I recently returned from a three week trip to Shanghai to visit Drew. A lot happened in those three weeks, and I'll slowly tell you about them. What was perhaps most surprising to me is that I did not miss coffee at all during those three weeks. I am a two, sometimes, three, cup a day coffee drinker and I start every morning with it. Plus, I'm one of those weirdos who actually likes the taste of coffee, so I drink it for more than the caffeine. I'm not a coffee snob per se, but I do love me a good cup of it, so maybe that's why it was easy for me to give it up during those three weeks--I knew the chances of finding a good cup were slim, and if I found one, it would probably easily cost 5 or 6 bucks (I was right).
Anyway, let me tell you about my trip. It got off to a fantastic start in LA, where I was upgraded to first class on my flight to Tokyo. Obviously, I've never flown first class before, so I could hardly contain my excitement. The gate agent was very nonchalant when issuing my new boarding pass, appearing not to register my enthusiasm and huge grin, and I wanted to say "Do you have any idea how completely awesome this is???" So anyway, indeed, it was awesome. I loved the extra space, the real pillows and blankets, and best of all, that my seat reclined and then turned into a bed. The free upgrade totally made up for the 2 or 3 hour delay out of Los Angeles.
My trip started with a 20 (well 17 or 18) hour layover in Tokyo. I arrived around midnight, hailed a cab, and checked into a hotel, no small feat considering I do not speak or read any Japanese, which you probably know, because if you're reading my blog, you already know this about me.
The next morning, I took a walk around my hotel, in search of breakfast. My memory is foggy, as this happened about a month ago, but what I first recall is that even though there were lots of cars on the street and lots of people walking around, it was unbelievably quiet, almost eerily quiet (I later learned that it was also not customary to talk on the subway). The other thing I recall is that people actually wait in lines here, do not pass each other on the stairs or escalators, and do not hurry and push and shove. Obviously, I spent a very short period of time in Tokyo and I'm comparing this to my short periods of time spent in Beijing and Shanghai, so I am no expert, but these were my initial observations. Oh, and that you drive and walk on the "wrong" side of the street, which took some getting using to. When I cross the street at home, I look left first and then right, but in Tokyo, I had to remember to look right first and then the whole thing was so confusing to me that I just kept looking right and left as I crossed the street, no doubt looking strange and as though I were observing a non-existent tennis match.
Later that morning, my friend, who is in Tokyo for a post-doc, met me at my hotel and played tour guide. It was great to see him, and we did some catching up while he showed me some of the highlights. We started with a trip to the Ueno district, walking through Tokyo's version of Central Park.
I think we then left the park and walked to the subway or metro station, or whatever they call it there. I guess I liked the view:
Next, we went to this big street market. I think it was your usual shopping and whatnot, but I remember eating a garlic rice cracker and seeing a lot of seafood.
My one request was to eat sushi and so we did. We went to a conveyor belt sushi place, which in the US, is crappy, inferior sushi, but not so in Japan.
One of the things that's really fun about eating in other countries is that you get to see how some cuisines get Americanized. I was struck by the dearth of sushi rolls; the sushi was primarily nigiri sushi, whereas it's the opposite here. And don't give me grief; I HAD to try a California roll in Tokyo. It would be wrong not to. All I remember is that it had a lot of mayonnaise but that it was better than the California rolls in, uh, California.
We ended the day in Ginza, which I guess is a shopping district and a rich area of Tokyo. It felt like Newport Beach.
I learned that people in Tokyo are really into Christmas. Decorations go up and Christmas music starts around October. Without the Thanksgiving buffer, my friend said, Christmas starts pretty early and gets old fast. I reassured him that even with the Thanksgiving buffer, this is what it's like in Orange County now (it's been a few years since he lived there).
