As teased in the previous post, one of hte nice reasons why there was a made dash to head to Japan is for a collaboration meeting in Nagoya, Japan! It is maybe 5/6-ths of the way from Tokyo to Kyoto/Kobe/Ōsaka so it's different enough to have a different vibe from both regions. It's excited to be in a new region/city in Japan where I just get to try to absorb everything while I can.
If you can endure the iPhone photography, here are some scenes of me walking through the streets of Sakae station after arriving in the afternoon. The vibe of this part of Nagoya felt like Saigon or NYC. Lots of hustle and bustle with tons of lights, litanies of lights, and....
Well... when I went around the early morning (i.e. 5-6am. I was still dealing with jet lag), on the first morning I was there, I was in full tourist mode; I was wondering around the city without wifi and thought because it was Japan, it would be super safe and nothing shady. But seeing the piles of trash from the previous night, that should've been the indicator that I should've expected otherwise.
At one intersection, maybe approaching 6am, some lady approached me noticing I was zoned out listening to Tchaikovsky or whoever. I thought it was a collaboration member or support staff I had forgotten so I engaged and said hello. The lady was super friendly and was pantomiming what I was doing. Before I could register why someone would do that, she asked the question if I needed some 『気持ちいいマサジ』with all the sounds one would expect from a 'feel good massage.' Maybe I haven't walked around the red-light district in Tokyo before but didn't know people needed happy endings so early in the day!
It wouldn't be a Tommy blog without food so let me include some at the end. Let me skip a couple of days after this amazing interaction.
It was typhoon season so after a journey to find some takoyaki with some colleagues and they were feeling too tired to continue exploring the city, I decided to stop by a random cafe that caught my eye and so I walked in this eccentric find and here's what I had.
They actually seemed to be better with their coffee but since it was 9pm, I thought a royal milk tea and a mont blanc would be enough. The thing that caught my attention the most was the milk of the tea! Even though I'd spend a bit extra on good quality milk in Blacksburg, it was richer and almost almond-y (not really but I don't have the best words) that added some extra depth and enjoyment to the classic mont blanc.
Overall, the ambiance of the ambiance of the "Cafe Kahvehane"was quite nice (almost more of a fancy cocktail bar rather than a cafe) and wish I had something like this closer to the lab.
However, there's nothing that's been a Nagoya specialty in this post. I'll save that for the next one. ;)
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