Sato-san

Today is day 3 in Japan and I think it's my favorite country in Asia so far. We arrived on Friday night and spent a little time walking around the Roppongi area including visiting a pretty cool bar called A971. Mostly house music but a lively crowd and a good mix of locals and foreigners. Then Saturday morning it was off to the town of Nikko about 2 hours outside Tokyo to visit the hot springs. We stayed a traditional hot springs hotel which means one big room with tatami floors, robes, obis, and wooden sandals to wear around the hotel, and traditional Japanese dining (lots of fish and pickled things). I previously thought we were staying there 2 nights, but it was actually 1 night which was plenty.

Then it was back to Tokyo. After dropping our luggage off at the hotel we went in search of some lunch. We ended up eating a tiny little sushi restaurant where no English was spoken so ordering included a lot of pointing and gesturing. But this awesome older gentleman, Sato-san, was sitting next in the seat next to me and took it upon himself to order us all drinks and more food and show us the proper way to eat it all. Of course he only spoke Japanese and we only spoke English, but he was so sweet and cute and friendly, it was awesome. One thing I've noticed here is that people will just keep speaking to you in Japanese even when you clearly don't understand. They don't speak more slowly or anything like that, they just continue on like you understand every word.

After lunch with Sato-san we headed to the Harajuku area to check out the Meiji Shrine and of course, all the kids in the crazy outfits. Lots of goth looks, as well as Victorian, school girl and a variety of other styles. From there was walked to Shibuyu to check out the stores and also see the world's busiest pedestrian intersection. There are tons of cool shops in Tokyo. Like Taipei, the first floor of most buildings contains small shops or restaurants and I wish I had a week here just to shop (and the $$ to do so).

But Japan is clean, people are friendly even if they have no idea what you're saying, and it's quite a beautiful place.