Back to Murrika

Given the welcome screening I had received in Japan, I was expecting a long wait and a moderate amount of questioning when I returned to the States. Instead... nothing. No questions from immigration and I walked right through customs without so much as eye contact from a security official. I was pleasantly surprised by all of this, of course, with the emphasis on "surprised". After a five-day beach trip to Cabo two years ago, all my bags were turned inside out and scrutinized. After nine months in Southeast Asia? Nothing. Meh, move along sir.

California

My flight back to the States was actually to L.A. because it was far cheaper than flying to San Francisco from Tokyo. This worked out nicely since I have college buddies in Santa Monica and Ventura and I ended up staying with them for about a week. Fun times during the week were delightfully laid-back, which was much needed after the finale in Tokyo. While staying in Ventura, Pete and I went middle-school-summer style one day by playing basketball from the early evening until it was too dark to see. (Then we went grown-up style by hitting the bars afterwards.) It was really nice to see the California coastline again.


Coincidentally, another good friend from college was in town that same weekend for a wedding, so we had an awesome mini-reunion with lots of late nights and laughs. We even went out Friday night for Japanese food, karaoke, and sake; the throwback to the previous week and the excellent company made me very happy.

After a fun and quasi-productive week in L.A. (I finally got a worthwhile phone and a U.S. phone number), I took the train up to SF, mainly to pay a visit to my storage unit, but also to reunite with lots of bay area friends. After nine months abroad, a trip to my storage unit was in order to drop off (mostly paper) souvenirs I was tired of carrying around, swap out some clothes, and pack a "wedding kit" so I have some nice clothes for three weddings this summer.

New Orleans

After a couple days in SF, it was off to New Orleans for my cousin's wedding and a reunion with my family and a good portion of my extended family. New Orleans, as usual, was a blast - with perfect weather! - and the wedding was gorgeous. A lasting memory for me is the sight of string lights crisscrossing the terrace of a beautiful old mansion as a brass band played on and my cousin was a happy dancing fool.

Tampa

The day after the wedding, I hopped on a plane to Tampa to visit my grandparents, who I hadn't seen in about a decade. Months prior, I had realized that New Orleans was as geographically close to Tampa as I would ever realistically get, so I emailed my grandmother and told her I would be visiting after the wedding. As luck/fate/misfortune/whatever would have it, my grandfather, who has battled many varieties of cancer for many years, took a sudden turn for the worse a few days before the wedding. (Sidebar: in keeping with my apparent tradition of literature-matching-life, I had just started reading A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, a memoir that starts with the author losing both parents to cancer.)

When I reached Tampa a bit after midnight Monday morning, he was on his deathbed; the next day, in the company of close family, he passed peacefully. That night, we all hoisted martinis (his favorite drink) in his honor and told stories at my grandmother's place.


A few weeks later, my mother and her sisters flew down to visit my grandmother and came back with many old photos, including a few of him and me when I was very young.

Rest in peace, Grandpop.

Washington, DC

I flew back to Philly the next day and stayed a couple nights with my brother's family before taking the train to D.C.; my dear friend Becca was visiting her brother for Memorial Day and staying for almost a week, so I decided to join the fun and have a 5-day weekend down there as well. Despite living so close for so many years, I had never done any sight-seeing in D.C. before and it was great to finally see all the buildings, monuments, memorials, the mall, and a museum or two. I very highly recommend the Newseum, not least of which because they have an Anchorman exhibit.

Delaware

After a very fun extended weekend with lots of beautiful weather, BBQ, and all-around Murrikana, I took the train back to Delaware and settled down for some quiet suburban life with my brother and his family. For the last few weeks, I've been spending time with them, catching up on photo editing and blogging, trying to organize my travel plans this summer, watching the World Cup, and running some errands now that I'm finally back in the States. I also finally met my nephew Quinn and these days I'm watching him learn to walk and try to make words. Now that he's almost 14 months, he's pretty adorable and a lot of fun to be around. After helping my brother put together a Little Tikes truck for him, we hit the backyard for a test drive and a photo session.


FINALLY, I am caught up to present on my blogging, which has been stressing me out a bit recently. I'm still working on more concrete details, but here are my tentative plans for the rest of the summer:

• June: Delaware, Philly, New York, Boston
• July: San Francisco
• August: Pacific Northwest by train (Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Glacier National)
• September: Minnesota and Asheville (for weddings) with a stopover in Chicago

My plans after the summer are still very nebulous at the moment, but I have some ideas. If you are reading this and live in one of the places mentioned and I haven't talked to you yet, please message me!

Full photo album: New Orleans, Florida, DC, and Delaware

Some Final Thoughts

I've been putting this post off for a while because I'm not quite sure what to say here. Maybe to get things rolling, I'll talk about boring logistics and what resources I used, if only because this could be useful for other travelers.

• For general research about a place, I always used Lonely Planet books and Wikitravel. I often used these resources for activities, restaurants, and bars as well, but I still feel that most of their value comes from more general information like geography, neighborhoods, weather, transportation, and - arguably most importantly - customs and etiquette. Many travelers and even some locals were surprised that I already knew local terms or things like how to hail a cab, ask for the check, or properly greet someone. It's not hard, just read a travel guide for an hour or two; it makes for good reading when you're on the plane/train/bus/boat that is taking you to your next destination.
• Love it or hate it (and I've been on both sides), TripAdvisor is probably the best source for restaurants internationally. It's also good for activities.
• For flights, I always started with Kayak and almost always ended up flying AirAsia. In general, if you're looking to travel around Asia, don't buy all your tickets up front. Instead, only buy your tickets in and out of the continent and then use any of the numerous low-cost carriers to get around; they should be cheaper than the big airlines and you'll have a lot more flexibility when you're traveling.
• For lodging, I usually went through a progression of Agoda, Booking, Airbnb, and Hostelworld. I tend to not stay in hostels - which I guess makes me a flashpacker, not a backpacker - since I equate dorms with restless nights (I'm a light sleeper) and not much security for my things. I could usually find a pretty cheap guesthouse, motel, or bungalow wherever I went so I'd have my own space.

And here's some random advice:

• If you have room for it, bring a tablet. This was the single best purchase I made for my trip. Even though I also traveled with a phone, camera, and laptop, I used my tablet the most. It became pretty essential for a lot of trip planning (most of the links above have dedicated apps), everyday activities (email, Facebook, chat, finances), and reading (books, magazines, and news). It also helps with traveling light since you can chuck all your paper books. An alternative to a tablet would be a smartphone and a Kindle. Either way, don't travel with paper books.
• Buy a SIM card with a data plan for each country you go to. It's usually reasonably priced and easy to get in the airport and will make your travels so much easier.
• Travel with Tylenol, Advil, Pepto or activated charcoal, antibiotics, and a thermometer. For the first six months of my trip, I got sick (as in, stomach issues) once a month, and I'm a pretty selective eater. You're going to get sick, so it's best to be prepared.
• Finally, get a Mint account. 'Nuff said.

---

Rather than attempting some free-form rambling about my trip, I'll instead answer the questions I've heard the most since I've been back.

What was your favorite place?

Impossible to answer. I liked many things about everywhere I went. I will mention that I spent the most time in Thailand, specifically Chiang Mai, because I found two jobs there and got sucked into the city, but I still refuse to pick a favorite.

How did you handle traveling alone for that long?

For starters, I had some consistent company during good portions of the trip: Sabina in August in Thailand, Omar in November in Thailand, coworkers and fellow volunteers in Chiang Mai from November to February, Andrew and Ka-Hing in Hong Kong in April, and Andrew in Japan at the tail end. If I was in a place where I didn't know anyone, I'd usually meet people by going to a bar or restaurant or some other business or event. I've said it before and I'll say it again: smiling and being friendly and courteous will take you very far.

I'll also readily admit that I'm quite comfortable doing things on my own. It's always possible to go sightseeing, take photos, or grab some food by yourself. If all else fails, go for a walk, exercise, or just read a book. One of the requirements of being an adult is the ability to do things by (and for) yourself.

Oh yeah, Skype video calls are great too.

What was the hardest part? What did you miss?

Excluding the obvious answer of "family and friends", I was legitimately stumped the first time someone asked me this. People are friendly, transportation is good and/or cheap, the nature is beautiful, the culture and tourist sights are fascinating, and the food is some of the best I've ever had. I was even able to get good Western food and drinks in many places.

That said, I'd say I missed not-hot-as-balls-weather (though I did get acclimated to the heat), set prices on everything (haggling is customary), being able to speak the local language fluently, and a proper Mission burrito.

If I lived and worked in a single place for the entire time, I'm sure I'd have a much better response, but this is my best answer as a nomadic tourist.

How does it feel to be back?

Weird, but familiar. I'm still not sure if I've woken up from a nine-month dream or if I'm sleeping now and I'll wake up in Asia again. Yet, everything around me is very familiar and it was very easy to get back into the swing of things here. Really, the only reverse culture shock has been dealing with how incredibly expensive everything is.

What now?

TBD, but my next post (hopefully coming tomorrow) has some details.

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The entire experience was incredible, life-affirming, and impossible to put into words. I've told many stories about my travels to friends and family back home and I can tell that I'm underselling the experience every time. I'll put it this way: you know that tingling feeling you sometimes get on the back of your neck when you're really happy or excited or inspired? Yeah, it's like that.

One of my hopes for writing this blog - even though I'm not naturally inclined to write and it's sometimes a real chore - is that I encourage people to go out and have their own adventures. To that end, I present to you a montage of some of my favorite photos and memories from the last nine months.

Life's waiting to begin.

Tokyo Part II

Taking the train back to Tokyo on a Friday afternoon was a great feeling; while it was certainly pleasant to spend some time in the countryside, there's nothing quite like traveling to a major cultural city (especially Tokyo) for the weekend. Being Golden Week in Japan, cheaper lodging in the city's more popular areas was difficult to come by, so we had to suck it up and splurge a little bit for our last weekend. As we cleaned ourselves up and enjoyed some 7-11 happy hour beers in the room before heading out for the night, we absolutely soaked up the gorgeous view from the thirty-something-eth floor of our hotel.

While searching for weekend activities, I had stumbled upon a weekly pub crawl that seemed promising, not least of which because it caters to English-speaking folks. This particular weekend's crawl was in Roppongi, a district known for its nightlife. The crawl had the usual free shots, drink specials, and icebreaker games as we bounced among a few nearby bars. Andrew and I really enjoyed meeting and talking to a lot of people with wildly varying backgrounds but who all call Tokyo home. After the official crawl was over, we continued barhopping with some new friends until the early hours, mostly at a great little rock bar where the music was supplied by the hundreds of rock CDs that lined several shelves of the bar. The bartender was also a joy to talk to since she knew American and British rock very well, especially a lot of the music I grew up with.


On Saturday, we took the train to an incredibly crowded and steamy Harajuku station so that we could check out the Cinco de Mayo festival. We walked around briefly and didn't stay long (and ended up getting Mexican food from a local restaurant instead), but we did spend a while exploring nearby Meiji Shrine and Yoyogi Park, one of the largest parks in Tokyo. The park is an expansive sprawl of beautiful forest and the largest walking paths and torii (Japanese gates) I've ever seen; I swear this park was built for giants. Most people we saw were out for a walk or sightseeing or visiting the temple. I don't remember seeing anyone exercising or playing sports, but we did pass quite a few archers who had finished shooting just before we arrived and were heading home.

To kick off Saturday night, we started with Popeye brewpub, a recommendation from Andrew's father when he visited Tokyo. It was completely packed when we got there and they managed to squeeze us in, but then began the game of musical chairs: first standing at a barrel table on the steps, then upgraded to another barrel table further up the steps, then crammed into an alcove at a tiny table, then upgraded to a prime spot on the front patio. We had several excellent craft beers and a decent amount of free food (a perk of ordering specific beers at happy hour), which turned out to be our dinner. Popeye is in Ryogoku, the neighborhood at the center of the sumo universe; as we were sitting on the patio, we exchanged peace signs with a sumo wrestler who walked by and looked somewhat longingly at all the beer and food.

After Popeye's, we went back to Roppongi and progressed through our fine-tuned, scientific methodology of finding a bar. Truth be told, we wandered for a long time (no one said this approach was perfect), to the point that we passed the same prostitute den mother multiple times. Eventually we found what we wanted: a pleasant karaoke lounge with darts, a nice bartender, a dancing PSY doll on the bar, and a group of friendly Japanese girls, one of whom could speak English pretty well. Fast forward many hours through lots of darts games and karaoke and it was another solid night. Brushing up on our J-pop knowledge that night in Hakone, if only for namedropping purposes, paid dividends.


Sunday was sobering, both in a let's-not-drink-anymore sense and also a we're-leaving-Asia-tomorrow sense. After a late start, we went to Ginza - a district known for its very high-end shopping - for a solid Indian buffet lunch and a few trips to some interesting local stores. Our main reason for going to Ginza was to visit one of the lesser-known museums there and we settled on Advertising Museum Tokyo, which showcases exactly what you'd expect: advertising. It was incredibly interesting, covering everything from Edo-era store signs to modern commercials to some of the most artistic, successful, or fascinating international ad campaigns of recent memory. Highly recommended. And it's free!

That evening we went back to Golden Gai to get our fix of closet bars, as that felt like the only appropriate way to end the trip. Our spot from earlier in the week was full (i.e. there were six people in there) so we drank at the fantastically-named "Kangaroo Court Decision" and then an upstairs bar catering to backpackers. After chatting with the well-traveled bartenders there for a couple hours, we decided that it was time to wrap it up and head back.

Appropriately, the next day was dreary and rainy as we walked through the streets and hopped a couple trains to get to the airport. Andrew and I had separate flights, so we said our goodbyes and I found myself as a solo traveler once again. For the second time in nine months, I sat in quiet sadness as I crossed the inky expanse of the Pacific Ocean. As was the case the previous July, I was excited about what lay ahead of me, but I already missed what I was leaving behind.

I'll have to write down my thoughts about my trip as a whole later, but for now, I'll make some observations about Japan. Presented in no particular order:

• Japanese people dress very well (and fashionably) pretty much all the time. As a general rule, if a Japanese person is out of their home, they're looking good. For instance, when we were walking through the bamboo grove in Kyoto, we saw multiple girls prancing around in short skirts and heels. In a grove! Not that I'm complaining, of course. Obviously most of my empirical evidence comes from looking at Japanese women, but the guys are well put-together too; some of them clearly spend a lot of time on their hair alone.
• Public transportation in Japan (just like in Hong Kong) is surgical. It was eye-opening to experience well-run, clean, and frequent rail travel everywhere we went. It also helps that, and there's no delicate way of putting this, the riffraff that makes public transportation in America (especially San Francisco) less desirable just doesn't exist in Japan. Or Hong Kong. Or anywhere else in Asia I spent time in. I don't have an explanation for any of this, but clearly Asia's doing something right (or secretive).
• Japan was probably the most difficult place to travel. English isn't big in Japan like the other countries I went to, partially because Japanese culture tries to stay well-insulated and partially because they don't need to cater to tourists. Seafood plays a huge role in Japanese food, so purely vegetarian food was also tricky to find. I very much understand the reasons why, so I'm not complaining. Neither of these obstacles are deal-breakers, but they do force me to do more research and have more patience.
• Japanese people can be shy about speaking English in public because they might get self-conscious about attempting something they aren't skilled at. We found the bar scene to be a huge exception to this rule; we met a lot of locals that were very eager to talk to us, even if they barely spoke English.
• Trains of all varieties were deathly quiet. I very much appreciated not hearing conversations or one-sided phone calls.
• Certain transit workers would perform what I'd call politeness or safety rituals. For instance, the stewardesses and conductors on the shinkansen would stop and bow to the car upon entering or exiting. One of the bus drivers in Hakone would point in four different directions before pulling away from each bus stop (which reminded me a bit of the New York subway sign-pointing gag).

I'm certainly not obsessed with Japanese culture (as some Westerners are), but I've always found it intriguing and finally visiting the source did not disappoint. Our time there was enlightening and entertaining.

Finally, I have to express my thanks to Andrew for pulling the trigger on a plane ticket so quickly and accompanying me for three weeks. It was certainly nice to share costs for lodging, but more importantly, it made a huge difference to have a travel, drinking, food, and shenanigans buddy. I know he will read this post at some point, so, Andrew, here's a collection of our favorite Japanese signs and inside jokes:


Full photo album: Tokyo and Hakone

Hakone

While Andrew and I had very much enjoyed our time in Kyoto and Tokyo, we wanted to get out of the cities a bit, experience some more relaxed Japanese culture, and maybe even catch a glimpse of Mt. Fuji. We decided to spend two days and two nights in Hakone, a rural area to the west of Tokyo popular with Japanese tourists.

After searching online through a large selection of accommodations including hotels, resorts, Airbnb, and Buddhist temples, we settled on a reasonably priced ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn. Our ryokan also had an onsen onsite, which was practically a requirement for me. An onsen is a natural hot spring; Japan is a volcanically active country, so there are lots of places where the ground water is naturally heated to (or above) hot tub temperatures. The water in an onsen is also a bit murky as a result of all the natural minerals and sediment. Since we stayed at the ryokan mid-week, we were the only guests for most of our time there, which meant we had exclusive access to the onsen whenever we wanted. In a word: delightful.

Our room was of the traditional style: shoji, tatami mats, and simple pillows and cushions on the floor for sleeping. Whenever we were staying in the ryokan for a little while (sleeping, eating breakfast, or relaxing in the onsen), we'd rock the robes and slippers for maximum comfort. Breakfast was prepared by the lovely owners and thankfully mostly vegetarian. We were served while seated on the floor in a private room with hot tea and a heater, which was much appreciated on the slightly chilly mornings.


The day we arrived was dreary and rainy, so after checking in, we didn't accomplish much beyond making a trip to the grocery store across the street for some snacks and adult beverages and soaking in the onsen for a while. Hakone mostly shuts down at 8:30, so after grabbing some Italian food at a nearby restaurant, we were stuck with not much to do. Between the pre-stocked refrigerator in the room and our grocery purchases in the afternoon, we were adequately supplied with sake and Japanese beer, so we decided to party it up in the room while watching Lost in Translation. Yup, super cliche. It had been a while since either of us had seen the movie and we were pleasantly surprised to see how much more of it we recognized and appreciated.

The next day's weather was much nicer, so we set out to hike up Mt. Kintoki, one of the peaks of the Hakone caldera and, more importantly, the closest trek to our ryokan. It was moderately difficult and all uphill, but luckily the weather was cool and cloudy. We saw a few friendly Japanese folks on the trail and about an hour and a half after we started, we arrived at the foggy, wet, cold summit. On a clear day, Mt. Fuji is clearly visible, but we had to settle for fleeting glimpses in between the dense clouds as we sipped hot chocolate and coffee in the small cabin at the top. I was annoyed that I had hauled my camera all that way only to be thwarted by a whiteout, so we made sure to take some photos with the summit's elevation marker. And an axe, because, hey, why not, right?


For the rest of the day, we took advantage of our 3-day transit pass and rode various modes of transport, a common tourist activity in Hakone. Between the bus, train, funicular, and ropeway, we got to see a lot of the countryside and its mountains, trees, gorges, and rivers. Parts of Hakone are incredibly green and lush and I was reminded of Ithaca on multiple occasions. The ropeway took us over Owakudani ("Great Boiling Valley"), a volcanic area with many steaming sulfur springs. Tourists are advised not to stay too long there because of the poisonous air.


While we were there, we tried some of the famous black eggs; the shells turn black as a result of boiling the eggs in sulfurous water. The insides taste like... egg. Andrew opted to break one of his eggs on his forehead, much to the delight of some onlooking Japanese tourists.


After taking the ropeway and a bus back to our ryokan and soaking in the hot water for a while, we walked down the street to a small strip of three restaurants and decided to press our luck with the Japanese one (the other two were some variety of European). As luck would have it, they had an English menu and a specialty plate of veggie sushi, which would be the only sushi we had during the entire trip.

As we were finishing our drinks after dinner, the drunk, middle-aged woman we had previously noticed sitting at the bar walked over to our table, smiled, and in slow, deliberate, struggling English, said to us: "I... hate... America." Not sure how to respond, Andrew and I looked at each other and laughed. Very quickly, our waitress came over and ushered the woman out the door. To this day, I'm still not sure if that woman was being politely hateful or didn't know we were American or just didn't know what she was saying. It was the only anti-American sentiment either of us noticed during our time in Japan, but I'm still not sure if it was genuine or a terrible mistake. In any case, we didn't let it get to us since we were more confused than insulted. If anything, it made me wonder if the older Japanese generations still harbor anti-American feelings, if only behind closed doors. As we left the restaurant and walked down the street, we glanced in the window of the restaurant next door and saw the middle-aged woman hitting the sauce at the bar inside, which was good for a laugh.

With nothing else to do and nowhere to go, we cracked open a laptop again and polished off the rest of the beer and sake; thank god our ryokan had Internet access. On this night, we entertained ourselves with J-pop videos in the name of being culturally educated for our next trip to a karaoke bar. After listening to more J-pop than I care to admit to, I'm still not a fan as it's just too cloyingly girly and cutesy. However, I did find a male J-pop song that's legitimately good; I find myself listening to it regularly even now that I'm back in the States.

After another night on tatami mats and another traditional breakfast, we packed up our things, caught the bus to the train station, and took the "romance car" (not joking) back to Tokyo for our last weekend in Asia.

Full photo album: Tokyo and Hakone

Tokyo Part I

Armed with a bit more boots-on-the-ground knowledge of Japan, Tokyo got off to a much smoother start than Kyoto. After exiting from the shinkansen, we switched to one of the local rail systems (there are several in Tokyo) and rode to Shinjuku station, the world's busiest train station; I can attest that it is overwhelming and quasi-chaotic. After checking into our hotel, we walked around Shinjuku - a central ward of Tokyo and essentially a microcosm of the city at large - for a few hours to get the lay of the land. After an adequate (but unfortunately not California-level) veggie burrito lunch, we retreated to our hotel in the mid-afternoon and while Andrew took a power nap, I spent some time building a Google map of veggie restaurants to make our dining over the next week somewhat easier.

That evening, we hunted down one of the restaurants on the map, had an excellent dinner, then went out in search of some live music. Some research on Timeout led us to O-Nest, a two-floor music venue and bar. There were four indie acts of varying talent, including a man who looped the sound of his own voice (with no actual music) in a strange piece of performance art. The Japanese folks in the crowd laughed a lot at whatever he was saying, so I guess it couldn't have been that bad. A pleasant side-effect of going to this venue is that the closest train station is next to Shibuya's scramble crossing, one of the busiest pedestrian intersections in the world. It's not uncommon for tourists to grab a table at one of the local businesses (e.g. Starbucks) and people-watch the crossing. We spent a few minutes enjoying the neon lights and bustling crowds before heading home.

We rose early the next morning to catch sight of one of the really unique aspects of Japanese culture: sumo. There are tournaments three times a year and unfortunately our trip didn't coincide with any of them, but there was an open practice scheduled, which turned out to be entertaining and enlightening in its own right. The practice was at the same stadium as the tournaments and even though we arrived only shortly after it began, the only seats available were in the upper sections. While the action below was fascinating, it was also interesting to see what kind of crowd came to a Tuesday morning practice. I had figured it would be almost entirely older men, but they were only a fraction of the spectators. Families, school children, professionals, and teenagers escaped from school or work to watch the practice. I think the big appeal is that the practices are free to attend and people can still see the wrestlers, watch some matches, sit in the stadium, and enjoy some of the traditions and rituals.

Through some protocol that I didn't quite pick up on, the wrestlers would determine amongst themselves who would fight the winner of the previous match. They would wrestle for several rounds until the loser decided he had had enough and another competitor would step in. The wrestlers not participating in the current match would either stand off to the side to stretch and stomp or stand around the ring to break up the wrestlers should emotions run too high.

When the wrestlers weren't facing off in matches, they were engaging in a brute-force-style practice whereby one wrestler (who I'll call the "defense") would brace his body and hold it steady while another wrestler (the "offense") would try to push him across the entire ring. The defense locks his back leg and lets his feet slide across the dirt while the offense pushes. It's similar to American football players pushing the sled in their practices. Each offensive wrestler would go about four full-ring pushes, then tap out with a funny sideways roll in the dirt. A few times, the offensive wrestler, clearly exhausted, would have a lot of trouble reaching four pushes, at which point there was a semi-humorous public shaming ritual whereby the offensive player would get on all fours and the defensive player would flip him over onto his back via a light kick to the side. (You can see this in one of the photos below.) Whenever this happened, the crowd would liven up and cheer on the wrestler until he could muster up the strength and energy to finish out his pushes.


After the practice was over, we walked outside to the front of the stadium and contemplated our next move, while noticing a lot of people were congregating next to the main stairs. After a couple minutes, some of the wrestlers started appearing in their street clothes and walked through the crowd, stopping every few seconds to pose for pictures or sign an autograph. No smiles from the wrestlers though, which you could chalk up to sumo culture or sheer exhaustion. It was really interesting to see the orderliness and politeness of the crowd, especially given that there were no real barricades and only a couple security officers. After the wrestlers made their way through the crowd to the street, they casually walked home, hysterically conspicuous given their traditional clothes and massive stature. In fact, we inadvertently followed one for a block or two on our way back to one of the nearby train stations.


Our next stop was Akihabara, a district known for its otaku (roughly translated as "geek" or "nerd") and its businesses catering to such types, such as IT malls, arcades, and maid cafes. After wandering around the neighborhood for a bit and doing some window-shopping, we decided to partake in the culture and visit one of the maid cafes. On paper, the idea of a maid cafe definitely seems geared towards lonely and/or nerdy guys (of all ages), but the crowd was surprisingly peppered with a few girls. The waitresses all wear French maid outfits, refer to male patrons as "Master", and chat it up with customers. The length of time that the waitresses hang around and the interest level they (pretend to) have seems to be roughly proportional to how much money the customers spend on coffee, snacks, food, or drinks. The entire scene feels like it runs the risk of being sexualized or fetishized by perverted Westerners, but in the moment, everything is playful and benign.

Andrew and I treated ourselves to a couple coffees, complete with toppings of our own design: a pig for Andrew, and "me" for me. We were there for about an hour and since we were seated directly in front of the small stage, we had an excellent view of the on-stage antics: a musical number performed by all the waitresses and the embarrassed, self-conscious otaku who was pulled onstage to celebrate his five hundredth visit (as recorded by his membership card). The waitresses sang a song to him and he did his best to avoid eye contact with most everyone. After finishing our coffees, we posed for a Polaroid photo with our waitress and received several complimentary gifts before taking our leave.


That evening, after another Google Maps-driven dinner, we went for a drink at New York Bar on the 52nd floor of the Park Hyatt Tokyo, better known as the fancy bar that appears in multiple scenes in Lost in Translation. It's easy to see why they chose this setting for the movie: the bar is gorgeous, elegant, massive, and offers some incredible views of the city. These amenities come with a significant price tag though, so we bounced after one round (and before the hefty cover charge started).

Our next (and evidently only) stop of the evening was Golden Gai, a fascinating nightlife area in Shinjuku. It's extremely small, with tiny streets and alleys, and yet fits over 200 bars. Most of the bars we saw could seat only 6-8 customers; imagine a large closet with a fully-stocked bar and a handful of stools. Following our usual "not empty, not full, and no white people" method of selection, we settled into one of the cozy closet bars for a few rounds and a lot of pleasant conversation with the two bartenders, both of whom could speak English. Many beers and whiskies later, we stumbled out and grabbed a taxi home to grab some sleep before our excursion to Hakone the next day.


Full photo album: Tokyo and Hakone