Final Thoughts: Tokyo
By The Numbers
• Pounds lost/gained: Mel -5, Brendan +5
• Trains taken: 40+
• Number of times Brendan had to eat a second of third mean because Mel didn’t like what she’d ordered: almost every meal
• Number of Japanese words Mel picked up: 1 (nomihodai “all you can drink”; oishii “delicious”—used sparingly; atsukan “hot sake”
• Number of times Brendan annoyed Mel with his in-depth knowledge of Japan: shockingly, zero
• Number of times Mel wanted to go home: 4
• Number of times she decided it wasn’t so bad after all: 5
• Number of anxiety hours prior to every meal: 2
• Number of people crossing the street in Shibuya at each light: 5-10,000
• Budget for one week: probably the same thing we’ll spend in 5 weeks in Indonesia
Moments We’d Rather Forget
• Mel’s tummy problems. I have to be the first person in Japan’s 10,000 year history to have stomach problems from the food
• All random menu items previously blogged about
Highlights
• Shabu-shabu, teppanyaki
• Meeting Brendan’s Tokyo friends (special shout out to Patrick)
• Surviving the insanity and randomness
Lessons Learned
• In Tokyo, everything you assume is wrong. Vegetable sandwiches will have ham, most “Western” food bears only a passing resemblance to the food we know, walk on the left, don’t ever touch a door to open it…
• Never ask why. There is no answer. Don’t ask why there is no answer.
…I know you want to ask…
Tags: Final Thoughts, Japan, Travel
pichemelanie
January 3rd, 2010 at 11:44 am
Thanks for the shout out-enjoying the blogs from Indonesia. It is very, very cold here right now.