Slight Detour

This blog is going to take a slight detour from my marathon training and enter into new territory.

I'm in Tokyo!

Anyone reading this blog probably knew I was going to Tokyo, so it's no surprise. But it's a surprise to me. I really can't believe I'm here!

I arrived at Narita airport after a long (14 hour) but uneventful flight from JFK in New York. I did sit beside a mildly OCD man, but for the most part he didn't bother me. He had to have a stirrer with his coffee, even though it was black, and he couldn't have the cup on his tray once it was empty and would search frantically for someone to remove it for him. But hey -- who am I to judge? I was just relieved that he wasn't smelly or chatty.

I breezed through customs and immigration, just as I had breezed through check-in in New York, and anyone who has heard my travel stories knows this is an amazing feat for me. Traveling without incident is not the story I usually tell.

Strangely, my first thought upon walking outside the airport to catch my bus into Tokyo, was that it reminded me of Mexico -- because of the incredible heat and humidity!

The bus I was to take to Tokyo ran once an hour, so I had about 40 minutes to wait. I decided just to wait outside at the gate since I was happy to stand after fourteen hours of sitting, and I didn't want to take any chances of missing the bus.

The four young men managing the arrival and departure of each bus were so efficient as to be entertaining. I watched as they carefully checked each person's ticket and politely pulled the passengers for the arriving bus out of line to form a new line. They gave the passengers tickets for their checked luggage, which they then carefully lined up inside a box painted on the sidewalk near the curb. As each bus arrived, they first announced its arrival in Japanese and then in English, too fast for me to understand, but they did make a point of saying very clearly the departure time of the bus, which was all anyone really needed to know. Busses arrived every five minutes, and every bus was on time.

So at 4:01 after the departure of the 4:00 bus, I was gently pulled into a new line, my bag was checked and put in the box by the curb, and I waited four minutes for my bus to arrive. Moments before it arrived, one of the young men announced its arrival. When it pulled up, the four men loaded the luggage onto the bus, and the passengers got on. Then one of the men boarded the bus, said something to the driver, turned and bowed to the passengers, got off, and we were on our way.

The busses, I had noticed, were all very shiny and clean. Inside and out. And as we drove along, I noticed this to be true of every vehicle on the road. Clean and small.

I dozed off and on during the ride into Tokyo. I had been awake, except for a few hours on the plane, for about 20 hours by then. But I woke up as we got to the city, so I caught a glimpse of the bright lights and wide streets of Tokyo. Many motorcycles and bicycles. Many pedestrians. Very clean streets, and everyone seeming to move together somehow, as if to some rhythm I couldn't hear. As if there was a hand gently pushing them to move in some kind of order, much like the hand that gently pulled me into line for the bus.

I met Colleen at the Imperial Hotel, a very international place, so a good spot for me to adjust. Everyone spoke English, I found Colleen immediately and with no trouble. After a good long hug, a few moments of "I can't believe you're here!" and "I can't believe I'm here!" we made our way to the bar and ordered two Kirins and an appetizer of vegetables served with an avocado spread and a roe spread. Even though I had eaten three meals on the plane, not to mention a Luna bar and a Balance bar, I was starving. So the carrot stick, cucumber stick, two celery sticks and four pieces of toast were a welcome treat! (No wonder they're all so skinny here!)

Then it was off to Colleen's apartment. As she noted on her blog, I was very impressed with her Japanese, though she says she only knows four words. She was able to give our taxi driver, who clearly didn't have any idea where he was going (even though she'd given him a map!), directions that got us to her apartment. After a lot of laughter, bowing, and the repeated exchange of "domo" between Colleen and the cabbie, we were home.

Colleen's apartment is, as she has said, very small. It is a lot like a dorm room, though much nicer. The wood floor is beautiful and unmarked (we took our shoes off when we came in). She has a very small refrigerator and freezer -- literally looks like a miniaturized version of one of those fancy steel gray refrigerators with the freezer on the bottom like a drawer. And she has one burner next to the sink. The bathroom is two small rooms with the toilet in one and the sink and tub in the other. The toilet seat, I was surprised to find, is heated! And there are many buttons on the toilet that Colleen says she hasn't touched because she doesn't want to have to get someone up here to fix the toilet when she breaks it trying to figure out what all the buttons do. And really, would you want to be sitting on the toilet when you found out?

The room with the sink and tub has one faucet shared by both. It swings from the sink to the tub depending on what you need. There is no shower curtain, nor is there a place to hang one. And the shower nozzle seems to have been added as an after thought. The tub is very deep, but not as long as tubs in the US. Water gets everywhere when you take a shower, but I guess it is expected to, because there is a drain in the bathroom floor. Colleen has it all down to a science and showed me how she puts her shower stuff, all kept neatly in a plastic bin (just like in college), right in the sink so you can reach it from the shower, and how you angle the shower nozzle sort of towards the wall to keep from having too big a mess to clean up when you're through.



But I'm getting ahead of myself. The shower came later (although I'm sure it should have come as soon as I arrived, but I was afraid I would get too sleepy if I showered). First we went out for sushi at a cute little place in her neighborhood. Again, I was impressed with her knowledge of the language (though there were a lot of hand signals involved with ordering, I noticed). We each had miso soup and a big plate of sushi (I'm sure there is a name for the big plate of sushi, but I don't know what it is). I've never been big on sushi, other than the rolls, which I like. But this sushi was like nothing I've ever tasted. It was buttery and rich and melted in my mouth. The only one I didn't like much was the squid, but mainly because it was too chewy. I was pretty good with the chopsticks, but I don't understand how people just plop a whole piece of sushi in their mouths! They must have big mouths! It's kind of hard to do it any other way though, because you can't really cut through it with chopsticks, and because of the texture, biting through it isn't really an option either. So I made a bit of a mess, but it was thoroughly enjoyable.

The restaurant was very bright, unlike most restaurants in the US, and it was full of tables of mostly men eating strange looking dishes and laughing and talking loudly. The sushi chefs were behind a counter, and from where I sat, I could watch them put each order together. It was a bit like watching an artist -- a really fast and nimble artist!

The tea was wonderful and the beer (more Kirin) really hit the spot. Thoroughly satisfied, we left there and took a short walk around the neighborhood where Colleen showed me some other restaurants we'd be trying out in the week ahead. I can't wait.

Then it was back to the apartment to shower (as I've already described) and plan for our Saturday outing to Mt. Fuji. I made it until about 10:00 and then I crashed, practically asleep before my head hit the pillow.

I woke up at about 3:00 a.m., just as everyone told me I would. But I'm a champion sleeper, so I was sure I could sleep longer. I woke again just about every hour until 7:00 when I knew I wasn't going to sleep any more. Colleen had said to wake her if I woke up super early and we'd go to the fish market to watch them do their buying and selling of huge and strange fish -- something I've heard and read a lot about. But I didn't have the heart to wake her. It's Saturday, for crying out loud, and I, for one, know how important it is to be able to sleep in on Saturday after a long hard week at work. I'll try to go another day.

So, that brings us right up the present. Colleen is still dozing (it's only about quarter to nine) and when she gets up, we're going to get ready for our big day at Mt. Fuji!

More to come (and next time with pictures!)