No Sleep Til Dortmund

Eight more beers, one more train station sausage, a fried pie, and hours later, we're in Dortmund.

What was supposed to be a near full day in Düsseldorf ended up being one extended evening. Upon arrival at the train station, we stowed our luggage and started exploring the town. All I have to say is that train station lockers are freakin' magical. If not the need for a bed, you wouldn't even need hotels!

Not that we'd see a bed for a while.

"Stamina Ramen" at Na Ni Wa

We started off exploring Düsseldorf's Japantown area. Who knew that Europe's third largest Japanese community (after Paris and London) lives here!? We stopped into Na Ni Wa and had some amazing ramen... Yes, I had the best ramen I've had outside of Japan (or New York City's Ippudo) in Germany. Seriously. Rue Ste-Anne in Paris, your Japanese community has just been given notice!

Wowed (and utterly stuffed) we walked through the center of Düsseldorf, through the ritzy shopping district and into the Altstadt (old city). One of the first things we saw in the cobblestoned, charming part of town was... a Hooters!?

Despite my love for wings, boobs, and pantyhose paired with hotpants, we gave it a pass and beelined it to the first old brewhouse we saw. Brauerei Uerige fit the bill, so we figured we'd run in for an Altbier or two before exploring more of the Altstadt.

Eight beers later (six for me, if you insist on accuracy, two for the Dame) and we found our butts firmly glued to the old wood bench. The fact that they started closing down cued us to move along and head back toward the station, where we'd be meeting up with our friends (and hosts for the night) before moving on to Dortmund.

Of course, things took longer than expected. In waiting for them, I picked up a dodgy train station Bratwurst. When we finally met up, it turned out no one else had eaten dinner, so we went to late night favorite... McDonald's.

Alannah and I weren't hungry, but believe it or not, we were thirsty. So we had a couple of large Cokes – which disappointingly weren't gargantuan American sized liquid diabetes in a cup – and I couldn't resist trying a McVeggie Burger (not too good) and a fried apple pie. Yes, health-conscious friends back home.... McD's still fries their pies in Germany.

Friends united and post-midnight snack complete, we caught the commuter train to Dortmund. Even though it took an hour and a half, it was mindblowing to see that there's 24-hour rail service.

We were in by 3:00 am, in bed by 5:00, and I woke up after six hours, ready to take on the day... And judging by how many times my sleep was interrupted by trips to the toilet, this day will NOT include any train station Bratwurst.

Big in Japan

So there are a bunch of pre-conceived notions Westerners have about Japan, and I've bought into many of them.

First, the Japanese tend to be anal retentive and excessive about packaging. TRUE.

I've known this all my life, but also found that even in the stripped-down world of economy airfares, it still holds true. Each item in my ANA flight lunch, from the entree, to the side dish, to the soba noodles, to the damn sugar packets for my coffee had no less than two layers of packaging around them. Here's my mom expending massive energy just to get one of the packages open. (Movie on her screen: Ratatouille. Sweeeet.)



Corollary to the anal retentive and excessive packaging law: If you can put your logo on it, do it. TRUE.



It's so nice to have a real French Chardonnay mise en bouteille for ANA. If you consider tacky "nice." Oh well, at least there's... wait for it... REAL CUTLERY! In ECONOMY CLASS!



Anyway, back to my original train of thought... another pre-conceived notion of the Japanese: They are prone to go apeshit for photos while on vacation. TRUE.

The proof? I'm only half Japanese and I had both my SLR and my point-and-shoot out... and this is just during the flight! But hey, that's how I get cool shots of god knows what going on in southern Alaska.



On to the next stereotype... The Japanese like to have a group identity, and live for things that are exceedingly cute. TRUE.



If this picture of in-seat exercises just before landing doesn't prove it, I don't know what does.

And the final stereotype: The Japanese tend to be on the small side. TRUE.

Dude. I'm a half-breed and at 5'7" I feel HUGE. I tried out the foot rest on the plane for shits and giggles. It felt like it was made for dwarves. I let my seatbelt out all the way so I can still wriggle around in semi-comfort, but the thing was nearly taut on me while maxed out. The gentleman at the end of my row never had to get up for me to go to the bathroom. He'd just pull his knees in a bit, and it was as if no one was in his seat. Then there's the ANA ground crew once we landed. In their little uniforms, they looked like a bunch of well-coiffed Oompa Loompas ready to whisk our baggage over to the carousel.

And now, here I am in a departure lounge at Tokyo Narita airport, waiting for my flight to Osaka. While my mom is absolutely loving these chairs, I feel like I'm in one of those little kid desks from a 2nd grade classroom.