The Tokyo trip has suddenly become a whole lot less stressful because the local HR rep has informed me that I cannot legally do what I came here to do. I must take it more slowly and with a lot of unnecessary interim steps in order to ensure compliance with local laws. What should have taken two days will now take at least two months. If anyone ever wants to know why the Japanese economy never outstripped the US, this would be a good starting point.

After work, hit a used camera shop and got a Nikon 70-300mm zoom lens (but no VR) for around US$200. 5% discount if I can show my passport, so will pick it up tomorrow.

Then off with a member of my local team to a small sushi place he’d read about, on some side street near Shinbashi. Wow. Wowwers. Wowwee. From memory, three small bowls of tidbits, Japanese version of amusee bouche, one bowl was described to me as “baby anago” (I think). Then a plate of sashimi that just killed. The toro (can’t recall now if oh-toro or chu-toro) just melted on my tongue.

At which point I decided to switch from tea to sake, especially happy to find they had one of my faves – Uragusume – served in a way I hadn’t seen before. A glass placed inside of a square lacquer cube, filled so that it overflowed into the cube. Drink from the glass and from the cube. Either way, it was a big glass and it was refilled more than once.

Next some cooked tuna in some sauce. Then a bowl of lotus root and some other stuff. Some grilled whole fish. Some sushi, some maki and finally some ice cream.

One benefit of going to a tiny place like this – the sushi chef was a young guy and very friendly and talkative. We found out he’s 33 years old and studied for 12 years. He said it’s hard establishing his place because people see him as being too young. Well, he’s definitely talented.

Since everything was so tasty (I kept telling him “oishi des!”), I asked if we could buy him a drink and he went for a “small beer.” He returned the favor by buying us two glasses of plum wine.

After finishing the two hour dinner, I pulled out my camera and asked him to come out from the counter for a photo. And my battery was dead! So my friend pulled out his camera phone. As we stood and posed for a photo, I looked at the table next to us. One guy and three vaguely cute women (it may have just been sake goggles). I waved for them to come over and join us for the picture and one of the women actually got up and came over. She spoke a bit of English and was quite friendly but at this point I was too wasted to put in the work to get her away from her friends.

As we left the restaurant, the sushi chef said to us, “see you tomorrow!” I turned to the three girls at that table and said, “see you tomorrow!” and they all giggled and the guy sort of glared at me.

The cost for this amazing dinner was around US$100 per person but considering this is Japan, I think we got a bargain for the amount and quality of the fish we had. I would definitely go back there. Unfortunately the business card is all in Japanese but if anyone’s interested, email me and I’ll scan it and send it to you. Just tell ‘em the crazy gaijin sent ya.

Walked a couple of blocks and found a taxi driver standing next to his cab smoking. He asked us to wait till he finished his smoke. Then on the way to my hotel he passed a box of candy back to me, I took one and settled in for a short ride.

Back at the hotel, asleep instantly for a couple of hours. Now it’s 1 AM and I’m wide awake. Taxi to Roppongi? Is it worth it, lemme work it …..

Hongkie Town
Share