July 6, 2007

• memoirs of an american girl in tokyo (haha..mer...i guess i should've used "maiden")

  *will update with pictures at some point but in typical juju mode i forgot my canon cable.

  tuesday 7/3

  7:25pm: arrive at Sen-cha-ri Hi-yat-to Tokyo.

  concierge: (pulls up reservation, gives me amazed look) ah...so ka, thank you very much, long stay.
  me: thanks.
  concierge: *bow*
  me: (confused...am i supposed to bow?) *bow*
  concierge: *bow*
  me: (crap, don't want to be the last one) *bow*

  it's like a freaking sitcom...

  7:35pm: le awesome...the hotel key is an actual key! none of this keycard shiznazz!

  7:40pm: rush to room, taking off articles of clothing en route to shower. i have exactly 20 mins to get ready for dinner at the ombarato. any normal girl would find this an impossible task but jyu-di-su-sama is not really all that girly nowadays so i pull on some random clothes and meet the team...

  i never take food pictures anymore btw, since it's so much easier to
  just steal the professional ones on the website, so here goes:

  

  wednesday 7/4
  
  6:45am: the downside to working overseas is that the fourth of july doesn't mean much to people over here. also, time zones tend not to work out. so at 7am, i have my very first conference call of the study. gah.

  8:05am: onaka ga suita ne...

  breakfast at these fancy schmancy hotels comes with these coupons for free breakfast, usually at the Westernized buffet downstairs. breakfast with a side of view!

  

  9:30am: en route to the Tokyo office, where our team room on 10F has a pleasant view of Tokyo To-waa! subarashii! anyone else find the red tint ominous though?

  

  12:35pm: since the office is in roppongi, there are of course no shortage of wonderful restaurants nearby. i ordered an eel bento, but the best part was the edamame cooked with ground chicken...soo FREAKING good! three bowls, baby. the waitress gave me the classic "wow, you fatty" look. pbbtttt.

  9:30pm: we stay at the office until the To-waa lights up...

  thursday, 7/5

  6:30am: tsukareta ne! damn it, what's with these early meetings?

  7:30am: arrive at the client, a funny-looking crowd: basically, five men (three of them gaijin) and myself, all sipping strong cappuccinos from Excelsior Caffe (misspelled on purpose) while staring at each other bleary-eyed.

  a trippy moment: clients here we refer to with the honorary -san...so instead of "Bob" it's now "Matsushita-san," "Yasuda-san", etc...so different!

  12:15am: Matsushita-san takes us out to a nice Italian restaurant, where I have this spaghetti that has a random crab-shell just stuck in the midst of it...excellent. The price isn't too bad: 1030Y for a se-to menu. everything in tokyo is pretty "reasonably priced," now that i'm used to ny...

  7:30pm: dinner at my favourite japanese cuisine of all...shabu-shabu!!!!

  10:15pm: jet lag finally hit, and i dozed off...to be awakened by maiko (yay!) we wander around shinjuku for awhile; people are still milling about, though it's late on a Thursday. at a certain storefront with a poster in front with pictures of ~12 japanese girls all with fancy hairstyles, i ask her if i should get my hair cut...lo and behold, it's not a haircut place at all, but a brothel. whoops..

  • 2:14 am
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