Sea Day Weekend

The 18th of July was a national holiday in Japan, called "Sea Day." I asked a few people about the origins of the holiday, but the only answer I got was that "Japanese people work too hard and need a day off." Seeing as how Japanese people really do work too hard, that seems like a good reason to have a holiday to me :-) I didn't have many specific plans coming into the weekend, but somehow everything fell together and I still managed to pack it with activities. Friday I met Aditi and Dan in Tokyo for dinner and a few rushed drinks at a cheap standing-only bar before we had to rush off to catch the last train. I had an interesting experience on the train, too. I was sitting one seat away from a Japanese man who was clearly very drunk, and a few minutes before the train left he threw up! The amazing thing was that people were not angry with him at all; they just used newspapers to clean up the mess. When new people boarded the train, they assessed the situation and chose a spot to stand where it was still clean. The drunk guy threw up 2 or 3 more times though, and eventually people started yelling at him. I felt a little queasy every time I looked in that direction, but I didn't want to give up my (rare) seat for a 40-minute ride. On Saturday I met Charles and some of his air force friends at Mount Takao, which is located in Tokyo Prefecture but is decidedly not urbanized. We spent the day hiking around, enjoying the views, and eating in the food stands. Getting out into nature heightened my awareness of how grey Tokyo is. The little elements that make American cities pleasant, like trees between the sidewalk and the street, are missing here. When the sun comes out, it's an enormous, sweltering, concrete jungle. After Takao, we (almost) got a tour of the Air Force base, but Charles accidentally left his passport at home. So once again I was unable to see an American military base here. Maybe it will eventually happen. On Sunday the first thing I did was go into Shinjuku around 11:00 and buy some socks from Oshman's. During the Takao climb I had worn my fancy sweat-wicking cycling socks, and there was noticeable improvement in my foot comfort. I briefly stopped by a bookstore (where I changed into my new socks) before leaving for Shibuya. In Shibuya, I finally managed to find some clothes that were A) to my liking B) my size, and C) not too expensive. Shopping here has mostly been a frustrating experience for me. Most of the department stores have 8 floors of women's clothing, and one floor that sells men's clothing and luggage. Furthermore, most of the men's clothing is business apparel. However, in Shibuya I went to a store called "0101" which had an astounding three floors of men's clothing including some younger, more casual styles. Aditi called while I was in Shibuya, so I jumped over one stop on the Yamanote line to Ebisu where we had some dinner at a cafe. It was relieving to sit down, because at that point I'd been on my feet for about 7 hours. It seems that in central Tokyo, you can only sit down if you've paid for the privilege (for instance, by buying food). Around 11:30 I left to go home, but when I got to the Odakyu line in Shinjuku I discovered that the schedule was different on Sundays. As a result, I had to take a local train back to the suburbs, and it stopped 2 stops away from where I live with no continuation possible. I ended up walking about 4 km home, which took me another hour so that I didn't arrive until 2:30 (note that this is 3 hours after I left). If I'd taken a cab, it would have been around 30 dollars... On Monday, I met one of my co-workers and his friend to see Yokohama. First we went to the Ramen museum near Shin-Yokohama station. It's supposed to be a museum devoted to the history of Ramen, but actually the museum part takes up about 5 square feet. The rest of the building houses about 8 different ramen shops where you can try ramen from different regions of Japan. Unfortunately, there was a 30 minute wait to get into each of the shops, so we only went to one. Next we went to the Yokohama waterfront, and then to Chinatown. I'm not convinced that there are any actual Chinese people in the Yokohama Chinatown; it seems more like a place where Japanese people go to eat Chinese food and buy Chinese stuff. The food was pretty good though.