Sunday, December 7, 2008

Bad teeth and Bad Head

So my biggest complaints with Japan thus far are their beer pouring skillz! Every beer we've gotten has had at least 2 inches of foam head on it! Such a waste.
The other thing that continually takes us back is the condition of everyone's teeth. The Japanese seem to be so consumed with detail and apperances it surprises me that they would let the condition of their teeth detierate so badly.
Yesterday we ventured out into Tokyo. We expected to see more Americans and see more signs and maps in English. Not the case. Though we are slowly learning the methods of the trains, we are still challenged by the frequent lack of english marked destinations. We are getting lost much less and are feeling quite accomplished by finding our way.
We first visited the Tokyo Tower. Very cool. Much of Japan could be seen in every direction. Here we also enjoyed one of the popular crepes. Mine and Johnny's was very good, but were surprised by the menu. We viewed them as a dessert and much of the menu supported this thought, but there were also tuna and curry options. Mixing dessert and dinner was a weird concept to us.
From the Tower we headed on foot to Ginza. Ginza is a very upscale shopping area. It was super crowded and we often felt like we were playing chicken with the oncoming pedestarians! Everybody was on a mission. Japanese women love thier Coach!! Everyone here sports Coach pursues and the store was packed. While in Ginza we visited the Kabuki-Za theatre and caught an act of a traditional play. Though we got the English translation headset, the Japanese dialect was hilarous! They all sounded uber angry and strained. A cool experience, but I can't imagine sitting through the full 4 hours of it. Especially since the seating offers very little leg room.
From there we visited the Sony building and then got some dinner. For dinner we choose the Beer Restaurant. Of course the name is what persuaded us. We were seated by our waitress wearing a German beer girl uniform (Employees everywhere sport very elaborate uniforms. The Tower employess were Jetson like costumes). We were then given the menu, which was in all Japanese. Though there are pictures, it's often hard to decipher what is actually in the dish. We were delivered an English drink menu (what does that say about us?) Dinner proved to be very interesting. My brother tried to order safe with what we thought we onion rings and a fish and fry meal. The fish meal was apparently sold out??, so he had to branch out. Not really sure what either one of his dishes actually were, but they didn't taste too bad. I got what I thought was a shrimp and rice caserole. It wasn't bad, other than the constant surprise of a new sea creature hidden in the rice. : ) At least the beer was good.

No comments: