Lunches
It seems there is a whole world of food hidden from the gaijin tourist.
On Thursday when I arrived in Akasaka, I went looking for dinner, found slim pickings, and after a 20 minute walk to Roppongi, bought noodles. Of course, you remember that — you read it and made a point of taking note.
For the past three days I’ve gone for lunch with my colleagues. I follow them out of the office door, we take some unmarked steps into some anonymous underground passageway. We queue briefly at a small door behind which there appears to be a tiny dining area. Once we’re in, we’re led through the room into a fairly large dining room — sometimes shoes off and pretend to kneel places (but there is a hollow under the table for comfort), sometimes ordinary tables and keep your shoes on places.
We’ve been to a different one each day, each within a minute’s walk of the office. They’ll all feed you handsomely for under ¥1000.