03/07/09 - The Arrival and Sake
A brief sleep. An hour or two before we're woken for breakfast, which for us is at 11pm? Still it was again very nice and after eating it all we were half dozing half scouring for other films (some of the good ones were only availiable in japanese, korean or mandarin). And before we knew it we were landing. Though just before this, one of the flight attendants came over and asked us if we liked a souveneir? I was wondering how much it as going to cost - yet it was a free map of our journey and signed by all of the flight staff! So cute! :) Still not sunk in, but we were now in Japan!
Airport was fine, after a little query over a few things? Eg, we had no illegal drugs, swords, explosives or radioactive waste. Oh and no where to stay as the online hostel booking didn't work. But we got around that by saying we'd TRY and stay in this hostel. We sort of did...
So to the tourist info to wonder what the hell we do now in Tokyo, well Narita airport, we tried to get a hostel booked. My friend had said the HOTEL was much better than the HOSTEL for the Sakura group. Seems there is more than one HOTEL mind... so we got the wrong one, in a more expensive location. Still. We activated our railpass and were glad of the little english they spoke. Now we were on our own? The trains were simple enough, with Karen worrying I pointed out they were handily colour coded routes and combined with the rail magazine we'd bee givem they were a breeze to get! :)
Of course we found Pocari Sweat quickly which deserved a picture, ahhh refreshing cool sweat!
As the railpass doesn't cover the subway, that would be extra. Though, the rail does cover the majority of the larger stations so we were alright getting to our hostel for 'free' Out at the station the LP came out to tell us the way, though the hostel we were in (not the one we wanted) wasn't in there. At least the area was in the LP so we at least knew there was something to see there! :)
So we first went slowly to the hostel following the route we've been given at the tourist information, which was marked out by the US/English directions, get, up to KFC, turn left, go on till you hit Dennys, then left and on to McDonalds etc... We found it after one rong turn, but saw lots of fun things and the high rise and lights still felt like Tokyo centre. Like with London, there are a lot of areas of interest, no centre as such!
So after settling into the room, we headed straight out for a quick bite to eat. Quick was not a fitting word. We walked around first and I realised a need for a watch, as with no phone we've no time. Though how much we need this is unsure. An alarm would be good from the Jetlag, though Karen was using her phone. We walked around the area twice and Karen unsure what to go for:
"how about here?"
"Looks good"
(I point at pictures) "What do you want"
"Hmmm none of that"
"So not here then?"
"Maybe not"
Eventually she settled on kebabs at a restaurant (they were going half price specials) So inside after a little confusion we had an english menu and chose:
Karen: Duck and Ginger, Chicken and Leek, White meat.
Mark: Tail, Gizzards, Knee Cartiledge.
hat we got? Well the first two were as predicted. The White meat was cooked on the outside chicken, but raw inside. We asked to make sure this was alright, it was. It was mushy.
Now mine, were a little more odd. Starting with the Gizzards, they tasted like normal meat, though, crunchy. Not that it felt like there was anything crunchy in them? It was meat. Just crunchy meat. I tried it first.
Karen asked "How is it?"
I responded "Wow, you've got to try this"
Note: At this time I meant, "Wow you have to try this, I can't describe it, it's really odd", to which Karen thought I meant "Wow this is really nice".
She didn't like the crunching.
Still I could eat them all.
The tail was mainly fatty but alright. Whilst the knee cartiledge had a variety of flavours, textures and parts: meat on the outside, hard in the middle and random crunchy and mushy bits. Very odd.
So at the end of it, we paid and headed out. To the waves of the entire kitchen staff! :) Yaay for being a wanted tourist! Karen then informed me she was actually still hungry. So we headed off, looking for ramen, something filling. I wasn't hungry, I'd eaten well. So entering another restaurant (this one a bit more posh with booths it turned out, it was an underground affair so we didn't know till in there, we sat waiting around after ordering beers.
Karen had a beer.
I had a hoppy beer
With something else, a glass full of ice and water?
Not water, some alcohol that I think was sake.
So as they had been delivered together and I'd only asked and pointed at one drink, I mixed them (which did seem to work). We still don't know if that was what we were supposed to do?
Still Karen was hunggry so she was going to order, but she didn't want the noodles anymore, but a nice looking dish of cheap beef. At least it looked that way. What arrived was more akin to pedigree chum. Meaty bits in jelly. And this even I couldn't finish. We'd eaten some beans whilst waiting (not free, infact it seems as they don't get tips, they ply you with 'free' or 'availiable' dishes and then charge you later! We became wise to this within 2 days - using the foreigner "No thanks" to anything we've not ordered (saves money)
So £12 lighter, with little more than a drink and some pedigree chum inside us (and the past kebabs) meal three of this evening was to be KFC as at least Karen could recognise it! :) She was happy after this. So we went in search of a bar. Finding a few girls bars (at £35 entry, we assumed not a normal bar) and others like lingerie bars, (again £40 to get in) so we headed back to the hostel for an early night, as had been told the hostel bar closed at 6pm today for something special. It seemed open so we got a drink. At 8pm this was to be the start of a fun night! :)
We sat and drank a bottle of sake each, little ones, mine was cloudy (looked like... yes, and tasted like Alka-selter!) While Karen's (more normal sake) looked and tasted like sake. So after one Karen wanted bed and I decided at 9pm, if we were going to combat the jetlag, we should hold off till 9.30pm or 10pm. Another drink, this time beers. All seemed fine, we were chatting and planning hte next day. It was when I was coming back ith said beers I saw a guy looking for a table and asked if he was alright and wanted to join us. Initially he didn't but then as he pulled up a seat on his own, I asked again and he joined us (for travellers are better when sharing tales) This was Ben.
Ben is a karate expert and trains others as well as does some bouncer work. He's a 3rd Dan black belt. Sounds hard. He likely is. What goes against him is he's about 5'6 and only 22 with a bit of a baby face! :) So people do pick fights with him when he bouncers (though he wins!) So we had a good chat to him and were asked to move inside, this is where the proof of the kicking began and more people seemed to join our group! :)
Suddenly we were six, may have had something to do with moving in and me saying, "yeah grab a seat" :). Jet, Riku and Yasu. All japanese, Jet with good english and the other two not so much. But it was all fun trying to communicate. The drinks flowed and may chats were had. It as only at midnight(ish) the others had to leave to get the last train, whilst we suddenly felt the need to go to bed. Though in our semi sober states, whilst grabbing another two bottles each to take to our room. Sleep and/or passing out followed.
Left to Right: Karen, Jet, Ben, Yasu, Riku and Mark