Kanda from subway platform
Eating. We are staying at a friend's house near Kichijoji, a charming western suburb. You don't really need to leave the neighborhood. The Inokashira -koen park is nearby as is a shopping district that rivals many large American city centers. It contains all that you may need and more. Tonight we ate at a tiny noodle/hot pot restaurant with just a few tables. The restaurant, featuring an all-kanji menu, was sitting hated in a narrow pedestrian alley nestled amidst tall buildings. The contrast between the new and tall and the tiny and narrow makes the space all the more charming. We ate a lovely meal of tempura, seaweed, and a duck hot pot with hand-drawn noodles, made in the tiny shop every day.
Babe with hand drawn noodles
Tokyo is filled with these little restaurants catering to a Japanese-only clientele. It's as if a food stall, so prevalent in Southest Asia, perfected its craft over generations, found a permanent, but small home, and continued to do business, retaining the heart of the street vendor in its devotion to a small but perfect menu.
Closeup of noodles
Communicating. Everyone here speaks a little English. The street signs are in the Latin alphabet and in katakana (Japanese), or kanji (Chinese characters). In spite of this, much of our time here is consumed by clarifying conversations, work with translating applications, as well as conversations between Laura and I trying to decide what to do. It took two days to reserve our first lodging on the Henro trail. It may be slow going when we get to Shikoku!
Today, Laura and I take the subway to Asakusa to check out old Tokyo and window shop for used kimonos. Wish us luck!
Tree growing in the middle of street
Wishing you nothing but good luck on this next phase of your adventure. Nice to know that you have company for this part of the trip.
ReplyDeleteKathy