Mr. Tokyo

Day 1.5

Rain in the morning. Then a surprising clearing with partly sunny skies and mildly windy. Winds from the WSW at 10 mph.

Realfeel®: 63 °F

High: 67 °F

Today was 5:30am Tokyo Time... It started with finding out I was a little too late to make the first session at Hombu.   A second attempt - left the hotel at 6:45a for 8am class. When I arrived in Shinjuku no one knew where the dojo was. I wandered and asked several people to direct me.  Hotels, taxi drivers, the elderly, and more.  After 35 minutes of searching I arrived right on time for class. The doors closed and they began right at 8am. With me looking at the clock and the front desk and saying to  the gentlemen in suits (YES SUITS!) "but I arrived into town at 7:15am. " All I received were polite smiles with a soundtrack of mat slapping to accompany them. And I found out Doshu is traveling. He knew I was coming. :)  I walked out of the dojo and I heard a crow laughing.  Back to the hotel by 8:45am.  Left the hotel by 10:30 am for a walk about in Shibuya. Maybe to Harajuku, but not sure.  Devoured some udon at a place called Soba Ya something  on Kamiyama street. It was a working mans noodle shop. Every diner wore a factory badge around their neck. Every diner had a cigarette in their hand.  Needless to say the Udon was so tasty. I knew it would have to be good with all the peoples people eating there before noon.   Then more walking.  A quick call to our very good friend HItoshi Miyajima.  Our guide for the remainder of the day. Our guide who apparently worked til midnight the night before and stayed out all night being Mr. Tokyo. And Mr. Tokyo he is.   We walked Yoyogi Park and met Hitoshi san at The GAP!  We found a salon for Yen to cut her hair under the sculpting eye of a sub-basement salon.

The Japanese bury amazing jewels in alleys and basements and below basements.  Places you would never consider to be the gems that they are.   Hitoshi gave me an hour tour of Harajuku.  Through every imaginable path of Harajuku.  The Harajuku girls being so metropolitan victorian.  We grabbed Yen and explored a bit more then walked Shinjuku. Miles of walking-  around 8 we went to Shubiya for Yakitori. Down a weaving puzzle of alleys Hitoshi took us to his famous Yakitori joint.  And it didn't disappoint.   Does anyone know what Chicken Hock is without looking it up?  We ate Chicken Skin, Chicken Cartilidge, Chicken Meatballs, Checking Meatballs stuffed into green peppers, Chicken Breast, Chicken Tail,  but no Chicken Cheek. Oh and tofu.

After Yakitori we took a ten minute walk to find some Soba... and soba we ate.  The soba was exact.  The most exact soba I've ever had.   11pm done. Tired.  Tomorrow come hell or high water I will take Hombu dojo or die trying.