13th July 2010
Post
See photos on Facebook.
Some random notes to go with the pictures:
- Flying to Japan was not nearly as bad as I had expected. But I sleep well on planes (the BOS-SFO redeyes trained me well).
- Narita airport (in Tokyo) has an infared camera pointed at the crowd headed towards customs, that they use to detect feverish people to put in quarantine. I can’t tell if this is the most awesome or creepiest thing ever.
- We ate a lot of conveyor belt sushi (kaiten-zushi), and I think the sweet spot for ~$1.50 plates of nigiri has to be eel (unagi).
- Japan is incredibly safe, and as a result you see some things that are almost unsettling. Lots of little kids (maybe 5 or 6?) walking through the streets of Tokyo or taking the train alone.
- Choco Cro pastries are amazing.
- Tokyo (and really, everywhere we went) has an incredible amount of signage in English. Talking to random Japanese people can be tough - their English classes in school focus on translation, not conversation - but people tended to be nice enough to deal with pantomiming/my awful Japanese phrases/whatever else it took to get questions across.
- It’s definitely worth seeing a baseball game if you’re ever in Japan. The baseball itself isn’t that interesting, but the fans are fantastic - everyone’s dressed up with their team’s scarf, fans chant/sing constantly, and the stadium food (from ramen to hot dogs) is great.
- Japan’s not that expensive - it wouldn’t be hard to get by on a budget of ~$100/day (2,500 yen for a hostel bed, around 1,000 yen/meal, and a couple of temples/museums at 500-1,000 yen each), and the JR Rail Pass is an amazing deal. That said, there’s a ton of very enticing, very expensive things to buy/eat… so it’s difficult to keep yourself to a budget.
And a few things went unphotographed, regrettably:
- My night out in Roppongi for the US-Ghana game (kickoff 3:30 a.m. Japan time). Met up with a couple of great Aussies and a bunch of expats, for a good (but crushing) time at Legends and then breakfast at the Grand Hyatt.
- My night in Shibuya (clad in a “Blue Samurai” uniform) for the Japan-Paraguay game/shootout (kickoff at a much more reasonable 11 p.m. Japan time). Watched the first half of the game on the street - a couple of guys had brought a small TV (and a cartful of beers to sell!). They got shut down though, so I watched the rest of the game at the (rather gross) Gaspanic Shibuya, then joined the celebrating on the streets afterwards (see this post for a picture of the pack I was in). I’m still not sure why people were celebrating so much after a loss — I think it’s just because they had nowhere to go (the game ended after trains shut down, so everyone was stuck in Shibuya until ~5 a.m.).
Tagged: traveljapan
