Wandering Souls

Thursday, May 21, 2009
11:15 AM
Shinkansen:　東京から名古屋

So I guess we had a bit of internet last night at the Narita U City Hotel, but I was far too tired to sit downstairs and hook up to the web. The last 24 hours have been absolutely ridiculous. For one, I can’t believe I’m in Japan. All of the nerves that I had yesterday on the plane are gone now, and now it’s mostly just excitement to explore this amazing place.

After landing, I wandered Narita’s Terminal 1 looking from Hamada-sensei. I guess she didn’t expect me to get off as early as I did. Japan has been screening all incoming passengers for symptoms of the Swine flu, so Narita officials boarded the plane upon landing, checked all of our temperatures, and made sure we weren’t carrying the virus. It was pretty tedious, and I wasn’t able to look outside at all, but I figure an airport is an airport, and it’s probably going to be much of the same.

I found Hamada-sensei eventually, and we sent my luggage to Schwerin-san, attempted to exchange my per-diem cash (we couldn’t, the bank was closed), and boarded a JR train to Narita city. Since we were meeting Kenji’s dad for dinner, I ended up just having enough time to leave my bags in the room and change clothes. We went to an Okinawan restaurant. Basically everything I ate and drank was completely new to me, but it was all really cool. I had sashimi for the first time, and it was definitely the best (and freshest) sushi I’ve ever eaten. The platter actually came out with whole parts of the fish on it. The tail and the head were both displayed. I found that the more beer I drank, the easier it was to try new foods. We had a really delicious noodle dish, a seaweed dish, and some tempura as well. Kenji’s dad ended up purchasing a bottle of shochu, which is like a sweeter, smoother version of soju. Hamada-sensei warned me that if I drank too much, I wouldn’t be able to walk back to the hotel. It didn’t help that I was exhausted from the flight.

Probably the highlight of the night was spending time with the restaurant owner and businessmen who were also eating there. A buncha guys from JAL were all eating and drinking together, and became pretty animated towards the end of the meal. It was a lot of fun. The owner is a skilled shamisen player, and at one point took one down off of the wall and played for everybody in the restaurant. He offered me the taiko drum, and essentially forced me to play with him for two or three songs. I thought I did a pretty crappy job, but apparently the salarymen thought I was pretty skilled.

The whole dinner experience was a really awesome way to start off this trip, and I have a feeling it will be one of the more authentic experiences I have while I’m here in Japan. It’s always more fun to truly EXPERIENCE something, and be part of it than to observe it from afar, or take the stance of an outsider.

Anyway, we got up this morning around 5:30 AM. I’m pretty sure the sun rises earlier in Japan than anywhere in the world. Kinda epitomizes the Japanese work ethic, I guess. I wasn’t tired, since I’m still ridiculously jet lagged. I took a quick shower in our tiny-ass bathroom, then made myself some 御茶 before going downstairs to grab complimentary breakfast. The breakfast at the hotel was definitely better than any free breakfast at hotels in the US. We had eggs, miso soup, fresh fruit, fish, rice, etc. It was pretty filling.

I’m now sitting on the bullet train (しんかんせん) heading from Tokyo to Nagoya. It was pretty incredible how hectic the station was. The other thing that really struck me was how well dressed everybody in Tokyo is. Almost every man is wearing a suit and tie, and the women definitely have style. Anyway, I’m pretty exhausted, and I’m getting tired of writing, so I’m going to run. I’ll probably end up writing another entry tonight, however. Hopefully I can get my hands on some internets. It would be nice to check/update Facebook, e-mail, and get this blog started. Until then, these Word entries posted in cluster fashion will have to do. Peace!