I finally got my internal clock straightened out enough to wander around Tokyo for a few hours without requiring a nap. Life at street level is pretty amazing. First of all, Tokyo has got to be the cleanest city of over 8 million people in the world. You could eat off most of the streets--not that you would, but you could.
Then, there's the grocery store. I've actually been to three different grocery stores since landing. The stores are all spotless, a little crowded, and the food is perfect. Not a blemish, everything is perfectly round and uniform in color--it's kind of unnerving, really. I usually want a little variation in my fruit. The downside to all of this is cost--a cantaloupe can cost 6,000 to 8,000 yen, or about $50-$75. Apples are about $4 a piece. I don't ever want to hear you New Yorkers bitching about the cost of living again!
By far, the most exciting trip of the afternoon was to Kiddy Land, a four-floor toy store filled with some of the most amazing crap you've ever seen in your life. Digimon, pokemon, stuffed animals of all kinds, Barbi's, goats, stickers, Hello Kitty, cell phone accoutremen, every kind of pen, pencil, eraser you can imagine. It was truly one of the more surreal experiences of my young life, this giganitic Japanese toy store. I'm afraid I've become hooked, though, and will likely spend many of my free hours roaming Kiddy Land like a junkie jonesing for a fix.
At dinner tonight, I discovered that I'm terrible at slurping soba noodles. Several Japanese business men stared at me as I tried to figure out the proper noodle eating etiquette.
Well, considering the heated toilet log entry, I was expecting you to say that the Japanese have some way for women to keep the falling noodles from lodging on that natural "shelf" we have not too far under our chins. I've ruined many a clean shirt on errant noodle slurp mishaps. Perhaps this is a little more than you want to know about me...your sweet auntie!
Posted by: Lani on February 9, 2002 07:00 AM