Tokyo and Typhoons

It's been a while, I know.  Sorry I haven't been updating the blog like usual.

But now THIS is happening:

And I have ample time to sit down and post.  (Well, until the electricity goes out, at least.)  Typhoon Jelawat has put the kibosh on any weekend plans.  Right now, we have wind gusts up to 120 miles per hour.  Kite-flying, anyone?

In a way, I'm actually glad that I'm stuck inside today.  I finally have time to write about this week's trip to Tokyo!

The Red Cross sent several of the Okinawa staff up to Camp Zama for training.  (Have I mentioned that I love my job?)  I'd never been to Tokyo, and I was absolutely awed at the sheer SIZE of the city.  Picture the density of downtown Chicago, except it spreads out in every direction for miles and miles.

During our final night on the main island, several other staff members and I took the train to downtown Tokyo.  It was about an hour-long ride, and it was packed to the brim with people the entire way.  Schoolchildren in their cute little uniforms, businessmen in suits, old women in kimonos.

I love her Madeline outfit

Once we arrived at the station, the doors swooshed open and everyone poured out of the train.  It took us about 20 minutes to find our way aboveground, but the view was pretty spectacular once we finally got out of the subway.

We walked around for a bit and had dinner at a random restaurant.  The menu was entirely in Japanese, so I'm still not sure what we ate.  But it was delicious and relatively cheap.

I'll take one of everything, please.

We ordered a big pot of boiling broth and then added meat, tofu and veggies.  It was almost like fondue.  Delicious.

Tuna.  And yes, I think that's a pot leaf ... 

Then we wandered a bit more.  We wanted to find ice cream, so I chatted with a pair of young men.  Their English was a little spotty, and my Japanese is even worse, so we never did find an ice creamery that evening.  I did, however, receive a marriage proposal from one of them.

It was still this busy at 11 pm.

Apparently these exist?  Sexy robot ladies that you can drive?

We were on our way back to the train station when we ran across two Japanese businessmen.  They invited us to a shady-looking alley for beers.  (Being three relatively defenseless young women in a foreign country, of course we accepted!)

My new best friend and me

We crowded into a tiny bar about 5ft x 10 ft.  Both of the gentlemen were executives at Casio, and they were eager to try their English on us.  We chatted about American and Japanese cultures for a while.

The proprietor of the establishment, a short older woman, was an absolute hoot.  I'm pretty sure that she was making fun of us the entire time, but I don't care.

I love Japan -- everyone we met in Tokyo went out of their ways to ensure that we were having a great time.  How many Americans would do that for random foreign visitors?  Tokyo was big and loud and (at times) slightly scary, but the city just pulsed with life.

Well, the eye of Typhoon Jelawat has passed over us here in Okinawa.  (I just saw a bit of sunshine peaking through the clouds.)  The wind is starting to pick back up again, and someone isn't a happy camper right now.

"Mommm, make the scary storm go away"

I promise I'll update this blog on a more regular basis now.  (Unless I get blown away by Typhoon Jelawat, of course ...)