A couple of weekends ago I went to Tokyo for the second time, on my own. I went on a Saturday afternoon to this “park” surrounded by a Four Seasons hotel and restaurants. This was close to the Edogawa stop (don’t ask if it was metro, subway, JR, etc) and there were many people along the river enjoying hanami.
The park, Chinzan-so, was finished around a hundred years ago, but boasts several historical artifacts that give the place a somewhat mystical aura. Upon entering from the river-side, I was greeted by a 500 year old sacred tree and several small traditional Japanese buildings. As I walked around the grounds I admired all the flowers and relics, all happily residing in the middle of a bustling Tokyo, which I would not have guessed had I been randomly dropped off here. Since I have been to several of the world’s heavily-populated cities (and their parks), I give the Japanese props for creating believable rural atmospheres integrated in Tokyo, the world’s most populated metropolitan area. At Chinzan-so I was also able to get in some good people-watching, but that isn’t too difficult for Tokyo (see previous sentence). I ran into kimono-clad women, both young and old, a Western-style Japanese wedding, and families with babies babbling in Japanese more fluently than me. My favorite couple I think was a mother in her kimono admiring the scenery with her daughter who was sporting the Lolita fashion. The artifacts themselves ranged from different time periods and represented Shinto, Buddhist, and Taoist beliefs.
After this breath of fresh air I walked to a part of Tokyo called Ichigaya to meet up with my old MIT language partner, Uchida-san, and some of his other MIT friends in Japan. There were a total of six people at dinner, and I was the only non-Sloanie. The other members worked either for the government or for banks, and a lot of the evening’s discussion revolved around the financial/economic happenings of Japan. It was pretty interesting even though most of it went over my head. But I just focused on savoring the delicious food and the sweet, cold sake.
After dinner we went to a nearby lake to watch the beautifully-lit sakura at night. Near the lake I was told that there was one of the most expensive apartment complexes in Tokyo, and some important/wealthy people lived there. In Japan, a “mansion” does not refer to a huge house like I think most Westerners would imagine, but it refers to a large apartment that is extremely overpriced, but apparently very comfortable.
After this evening stroll I bid my fellow beavers sayonara as I raced back to catch one of the last TX trains. Once arriving to Tsukuba I picked up my borrowed bike and rode the 40minutes home blasting my iPod and singing loudly along the deserted sidewalks at 2am.
Groggily I awoke later that Sunday at 7am to accompany Yamaura-san from my dorm to buy fresh fish from Oarai, about 1.5 hours away by car. I had gone with him the Friday before to a specialized store to buy avocados, tomatoes, limes, and cilantro so that I could make guacamole and also to a liquor store where I bought rum for the BBQ. At Oarai we had fresh conveyor belt sushi (my first time) and as you can probably deduce it was phenomenally yummy. For anyone out there who doesn’t really like wasabi they put a British flag in the sushi that has little to no wasabi, but they are very rare (I only saw one, and I cracked up upon finding out what it meant). We bought fish and the temperature was very cold, and not just because of the vast amounts of ice at the fish market.
After Oarai I took a quick shower and then joined the convoy to Sakurai-san’s house. Basically everyone from our work group was there, with their kids (if applicable), and a ton of food. The seafood was great, as was the high-quality beef, tons of veggies, ramen, baked fish, mushrooms, alcohol, and my personal favorite…desserts. I tried castella, different Japanese types of mochi, and other yummy treats. My guacamole was a hit, although one of the kids was a bit scared of it. The children were playing SuperMarioBros. inside and running amok outside. Everyone ate to the verge of explosion (I know I sure did) and there was much laughter and merriment even though the day was cloudy and cold.
I quickly bonded with Sakurai-san’s father and he showed me around his garden and his 300 year old house next door. This was the beginning of a good relationship with the Sakurai’s. I later found out that Sakurai-san’s father used to be the president of a branch of Fujitsu and was very well connected. He began to worry about me since I did not have any plans for the two months after my Hitachi Chemical internship so he took it upon himself to try and find a job for me. They ranged from working at a nice hotel on top of Tsukuba Mountain to working as a translator for foreigners with the president of the Tsukuba city council. However, because of my special type of visa (neither working nor tourist) I cannot work unless I change my residency status, which would be a huge hassle seeing that it took around 3 weeks to get my current alien registration card. Regardless, this was very nice of him and I thanked him deeply for his help.
Another good weekend… :P
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