Japan, Day 2: Jet-lag

I spent the majority of today unconscious, though there were some fun things. I woke up early with Bobby and we got breakfast at this place called Mr. Donut. It's like the Dunkin' Donuts of Japan, but they're much better here, according to Bobby. Their plain and sugared doughnuts are like doughnut-shaped doughboys, and they're pretty amazing. Their other-flavored ones are kind of just weird. I had one with unidentifiable purple frosting on it, which I kind of liked, and this cruller with banana cream inside and chocolate on the outside, which I wasn't too fond of (I'm not a huge banana-flavored-things person). The way I've been eating here has been basically to go by looks and hope for the best, because most things are not printed in any kind of English, and Bobby's Japanese is limited. You win some, you lose some. We wandered around the shopping district a little and found some hilarious Japanglish t-shirts, though, before Bobby had to catch a train for his ninjutsu classes. I went back to the hotel for a little bit and then went out while they did room cleaning. I got lost in this HUGE department store, Takashimaya, I think it was called. Not only was it 8 floors tall and had literally EVERYTHING in it, but it was attached to the train station and two other malls, but only certain floors led to the other buildings, and everything was in Japanese, and it was so confusing. They must really love to shop here, because this place was intense. If only they spoke English, I can think of certain siblings who would be in heaven here.

Mr. Donut's doughnuts

Japanglish at its finest

Monkey Japanglish

Monkey on the other side of this shirt (side note: they have the designers of many little logos and prints as well as names of models listed right on the article of clothing, advertisement, or other such thing that it is printed on, while American products are generally made by anonymous design fairies unless you happen to be one of the very few big names)

More Japanglish...MAXIMUM DUDE!

After that, I pretty much slept the rest of the day. Bobby came back for a little while between ninjutsu classes, basically with just enough time for us to grab food from a convenience store to hold us over until he came back later in the evening for a real meal. They have these pastries here that look like little dinner rolls, the soft ones, and have some kind of cream or pudding on the inside. They're darn tasty and I have no idea what they're called, but they're good and they're cheap. I didn't get a picture of them, though. I might as well talk about convenience stores at this point. They're mostly similar to American ones (in fact, 7-11 is a Japanese company), but they sell a lot more ready-made meals (mostly rice things which I wasn't about to be adventurous enough to try, but also things on sticks, like chicken or corn dogs or other assorted meat and vegetables, kept warm in one of those hot-dog warming machines). They also have in addition to cold bottled drinks, hot bottled drinks. Like, you can buy a bottle of hot tea and take it out with you. Brilliant. One thing I find kind of odd though is that they sell porn in convenience stores. It's just sitting there, amongst all the regular magazines (and also manga), like it's no big thing. Some of them just sell the porno mags but some also have DVDs there too. Kind of weird to me...like, “Hum de dum, I just came in here to use the ATM, and I'm looking around while it's processing my card and OH LOOK, BOOBS.” Kind of awkward. I guess not, if you're Japanese, though. You must be used to it. Also, prostitution is legal. We thought we saw a hooker on our first night here, based on how she was dressed and that she was just standing around near a street corner while pretty much everyone else was moving (people are always moving here, btw), but we weren't about to ask.

Anyway, I slept a lot and eventually Bobby came back for the night and we went to dinner at this casual sit-down Japanese-style place. Restaurants in Japan are a little bit different from here. For one thing, you don't tip. Ever. In Japan, they pay their staff at least whatever the minimum wage is here, so tipping is not necessary. Also, if you try to tip, the staff will get flustered and try very hard to give you back the rest of your money. This is something I knew beforehand, though, so I at least haven't been the cause of that embarrassing situation. You don't wait for your waiter or waitress to come by and and check on you. After they give you the menu, they wait for you to call them over, which is done by use of a little button that rings a bell in the staff area indicating that you want something. I've always felt kind of rude whenever I've had to ring a bell for service, like at a receptionist or something, even though I do need service. The same was true for me at the Japanese restaurant. I knew that if one of us didn't push the button, we'd sit there all night, but it just felt so weird to do. Again, not weird if you're Japanese, just accepted. Pretty much everywhere you'll go, you bring the check up to a front register to pay, instead of giving it to your waiter/waitress and waiting for the person to come back with your change. When paying anywhere in Japan, you either hand them money with both hands or they have a little tray that you put it in (again with both hands). If you're only dealing with change, though, using one hand is okay. Also, any time you receive something, it's with two hands, and a little bow of the head. You also give a little bow when you give anything, when you greet a person, when you move out of their way on the train, and pretty much any other time you interact with somebody at all, unless you are very familiar with them. “Sumi masen” means “Excuse me” or “I'm sorry” and it's used almost as often as you bow. The same is true for “Arigato gozai mas” which is “Thank you” (“Arigato” on its own is more like “Thanks”). These little customs are what make Japanese society seem so much more polite than ours. I don't think most Americans mean to be rude, but it's just that we don't apologize and thank for absolutely everything, just what feels necessary. In Japan, however, it's ALWAYS necessary.

That was a bit of a tangent, wasn't it? Anyway, the food was good. I had some kind of omelette thing and Bobby had some spicy meat/rice/veggie dish. My drink was called something along the lines of “Girly Strawberry Soda Float”. It had “girly” in the name and I just had to order it. And it was pretty good, too. Strawberry soda with vanilla ice cream and a real strawberry on top. Yum. For an appetizer, we had lotus root chips. Basically like potato chips except made from a lotus root, and of course spiced differently. I haven't the foggiest idea what they used for flavorings on them, but they were delicious.

The bell we ring for service. (side note: there's an ashtray next to the service bell, and people do smoke in public places here in Japan...I know it hasn't been illegal that long in the United States, but I've gotten very used to it, and it's kind of off-putting to come home smelling like smoke when all you wanted was a nice night out...smoking here, though, isn't as prevalent as it is in Europe...freaking everyone smokes there from the time they're 12)

My food & drink

Bobby's food

Lotus root chips

After supper, we went back to the hotel and slept. Bobby slept through the night, more or less, but I was awake for all three small tremors to occur at the wee hours of the morning, a few hours apart, of course, so I couldn't stay asleep. (Quarter of 3, quarter of 4, then either 6 or 7)