A couple of yesterday notes (it’s still yesterday in the USA, but it’s already tomorrow here and I can tell you, in case you’re worried, it looks like it will be a very fine day!):
Near the Chou-Rinken station, a few blocks from GBD development, there’s a typical Japanese grocery. I hate to go into those places because I can’t just buy stuff, bring it home and fix it up. Bummer. Other stuff, you can’t bring back unless you’re willing to sacrifice it at US Customs – meats, agricultural goods. It’s too frustrating, but I went in anyway looking for wasabi in toothpaste tubes. All the food is labeled in Japanese, so you just have to guess. One of the hundreds of tubes had a green paste atop a piece of salmon pictured on the outside. I asked a cashier what it was, using a quizzical expression as the cue. She said “wasabi” in a way that I knew I was getting the real thing, not that pseudo food-colored crap they sell in the US. I picked up four tubes (800 Yen) and may pick up more today. These will make great presents for wasabi freaks I know back home, the ones who always lament how cruddy the US-made stuff is. It will be a present way beyond its Yen value (
probably about 9 dollars).
At the 100 Yen store in Sagami-Ono (a couple of stops from Chou-Rinken, where we change trains anyway), I bought a couple of precision screwdriver sets, the kind in a small plastic case that costs about 5 bucks at Radio Shack.
After the tonkatsu dinner (the restaurant was inside Shinjuku station), we stopped at a tea shop and TLC picked up a couple of sealed bags for a friend back in North Carolina. With some help from the attendant, who spoke good English, I convinced him to buy the best tea in the store. The friend in Raleigh is also a friend of mine, a man so serious about cooking that he has two dishwashers to keep a clean workspace and fresh tools for his complex dishes. He is one person I had in mind for the wasabi.
TLC, unfortunately, suffers from intense xenophobia despite dozens of trips to Japan. He also takes a paternalistic attitude towards me which drives me bonkers as he continually bombards me with really dumb advice. (I know it’s safe to say this, because when I told him China had shut down TypePad blogs, he didn’t know what a blog was). On Sunday, he kept insisting I bring along a coat and kept showing me Japanese-sized flannel shirts at the subway station, saying “It could get really cold.” I didn’t care. It was very warm at the time (9 am) and I didn’t want to be burdened carrying around a jacket all day. It never got cold. But near the bay, as the temperature dropped about 10 degrees, he kept asking if I need to borrow coat (it never got below 50) and I know he was secretly hoping an arctic cold front would suddenly move in so he could say, "I told you so."
Last evening (which will probably be “this evening” for you), as we exited Shinjuku, I saw a food cart on the street selling interesting looking dumplings. We had just eaten and were completely sated, but he gets this horrified look and grabs my arm saying “NEVER buy any food from the street vendors! You never know what you’re getting…it might have SQUID in it. They’re unsanitary! You might get food poisoning!”
I pondered that advice a moment, thinking about the fast food places he loves so much in the US, the ones that regularly get shut down for tainted beef or scallions. Yes, there was one food cart here a couple of years back that gave salmonella to about 30 people and it was really big international news. Why was that, I wondered – if it happened all the time, it wouldn’t be news. But all I said was, “I said I wanted to take a look – it won’t blind me, will it?”
Up the street, there was a humongous line leading into a very small shop that had “SUSHI” in food high letters stenciled on the window. Curious, I walked up to the window to watch these apparent masters at work (If you've seen "Tampopo," you know that a long line is the mark of great food - if there isn't a line, don't go in!). I had taken about 3 steps to look when he informs me, “They’re making sushi.” He didn’t say it like it was a revelation to him, but rather in the tone of voice that you use instructing a small, universally challenged child who is standing at the window picking boogers out of his nose. I passed on the sarcastic response there as well, but I suspect I’ll hit the breaking point before we make it home.
Tonight we’re going out for okonomiyaki, the “Japanese pizza” that is popular with college students because it’s economicalyaki. It resembles thick pancakes and is graced with meats, seafood, and vegetables as you like it – which is what the word basically means. The place we always go to is Tiara’s and I don’t know how to get there, so I basically tag along. Last time, I pigged out on a variety (we all share, there will be four of us going), had several beers, and it cost me under $20. I’ve tried to make this dish myself, but it never tastes quite right. Tiara-san holds his index finger to his lips as he adds some of the many sauces (all at exactly the right time) to indicate it is his secret recipe. Other stuff, he tells us what it is. JG, our Tokyo guide, designed his menus for him and he’s always very happy to see us. Next update will probably be after that, or tomorrow...
Okonomiyaki link: http://www.japan-guide.com/r/e100.html
3:16:49 PM 
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