Bullet Train. The name just sounds cool doesn't it? (Maybe I'm biased with balltrain as a lifelong nickname). The big-time trains I've been on in Europe and now from Hiroshima to Tokyo are significantly more comfortable of an experience than an airplane flight. It doesn't seem like there is that much more space but I must be wrong about something because the seats are larger and of course the legroom much better. I'm truly surprised we don't have a more significant train system in the US (understood that big cities have subways and east coast does have some stuff). I looked it up and these run around 200 MPH at top speed. Super smooth.
Our guides woke up early and were there to see us off at the hotel. We hit the Hiroshima train station and were officially on our own. The train from Hiroshima to Tokyo is ~4 hours so plenty of time to cozy up and finish my book.
Tokyo Station- the chaos has arrived. Wow there are a ton of people. And I believe this wasn't even a busy day since it was a Sunday afternoon not a commuting workday. We stayed at the Tokyo Station Courtyard which was just a few blocks away from the train station. As we check in I am notified that I will have an upcharge for having a second guest with me even though the room I had reserved was a double bed. Apparently this is becoming a thing now where they are looking for accuracy on the "number of guests" in your room as well. Don't worry the room was a closet. Nice room but excluding the tatami mat lodging experiences it was the smallest room of our trip.
We went back to the station to find ourselves some ramen for lunch. There is basically these large underground tunnels that function like malls is the best way I can explain it. We were in a restaurant tunnel and it had all types of food offerings and a ton of noodle/ramen offerings. It was a bit chaotic there are a ton of people, lots of lines, and we didn't know what we were supposed to do. Of course we're big kids we did figure it out. You purchase your meal at a vending machine (of course!). The machine prints out little tickets of what you've purchased. You then proceed to stand in a line and when tables open up the host seats you, takes your tickets, and delivers your food. We had to sit separated too busy of a restaurant. We were along a wall and just crammed in next to each other you could have a stranger basically bumping elbows while you're both trying to eat. They had a box of chopsticks, pitchers of waters and cups, everything re-usable. The ramen? Delicious! I got a spicy version which I was a bit nervous up front but figured the spice would bury the taste if I encountered anything I didn't like since I really didn't know what I had ordered. One item I noticed immediately is that the ramen noodles themselves are different than the noodles we buy here at home. They were thicker noodles. The other stuff like the sprouts, boiled egg, etc. I've had eating at ramen restaurants here at home. Fun experience.
We found a tour bus nearby it was a Japanese based tour bus but we figured what the heck and they gave us an English translation recording. This recording proceeded to not really work for any of us so basically we rode around listening to the tour guide in Japanese and see the city. I admit this tour took us around. . . took about an hour. . . and I thought we had basically seen the major city points. I clearly had no concept of the magnitude of Tokyo until the next day.
Our hotel/Tokyo station is located in what is called the "Ginza" District. This is the high end district of Tokyo. We went over to the Nike store (we were looking for "Nike Tokyo" style merchandise. . . I get most Japanese probably aren't looking to buy "Nike Tokyo" stuff but still surprised they didn't really have anything like that other than a couple t-shirts that I was too fat for). Really cool area and they shut down some of the major streets on Sundays to allow for all the extra walking traffic.
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We passed by the Tag Heuer store. . . Mike has a Tag that I had been commenting on all trip. Super cool watch and is a smartwatch to boot so has all the smartwatch items (steps, heart rate, and swimming option are all I really care about. I don' t love notifications/texts popping up on my watch). I will admit I thought a nice watch like that would cost upwards of $1,000. I was in full "vacation Brandon" mode of course which is quite the detachment from normal life Brandon that goes to Maverik instead of Holiday for my daily soda because I can save 30 cents on my refill. Vacation Brandon has basically become "if the card clears, then whatever" and I blame having a wife and 4 kids for that. Well I learned the actual price of a Tag watch and "extreme normal life Brandon" mode came slamming back into clarity. I gave the salesman a nice English curse word and exited stage left.
As we walked through this Ginza district we found a Kimono shop and walked in. Our gameplan all trip long had been to purchase Kimonos and wear them out for an evening of karaoke! We learned during the trip that what we were really looking for was a "yukata" which is a more casual kimono. Proper Kimono's are very ceremonial with extra nice fabric and other extravagances'. Anyway I have to laugh in retrospect this shop was super small and we clearly caught the owner and his worker (i imagine his son. . . guy in his ~60's with a guy in his ~30's) off guard even coming into their store. We were typically Americans combing through all their inventory trying to find colors we liked and sizes that fit. The worker guy was clearly unhappy. I think our thinking was "dude we're about to buy 6 outfits from you this should be a home run!" We had some cans/bottles (as per usual no garbages anywhere) and they refused to take them. All in all not a great customer service experience but we all found yukatas that we liked and got our full outfits. We needed them for this exact night so none of us really felt like we were going to go shop elsewhere. . . this was the shop. It worked out we were all commenting on it outside the store.
We had made a reservation at an Indian restaurant this evening. Annam Indian we had our own little booth with curtains that closed it off. Super tight but kind of fun with complete privacy. The food was delicious. We had some rain this evening. Thinking back we really lucked out on our weather it was a nominal issue for the trip. Had we received major rain on some of those middle days it would've been a major inconvenience!
Karaoke in Japan is apparently a big deal. There are tons of locations and these Karaoke shops are not a big open bar with a single mic and stage (what I picture when I think of karaoke). They are individual rooms that serve all types of food and drinks while you sing your heart out but in the privacy of your own group. You honestly just have to accept in your soul that you're going all out. Walking down the halls of this place if you peeked in the doors you saw some other small groups like ours and we even saw just two people sitting at the table singing along to the songs. All the options are on the table. We started with I think the minimum-required 90 minute reservation to test the waters and see how it went. We ended up staying for like 3 1/2 hours the songs weren't going to sing themselves!
Lessons on karaoke. . . the key is to sing the song instead of trying to follow along to the prompts on the screen. The prompts on the screen are inevitably behind the actual timing of the song. The songs-at least at this karaoke bar- also had ALL the words on the screen- background lyrics, etc. so you had to distinguish what exactly you were singing. It's of course helpful to see the words- I think many of us think we know the words to songs until we're up on stage singing and suddenly the words become fuzzy and certainly the verses are harder to remember than when you're singing along in your car. Also there was no actual background singing of the song- you weren't singing along with the song you were the lone singer of the song so you had to keep the timing down.
Started off strong with "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Rachel's choice for me to sing). The group ended up singing all types of songs. Footloose, Power of Love, an epic rendition of Gangsters Paradise by Rachetrain. Plenty of good 90's classic rap songs like Jermaine Dupri, Jay-Z, Eminem, and some country options to boot like Morgan Wallen. The catalog was pretty extensive I'd say for the most part if it's a recognized hit they had it in the catalog. The tempo of the song was generally a bit fast but it was there available to sing. The background to all the songs felt like 90's music videos.
I had been thinking basically the entire trip leading up to this night if I had a song that could really bring the house down. That would generally mean something with an epic chorus but also had to be something that I really knew myself. Something that I sing along to in the car every time it comes on the radio. Of course the crew was expecting me to select a Britney song she is after all one of my favorites. But I knew I had a curveball. "Hit Me Baby One More Time" would've been too easy of a call. I was considering "I Was Born to Make You Happy" which is actually my personal favorite song off that first album. Within the Britney catalog there are probably at least 5 songs I think-with the help of karaoke leading the lyrics for me, especially the verses- I could pull off and keep timing on. But I knew one had the most catchy chorus because it's a bit of a tongue twister and you really have to stay on it. That song? "Womanizer". I snuck it into the queue and when I got up for my turn I sensed some general surprise since it was Britney but not the song they expected. It was better. Turn it on and sing along! I was honestly running out of breath trying to keep up on all the vocal overlays but nailed the timing! The best part is I can claim all I want about anything I caught everyone in a surprise such that nobody took any video. Don't worry I'm sure I was perfectly in tune for this song.
Mic drop (not really). Boom. Exit stage left. Epic night I'll look forward to my next karaoke opportunity!
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