Adventure Apartment Around town Aussie Australian Drink Food Italian Japan Japanese March New friends Party Shocking Subway Tiny Tokyo

Enlightenment

Chronologically, this post refers to the evening of Sunday the 7th of March, which is also the day I wrote my first post.
I left Takanawa to catch the subway at Sengakuji station, headed to Ningyocho. I was to meet with a Japanese friend of Blair and mine named 'Taro' (Apparently the Japanese equivalent of 'John'). The plan was that he would meet me at the station, and we would go to a party with some of his friends, or that was my understanding anyway.

I arrived at Ningyocho station 3 minutes early, quite the achievement I might add, and took the stairs up to ground level to see where my friend was. As I arrived at the top, I was hit with a blast of cold air, to think just 2 days previous at the same time I had been walking around in just a long sleeved shirt and pants, at least it wasn't raining too hard. I made my way back down to the station proper, to check if there was another entrance, and I had missed Taro. I hadn't.

As I decided what to do, I noticed two young looking Japanese talking to themselves on the subway stairs and glancing at me. You might think that this would be common, especially considering my current appearance (long hair, and a beard), but the Japanese are amazing in that I am yet to see anyone openly stare at me. In fact, no matter what one goes in Tokyo, whether it be to a very small local bathhouse (see 'Of Bullets and Dodging') or through the busiest intersection in all Tokyo, one would be hard pressed to see any Japanese person even register a look of mild interest upon seeing such an... un-Japanese looking person.

Back to the story, as I mused whether or not I should approach this couple, they walked towards me and the gentleman spoke up, "Hello, hello, are you Ben? Taro's friend?" "Yes, hi, nice to meet you." "Ahh, ahh, nice to meet you, nice to meet you." At this point Taro arrived, and performed the introductions. Apparently these were friends of his, who lived in the same apartment block, named Saori and Hama. Ok, the gentleman's name wasn't really Hama, but they said it was his nickname, and it was much easier for me to remember.

We walked off to a nearby coffee shop to talk for a little while. I still find myself realising that if the positions were reversed, and I was a Japanese person in Australia, with minimal English, it would be a lot more difficult to find people to accommodate me so well, especially native Aussies. After talking for a small while, over an hour passed and we decided to find a place to eat. After much quick debate between themselves in Japanese (I said I was happy to do whichever) it was decided that a nearby Italian restaurant would be our destination.

We entered and were promptly seated, with several menus for drinks and food quickly delivered. I was astonished to see 'strawberry juice' and 'banana juice' on the list of drinks. Saori tried the strawberry, allowing me a taste, and it was described accurately, it tasted exactly like you would imagine juiced strawberries would taste.

This next bit hurts to write, but it must be told:

I brazenly talked, as some Australians are wont to, yours truly being the worst offender, exclaiming how the menu was all in Japanese and that I could not understand it. I asked loudly for translations from my friends, or I would not know what to order. Yes, in hindsight I realise how tactless this was, but my embarrassing actions did not end here. After some explanations of the different menu items, I said I would love to try the risotto, all well and good right?

After ordering the food, we talked for a while, Saori and Hama being encouraged to practise their English on me. To learn a language I decided, the best way was merely to speak it, and learn as you go, as well as picking up more vocabulary from a book in private. Sometime I should really start doing that with my Japanese.

The food arrived, a small platter of different entre style foods: 2 small pieces of ham; duck; beef; cooked egg and bacon; capsicum (bell pepper in America?); pumpkin; and 2 whole, small fish, maybe sardines? After some talk about what each food actually was, we shared them out, each trying a small portion of each. Then... rather awkwardly, a single bowl of risotto arrived. Idiot. If I was not so hasty and brash when the menus came out, no doubt someone would have said that they would be ordering a series of dishes designed to share, not a single meal each.

It is difficult to describe just how stupid I felt, and it didn't help that my error was sitting there in the middle of the table, the equivalent of continually hitting myself on the thumb with a hammer. Remember though, this is Japan, no one drew attention to my error, or in fact said anything that could even have possibly been construed as pointing it out, instead we simply shared this dish as we would any other.

Learn from my mistakes!

The rest of the meal went quickly, we talked, they learning English, I learning Japanese, and everyone enjoying themselves. We ate a dish of large and small clams; a plate with chunks of spearfish, potato, capsicum and several other vegetables; a plate of fettuccini with clams, octopus and the single biggest prawn I have ever seen.

After much more talking, it was time to leave, but not in the way I had thought at the time. This was not the party with Taro's friends he had been warning me about, but merely dinner. So off we marched in the chill March air (couldn't help myself) towards Tiger house. The first thing I noticed upon entering this residence was the large set of cubby holes, full of the most shoes I've seen in one place for quite a while. After being loaned a pair of slippers, we entered the living room / kitchen, which contained only one table, at which was seated several Japanese men making dumplings.

After introductions, I whispered to Taro, asking what the dumplings were for. He responded that they were obviously for the party tonight. I surreptitiously glanced at my watch, 10:30pm. As we sat and talked, more and more people came, seemingly from nowhere, and more food was brought, prepared, and arranged. We talked, ate, I practised my Japanese, they practised their English, I forgot everyone's names a couple times, they encouraged me to try all manner of strange looking foods. All were good. In short, a good time was had by all.

This party was to celebrate the birthday of Saori (the day before) and another male member of this apartment block, whose name I cannot recall. Some gifts were exchanged and people started to clean up, I looked at my watch again. Almost 1 a.m. As people said goodnight, Taro and I forced Hama to show us his room. It was about 4 metres long, and about a metre and a half wide. Seriously. The floor was basically taken up by 2 things, his bed, and the space it required to open the door. Across the ceiling was hung his entire wardrobe. Also, in this room was a desktop computer with 2 monitors, and many other things that one needed to live. Don't ask me how it all fit.

If you're reading this Hama, please forgive me, it was too astonishing not to share. Later Taro showed me his room, which was more expensive, and therefore larger. It was far wider, almost 2 and a half metres, a good 5-6 metres long, and had a set of draws. Spacious.

After final goodbyes to Hama and Saori, Taro and I headed back into the cold night air. We were stopped upon exiting by Ryuchan, who was walking back with his girlfriend, well, he was riding a bike; she was walking. Unfortunately I cannot recall her name either, but she was very nice, and the first Japanese person that showed the appropriate emotions upon seeing a white kid in the middle of Tokyo, Japan, those emotions being shock, surprise, humour, and then cordiality. "Much better" I remember thinking to myself. After one more goodbye, Taro and I walked off into the Tokyo night.

"Where to?" I enquired. Showing me some vouchers, Taro informed me that he had free tickets to a nearby spa. I nodded and quickly glanced at my watch, 1:30am.

"No worries."