Travel Journal – Saturday 17/4 – 2010
Yakuniku again, cards and internet.
Today has been the cheapest day for both of us since we arrived to Japan. We haven’t had any expenses at all if you don’t count the rent and other expenses that technically apply on all days even though we don’t pay it today. Most of the reason to this is because we were in bed to around 12, again, and right after breakfast Miiko came and almost directly she treated us to home made Yakuniku1.
We had promised her to help on the roof as earlier mentioned today. But this morning it had obviously SNOWED here in Tokyo, though it went away as soon as it came… But anyway, SNOW! Here! Then later it had rained and when she arrived to us around half past twelve it was overcast and cold outside. So we decided to help her tomorrow instead if the weather would allow it. But we would still have this “party”. She had invited a good friend of her and together we cooked Yakuniku in a special kind of frying pan for this. Not over coals as in the restaurant but anyway it was really fun and a lot more to eat that in the restaurant.
We spoke, and had a really good time and ate for about 2-3 hours with brief pauses. First Yakuniku and when we had emptied all those plates she brought forth Soba2 and we made some of these instead and ate it, and not long after we had finished that we took everything away and ate a piece of cake. In total we ate in a little more than 3 hours. Then after we had finished we played Five Cards3 for about 2 hours which was very fun. Miiko became very worked up and was almost like a little girl when it came to the game. Miiko won, Drak came second and one point after him it was me and lastly her cute friend Terumi.
So in essence, today Drak and I have eaten almost non-stop from breakfast to dinner and probably will be okay on this for the rest of the day. We have planned to go to bed a little bit earlier today for several reasons. One is that we have promised to go to the temple quite early tomorrow, the second is that soon (this Monday) we’ll start doing stuff. We’ll probably go to Kyoto on Monday or Tuesday and on our way home stay in Osaka and then come back here on Friday or Saturday. We don’t know how it will be with internet during this but we need to do stuff now before our pass is declared invalid. Plus we have been too inactive, at least I think so and I want to do stuff. I speculated about going back to Roppongi tonight, but it’s no good idea if we want to be up early. We can do that the day our rail-passes expire or whatever. Now when we go back to the internet we’ll check some things and make plans after that.
Best Regards,
Herid Fel
PS. So far is my journal 14 pages, which is about 2 pages per day spent in Japan. .DS
Hello Herid,
I am sure you will love Kyoto, though the trip there may be a little expensive. And moving in the city is more difficult, since there is no train or subway there. Using bus is difficult when we do not speak good japanese.
Did the sento with the electric chair was the one after the railway station, one that was on the map of Kita Urawa ? If I remember well, there was a restaurant there and I had a meal there. The atmosphere was good but there were many old people there so it gave me the impression to be a place for old wealthy people. But the baths were quite pleasant and the bath outside was great when it was sunny. A little far from Miiko’s home but good memory of this place.
Did you plan to see the buddha in Kamakura ? I think that is a place worth visiting. But of course there are plenty of interesting things to do in Japan.
If you do not know what to do in Tokyo there was a bar called “Mickey’s bar” (as far as i remember) around Shibuya I would say where you could meet japanese people. You may just need to speak english there with them (since they go there for that purpose) but the bar was really pleasant and friendly.
Well well,
Thanks for all your entries that I read daily and enjoy your days there 😉
Read you soon,
Asanonamida
Actually the bar’s name is Mickey House. I am sure you will enjoy your time there, since, as me, in my opinion, your first goal is to meet japanese people and exchange with them.
And here is the link !
http://www.mickeyhouse.jp/link.htm