using a visible landmark to navigate around. I took subways to stops
where I had no idea where I was and walked more. I ate sushi. I slurped
soba noodles. I ate food off conveyor-belt buffets where every
imaginable dish rolled by and one simply grabbed what one wanted. I
entered bars populated by only Japanese, bars for expatriates and the
women who love them. Booze was affordable and there was no tipping
anywhere. I was the Quiet American, the Ugly American, the Hungry
Ghost . . . searching and searching for whatever came next.
One night at Les Halles, Philippe invited me out for what turned out to
be the most incredible meal of my life.
He'd seen, by now, how I was digging Tokyo. He knew from my arrival
and departure times about my nocturnal wanderings, so I guess he
figured I was ready. He grinned mischievously all he way.
As usual, I had no idea where we were going. Philippe led me across
Roppongi, crossing to the skankier, glitzier side where the streets were
choked with touts and barkers, whores and shills, video arcades, hostess
bars and love hotels. We passed by the poodle-cut pimpy boys and the
heavily made-up Thai, Filipina and Malaysian women in their platform
boots and crotch-high dresses, past enormous and eerily empty Yakuza-
run nightclubs, karaoke bars, restaurants. It became darker as we walked
farther and farther from the neon and screaming video signs—yet still,
not a rude comment or hostile stare. Finally, Philippe stopped, sniffed
the air like a hunting dog, turned suddenly and headed for a dimly lit
stairwell in a deserted courtyard, a single pictogram of a leaping fish the
only indicator of activity below. Down a flight of steps, not a sound, to a
bare sliding door. He pushed it aside and we were standing in a small,
well-lit sushi bar. Three young sushi chefs in headbands and two older
men in chefs' coats manned an unfinished blond-wood bar, packed with
somewhat inebriated-looking businessmen and their dates. We were
ushered to the only two open seats, directly in front of a slowly melting
monolith of carved ice, surrounded by fish and shellfish so fresh, so