On our second day, we woke up pretty early and met Katsumi outside of our hotel to go get breakfast. Katsumi suggested that we eat at Bagel+Bagel, the New York-style bagel place upstairs from the teppanyaki place. The menu was almost exactly like what you'd see at Noah's or something around the Bay, minus the soy and edamame bagels. Those bagels were bright green and had edamames baked on top. I ordered my favorite, poppy seed bagel with cream cheese, lox, tomato, onion and capers. Dad got the same thing, but with sesame seeds and Katsumi got a BLT bagel. At the register, there was a basket with "french toast bagels." I pointed them out since they looked interesting, and Katsumi picked them up for us to try. They also had great cappuccinos there, which I needed desperately.
Unfortunately, I'm not the most adventurous person when it comes to breakfast food, but I did really like what I had. The coffee was done really well (I like my cappuccinos dry), and my bagel was delicious. They served it with a little lemon sliver inside the bagel hole, which actually gave it some good flavor. The only thing I like better about New York bagels from New York is that the originals are chewier...The bread and all food in Japan tends to be softer (Dad attributes this to there not being any preservatives in the food). The french toast bagel was okay, it could have been soaked more before it was cooked, because the bagel was kind of tough. Otherwise, I really liked this place. Plus, I was pretty entertained during breakfast because I guess U.S. rap music is huge in Japan, so they were playing an Eminem mix tape, all lyrics in-tact. Nothing was censored, so he'd be swearing away over the speakers while everyone just sits there eating like it's classical music.
As soon as we finished breakfast, we walked up the hill to Katsumi's house. Katsumi lives in a high rise complex, and on that day there was a view of Mount Fuji from his house! Katsumi got a few things together, and then we started out to Kohta's rugby game. The drive was pretty long because there was a fair amount of traffic. It's amazing how nice the roads are in Japan--they start repairing them before anything is broken. Plus even the pavement vehicles are nicer. They are kept clean and dent-free; apparently you can get a ticket in Japan if your car has dents in it.
As soon as we got to the park where the rugby game was, I had my first vending machine experience. Vending machines are everywhere in Japan, and you can buy soda, cigarettes and even alcohol! Tea is everywhere, too, you can get hot or cold bottles of tea in the vending machines.
The rugby game was actually a semi-final game for the high schools in Tokyo. Kohta goes to a school called Kei-oh. It's one of the premier schools in Japan. Unfortunately, he was injured and not able to play, but we went to the game to root on his school. I tried really hard to understand the game but I didn't get much except that Kohta's school won by a lot. Dad was excited because we could see Mount Fuji from the bleachers. He said it's pretty rare to be able to see it. You can guess where those photos are.
After the game, we headed back into Tokyo. All of us were starving, so we stopped in an area near Tokyo University to go get some ramen. I thought that the parking lot was really cool, so I took a picture. Instead of having a parking attendant, they have these locks at each of the parking spots, so that when you back into a spot, it holds your car there until you pay. It's kind of nice because then you just pay for the amount of time that you were parked.
The ramen place that Katsumi took us to was tiny. He said that it's a place that a lot of students go to since it's next to the university. The set up was pretty cute--there is a big bar and we sat on old crates covered with wood and duct tape. The cooks have these huge pots of boiling water and they drain the noodles right onto the floor. It actually reminded me a bit of the places I used to go all the time in Berkeley when I felt like having a cheap meal.
All of us ordered the same thing--chili ramen with bamboo shoots, bean sprouts and green onion. Katsumi told us that the broth they use is a pork broth. They boil pork bones down until they get soft, and the broth has a whitish look to it. It makes for a really flavorful, almost thick broth.
This is what mine looked like. I really liked it, it was definitely unlike any other ramen you can get in the States. The noodles were fresh, which made a huge difference, and the chili sauce was delicious. Since it was a really cold day, the soup warmed me up immediately. If I drank beer, I think it would have gone along with the food wonderfully. Water was pretty good with it too, though.
When we were done, we headed over to the Harajuku/Shibuya area of Tokyo because I wanted to see all of the punked out teenagers. Unfortunately, it was pretty late, so we didn't get to see too many dressed up teens, but we did get to walk around the shopping areas. Even around 8:00 p.m., it was really happening. The entire street was packed with people and all of the shops were still open. In other areas, there were bands playing live music and tons of food stands.
Some of the stores were hilarious; they sold what to me what looked like costumes, but I'm not really sure. There were a lot of leathers, chains, and fishnet tights. There were also a lot of funny store names. Ladies at the Women's Community Clinic, be proud:
Actually, this was a candy shop, so I'm not really sure where they were going with that. We then walked a few blocks over to an area that I think is called Omotesando. It's still a shopping area, but it's more adult, and has very high-end stores. The Christian Dior store was particularly neat looking. It was entirely made of glass and steel.
After walking around some more and looking at all of the things I couldn't afford, we drove back to Hiroo, where I began to learn about Katsumi's insatiable appetite. Since he wasn't allowed to go home yet (his son was studying at their house), he suggested that we go out to eat more, so we headed over to a local bar.
Unlike the gross bar food that we get in the States, this place served beer and yakitori. One of my favorite things was actually the pickled vegetables that they put on our table. I expecially liked the pickled bean sprouts. While Dad and Katsumi had beer, I had tea. As soon as the food came onto our table, I changed my mind about being full. Yakitori is grilled chicken skewers (no, not just chicken breast, but all different parts). We had chicken breast with wasabi, cartilage with various chicken parts, green peppers with onions, and chicken wings (my favorite!).
Finally full, we headed back to the hotel and went to bed.
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