Fun times in Tokyo and Nagoya

On Wednesday the 20th, after having decided to go with the apartment in Ikebukuro, me and my Couchsurfing host Kyan met up with a friend of him in Jiyuugaoka for dinner. We originally planned to go to some spicy Vietnamese place, but ended up walking into the smallest restaurant I've ever been to. A tiny, tiny Yakitori bar. I hadn't actually eaten Yakitori in Japan before, so this was a good opportunity to cross that off of my to-do list.
The tiny bar had about 9 seats, most of which were filled. After about 30-45 minutes Kyan's friend's friend also joined us. The Yakitori was easily the best I've ever had, but that's not saying a lot, because I've only eaten it twice at Bincho in London. It was some juicy meat though and I liked it.
I think everybody(besides me of course) was drinking and soon the atmosphere started to become very jolly and happy. Except for a couple in one of the corners, everybody was talking together. This made it quite hard for me to fully participate in the conversations, because while I rarely have trouble talking 1-on-1 with people, talking in group situations, especially with multiple conversations going on and background noises, is extremely difficult and all I understand is some random words. Fortunately enough Japanese people are some of the friendliest in the world and especially Kyan constantly took time to translate certain things for me. And when someone was talking directly to me I usually understood and was able to reply. To master Japanese in these kinds of situations will take quite a while longer, but I'll keep on improving and hopefully get better and better.
One old man in the bar was celebrating his birthday. I don't know who it was, but either he or the owner treated everyone to Cake and Champagne. I passed on the Champagne, since I don't drink, but the cake was really cool. It further heightened the mood and all was good. :) Here's a picture we took:

 Left to Right: Kyan's friend, Birthday guy, Kyan's friend's friend, Kyan, me

Afterwards Kyan, me and the 2 girls went to an even smaller bar with some Italian snacks and wine etc. We talked for a while longer and eventually not wanting to be on the last train with drunk, obnoxious people(apparently they do exist in Japan...) we went homewards.

On Thursday, I didn't do a whole lot. I was expecting to go and sign a contract for the apartment, but eventually got an email I should come to Ikebukuro on Friday to sort things out. In the evening I met up with Robert again and we ate some solid sushi in Marunouchi. A restaurant which we had eaten at together twice before already last year. It delivered solid sushi yet again.

Friday during the day I finally got a chance to go down to Ikebukuro. It turned out there was no contract that needed to be signed, but I did let them copy my passport and we talked about payment options. Afterwards I walked around Ikebukuro a bit more and was really happy I chose the Ikebukuro apartment. I still very much am! I actually like the area a lot more aswell than Shinjuku, which maybe is a bit too busy. Walking around, I decided I'd explore Ikebukuro station. It turns out there's about 100 places for food inside the station and 100s more in the direct vicinity. I ate some so-so sushi and afterwards checked out the supermarkets. Not only is there a supermarket in 1 of the 2 department stores, but as in most of them in Japan both have an entire floor with takeaway food. Both supermarkets have about 20-30 stands where you can get takeaway food, lunch boxes, sweets and bread. There may be a little bit too much to choose from :)
Friday evening me and Kyan went out. Kyan, being a working man, said he likes to start of the weekend by going out and drinking, so after getting some supercheap, but surprisingly good Chinese food around the corner, we first went to an international party in Harajuku. I had been to these international parties before last year and especially the first one was a lot of fun. This one was allright. A little bit warm and cramped at times and not as nice of a location as the first one in Shibuya last year, but it was a good opportunity to speak some Japanese nonetheless(which I don't do with Kyan, he's Chinese and mostly grew up in Canada and his English, if possible, is even better than mine, so we speak English). We also met some interesting people. Especially one Chinese looking girl was quite funny, because she was a little bit oversocial and took literally 15 identical pictures of people and got more phone numbers from people than anyone else at that party I'm sure.

Afterwards we met up with a few friends of Kyan in a Latin Dance bar in Roppongi. I don't particularly like the atmosphere in Roppongi, but apparently there's a lot of nightlife and it's close to Kyan's house, so oh well. The crowd in the bar/club was mainly 30+. So I didn't talk to a lot of other people. However, it was good fun, mostly talking with Kyan's friends and dancing a little bit. I went home somewhat early, because I didn't want to be in bed too late, since I had to travel to Nagoya the next day.

Saturday, I packed my stuff, said goobye to Kyan and took a Shinkansen from Tokyo to Nagoya. Less than 2 hours later I arrived. Especially the fastest Shinkansens cross Japan in astonishing times. A great way to travel! I went to the house of my next host, Rod, a Filipino guy. He had invited over 2 other Couchserfers, both Germans, that evening. We ordered pizza and talked together. One stayed the night aswell. The following day I talked a bunch more with the guy who had stayed the night. His name is Greg and he's been trying to find a job in Japan to get a visa, but has been unsuccessful in the past few years. He's giving it one last shot and has a few more months to make it happen. Good luck to him!

Sunday evening, I met up for dinner with an old friend from last year, Mika. She's quite easily the one who's helped me improve my Japanese the most. Last year, we talked for about 25 hours over the course of 4 days, 95% in Japanese. Up til that point I had not spoken much more Japanese than a few simple 30 minute introductions and ordering food in restaurants, so with her help I improved tremendously! We also became good friends last year.

We went for some sushi and afterwards went to a really cool cafe called monkey cafe, that we had been to last year too. We basically caught up and talked until I had to go not to miss the last train.

Monday the 25th, I met up with Mika again for dinner. This time for a special occasion. One of her friends, Kohan from Taiwan, who had lived in Nagoya for 6 months was leaving and there was a farewell party for him. Kohan also brought a friend, Akiko. And although she was a little late, I also saw Midori again, whom I had also become good friends with last year. We went to an Izakaya, Yama-chan. The food was pretty basic, but the company is what matters when you go to an Izakaya and I had no complaints in that regard. Again it was sometimes a little bit hard to follow conversations with 3 Japanese people and lots of background noise, but Kohan wasn't quite fluent yet either, so I understood almost all of what he said and because the 3 Japanese girls are all very good at English(better than me and Kohan at Japanese), so there was some talk in English aswell.

Tuesday, I moved to a hotel I had booked and afterwards met up for dinner with a Couchsurfer I hadn't met before, Ai. Ai brought a friend Joshua. Joshua's a Korean who grew up in Japan, so he has 3 names, an English, a Korean and a Japanese one. We went to an Izakaya again and talked about a bunch of topics. Joshua, just like me, is interested in starting businesses. He actually already owns and runs a bar in the town where he lives in his spare time. So it was interesting talking to him.

Wednesday, Friday and Saturday were relatively uneventful. I walked around Nagoya a lot, did a bunch of shopping, watched a few movies, ate at a few restaurants etc.

Thursday was somewhat more eventful. Mainly because of 1 absolutely amazing meal and 1 also very cool, good meal. The first one was probably the 2nd best meal I've ever had. Sushi in a department store next to Nagoya station:

http://tokyofoodjournal.blogspot.jp/2013/02/sushi-in-nagoya-station-areanagoya.html

The second one was a type of restaurant I had never eaten at before. An Unagi(Eel) restaurant. Of course I've eaten Unagi Nigiri Sushi before, but never before had I eaten at a restaurant specializing in Unagi. I went together with Mika and Midori. Mika had never eaten Unagi Hitsumabashi before either.

http://tokyofoodjournal.blogspot.jp/2013/03/unagi-in-sakaenagoya.html

Being in Nagoya this last Sunday was some amazing timing. Mika plays in an orchestra that performs once a year, which this year happened to be last Sunday! I obviously had to take this opportunity to go and hear her perform. It was a bit far out, but certainly worth the trip. The orchestra wasn't professional, but nonetheless a lot of people had come and the music they played I definitely liked. Brahms' 4th Symphony and Schubert's unfinished Symphony, with the Radzetzky March as an encore. Afterwards we ate dinner together at Nagoya Station.

Today, Monday, I ate lunch in Sakae(Nagoya's city center) and then spent nearly 5 hours in a Starbucks studying Japanese Kanji. The complicated Kanji characters intrigue me and it was fun being productive again for a change. Afterwards I decided to reward myself with a return visit to the amazing sushi bar, but was disappointed by the fact that the counter seats were taken. Nonetheless had a good meal there, but it's shocking what a difference 5 minutes make when it comes to the quality of sushi. Having them all delivered at your table instead of eating them 1 by 1 at the counter, makes all the difference in the world.

Right now I'm back in my hotel doing some laundry and getting ready to fly to Seoul tomorrow. I'll first take the Shinkansen to Osaka and fly from Kansai Airport to Seoul. In Seoul I'll spend my first week Couchsurfing, meeting tons of people, sightseeing, eating Korean food etc. The 2nd week I'll be participating in the APPT Seoul, hopefully binking a win, maybe killing the cash games too. And I'll be going to the Pokerstars VIP dinner to which I can take a guest. I haven't decided yet who, but I'm sure I'll meet someone awesome in Korea whom I can invite. Unfortunately enough IF I decide to go to the dinner, I will have to pass up on the AMAZING concert that I have a ticket for, because it's on the same day. I'll probably go to the dinner, but I'll be very sad missing the concert which is some of my favorite music done by my favorite director+orchestra in the world. The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra will be performing Beethoven's 7th Symphony and Beethoven's Triple Concerto.

Sorry for the lack of pictures in this blog, I'm sure I'll make up with the next one from Korea, which should contain a ton of them. As always if you want to read about more food I've eaten check out:

http://tokyofoodjournal.blogspot.jp/

Apartment hunting in Tokyo

Last week, after a few more uneventful days spent in Holland, I started my 4 month journey in Japan. The flight from Amsterdam to Paris was also very uneventful. I did learn to never fly KLM again though. Compared to British Airways their airplanes are old and even though I didn't fly business class, I saw the KLM business class seats were the same as economy seats. The food during the flight I didn't even bother with, because it looked unappetizing.
Transferring at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport was a nightmare. I never have any issues finding my way around airports, maps or any location for that matter, but Charles de Gaulle gave me major headache. Everybody transferring is sent to the arrivals hall and is supposed to figure out where to go from there. The problem is that unless you arrive at the same terminal your connecting flight departs from, you'll have no means of finding out which terminal your connecting flight will depart from. So once I realized this, I asked people working at the airport to tell me where to go and because I had so much time between flights, I fortunately enough did not miss my connecting flight.
The 2nd part of the trip was with JAL, the Japanese Airline company. They were much better than KLM, but also not quite as good as British Airways. I thought the service was slightly better. For example I slept through the first meal, but they had posted a note that I would see when I woke up, telling me I could eat my meal later at my own convenience! Pretty amazing! Another good thing for me was that everything was labeled in English AND Japanese, so I could keep myself entertained by figuring out what all the Kanjis meant.
However, there were a few things that bothered me. First of all the 2nd meal was quite bad. Maybe it's because this flight departed from Paris and thus the Frenchies had tried to produce some Japanese meals and failed terribly on the 2nd one. It was inedible. Second, I found out there was no face moisturizer in the toilets. I always like to freshen up a little with that, especially after a 10+ hour flight just before landing it's nice to be able to put some moisturizer on your face. I'm not sure if this is just a great addition by British Airways or something that's lacking on JAL flights. Either way, I will most likely fly British Airways again next time.

After landing, I picked up my mobile WiFi and got going to Tsukiji, where my hotel for the first night was conveniently located. This meant that after dropping off my bags I could go and get some sushi. Aswell as for dinner... and for breakfast the next morning. If you're interested in all the meals I eat, I recommend you check out my food blog:
http://tokyofoodjournal.blogspot.jp/
I will only post about food in this blog when it's something very good and even in that case I'll just link to the other blog.

After sushi breakfast I had my first appointment with a real estate agent. I was shown 3 apartments on the first day. The first one was extremely centrally located in Kyoubashi. Very close to Tokyo Station.

 

At only 200.000¥ per month(divide by about 100 to get dollars and euros. divide by about 100 and then take 2/3 to get the amount in pounts. So about 2k dollars/euros per month and about 1.4k pounds) it was quite cheap, but I was also quite surprised at how small it was.

Moving on, I saw a place in East Shinjuku. A bit more expensive at about 275.000¥ per month, but also bigger. However I wasn't so sure yet about the area, so I'd have to do more investigating before deciding I'd want to live there.

Lastly I saw an apartment in Roppongi, which is as central as you can get. However, it is also one of the most busy places, because it's one of  'the' nightlife areas in Tokyo. Furthermore, it's the area with the most foreigners and I've come to experience Japan, so I don't really wanna live in the most 'western'  part in all of Tokyo. Last but not least, while Tokyo is about as safe as it gets, a 36 million people city where it's not that uncommon to see a 10 year old girl commuting on her own on the subways/trains, Roppongi is, from what I've heard, one of the least safe areas in Tokyo. All in all, at 275.000¥ I wasn't too interested in living there.

All in all, not the greatest apartments. However, on the 2nd day in Tokyo I was shown a couple of more interesting apartments by another company. First up was a location I REALLY wanted to live. South-East Ginza, a 3 minute walk from Tsukiji, the fish market. This'd mean I could go eat fresh sushi whenever I wanted. Breakfast, Lunch AND dinner! Furthermore there was a gym right across the street and the apartment was the nicest I had seen so far and not that much more expensive at 300.000¥.

 

After this one, I was taken to Kioicho to see another apartment. It turned out to be next door to the hotel I had stayed in for the first week when I came to Tokyo last year. I absolutely love the area and with my current knowledge of Tokyo, I think this is my single favorite place to live in the entire city. The apartment wasn't bad either.

The only downside was no front lobby/concierge service. This one also cost 300.000¥ per month.

The last apartment I saw on Friday was in Shinagawa.

Definitely the nicest apartment I had seen and slightly cheaper than the previous 2 at a little under 300.000¥. However after scouting the Shinagawa area, I discovered it was quite boring. Very blend with not too much to do, so that dampened my enthusiasm a bit and put the Tsukiji and Kioichi apartments from this Friday in the lead.

Friday evening I met my first Couchsurfing host, Trevor, the most English person I've ever met. He is clearly very fond and proud of England, but spends 3 months out of the year in Tokyo for business. He has a nice little place in Seijou outside of the city center and he was overall a very welcoming host. I stayed with him up till Monday.

Saturday I saw just one apartment in Ikebukuro, but it turned out to be by far the best one I had seen up till then.

This was 275.000¥. If you think this doesn't look any bigger than the other apartments, then you are very much correct. That is, because the apartment that I was being offered was occupied and I could not see inside the actual apartment. Instead of 30 m2, the actual apartment in question is 40 m2 and is a 1BR instead of a Studio. Here's a video of it:

The best feature about this apartment is the location. It is a 2 minute walk from a major train station(Ikebukuro) and if you think 2 minute walks are too much, how about having a gym in the same street, which'll only take you a 10-15 second sprint to reach. At this point I was pretty much set on going with this apartment and even though I was going to see 2 more on Sunday, I couldn't imagine anything beating this.
That afternoon I made a trip all the way up to Saitama to meet Robert, a dutch friend living in Tokyo. I got to see where he lives and afterwards we had a solid sushi meal.

The last apartments on Sunday were located in Shinjuku. One of, if not the biggest, most massive district in Tokyo. Especially at night, it's filled with neon lights, skyscrapers and of course people.

First I was shown this 2nd floor apartment. It wasn't bad, but especially because of an inconvenient location I didn't like this any better than the one I saw on Saturday. Afterwards however we went on to another, much nicer building and I was shown 2 more apartments.

Although very, very nice, this 20+th floor apartment was a bit expensive at 400.000¥, so I was shown a slightly cheaper apartment.

This apartment was about the same size at 60 m2, but a lot cheaper at 330.000¥ per month. More expensive than the Ikebukuro apartment, but also 50% bigger and clearly much, much nicer. Furthermore there was weekly instead of monthly cleaning and additional features in the building such as complimentary breakfast.

After having seen this apartment in Shinjuku, I was completely lost and unsure which one I liked better. I spent an entire afternoon walking around Shinjuku and Ikebukuro, seeing which area I liked best, but came to the conclusion that while very different they are both great in their own ways. Ikebukuro is slightly smaller and more quiet, especially the area surrounding the apartment is very quiet and relaxed with almost no traffic. Yet once you cross the station, there's a ton of stuff to do and as I experienced it gets plenty busy on Saturday evenings(and other evenings too I'm sure).
Shinjuku on the other hand is basically always busy. Even on Sunday mornings there's a lot of people around. The Shinuku apartment is also not in the middle of the crowds. It is located on a big street, but because it's on the 20+th floor, traffic won't bother you. It's right next to the skyscraper district and since I very much like the architecture of skyscrapers that's a good thing! The only downside to the Shinjuku apartment is that it's a good 10 minute walk from both the main train station and the fitness, which means a lot more unpleasant commuting each week. Especially in the summer heat it will be extra unpleasant.

Eventually after (but not because of) negotiating 8400¥(25k¥ for the total stay! Almost a free Sukiyabashi Jiro meal!!!) off of the price of the Ikebukuro apartment, I decided to go with that one, because of the far more convenient location. I'd have rather paid a bit more for the Shinjuku place, because it was definitely worth it, but it could not overcome it's somewhat inconvenient location. I will be signing the contract and all before leaving Tokyo on Saturday and then moving in on the 19th of March after I get back from Seoul.

On Monday I met my new CS Host with whom I'll be staying until I leave Tokyo on Saturday. His name is Kyan, he's Chinese, but grew up partly in Canada, partly in Japan and currently lives and works in Tokyo. We're getting along great so far and tonight I'll be eating my first non-Japanese meal ever in Japan with him and one of his friends. It's probably a good thing, because there's actually a lot of good non-Japanese food in Tokyo, so I better start eating some of that. I've probably been missing out.

Kyan also has a great Ramen bar around the corner where I went for lunch the other day and I may actually go back there, because it was really really good. Best meal of the month so far. Check it out here:
http://tokyofoodjournal.blogspot.jp/2013/02/ramen-in-azabujuban_19.html

Lastly I just wanna say I feel really relaxed and happy so far in Japan. It really feels like home already. Hopefully that trend continues! I'm superexcited to go to Seoul in March, meet Korean people, eat Korean food, play Poker at the APPT, go to the GSL Finals, go to a SICK SICK Beethoven concert and go on a complimentary meal+tour organized by Pokerstars! But I may be even more excited to start my life in Tokyo after I get back from Seoul... and to finally hit the gym again, because it feels like it's been an eternity!!!

I'll leave you with a few snapshots I took of Shinjuku and Shinjuku Central Park.