Lost in Shinjuku Station

I spent nearly two hours losing my way, finding my way, and losing my way again within the Shinjuku train station at rush hour yesterday. And, of course this was the day I actually had a place to be, at a given time.

It was evident today that, at least for me, the most confusing thing about Tokyo transportation are the numerous different train lines owned by both private firms and the government, and which don't interconnect. Each has it's own name, logo, colors for various lines (which cane be the same color of another line run by another company), and all lines come together within the larger stations.

Shinjuku station is one of Tokyo's largest stations and thus, extremely busy and incredibly confusing. With thousands of people smashed together trying to get where they were going, I was running laps around the building trying to find the right color line, with the right name, and in the right direction. The picture above (which does no justice to the amount of people rushing passed in a constant stream) was sweet relief as I found a corner to catch my breath and gear up for round two of pushing my way through the people to the other end of the station.

Once found, it was off to dinner with the owners of AQ Works, http://aqworks.com/, the founder of Tokyo Art Beat, http://www.tokyoartbeat.com/tablog/entries.en/, and some of the workers therein. The owners are 30-ish artists who came to Tokyo from America, France, England, and who are doing incredibly well in the business world here; it's very inspiring to see. Check out their websites, they're known (and successful in part) for being bilingual!

Dinner. Dinner was something to write home about. It was easily the most amazing meal I've had here, and potentially the most amazing meal I've had anywhere. The restaurant was a tiny room, shared with the kitchen (with three young indie-rocker chefs crammed together), and the 7 of us dominated the entire dinning area (there was a bar which accounted for other seating- about 6 more places). The meal had been pre-ordered, and portions were split among us.

Personal portions of edamame started us off, alongside a nice, dry sake. The portions were served on plates as small as our saucers, but the courses kept coming. First was fish salad, followed by a great tofu & strawberry mixture (consistency was like a yogurt)...amazing. Then some fried corn with mineral salt, another salad (with tofu, fresh veggies, fruit, sesame seeds), vegetable stirfry, a portion of an omelet-type dish with veggies and white radish. Still more. Next up was the brown rice and a citrus miso soup (interestingly served at the end of the meal). Finally, the chef dropped off blueberry cheesecake in little cubed portions just big enough for a bite (or two). It's amazing how pleasant you feel when not over-stuffing yourself on portions. I'd say many of the items we shared four ways would equal ONE portion in America.

The train ride home was more successful than the one there, and again served as a resting place for various salarymen, some passed-out from exhaustion, others passed-out from too much to drink. A continual and extremely sad situation as recognized by this tourist...

It's rainy again today. I'm going to research language courses and venture out this afternoon using my new Tokyo Art Beats guide!