Day 1 – My Trip to Japan

  Posted on June 5, 2014  by Leslie Blythe  No comments

Day 1 – My Trip to Japan

We arrived around 4 pm Tokyo time, rather dazed and confused! Very tired. We needed to stay up. After checking in to the hotel, we bought some sandwiches and beer at FamilyMart. FamilyMart is Japan’s third largest convenience store chain, behind 7-Eleven. The North American brand name is “Famima!!”. FamilyMart’s official motto is “FamilyMart, Where You Are One of the Family.”

After inhaling the sandwiches, Eric and I decided to take a walk and get some air to try to stay awake as long as possible. It was very balmy – sticky humid, which is a nice change from the desert-like, bone dry climate of Los Angeles. It’s basically meant to rain every single day we are here. June, July and August are not good months to see Japan, but I don’t care. I have a umbrella, rain poncho and rubber shoes, which raised some eyebrows with my family! Why can’t I wear rubber shoes?! Anyway, we decided to go get a beer at this tiny, smoke filled (literally every person was smoking and eating at the same time) restaurant. We sat down and they put some pickled vegetables and picked baby octopus on the table. I have decided I will try everything, well almost everything! They had Horse Sashimi on the menu. I think I’ll pass on that!

We then ordered 2 Yakitori. Yakitori (焼き鳥, やきとり, ヤキトリ?), grilled chicken, is commonly a Japanese type of skewered chicken. The term “yakitori” can also refer to skewered food in general. It is traditionally small restaurants or stands that grill yakitori to order over charcoal, to be consumed alongside alcoholic beverages (usually beer or shochu) in the evening. You can find a great recipe on this site called Just One Cookbook – Easy Japanese Recipes.

Eric insisted that you never pour your own drink, so I poured his and he poured mine until be finished. We then stumbled back to the hotel to shower off the cigarette smoke and jet fuel aroma and collapsed into bed. We woke up several times. I successfully FaceTimed my daughter at 3am.

I can’t wait to get out on the streets to explore.