Typhoon Melor

Pictures: Eating Sashimi at an Izikaya in Shinbashi

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As I mentioned in my last blog, we have officially extended our stay here in Japan until November 22nd. We were wondering how Tokyo would respond to this fantastic news. Would they throw us a swank party? Would there be a parade down main street? Would we get awarded the key to the city from the Mayor? Nope....they did something even bigger......they gave us our first Typhoon by the name of Melor!

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Living on the 32nd floor next to the water has many, many perks, but Typhoon winds is not one of them. We get woken up by violent gusts of wind whistling by our door like a steam whistle, and we no longer dare to put anything on our balcony for fear it will blow over the edge. We have taken to drying our clothes inside because the force of the wind coupled with heavy amounts of rain for the past three days has left us with no other choice. -

Although we sense the worst of it is over, since the sun is now shining and there is no visible damage, we are a little disconcerted by the voice of a strange man delivering, what I am sure is, an important message over the loud speaker in our apartment (this just happened). Of course, we can't understand his message; Taejo is long gone to China; and, there is a good chance that as I write this blog we should be evacuating the building. Until I hear a knock on the door, I will keep writing.... -

Melor has kept us water logged as of late, but we still have plenty to catch you up on, including many more Tokyo firsts.... -

1. Eating raw chicken - I guess this is quite normal here in Tokyo, but when the waiter brought out a plate of raw chicken sashimi, we must admit we were a little taken aback. Luckily, our couchsurfing friends who we had met for dinner in Shinbashi, assured us that it was a very tasty Japanese delicacy. As our dining mates dove in with chopsticks, we couldn't help but join in the fun, experiencing for ourselves this interesting dish. I can now say from personal experience that raw chicken tastes like.....well....chicken.

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2. Uniclo - The ever popular Japanese version of Old Navy. It was a necessary trip for Rebecca and I ever since extending our stay. Our current wardrobe consists of what amounts to be, by Tokyo standards..."Summer clothes". Tanktops, shorts, t-shirts, light weight jackets, clothes most of our teammates were wearing back in the heart of the summer (June). It would not be a normal week if we didn't walk into the locker room prior to practice to at least three questions of whether or not we are "samui", only to assure them that us Americans have a slightly warmer temperature gauge. Never the less, in preparation for the fall season, we had to bite the bullet and expand our ever so small wardrobe. - This is where I must pause and give a bit more background detail. If you spent even just a few days in Tokyo, you would realize that it is covered with shops of all the top designers and name brands. It is difficult to walk down the street without running into a Gucci, Pucci, or Tiffany's. The shops come in all shapes and sizes from large department stores to little boutiques and they all have one thing in common. They are expensive (as is most of Tokyo).

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Wanting to stay up with the latest trends (flannel is so in here), yet not break the bank, we asked our friends for an appropriate place to open the dressing room doors and therefore our wallets. The definitive answer, UNICLO!, the reasons for which are twofold. One, the prices are reasonable. Two, they carry sizes for "bigger" people, a category we are solidly a part of here in Tokyo. Rebecca and I weigh at least 5kg more than the average member of Beleza, and the average member of Beleza weighs at least 5kg more than a typical Japanese woman. An interesting phenomenon for us, and now we think we know how Abby (Wambach, of course) must feel on the field with us.

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So after another relaxing trip to the Japanese bath house, the Tako Tomodachi's took an adventure to Shinjuku to the grand opening of Uniclo.

It was a massive store (5 floors) filled to the gills with fall fashion. Everything was on sale. We arrived around 9:15pm which did not leave us much time to shop since the store closed at 10:00pm. We knew our mission, however, and that was to find flannel! The choices were plentiful and for a very reasonable price (990 yen which is about $10). With the help of GanChan and Mai, we tried on various colors and sizes before settling on two different light blue tops that go well with our blue eyes and blond hair (mine is now light brown...more on that in the next blog). We also had enough money on us to buy a zip up sweat shirt from the kids section...ha. Inspired by our purchases, and craving more Uniclo (we had to leave things behind since we did not come prepared to shop... it seems no one in Japan uses credit cards, so we left ours at home) we will have to come back again soon.

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3. Japanese haircuts - The last of my blond locks is gone....Becca will expand more on this and provide video footage. -

4. Visit to Nakameguro - We once again had the pleasure of spending time with Kelly and eating what may be considered the best pizza in Tokyo! Hand off to Becca on this one also.