Airport Limousine Bus

I flew into the main airport in Tokyo - Narita - but we were working in the southwestern part of Tokyo in Kawasaki. Rather than blow a lot of money on a taxi to the hotel, I caught the Friendly Airport Limousine bus to the nearest airport - Haneda. For 3000 Yen ($30) and anywhere from 60-75 minutes, it's a pleasant trip.

I did the same thing when returning to Narita today. I thought it was pretty cool that the ticket taker bows to the bus as it leaves. I felt honored to be on the bus! Similarly, the security guard at work salutes the employee bus when it arrives every day. What signs of respect!

The bus only took 60 minutes to get to Narita. Of course it departed promptly for a 11:55 am departure. Every bus and train we've taken departs as scheduled. Such reliability!

Arrival into the Narita Airport we had to stop and show our passports. Obviously they take security really seriously here. It only took a few minutes for security to board and also look in the luggage hold area of the bus. I felt just a bit more secure.

Thanks Japan for a great 2.5 weeks. I will miss the great food and shopping (the first time the exchange rate was decent enough for me to buy anything). I look forward to returning again, hopefully with Mom to serve as translator!

Vending machines

What's with Japan's obsession with vending machines? They're everywhere selling iced coffee in little cans, water, bottled green tea, soda (usually regular Coke or Pepsi, no diet), juice and beer outside of a liquor store. This is next to the train station near work. The store isn't open when we arrive in the morning (I took this after work), but there are always some guys standing around and drinking. They look like they just got off work. I guess if the bars and liquor stores are closed, a mechanical liquor shop is a good alternative.

The other popular use of vending machines is by noodle shops. They're usually positioned outside the entrance. No cashier needed. Just buy your ticket and hand it to the waitstaff. This one is similar to the first food ticket machine I encountered the last time I was in Japan. As you can see, nothing is in English.

Noodle shops are everywhere and always in train stations where everyone stands at counters and eats. It's a quick and satisfying meal.

Working in Japan

OK...two and a half weeks of working in Japan doesn't make me an expert by any means, but here are some observations from the conference room I've been cooped up in at the facility.

1) Company bus - Love this idea. The bus is in sync with the train schedule, thus we leave at 8:26 am in the morning after the 8:11 am train arrives from the Kawasaki station. You miss your train, you miss the bus. There are earlier departures in the morning, but we seem to be on the schedule to catch the 8:26 one. In the evening the last bus leaves at 6:25, which we usually take. But this last week of work, we're leaving at 6....barely.

2) Uniforms - This is a plant facility and I expected to see uniforms, but I didn't expect to see them on the office employees. The men wear shirts and suits on the bus in the morning, then change into a uniform of a light blue zippered jacket and slacks. The women wear a navy blue vest and matching skirt with white blouses and a flouncy bow tie with navy knee-high socks and loafers. They all look the same. Cute, but the same.

3) Exercise - Every morning at 8:40 am the sound of a grandfather clock chimes and a woman's voice says good morning and something else in Japanese. Then the piano begins playing and a booming male voice starts the exercise program. Ichi, ni, san, shi.....counting in Japanese. It's the same recording every day. It plays again at 3 pm. Today was the first day I happened to be in the hallway and saw people exercising. They're simple stretches - touch your toes, touch your shoulders and raise your arms, twist back and forth, etc. - but it was amusing to watch. It runs for about 8 minutes or so. Maybe I'll join them before I leave!

4) Cafeteria - The plant canteen offers 3 choices each day - a brown curry (Japanese love curry) with rice, noodles (usually cold soba or udon noodles...sometimes ramen), and the daily special with rice. Cost is 210 yen or about $2.10 US. A bowl of soup is included. Milk or coffee-flavored milk (yum!) is 60 yen. Total cost of my lunch is about $2.70. There is no cashier. We pay a vending machine and deposit tickets in a basket. We're usually in and out in 20 minutes. The food is decent. Some days better than others. I've had much worse at other locations - the food in our Germany operations suck (sorry Martine, but it's no better than airplane food) and Italy has the BEST food hands down.

What's great about eating at a canteen is that it's true local food. Some of this stuff I wouldn't have eaten if my Mom made it when I was growing up. For example, I dislike the slimy texture of yama imo (mountain potato). It's white and has the consistency of okra and I've avoided it as a child. But there it was on my plate of udon noodles and I ate it. I still don't like it, but I did eat it.

5) Employees - They're all kind and willing to endure my questioning and requests for documentation. It's been difficult communicating at times. Yesterday the gentleman I've been working with since I arrived told me that Accounts Payable (APAY) was sent the invoice. This was the first I had heard about the existence of an APAY department and I asked him where APAY was located. "Here," he replied. Then later in the afternoon when I asked again, he looked at me dumbfounded and said there was no APAY. Sigh! The joys of working in a different country where you don't speak the native language!

Japan summer sales

The summer sales in Japan began on Friday and the stores are a madhouse. I was successful and picked up some clothing for a reasonable price (i.e., $20 US), even if finding items to fit can be a challenge. Size-wise I'm considered a Large since Asian women are pretty petite (same problem in Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, China). I don't even bother trying on any pants, but I've had good luck with skirts.

The clothes are pretty conservative and shapeless. Lots of baby-doll tops and frills. Way too girly for my taste sometimes. Strapless or sleeveless tops are worn with a shirt underneath or a sweater or jacket covers their arms. Women also tend to wear nude-colored stockings and pedi's with their ballet slipper shoes. It's too warm here (80's) for me to feel comfortable wearing layers of clothes (but I try to), but stockings and socks don't even enter my mind.

I still have 6 more days left in Japan. Six more days of listening to the sales clerks cry out "come in" and lure you in with shouts of their discounts, which can get very loud with many of the stores so close to each other. Six more days of glorious shopping! :-)

Only in Japan

Toilets with bells and whistles....flushing sound (musical note, with volume control) and "powerful deodorizer" (silver button on the right). What?! No seat warmer? This was taken at the public bathroom in a nearby shopping mall. It's not the fanciest toilet I've seen, but pretty good for a public restroom. With toilets like this I am baffled as to why anyone would prefer squatting, which is still an option in some bathrooms. The ladies room at the Yokohama baseball stadium had both options available.

In the same bathroom are stalls for women to put on their make-up. I took a reflection of them in the mirror. This is a fairly upscale shopping mall.

Lastly, Starbucks are everywhere and I have been in the one next to the hotel a couple of times. What I thought was cool is the stirrer that fits in the hole of the cup. It does a good job sealing the hole so the coffee isn't spilling everywhere. I don't recall ever seeing this in the U.S. Anyone know if they have them in the U.S.?

Sushi in Japan is awesome

Need I say more? Perfectly seasoned rice with wasabi already on top (no wasabi on the side!) and fresh fish and a bowl of perfect miso soup....can there be anything better?

Requisite Food Post

I have to have at least one post on food, so here is the Japan installment.

For some reason, whenever I'm in an Asian city I become more Japanese at breakfast. In the U.S. I love eggs and pancakes for breakfast. In Asian cities, I eat more traditional Asian breakfasts although I never grew up on them. I typically eat a bowl of miso soup (with tofu and green onions), a couple of pieces of tofu, the daily fish (mackerel or salmon), steamed vegetables, a salad, some Japanese side dishes (changes daily) and rice. Every now and then I have some yogurt with watermelon (really sweet) and granola (no granola for days now). The photo is of my Saturday breakfast with the yellow stuff some sort of pumpkin salad (similar to potato salad with egg...it sounds awful but it's quite yummy).

As I've mentioned in other posts, eating in restaurants has been quite challenging in this trip because few have English menus or menus with pictures. Most do have lovely displays of plastic food, which help somewhat (if you memorize the price of the item and the first character). A lot of the restaurants are on one or more levels of a shopping building. For lunch today I took photos of my restaurant choices on one level to illustrate the variety of food available and to show how specialized these restaurants are. The specialization makes it difficult to find a restaurant that my colleague and I are interested in (should be even more interesting in week 3 when our reviewer arrives).

Sushi...of course!

This is the tonkatsu restaurant, which is basically fried food. Typically meats and shrimp, but I've also had potato-type tonkatsu as well. Usually served with cabbage and rice. I doubt I'll ever eat here.

This is a soba restaurant, which is a buckwheat noodle. They serve it either in a hot broth with items such as tempura, pork, etc. or cold (top row). I like soba if it's not too whole-wheaty and preferably fried with cabbage and worcestershire sauce (as I had at the baseball game).

Some kind of fish place....I think.

The udon place where I had lunch. Udon noodles are fat and made with flour. I grew up with my mom and grandmother making homemade ones. These were homemade and quite yummy. No English menus but my favorite is tempura udon so I asked if they had it ("Tempura udon aremasu ka?"). It sort of was the item on the far right on the second shelf, but had 2 pieces of fish and some vegetables as well. Yum!

This looks to be a tempura restaurant with chawanmushi (a hot egg custard). I'd love to try this place, but am afraid that I would have to resort to memorizing the character and price of what I want. Plus there are a lot of unknown items in these meals.

We had dinner at this place one night. They had picture menus and I ended up with their cold soba noodles. This place was rather healthy with the calories printed on the menu and oats in the rice. Food was good and very quick and we would consider returning.

In addition to these Japanese restaurants I've found Chinese, Indian (2 of them to quench my saag paneer craving), Thai (excellent Yom Yum soup!), California Pizza Kitchen and lots of Italian.

Plus Beard Papa's (my favorite cream puffs in Hawaii), gelato, and Portuguese donuts (malasadas!) for dessert. I have yet to find my favorite cookies - palmiers - but I'm sure I'll find a bakery with them. I definitely don't starve when I'm in Japan. I'm in dire need of exercise though!