It’s Like Riding a Bike

This is the first of around 7 entries from my trip to Japan back in January.

Friday, January 5th

The day started off less than stellar. Dad was feeling sick at the last minute so Jenna had to take me to the airport instead. Still made my flight with plenty of time to spare, fortunately. The 11-hour leg of the trip was pretty awful, as I had expected. But the worst part of my traveling day was definitely the San Francisco airport. I don’t know if they’re under construction or what, but getting to the international terminal required going out an “Employees Only” exit, taking a bus ride across the tarmac, walking below the terminal, and then riding a freight elevator up. It was a mess! For a while I suspected that I was being guided about in some sort of strange Lemmings-esque psychological experiment. They were nearly finished boarding when I finally got to my gate.

I met Nat & Adam at the airport and picked up my rental keitai. While waiting they had found a kiosk with a much better deal than the one I found online—just 500¥/day plus some almost negligible amount per minute/packet for voice/email. That may sound pricey, but the convenience of having that lifeline was absolutely worth it.

We stopped in Ikebukuro on the way to their place from the airport to start things off right with some drinks. Nat went Japanese and ordered some fried noses (actually chicken cartilage I think) on the side. I could already tell I was going to really enjoy this trip. When we got back it was decently late already so we watched part of The Shining on TV and then hit the sack.

I slept quite peacefully in the Buddhist room with Nat’s ancestors watching me all night.

Saturday, January 6th

Adam and I went to Ikebukuro, a fun neighborhood not too far away from Hidaka. We walked around and hit up a Bic Camera and a game center, so that Adam could show me the latest crazy arcade games. The most impressive was probably the Gundam game with “pods”. Four players each sit in a little pod that completely surrounds them with screens, and they compete against (or possibly team up with?) each other in the same game. They were competing in a sort of tournament when we were there. I thought the most interesting aspect was the additional monitor on the outside for spectators to watch the battle.

Nat met up with us after she got off work, and together we went to Namja Town. Namja Town is a sort of tiny indoor amusement park. There’s lots of stuff crammed into a pretty small space, so there’s quite a bit to do, especially for kids. We went chiefly for the food vendors, which were also quite concentrated. There was an area full of ice cream stands, an area just for gyoza, and an area with crepes (and some other assorted desserts). We hit the ice cream part first, and after surveying the absurd collection of available novelty flavors, I decided to use the chance to try beer ice cream. It was… well it did taste like beer, but it had kind of a nasty aftertaste. And it made my breath smell like I’d been drinking heavily. So I crossed that one off my list of things to do once and only once in my lifetime, and we proceeded to the gyoza area. There Nat and I split a sort of small variety plate, all of which were quite tasty.

I should note that while Namja Town certainly has more gyoza vendors packed into a small area than anywhere else I’ve seen, you definitely pay for the convenience. The food there isn’t cheap, especially if you factor in the cost of entrance to the place. Wander into Namja Town on an empty stomach and you might find yourself wandering out with an empty wallet. Instead, I recommend doing what we did: hit up a Matsuya beforehand.

After the gyoza we made our way to the crepes. Somehow we resisted the permeating saccharine scent there and made it out without eating any, but man did they look good.

After Namja Town we decided to kill a little time while we waited for happy hour to roll around at one of Adam’s favorite bars. So we went to a manga kissa, (a.k.a. manga cafe or cyber cafe depending who you ask). It was not at all what I had expected! For one thing, it was a lot more like a library than a cafe—a library with PCs in cubicles and free drinks. Being stuck in the cubicle sort of killed it for me, probably because I was still riding my just-got-to-Japan high. Plus, silent reading has never been a favorite pastime of mine. Still, I could see how they would be great for manga fans.

Finally we went to the Hub, a pseudo-English pub. Their happy hour special was half price cocktails, which were significantly better than the cocktails I’d had at other Japanese bars and izakayas (izakayas being somewhat notorious for watered down nomihoudais in my opinion). We also got a salty snack in the form of seasoned, fried spaghetti, which was good. I can see why Adam likes that place.

When we got back, we met Nat’s mom at the station and went out to a ramen place for supper. And lucky me, I got the special bowl that meant I won a free one! あたりました！ That evening we rented Japanese horror film Ju-on 2. It’s apparently from the same series as The Grudge, though I haven’t seen that so I can’t offer a comparison. It was pretty good, in spite of not understanding half of it. And that was pretty much that!