Tokyo Day One | EB Lande

December 25, Tuesday.

We land in an almost empty Narita airport on Christmas midafternoon where Sash greets us with his uniquely impish smile and we venture into Tokyo by Skyliner and subway arriving at rush hour (no holiday here) at Akasaka station and in just enough time to not be crunched by the packed trains. (Not to mention clueless and jet-lagged although held at bay by adrenalin). We walk to the American compound where we grin and nod our way past security and into the three-towered white and black complex that looks like a Lego composition. (The black outlines are rubber joints that keep the building bouncing during earthquakes).

Max meets us at the apartment where he is about 25 lbs thinner after his bout with salmonella typhus and after oohs and aahs at our amazingly grown, self-reliant young men abroad in the world we head off to eat Yakitori BBQ in Akasaka with the occasional Santa suit passing by. It’s cold; I am wearing all 5 items I brought for cold weather and realize I will be wearing them non-stop for the next 10 days. I am totally reliant on my kid as I can’t read a thing, and we kvell silently at watching him order food and chat back and forth with the waitress who looks like she’s dressed for battle (all black). The food is delicious – although I suspect it would be called tapas anywhere else — and costs a small fortune, which we have trouble calculating. 150,000 Yen? Almost $200? We stop at a 7-11 type food store and buy perfect tangerines and cream that is probably intended for pastry and I say ‘arigato” to everyone I pass while nodding and grinning like a fool, but it feels right. I can’t remember the next part but I think we crashed.