Rotary and Ninja Dinner

5-11-2007 Rotary Shinjuku & Ninja Dinner

01

Today was an eventful day...really expensive but really amazing. Definitely our best day here in Japan yet. We started off the morning looking for a Local Rotary Club meeting to go to. Since we are in one of the major cities of the world and it also happens to be uber populated, there were several meetings to choose from today. We decided to go with Rotary Shinjuku because A: it was at the Hyatt so we figured the food must be good and B: it is pretty much the major business area in Tokyo. Getting there was pretty easy until we actually got to Central Hyatt Tokyo. It is a huge complex right next to all the government buildings, and it was so complicated that it took us 15 min inside the complex just to find the reception area. That's right 15 min in the same building asking every Japanese person "Rotary Club?" followed by pointing my fingers in every direction. There were also several restaurants in the building to confuse you, and when I finally got to the receptionist she showed me the big rotary sign right behind me...I felt kind of silly. The meeting was in the basement of the Hyatt. I was really excited. I figured since everyone here seems to know a few words in English and most businessmen have a working knowledge of English it would be easy to communicate. WRONG!!! As soon as I got there it was challenge just explaining that I was in fact a Rotarian since I was in my usual grey pants and blue cufflink shirt but that doesn't cut it here since everyone is in suits, not to mention I look like a baby next to these guys. They were quite Sumimase (Japanese for welcoming and also used for sorry and pardon me...interesting huh). The fee for lunch was 4100 yen each, which is about $35US so I knew I was in a higher end club because lunch in Japan is only about 1000 to 1500 Yen normally and that includes dessert and drink. I filled out the visiting Rotarian card and again felt silly since my nice cuff link shirt doesn't have a pocket...OOPS!!! So we slowly managed to communicate and then were escorted to our seats. There seemed to be quite a bit of commotion surrounding our arrival. What was happing in fact is that they were getting the only member that spoke some English to sit next to me. The rest of table spoke strictly Japanese, but we had an excellent time trying to understand each other. The meeting started with a speech by the president as usual and then they moved to singing...THIS WAS MY FAVORITE PART!!! Their version of Frank goes to the front with his magic wand (just like a symphony conductor) and he led everyone through 2 songs (neither of which were in English but it sounded much better than our club). One of the Songs though was definitely a Rotary song because I heard it mentioned several times in the song, only it is pronounced here (Roe ta rieeeeee). Then there was a presentation of gifts for people that had a birthday this month...yes that's right they give out presents for birthdays but not only your own birthday but also their wives' birthdays and they sing happy birthday in English which was the only thing I understood the entire meeting. Haju the member that spoke English somewhat got a rose and a present for his wife's birthday...and another Kaidon (Japanese for member) at my table got a diamond rotary pin for his 25th year as a member. It's interesting to note that when they call your name they always say son and then Kaidon as your title so my name when they introduced me I was Jose-son Kaidon, I felt like I was the Karate Kid or something, does anyone remember "Daniel-son." That kaidon also received a rose and a present to go along with his pin. He was also extremely nice and polite as everyone in this whole country is. He gave Andrea a special green tea bag that they had given to him as part of his present. Andrea loves green tea so she was extremely happy.

02

Lunch was excellent!!! They served us an appetizer that was Oishi (delicious) but I don't know what it was and much less describe it. They also served a pork entree that looked like lamb but what I originally thought was a bone was in fact an asparagus. To top it all off they served us a tort dessert that was to die for. During lunch they had either a speaker introduction that lasted a while or it was another 3 min Rotarian speech, I wouldn't know the difference or even if he was making fun of me the whole time but he seemed to be pretty funny because everyone would laugh every couple minutes. Haju tried to keep me informed of the jokes but they did not translate ...TRUST ME...I nodded and smiled like I knew what he was talking about but in fact I didn't even understand him half the time. It seemed like he was picking words at random. It was pretty cool to experience their rotary club. Apparently it is about 80 people just like ours and only about 40 show up to the meetings so I am beginning to think our club is pretty normal. He also told me that they have several ambassadorial scholars and that they raise money from having 2 social events per month with the membership, so the members fit the bill for everything they do. The speech today was about a fire festival in Kyoto that is a religious ceremony in which they use torches to make Japanese characters on the sides of the mountains. It is pretty incredible what they do. Apparently it takes a whole year to prepare and plan for the event. Speaking of which Haju is a party planner (that's his profession not his committee responsibility which apparently everyone has)... Glad Margaret hasn't gone that far yet...Speaking of Margaret, there were no females in attendance at today's meeting so I am not sure any belong but there was a secretary in the corner writing notes. I remember thinking, I wish I could watch Margaret man-handle these businessmen for a while. I would really get a kick out of that, "Hey Nishimba what's the four way test...Well you better know it for next week...and Hey okishabi we are still waiting for your dues!!!" That would be hilarious. Anyways after the meeting I took pictures with my table and also of all the other tables with flags from other rotary clubs, mainly US clubs and I felt embarrassed that we do not have one...or at least that I am aware of, so I have decided to get one made ...with Margaret's permission of course (can't get very far without her blessing) to make one in china to be able to give out at all the other clubs I will visit and I figured if we had it made in the states it would probably still say MADE IN CHINA...so why not go straight to the source. Well with that we concluded the meeting with another song and went on our way. I bowed at least 100 times in the 5 minutes it took me to get out of there and by the end it almost felt natural to say something and then bow. Luckily though it only took me 10 min this time to get out of the Hyatt since I knew where I was going.

03

We picked up the subway and headed for Shibuya again because it is a very fun and exciting part of town. We checked out some stores and passed by fifteen million pachinko machines and Andrea found a ball bearing on the floor of one of the places and kept it as a souvenir. We then passed by the Sega building and I had to go in. I ended up on the 9th floor yes 9th floor to play some ping pong. Andrea is actually quite good, she surprised me. I also surprised a couple Japanese youngsters who were willing to play with me. We didn't keep score or play a game because it was hard enough trying to get them to understand that I wanted them to play with them much less play a game. So after breaking a sweat playing ping pong we headed home for some relaxation because we were exhausted. We chilled for about two hours and then headed to Ninja Dinner. We had heard that it was the best food in town and that the place was quite secret and that with your meal they did a magic ninja show at your table that was supposed to blow you away. So we went to the spot and found the secret entrance that looked just like a window only it was a door. Inside there was a small reception area but it looked like walls all around. They asked if we had reservations and I said no...thinking to myself...I need reservations for s secret dinner place it must be good!!! So we made reservations for 10pm and it was 8pm now so I decided to go to our next place.

04

While Andrea had been resting earlier in the day, I was hard at work finding all the coolest things to do in Tokyo since it was our last night and all. So I told her the night was a surprise and so after making reservations we headed to a jazz bar (Andrea and I love jazz). It was a miracle we found it because originally I thought that with the address I could ask anyone in the vicinity where the bar was and they would know. Apparently no one knows the streets and they are unmarked so in Tokyo you MUST have a map of the place you are going to. I tried Google and yahoo but nothing worked and so at the hostel one of the staff helped me out by looking it up in Japanese on yahoo and Voualahh it worked. So apparently Yahoo has a preference for the native language. So he helped me mark all the places I wanted to go on my map, only thing was that all the addresses were accurate to within about 10 meters which is about 30 feet which sounds small but in Tokyo with all these people walking around makes it quite difficult. So difficult in fact that Andrea and I almost became pancakes in the subway to the jazz bar. Imagine a packed subway in any city like new york now double or triple the number of people. It was so packed that Andrea and I weren't holding on to anything and we didn't move at all even though the train stopped almost instantly. When the train first arrived we thought no way we'll fit but the people behind us politely and I mean politely ushered us forward into the sandwich position. Andrea swore she would never ride another subway again. She also scared the pants off me by grabbing me by my pocket and I thought it was someone else at first.

05

Anyways, at the jazz bar we met 2 older gentlemen that were sitting next to us. They were both locals and were getting their drink on after finishing a hard week's work. I don't remember what that feels like but I'm sure its not good. I taught them the phrase TGIF and they taught me Sumimase (it's an amazing word, it means sorry, hello, pardon me, and thank you all rolled into one depending on the situation...its like the perfect polite word, if your not sure what to say just say it and you'll be fine). We cracked up with them about the differences in our cultures and we found out that the Japanese feel they are mislabeled as heavy drinks when in fact it is not true. Mind you this is coming from 2 men in their 50s that bought a bottle of single malt whiskey and were drinking it with a bit of tap water here and there. They were great though and I finally got to see the classic Japanese laugh...you know the one I'm talking about the laugh when they are so pissed (Australian word for drunk) everything is funny and they kind of giggle like schoolgirls. Anyways, we said our goodbyes and headed to our Ninja dinner. Thank god the subway was not packed at all. Although we did see two sumo wrestlers in the subway car next to us. I have no shame so I took a picture of them through the glass once we exited the subway. I would have asked for a picture with them but I was afraid they would eat me. The Ninja dinner was incredible but I'll let Andrea describe that.

06

The Ninja dinner was amazing. You can't just walk into the restaurant. The reception area was really dark, and it looked like it was just walls around us. But luckily our ninja came to escort us and magically a doorway appeared. She (yes, we had a female ninja) then took us on a trip deep into the restaurant - there were several parts where even I had to duck because of the low ceilings. Everything was stone, smokey, and you could hear water falls in the distance. It was so cool! We finally made it to an area where there are tables - but not normal tables.... Each table is enclosed in almost a cage....its see through, and its really sliding doors, but you had to walk up to get into the table. The table was also a low, Japanese style table (looked like a great coffee table to me), but fortunately for Jose, they had a place carved out in the floor beneath it where you could hang your legs. It also had really cool cushions in different pieces - back rest, bottom, and arm rests. I let Jose do the ordering - so he ended up with one "surprise" dinner and another of which I've already forgotten the name. Each dinner ended up with at least 6 or 7 courses! I can't even remember all of them - luckily I think we took pictures of most. The coolest course for me was the soup. The ninja came over with a huge tray, full of leafy greens, bamboo bowls and something steaming. The something steaming turned out to be a ridiculously hot rock, and he proceeded to stir up the rock with the fresh leafy greens, some liquid, and some other veggies. After letting it sit (cooking the greens) for only about 2 minutes, he came back and voila! I had an amazing soup! It was not only the coolest cooking method I've ever seen, it was by far the best soup ever. The rest of the courses were just as amazing. See the pictures attached. Mid-way through dinner, we were entertained by the Ninja and his magic tricks - he did a bunch of cool tricks with the red balls (they looked like clown noses), and then made me a really cool flower out of a balloon. I felt about 5 years old, but it was still really fun.

07

Anyway, we apparently missed the "Master Ninja" because it was so late - but the dinner was super amazing anyways. The ambiance, the food, and the whole package was possibly the coolest thing I've ever experienced. Kudos to Jose for making it a great night!!

Good night everyone!

Love,

Jose and Andrea

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21 - Doorway to our table

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23 - Jose reading Japanese

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32 - veggies in a shot glass?

33 - the making of the infamous soup

34 - cooking of the soup

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36 - eating the final product! YUM!!!

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38 - minty sorbet to cleanse the palette...

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