Accidental Discovery

After school I decided to go in search of The New Sanno Hotel which is an American style hotel, located somewhere near Roppongi. I convinced one of my friends to tag along for the adventure, and I'm grateful that she did! I had looked up the location before I left and had a general idea of where the hotel is located... but once we got off the train and onto the main street, I was completely lost. We started walking in the direction that I assumed it was in and instead of going straight we turned left. After walking a ways I decided I should ask for directions, we found a police box (I guess in America we would call it a police station but it's about the size of a walk-in closet) A nice police man directed us in the right direction and we were on our way again! We had to go back to the train station and from there look for Meiji Dori (Dori means street) and the hotel would be on our left. Simple enough.. or so we thought. I think the police man was showing us the map upside down, or we just didn't understand his directions because we managed to walk back to the station, but somehow the area we were heading just didn't look right.  Although we did pass a nice park! It was amazing. You walk in and somehow it becomes so peaceful and shady, it's as if you are miles away from the bustling city. I went a little snap happy, it's like I was seeing nature for the first time! (I know I sound super corny, but the transition from UVM to Tokyo has been a little difficult for me- I miss nature!)

These guys had the right idea. Lazy afternoon of fishing!

 Except I did notice sign, "Attention! Please keep the act that is dangerous to other park users - as throwing fishing. Please cooperate all of you use this park safely and comfortably." I guess that means fishing is allowed as long as there is no throwing involved?

Lamborghini dealership

This was an ad for a restaurant (named Cicada) that caters, clearly they didn't want to spend too much.

We saw a man waiting for the crosswalk to change so we went up to him and asked him if he knew which way Meiji Dori was. He didn't but he looked it up on his cellphone, he pointed in a few different directions and then he asked us where we were trying to go. Once we told him, he went back to his phone and since we weren't sure if he was looking something up for us or if he was just texting we stood near him awkwardly. Then he either made or received a phone call, so we just continued to wait until he either walked away or gave us better directions. He finished his phone call and told us that it was the complete opposite direction that we were walking but he was heading the same way so we'd walk together! (Which to him meant walking briskly ahead of us without talking but checking every few seconds to make sure we were still behind him) Then he kind of stopped and went into the road (not at a crosswalk - which is weird, since Japanese people rarely jay-walk.) He made another phone call and then we realized he was hailing a taxi. Once again he said いっしょに行こう！(isshoni ikou!) which means let's go together! Well alright. We hopped in the cab with this nice man and we went back the way we came. Turns out the hotel is really close to the train station, you just have to go the right way. We pull up next to the hotel and when we try to pay the fare the man waves us off and says goodbye. Japanese people are so incredibly nice, it almost seems common for them to go completely out of their way to help strangers - especially gaijin! I was stuck on that thought when my friend turns to me and says something about how getting into taxi's with strangers in Roppongi is probably not the best idea. Oops, sorry mom! But everything was fine and we did find the New Sanno Hotel.

Here is our friend hailing a cab and talking on the phone.

I don't know why but didn't occur to me that my friend wouldn't be allowed on the premises. I just flashed my military ID and my friend patiently sat outside while I quickly ran in just to check it out. It's a very nice hotel, there is a Navy Exchange, a few restaurants and cafes, a bar (some drunken sailor stopped me and asked me if any ever told me I looked like Miley Cyrus.. I just stared at him. I figured it would be impolite to ask why he was drunk at 2 in the afternoon, but hey, maybe that's how he deals with jet-lag!) It also had a general store and a bank. Very handy, I was able to use American dollars so that was nice. There was a lot of English being spoken, felt like I was back in America for split second.