An often misunderstood aspect of Japanese culture is the food. Most people think of sushi and miso. The reality is that a huge part of Japanese food evolved over the last 150 years and is a lot different from the traditional stuff people think about. Frankly, if the general public knew more about these foods, Japanese restaurants in America would get a lot more interesting.

Bento boxes — this actually caused a lot of trouble in our group. For lunch, more often than not we did not have time to sit down and eat, so we got bentos. All of you probably know what it is–it’s pretty much a Japanese lunchbox, which you can also buy premade at the store. Unfortunately, ours were mostly western style, with sandwiches and little bits of spaghetti and “hamburger steak” (the patty without the bread). There were a lot of complaints about how this isn’t Japanese. Of course, technically it is. Miniature egg sandwiches, tonkatsu sandwiches, and tuna sandwiches appear all the time in bento. Hamburger steak is especially popular in Japanese restaurants. And finally, Japanese people love Italian food, and a chain restaurant, Saizeriya, is dedicated to serving convenient Japanese versions of Italian dishes.

Curry — Japanese curry is the best curry, and it’s been around for over a hundred years. They eat it more than any other dish, or very close to it. On average, Japanese people eat it about 70 meals out of the year, or one out of five days. It is incredibly popular here, and I was disappointed that we didn’t get to eat it MORE. Japanese curry is somewhat like a thick soup with potatoes and carrots and meat in it that’s served with rice and some pickled vegetables. Again, wish more people would know about this. A picture was provided in my previous post, but here it is again for reference.

Traditional food — There were times when we could get more traditional food, though. Miso soup is actually really good. It was a bit of an acquired taste for me. I only really started drinking it my freshman year at Rice, when the local Japanese restaurant included it with meals.

Surprisingly, I liked this as well. The hipster in me wants to not like it just so I can like the westernized stuff. But all joking aside, I really enjoy Japanese food, which is quite surprising given how hard a time I have with Chinese food.

This blog post is being written on our fourth night in Japan. I had trouble finding a plug for my laptop, as well as reliable Internet service. Plus I’ve been dead tired every night, so it’s been a little hard to update every night. Even so, I’ll be doing a disservice by crunching it all into one post. Perhaps two posts.

I had to get up at 4 in the morning to get to Bush Intercontinental in Houston. Therefore, I didn’t bother going to bed. My roommate, who I’ve been staying with in the week before this trip, drove me to a point where the SuperShuttle could drive me the other hour (we lived too far away from them to pick me up at my roommate’s house). I arrived at the airport early, got some Starbucks, and adjusted and re-tied my bowtie (a man must travel in style).

All in all, it was rather too mundane for what was supposed to be such a huge trip.

I first heard about this from my good friend Austin Witt, who was in Sato-sensei’s class. After a long-shot application, I finally made it in. Maybe it was the fact that we had known for about a month, but I was feeling a lot more nervous than excited.

What if Japan isn’t what I expect it to be? What if it disappoints? What if it turns out unpleasant and cramped and racist and a bunch of other horror stories? Because I may as well not mince words. Coming from a Chinese family, it’s pretty common to hear relatives (especially extended ones who still live in China) diss Japan. As an American, my opinion of Japan is not nearly as negative, but really, I didn’t know how it would turn out.

We arrived about sixteen hours after we flew out of Houston. Everyone was exhausted, and it was still bright daylight. We met our guide for the trip, Shimada-san, who didn’t yet strike an impression, since everyone was too busy changing their money.

Narita Airport is about an hour and a half from the center of Tokyo. It’s out in what we’d call the boonies, in an adjoining prefecture. Therefore, we had no idea what we’d see. At first, it was mostly farmland, then industrial stuff. Then, we saw some old apartment complexes, built in the bland style characteristic of urban blocks from the 60’s and 70’s. As we went further down, we could see the slightest glimpses of the glitz and glamour of Tokyo, first of Otomachi, then of Shinjuku.

And that’s when we got off the highway.

That feeling you get when you’re driving in a street in the heart of an urban area–skyscrapers all around you–it doesn’t get old. And Shinjuku Sunroute Plaza Hotel, where we stayed, is a legit 5-star hotel. This is some serious shit, y’all. We could walk to so many shops, although we didn’t this time, since we had to unpack our stuff, get dinner, and then go to bed.

THE GOOD: I met some cool people, most notably TC Weinhardt. A cool guy, we first became acquainted when I defended his “America shirt”, a loud, ridiculous shirt with a dude riding a Harley and an eagle on it. Someone posted on a confessions page how it was the exact opposite of style and taste. I retorted by saying that I thought it was cool. And that’s how TC and I met on the internet. We actually met in person on the airport. A slightly slow start at first, but we hit it off on the first flight to Los Angeles when we sat next to each other.

THE BAD: Didn’t know we couldn’t order our own food. This is one of the biggest pet peeves I have. My interests lie in yoshoku, the westernized food of Japan. Forget sushi and rice and all that stereotypical fare. I want curry, hamburger steak, Saizeriya spaghetti, yakisoba sandwiches, omelet rice, and croquettes. My greatest fear is that we’re going to get miso, sushi, and lots and lots of fish. Given that it’s Japan, I understand the need to try the traditional cuisine. But please bear in mind that curry and croquettes cooked in a distinctive Japanese style have been in Japan for over a hundred years. This means they are officially as Japanese as hamburgers and hot dogs are American.

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SUMMARY

First night in Tokyo: brief, but nice. Of all the things we experienced, the most surprising is how similar it is. At least consciously, I wasn’t hit with some sort of shock so hard that I couldn’t move. That didn’t happen to me. This first night was actually pretty ordinary, although it might have had to do with the fact that we ate dinner, visited a convenience store, and went to bed. Overall, a quiet end to a long flight, which is the best way to end a long flight.