Funnies in Tokyo

As a visitor to another country, you compare the customs, culture and people to that of your home country.  It's a natural part of learning; as humans, we analyse, compare and contrast and identify the  similarities and differences in this alien land.  This observation often results in many funnies, and lots of faux pas.

For example, in Ginza yesterday, we walked into Abercrombie & Fitch, a towering 11-floor skinny building that was designed to feel like a nightclub: dance music (think: techno Robbie Williams) pumping from the stereo, the sales assistants were all dancing along to the music, and greeters at the entrance to each level saying  "Hey, what's going on?!".  I was impressed for the first two levels - the vibe was contagious!  But then it got a little creepy because that's all they said, and some of them really didn't put their heart into the dancing.  It was like the dancing white officials in the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony.  Creepy like robots.  But very very funny.

We continue to commit faux pas here, it's so difficult to keep up with what is socially acceptable (and even when you know that something is not socially acceptable, it's so hard to follow). For example, yesterday we went to a sushi bar in Shibuya and I ordered the chef's special. 


Super deluxe chef's special

Of course it came with the standard issue sushi items - fatty tuna, salmon roe, tamago, and prawn -  but it also came with these weird and wonderful ones (obviously prized in Japan) like sea urchin, raw crab, arc shell, shellfish, and spawn.  It was a huge plate of food and I made the fatal mistake of going for the "easy to eat" ones early, meaning the weird and wonderful ones (and most expensive ones) were still to be eaten at the end.  Being absolutely too full, I left the spawn nigiri (the yellow one with the green seaweed through the centre)... huge faux pas and we can probably never go back. The chef's sushi combo was the most expensive thing on the menu, so we now have a new rule when ordering food.

Rule: don't order the most expensive thing on the menu!

We are being sucked into all the food advertising that are shown on the trains here.  We bought large McDonalds meals (fyi, ebi prawn burgers are just OK) to get these hash brown key rings as a toy.  Lisa bought a Haagen Daas "Crispeace" ice cream sandwich after seeing this on the train. Can't wait to see what's advertised next!