The day we day we stayed at work too long

Passing out after work

Tuesday June 22 (Day 20)

Today was a very normal day. Work had little diversions a few sleepy thoughts. The couches against the wall sometimes whisper sweet nothings in my ear and resistance is hard. But, Bean and I finally got some research direction with Sam's handout of things he needed us to look up. For the first time since we arrived we were given an exact idea of what data to research. :) For lunch we camped out in the large meeting room to eat our PB&J/banana sandwhiches...again. The meeting went very well. By the time 5:30pm rolled around, I was exhausted physically and mentally to say the least. However, before leaving for our hotel we had to talk to Koji about our upcoming business trip this Saturday in Matsuyama (7 hours away by train). Near the end of the conversation, while Koji was on the phone with a customer, I fell asleep. The humorous scene of Koji on the phone at his desk and I asleep on the other side of his desk in a chair, for at least 25 minutes, proved to be a photo opportunity to not be missed. After waking up, Kato-san and Koji-san asked us to go to dinner with them. They are just way too nice! We went to a Chinese restaurant close to the office and ordered several dishes to share. I am convinced they think Americans are always hungry because they continuously try to order new dishes despite our insistence of our inability to eat more. All of us spent a very long dinner eating salad, gyoza, dumpling soup, and chop suey while playing the "what animal are you" game. This popular game back home was unknown in Japan...at least to two of them. Kato-san and Koji-san thought the game was very entertaining and slightly embarassing while they busily attempted to identify animals for everyone we knew. As usual we spent hours almost in tears of laughter. After dinner Bean and I decided that sleep was absolutely necessary even though Koji's offer of playing pool was tempting. Rain check!

The Day we met a famous cook?!

just to make your mouth water
Jay McCarthy

Our group for the day

Monday June 21 (day 19)

Today we woke up to have the last breakfast with my father before his departure. Gladly we were able to fully enjoy breakfast because we didn’t have to say our permanent goodbyes until at the office. After getting a little life pep talk from my dad, he left for the airport and in no time we were off for the event of the day. We had the pleasure of going to a cooking event today! The famous chef, Jay McCarthy was to give a cooking class (of course using American beef) to several bloggers. Traveling in the taxi with Jay, we soon found out that he had been gone for 5 weeks traveling in Asia and has had the pleasure of traveling all over the world doing what he loves. In addition, he knew and cooked with Julia Child and many famous famous cooks and critics. Way COOL!! So, naturally I tried to talk to him as much as possible and befriend him…including getting his email so I could “email him photos of the event.” The 2 dishes to be cooked were a Surf n Turf Maki roll with crab/asparagus wrapped in sirloin with wasabi mayonnaise, and a Slider with sirloin, onions, mushrooms, red peppers, cheese, and a chipotle mayonnaise! Wow, I really hoped we would get to eat these dishes. The bloggers, all women, took thousands of photos and I bought into the fad quickly. Overall the cooking class was so much fun to watch, even though we were unable to participate. He taught techniques and cooked while the women took fast notes and laughed at his corny jokes. Then, the women all got to cook the dishes. Finally, it was time to eat, or at least we got to watch them eat first, and have an ending discussion. OH and of course we got to try the dishes too :D. When the event ended they said we didn’t need to go back to the office since work ended in one hour, so we gladly made our way to the subway towards Roppongi. As soon as we got to our hotel we changed into RUNNING clothes...finally. We ran throughout the streets of Roppongi and our work area for a long time and then stopped in the area we ate dinner at on Friday. In Akasaka Mitsuke there is a discount grocery store there and we soon excitedly realized that the drinks were half the normal price. Our college kid mindset went into a frenzy of happy thoughts. Leaving with full bags in hand we stopped at Hotel Okura to pick up Bean’s binder she left and headed back. When we got to our hotel we further worked out ...lifting full water bottles, calf raises on the bathroom doorway, pushups by the front door, and sit ups wherever (whatever we could do!). With the A+ quality workout under our belts, our stomachs began growlingBefore . Soon our mind had been made up...it would be Indian tonight. With Nan on our brain we walked about 1 minute to the Indian restaurant by our hotel and ate one of the most delicious Indian meals we had ever consumed. Chicken curry, rice, Samosas and cheese Nan were shared between the two of us. Successful day and the rest of the night is history...felt like a fairytale!

The day we thought we would take a walking tour...everywhere

the heart made of candles. Can you pick which one is mine?
Free Hugs? Yes please
The beautiful flowers of Yoyogi

Imperial Palace gardens!

Sunday June 20 (Day 18)

FATHERS DAY! How lucky I am to have my father here, in Japan, for Father’s Day.

So if you don’t remember, Bean and I held a vow to run this morning. Well, FAILURE. Out of pure exhaustion of the day before, the snooze button was my best friend and I barely realized the time or the presence of morning till I realized it was 920am. We were to meet my dad at his hotel at 10am. Rushing around to eat breakfast and get ready, we cursed our sleep-induced laziness. We spent a good bit of time in the lobby of my dad’s hotel trying to look through booklets of things to do. Despite our desire to go to Hiroshima, it was already too late in the morning for us to make the one-way 4 hour trip (hopefully at a later date). Instead we decided to first walk through the Imperial Palace's gardens. The beautiful greenery in the middle of the tall city buildings gave the Imperial Palace a secluded feel that left us happily aimlessly walking. After seeing the various tea ceremony houses and taking the various garden trails, we soon decided to take my dad to the absolute delicious ramen noodle restaurant that we had our first week at Tokyo Dome. This time we actually knew how to order with ease. The meal was equally as wonderful and it had my dad convinced we needed to open one of these restaurants in Athens, Georgia. After a delicious lunch we sat and people watched for some time while trying to figure out our next move. Finally we decided to go to Shibuya and Yoyogi Park. Tietz told us that Shibuya was the place to go, and although it wasn’t nighttime we thought it would be good to scope out the scene. Getting out of the train station at Shibuya was a different world. People, lights, shops, and sounds were EVERYWHERE. This is the Tokyo people imagine. Next we spent about 30 minutes asking various people on every street where to find pearl (bubble) tea. Two girls, at last, came to our rescue and seeing our tired, desperate expressions personally walked us to the bubble tea. Totally worth it. On the map Yoyogi park was down one road for several blocks, but what seemed not far ended up being a walking adventure. We passed numerous stores, starbucks, and people before asking an English speaking Jamaican guy (selling NY dogs) if we were on the correct road. Yoyogi soon came into view and along with goth, anime, and interestingly dressed people…including a guy saying he could give free hugs and free communication, we took in the scene with awe. In the end we think the place we reached was Yoyogi Park, but we really don’t know anything besides the fact we walked through forests of flowers. In order to make it back to Roppongi in time for candle lighting we headed back. Dinner was to be an amazingly cooked AMERICAN meal. The first time since we reached Japan, Bean and I ate a “home-type” meal…Hard Rock Café...and it surely proved to be the best choice of the day. Bean and I, finally, got a real BEEF burger to share, and I got Mac n cheese that I had been craving even in Australia. The last thing on our list of things to do was go to Midtown to see this set up of candles. Earlier in the week we had decorated separate candle holders to be used in this love, earth candle lighting event. Seeing the candles from above, our eyes were met with hundreds of candle holders beautifully crafted into the shape of a heart. We got to take pictures with our personal candle holders, even though mine was unable to be re-lit. I destroyed about 4 more lit candles trying to exchange them. Now, time to sleep to get ready for work and the last breakfast with the Father. I am convinced we walked at the very least 10 miles the past two days so sleeping wasn't a hard task.

Countryside shrine day

caught my Dad sleeping...no surprise?
cute cute

the majestic scene of Nikko
RAGE!

Saturday June 19 (Day 17)

AHH Saturday. Today we were going to wake up, run, get our endorphins going, and run before we met my dad to catch the train towards Nikko. Today I pressed the snooze button on my alarm several times. AND today, due to our deep sleep and dodging of the alarm, we didn’t get to run. That is basically the story of our early Saturday morning: one with so much potential but so little success. Instead, a vow was made for tomorrow morning and with heads held high we met my dad in our hotel lobby for our day’s adventure. We headed towards Tokyo station’s JR to catch the Shinkasen (bullet train) towards Nikko. According to people we knew and online sources, Nikko was a place of beauty and enchantment, scattered with shrines, marshes, and bridges. To my surprise the transit there was extraordinarily easy. Knowing the train system to Tokyo like the back of our hand, Bean and I led the way. To get on the JR, even with the language gap, was very easy and we were soon sitting on the bullet train for a little over an hour. The train ride was full of conversation about what we have learned, tried, and updates on life. Our last leg of the one-way trip was the Nikko line, a public train system that lasted 40 minutes till Nikko was finally reached. A little hungry and tired, I quickly made the decision that food was a necessary first find in Nikko. The quaint town of Nikko resembled an old time mountain town in the lush greenery of the mountain’s forests. The color green that we had not seen in so long flooded our eyes with practically tears. The walk from the train station to the base of the shrine area was about 40 minutes, but along the way we took a lunch break at a restaurant resembling a cute chapel of some sort. The food was deliciously scrumptious in my tum: beef rice bowl, salad, soup and tea. With stomachs full to the absolute BRIM, we gladly walked the rest of the way to the shrines. Entering every shrine was a new experience and although I have seen hundreds of shrines throughout my lifetime, each one never loses its wonder. Needless to say we walked miles and miles that day through the shrines,　including getting there and back from the train station. While at the shrines, the sky unleashed its rain, sometimes a slight rain and sometimes a brief downpour, but nothing fierce enough to lessen our desire to see as much as possible. On our way back we stopped for ice cream, bought our tickets, and bought coffee for the train ride back. Once on the train, we soon realized that amazingly our one train car on the Nikko line had 3 languages being spoken, journal writers, tattoo covered people, rapper-asian looks, and my dad’s wide-open-mouth-snoring. Finally figuring out the people with tattoos were from Spain, I couldn’t help but listen intently for the Spanish language that I missed so much. Also, there may or may not be a photo of my sleeping father floating around in some stranger’s camera now :). The bullet train back was a dream. Literally. We all slept the entire time and luckily woke up to the announcement of Tokyo! Attempting to open my eyes and remind my body how to move, we slowly made our way back to Roppongi to eat dinner. Dinner was at a wonderful, interesting restaurant featured in the Kill Bill movie. Like Moes’ “Welcome to Moes” cheer, we got some Japanese welcome and were soon seated. Similar to tapas, we shared several dishes (each one being as good as the one before). Finally, with full stomachs we headed home to sleep and take advantage of Sunday, the last day of the weekend.

Okonomiyaki Day!!

our finished product

the bowl before we mixed it up
WAAAAA

Friday June 18 (Day 16)

So I am pretty sure I pressed the snooze button 4 times this morning. I practically dragged my body out of bed. After showers and all that jazz we were off to the work for our 2^nd FRIDAY! Since it didn’t feel like Friday and we had such a fun time the night before, I was bubbling with happiness. Despite wanting to laugh about the night before at the office, we were not surprised by the expected silence. But, throughout the day there were funny thank you notes emailed to one another and with the added extra reassurance that they enjoyed our company. For lunch June-san invited us to eat with one of her college tennis friends, Yoshi, and although we spent plenty of money the night before we couldn’t resist the offer. As lunch came around we were extra happy to go outside. Yoshi greeted us with a smile and questions about our whereabouts. We ended up walking a short distance to a new food court area that had 4 different restaurants to order from. It reminded me a little bit of Australia and a little bit of a cafeteria so I felt right at home! Lunch was delicious and full of conversation, including a plan to meet up before our departure to play tennis and eat eel on rice with their college friends. New friends? J. But, soon it was time to head back to work and we packed up our things and said our goodbyes. Work, for the most part, was the same as every other day minus the anticipation of the weekend! Greg came into the office with ice cream and a spam, egg rice ball for Bean and I to try. This spam concoction was one of Greg’s old favorite cheap Japanese pick-ups, so naturally we had to try it. It was the first time we had tried spam and embarrassingly enough it wasn’t bad! But, can’t say we have tried it again since he bought it for us. As we were about to leave the office Koji flagged us down. Being on the phone, he soon started writing on and passing us sticky notes. Koji, being the cute “older brother” he is, asked us about our dinner plans. Soon we had decided we would all go and eat Okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is a dish that Bean and I have anxiously wanted to try since our eyes saw the photo and description. This do-it-yourself “pancake” consists of batter, cabbage, vegetables and anything from squid to chicken. Mixing all these ingredients together in a bowl, you then pile it on a griddle in front of you to cook. Walking to Akasaka Mitsuke, we met up with the one of the agency guys at the Okonomiyaki restaurant. There are many various types to make and we tried three. One was a classic pancake looking one, the next had noodles in the middle and an egg cracked on top like a “toad in a hole,” and lastly a liquid like thin pancake traditionally from a very different area of Japan. All of them were delicious and filling. We could top them with seaweed, mustard, mayonnaise, or tuna flakes. Dirty man came to join us and we spent at least 2 hours in this restaurant swapping thoughts, stories, and future plans. Graciously we thanked everyone for joining us for dinner and headed back to the hotel. The last thing we did was call my dad to make meeting plans for the morning and then quickly fell asleep to prepare for the day ahead of us.

Unlimited Candy and Karoake-Most typical Japanese night :)

All the girls!
Karoke
Kato-san! And his Birthday "Cake"
Gummy lips are the best
We miss you all!!

Thursday June 17 Day 15:

Today marks the official 2-week cap of our trip here in Japan. Time seems to be flying by, full of new food and people, but the excitement about being here has never lessened. Oh and hey my dad is here now J. Time to celebrate the first time I will see my dad since early May! So, we met him early in the morning for breakfast at his hotel. We proceeded to have the best breakfast of our entire trip, even though salad and toast had become a favorite of ours. After having a wonderful breakfast and planning to meet for the weekend, Bean and I headed to work. Our main source of excitement today was looking forward to this get together with a handful of coworkers tonight from 7-9. Almost everything about tonight was a mystery and a necessary secret since not everyone had been invited. BUT before all that excitement we had yet another official workday ahead of us. Instead of being confined to my beautifully decorated (or lack there of) cubicle for the entire day, the afternoon would be spent visiting more supermarkets with Seya-san. With the morning moving slow, or fast (I can’t remember), a PB&J lunch time was soon here. And, what did we do you ask? The two of us ate lunch in the large meeting room where we proceeded to make sandwiches and play hang man on the board. We played several rounds, laughing hysterically and nervously looking out the open door to see if people could hear us. Just when we started writing love notes to our fellow laxers, Sam-san came in and told us that we can print whatever was on the board with one simple press of a button. Trying not to be embarrassed about the fact that he was showing us how to print a large drawn heart with “Laxers + Bean and Wigs” in the middle, we just smiled. Soon after our ridiculous lunch playtime, Seya-san gathered us up (the babies) and we headed towards the subway. Arriving in an area of Japan that used to be a sea 500 years ago, we visited 3 supermarkets. We laughed for hours and made Seya-san lose her breathe in laughter as we took our usual random sleep photos, talked about how Koji-san calls us his babies, and yelled continuous questions her way. We had about 30 min left of work when we got back so we just typed up our data for the afternoon and walked back to the hotel to get money for tonight. For 4000 yen we had 2+ hours of unlimited drinks and Japanese candy at a traditional Japanese hang out from the 1950s. We were not just with 7 coworkers, but now 7 of our closest and newest Japanese friends. We spent time telling stories, eating the 5 dishes included (balls of fried octopus, edamame, yakisoba, ham, and pizza) and candy, and drinking (more like watching Kato-san drink ha). The candy consisted of many weird things like squid on a stick and random unnamed things, but we gladly found gummy lips that we proceeded to take photos with. Also, apparently in Japan it is not rude to scream "Excuse me" (Sumimasen) to the waiter and waitresses. So, our Japanese friends had an absolute blast making us scream SUMIMASEN at the top of lungs throughout the restaurant every time they wanted a refill. It was absolutely hilarious and left the entire table, including us, laughing...we are really getting the cultural experience. Finally, near the end of our dinner, we realized that we were mainly out to celebrate Kato-san’s upcoming birthday, which made the night even better! And, of course because Kato-san loves karaoke and even has a membership card (ha), we ended up at a karaoke bar afterwards. Absolutely the funniest part of the night! We sang classic songs for hours and our voices filled the private room. Bean and I basically sang to each other and laughed at Kato-san’s hilarious face/singing. Afterwards we missed the last train so Koji rode with us in a taxi. All in all…this was the best night because Bean and I really felt like we had friends here in Japan. We absolutely love every single one of them and it was a night that we will talk about forever…I even hugged Koji-san which technically isn’t “normal” behavior...woops ha.

The day we spent too much money on lunch

Wednesday June 16, Day 14

Well, today was a regular day at work. No rain and no worries. Besides doing our usual research and email entertainment with one another, we had no particularly urgent projects to pursue. The only part of our day that veered from the norm was lunch. In the morning Sam-san, one of the head honchos of the office, told us that he would like us to meet some agents over lunch. Of course out of respect we said yes. As lunchtime rolled around, with no details to where we were going, we set off alongside 4 coworkers and 3 new faces. To our surprise we ended at the door front of Lawry’s. For all those who know little about Lawry’s, it is a very nice, expensive Prime rib restaurant. To put this in perspective, during the first week in Japan Bean and I walked by Lawry’s and realized that everything on the menu was cheapest $20 and promised to only go there if we still had money at the end. Now, here we were. Thinking that the invitation to lunch meant they were “sponsoring” our outing, we were soon informed that we would be paying for our own meal. Sam-san told us that it was very affordable so not to worry, which meant close to $20 for lunch…we definitely had a good chuckle to ourselves. Lunch ended up being delicious (beef curry dish and unlimited salad bar) and full of conversation (especially with the unexpected Chicagoan at the table). The rest of the day was fairly uneventful and ended up eating a ramen-type noodle bowl in our room to save money after the day’s events and the “unofficial office meeting” this upcoming Thursday. Tuesday done, Wednesday (hump day!!) tomorrow!