Changes

I spend my morning packing up my stuff and checking out.  Instead of taking off for the airport, I get to lug my luggage (now I know why they call it that) into work.  I padded my time to make sure the check out went OK and that I could get through security in the building.  Well, reception was dead and check out was a breeze.  Security only stops you if you don’t have an access card.  I did so up I went, 30 minutes early.  No problem, I have work to do while people may not be in so I don’t bug them.

Around 10 minutes after 9:00AM and no one in the office, I begin to wonder if this office is like the ones in the states and this is an off-Friday.  Crap.  Well, I can’t check in to my new hotel until 2:00PM and I’m sure as heck not going to go hauling this crap around the city with me.  A few minutes later, everyone comes lumbering in to start work.

I work, I do IT stuff, etc.  Around the end of lunch time (everyone just grabbed food at the convenience store along with me.  Still good though), one of the guys that has been here forever starts chatting with me about the September Sumo Tournament going on right now and how much fun it was when he went years ago.  This will probably be his last trip and last weekend here in Japan, so we both decide it would be a kick ass thing to try and go see.  It is the second to last day and the top 3 tiers are competing and there is some excitement brewing around the rookie, Ichinoji.  He’s been beating the yokozuna (grand masters) and for a rookie to make it this far in the tournament is rare.  The last rookie to win a tournament was in May 1914, 100 years ago.

So much for my boring plans of walking a garden area near the Imperial Palace and the shopping district near Tokyo Station.  I’ll do that Sunday, or go to Akihabara, or Kamakura.  Thoughts?

The problem with wanting to go see the event tomorrow (Saturday), is that it has been sold out for weeks.  However, there are the general admission seats that go on sale the day of the event.  So, I will be trying to do that.  I have to be at the Ginza Station near my hotel at 5:09 AM.  That is very early.  So I do not have a lot of time to explore for dinner.

I check in to the hotel after guessing the right way to go and get into my room at 4:05, just in time to figure out how to tune into today’s sumo matches among the top two tiers.

Since I had little time and I just spent two hours watching sumo, I just went to that awesome sushi place, Itamae Sushi, that I had for lunch on Monday and had a new dish: Pickled Tuna rice bowl with a spicy tuna roll and miso soup (replete with shrimp head, woot!).  Man, this place never disappoints.  Back at the hotel, relaxing, and writing to you guys by 8:00.

I am hoping that tomorrow’s post will be all about the sumo tournament.  Changes can be nice.  Oh, and my room number here at the New Otani is 888.  Very lucky.

Post Office and Laundry

Today’s task will be to get some more cash out of somewhere that won’t charge me 5% for dealing with the gaijin bank card.  With that, I will be able afford to eat for the next week and will have a chance to get some laundry done.  Observant readers will recall I mentioned prices on the laundry.  It is indeed per item.  So, with the amount I had, I figured I’d pack my laundry up, walk the 20 minutes to a new area, spend the wash cycle looking for a place to eat and the dry cycle eating at said place.

I head into work lamenting that I did not get a chance to use the pool in the hotel.  I’ve been just too busy with work, this blog, and exploring.  Swimming is nice, but it is, after all, just swimming no matter how awesome the environment may be.  There are new people there this time.  More east coasters with their “let’s see who can be a bigger a-hole” attitude which I politely excuse myself to be elsewhere.  Later, when they’ve calmed down, I chat them up and once you can break through that outer layer of gruff, they’re all really nice.  I can’t abide that whole tough guy attitude sometimes though so I remove myself from that situation.

I got an email earlier in my morning saying that the two people’s accounts are now active.  Really?  You couldn’t think to activate them on Monday when you knew I was going to be in the office working this issue?  You’re killing, Semour.

Lunch?  Yeah, it was meh.  I suppose I was due to have it one time or another out here.  The office girl wanted to take me to Hooters.  Yup, Hooters.  It’s pretty much the exact same except they have about 7 flavors of wings instead of 20 and it’s harder to read the menu.  I had the lunch special: SPAM sandwich with spicy mayo and onion rings.  Not too bad, but still, meh.  I would have rather gone somewhere else.  The Beer Kitchen next door, or the kobe beef place we passed on the way to Hooters.  I believe she’s said we should do the kobe place tomorrow.  So I got that going for me…

We stop in a bookstore on the way back and I grab a Manga to practice reading, if I can get that far in my hiragana and katakana.  On the way back I recognize the symbol for a post office.  Hey, this is one of the places that have an ATM that only charges about 1% for using foreign cards.  I take some yen out and breathe a little better having secured at least that part of my day’s plan.

The rest of the afternoon was spent listening to stories from the program managers that were from the east coast.  All entertaining and I got some good tips from a guy that has been here a majority of the time since 1995.  Near the end of the day a man comes in that I have only heard mention of a couple times and he’s retiring in 5 days.  I make a little small talk with him and find out that he’s retiring to Rancho Bernardo.  Small world, eh?

That same guy that’s been here starts telling me about the inner workings of the sumo ranking system and it sounds pretty cool how it is set up.  There is a tournament going on right now and some major matches this weekend.  I think I’m going to try and get a ticket or at least watch it on TV.

It’s raining as I leave the office and I head back to the room to cram my laundry into a couple bags and armed with a map, head to find the laundromat.  I emerge from the tunnels right in front of that Starbucks I ate at the first morning I was here and head down the street.  I have no problem finding the laundry place.  It’s about the size of my kitchen and has four washers and 4 dryers, a bench, and a vending machine selling what I have to assume is detergent (30¥ or 50¥) and dryer sheets (50¥).  Washing is 400¥ and drying is 100¥ for 10 minutes.

All four washers are full.  Great.  It’s misting outside, about 80°, and about 80% humidity.  I wait outside the door for about 30 minutes and finally someone comes to pull out their laundry that finished 10 minutes before.  I throw my clothes in, but the soap where I hope I’m supposed to, leave my bags on the top of the washers like everyone else, set a timer on my phone and hit the streets looking for food.  I wander, traipse, and generally meander about the neighborhood and eventually settle on an Indian restaurant, Swagat, that is right next door.  Meaning that the restaurant practically surrounds the tiny laundromat.

Having changed the laundry into the dryer, I set another timer, walk out one door and walk around the corner where an Indian man is standing outside.  I look at him, he smiles and says, “Hello, sir!”  I tell him I am hungry and am ushered inside.  I order the mutton curry and garlic naan.  It is a very memorable meal and the waiter was very friendly and I enjoyed a nice conversation with him.  Sahda, I hope the next two months pass quickly for you so you can visit your boys.

Belly full, I head back to fold laundry.  There is another lady in there doing laundry too and the two of us vying for space in that cramped little shop was comical and we both laughed as we were trying to avoid being in each other’s way.  All told, I spent 910¥ for one load of laundry.  That's about $8.40.  Anyone care to guess what the hotel would have charged me?  18,618¥ is the correct answer.  I knew you'd be close.  That's about $171.69.  So I discover a nice Indian place and save $163.  Yeah, I'm OK with that and missing out on swimming.

I casually walk back to the hotel and walk into my room for the last time.  My final rainshower awaits so I will end this entry now.

Mata ashita

Truly Foreign Food and The Wrong Clothes

Today’s escapades were fairly mundane.  Up at 6:00 to try and catch people on the east coast as they were getting ready to leave (5pm yesterday for them) and working with my team on the west coast as it was only 2pm for them.  I called my boss and worked through the labyrinthine expense system we use at work to book domestic travel to make sure she approved any of the choices that were being made.  She’ll ultimately need to approve them and hope the ambivalent gods that control the skein of rules see fit to bless us with not having to fill out numerous justification forms.

This will be great… I’ll have three days at home before back on a plane for that other slightly foreign land of Texas.  I’m looking forward to it actually.  It’s an award ceremony for a few of us, so what the hell, I can look forward to that, right?  Damn skippy.

I head into work at my usual time, about 20 minutes before 9:00, which will get me there about 10 minutes early.  I was almost late.  I saw something totally cool.  I took a video or two of a very tight parking lot on the busy Sotobori Dori street.  It was one of those turn tables that rotates the car 90°.  Very cool.

Working in a foreign country is … different to be putting it lightly.  I was given instructions on getting some users on an international Exchange server that were “slightly outdated but should be close enough” and the usernames and passwords of the users to get them going.  So, I’ll be working on two locals’ machines… with full Japanese installs.  With help of [REDACTED]-san, he points me to the right boxes.  I’m generally close as I’m familiar enough with the process of clicking the third tab, click the second to the last box, press the button that activates, etc.  I just get confirmation on the dropdowns as there are either more or less options and I’m not sure how they’re ordered.  Everything is going perfect.  Until (you knew that was coming…).  Yes, until (and my fellow techies out there may appreciate this) I need to specify a domain and username, which for the rest of you means: “domain\username”.  On a Japanese keyboard, if you press the ‘\’ key, you get ‘¥’.  Yup,  ‘¥’.  Well, that won’t work.  I know, some of you are thinking, just use the ASCII escape sequence.  Hai!!  Pressing ALT+0092 gives me the finger and a proud little ‘¥’ staring back at me.  Crap.  I try to use the ¥ in place of the ‘\’ anyways and get an error in which [REDACTED]-san informs me says that it means an invalid username has been entered.  No sh!t…  <sigh>.  We send an email with a ‘\’ in the body of the email, copy and paste that, and get a ‘¥’ again.  Ugh… OK, I hit my laptop for some research, come up pretty much blank and then fire off an email to my east coast guys that have been traveling like this in the past.  They say to change the language to English.  Brilliant! Didn’t help the keyboard issue.  There is spare US keyboard around, we plug that in and I hopefully press the \ key and am rewarded with … guesses anyone?  If you guessed ‘¥’, then you have lost.  If you guessed ‘]’, then you win!  Pressing ‘]’ yields a ‘[‘.  Pressing ‘[‘ gives me, as I would have guessed, a ‘@’.  OK, time to give up on that avenue, it is producing madness.  I decide to try browsing the network, since that needs to use ‘\’ as well.  I look up the machine name (<3 DOS commands… “hostname” for the win) and punch that into the address bar with “¥¥” in front of it and am greeted with a small folder listing of what is being shared on the network from this system.  Huzzah! OK, so it appears ‘¥’ is the equivalent of ‘\’ here.  I redo all the work knowing that and still get errors.  I try the same process on the US English system that I’m going to replace next week with a known good account and the steps work fine.  OK, so it’s their accounts.  I follow up my previous email with a request to make sure the accounts are enabled and the passwords are correct.

The office manager invites me to go to lunch with her and I happily accept.  Anywhere the “locals” like to eat is where I want to try.  Monday was a great sushi place.  Today was a Korean place she really likes.  She suggested the bibimbap, with some spicy, pickled cabbage, some red sauce that was similar to Sriracha but not as hot.  Holy moly, what a great meal.  There were signs all over the restaurant that had pictures of famous people that have eaten there and their signatures and well-wishes.  When I say “all over”, they truly were all over.  They even lined the long entry hall from the side street to get to the restaurant.

We stopped in a little discount store because she wanted to show me where it was if I needed it.  She grabbed some shampoo, I found green tea Kit Kats, and ones you’re supposed to bake, pumpkin spice Kit Kats, and Vanilla Ice Cream flavored ones.  Huge bags though.  I may have to go back and see if they have smaller packages.  I also noted they sold small bottles of laundry detergent.  I’ll need that soon.  I’ll be doing laundry at a coin-op place about 20 minute walk away according to the concierge desk.  It’s about $4.00 to wash and $1.00 for 10 minutes of drying.

Back in the office after lunch was routine stuff but around 3:00pm the lady I went to lunch with asks me if I brought an umbrella.  Uhhh…. Nooo?  I glance outside and see that it is indeed raining and pretty windy.  A quick check reveals that it will be like this for the next 24-36 hours as near as I can tell.  Great.  I have my rain slick… back in my hotel where it is nice, cozy, and dry.  She offers an umbrella for me.  She is a life saver.

A few minutes later, I hear a different person in the office talking to someone in English and hear them say that we’re having some bad weather.  I am reminded of hearing an Eskimo proverb a few years ago that says: There is no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes.  Too true.  Dress slacks and shirt are the wrong clothes to be out in this weather by themselves.

Bad weather?  No, just another reason Tokyo is beautiful no matter what the weather.

I take the umbrella with me as I depart the office slightly happy that I’m beginning to catch phrases I know and be able to respond.  Still woefully inadequate to function, but it’s a start.  I head out into the rain and decide that since I’m already out, I’ll hit dinner before going back to the hotel.  Since I started today with foreign food (or at least foreign in this country), I’ll finish with foreign food.  Off to Saray, the Turkish underground restaurant for lahmacun.

I am warmly greeted in English and asked if I have a reservation.  Uh oh.  I respond that I do not and they say that they’re sorry, but the tables are all reserved and that I would have to eat at the counter.  Uh, OK!  No worries there!  I order my lahmacun.  Even though it is not in Turkey, it’s the same continent and cooked by Turkish people, I’m happy.  I’m even happier when I get to eat this delicacy.  Oh so good.

Dessert is Turkish ice cream and Turkish coffee.  MMmmmm.  The cup is about 1.5 inches across.  Almost big enough to be used in a child’s tea set, but very beautiful in design.  I put my watch in the picture as a reference to the size.

I walk over to the grocery store for my breakfast for tomorrow: blueberry yogurt, maguro sashimi, and some Meiji orange-apple-banana milk.  Don’t you judge me.

How 1 is 2 in Japan, plus Cat Cafes and Curry

So after posting my blog, people started working and responding to some issues with the work here.  I finally was able to get to bed around 12:30 after a nice shower and soak.

This morning I awoke on my “day off” for the equinox and jumped back into email as people were leaving soon on the east coast.  By about 8am I had my answer that I needed.  Since that very pricy English computer won’t be delivered until next Wednesday (October 1), then I get to stay an entire week longer to get this work complete and I’ll be home on October 3.  While welcome on many levels as I am loving this country, it would have been nice to book the hotel for that entire week because now I have to switch as they are booked solid.  Also, it would have been nice to pack with that expectation.  I can have laundry done in the hotel.  The order form shows it is about $8.00 for a dress shirt, $3.50 for socks, $4.50 for underwear or undershirts.  I sure hope this isn’t each…

I also found out yesterday that I was nominated and selected for an award from work.  So that was a nice little surprise.  My four levels of managers each congratulated me on the award and were very nice.  My immediate manager thinks it would be a good idea for me to go to the awards ceremony… in Texas … on October 8.  So, I’m flying again, albeit not for 14 hours, but that also means economy.  Dammit.  Still trying to get answers from folks about what I can book and not so I don’t get in trouble.  That is a problem being 13 to 16 hours ahead of people you communicate with.

I finally get to get out and experience the city by about 10am.  I’m not too bent out of shape, it is a free day off that I wasn’t expecting.  Today’s plan:  HapiNeko Cat Café (http://hapineko.com/eigoindex.html), Tokyo Ramen Street (it calls to me…), and a small portion of the Imperial Gardens that are open to the public and a popular shopping street all near Tokyo Station and the all-important Ramen Street.

Ginza line, GO!!  I make it back to Shibuya station and its famous crossing which I purposely cross perpendicular to the vast majority this time.  My directions to HapiNeko where to take the street where the store “109” is.  I have pictures and a map, I’m good to go.  After about 150m, I realize that this isn’t the right street, Google confirms, I go back to Shibuya crossing (yay!!), look around.  Hey look! Another 109 store.  THAT one looks right.  I start that way and recognize some stores from the picture directions I have.  Before I can continue to my destination, I had to take a picture of a somewhat entertaining sign.

I prepare to walk on, when the doors part and I see inside that it is a pachinko parlor.  Holy Crap, I wanted to see one of these.  Oh. My. God.  The Noise.  I snap a pic as evidence I was there and vacate before I am deafened.

I have little issue locating the HapiNeko Cat Café, but I do have a hard time entering even though I know I’m close.  I even took a picture so you could all see how “close” I got.  I head down stairs a little bummed to have not experienced this somewhat unique shop and that is when I notice the advertisement in the tunnel leading to the stairs.  They open at 11:00, and it’s only 10:40.  Woot!

I wait and about 5 minutes before a lady come from the elevator and greets me, unlocks the door and shuts it behind her.  Cool, people are there even on the holiday.  Another minute and two young girls come up the stairs and are disappointed that it is closed.  I try my best to explain there is someone in there.   They stay and chat between themselves.  It gets a few minutes past 11:00 and they sit down despite there being copious signs to the fact that you’re not allowed to sit on the stairs to wait.  Either stand or sit in the seats made for 3-year olds.  I remain standing.  I can only guess that there are many signs stating that as I cannot read them.  I can read the one in English that says to not sit on the stairs, “If you sit on the stairs, you will not be allowed in the cat cafe”.  I’m not sure if it is a translation thing, but I’m not going to chance it.  Around 11:10, the door is opened.  That first lady I saw comes out with a welcome mat, sees the girls stand up from sitting on the stairs and launches into a good 30-40 second string of chiding and admonishments as she secures the door with a small rope over the handle.  The two girls sheepishly head back down stairs and I am invited inside.

I pay my ¥1,080 (about $10.50) for a half hour.  I read all the rules.  These are for protecting the cats from those that don’t live with them and know how to handle them.  No worries I can abide by the rules.  Oh, and no petting the ones with collars for some reason.  I remove my shoes and put them in a cubby in the 4’x4’ lobby and am invited into the inner sanctum where I am given slippers and asked what drink I would like.  I settle on a mango yogurt affair and I am shown to my own reserved seat and am served my drink and two bite sized little cakes.

The cats are adorable, as expected and I only get warned once about not petting the ones with collars. Honestly, it’s a long hair, you can barely see the collar.  I spend my 30 minutes enjoying petting the ones I could and getting my leg attacked in a drive-by by the cutest little kitten they had there.

Thoroughly hapi, I head out and since it is almost noon, I can feel the steady pull to Tokyo Station for curry that I was denied yesterday.  Like a boss, I weave through the subway and hit the station like I’ve been here forever.  I am secretly memorizing my path so I don’t have another long walk through the tunnels to the non-Tokyo Station Marunouchi line stop.  I beeline it for nirvana and after seeing a few choices, I decide on one that looks packed.  I sit outside and am immediately ushered inside.  I sit, order my pork cutlet curry right away and about 90 seconds later: BAM, nirvana on a plate with a side of awesome sauce.  I almost inhale that dish.  Holy crap… so, so, so good.  The problem with this place, Tokyo in general, not just Ramen Street, is that when deciding to eat somewhere there are always two or three others that you want to go and try.  When you get to try them, you’ve added another two or three.  It is a vicious, delicious cycle I will have to endure for another week and a half.  The cashier hands me my receipt and says in English as he points to the bottom of my receipt: “NO CURRY NO LIFE”.  I can only respond with several emphatic “hai”s.  So true…

I start to return on my memorized route and pop into some of the shops along the way.  Now for all those reading that have not been to Tokyo Station Ramen Street, it is a mall basically and I’m sure the rent is not cheap for the shops.  So, when I see a shop selling fruit, I have to check it out.  You see, my beloved readers, those are cantaloupes.  These are not ordinary cantaloupes.  These are meant to be given as gifts as they are considered perfect specimens.  All that aside, they are still cantaloupes AND ¥16,200 cantaloupes at that.  That’s about a $152 cantaloupe folks.  It better be good, and no, I did not buy one.

I follow my memorized path back, avoid the half kilometer detour and hope on the right subway and try to guess the right subway exit to take to end up near that beer shop.  I am horribly off, but as I step up the last stairs, I do recognize where I am.  Bic Camera.  So, not even close to where I wanted to go, but I start walking there undaunted and along the way remember that I was going to go to that shopping street and the gardens today.  Such was the power of that curry.

I wander into a small grocery store, note that they sell some quick made meals that all look good.  They even have a sashimi section with tako, maguro, unagi that looks mouth-watering, and others too numerous to mention.  I head to the beer store and settle on two, what I hope are great ones:  Aooni, an IPA, and Tokyo Black, a porter.  These will be enjoyed after I go out for another gastronomic adventure.  When I get back to the room, I notice that housekeeping hasn't been through yet.  Cool, I will drop off the beers in the fridge and go relax in the shrine next door for an hour.

It’s almost 6PM locally, and I am going to head out for dinner.

The sojourn will continue, but maybe not until tomorrow.  I have found how to port music into the shower a bath room.  THAT will be made of win.