Tokyo - Day 2 - Crepe Party

-- 10/6/2016 - Written from Kugayama and on the Inokashira Express Line --

I woke up around 7:40am, somehow feeling great, and took the morning slowly. The shower in Alex's apartment took some getting used to (there is a whole room in the bathroom that is a shower stall and bathtub). I hung out with Alex for a bit, and then followed him out the door on his way to work to grab some food.

I stopped for bagels at Honey's Bagel, while Alex ran ahead to catch his train. I picked out one that had almonds on top of it, which turned out be a small, sweet flavored bagel with a chocolate filling, not unlike a croissant aux chocolate, but chewy instead of flaky. I took it back to Alex's apartment to take care of a couple internet chores I needed to finish, and then set out for Harajuku.

I was already hungry, so I went looking for a gyoza restaurant that was, according to my Tokyo guidebook, well known and favored by the locals. I had a really hard time finding it, largely because I was too nervous to ask anyone for directions. When I did find it, I was not let down by the food, but the 1,000 yard stares on the faces of the staff told me it was a soul crushing place to work, and maybe just a tourist trap. I began to think I shouldn’t put very much faith in my guidebook.

For the rest of the day, I walked.  First I went up into Meiji Jingu, an artificial forest planted around a Shinto shrine dedicated to Emperor Meiji. I went to the shrine, and then out the north end of the park and walked through the neighborhoods of Sendagaiya and Roppongi Hills, and then part way back to Sendagaiya for a subway that would take me back to Shibuya. By then it was 5:30 and extremely dark (Japan doesn't do Daylight Savings), but I still had a ways to go before Alex would be off work. 

I decided to go in search of a nice sounding craft beer taphouse called Good Beer Faucets. The problem was that I didn't have any idea where to look for the place. So I found the neighborhood that my guidebook said it would be in and walked up and down each block of the neighborhood in search of the bar. No luck. My feet were aching, so I decided to use some of the precious data roaming that my phone plan allowed to look up directions. I had passed it several times the night before while orbiting Shibuya station...on the opposite side of the station that I was looking for it in. By that point, I basically gave up on my guidebook.

Going into Good Beer Faucets was a really strange experience. It was on the second floor of a triangular building, and was accessed by a big external staircase. Everyone working there could see me coming up the stairs, and greeted me with the usual call of "Irasshaimasu!!!" But half of the people working there were not Japanese. My american waiter seated me at the bar in front of a television playing Mars Attacks, covered with stickers of Oregonian, Californian, and American breweries that I recognized.

I decided to order from the list of house-made brews instead of having a beer I could have gotten in Portland. First I went with a Smoke Stout (that what it's called, Smoke Stout), which reminded me a lot of Basecamp's s'mores stout. Then I had fries and a Cream Ale (that's what it's called, Cream Ale), which won a local award for being so good. It tasted like a super malty lager or something. I'd go into more detail (mostly for you, Dave, if you read this), but I don't have a wide vocabulary for flavor.

I got a text near the end of my second drink while watching the Japan v. Iraq soccer match the bartender had switched to, and left to meet Alex at a party for one of his friends that was going away. We met up at Higashi-Matsubara (halfway between Shibuya and his house) before grabbing some drinks for the party. We got a bunch of different owl beers (that's not what it's called, they just had an owl on its logo), then went over to Audrey and Ivar's apartment.

Audrey turned out to be a French woman who was initially confused that some stranger had turned up at her door with Alex. But we were both invited in and Audrey and her Swedish husband Ivar showed us a bunch of food (salmon pasta salad, meat balls, tomato and cheese skewers, a cheese loaf) and some very alcoholic punch. After hanging around and getting to know some of the folks, Audrey pulled out 30 crepes she had made ahead of time, and we loaded them up with chocolate, apple and bananas, caramel, straberry jam, and whip cream. Nutella was also available, but it was made clear that it was considered an unethical topping considering how much the palm oil industry fucks over local economies and environments. 

We ended up playing Cards Against Humanity, which usually makes me uncomfortable because I can't tell if it's a game about deconstructing awful power-relationships or about reinforcing and indulging in them (see Phoebe Rusch 2016; or sexual assault allegations against one of the co-creators). This particular game was really fun, even when a couple of the players didn't understand all of the references.

Eventually, Alex and I left to catch the last train, but first Audrey and I exchanged numbers so that she could give me advice on where to go during my stay in Tokyo.