Dear Readers,
Day Five – Ninja-ing Tokyo
Total Distance Walked: 12 km, Feet Pain-O-Meter: 7
Theme of this evening: 1…2…3…NINJA!
The 2nd part of Day 5 begins at Tokyo station. Andrea and I quite expertly manage to find our subway station, we switched lines, I was carrying my small travelling case, Andrea was carrying her HUGE travelling case. In Japan, it is rare to find escalators, so I found it sadistically amusing seeing Andrea lug this huge mama but extremely durable case around.
The map to our hotel was insanely ridiculous. There were some main street names, and a big star in the middle. After 20 minutes of walking around the square area, we went down this narrow street, and asked a waiter (who was standing outside the restaurant giving out flyers) where our hotel was.
He is probably one of the only Japanese people we’ve met this entire trip who knew where he was going. In his Japanese wooden clogs he tattle tattled 20metres down the street, and pointed to our hotel, that was hidden. SO NICE OF HIM!!
Ninja Restaurant
What can I say, I think that Andrea and I have a fascination (at least I do) about stealthness and ninja techniques. I love being stealth! correction. I love trying to be stealth! I haven’t mastered it at all yet. So naturally, when we read:
“Ninja” is a theme restaurant located in Akasaka, Tokyo. The restaurant is designed as a ninja house, and there are some tricks in the building. Food are served by “ninja” who also performs magics for guests. The food are based on Japanese cuisine but are creative. The presentation of the food is beautiful and interesting. There are about 100 dishes to choose from. It’s recommended to reserve a room.
We were interested.
Our ninja training? – Was being escorted to our table, we walk through a dark passage, and we listened to the water fall, walk walk walk, watch our step, walk walk walk, look at the pond below…see a school of fish right below us underneath the transparents glass…1…2…3…say NINJA!!
NINJA!
A moat comes down and we enter the restaurant.
I have to admit, that was quite nifty and got 2 thumbs up from me.
Our waitress was super nice, we ordered drinks (that were SO SMALL and basically virgin drinks), we ordered a ninja caesar salad, crab something, and sea bass on a golden cloud, lamb…all were presented to us using Ninja tricks.
The food was really god-awful. The crab had a fishy smell…and the sea bass was overcooked..and the golden cloud turned out to be whisked egg whites which just made both of us gasy.
We sat right behind Steven Spielberg’s signature, so that was somewhat fascinating. And Andrea kept on saying that this must be a tourist trap, but around us we saw alot of Japanese locals. I think it’d be a really nice place to go on a date, amusing and something to laugh about later on. I haven’t been to dinner theatre before, but I think i’d like it.
We were mesmerised by a magician, he was AWESOME, he put a coin in my watch, not in my watch, but between my watch and wrist. I was so shocked. I loved it! I love magic!
When we left the restaurant, we were escorted out, and I turned behind and was quite impressed how the waiter/manager was watching us walk away, and right when Andrea and I turned around to look back, he surprised us by stylishly opening a scroll *SHING!!* ” Please come back again!”
hahah PRICELESS!!
Electric Town – Akihabara Electric Town district (filled with electronics stores)– most fascinating at night with all of the bright lights
It took 30 minutes to get our check at Ninja, so that by the time we reached Akihabara, it was around close to 9?
We walked into a AM/PM store (equivalent to 7/11) and right away the clerk took out a map and pointed us the direction.
BRAVO!!!
We followed his directions, looked right, looked left, looking for bright lights, shameless electricity wastage…but everything was dark! We walked and walked, just couldn’t find any lights! We then asked a pedestrian where Akihabara was, he scratched his head and apologised that he didn’t know.
BRAVO!!!! An honest answer!!!
Turns out, we arrived too late! all the stores were closed, no lights. Fabulous! Too bad we didn’t get to see what everyone raves about. Oh well. We then set off to find…
Oishi Yakitori Doko Desku?
I think it was on Anthony Bourdain (love him) where I saw him eat really fresh chicken under train tracks. Actually I am not a yakitori fan at all, – its simply chicken on sticks. Big whoop.
But, its something to do late at night, we didn’t have our itinery with us, but ANDREA remembered the subway stop! Really amazing!! She is a superstar.
Come to think of it, it is quite scary to walk down an alley below the train tracks asking complete strangers “Oishi yakitori doko desku?” I told Andrea that I would ask (which was a big change), I asked a young looking small guy…
Stacy: Sumimasen, Yakitori Oishi (hand gestures) doko desku?
Young looking guy: Oh, you want to eat yakitori?
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He spoke English! Talk about winning the jackpot.
His name is…Hideyoshi and he looks like Japanese anime. He was such a sweetheart, told us that most probably all the restaurants were closed, and walked us to the popular ones. We invited him to join us for supper and he was super happy about that. The diners were open but were on last order so they didn’t want to entertain us. Boo.
Anyways, he then walked us to the subway station, and we exchanged business cards, and when we said goodbye, Andrea gave him a hug! And his face looked as if he had been stunned. lol. I wish i captured it. I also gave him a hug, and was surprised how he returned the hug. aww…
Roppongi – Gaijin Nightlife
We reached Roppongi. It was FREEZING. We went up to a place called Roppongi hills, which really reminded me of Singapore’s Marine parade area – Esplanade + Merlion place. At that moment, I pictured myself living in Japan, and I thought it possible.
Andrea and I decided to play a game, make eyecontact and smile at locals passing by us, and count how many return the smile. We weren’t obnoxious about it, very casual like, eyecontact …tiny smile and nodd…eyecontact …tiny smile and nodd…
Person 1, Person 2, Person 3….Person 10 – NO RESPONSE! really amazing. It says alot.
We exited the subway station, and tada! Roppongi! A strip where you can find TGIF fridays (is that the chain name?) and all other American restaurants and what nots. We were walking down the street, contemplating whether or not to try out some club, or maybe go to HardRock Cafe…
Backtracking a bit..right near the Ninja restaurant, we met 2 black couples touring in Tokyo, we smiled and said “Have a good evening” to them,and they replied “have a good evening too! *smiles*” Tourist are always friendly to eachother! Yay!
So, when we were standing near HardRock cafe, we saw a group of black tourist (men), so Andrea and I smiled and nodded.
Then one of them, walks up to Andrea and says, “Hey Baby, (like…Baaybeh..) whatcha wanna do tonight? *sly greasy teeth twinkling grin*leaning wink*”
!!!!EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Andrea and I just turned right around and power walked out of that situation!!
Hilarious.
We ran out of that situation, and back to the hotel. That pretty much sums up Day 5.
Alright…repeat after me, and I will do a vanishing trick…
1….
2….
3….
Ninja!!!