The Best of Both Worlds

I couldn’t have been happier on Friday morning leaving the grungy business hotel that I had stayed at the night before in Narita. I have only seen North Korea from across the 38th parallel and the area around this hotel was strikingly similar: grey and depressing with random cubicle buildings built in the middle of nowhere to house the foreign guests. This hotel was on a road with pretty much nothing else on it and was surrounded by brush and dead grass.The room was small and spartan. This was not what I had remembered about Japan, and I most definitely did not feel at home. The only thing I recognized was the service at the counter. The clerk approached me with some trepidation but was put at ease when I answered in Japanese. A small, dumpy place like this in the states would more than likely have surly service, but I think that is impossible in Japan. 

The next morning I took the bus back into the airport from Narita and was surprised at the level of security to enter the parking lot. Our bus was stopped and all the passengers had to show their passports to the cop who came on board. Back in the late 60s when the airport was first being constructed there was quite a bit of controversy regarding land owners who were forcibly moved by the government.  A movement developed in opposition and there were some acts of violence carried out in the process.  Security at Narita has been intense ever since.   

However, once I got off the train from the airport (an hour and a half ride through some very drab scenery) at Tokyo station I was immediately on a natural high.  It was the standard sensory overload you can only experience in a Japanese big city: people coming at you from all directions and everyone of them smartly dressed while at the same time being bombarded by the sound of ‘irashaimase‘ yelled out by all the store clerks. The insane quantity of incredible looking food set out before me wasn’t a surprise but its still impressed.  

Because I had a long Shinkansen journey coming up I decided to splurge and buy the 1500 yen (about $16) bento box that I spotted at the Eki-ben store. The traditional lunch to eat on the train is a bento lunch box. This one had tempura, karage, tsukemono (pickles), all the standards. But before that I had to get breakfast and so I jumped into a noodle shop selling cold soba noodles with tempura shrimp. On the side was grated daikon and a cold soy based soup. One bite and I knew what I had been missing the most over the last 8 years. It was just perfectly delicious.The sauce was a base of soy, mirin and sugar diluted with fish stock (dashi). It had a taste that was so savory yet fresh and clean at the same time. And all from a food stand in a train station. Try finding that in New York.