Japan
We made it to Tokyo! I know we haven’t finished writing about Thailand yet, but here’s a quick update on Tokyo anyways.
So, our flight from Chiang Mai to Bangkok was cancelled and we were moved to a later flight, which was a probleme because we had to get to another flight from Chiang Mai to Kuala Lumpur and then from there to Tokyo. We were only going to have an hour to connect in Bangkok—pretty tight for an international connection! But, Air Asia was fantastic. They got us our luggage immediately, right at the gate, and then walked us over to the Malaysia Airlines gate to check us in, and everything was fine. A little stressful though!
These flights were fine—mainly sleeping—and we arrived in Tokyo yesterday morning (Tuesday) at 7am. After a little mishap with the trains, we got ourselves straightened out with the very kind help of a Japanese man who was on his way to….Massachusetts! We finally got ourselves over to our hotel, and were able to check in early, a godsend, since we were both disgustingly dirty after a night in airports and flying across Asia. We’re staying in a tiny studio/short term apartment, and it’s great—we have a kitchen, a washer/dryer, and the usual combination of insanely high tech Japanese toilets, showers, etc. We hung out here for a bit and got settled, and then wandered off to find some lunch. We ended up in a noddle joint that looked good, but we dicovered the menu was entirely in Kanji, which is the script Dave can’t read. We stared at it for awhile, trying to figure out what to do and laughing a little because we were so lost. There was an elderly man sitting next to us and he leaned over and told us he spoke English and offered to help. He ordered us some soba with tempura, and we got into a conversation with him. It turned out he had lived in the US in the 50s in Chicago and San Francisco, he had been to Boston, and he had fought in WWII on the side of the Japanese. He had had a very lucky life—he told us he just missed being on a plane that crashed, and that almost all the men in his unit had died in the war, but his ancestors had protected him. It was an incredibly neat conversation—amazing to meet a man who fought against us as a young man, and now at the end of his life was talking to two Americans visiting his country.
Next we poked around a bit, got some coffee and came back to rest a bit. We headed back out. We’re staying in Shinjuku, a neighborhood similar to Columbus Circle, and we decided to walk through Harajuku and Shibuya (super hipster neighborhoods) for dinner and sight seeing. We wandered through bookstores, eyeglass frame shops, fancy department stores, and some residential areas, until we finally found the place we’d picked for dinner, tucked away on a small street. After confirming they had a menu in English (again, the main menu was in Kanji) we were seated. They gave us a Japanese menu and we didn’t know what to do! There was no way to order so we were just trying to figure out how to leave politely when they showed up with the English menu. We ordered grilled beef, grilled tomato, grilled pumpkin, and a rice ball with miso. We also got a really neat little amuse bouche with tiny shrimps, some kind of fish, and a cucumber salad. While we were eating this, I (Suzanne) managed to completely fumble my chopsticks and flip one out of my hand so that it fell down the stairs! (We were on a little second floor area next to the steps.) I was SO embarassed. Luckily it didn’t seem to phase the wait staff, or they were polite enough to not tell me that I had just created an international incident. We had an amazing meal and then headed home to collapse. On the walk home, we suffered another mishap—I (Suzanne) felt my foot hit something, looked down, and discovered I had just kicked a huge toad! I admit it, I screamed. Luckily the toad was fine! We stopped at a convenience store for some ice cream and breakfast for today. The night ended pretty early as we both were worn out from the overnight flight.
