My Life in Tokyo

Earlier this week we had our very first visitor from the U.S. My brother Jon is here in Japan for his annual Aikido training, and was able to extend his visit by a few days in order to spend some time with us. He arrived in Tokyo on Sunday afternoon and had no trouble getting into the city on the comfortable airport bus to a nearby hotel. He astonished us all by sleeping until nearly 11:00 am Monday morning, a near impossibility with the 14-hour time difference!

We had a low-key day on Monday. We began with a stroll through nearby Arisugawa Park, a beautiful and lush landscaped park a few blocks from our apartment. Juliet enjoyed watching the ducks in the pond and we discovered a surprising black and yellow spider on a web between some trees. Further along, we went up the hill and found a lovely little waterfall. The park also includes a fairly nice (though rather dirty) playground that I visit with Juliet almost every day. We had a slightly adventuresome lunch at a noodle shop that had no menu in English but did have plastic food on display outside so that we could point to what we wanted. We found that there is something unexpected about ordering more than one of something: when Jon pointed to one bowl and said “ni” (which means “two”), the woman did not seem to understand and kept holding up fingers to ask how many. Mark and I had experienced the same problem before when ordering food. We resolved to find the answer to this puzzle soon.

Monday night was our now regular treat, kaiten sushi at Roppongi Hills. This time was a first for me, however, as we had a babysitter for Juliet and I got to eat my sushi without any little hands grabbing for my food! Isabella ordered several special plates by herself, to be sure she got her favorites without wasabe. It was exciting to see her trying out new words and being so brave.

On Tuesday Noriko came to babysit for Juliet and Jon and I set out for a day of sightseeing. Before we left we asked her about the mystery of ordering two of something. The answer is that in Japanese, they don’t use the same numbers for counting 1-2-3 as they do for saying a number of objects. If you want two of something, you have to say “futatsu”. (That is, of course, unless it’s something flat. Then it’s “nimai”. Long and thin–”nihon”. Two people is “futari”. Got that? There will be a quiz tomorrow). Jon and I resolved to use this at lunch today.

This was my very first day as a tourist in Japan! Knowing almost nothing about sightseeing in Tokyo, we went for the most obvious sites. First we visited the very famous temple Senso-ji at Asakua. It was a cold and rainy day but we still enjoyed walking around the temple and surrounding shrines, and browsing the nearby tourist shops. Jon was especially interested in all the elegant hakama in different designs and colors. They wear these for Aikido, but only in basic black. We found a tempura place for lunch and tried out our new word, “futatsu”. Hooray, it worked! Another mystery unlocked.

Next we got back on the subway and headed for the Imperial Palace. Although the palace and most of its grounds are off-limits, there are many other beautiful gardens to stroll through. We walked by the Budokan, which wasn’t much to see. We found the Science Museum but decided not to go in, as it would be a good place to visit with Isabella. Eventually we found our way to the Crafts Museum and perused the special exhibit, a display of modern Japanese jewelry that is at times elegant, avant-garde, whimsical, or even silly. It was the kind of unusual and pleasantly unexpected site that one occasionally happens upon during this sort of stream-of-consciousness sightseeing. Back home with aching feet, there was just time for Jon to pack up his one compact bag and head for the train.