Tokyo So Far

Today is my third evening in Tokyo.  I'm starting to get the hang of things, but it's a tough place to be western and alone.  I have a new appreciation for the effort foreigners make to speak broken English when they visit the US.  It's very difficult to try and speak a language you don't understand, and it's even more difficult in a world where you can't read the signs - can't even sound them out like I could in a place like Germany, France, Spain, etc.  As far as I can tell, 90% of the restaurants here have the same name.  This is also the first time in my life I've been refused service for being a foreigner (at a very small/nondescript yakitori place near Ueno).

I've gotten the hang of the metro system, but that was not an easy learning experience.  First, I bought some tickets, but did not understand you need to put it through the machine on the way in and then again on the way out.  So - first trip I went in without scanning the ticket, then I could not leave.  10 minutes of difficult conversation later, I gave the station agent cash and he opened the gate to let me out.  He showed me what to do next time, despite our language barrier.  Today, I tried to transfer from a Tokyo Metro train to a Tokyo Subway train.  They look very similar on the map, but they have two completely different ticketing systems, so I had to buy a different ticket.

First night - checked in late and headed to Roppongi (Kind of the Division Street / Adams Morgan / Times Square of Japan).  Some people will say don't bother going, but I thought it was fine.  The African touts trying to get you into the hostess bars are a little aggressive (and have a reputation for spiking drinks with ruhypnol to steal your cash)  - but if you can say no to them, there is fun to be had.  I stumbled into a dive bar with English speaking staff and a great set of classic rock CD's that they let you use like a juke box - queuing up requests as they come.  There's only space for about 15 customers at a time as it's physically an old train car  (http://www.trainbar.com/trainbar/home.html)

Dining has been great, both in small street / quick service places, and then in some nicer places.  Yesterday, I had tonkatsu in a place I can't name and probably couldn't find again if I tried near Ueno.  You order the food from a machine and it prints a ticket, which you give to the server and she brings back the food you paid for.  No pix from that one.

Dinner last night was at a Yakitori place called Tori - Suke in Shibuya.  English friendly this time.  The first dish was a freebee on the way in... some tiny dried fish with a mashed root vegetable. Light and fresh, then some Oshinko (pickles) and various parts of the chicken skewered and grilled (yakitori).  The stuffed pepper was particularly great.  Note some of the dishes came with wasabi, while others came with a very strong Chinese style mustard which was great on the liver and gizzards.

Lunch, I took a recommendation from Styleforum.net user impolyt_one and ate at Pizza Strada in Azabujuban.

 Tonight was Chinese New Year, so I went for some Sichuan cuisine at Iron Chef Chen Kenichi's "Szechwan Restaurant" - I'm not sure if that's the exact translation of the Japanese characters, but it was nothing short of amazing.  I had the Mapodofu (even better than Tony Hu's, but if Chen is one of the best Sichuan chefs in the world, so is Tony - as if the people of Chicago didn't already know this).  Also had hot and sour soup and sichuan tan tan noodles.  Both great.

This wonderful couple sat next to me.  They spoke very good English and were happy to converse.  This was their first introduction to the concept of "MA LA" (numbing spicy produced by combining sichuan peppercorns with chili pepper).  We had a good laugh over that, and I told her how beautiful her Kimono is. Apparently it was from a very famous maker, but I cannot remember the name.

Stay tuned for Tokyo part 2!