This is the story of the Bevan family - 5 Gaijin (Gaijin meaning foreigner in Japanese) and their travels through Japan!
We flew to Tokyo on Thanksgiving day and enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner either American or Japanese style on the plane ( Trevor and Katie opted for Japanese, Bruce & Elizabeth chose American!) We spent our 12 hour flight reading, watching movies, and playing games. The flight went quickly and before we knew it we could see the city lights on the coast of Japan. We landed smoothly, navigated our way through customs and officially entered Japan!
We took a shuttle to our hotel Excel Hotel Tokyu. During check-in Katie and Trevor were waiting on a couch and a little girl who had an Elsa doll kept looking at Katie and then at the doll. Katie was flattered that the little girl thought she looked like her. We got to our rooms and quickly went to sleep. It was only 7:30 pm in Japan, but our bodies still thought it was 3:30 am.
The next day we all woke up around 4:00 am. Katie and Trevor tried to watch TV in Japanese and figure out what was going on. Around 6:00 am we went to breakfast in the hotel's buffet as soon as it opened. There were Christmas decorations and jazzy Christmas songs playing. There was quite a variety of both Japanese and American dishes like miso soup, rice, scrambled eggs with shrimp, croissants, salad, fruit, and many other foods that we didn't know how to identify! We received many gazes toward our table mostly because we are gaijin! It is kinda fun being so different.
We took the shuttle back to the Narita airport to catch a train to Tokyo. I was trying to email our hostess Meg and tell her we were on our way, but the wifi connection was weak in the tunnel and I didn't reliaze that the email did not go through. We were supposed to let her know when we were on our way so that she could be at the station to pick us up. However, 2 hours later we finally reached her by a skype phone call and she came to the station to pick us up.
And here is the north entrance of the Tokyo station were we waited.
Meg soon arrived and we were so happy to see her! She helped us load up into her Honda van and we drove to her apartment. We took the elevator (which holds only 3 people) up to the 4th floor (the view from the stairwell below) and went in. Right in the entrance is a little step where you take off your shoes, which we did and we put our suitcases in the kitchen. Trevor and Bruce soon arrived and helped with the rest of the luggage. Meg then showed us around the apartment and instructed us how to use the lights, tub, the toilet/bidet, the washer and drier (which is one machine), and stove. She showed us on a map several points of interest, made sure we were good and then we were on our own!
Did I mention it was pouring rain today? We were still determined to head off and find the famous Tsujiki fish market where they auction off hundreds of Tuna every morning. By the time we got there it was about one in the afternoon and all the vendors were cleaning up. We wandered around trying to find the building where they sell the tuna and we tried asking a policeman for directions. He looked flustered, all he managed to tell us was that the fish market closed at 11 am for tourists and we could go in at 9 am but not until the middle of January. Hmmm. (The market does close every December due to the high volume of fish sold that month for the holidays - New Year's Eve/Day is BIG here). We wandered around for a while looking at all the sushi shops and vendors of dried and salted fish products. We came across a large map and tried to figure out where the building was where they sold the tuna. It was a little challenging not being able to identify street names or any sense of direction from the map - lol. A nice man who spoke English came up to us and gave us directions not only to the warehouse, but also to a great local sushi restaurant for some much needed food! He was a tuna buyer - his job was to buy the tuna and then turn around and sell it to smaller businesses and individuals for retail. He was hilarious and gave us all a good laugh.
We found the restaurant in an alley and went inside. Everyone was so kind and polite. They took us back to a room with 5 tables and we sat down. Our waitress didn't speak English so we did a lot of pointing and using our Google translator. Luckily, when we ordered our sushi we had a pre-printed paper with all the corresponding numbers of the sushi on the menu, so all we had to do was check the right boxes. Whew. I almost didn't even do that right, I had to double check a couple of times!
Let me just say, the meal was amazing. Truly the freshest, most delicious fish I have ever had! We enjoyed red tuna, fatty tuna, med fatty tuna, albacore tuna, salmon, and sweet shrimp - oishii. Trevor and Katie tried handrolls with cucumber, rice and shrimp. We also had tempura shrimp, white fish, and eel. It was the first time Katie had eel and she liked it! Also, it was her first experience with wasabi and it was like Mater's first experience when he thought wasabi was pistachio ice cream. She did a lot of waving and downed a few glasses of water. All the sushi here comes with a dab of wasabi hidden underneath the fish - lol.
After we finished our lunch we continued our journey back to the Tsukiji market. By the time we got there the gates were closed and no one could go in. So we went down the street to the Tsukiji Hongani Shrine where prayers are said for the fishermen for a safe return. Here is a picture Katie took outside the building. There was a celebrity there and a lot of paparazzi, but we managed to take a few pictures of the building.
We walked down to the Sumidagawa river as the sun set and it was so beautiful.
We headed north to walk to the Ginza district to see it lit at night (similar to NYCs 5th Ave), lots of high end shopping. On our way we saw the Ginza Kabukiza Theater. We will be going to see a show there when we come back with Sarah.
We stopped in a cute little shop to buy a treat and Katie bought gummies that were apple flavored. She opened one and it was like clear liquidy jello and shared it with everyone. Bruce coined it as "apple snot", which kind of ruined it for Katie, thanks dad.
On the weekends the main street is closed to through traffic during the day so we were able to walk down the middle of the street and enjoy the amazing sights. All the large department stores are decorated for Christmas and so beautiful.
We made it back to Meg's house, figured out how to turn on the heat, no small feat, and forced ourselves to stay awake for the next few hours! Believe me, we were all forcing our eyes open at this point. Bruce and I went out again and found a grocery store, it helped me stay awake to keep my feet moving - and my brain trying to figure out what was inside each of those packages I picked up off the shelf. It's a little bit of a challenge buying food you've never seen before so relying solely on looks is not necessarily a guarantee and then not having the staff be able to help you identify what you want either is a little dicey. So we played it safe tonight - we picked ramen - but we're still not really sure what flavor?, bok choi - that one was easy :), pancake mix, butter, orange juice, eggs - also easy :), and I think some thinly sliced beef for the ramen tomorrow night, at least that's what google translator told us it was - lol. We skipped the syrup - over $10 for a small bottle.
We made it up until 9pm tonight - we'll see y'all tomorrow!
