At first, I didn't have the nerve. I wandered Roppongi's early-morning
streets, tortured by the delicious smells emanating from the many
businessmen's noodle shops, intimidated by the crowds. Japanese
salarymen sat cheek-to-jowl, happily slurping down bowls of soba. I
didn't want to stare. I didn't want to offend. I was acutely aware of how
freakish and un-Japanese I looked, with my height, in my boots and
leather jacket. The prospect of pushing aside the banner to one of these
places, sliding back the door and stepping inside, then squeezing on to a
stool at a packed counter and trying to figure out how and what to order
was a little frightening. One couldn't enter a place, change one's mind
and then creep away. The prospect of being the center of attention at this
tender hour, with the capillaries in my brain shriveled from all the beers
on the flight, and the jet lag even worse than it had been the day before—
I just couldn't handle it. I wandered the streets, gaping, my stomach
growling, looking for somewhere, anywhere to sit down and have coffee,
something to eat.
God help me, I settled for Starbucks. At least, I saw from the street, they
allowed smoking. It was drizzling outside by now, and I was grateful for
the refuge, if ashamed of myself. I sipped coffee (when I ordered it, the
counter help repeated the order to one another at ear-splitting volume:
"Trippa latte!! Hai! One trippa latte!"
I sat by the window, head pounding, smoking and sipping, summoning
the courage for another pass at a soba joint. There was no way, I told
myself, that I was gonna eat my first Tokyo meal in Starbucks! Pinned
under the wheels of that hypothetical Mister Softee truck, I would have
something to regret. Muttering to myself, I charged out of Starbucks,
found the narrowest, most uninviting-looking street, pushed aside the
banner of the first soba shop I encountered, slid back the door and
plopped myself down on a stool. When greeted, I simply pointed a
thumb at the guy next to me and said, "Dozo. I'll have what he's having."
Things worked out well. I was soon slurping happily away at a big,