Pittsburgh and Beyond 2023

I can’t believe we’re in Tokyo! There are many ways that we attempt to resume daily life; it’s getting up and drinking a cup of coffee before getting on with the day, or catching up with the morning news, going out for a run. Today T and I accomplished daily life in Tokyo, albeit with jetlag.

We went for a run, exploring Tokyo separately (T ran in Yoyogi Park and recommends it, I ran by the Kanda river). T went to the Google office in Shibuya, and I signed in to answer emails remotely. Normal! T met up with colleagues and was productive at work despite the jetlag and lack of the work laptop. Apparently at Google in Japan, they have made-to-order onigiri in the cafeterias. We made plans to have dinner with some colleagues at an izakaya.

I went to lunch at this street booth for soba noodles called Kameya Shinjuku. Some of the restaurants are incredibly small compared to the ones in the US. A restaurant consisting of a square counter with seats for customers around a kitchen. The kitchen within the square, what looks to be 10ft by 10ft, with appliances, pots with oil and water, prepped vegetables, a sink for dishes, placed around all sides of the booth, leaving with a wingspan of room for two cooks to stand and fly tempura, serve udon noodles, and wash dishes, for the 8-10 people max that can sit around the booth. It was pretty intimidating to sit down, but you just hand them your money and point (and say kudasai, please). The bowl of soba was tasty, but very hot; why is ramen and soba still so popular over the summer here?!

Speaking of interesting meals, for dinner we met up with Eric and Hitomi, Philip and Katya, who T knew from the Google office in Cambridge. Eric had already been living here, and recommended this beautiful izakaya in Naka-meguro, exemplary of a very traditional, homey Japanese tavern. We removed our shoes and sat down in the back, with a sunken wooden table about 3 feet below floor height. There was no English menu at this place, it was all handwritten and Eric and Hitomi helped us order. The hospitality was warm, the lemon sours (beer mixed with shochu) refreshing, and the food was so delicious. Sashimi, rice with grilled fish, miso saba, omelet with broth, summer vegetables, so tasty. And pretty reasonably priced too (~3k yen/person which works out to be $22 a person).

Philip and Katya are travelers on their honeymoon, staying in Japan a few weeks longer than T and I. We asked Eric what it’s like living here. Most bikes don’t seem to get locked up, the streets are very clean, the cushions of the subway are covered in nice fabric, and we hadn’t spotted any homeless people on the streets yet. Also, possibly linked, there is notably less income inequality in Japan. Wow!

The fruit is much more expensive here though. Afterwards, Eric showed us the grocery store with the fruit section and fruit is like symbolic and glorified, and 5-10x more expensive here. We all chipped in to buy grapes to share (communal grapes). T said, he didn’t believe artificial grape flavor tasted like grapes until he had this Japanese grape, which had more pronounced aromas and flavors. So grape-y!