Days 10-13 - Bikes and Sushi

A Slow Week

Learning a new language takes up a lot of time, did you know that? School + Commute + Homework takes up about 7 hours of our day, and we are usually pretty tired by the end of it. Add in chores + socializing at the share house, and time for activities is much less. Still, we did manage to do some interesting things throughout the week.

Bike Shopping

Marlena and I had been renting our bikes from the Share House. That costs about $10/week each, and they aren't very nice bikes. Since we'll probably want bikes the entire time we are in Japan, we decided to go and buy our own! That way we'll have nice bikes we can use for whatever we want.

There were a few bike stores nearby. I'm happy I looked around, because the one at the mall near us was maybe 20% more expensive that the place we went to. After maybe an hour of fussing around with trying different bikes, struggling in Japanese/English (with some Google Translate), and then undergoing the mandatory registration of our bikes into the Police System, we got our new bikes!

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of them right now. Marlena has a sturdy bike with a basket on the front and a substantial kickstand. It is a 6 speed bike, with gears only on the back. She wanted that kind of bike because it is easier to do groceries / carry stuff with, rather than always having her bag on her back. It is also a fashionable orange colour, which is actually good because it'll help her pick it out in the huge bike parking los.

Personally, I don't mind having a loaded bag and biking, so I went with a more "sporty" bike. It's a tad too small for me, but the biggest that they had in the lot. It's a white bike, 21 speeds, and still goes pretty fast. It is also about half as heavy as Marlena's, so I was able to leave her in the dust on the ride back if I wanted.

So far, I've taken my bike all the way to school and back (7.5km each way), navigating the complicated Tokyo streets by bike. The bike lanes aren't exactly spacious, but the drivers are all super respectful and I haven't had any close calls. But I was very sweaty by the end of the ride, who knew riding in 35C weather was tough!

Sushi

The same day we bought the bikes, we didn't really know what to eat. On our way back home from the bike place, we had passed a section of the city that had a good number of restaurants: "Monzen Nakacho". We decided to walk down the street until we found somewhere intriguing.

Eventually we settled on a place that had an entirely hand written menu available to look at outside, and absolutely no English to be seen. So we prepped Google Translate with "What would you recommend", and headed inside. They quickly sat as down right in front of the Sushi chef at a bar-like seating area. His actual working area was a bit hidden, but we could see all the cut up fish he was pulling from.

He asked if we were okay with Fish, and then said he would serve us some stuff. Throughout the night, there was a nice couple to our right that we were communicating with using Google Translate. We were keeping eachother well entertained. They found things especially funny as the chef served us more and more adventurous stuff!

Everything tasted exceptional, the best sushi I've had in my life. And the chef was making it right in front of us! Here's what I got pictures of:

Not Pictured:

• Amberjack

• Fatty Tuna

• Salmon - By far the best Salmon I've ever had

• Scallops

• Conger Eel

• Egg

• Regular Shrimp

After all that, we called it a night. We exchanged names with the couple (although we kinda forget them. Something like Taka and Reika). They apparently go there twice a month, so we are going to try and see them again next month since we all had such a good time!

Definitely a memorable night, and one of the best I've had in Tokyo so far.

The next post is here: Days 14-16 (Nagoya)