OK, I have a HO-LOTA stuff to tell but I am short on time so we will see how far we get...
I am still suffering from a slight hangover from last night which also does not help with the writing process. Also, this keyboard is pissin' me off. You have to press down really hard on each key like an old typewriter which takes away from the fun of typing when you are doing "stream of conscious" typing. Ok, shut-up already, Rachel, and get on with it...
Yesterday was my other day off. Meredith also had the day off so we decided to go exploring. Our INTENTIONS were to go to the Emperial Palace but things never turn out as I plan so we ended up in Ebisu wandering the streets on a wild goose chase for a Mexican restaurant called La Casalitas. Mexican restaurants are hard to come by here so we researched this stuff on the internet in Shinjuku before setting off to find it. OUr plan was to find Mexican, then go to the Palace. Well, HOURS later, after MANY wrong directions from several Japanese people, we stumbled upon the joint. We were ELATED...and STARVING. I was really looking forward to a big basket of chips and salsa.
HI, can we get chips and salsa to start?
We don't have salsa.
WHAT? That's like a Japanese restaurant not having rice. OK, fine. Can we get guacamole then?
Sure.
I like guacamole so I am down but not out. Five minutes later the guy comes back with our SIX CHIPS and guacamole. I am not kidding. Meredith had 3 chips and I had the other 3 chips. Don't cry for me yet...you haven't seen the bill...
OK, after this generous serving of 3 chips and guac, I still manage to have room left in my belly for a cheese taco. The guy came back with a soft taco shell with a square of half-melted cheese lying in the middle. Where is the lettuce, tomato, and sour cream, you ask? Hiding out with the salsa, perhaps? Meredith had a cheese enchilada which brought our bill total to a whopping...$28 BUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SIX CHIPS, A SQUIRT OF GUAC, A SQUARE OF CHEESE, A SOFT TACO SHELL, AND AN ENCHILADA...TWENTY EIGHT BUCKS!!! If ever I had the inkling to dine-and-dash, THIS was the time. But I didn't, we just picked our chins off the ground, paid the bill, and then bitched about it all the way home. To add insult to injury, we missed seeing the Emperial Palace for that "feast." Afterwards, we walked around Ebisu, it was a very cool place with all kinds of interesting shops and the streets felt like you were in Europe. After shopping, we decided to head back home and change and head out for a night on the town. That ended up being quite an eventful evening. We went to Ropongi which is known for having a big gaijen population. It took some tricky train and subway hopping, but we found it. Then the big challenge became "Where do people go?" Most clubs are underground so you never know what kind of place you are going into. I told Meredith that we will probably end up going down into some whore hole and have no clue until it is too late. After walking down the block, we found the Hard Rock Cafe of Tokyo. That place was HOPPING. There was no place for us to sit at the bar so we ordered our drinks and stood there for a few minutes when all of a sudden, all the employees started going nuts and the music cranked way-up and one girl jumped up on the stairway banister and started blowing away on her whistle and all the employees started doing some crazy, funky dance and she was the ring leader just going to town on the banister. They played snippets of songs like YMCA while all the wait-staff did their dance and clapped and sang and got groovy. That girl really gave that banister a workout and she never fell! That place was a lot of fun but we had no place to sit and drinks were almost $10 so we had one drink and decided to find a dance club.
The next place we went to was underground and not that hopping. One minute after arriving, we were spotted by a drunk and friendly Japanese man in a cheap suit. His pants were about an inch or two too short. And did I mention that he was missing every other tooth? And the ones he still had were all gold? Yes, that lovely man who attempted to speak very broken English offered to buy us a drink. I declined and eventually he went away. Meredith snapped at me saying that I should let him buy us a drink since they were $9 a piece. I asked her if she really wanted him to be our best friend for the night. She said we could have just pounded the drink and left. No thanks, I'll buy my own. I told her that there would be plenty more creeps coming out of the woodwork as the night wore on and then SHE could accept the offer and be "beholdin' " to someone. We left that place after one drink and walked across the street to a new bar called "Time Out" (which was also underground). Since that was the grand opening, drinks there were only $3 so we decided to check it out. The place was tiny and had about 6 people in it. I was wanting to leave after one cheap drink but Meredith wanted to pound a few, then leave. That detail is important as you will find later on in the story. Eventually, when Meredith went to the bathroom, the one lonely guy in the bar made his way over to me. He said hello and told me I had beautiful hair and asked where I was from yadda yadda yadda. His name was Kevin and he was originally from Boston. He used to live in Japan a few years ago so i asked him where the good dance clubs were. He said that he was going to a club called Lexington Queens after he had a few drinks and said we could come with him if we wanted to go there. Eventually, he wandered away again and talked to some other girls, then he came back and Meredith did a shot with him and they pounded a few drinks and then we decided to go with him to Lexington Queens. And on that note, I will leave you with a few burning questions...WHO PUKED IN THE CAB? WHAT FAMOUS PERSON DID RACHEL MEET ON THE STREETS OF ROPONGI? Until next time!
Love me
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Letters from Japan: 10/25/02 The Amber Chronicles Part 5
Before I start with this one, just wanted to share a
tidbit of interesting info. I was talking with my
students the day that Amber left. I told them about
her train problem and asked if they had heard what
happened with the trains. They said that they had not
heard any news but usually when the trains are held
up, it is because someone has committed suicide on the
train rails. They said that the Chuo line is called
the Suicide line because that is the railway where
most people kill themselves. Miho said that train
suicide is common, even as common as ONCE A WEEK!
That blew my mind! They said that it is mostly
businessmen who do it. I said, "Why don't they just
drink themselves to death?" (Maybe that missing enzyme
prevents alcohol overdose...) What a violent way to
die. Anyway, just thought I would share that
interesting fact with you...HEY! If I gotta hear about
it, SO DO YOU!
Boy, I really set the mood for THIS e-mail...OK, so
Sunday, I muddle through the day and feel like
crawling in bed when I get home but that was Amber's
last night in Japan so I wanted to take her out. I
wanted to take her to the tempura restaurant that
Kazuko and her hubby took me to. They had excellent
maguro (raw tuna) and yummy shrimp tempura. I called
Kazuko to see if she wanted to meet us there but she
already had plans. She was so cute, she kept
apologizing for not being able to meet us for dinner
and meet Amber. So Am and I decided to go by
ourselves...this was going to be a challenge since the
menu is all Japanese script. So we get to the
restaurant and like many other restaurants, it has a
display window with the different dishes displayed in
it. So, genius that I am, I had the idea of writing
down the kanji of the dish that looked the best. This
way, we could just show it to the waitress and we
would know exactly what we were getting. So we copied
down the kanji of a shrimp tempura dish with miso
soup, rice, maguro, and some other mystery dish. We
showed it to the waitress and all was well...or so it
seemed. The first thing she brought out was a kind of
appetizer that I did NOT recall seeing in the display
window. This THING had the texture of jello. It was
clear jello with "goodies" inside. These "goodies"
appeared to be small tentacles. It looked as if a
baby octopus had been tossed in a blender for 5
seconds, then mixed into this clear, salty jello cube.
This is NOT something you want to see OR taste with a
hangover. But since I pride myself on trying
everything once, I had one bite of this baby octopus
jello cube and had to think about something else to
take my mind off what I had just put in my mouth. I
don't need to tell you that salty baby octopus
tentacle jello cubes are NOT delicious. And to add
insult to injury, when we went to pay our bill, they
CHARGED us for those things! Try disputing a bill
with a non-English speaking person...it ain't goin'
NOWHERE! Amber attempted to argue but quickly learned
that is was like beating a dead Japanese businessman
on the train tracks. We paid and left and decided to
cleanse our palates at BASKIN ROBBINS. AHHHHH, good
old American goodies. Fortunately, even Japanese
Baskin Robbins doesn't carry octopus tentacle ice-cream
(although they DO have RED BEAN ice-cream...what's up
with beans?) Of course Amber had to order THAT flavor.
I am surprised she did not ask for octopus tentacle
cube carry-out. I think she was adopted...
After dinner and wonderful, delightful, delectable,
super-stupendous Baskin Robbins ice-cream, we went
home and watched TV until 11:00pm. We called it an
early night because Amber had to leave the next
morning and I was still sleep-deprived from the night
before. We had to get up at 9:00am, get Amber to the
train station by 10:30 to catch her 2:00pm plane and
get me to work by 1:00pm. The plan sounded simple
enough...
tidbit of interesting info. I was talking with my
students the day that Amber left. I told them about
her train problem and asked if they had heard what
happened with the trains. They said that they had not
heard any news but usually when the trains are held
up, it is because someone has committed suicide on the
train rails. They said that the Chuo line is called
the Suicide line because that is the railway where
most people kill themselves. Miho said that train
suicide is common, even as common as ONCE A WEEK!
That blew my mind! They said that it is mostly
businessmen who do it. I said, "Why don't they just
drink themselves to death?" (Maybe that missing enzyme
prevents alcohol overdose...) What a violent way to
die. Anyway, just thought I would share that
interesting fact with you...HEY! If I gotta hear about
it, SO DO YOU!
Boy, I really set the mood for THIS e-mail...OK, so
Sunday, I muddle through the day and feel like
crawling in bed when I get home but that was Amber's
last night in Japan so I wanted to take her out. I
wanted to take her to the tempura restaurant that
Kazuko and her hubby took me to. They had excellent
maguro (raw tuna) and yummy shrimp tempura. I called
Kazuko to see if she wanted to meet us there but she
already had plans. She was so cute, she kept
apologizing for not being able to meet us for dinner
and meet Amber. So Am and I decided to go by
ourselves...this was going to be a challenge since the
menu is all Japanese script. So we get to the
restaurant and like many other restaurants, it has a
display window with the different dishes displayed in
it. So, genius that I am, I had the idea of writing
down the kanji of the dish that looked the best. This
way, we could just show it to the waitress and we
would know exactly what we were getting. So we copied
down the kanji of a shrimp tempura dish with miso
soup, rice, maguro, and some other mystery dish. We
showed it to the waitress and all was well...or so it
seemed. The first thing she brought out was a kind of
appetizer that I did NOT recall seeing in the display
window. This THING had the texture of jello. It was
clear jello with "goodies" inside. These "goodies"
appeared to be small tentacles. It looked as if a
baby octopus had been tossed in a blender for 5
seconds, then mixed into this clear, salty jello cube.
This is NOT something you want to see OR taste with a
hangover. But since I pride myself on trying
everything once, I had one bite of this baby octopus
jello cube and had to think about something else to
take my mind off what I had just put in my mouth. I
don't need to tell you that salty baby octopus
tentacle jello cubes are NOT delicious. And to add
insult to injury, when we went to pay our bill, they
CHARGED us for those things! Try disputing a bill
with a non-English speaking person...it ain't goin'
NOWHERE! Amber attempted to argue but quickly learned
that is was like beating a dead Japanese businessman
on the train tracks. We paid and left and decided to
cleanse our palates at BASKIN ROBBINS. AHHHHH, good
old American goodies. Fortunately, even Japanese
Baskin Robbins doesn't carry octopus tentacle ice-cream
(although they DO have RED BEAN ice-cream...what's up
with beans?) Of course Amber had to order THAT flavor.
I am surprised she did not ask for octopus tentacle
cube carry-out. I think she was adopted...
After dinner and wonderful, delightful, delectable,
super-stupendous Baskin Robbins ice-cream, we went
home and watched TV until 11:00pm. We called it an
early night because Amber had to leave the next
morning and I was still sleep-deprived from the night
before. We had to get up at 9:00am, get Amber to the
train station by 10:30 to catch her 2:00pm plane and
get me to work by 1:00pm. The plan sounded simple
enough...
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Letters from Japan: 10/24/02 "The Amber Chronicles Part 4"
So Saturday I woke up at 8:30am and got ready for
work. Amber and Meredith (my new roommate) decided to go exploring
together in Shinjuku and Ginza (Lord help'em). At
least I didn't have to worry about Amber getting lost
alone. She ended up getting on the wrong train a few
times but they made it back ok and Amber got to see a
big parade in Ginza with Japanese dancers that she was
really excited about. I got off work at 6:00pm and I
made tentative plans to go out with people from work.
Amber and I had wanted to go out and have a night on
the town but I don't know where the action is around
here. So John (my boss) ended up calling around 8:30
to see if we still wanted to go out. So Am and I got
ready and met him at the Medaimai platform where we
all caught a train to Shebuya. Even for a rainy
night, that city was CRAWLING with partiers. John
took us to a really cool restaurant called "the
Elephant Cafe." It was HUGE and had a few different
levels and some tables that had privacy curtains or
shutters. The place was dimly lit and they played
all kinds of music, from country to Indian-techno.
When the waiter walks you into the restaurant, he
yells something, announcing your arrival, and all the
wait-staff yell something back, welcoming you. John
ordered about 8 appetizers which were all very
different and funky and spicy and scrumptious. We ate
and drank a few pitchers of beer until the place
closed (midnight). At this point, we had to make a
decision of whether or not to race to the train
station and catch the last train to Tobitakyu or just
catch a MILLION DOLLAR cab ride home. Amber's
suggestion was that we just stay out until 4:00am when
the trains started operating again...ahhh, remember
me? the working girl? Yes, the one that has to get up
at 8:30am to work all day??? OK, just thought I should
remind you. We missed the last train so we decided we
might as well check out a dance club. So we went to a
place called "Xanadu." The place wasn't terribly big
but had a decent dance floor and a stage for girls to
get up and shake their thing. We had a few drinks,
then Amber was dying to let loose on the dance floor
so she dragged me out and pretty soon I was tearing it
up. I had one little Japanese guy in front of me who
turned around a couple times and told me to get up on
the stage and dance. I figured he was hitting on me.
Then I saw the guy next to him start dancing with him
and just as I was about to tell the guy that he had
better stop dancing like that with that other guy or
chicks will think he is gay...(remember, I have a
special seat on the train)...Alrighty, then! Soon I
noticed that there were SEVERAL gay guys at the club.
So I had to tease John THOROUGHLY for taking us to a
gay club. It wasn't really a gay club, but I had to
tease him about it anyway (because that is what I do
best). I think I dragged Amber and John out of that
place around 2:00am, I needed SLEEP and SOBRIETY. On
the way to find a taxi, John tricked us into going
into one more bar. This second one was much smaller
and not as happening. He and Am did one shot and I
was able to drag them out 10 minutes later. We caught
a cab that cost $75 by the time we got home. AUGH! I
think we got home a little after 3:00am. Needless to
say, I wasn't feeling too swell for work but at least
I FINALLY was part of Japanese night-life.
OK, that concludes Day 4 (and the early morning of Day
5!) No cliffhangers this time...
Love me
work. Amber and Meredith (my new roommate) decided to go exploring
together in Shinjuku and Ginza (Lord help'em). At
least I didn't have to worry about Amber getting lost
alone. She ended up getting on the wrong train a few
times but they made it back ok and Amber got to see a
big parade in Ginza with Japanese dancers that she was
really excited about. I got off work at 6:00pm and I
made tentative plans to go out with people from work.
Amber and I had wanted to go out and have a night on
the town but I don't know where the action is around
here. So John (my boss) ended up calling around 8:30
to see if we still wanted to go out. So Am and I got
ready and met him at the Medaimai platform where we
all caught a train to Shebuya. Even for a rainy
night, that city was CRAWLING with partiers. John
took us to a really cool restaurant called "the
Elephant Cafe." It was HUGE and had a few different
levels and some tables that had privacy curtains or
shutters. The place was dimly lit and they played
all kinds of music, from country to Indian-techno.
When the waiter walks you into the restaurant, he
yells something, announcing your arrival, and all the
wait-staff yell something back, welcoming you. John
ordered about 8 appetizers which were all very
different and funky and spicy and scrumptious. We ate
and drank a few pitchers of beer until the place
closed (midnight). At this point, we had to make a
decision of whether or not to race to the train
station and catch the last train to Tobitakyu or just
catch a MILLION DOLLAR cab ride home. Amber's
suggestion was that we just stay out until 4:00am when
the trains started operating again...ahhh, remember
me? the working girl? Yes, the one that has to get up
at 8:30am to work all day??? OK, just thought I should
remind you. We missed the last train so we decided we
might as well check out a dance club. So we went to a
place called "Xanadu." The place wasn't terribly big
but had a decent dance floor and a stage for girls to
get up and shake their thing. We had a few drinks,
then Amber was dying to let loose on the dance floor
so she dragged me out and pretty soon I was tearing it
up. I had one little Japanese guy in front of me who
turned around a couple times and told me to get up on
the stage and dance. I figured he was hitting on me.
Then I saw the guy next to him start dancing with him
and just as I was about to tell the guy that he had
better stop dancing like that with that other guy or
chicks will think he is gay...(remember, I have a
special seat on the train)...Alrighty, then! Soon I
noticed that there were SEVERAL gay guys at the club.
So I had to tease John THOROUGHLY for taking us to a
gay club. It wasn't really a gay club, but I had to
tease him about it anyway (because that is what I do
best). I think I dragged Amber and John out of that
place around 2:00am, I needed SLEEP and SOBRIETY. On
the way to find a taxi, John tricked us into going
into one more bar. This second one was much smaller
and not as happening. He and Am did one shot and I
was able to drag them out 10 minutes later. We caught
a cab that cost $75 by the time we got home. AUGH! I
think we got home a little after 3:00am. Needless to
say, I wasn't feeling too swell for work but at least
I FINALLY was part of Japanese night-life.
OK, that concludes Day 4 (and the early morning of Day
5!) No cliffhangers this time...
Love me
Monday, April 18, 2011
Letters from Japan: 10/24/02 "Masaki Leturns!"
Hey Kids,
I was going to feel guilty for spending my last 2 days
off sitting in an internet cafe instead of exploring
my world but it is raining today so that guilt
dissipated (unlike the crappy weather). Before I
continue with Amber's visit, I have to tell you about
Masaki. He is my student with really poor listening
comprehension who told me to have a nice life. Anyway,
I had him yesterday and he wanted to work on his
pronunciation instead of doing a lesson. Japanese
people have a difficult time pronouncing r,s,wh,and th
sounds so I told him that sounds that aren't used in
your language take practice. I wrote on a piece of
paper "tsu" and said that that sound is not used in
the English language so it is difficult for me to
pronounce and I asked him to pronounce it for me. He
looked at me sort of confused so I said, "say tsu" so
he said "tsu" and I tried to imitate him and say "tsu"
and he said "tsu" and I said "tsu" and he said "tsu"
and I said "tsu."(Are you getting the picture?) We
went back and forth, studying each other's
pronounciation intently until I realized that he
hadn't understood me. He thought I was demonstrating
the proper way to pronounce "tsu" in English so HE was
imitating ME while I thought that I was imitating HIM.
So I had a good laugh from that (he never knew why I
was laughing). Then we moved onto "r." We both got
the giggles so bad during this little session that I
didn't know if I could continue. I told him not to
move his tongue when he says "r" (Japanese people move
their tongue like an "l" when they say their r's.) So
he tried to say my name without moving his tongue and
it came out like he had just been thawed out from
Kryo-freeze. We both laughed so hard, it became hard
to even look at each other when he was trying to
imitate me. We would burst out laughing before he
could even get the first sound out. He said, "I will
remember this lesson because it is so funny." At one
point, I let out a big snort which put us both out of
commision for the next several minutes. I wish I had
our lesson a video. That's the kind of stuff I will
miss.
OK onto the Amber Chronicles...
(My favorite student, Masaki)
__________________________________
I was going to feel guilty for spending my last 2 days
off sitting in an internet cafe instead of exploring
my world but it is raining today so that guilt
dissipated (unlike the crappy weather). Before I
continue with Amber's visit, I have to tell you about
Masaki. He is my student with really poor listening
comprehension who told me to have a nice life. Anyway,
I had him yesterday and he wanted to work on his
pronunciation instead of doing a lesson. Japanese
people have a difficult time pronouncing r,s,wh,and th
sounds so I told him that sounds that aren't used in
your language take practice. I wrote on a piece of
paper "tsu" and said that that sound is not used in
the English language so it is difficult for me to
pronounce and I asked him to pronounce it for me. He
looked at me sort of confused so I said, "say tsu" so
he said "tsu" and I tried to imitate him and say "tsu"
and he said "tsu" and I said "tsu" and he said "tsu"
and I said "tsu."(Are you getting the picture?) We
went back and forth, studying each other's
pronounciation intently until I realized that he
hadn't understood me. He thought I was demonstrating
the proper way to pronounce "tsu" in English so HE was
imitating ME while I thought that I was imitating HIM.
So I had a good laugh from that (he never knew why I
was laughing). Then we moved onto "r." We both got
the giggles so bad during this little session that I
didn't know if I could continue. I told him not to
move his tongue when he says "r" (Japanese people move
their tongue like an "l" when they say their r's.) So
he tried to say my name without moving his tongue and
it came out like he had just been thawed out from
Kryo-freeze. We both laughed so hard, it became hard
to even look at each other when he was trying to
imitate me. We would burst out laughing before he
could even get the first sound out. He said, "I will
remember this lesson because it is so funny." At one
point, I let out a big snort which put us both out of
commision for the next several minutes. I wish I had
our lesson a video. That's the kind of stuff I will
miss.
OK onto the Amber Chronicles...
(My favorite student, Masaki)
__________________________________
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Letters from Japan: 10/23/02 "The Amber Chronicles Part 3"
Before I jump into action, I just wanted to clear up a few things...Ellen asked what a potsticker was. It is difficult to explain but it is like a thin, flat noodle stuffed with some kind of mystery meat (they have a lot of that here...mystery meat, that is) and spices. It is really greasy but does not appear to be fried. They have them in the states but only Amber knows where to score some. She is into weird stuff. Also, I wanted to say a quick CONGRATS to Laura who is PREGNANT. I will try to respond to all your e-mails tomorrow on my day off. I DO read them and love to get them but I don't always have time to respond right away. And now, onto the Amber Chronicles...
So there was a knock knock knockin' at the door and I opened it to find a large American with short red curly hair (have you all notice the red theme going on in all my e-mails??? EVERYONE has red hair! Not just the villains (Charlotte). Interesting...Anyway, she seemed a bit shy at first so I began rambling and asking her all sorts of questions and explaining who Amber was and why she was here and how long she would be staying, blah, blah, blah. I asked how she was feeling and she said tired. I told her that we were going out for drinks and asked if she wanted to come (thinking she would say no) but she said sure so she got washed up and we headed out to Chofu to meet my friend Chris (remember THAT red head?) I wanted to go karaoke-ing). I thought it would be fun to sit around and drink and watch drunk businessmen sing. But I was not aware that Japan karaoke is different from American karaoke. Japanese karaoke consists of friends sitting in a private room just singing in front of their own group of friends. THAT SUCKS. I was all ready to laugh myself to tears. So instead we went in search of an izakaya (a bar/restaurant) in Chofu. Since all of the signs are written in Kanji, we had no clue what buildings were izakayas. So Chris ended up stopping a couple on the street to ask them if they knew where any Chofu bars were. They pointed down the street we had just walked down. We ended up going to a place that is literally 10 steps away from my NOVA office. I walk past that place every day when I walk into work. We had a few different kinds of bad sake before we gave up on that idea. But by then, we were sufficiently buzzed and we had to catch the train by midnight or we would have to walk home. So we choked down the rest of the bottle and headed to the station. At the platform, we were accosted by a drunken businessman. He was falling all over the place and saw us looking at him so he started laughing about something and walked over to Chris and wrapped his arms around him and said something and laughed and imitated a sumo wrestler stomping his feet on the ground, then he staggered away...ahhhh...What just happened? Always something interesting...
Friday, Amber and I were PLANNING on catching a train to Hakone (yes, you read that right, HAKONE) but as fate would have it, it was raining...SHOCKER! So we decided to explore Shinjuku. There are TEN huge malls in Shinjuku. But we decided to stop in Chofu on the way because Amber wanted to go the the 100 Yen store (that is the Japanese version of the Dollar Store). The only difference between the two is that the 100 Yen store actually has cool stuff. If you have ever seen a kid at Christmas, you know what my sister looked like in that place. She was going NUTS! "OH, LOOK AT THIS! OH, RACHEL, LOOK AT THIS! OH, LOOK AT THIS! If she had the room in her luggage, she would have cleared out their inventory. I don't know how I got her out of that place, but eventually we walked over to the other side of the station and shopped til we dropped in Parco Department store. Once again..."OH, RACHEL! LOOK AT THIS! OH, LOOK AT THIS!" She said that so many times in this one fancy dress store that the store employee lady started laughing. After a few hours, I was starving so I had to drag Amber away from the kimono she was eye-balling so that I could get something to eat. We went to an Italian restaurant in the mall that overlooked Chofu and had a good lunch (although not very filling). Afterward, we had planned on going home and resting, then going to Shinjuku for a crazy night on the town. But Amber's jet lag started kicking in once we got home so I just rented two movies and cooked my famous nightly dinner (one egg with broccoli, sticky rice, bean sprouts and soy sauce). OH! When we had gotten home, there was a package waiting from me from Michael. He had sent me a big air mattress (along with lots of other goodies). Guess whose air filled that ENTIRE BED. You think blowing up a beach ball is a challenge, try blowing up 50 beach balls. I thought, "He has GOT to be KIDDING me" when I saw the size of the mattress. But I blew on that thing for about an hour, and success was finally mine! Of course, since it is made of some kind of blow-up-able stuff, it was like the world's largest whoopy cushion when you rolled around on it. So at night when we slept, I was not allowed to move for fear of "farting" and waking up my angry-bear sister. (My mom hates when I say "fart"...HI MA!) So after dinner and a movie and reading all the magazines Michael sent, we went to bed. I had to work the next day (Saturday)so a quiet night in was right up my alley. Especially since Saturday night was going to get CRAZY! And I'll tell you all about that TOMORROW!
Love me
So there was a knock knock knockin' at the door and I opened it to find a large American with short red curly hair (have you all notice the red theme going on in all my e-mails??? EVERYONE has red hair! Not just the villains (Charlotte). Interesting...Anyway, she seemed a bit shy at first so I began rambling and asking her all sorts of questions and explaining who Amber was and why she was here and how long she would be staying, blah, blah, blah. I asked how she was feeling and she said tired. I told her that we were going out for drinks and asked if she wanted to come (thinking she would say no) but she said sure so she got washed up and we headed out to Chofu to meet my friend Chris (remember THAT red head?) I wanted to go karaoke-ing). I thought it would be fun to sit around and drink and watch drunk businessmen sing. But I was not aware that Japan karaoke is different from American karaoke. Japanese karaoke consists of friends sitting in a private room just singing in front of their own group of friends. THAT SUCKS. I was all ready to laugh myself to tears. So instead we went in search of an izakaya (a bar/restaurant) in Chofu. Since all of the signs are written in Kanji, we had no clue what buildings were izakayas. So Chris ended up stopping a couple on the street to ask them if they knew where any Chofu bars were. They pointed down the street we had just walked down. We ended up going to a place that is literally 10 steps away from my NOVA office. I walk past that place every day when I walk into work. We had a few different kinds of bad sake before we gave up on that idea. But by then, we were sufficiently buzzed and we had to catch the train by midnight or we would have to walk home. So we choked down the rest of the bottle and headed to the station. At the platform, we were accosted by a drunken businessman. He was falling all over the place and saw us looking at him so he started laughing about something and walked over to Chris and wrapped his arms around him and said something and laughed and imitated a sumo wrestler stomping his feet on the ground, then he staggered away...ahhhh...What just happened? Always something interesting...
Friday, Amber and I were PLANNING on catching a train to Hakone (yes, you read that right, HAKONE) but as fate would have it, it was raining...SHOCKER! So we decided to explore Shinjuku. There are TEN huge malls in Shinjuku. But we decided to stop in Chofu on the way because Amber wanted to go the the 100 Yen store (that is the Japanese version of the Dollar Store). The only difference between the two is that the 100 Yen store actually has cool stuff. If you have ever seen a kid at Christmas, you know what my sister looked like in that place. She was going NUTS! "OH, LOOK AT THIS! OH, RACHEL, LOOK AT THIS! OH, LOOK AT THIS! If she had the room in her luggage, she would have cleared out their inventory. I don't know how I got her out of that place, but eventually we walked over to the other side of the station and shopped til we dropped in Parco Department store. Once again..."OH, RACHEL! LOOK AT THIS! OH, LOOK AT THIS!" She said that so many times in this one fancy dress store that the store employee lady started laughing. After a few hours, I was starving so I had to drag Amber away from the kimono she was eye-balling so that I could get something to eat. We went to an Italian restaurant in the mall that overlooked Chofu and had a good lunch (although not very filling). Afterward, we had planned on going home and resting, then going to Shinjuku for a crazy night on the town. But Amber's jet lag started kicking in once we got home so I just rented two movies and cooked my famous nightly dinner (one egg with broccoli, sticky rice, bean sprouts and soy sauce). OH! When we had gotten home, there was a package waiting from me from Michael. He had sent me a big air mattress (along with lots of other goodies). Guess whose air filled that ENTIRE BED. You think blowing up a beach ball is a challenge, try blowing up 50 beach balls. I thought, "He has GOT to be KIDDING me" when I saw the size of the mattress. But I blew on that thing for about an hour, and success was finally mine! Of course, since it is made of some kind of blow-up-able stuff, it was like the world's largest whoopy cushion when you rolled around on it. So at night when we slept, I was not allowed to move for fear of "farting" and waking up my angry-bear sister. (My mom hates when I say "fart"...HI MA!) So after dinner and a movie and reading all the magazines Michael sent, we went to bed. I had to work the next day (Saturday)so a quiet night in was right up my alley. Especially since Saturday night was going to get CRAZY! And I'll tell you all about that TOMORROW!
Love me
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Letter from Japan: 10/22/01 "The Amber Chronicles Part 2"
Hey Kids,
I am just going to jump right into Day 2...no intros.
Thursday morning Amber had WANTED to wake up at some gawd-awful hour and go to some fish market on the other side of the earth at 4:30am when all the fishermen bring in their catch of the day and all the restaurants flock like pigeons to get a piece of the action. Then all the restaurants serve fresh sushi breakfast with the catch of the day. All this great fun ENDS by 6:00am. As most of you know, I am NOT a morning person...never put it past my sister to come up with ways to torture me within HOURS of arriving. Fortunately, John told us that the trains don't start running until 4:30am and by the time we got there, it would all be over with. PHEW! Dodged THAT bullet. We would have had to get up at 3:00am at the LATEST to start THAT trek. So instead, we went with Plan B...Kamakura. This is the place that Paul and I have planned a million times to go to but always ended up doing something else. So we got up Thursday morning and did some train hopping to Kamakura. On the train ride there, my sister informed me that my fingernails were too long, I was in need of an eyebrow wax, and the zit on my chin was in need of some picking. Yes, it was already beginning to feel like home, even MILES away from the U.S.
When we got to Shinjuku, Amber wanted to get some "potstickers" at a place in the train station which ended up being very yummy. I had never tried them before (most Japanese food is not very tasty so I have not been very adventurous with food experimentation). So I am glad that Amber is such the enthusiast when it comes to trying new things. I finally found something I can eat besides McDonald's. After lunch, we caught the train to Kamakura and rented bikes to ride around the city on. Kamakura has lots of temples and gardens, it was very cool. We saw the big Buddha and went into his belly (that sounds cooler than it was...there was no action in there, nothing to see, no guts or nothin'). Then Amber and I decided to check out the souvenir counter. She wanted to get some postcards to send back home so I decided to check out all the little gadgets while she picked through cards. I saw these little red containers with red tassels attached to the bottom. I decided to have a little peak inside the container thingy and found a little gold Buddha inside. Rachel: "LOOK, AMBER, THERE'S A LITTLE BUDDHA INSIDE!"
Amber: "Where?"
I pried the container open a little more and shook it so that the Buddha was more visible..
Rachel: "SEE?"
Japanese sales lady "NO OPEN!!!"
Everyone turns to look at the stupid American shaking Buddha out of his safety container.
Rachel: "Ok, you about done here, Amber?"
Dumb American retreats to her bike.
From there we decided to find a few other temples (maybe we could find some dumb Americans who were abusing Buddha and point and laugh at them and tell the store clerk).
As we biked along, we kept passing by cute little shops so we decided to stop and check them out. By then, I was in the mood for some ice-cream. We found a soft-serve ice-cream shop but the only flavors were green and purple. I could give you a MILLION guesses and you would NEVER guess what the purple flavor was...no, not grape or berry. That would be too American. But this stuff was selling like hotcakes (mind you, old Japanese woman were the ones licking it up like dogs on a peanut-butter covered nipple). So by the time we made it to the front of the line, I asked what these two delightful flavors might be, because the natives sure where loving it. "green tea and sweet potato." WHAT?! And if THAT did not sound tempting enough, you could get them in a TWIST!!! Before my stomach could even finish turning, my very excited sister was already taking her first lick. She wasn't kidding about trying new things when she got here. She's a good sport like that. And being the good sport that I am, I had one lick of hers, then decided that my initial stomach-turning reaction was justified. YUCK!
Afterward, we jumped on our bikes and headed for the next temple. The next ones were really cool. There were several temples all set in a beautiful garden that had many levels. There were also several ponds with huge goldfish (like huge carp but with white and orange and red coloring. We took lots of pictures. Of course mine all came out fuzzy so I am hoping that Amber has better luck when she gets her pictures developed.
We had to get the bikes back to the bike place by 5:00pm so we headed back after those temples. After we dropped off the bikes, we found another store with potstickers. I wanted to find a place to sit inside of the store, the place was rather big and sometimes those kinds of places have areas where you can sit and enjoy the fresh food you just purchased. I tried to ask the cashier if they had a place to sit and eat. She did not speak English so eventually, there were three cashier ladies gathering around to try to understand me. Finally, I pretended like I was sitting down, I mimed sitting down and they all said "OHHHHHHHHHH!" and giggled and pointed up the steps. So I headed up the steps but found that no such seating area existed. That's when Amber pointed to the bathrooms and said, "They thought you wanted to know where the bathrooms were." They thought I was miming squatting on the toilet. Lovely. That explains the giggling. So we decided to go outside and sit on the bench at the bus stop and have our little goodies.
Afterward, we caught the train back to Tobitakyu. We wanted to freshen up and head back out for the evening. Ten minutes after we got back, there was a knock knock knockin' at the door. My new roommate had arrived. And I will leave you with that cliff hanger because I am already over my time limit...
Love me
I am just going to jump right into Day 2...no intros.
Thursday morning Amber had WANTED to wake up at some gawd-awful hour and go to some fish market on the other side of the earth at 4:30am when all the fishermen bring in their catch of the day and all the restaurants flock like pigeons to get a piece of the action. Then all the restaurants serve fresh sushi breakfast with the catch of the day. All this great fun ENDS by 6:00am. As most of you know, I am NOT a morning person...never put it past my sister to come up with ways to torture me within HOURS of arriving. Fortunately, John told us that the trains don't start running until 4:30am and by the time we got there, it would all be over with. PHEW! Dodged THAT bullet. We would have had to get up at 3:00am at the LATEST to start THAT trek. So instead, we went with Plan B...Kamakura. This is the place that Paul and I have planned a million times to go to but always ended up doing something else. So we got up Thursday morning and did some train hopping to Kamakura. On the train ride there, my sister informed me that my fingernails were too long, I was in need of an eyebrow wax, and the zit on my chin was in need of some picking. Yes, it was already beginning to feel like home, even MILES away from the U.S.
When we got to Shinjuku, Amber wanted to get some "potstickers" at a place in the train station which ended up being very yummy. I had never tried them before (most Japanese food is not very tasty so I have not been very adventurous with food experimentation). So I am glad that Amber is such the enthusiast when it comes to trying new things. I finally found something I can eat besides McDonald's. After lunch, we caught the train to Kamakura and rented bikes to ride around the city on. Kamakura has lots of temples and gardens, it was very cool. We saw the big Buddha and went into his belly (that sounds cooler than it was...there was no action in there, nothing to see, no guts or nothin'). Then Amber and I decided to check out the souvenir counter. She wanted to get some postcards to send back home so I decided to check out all the little gadgets while she picked through cards. I saw these little red containers with red tassels attached to the bottom. I decided to have a little peak inside the container thingy and found a little gold Buddha inside. Rachel: "LOOK, AMBER, THERE'S A LITTLE BUDDHA INSIDE!"
Amber: "Where?"
I pried the container open a little more and shook it so that the Buddha was more visible..
Rachel: "SEE?"
Japanese sales lady "NO OPEN!!!"
Everyone turns to look at the stupid American shaking Buddha out of his safety container.
Rachel: "Ok, you about done here, Amber?"
Dumb American retreats to her bike.
From there we decided to find a few other temples (maybe we could find some dumb Americans who were abusing Buddha and point and laugh at them and tell the store clerk).
As we biked along, we kept passing by cute little shops so we decided to stop and check them out. By then, I was in the mood for some ice-cream. We found a soft-serve ice-cream shop but the only flavors were green and purple. I could give you a MILLION guesses and you would NEVER guess what the purple flavor was...no, not grape or berry. That would be too American. But this stuff was selling like hotcakes (mind you, old Japanese woman were the ones licking it up like dogs on a peanut-butter covered nipple). So by the time we made it to the front of the line, I asked what these two delightful flavors might be, because the natives sure where loving it. "green tea and sweet potato." WHAT?! And if THAT did not sound tempting enough, you could get them in a TWIST!!! Before my stomach could even finish turning, my very excited sister was already taking her first lick. She wasn't kidding about trying new things when she got here. She's a good sport like that. And being the good sport that I am, I had one lick of hers, then decided that my initial stomach-turning reaction was justified. YUCK!
Afterward, we jumped on our bikes and headed for the next temple. The next ones were really cool. There were several temples all set in a beautiful garden that had many levels. There were also several ponds with huge goldfish (like huge carp but with white and orange and red coloring. We took lots of pictures. Of course mine all came out fuzzy so I am hoping that Amber has better luck when she gets her pictures developed.
We had to get the bikes back to the bike place by 5:00pm so we headed back after those temples. After we dropped off the bikes, we found another store with potstickers. I wanted to find a place to sit inside of the store, the place was rather big and sometimes those kinds of places have areas where you can sit and enjoy the fresh food you just purchased. I tried to ask the cashier if they had a place to sit and eat. She did not speak English so eventually, there were three cashier ladies gathering around to try to understand me. Finally, I pretended like I was sitting down, I mimed sitting down and they all said "OHHHHHHHHHH!" and giggled and pointed up the steps. So I headed up the steps but found that no such seating area existed. That's when Amber pointed to the bathrooms and said, "They thought you wanted to know where the bathrooms were." They thought I was miming squatting on the toilet. Lovely. That explains the giggling. So we decided to go outside and sit on the bench at the bus stop and have our little goodies.
Afterward, we caught the train back to Tobitakyu. We wanted to freshen up and head back out for the evening. Ten minutes after we got back, there was a knock knock knockin' at the door. My new roommate had arrived. And I will leave you with that cliff hanger because I am already over my time limit...
Love me
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Letters from Japan: 10/21/02 "The Amber Chronicles 1"
Hey Kids!
Thanks for all your e-mails. It is nice to come to the cafe and find 20 new messages! I am INSPIRED! I took Amber to the train station 10 hours ago. That situation is a whole other story which I will tell in the days to come...I like to tell stories in chronological order...Also, I only have 50 minutes to write so I will have to tell of our adventures in parts..."chapters," if you will.
I managed to get out of my shift on Wednesday so I could pick Amber up from the airport. This time I splurged and coughed up the $30 bucks to take the express train ONE WAY to the station. I got there a half hour before Amber's flight landed and had to wait an additional hour and a half for her to get off the plane and come through customs and all that other crap. After a while, I began wondering if I had missed her coming through the airport and started stressing about how I was going to find her. I had visions in my head of that little Japanese boy in Chofu park screaming bloody murder, "MOOOOOOOOOMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!! MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!" (remember that kid?) I figured if my sister got upset enough about not being able to find me in the airport, she would eventually morph into that screaming little boy... "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACHEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!" She WOULD do it, you know.
Anyway, two hours later, she emerged from the exit thingy and all was well. We bought our ticket for the express train back to Shinjuku and hopped the train without any problems. From Shinjuku to Chofu, Amber got to experience Smashed-Boob syndrome. That was exciting. I always enjoy when others can experience my pain. To hear stories about it is one thing, but to LIVE it is another. She knows I ain't lyin'. The one guy I was sandwiched next to had a HUGE mole that, at first glance, appeared to be a large grayish-brown marble glued to his forehead. When your eyes are inches away from a huge grayish-brown marble mole, it is difficult to avert your eyes so I closed them for most of the ride. This mole had to be hanging on by a THREAD. It was a perfect ball. You'd think his ma woulda taken him to get that thing lanced years ago. But I guess if they don't mind brown, gunky teeth, what the hell is a little gigantic marble mole gonna hurt...
So we finally made it to Tobitakyu and Amber freshened up and then wanted to get some sushi. I tried calling Paul to get him to go with us but his phone wasn't working so we caught the train to Chofu at 9:00pm when he got off work and we asked him if he wanted to go. Paul likes sushi and he knows the good places so I figured he'd be the perfect companion. Amber got to meet many of my fellow co-workers which was also nice. Charlotte was working...remember her???? I introduced Amber to everyone but her so that was nice. From there, Paul took us to a little sushi bar where the sushi rides around on a conveyor belt and you grab stuff off as it goes by you. One plate was COMPLETELY disgusting, I asked Paul what it was and he said something like, "That's the plate of nasties." And he was quite right, it was the nastiest looking plate of "food" I had ever seen. It got nastier when I pointed to the one mushroom on the plate, thinkin! g I actually recognized something. Paul said "That's not a mushroom. That's a fish eye." YUCK! I wish he never told me that because that damn plate circled around on the conveyor belt 20 times, and every time it passed us, that damn eye stared at me. It was like "The Tell Tale Heart," it was driving me insane! That was the most disgusting meal I have had since I have been here, but I think Amber enjoyed the experience so that was good.
After "dinner," I needed to get toilet paper and other bathroom supplies and Paul said that there was a place in Horinochi that was open 24 hours a day and had everything you ever needed. So we caught a train to Horinochi and Amber got to see her first severely drunken man on the platform when we were waiting to switch trains. This guy could not stand in one spot. He would lean too far forward and take two steps forward then lean too far back and have to take two steps back, then 2 steps forward and two steps back. Eventually he found a wall to lean against and that solved the problem for about 5 seconds. Then he attempted to put his cigarette out and throw it in the trash can which had many holes in it for which to dispose of your ciggy. These holes were the size of golf balls and he could not manage to get his cigarette in the golf ball-sized hole. Paul was so amused, at one point he yelled, "That's awesome!" I was so glad that all the horrors that I have written about were happening when Amber was here. It makes for a good bonding experience. And I have some validation. On a funny side note, I was telling one of my students about these drunken episodes I have witnessed and I told him about the one guy who passed out and smashed his head into the toll booth at Chofu station and my student said (with a heavy Japanese accent)..."He enjoyed gravity?" I laughed so hard I almost cried.
So that was our first evening together. The only exciting thing about our trip to the store was that I thought I bought a big thing of toilet paper but when I got home, Amber discovered that it was paper towel...the bright side is it has good absorbency.
OK, I am broke so I am going to try to stay within my one hour limit. Write soon and I will write again tomorrow...the saga continues...
Love Rachel
Thanks for all your e-mails. It is nice to come to the cafe and find 20 new messages! I am INSPIRED! I took Amber to the train station 10 hours ago. That situation is a whole other story which I will tell in the days to come...I like to tell stories in chronological order...Also, I only have 50 minutes to write so I will have to tell of our adventures in parts..."chapters," if you will.
I managed to get out of my shift on Wednesday so I could pick Amber up from the airport. This time I splurged and coughed up the $30 bucks to take the express train ONE WAY to the station. I got there a half hour before Amber's flight landed and had to wait an additional hour and a half for her to get off the plane and come through customs and all that other crap. After a while, I began wondering if I had missed her coming through the airport and started stressing about how I was going to find her. I had visions in my head of that little Japanese boy in Chofu park screaming bloody murder, "MOOOOOOOOOMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!! MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!" (remember that kid?) I figured if my sister got upset enough about not being able to find me in the airport, she would eventually morph into that screaming little boy... "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACHEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!" She WOULD do it, you know.
Anyway, two hours later, she emerged from the exit thingy and all was well. We bought our ticket for the express train back to Shinjuku and hopped the train without any problems. From Shinjuku to Chofu, Amber got to experience Smashed-Boob syndrome. That was exciting. I always enjoy when others can experience my pain. To hear stories about it is one thing, but to LIVE it is another. She knows I ain't lyin'. The one guy I was sandwiched next to had a HUGE mole that, at first glance, appeared to be a large grayish-brown marble glued to his forehead. When your eyes are inches away from a huge grayish-brown marble mole, it is difficult to avert your eyes so I closed them for most of the ride. This mole had to be hanging on by a THREAD. It was a perfect ball. You'd think his ma woulda taken him to get that thing lanced years ago. But I guess if they don't mind brown, gunky teeth, what the hell is a little gigantic marble mole gonna hurt...
So we finally made it to Tobitakyu and Amber freshened up and then wanted to get some sushi. I tried calling Paul to get him to go with us but his phone wasn't working so we caught the train to Chofu at 9:00pm when he got off work and we asked him if he wanted to go. Paul likes sushi and he knows the good places so I figured he'd be the perfect companion. Amber got to meet many of my fellow co-workers which was also nice. Charlotte was working...remember her???? I introduced Amber to everyone but her so that was nice. From there, Paul took us to a little sushi bar where the sushi rides around on a conveyor belt and you grab stuff off as it goes by you. One plate was COMPLETELY disgusting, I asked Paul what it was and he said something like, "That's the plate of nasties." And he was quite right, it was the nastiest looking plate of "food" I had ever seen. It got nastier when I pointed to the one mushroom on the plate, thinkin! g I actually recognized something. Paul said "That's not a mushroom. That's a fish eye." YUCK! I wish he never told me that because that damn plate circled around on the conveyor belt 20 times, and every time it passed us, that damn eye stared at me. It was like "The Tell Tale Heart," it was driving me insane! That was the most disgusting meal I have had since I have been here, but I think Amber enjoyed the experience so that was good.
After "dinner," I needed to get toilet paper and other bathroom supplies and Paul said that there was a place in Horinochi that was open 24 hours a day and had everything you ever needed. So we caught a train to Horinochi and Amber got to see her first severely drunken man on the platform when we were waiting to switch trains. This guy could not stand in one spot. He would lean too far forward and take two steps forward then lean too far back and have to take two steps back, then 2 steps forward and two steps back. Eventually he found a wall to lean against and that solved the problem for about 5 seconds. Then he attempted to put his cigarette out and throw it in the trash can which had many holes in it for which to dispose of your ciggy. These holes were the size of golf balls and he could not manage to get his cigarette in the golf ball-sized hole. Paul was so amused, at one point he yelled, "That's awesome!" I was so glad that all the horrors that I have written about were happening when Amber was here. It makes for a good bonding experience. And I have some validation. On a funny side note, I was telling one of my students about these drunken episodes I have witnessed and I told him about the one guy who passed out and smashed his head into the toll booth at Chofu station and my student said (with a heavy Japanese accent)..."He enjoyed gravity?" I laughed so hard I almost cried.
So that was our first evening together. The only exciting thing about our trip to the store was that I thought I bought a big thing of toilet paper but when I got home, Amber discovered that it was paper towel...the bright side is it has good absorbency.
OK, I am broke so I am going to try to stay within my one hour limit. Write soon and I will write again tomorrow...the saga continues...
Love Rachel
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