Keep in mind this is Sunday afternoon, not rush hour, though maybe it's to be expected in a city with 8.5 million people. We watched this happen twice, then waded in to the crowd to cross. It looks like mayhem when you're watching it, but feels very organized when you're in the crowd.
From there, we headed to Akihabara, the "Electronics Town" of Tokyo, a geek's delight. If you think Fry's Electronics is a slice of heaven, you need to go here. There aren't too many superstores, but there plenty of smaller shops that seem to specialize in one type of electronics. We saw at least one store that sold only electronic cables, and another that mostly sold boom boxes. There were also comic book stores - possibly, a lot of Japanese anime originated here.
The stores also variously employed salesgirls dressed in what Robin described as a "cross between a Disney character and a Playboy bunny" (or maybe think anime) to stand on the sidewalk and hand out fliers or encourage people to stop in. I found another photo of one on Flickr that gives you a better idea of how they dress. Many are dressed as maids.
Finally, it was back to Roppongi in search of dinner. We were trying to find a place listed in the guidebook. We wandered in to a place we thought was it, but discovered the place in the book was closed on Sundays, so we sat down there at what turned out to be a truly local establishment run by an energetic and funny older Japanese woman who spoke absolutely no English.
Fortunately, we sat down at a table next to a a man who spoke excellent English who was also apparently the reigning champion bridge player in Japan. He was sitting with his daughter who was visiting from San Francisco. She was very nice to us and would speak to us very animatedly in half-English and half-Japanese, so it was a little hard to follow her. The man introduced himself as what I heard as "Akiho" ("It's easy to remember," he said, "Just think 'Ace-King-Ten") - but I think it may have been Akihiko Yamada, who actually is a champion bridge player in Japan. He said he taught bridge regularly on around-the-world cruises and went to tournaments, which had taken him to 85 countries. Japan was number 23 for me and 22 for Robin, so we have some catching up to do...
Our friends began ordering food for us, and shared some of their food. Thankfully, we could explain in advance that Robin didn't eat fish. They also poured me a glass of warm sochu (that Japanese malt liquor). Robin tried a sip from my glass, which elicited much laughter from our friends. It may be that sochu is not a lady-like drink - Akihiko's daughter was drinking beer. Here we are with our new friends:
All in all, I think we provided ample entertainment for the locals who we're pretty sure were laughing (politely) at the clumsy Westerners trying to eat Japanese food. Eventually, after we were full from the meal and warm from all the beer and sochu, we (meaning everyone in the small restaurant) took a few pictures. It was time to leave our new friends and go to bed - especially since they were continuing to order drinks, and it didn't look like that was going to end any time soon. We were probably one of the rare encounters with tourists at that place.
When we told the owner we were ready for the bill, she pulled out an actual abacus and began calculating the total. The led to discussion about the abacus and ultimately, a short lesson in how to use it. I remember learning in elementary school, but that was a long time ago. Here, the owner and Akihiko's daughter explain how to use the abacus:
This was a particularly memorable day in Tokyo because of the locals we met - the 3 friendly college students and the locals at the restaurant.
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