Yall. YALL. We found a great food delivery system. You order on an iPad, and the plate zips out and stops right in front of you. Then you take your plate and press a button to send it back. SO fun! (Also maybe a threat to my job but whatever…)
We made it to Robot Restaurant! You get your tickets across the street, and then led through this hallway mirror, up some loud, wacky stairs and into a waiting room that has gold shells for chairs, colors, mirrors, lights and chandeliers everywhere. There were two robot musicians playing jazz, the best Japanese toilet so far in the restroom, and …… YELLOW DORITOS.
We hung out here for a while, until it was time for the show to begin. We were lead back downstairs to a large room with a runway down the middle. Turns out, we had front row seats. A ringleader instructed us to not touch the robots and to “make a dodge!” if something is heading your way. This is about the time I lose words to accurately describe the pure bonkers-ness of this experience. There is lasers, smoke and explosions. There are “savages” playing giant bongo drums, there is a whole story line where a race of robot aliens is trying to take over a peaceful planet of cute robot animal friends. A robot shark and monkey battled a robot alien mistress with lasers coming out of their mouth and eyes. There were breakdancers in trippy black lights, there were musical numbers and strange voice overs and at one point they bought out a chain fence and put it in front of us to contain the robots (??). There was also a strange zebra-ception vignette, where a zebra was carrying a blow up zebra on it’s shoulders while riding a robot zebra. I don’t think words can even do this place justice.
For the rest of our stay in Japan, we were at the Super Hotel! It was very no-frills, and the check-in is on the second floor – so when we walked in the door and were greeted by buttons and an elevator, for a shining moment we thought it was going to be a robot hotel! But then a woman came to check us in, womp. It was still an interesting experience – we got to choose the type of pillow we prefer and we all received a set of pajamas (a giant, button-up night shirt – same for male and female). The women (no men!) get to pick out five things from a case of beauty products per night (so Sarah and I got ten!). I mostly got some face masks, since I already had shampoo, soap, etc. It was a funny, random thing.
We walked around the Asakusa, an older neighborhood where we were staying. There was a giant shrine right behind our hotel, with the biggest paper lantern I’ve perhaps ever seen. It was still a holiday weekend, so there were a ton of people there. In fact, there were so many people paying their respects and worshiping that there was a visible, thick cloud of incense smoke. There was also a strange fortune telling station, where you shook a metal box and a small metal stick came out of a slot. There was a paper key that correlated with the stick that told your fortune, I guess? I didn’t get too close, but you could hear the metal sticks shaking throughout the whole shrine.
We also had some tsukemen ramen at Rokurinsha, Tokyo Ramen Street, Tokyo Station. Please see the “Noodles” episode of Mind of a Chef (available on Netflix or here). There’s just a whole section of a train station devoted to small ramen places, and this one had the biggest line. We were pulled out of line, sent to a machine to order and pay, and then sent back in line to wait for a seat. This type of ramen consists of the noodles seperate from the broth, and you dip it in and eat it yourself. I’m still not sure why that is a thing as opposed to a completed dish, but it was prettttty tastyyyyy.
We had special udon noodles across town for lunch one day, where the guy was making them in the front window. Very good, and we finally got some tempura that wasn’t soggy because it was already in broth (apparently the preferred way to eat tempura everywhere else we went).
Our last day, we walked around the Harajuku neighborhood again, as we heard Sunday afternoon is the prime time for spotting the dressed up crews. We didn’t see any, but we did see their clothing shops with elaborate costumes, and other shops with wacky items and products – I was v. tempted by a pair of rainbow platform sneakers. It was true Tokyo wackiness everywhere, so it was a good way to spend our last few hours.
We picked up our baseball tickets at a Japanese post office, where they were sent from the guy John bought them from (using a stubhub-like service). John showed him his ID and a sentence in Japanese on his phone that the guy typed in an email – voilà! Succesfully navigated the Japanese postal system (I guess).
We walked to the stadium and asked an attendant outside which gate we should go in. Since we happened to walk right up to the gate nearest our seats, and the concession tunnels were small and unassuming, I was expecting a smaller stadium. We walked out toward our center field seats and were wowed by the size of the stadium and the crowd.
We were in the Tokyo Giants section, the visiting team, in a hometown rivalry game against the Tokyo Swallows. There were multiple chants with each players name fit in to each yell. First I would make up silly syllables to chant, but then I realized everrryyyybody was wearing some hardcore fan gear, including a lot of jerseys (about half with players’ names in English, half in Japanese characters). So we would figure out which player was up from a combo of the chants/fans jerseys. It was a lot of fun to be an actual part of the crowd instead of just spectating.
I thought I would switch it up and get what I thought was a basket of French fries and fish sticks. They were right next to the chicken strips/fries basket, but that one didn’t have the smiley faces. It turned out to be a big ol bucket of fried potatoes in various shapes! Hey I’m not complaining, but I did get a green juice from the konbini later that evening.
The beer girls carried around tiny kegs on their back for draft beer delivery. They also, strangely, wore baseball hats folded up and pinned onto their heads, instead of the, ah, more traditional hat wearing style. The home team had cheerleaders, and the Swallow mascot was carrying a giant bottle of yogurt on his back (their team is sponsored by Yakult Yogurt, the other team by what we think is a vitamin company?). At one point a fan from each team was chosen from the audience, made the big screen split-screen, and they played rock, paper, scissors against each other! 2 out of 3, and Giants won!
The Swallows ultimately won the game, and the manager came out and addressed the crowd and led them in some chants, the mvp shot tshirts with a cannon into the crowd and there was more cheer/mascot dancing. It was quite a way to end a game.
Because of our, ahem, early bedtime, we all woke up at about 3 am and decided to try for the fish market. We missed the tuna auction (seats are limited and rumored to basically be all taken by about 4), but wanted to walk around anyway. It’s basically a fend-for-yourself situation, since it’s a commercial operation. Cyclists, truck drivers and especially these guys on yellow fork lifts without the fork zoomed by, honking with no thought of slowing. IRL Frogger – less fun than the video game implies!
Turns out, the fish market isn’t open to the public until 9, but the outer market and the breakfast sushi places were open. We chose one that was playing Abba and The Eagles, were immediately brought hot green tea and we pointed to the words “today’s recommendation” on the menu to order.
We had a few more minutes until nine, so when we walked by a booth serving two pieces of o-toro tuna for 600 yen (apparently goes for much higher in the US), we snagged one and ate it standing right there. It might have been my favorite piece of fish all morning!
We walked around some more, got some samples and checked out some really great vending machines.
Time to tackle the big boy (and I mean big! We never made all the way through the building): Tsujiki Fish Market. Tunas bigger than me, wiggling sea creatures, knives, swords and bandsaws fileting fish, and blood and guts everywhere.
Wanting to check out a different neighborhood, we headed toward Ueno Park in search of an Azalea Festival. We stopped for ice cream, where we had our first vending machine/person service experience. These machines are everywhere – you put in your money, chose what you want and it prints a ticket for you to give the counter person. They have them in noodle shops, sushi restaurants, ice cream stands and all kinds of other places. Then we stumbled upon a ‘Traditional Arts & Crafts’ fair. The booths where demonstrating how to make Daruma dolls, write your name in Japanese alphabet characters, throwing star practice, and a booth to try on a kimono. We got some strangely long french fries topped with cod roe and mayo (pretty good) and Wagyu beef skewers (VERY good), and watched an acrobatic monkey show, until I got too bummed thinking about that monkey’s life.
We headed to a different park nearby for the azaleas!
When we got home to rest and recuperate, the school behind us was holding after school baseball practice. Let me tell you, those kids were noisy! Just shouting the ENTIRE time, but not in like a little kid way. We have a theory that that’s just how they play baseball – tbd when we head to the diamond on Saturday.
We headed towards Shinjuku, the busy commercial area where we found the tiny streets full of tiny restaurants yesterday to finally get some yakatori in a tiny, TINY smoky restaurant. Yakatori is just grilled things on sticks – skewers cooked over coal just right there on the counter. The cook/server/cashier/ONLY EMPLOYEE (guess he’s all that would fit in there) gave us a plate of edamame and we ordered what looked like the greatest hits special set. Fish balls, chicken thighs, pork hearts, plus my two favorites: blistered green peppers and these really great chicken wings.
Well it took 30 hours of travel, our first vending machine stop, and some friends at the konbini (the convenient store – they pulled out a phone book of maps (?) and got us on the right path) to get to the apartment.
Sarah and Matt were already asleep and we were exhausted, trying to be quiet and keep it dark – so I thought I was dreaming when I discovered the toilet.
No soap or anything, so what is that sink for?! Still haven’t figured it out. But that first night I stood in there for what felt like forever, trying to figure out how to turn it off.
Our sleep was all wonky, so we woke up at six am and hit our local 7-11 for some fried chicken and green juice for breakfast. (It’s a thing here!)
We walked around for a bit, went to exchange a little cash at tourist information and WE MET A ROBOT. It’s name was Happy.
Shortly after that, I got trapped in a bidet. Yeah, you heard me. I’m in a public restroom, checking out all the buttons when I find the sprayer. I’m already giggling when I realized I can’t find the off button and start to panic. I can’t stand up because the water will spray everywhere. Sarah is outside the stall, asking me what’s wrong but I can’t really hear her over the sound of the bidet and my laughter. So she starts laughing, then I laugh harder and snort, then a Japanese lady starts laughing and I can’t even see the buttons anymore and the whole thing was ridiculous. I escaped, relatively dry.
We walked around Shinjuku, which had huge buildings and loud billboards everywhere, some with …. interesting translations.
Then we walked around the outside of the Imperial Grounds, the old palace and gardens surrounded by a moat, right in the middle of the city. Quite the contrast!
Time for another pit stop. We were near the Palace Tokyo Hotel so I share my top secret tip for using hotel lobby amenities: act like you’re supposed to be there and nobody will question you. We played it cool as we located what turned out to be the fanciest toilets ever! So many buttons and I used them all – a seat warmer, bidet varieties and options, a blow dryer! Being a fancy hotel for tourists, the off button was clearly marked on this toilet. :)
Lunchtime: We went looking for a yakatori (grilled things on sticks!) restaurant nearby in a multi-level food court, but couldn’t find it. What we did find was a tiny shop with about five or six stools filled with suited men leaned over steaming bowls slurping in front of a guy dishing out ramen – we gave up the yakatori search pretty easily after seeing that. Delicious! I got the classic, John got the spicy and some dumplings. All very good. The place only sat 16 people (6 tables – we had to split up the crew just to fit) plus the counter. The table was pre-set with a pitcher of some sort of tea – we’re still not sure what flavor it was but it was great. We were asked noodle firmness preference – she recommended al dente, and it was the right choice for sure. The egg yolk was bright orange, the broth creamy but not overly fatty, the strange condiments plentiful and men in suits sporting lobster-eating kind of bibs.
Full after lunch, we tried to find the “scramble,” this crazy pedestrian intersection in the Shibuya area. We ended up walking around a commercial area, just soaking it all in. We happened upon a network of these small alley-like streets with tiny little restaurant, tucked in less than a block away from giant buildings and shopping centers.
After wandering for a while, we tried to find a place to grab a drink, fire up the wifi and regroup. Where we ended up served us a round of drinks and an amuse bouche of cold potato salad with chopsticks in a smoky, low ceilinged place. Wasn’t quite the place we had in mind, but it was strange and weird and very Tokyo-esque.
Oh yeah, and we spotted Godzilla.
After that, we went to the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building No. 1 to check out the view. Sadly, it was too foggy to see any of the mountains but very awe inspiring to see the scope of the city.
Since we got up so early, we went back to our apartment to rest at about 5 pm – and all slept right through dinner!
Meredith R. Allen 
