for a place to eat
lunch. We decided on a restaurant that offered soup and noodle
dishes,
as well as larger fare if anyone wanted a bigger lunch. They took
us upstairs and gave us a private room at a table with a big lazy
susan. We all ended up having soup and noodles, of which they had
several selections.
After lunch we continued on our walk towards the bay and Port of
Yokohama. Merle, Linda, Diane, and I decided to take a 1-hour
sightseeing trip into the bay. It was on a good sized boat that
had a capacity of 600+ people. Not a great trip, but time to
relax after walking a few hours. Art didn't want to go on the
trip and told us if he wasn't there when we got back, to assume he
headed back to the hotel, which turned out to be the case. We
walked to the end of the park along the bay and then headed inland to
the train station for
the ride back to Akasaka. It was a nice day and a welcome break
from the rain. Because......
It rained on Sunday. It was a miserable day. Not to be
deterred, we decided to head out during a break in the rain and go to
Shibuya because Diane wanted to look for something at the Tokyu Hands
department store. She didn't find what she was looking for (some
kind of necklace), but she spotted a Harley-Davidson shop across the
street. This was a great break since she was planning to hunt
down a Harley shop that sold T-shirts that said 'Tokyo' on them for her
friend Susan. She found the shirt she wanted and saved probably
half a
day next week in looking for a shop.
We got back on Saturday and Sunday to watch the last hour of the sumo
basho that started on July 4. I have come to like to watch sumo
and so has Diane. We even recognize some of them before their
names are announced. There are 6 bashos per year, every other
month starting in January, and they last for 15 days. I have been
to Japan five times and each time I was lucky enough to be here during
a basho. It is televised every day, but ends at 6 PM so I don't
get to see any bouts during the week. Two channels broadcast the
basho and one of them has an English translation from 4-6 PM
There have been some pretty exciting bouts. I know for sure I
will be back at the hotel on next Sunday for the final bouts.
It was a quiet week and weekend. I would have to say that it has
been a week of ANTICIPATION of the arrival of my boyhood friend Frank
on Tuesday, 7/13. He arrived in Japan this past Saturday and we
spoke briefly. He and his wife and son were on their way to
Hokkaido to visit with her parents. Frank and his son will arrive
at the New Otani on Tuesday, and Matsuko will arrive on Sunday, the
day before Diane and I are scheduled to return to Atlanta. As
Frank told me on the phone Saturday, who would have thought that two
kids who came from humble backgrounds in Birchwood Gardens in
Levittown, Long Island would ever meet up for a visit in Tokyo,
Japan 38 years after we graduated from high school. I'm sure no
one would have bet money on that at the
time. What a hoot.
Return to
International
Travelogues
Menu
Return to
Roaming America Main Menu