|
Friends Loyalty Loyalty: Why I stay, and why it's a core value for me. Fun Other things I do I'm a writer, here's a story by me. Food Places I've been
|
contact me at:
justin (@) deepdrift dot com
GyozaQuest is a non profitable site,
Japan again...
0 hour- Leave house - Red Line to Silver Line to Airport
1 hour- Check in at counter,
2 hour- Get on Plane, plane departs.
4 hour - Arrive Chicago
6 hour - Depart Chicago for Tokyo
20 hour - Arrive Tokyo
21 hour - Get on Narita Expres to (Tokyo) Shinagawa
22 hour - Arrive Meridian Pacific Hotel.
The first time I came to Japan was summer of 2001, and over the next year I would make about another half a dozen trips. Then all of a sudden the trips stopped. I attributed it to the guy out there had finally learned enough about the system so that he didn't need my help anymore, or that the product had matured. So years go by and I travel to other countries, and pass through the airport, but Japan again... doesn't happen.
So again, all of a sudden Monday morning I get a call which states. We think we need you to go to Japan.
Thus, less than 24 hours later, at 9am the next morning I'm getting on a plane, and twenty three hours after leaving my house, 9AM, Tuesday morning, at 5pm Wednesday evening, I'm checked into the Meridian Pacific, Tokyo. The next morning, I'm slowly starting that long Japanese trek to Imari. Two days of traveling.
The culture here seems to be constantly moving, at leas my trips, we're almost always going from one office to another, between the intra-japan flights, and all the train and subway rides. Normally it would be another half day trip to
30 minute taxi ride to Haneda airport
1 hour waiting at airport
1.5 hour flight
1.5 hour drive from Nagasaki to Imari.
A five hour trip.
The first time right after lunch, we took the subway from the office, to the airport,
Driving
You can rent cars here, not sure how much it was, but the car he rented was a Toyota Crown, which I would call Japan's answer to the Ford Crown Victoria. One of those cars that's all over Japan, but not much in the US, is rather popular, and is used for the taxi fleet as well, even though the taxi's only have 2.0 Litre engines, and most which run on CNG.
Food
Our
salesman, when taking us out to dinner (just the other project manager
from the US and I) although he had rented a car, decided to take a taxi
to the restautaunt, and back. I guess it makes sense, as he had three
beers at the restauraunt with me that evening.
There's three ways of thinking about food. Which correspond not surprisingly to the class differences in America.
#1 - Is there Enough?
#2 - Does it Taste Good?
#3 - Is it presented well?
Americans tend to focus on the first two and discount the last. Thus the statement "Quantity has a quality all to itself"
Japan (and probably the French and Europeans) may focus on the third. Different cultures, different codes.
Needless
to say, in Japan, the food is presented amazingly well.
I made a point that we ordered the snails. And well? The snails at this place, weren't quite as savory as the escargot eaten at the North Beach in San Francisco. Yeah, those were amazingly buttery, like eating a fine piece of goose liver.
Different kind of sea snails, I know.
Summarry of what I think of Japanese food. There's somthing about it, it's 95% presentation, and 5% quantity.
September 1, 2007