Roppongi with Rem: PART 1

So randomly my friend from high school, Remington was visiting family in Japan the same week I arrived. After we got in touch, we planned to hang out on a Wednesday night. Rem’s Aunt offered to take us out to this place in Roppongi called the Roppongi Hills Club Restaurant, located on the 51^st floor of this huge building, which provides an excellent view of Tokyo.

Before I left to meet them there, I’m told by Rem to dress semi formally because this was a “members only” restaurant considered pricey even for Tokyo. My homework for the 5 hours before I had to leave was iron my pants and shirt. I began my search for an iron with my next door neighbor, an RA of the dorm. He didn’t have and iron but offered to check with the Super. A little while later he informed me that there was no iron in the entire dorm. Perfect. I love Japan.

My next option is to go to a dry-cleaners and ask them to iron it, but because it was pouring rain at the time, I didn’t want to take my clothes, which were clean and just wrinkled because I packed them in a duffle bag for the flight, and get them all wet in the rain. I decided to put on a nice suit jacket to conceal the wrinkled shirt, and just hope that no one would look at my pants.

I managed to arrive at Roppongi without getting lost, no small feat for me, and made my way around the shopping center at the base of the huge building. After walking around for about half an hour I went up to the 51^st floor, hoping Rem and his aunt were already there. As I rode the elevator alone, my ears popped around the 30^th floor. I was let off on the 51^st a few moments later, where I noticed an umbrella rack for all the customers.

Every single umbrella was made of some stained elegant looking wood, and was full sized. I had been carrying around this plastic blue umbrella that I bought at a convenience store the day before. I made my way to the entrance of the restaurant when three greeters eagerly rushed to help me out. One guy took my umbrella with both hands out, like it was Excalibur and I was King Arthur, and gave me a ticket to reclaim it. I can only hope he put it in a back room somewhere, because it would have been an eyesore next to all the rich people’s umbrellas.

While I didn’t understand all that they were saying to me as they were helping me out, I immediately recognized the style of speech as “Keigo” the honorific style. I got a kick out of that because it basically would be like saying, “Your Excellence, how my I humbly serve you” and stuff like that. Anyway, I said the name of Rem’s aunt and told them I was meeting them. The immediately sprang into action, two of them checked charts and the other ran off somewhere else.

They concluded that she hadn’t arrived yet, I did understand that when the said that (you might be wondering why I don’t understand anything, but Japanese is freaking hard, and when they speak Keigo, all the verbs are modified to be polite, but to people like me it just makes me strain to listen for the stem of the original verb/noun/whatever).

I then asked where a phone was so I could call Rem’s aunt’s cell. Instead of pointing me in the direction of a phonebooth, they yell something and this guy—no joke—comes out with a cordless phone on a platter. They told me to hit 0 first, but because the number started with a 0 I asked if I should hit it twice. The guy asked to see the number, and they dialed it, listened to make sure it was ringing, and then handed me the phone. I got a hold of Rem, and he said they were about 5 minutes away.

After that, I was led to the bar, and as I entered, my “guide” said the equivalent of “this in the honorable customer” and let me to the corner of the room, by the windows that over looked the city. The bar was very dim, but because the ceiling had lights that were like stars, it was a pretty cool atmosphere.

Rem and his Aunt arrived, and everyone spoke in Japanese. I could say a lot, along with making a lot of mistakes, but it seemed like she understood what I was saying. When she talked I got most of it, and Rem filled me in on the rest. I was initially a little uptight because of the ultra-formal setting and the Japanese, but everything became a little easier after we all ordered our drinks. Beers where like 9 bucks there, and that Rem ordered for each of us was almost 15 bucks.

I’m going to write about the actual meal next time.