Tokyo '06 - Week 2

Day 8 (Fri, Apr 28)

I was stuck at home today because of confusion the night before. Yoko had asked if I needed her key or if I still had Dai's. I therefore assumed that it was Dai's key that I had used and had returned to the table the night before. Because I had replaced it in the same exact spot, Yoko thought I didn't use her key at all. I spent much of the day playing PSP and relaxing.

Once I confirmed that Dai was going to get off at 6PM I decided to go MacGyver on the deadbolt lock and jury rigged a system using rubber bands, a bamboo skewer and a ball point pen to lock the door from the outside via the mail slot. The system worked flawlessly, allowing me to leave the house locked safely behind me and meet Dai for dinner.

For dinner Dai took me to the best Korean grilled meat place I've ever had. It wasn't fancy and it was pretty cheap, the meat was just great though. We had marinated Beef and Pork, raw liver sashimi, beef tongue and intestine. (If that sounds gross to you, you should try it first.) I was having trouble telling if our androgynous, husky voiced waitress was actually a man, but I finally concluded she was just very butch. After we ate as much as we could and had several beers we left, but still being early, Dai asked if I wanted to go to a pub style place a couple blocks away. The place was closed for a private party, but nearby we come across a place that had 600 yen drinks. Grabbing a table near the back, we ordered some whiskeys as a group of girls came and sat at the table next to us.

The three girls were cute, and when I noticed that they had ordered a small dish of Hershey's kisses I offered them one of the packs of mini Scharffen Berger squares I had brought with me for just this kind of emergency. It turned out that they worked in the planning department at Dell so Dai smoothly encouraged us to all drank together in camaraderie. After Dai and I polished off about six or so whiskeys and we all said our goodbyes and the two of us took the JR to the station near his house. We ate Ramen at a shop next to the station, mine with extra pork, and then caught a taxi home. I managed to escape the evening's drinking with only a pounding headache that woke me up sometime early in the morning, but Dai wasn't so lucky.

Day 9 (Sat, Apr 29)

We got a late start to Yoko's hometown due to our excessive drinking the night before but we knew that the equipment had arrived successfully, so we were looking forward to doing the install. When we got to the station we were picked up by Yoko's mom. Yoko's brother Atsushi and his cute young bride were waiting to see us at back at the house. Dai and I started unpacking the equipment as I marveled at what a great job Yoko had done designing the new house.

Their home was a showcase of Japanese technology, using the latest Toto lavatory units and high end materials. The centrally located living room had a two story ceiling with large south eastern exposed windows and an advanced multi-paned french door with an integrated screen and electric remote controlled vertical blinds. The open ceiling was flanked on three sides by the large windows looking out on the second story deck, the staircase landing and shutters for the Japanese Tatami room upstairs.

A 50" Plasma screen HDTV sat on the low, wide cabinet where we located the Yamaha receiver, front and center channel speakers and powered subwoofer. Yoko had spec'ed out cable pulls through conduit to the reenforced mounting locations on the ceiling behind the living-room couch. Me and Dai used the fish lines in the flex conduits to pull 16 gauge Monster cable to the rear speaker locations. Dai had to go to the hardware store to get screws for the ceiling mounts we bought, since none were included with the mounts and there were none at the house.

Everything went together pretty smoothly, there was lots of cold beer close at hand, Yoko's mom feverishly cleaned up after us and, other than the screws, all the tools and parts we needed were on hand or could be improvised. We finished at about 9PM or so and sat down to dinner, classical music filling the house. Yoko's dad presented me with a fantastic bottle of Shochu in appreciation for our work and we settled down to eat.

There was no way for us to finish all the food, we drank wine, beer and some great sake. I got in a semi heated political discussion with Yoko's dad, I'm pretty sure I pissed him off, but he's a good politician so he forcefully changed the subject and didn't treat me coldly afterwards. After some additional tweaking and cleanup to the system I washed the gypsum dust out of my hair in the most advanced shower and bath system known to humankind. It had a remote panel in the living room that announced, in a woman's voice, when the bath attained the desired temperature.

Japanese baths are unique in that they often have a closed loop heating system that can maintain the water temperature. Everyone shares the same water so you are supposed to be clean before you use the bath. There is typically a complex remote panel located within reach of the tub that has timer and temperature controls. In the bath is a water intake / exhaust port that the computer uses to fill the tub and maintain the temperature. It is important to know what you are doing as uncirculated bath water can develop an inversion layer that causes the hot water to stratify. You can check the surface and think everything is fine only to scald yourself once you step in. Fortunately the Toto system insures forced convection causing even circulation and mixing. This bath was heavily insulated to maintain heat and had an advanced profile with a foot shelf / child seat.

The room itself is different from most western bathrooms in that there is a drain in the floor so you can splash all you want. The hot water systems in Japan are instant as opposed to a western style heated water tank. This system works really well for the most part and tends to be way more efficient than attempting to keep a tank full of hot water while simultaneously draining it and diluting it with cold water.

In this particular case the room itself is actually a complexly controlled environment with it's own separate control panel. In Japan it is still uncommon to have a clothes dryer, and most clothes are designed to drip dry. One thing you will immediately notice in visiting Japan is all the clothes hung outside to dry. With the humidity controlled rooms you can deploy the integrated clothes lines and dry your stuff inside year round. You also don't have to worry about perverts snatching your panties, an unfortunately common occurrence.

The toilets are also super advanced. Located in it's own room in a separate part of the house, this unit had all of the latest features. Heated seat, two different washing systems with heated water and various pulse patterns and power levels. It has a remote control panel with two flush modes and timers to make sure the seat is warm when you get there. Infra red proximity sensors, power lids, mp3 players and activated charcoal forced air induction are all available in the Toto line, and that's just the stuff I understand. There are quite a few diagrams on the website that elude my ability to comprehension.

That night I slept warm and cozy in the upstairs bedroom while Dai and Yoko took the Tatami room. The new house was a vast improvement over the last one in terms of layout and design, it was way warmer too. Next time I'll remember to bring my camera.

Day 10 (Sun, Apr 30)

In the morning Yoko's papa went to play tennis and we were informed that he wanted a smallish tree in the back yard felled. For whatever reason he wanted to leave an 8 foot high stump left standing. He had already ringed the trunk part way, but fortunately he stopped before he hurt somebody. The saw he had was a pathetic, ancient, rusty and dull piece of crap that was only able to cut wood because it was missing a couple teeth. With one foot on a rickety fence and another on a precariously balanced stool, I hacked ineffectively at the tree because the saw kept binding in the kerf. The neighbor took pity on us and came through with a small but shiny pruning saw. I made sure to make a proper wedge cut and hinge so the tree wouldn't fall on her car parked next door. Japanese saws are different than western ones in that they cut on the pull stroke, it actually makes more sense from a bio-mechanical standpoint, but years of muscle learning is hard to fight, and it took me longer to make the cuts than it should have.

Once all the cuts were made we attached a small rope to an upper branch, and with both of us tugging on it, toppled the tree. It fell just where I had hoped and we went about hacking it into more manageable sections with the little saw and some rusty, dull shears. Afterwards we washed up (had I known we were going to play lumberjack I would have waited to take my shower) and picked up Yoko's dad at the tennis courts. We were headed to the cemetery to pay respects to Yoko's grandmother. "The cemetery is very small compared to American ones", Yoko's dad insisted, but it actually sprawled expansively across several acres. The grounds were dominated by an arching cement open air structure several stories high, consisting of row after row of 1 meter square granite or marble shrines. Her grandmother's monument had a Chinese character that her daughter had originally calligraphed, deeply engraved into the fine grained ebony granite by the stonemason. Dai gave it a thorough scrubbing while Yoko arranged the flowers she brought and we each offered incense. They prayed in turn and I, always feeling a little sacrilegious in these situations, paid my respects.

Outside the sun was out, the day was warm and nice, so we slowly strolled around the grounds. The pond system was guarded by a single slumbering Mallard while the small fish tried to keep out of the large fish's notice by keeping to the heavily algae infested shallows.

Yoko's papa knew of a good place for lunch so we piled into the car and headed there. The shop was very local and comfortable, we settled in to a typical Japanese table so I had to sprawl a bit as my legs are not adapted to sitting for long periods on the floor. We had some big cold draft beers and some of the best Saba I've ever had. The food was great, me and Yoko's mom had a pork cutlet with egg over rice, we both have the same taste in food. Everyone else's dishes looked great too. They took us back to the railway station and we waved them goodbye, heading back for Tokyo.

We stopped for a couple hours at a large shopping mall in Omiya Station, leaving our bags in a storage locker so we were unencumbered. I got a mocha at Starbucks. Yoko got their new Banana Frappachino which I thought was way too sweet. There wasn't anything that anyone wanted, so we got our bags and went back home.

Back at the house Dai and Yoko made Hiyashi Chuka (cold Egg noodles with sliced omelette egg, cucumbers and ham) while I sat like a bump on a log, eating shrimp chips and drinking cold Asahi Blue label.

Day 11 (Mon, May 1)

Dai and Yoko worked today, so I decided to practice navigating the Yamanote line. Dressed in my new Edwin jeans I took the subway to the JR junction in Gotanda and caught the train heading towards Ebisu. This line is a big circle that loops around Tokyo. Frankly I think the city of Tokyo is a myth. To refer to it as if it is one place is as silly as filling a bucket full of Jellyfish and claiming you have a single giant one. It's just a bunch of towns really close to each other. If contiguousness is the only factor defining a city, eventually all of Japan will be Tokyo.

Once I made it to the Ebisu station I was happy to see a sign indicating a Starbucks on the second floor. After infuriatingly bouncing between the first and third floors via escalator, stairs and an elevator in search of the mythical second floor. It finally occurred to me that maybe it wasn't inside the building at all and I found it hidden at the top of some stairs on the outside of the station. As I drank my mocha outside in the shade, me and my fellow loiterers were momentarily disturbed by a very well dressed and fairly cute girl explosively spitting a giant mouthful of water from the drinking fountain all over the ground. She daintily dabbed at the corners of her mouth with a handkerchief and walked off as we looked at each other shaking our heads in surprise and bemusement. I made some concentric circles around the station memorizing the area, while doing my best to stay out of the hot sun.

After getting the lay of the land in Ebisu, I hoofed it along the Yamnote line towards Shibuya. Along the way I noticed a long procession of some political party across the tracks from me. Several hundred people were marching along the main boulevard carrying signs, led by and singing along with a microvan festooned with giant loudspeakers belting out music. When the lady inside started singing 'We shall overcome' in a keening, warbly, Karaoke sort of way, I had to shake my head in disbelief. The most poignant civil rights song ever written was being misappropriated by a Japanese political party sniveling because they didn't win dominance in the recent Diet elections. I mean seriously, how culturally insensitive can you get?

In Shibuya I visited the department stores, and looked for a nice place to rest from the heat. The giant Starbucks was way too crowded so I went to a less busy area and found a nice Mos burger. The girl who brought me my food gave me an uncomfortably low bow when she served me, causing the two girls sitting at the table next to me to laugh, and me to turn a bit red. Obviously it's dangerous to read anything into people's behavior coming from a different culture, but I wondered what the girl was thinking. Human nature has some fundamental universality, but local customs can make the exceptions very hard to recognize, especially when you don't have the language skills to get the subtle indications necessary to know what someone's intent is. Given that there were several plausible explanations for her behavior and I was in no position to do anything about it anyway, I felt Discretion was the better part of valor. I ate my Spicy Mos burger with fries, drank my Iced tea, washed my hands and, making sure to return the smile she shot me, I left.

As I walked back to the station I got stuck behind a scantily dressed woman with big hair and all sorts of gaudy accessories. She loudly tried to pry the name from the man calling her on her cell phone, while he just as tenaciously put her on the spot to guess who he was. She was too experienced (professional?) to make a potentially wrong guess, although I'm not exactly sure what the guy was trying to achieve, she was steadfastly not going to risk guessing wrong and giving up a potential rival. They kept this up for an extraordinarily long time and I lost interest as neither one was willing to acknowledge the stalemate and the guy seemed pathetically in over his head.

Outside Shibuya station the square was really crowded, there was a stage set up with several hot girls dressed in spandex swimsuits, singing songs and doing cute coordinated dances. I watched a little while, then I made my way through the crowd and found a quiet, shady spot near the bus station. I sat there and watched the streams of Japanese humanity break like waves against the circular aluminum benches that surrounded the trees. As they entered and left the busy station, they passed me on either side. The colorful and the conservative, the young and the old. Some stopped to smoke a cigarette, while others buried their noses in their cell phones. Checking the train schedule? Messaging a friend? I was surrounded by people, but as is often the case in Japan, I felt very detached and alone.

I decided to walk back to Ebisu as the Shibuya station was more complicated and busy than I wanted to deal with at the moment. I also wanted to see some of the shops I had missed while walking on the opposite side of the tracks. In Ebisu I grabbed the JR back to Gotanda and took the bus to the Solid Square building in Kawasaki. At Dai's office building I parked myself at a bench overlooking the fountain pool and waited for him to get off of work. While I was quietly thinking about this and that, I caught someone waiving to me out of the corner of my eye.

The three girls from the other night were tentatively trying to get my attention, no doubt unsure if the stupid looking foreigner was the same one they saw in the flattering darkness of the bar last Friday. I was happy to see them again and one of them was nice enough to sit and speak with me for a while as I waited for Dai. Once Dai got off we walked her to the station where, due to confusion between me and Dai as to who should invite her, she departed for home rather than come along. We called Yoko but she was working late so she told us to go ahead without her. We went to a place Dai had taken me the last time I had visited, an Izakaya near the top of one of the taller buildings.

The place had a nice view and a friendly staff. One of the employees remembered me from the last time I was there, almost a year ago, surprising Dai and myself. I'm not sure why I would make such a lasting impression on anyone, but it was nice to be remembered anyway. Yoko called and asked where I left the key and I suddenly realized that I had locked her out. She was sweet enough to go wait at a local coffee shop as me and Dai hurriedly finished our food and returned home to let her in.

Day 12 (Tue, May 2)

In the morning I noticed that the next door neighbor seemed to be watering a bit longer than usual. It wasn't until I heard the first thunderclaps that I realized that it was raining heavily. Figuring that I was going to be stuck inside for a while I decided to do a little research to find out if there were any Japanese language schools in Kawasaki. My friend was complaining about a problem with his email not getting relayed that I tracked down to a bug in the mail server I had updated, so I fixed that and then wrote a copy of the map to the school I had found. The weather outside was still kind of crappy, but I didn't have to wait too long for the bus.

After grabbing a mocha at the Starbucks across from the bus depot, I found the school located in the entertainment area of town. I climbed the funky stairs to the fifth floor where I found a number of low doors, none of which were marked with anything other than large numerals. One door was propped open, so I poked my head in and saw a little old man crouched behind a tiny desk. He waved me in, asking me in Japanese to have a seat and told me to wait as he called someone who could speak English. We conversed in Japanese while I waited, and after about 10 minutes, the owner (I recognized him from the website) came in and sat down.

Not only could he not speak English, I found his Japanese harder to understand than the old man's. It turned out that the place catered mostly towards Chinese and Korean students, who for the most part were there using 6 month working vacation visa's. They had never applied for a student visa from the government, and seemed very hesitant to have an American student. The place looked very funky anyway, and I suspected was really in business to help the entertainment industry more than anything. I thanked them for their time and left, more than a little disheartened.

After that I decided to explore Kawasaki in the daylight, weaving through the narrow streets of the reddish-light district. I headed through a light rain towards the downtown area, coming across a new outdoor mall called La Cittadella where I stopped in at the Freshness Burger to have a light lunch. There were some small interesting clothing shops outside on the street, so I decided to buy a new shirt since I was out of dress clothes.

In the big malls near the station I killed time looking at the latest Cell phones, furniture and clothes. I stopped by at the toy store where they had a large number of models. Some guy was there shopping with his cute girlfriend who was intently focused on helping him choose just the right Anime Robot for his collection (only in Japan.) I saw a model for a 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS, a true classic, reminding me of the one I had seen in Palo Alto on the way to work earlier that month.

At a very hip Japanese Men's shop I found a great short sleeved dress shirt, first trying the Large, then the Extra Large. I asked them if they had an Extra Extra Large, but no luck. I never thought of myself as particularly large, I assumed I might be on the bigger side of the Japanese scale obviously, but not being able to buy a shirt was kind of shocking to me. I found a British store called Next that had an acceptable shirt that fit me (although even it is actually a little small, I need to do something about my weight.)

I headed home since we were supposed to meet Yoko's coworker that evening. There was a decent sized earthquake (4.5) at a little after 6PM and Dai called me, a little rattled due to his being on the twenty-somethingth floor, and asked me to meet him at the office. I caught the bus for the third time that day, but frustratingly I neglected to hit the "let me the hell off" button at my stop and had to run all the way back from Kawasaki station. I got there just as Dai was coming out though, so other than feeling like a bus neub, it all worked out fine.

We got to the station early, so Dai and I killed time window shopping, we bought some deep fried sweet bean cakes in the mall. We met Yoko and waited for her friend to show up. The restaurant they chose was Japanese style I think, we ordered lots of tasty little dishes that we all shared with each other. We had some tasty sashimi, including some great raw Octopus suckers. Me and Dai drank a variety of nice Shochu, while the girls unfortunately abstained from drinking. I lean more towards the rice varieties of Shochu as they tend to be more pure flavored, but the sweet potato based premium Shochu Dai had me try was really pretty damn tasty. Yoko's coworker was cute, but much to Yoko's relief, she was not my type. She tried to explain to us about the new room she was moving to over Golden week. She explained with some embarrassment that she was going to pay low rent due to her landlord storing his inventory of some sort of condom applicator he sold in one of the rooms.

Dai and I, feeling sqiffy from all the Shochu we drank, decided to get some ramen on the way home. Yoko wasn't hungry, but she patently waited with us for some seats to open up. The guys behind the counter were working in a frantic but well choreographed synchronization, preparing the customers noodles as quickly as possible. They mixed up our order a little bit, but didn't charge us for the Gyoza that Yoko had, and we went home with our bellies full.

Day 13 (Wed)

Dai had the day off today, but Yoko needed to go to work. Since Dai had an appointment to get his hair cut, the two of us headed off to Shinagawa. We were running late so we parted ways at the station and he sprinted off to his salon. I knew where the place was so I headed to the Starbucks to get my caffeine quota for the day filled. The Starbucks was so crowded, that rather than wait for a table, I got my mocha and continued on through the station to a part of town I hadn't yet explored. I found a nice looking pub that made their own beer and had pretty decent prices, but since we were going to go for dinner later I just grabbed the leaflet to show Dai. There were some interesting broadcasting buildings of some sort, but I couldn't decipher the signs to know what all the antennas were about. Much of the town was quiet as Golden week was still going on. The sun was out, but a cold wind was kicking up and, as I returned to the station, I saw a young woman dressed in a short skirted company outfit handing out tissues. She wasn't cute or anything, I could just see how cold and miserable she was. I'm sure any attempt to save her from dying of exposure such as getting her some nylons, would have been awkward to say the least, so feeling a little useless I just grimly moved on.

Nearby the upscale Salon EARTH that Dai has his Anime style hair cut in a decidedly non-corporate, but very fashionable style, there was a small, traditional and upscale cabinet shop. A group of women dressed in kimono were having their photos taken in front of the building by a man in his 80's dressed in an elegant dark suit. I assumed they were commemorating a purchase for youngest women, who looked to be in her late 30's. I theorized that perhaps the family had finally married her off (a postulation that Dai confirmed as being highly probable, as there is some Japanese tradition where the wife's family provides furniture for their daughter when she marries.) The cabinetry was exquisite with clean, rounded, dovetailed joints that were doweled together and carved brass fixtures gilt with rose, yellow and white gold. The shop mistress explained that the fixtures where hand made for each customer, some of the examples they had on display showing intricate scenes of Japanese (Red Crowned) Cranes and other fortuitous animals, needless to say it was all rather spendy.

I was supposed to meet him after an hour, but as I expected, Dai's hair wasn't done yet. He was at the massage stage, while they waited for the subtle highlighting to penetrate his hair. The salon, as I mentioned, was pretty high end, and a couple of rich looking and extremely short skirted girls waited for their friend to finish, excitedly complimenting her from the sidelines. I passed away the time trying to figure out some inscrutable action game involving Monkeys and rockets on one of the complimentary PSPs, while Dai was getting his final blow dry and styling done. Upon finishing, his stylist flashed me a smile and made the Japanese hand gesture for 'girlfriend' (extended pinky finger) confusing me a bit. I wasn't sure if he was hitting on me, asking me if I had a girlfriend or asking me if I was Dai's girlfriend. Dai explained later he was asking if we were about to go out girl hunting, which was reassuring. Dai's hair looked great, he appeared to be going at least 90 miles an hour just standing there. It made me really regret that I didn't do more interesting things with my hair when I had more of it.

We went back to the station to catch a train to Yokohama. That night we were going to meet two of Dai's coworkers. I had met them on a previous trip and was looking forward to seeing them again, especially the beautiful Madoka. Yoko was to meet us in Yokohama later so me and Dai did some shopping in the mall at Yokohama station before catching a local train to the China Town area that Yokohama is famous for. We waited for them at the wrong ticket gate, but figured it out before Yoko showed up, so we were all able to rendezvous before going out to eat.

On the main street there was some kind of festival going on, but the crowd was thick and we were hungry. The Chinese restaurant we went to was a bit off the main drag, and not as fancy as some of the larger places, but Dai felt the food was better. My past experience with one of the more famous Chinese restaurants in Yokohama was very disappointing, it made all their food sweet and mild, to suit Japanese tastes, but it tasted like crap. The place we went to this time was very good though, with traditional flavor and decent portion size.

After eating we went to have some drinks a a place called Shot Bar Zorba, where Madoka was introduced to my favorite cocktail, the Manhattan, which she didn't like much. They had a weak Greek theme, consisting of a couple pictures and some various Greek paraphernalia, but the drinks were good and bartenders were cute.

We parted ways with Dai's coworkers, and the three of us caught the train back home. On the train we came across a group of very young Ballerinas, they were all smiles having come back from a competition. They were excited to be able to practice their English and took turns asking me questions. Dai spoke to one girl who, compared to the others, looked very solemn and kind of detached, like she was in shock. I was worried that maybe she hadn't done well and was sad, but when I asked him about it later, he told me she had said something along the lines of, "This is the high point of my life, nothing will be better than this time."

After we got home, we went up stairs and watched the K1 fighting championship, a brutal no rules battle between opponents often using dramatically different fighting styles. The first round lasts 10 minutes, but usually doesn't last that long. Lots of blood and broken appendages, this takes a hard heart and a strong stomach to watch.

Day 14 (Thu)

I knew that Yoko was out of bread for her morning toast so I woke up early, intending to buy her some at the grocery store. In Japan the bread they sell is perfectly square, it's very thick and has no heals and it's sold in 3, 5 or 8 slice packs. The store wasn't open at 8:30, so rather than go back to the house, I continued on to the little floral coffee shop to have a coffee and wait for the grocery to open at 9 (I hoped.) However, when I checked it still wasn't open so I tried to get some bread at the 7/11 across the street, but all the bread had filling of some kind or another so I returned bread-less.

We decided to head south to the coast since it was Golden week. We took the JR line south through Yokohama to Misaki. The weather was nice, and after a very crowded bus ride down to the village we walked to the fish market and looked at all the fresh Tuna. There were some massive Blue Fin Tuna heads and lots of nice frozen steaks of every size and shape. I regretted that we could not buy some nice fish for later, someday we'll be clever enough to bring a cooler of some kind with us for these day trips.

We walked back into town, past the long skinny boats the Japanese fisherman seem to prefer. There was a group of tourists shoving off for parts unknown while a man and woman oddly fished from the polluted and busy boat ramp. We were unsure what they were trying to catch, unlike the well muscled and very tanned young fisherman lying prone on his boat, obviously trolling for tourist girls.

Dai and Yoko had seen some ad's for local restaurants on TV and we made a short trip through the fairly shuttered town to where most of them were located. We decided on a shop that didn't seem to have an onerous wait, and sat in the sunshine trying to decide what each of us would order. We could hear the chaos of small children working and playing in the confined space of the restaurant as we waited for a table to open up.

The shop was very local, the grandmother was at the bar while the daughter ran the kitchen and the very young grandchildren bussed the tables and did dishes. No one seemed to be in a terrible hurry, much to Dai's displeasure, but given that it was coming to the tail end of Golden week I'm sure the zip was out of everyone's step. Through bad planning we all ended up ordering the same dish. It was tasty enough, but the customer next to us ordered a Tuna steak that was so massive it could have fed all three of us and we all regretted not getting that ourselves.

Outside were a couple small shops open, a little toy store and a clothing shop that displayed a rather nice kimono that had a black background covered with large drifts of snow. White flowers were heavily embroidered on the dark areas, trailing off in the snowy parts giving the illusion of depth.

Our destination was Jougashima island, joined to the mainland by a long bridge. We got directions from Grandpa as his cute little granddaughter pranced around and did gymnastics in front of us. She was young enough to be spared from dish duty for this year at least. We made the long walk around the inlet and up the hill, crossing the bridge that provided a nice view of the village below. At the other side of the bridge me and Dai relieved ourselves of excess metabolized beer in the bushes and then headed towards the On'sen near the lighthouse at the tip of the island.

We had to hurry as a local shop keeper said the Onsen was going to stop accepting day customers soon, but we made it through the many dried fish stalls and food and trinket shops to the hotel. The coastline was torn and ragged so that you could see the volcanic strata turned on it side. There were long narrow inlets and tide pools with people and children clambering about and fishing off the points.

We rented some towels and locked our belongings up, the place was pretty crowded but we got a nice spot outside, with a view of the sun low over the sea. The extremely salty water and sunshine conspired to cause my face to sunburn and sting a bit, but it didn't last. We found Yoko snoozing in the lobby and hiked up to the lighthouse. There was a little park with an odd statue that we all got a perverted kick out of. We walked back through the gauntlet of dried squid hawkers and tanks of Top-shell Snails, Squid, Spiny Lobsters and Abalone. A large live Octopus, tied up in a mesh bag so it couldn't escape, squirted a jet of water at us when we got too close. We made it to the depot just in time to watch the bus drive off.

Trying to make the best of the half hour wait for the next bus, we got Yoko a grilled corn on the cob along with a couple beers for Dai and myself. At the bus stop there was a father with his four crazed little girls in tow. They had a little plastic tank containing some poor aquatic life forms they had captured. He was straight out of a Japanese drama, loud, gruff, wearing a shabby corduroy coat. You could tell he was the gambling, hard drinking, father with a heart of gold. They all traded good natured insults, laughing and hitting each other, it was hard to tell who the parent was.

Despite the short distance, our bus ride actually took hours in the heavy traffic and we made it to the train station fairly late. I did get a nice shot of mount Fuji by sticking my camera out the window over the head of the passenger asleep next to me while we crossed the bridge. We rode the train back through the dark landscape, making it back to Kawasaki hungry and tired. We decided to go to the Korean place I liked so much. The strangely masculine woman was working that night, and when Dai mentioned that last time I had been unsure if it was a man or a woman, Yoko laughed at me like I was foolish to not know. She then stated matter-of-factly, in the pure hearted and sincere way only Yoko can, that it was obviously a man, causing Dai and I to laugh loudly. After dinner we ran through the maze like underground shopping area to get to the bus terminal where we caught one of the last busses back home.

Day 15 (Fri)

In the morning I felt like I was catching some kind of sinus infection, feeling feverish I had Yoko take my temperature, and they rolled their eyes at my normal results. Humoring me, Dai gave me some medicine he had gotten for similar symptoms, and we went off to get some food and gifts for the picnic that Teru had planned. We were running late already so, rather than wait for Yoko to finish getting ready, we decided to have her meet us there later. Our first stop was at the local, but surprisingly well stocked, liqueur store near Dai's house. It had a varied selection of California wines and I was hoping to find a bottle of Sea Smoke Pinot Noir for Hiji-san. I intended to get it in the States, but because of bad planning on my part, I ran out of time. They didn't have what I was looking for, so I ended up getting a nice Kenwood 'Jack London' merlot and a Robert Mondovi pinot noir. Dai got an expensive, great tasting Sake and we then headed to the JR transfer station in Daimon. We located the Baby Gap to get some outfits for Teru's little girl. Surrounded by lots of cute baby stuff, Dai's paternal instinct seemed to kick in, and he bought several nice things for her. We then grabbed some pre-made food from the supermarket and grabbed the train to (I believe) Higashi-Ginza where the park was located.

We were already running an hour late, but we managed to get lost and hiked all over the place in the hot sunshine trying to find the park. This part of town seemed to be dedicated to dogs, there was every kind of dog salon, restaurant and clothing store you could ever imagine. Once we got to the park I was pleasantly surprised to find that my friend Akira had made it up from Hiroshima where he's been working for the last couple of years. Many of my old Machida friends were there and we ate some great home made food and drank. We all got drunk and kicked the soccer ball around a bit. I had a nice mocha made by a guy vending out of his little micro bus using what appeared to be a fairly inexpensive Cappuccino maker, but it was really good. Me and Dai helped lug the stuff back to Teru's nearby apartment and walked back through town to go to the gourmet grocery.

Yoko didn't end up feeling well enough to make it that day, but she had prepared a nice dinner. She was feeling better when we got home, and the curry she made was nice and spicy. We watched TV for a while, but I got to bed early since I was going to Machida the next morning.

Day 16 (Sat)

At the picnic on Friday, Akira told me that he had been in contact with Kayo-chan, one of the nurses that used to visit us at the 'Bar' in Machida. The last time I saw her was right before I was to return to the US after my failed attempt to move to Japan several years ago. She was in love with one of my friends at the bar and when that flamed out I had no way of ever getting in touch with her again. Akira said he was meeting her in Machida and invited me to meet the two of them for dinner.

Since I was going to Machida I wanted to go a bit early and wander around my old hunting grounds. I needed to get some cash and since I had two days left on my rail pass I decided to take the slightly longer way on JR through Yokohama so I could stop by the Citibank international ATM there. I got there fairly early (I still picture it to be much farther from Nishi-Magome than it really is) and grabbed a Starbucks mocha at the very busy station. After locating the ATM and getting my cash I hopped on a train bound for Machida.

Machida is a pretty cool town, it's about 45 minutes from Tokyo by express train and so it's considered a bit 'backwoods' by mega-metropolitan Japanese. It's a major junction of the JR East and Odakyu train lines so it's actually quite large and full of businesses. One of my favorite places to visit is the Tokyu Hands department store which this time had in stock the extremely hard to find Melita Ceramic #2 Coffee drip cones. I bought two and wandered around the neighborhood, dropping in on some of the old places I used to haunt.

Six o'clock rolled around and I was waiting at the station gates for my friends, with that creepy feeling you get when you worry that you might be stood up. It's only happened to me a couple of times in my life, but there is nothing more painful than looking forward to seeing someone and them not showing up. But I kept my emotions under control as Akira was not the sort of person to do that sort of thing. I didn't have to wait too long as he shouted to me from across the ebbing and flowing crowd at around 6:15. Kayo was running even later, so we went to find a good restaurant as he texted her updates from his cell.

I had forgotten, but it was actually Akira's birthday. We celebrated with several beers and appetizers at the Chinese restaurant we selected while we waited for Kayo. She made it after about 15 minutes and joined us. She seemed to be really nursing her beer, which if you knew her was really out of character. When I asked, It turned out she was 7 months pregnant! You couldn't tell by looking at her though, Japanese girls are all too skinny, even when they are in a family way.

After dinner Akira mentioned that the master of the 'Bar' bar we all used to patronize had opened up a new place in town, so we happily dropped in on him unannounced and surprised him. He, being highly organized, had the numbers of many of the regulars and called them to meet us. Akira, Kayo and I drank and visited with everyone for several hours. I, not wanting to be rude, had been intentionally not checking my watch very often and unfortunately misread the time by an hour. When I realized how late it was, I panicked and made very rushed apologies, racing out to catch my train back to Tokyo.

I managed to get the last train from Machida, I was still worried of getting stranded in Yokohama, but I was able to transfer and I made it to Kawasaki. By that time the last bus had long since left and I was forced to take a taxi back home. It wasn't that big of a deal as once I made it to Kawasaki I was in safe territory, I knew I could walk back home from there if I really had to. The taxi driver didn't speak English, but after a day of speaking Japanese with all my friends, my brain was in Japanese mode and I was able to have a nice conversation with my driver. He was really excited to have me as a passenger, honking to get a fellow cabbie's attention, he insisted on full introductions to his friend at a stop light. He tried to undercharge me, but it was only about $20 so I insisted on full payment. I have found, for the most part, that the Japanese people are exceedingly nice and friendly.

Day 17 (Sun)

In the morning for breakfast, Yoko warmed up some of the tasty, leftover Okonomiyaki they had made for dinner the night before. I took their little coffee mill out of retirement to grind some beans Yoko had. But, like many of my adventures in Japan, the constrained spaces coupled with my clumsiness conspired to cause me to strew beans all over Dai's freshly cleaned floor. Much to Yoko's dismay, I broke the three second rule and carefully collected the escapees them from the floor. I figured that the beans were going to be ground up and immersed in boiling water, and I don't like wasting food.

Since it was my last full day of vacation in Japan, I asked that we go to an Italian restaurant in Ebisu that I had been to before. It was one of Yoko's favorite places and had really good food (Japanese do great Italian for some reason.) Before dinner they took me to Shimbashi so I could visit the Shochu Authority store. I picked up two different kinds of Shiso Shochu and a nice bottle from Kyushu for my favorite sushi chef in Alameda. We then went to Ginza where we shopped for several hours, including going to a cross between Trader Joe's and Ikea called Muji where they sold just about everything. They even were selling prefabricated homes, an example of which was on display within their giant open building. It was quite flimsy looking though, I'm sure I could have single handedly destroyed it with a hammer in a couple of hours. They had lots of tasty looking, instant style (boil and serve pouch) foods. I could see that they would be an important resource for me if I ever get over there permanently.

We met up with our friend Ikuko at the Ebisu station and walked to the restaurant. It was pretty close to the Japanese restaurant we went to with Yoko's coworker a couple days before. We had a couple really frosty pitchers of ice cold Kirin Heartland beer and lots of very tasty food. The place has really convincingly authentic interior decor of brick walls, large iron bound beams in-dispersed with italian tile-work. The U shaped kitchen area was centrally located, surrounding a large brick oven. I got a bit drunk and made a loud, longwinded and emotional plea for understanding about my highly confusing, opinionated and labyrinthian way of doing everything. I upset poor Yoko a bit before (hopefully) eventually mollifying her. We said goodbye to Iku, and headed home together for the last time.

Day 18 (Mon/Mon)

Dai and Yoko had to work so I got up early to say farewell. The last day in Japan is always the hardest, and knowing it would be a while before I could return again, and that this is the last time I will probably stay at the little Magome house, made me even sadder. Since my flight was at 4:15PM, and I woke up fairly early, I decided to watch the Serenity DVD that I brought for Dai and Yoko. It was quite good and it got my mind off of leaving for a little while. I packed up all my various stuff, putting the four bottles of Shochu in my carry on bag (I remembered this time after the last several times having to dig through dirty underwear at baggage check-in to fish bottles of alcohol out of my checked luggage :-()

Since I had a day left on my JR East rail pass I decided to take the Narita Express rather than the local train shaving about an hour or so off the trip to the Airport. I was running behind schedule though and so instead of catching the Express at the nearby Shinagawa station I caught a local express to Tokyo station and got the Narita Express there. The one thing that I realized is that the station masters didn't really examine my rail pass, several times waving me though the gate without so much as looking at me. I think I can probably stretch one of these passes out well beyond the four day's that they are valid for with a little creativity. I bought a cold Asahi on the train to cool myself down after lugging 70 pounds of luggage across Tokyo.

At the airport I quickly checked in and went straight to the gate since I was checking in only an hour before the flight was supposed to leave. Nothing much of interest on the return flight other than a real nice tailwind from the jet-stream to get me home a little earlier. My parents picked me up at the airport and after dropping them off I went straight to the office to work for a couple hours.