last Christmas
This morning I got a call at 8:00am from my brother saying that he missed his connecting flight to Gaoxiong (I think Taiwanese romanization is stupid) and would be in Tokyo for the day with his family and could I meet them at Tokyo station in 30 minutes.
Well then.
I met up with guy yesterday at Tokyo, too, so it was like retracing my steps. I realized yesterday and again today that I will never be able to guide people around Tokyo well because I fundamentally don't like being in Tokyo. Until this changes, I will never be a great guide.
Still.
I took them to Ameyoko, through Ueno Park a little, and to Shibuya. They needed warm clothes, so we stopped by Uniqlo and had udon sukiyaki (with real beautiful marbled Wagyu beef) in Shibuya Mark City and walked to Harajuku for crepes. I took them through Takeshita-dori, which was incredibly crowded today.
If we had more time, maybe Asakusa and Tsukiji too. That's about the end of my bag of tricks, though.
Anyway, I haven't really spent time with my brother or his family since the summer I was in Chicago, which is now something like 5 years ago. It's interesting to see how my niece (13?) and nephew (12?) have grown and changed, but they are still really American and not polite enough for Asia.
I ran into the guy from yesterday in Harajuku, too, and made the mistake of not lying about it. I don't like the way Mike smiled at me after that.
All in all, it was a full day and I was tired by the time I left them at the right station. My real plans for today were Christmas party at Keio acquaintance's place, though, and I had to get ready for that...
What a crazy eclectic bunch of people, so many of them cool! I met two women working in the development sector who had extensive experience in Mongolia, one of whom spoke of a year-long Masters in Development Studies program at the Unversity of London SOAS -- I'm pretty intrigued. Others included finance workers, PR, art gallery, researcher of French labor law, translation coordinator(!) -- I'm not sure I've ever been in a room where what do you do for a living? yielded such fascinating answers.
It was, to some degree, awkward (it's always awkward) but I learned quite a bit and talked to lots of people and the guy I know told this story about his recent visit to a village in Bali with women dancing themselves into trances (much like The Witch of Portobello!) and, I don't know, overall it provided a lot of food for thought.
I am moving further and further away from Christmas, but this is good too.
Well then.
I met up with guy yesterday at Tokyo, too, so it was like retracing my steps. I realized yesterday and again today that I will never be able to guide people around Tokyo well because I fundamentally don't like being in Tokyo. Until this changes, I will never be a great guide.
Still.
I took them to Ameyoko, through Ueno Park a little, and to Shibuya. They needed warm clothes, so we stopped by Uniqlo and had udon sukiyaki (with real beautiful marbled Wagyu beef) in Shibuya Mark City and walked to Harajuku for crepes. I took them through Takeshita-dori, which was incredibly crowded today.
If we had more time, maybe Asakusa and Tsukiji too. That's about the end of my bag of tricks, though.
Anyway, I haven't really spent time with my brother or his family since the summer I was in Chicago, which is now something like 5 years ago. It's interesting to see how my niece (13?) and nephew (12?) have grown and changed, but they are still really American and not polite enough for Asia.
I ran into the guy from yesterday in Harajuku, too, and made the mistake of not lying about it. I don't like the way Mike smiled at me after that.
All in all, it was a full day and I was tired by the time I left them at the right station. My real plans for today were Christmas party at Keio acquaintance's place, though, and I had to get ready for that...
What a crazy eclectic bunch of people, so many of them cool! I met two women working in the development sector who had extensive experience in Mongolia, one of whom spoke of a year-long Masters in Development Studies program at the Unversity of London SOAS -- I'm pretty intrigued. Others included finance workers, PR, art gallery, researcher of French labor law, translation coordinator(!) -- I'm not sure I've ever been in a room where what do you do for a living? yielded such fascinating answers.
It was, to some degree, awkward (it's always awkward) but I learned quite a bit and talked to lots of people and the guy I know told this story about his recent visit to a village in Bali with women dancing themselves into trances (much like The Witch of Portobello!) and, I don't know, overall it provided a lot of food for thought.
I am moving further and further away from Christmas, but this is good too.