Day 6

6-18-08

Downtown Tokyo.

After spending all of today roaming Tokyo, I have come to two conclusions: One is that, while I may be able to speak quite a bit of Japanese when I think it through in my head, I lose all comprehension of the language when faced with a living human person, and as soon as I am walking away from them, it hits me that, oh, that's how I would have said that. The second conclusion is that I have become addicted to Milk Tea.

Based on these two conclusions, I will now recount my Tokyo-in-one-day adventure through two things: people and food. (Which as you may notice, are fast becoming common themes of this blog).

Besides my awesome room number, awesome room view and awesome small-enough-to-easily-steal toiletries, my favorite thing about the Tokyo Prince hotel is the breakfast.

Tasty good food.

It’s served at 7:00, which would normally be really early for me, but since I am incredibly jet-lagged and keep waking up a 4:00 am, it’s the perfect time. Waiting for me this morning was everything I could even want, from miniature pancakes to crispy bacon to fresh fruit and, as always, a cup of tea.

Mmmm tea.

Tea, coincidentally, is a perfect segue to my next food story: Milk Tea. Because the Japanese mostly drink green and white teas, if you want black tea with cream and sugar, you have to ask for Milk Tea. Conveniently, Milk Tea is also sold chilled in almost every drink vending machine (which, when the number of vending machines is considered, means that it is available everywhere). Unfortunately, I have thus been buying it at every chance I get, and that’s a lot of chances. It’s just so tasty.

Miruku Tei.

There was a vending machine by the Imperial Palace when we all visited it today, so I got some there. Someone else bought a can of Dr. Pepper, and it was the most amazing Dr. Pepper can ever. I’m bringing one home if I can.

I don't even understand.

One of our many stops on our “Cultural Tour of Japan” was a very famous shrine. (Though apparently not famous enough since I can’t remember the name…).

Sadly nameless shrine.

It was there that I fully experienced the phenomenom of being randomly accosted by people who want to talk to you simply because you are foreign. There was one guy outside of the shrine who, in broken English, just started chatting me up, asking where I was from and why I was in Japan and for how long. Unfortunately, it turned out to be one of those times where I forgot all my Japanese, so I felt like even more of a gaijin than before, but it was still a nice conversation.

Where I was randomly accosted.

There was a place in the shrine where you could get a fortune, and after watching a few people closely, I figured out the process and got one. Of course, they were written in Japanese, so I couldn’t read them at all, but apparently mine was bad, because the old man standing next to me--who spoke no English whatsoever--grabbed it from me, made me choose another fortune, and tied the bad on to the Bad Fortune Rack thing, which was apparently what you were supposed to do. Of course, I had no idea what he was saying and I couldn’t figure out why he was taking my fortune away from me, but once I figured out what he was doing, it was really sweet, you know, save the poor gaijin girl from ignorance and so on. I’ve decided that--and here I make a sweeping generalization--I really like Japanese people.

Totally sweet palace, dude.

Along with the Imperial Palace, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, the Edo-Tokyo Museum and the shrine, we visited the headquarters of YFU Japan, which meant 45 minutes of boring speeches and the most delicious Japanese dinner ever. It was buffet style, and every time I would attempt to return my plate and be done eating, another scrumptious looking addition had been made to the table, and I just had to keep eating. Oishi desu!