06/03 - "Sumimasen" said the Wailing Chicken

I want omelette,

but I also want soba,

so squeeze the chicken


After work today I met three former students of mine from Vancouver. Taishiro, Yuka and Yuki. It was great to see them. They are all funny and delightful people. We met at the Ikebukuro West Exit, the most common meeting point in my life nowadays. We caught up a little bit and discussed all the things I've done and places I've been so far in Tokyo. They were quite impressed with how much I'd already fit in. Luckily, there's still a lot more to do and they gave me some great suggestions, on top of discussing plans to do a few things and go a few places with me before I leave.

For supper we went to a restaurant I have walked past tons of tons, but never noticed in any way. There's just too many restaurants around Ikebukuro to notice them all. They could be eight stories up, they could be two floors below ground. This particular restaurant was tucked in a basement just down a few steps from the street. They served many variations of okonomiyaki and some other interesting dishes. We ate two kinds of okonomiyaki and some "omesoba" all prepared then cooked on the flat cooker built right into the middle of the table. "Omesoba" is an omelette filled with yakisoba noodles. It was definitely an interesting new mix. It tasted great though! The restaurant was pretty cool in its decor and the way it operated too. They had old Japanese comic pages plastered over all the pipes and vents of the bare basement ceiling and instead of shouting "sumimasen" to get the staff's attention, as you do in most places here, there were wooden clapping noisemakers that you could make a racket with to get service. That is, that's what there was at most tables. The table next to us, occupied by an increasingly drunk middle-aged couple had a rubber chicken that you squeezed then released to make a super loud wailing or howling noise. They used it a couple times to place some orders, then as the alcohol kicked in they ended up just squeezing it over and over for shits and giggles. One of the waiters even ended up coming over and asking them to stop, but every time he turned his back one of them would squeeze it again. The juvenility of it was hilarious! I was laughing pretty hard so the man made me try squeezing it myself a couple of times.

After dinner Taishiro, Yuka and Yuki kindly walked me to my train platform, but not before we grabbed a picture at the owl topiaries I love that stand in the West Exit Plaza. I love how many owls you can find all over Ikebukuro.