week ni

Week two in Tokyo has not disappointed. Among the highlights was our first ramen noodle shop experience. This type of dining is perfect for newly expatriated Americans who do not speak a lick of Japanese as it allows you to match pictures of the dish you want with a number, insert some yen into a machine outside and then take your ticket inside without ever having to even say konnichiwa. It's a bit like drive-thru except of course, you walk. Once inside, you sit around the kitchen bar room-style, and watch your food being prepared right in front of you. There's music pumping in the joint and a large TV in the corner playing various sorts of anime and music videos and the cooks in the center cook to the beats and collectively yell out (in rhythm) hello or goodbye (or maybe both, not entirely sure) as people come and go. It was definitely cool although I'm sure we broke more than one customary rule while enjoying our meal, such as feeding each other, sharing our beers and allowing Chloe to pick up her noodles with her fingers.

Prompted initially by a desire for strong coffee, we ventured out a couple of times on the trains with the babies (albeit sans American-sized stroller) to Shibuya and to Ginza. Shibuya is famous for its crowds, its stores and its intersections, which include about six different directions of pedestrian crossing. It puts Times Square to shame. The first time there, Chloe spent most of the day sitting on Nick’s shoulders, grasping onto his hair as tightly as she could. By the second time though, our little ham was dancing in the streets to the music pouring out of the stores, entertaining the Japanese passersby. Ginza is the high fashion shopping area and they have every high end store imaginable. Dangerous. On the weekends they close the streets there to traffic so it is pleasant to walk around. We went sake tasting with the babies in tow. Chloe ate a dried squid bon bon. Then she ate another one. Not satisfied with the seafood-jerky I decided to try out the "food court" of one of the huge department stores. After realizing we weren't in the perfume department and that the food was just that nicely packaged, we bought a couple of sticky rice-filled seaweed snacks and a couple of unidentified fritters. Chloe enjoyed eating the rice while sitting on Nick's shoulders. Nick did not really enjoy getting a rice shower. The food court, however, does not have a seating area. Also suspiciously absent are garbage cans. The entire city seems devoid of such useful devices. I'm beginning to think this is how the Japanese stay so slim. Who wants to grab a bite to eat if you have to put the trash into your back pocket? Another explanation might be that the Japanese abhor eating on the go. They also disapprove of drinking on the go, which means the to-go Starbucks cup is strikingly absent, as is the darling of Nick's heart, the "roadie", which usually contains something a bit stronger than coffee. At the food court, which was so jam-packed you could barely navigate your way through it even if you do not stand out as a big group of Americans with babies strapped to your backs, I noticed a lot of women touching the babies’ feet as they passed; I decided it must be a good luck thing. Finally, on our way out I saw three teenage girls dressed entirely like Little Bo Peep. All that was missing was the sheep.

So far things are going great. We're of course, still figuring stuff out, including all the buttons in the house, although a friendly neighbor provided us with a couple of manuals in English. Nick managed to go out to Ikea, buy a bunch of stuff from the house and schedule a delivery within 48 hours. I managed to set up an Amazon account here in Japan and order some Halloween costumes for the girls, and Nick managed to purchase a wireless router and install it despite it being entirely in Japanese. Everything only took us about six times longer than it normally would have with a couple of snags (next I have to figure out how to return something to Amazon. ugh.)

http://picasaweb.google.com/jessie.mussallem/TokyoWeekNITwo#slideshow/5392237915667190354

For now, sayounara!