Cell Phones! Food Theme Parks!

Well, it wasn't easy, but my husband and I finally managed to get cell phones yesterday. We'd been asking around at our branches for weeks, trying to figure out how the other teachers found service, and got such helpful answers as "I don't remember." Seriously, at least three people told us that. How do you not remember getting cellular service in a country where you don't speak the language? What a ridiculous answer. In any case, the two of us simply had to get phones, so yesterday we decided to visit various cell phone dealers until we found one where someone could speak English. There are literally dozens of cell phone stores on any given city block, but we had to visit at least six before we could find anyone that could help us/was willing to help us. I have suspicions that at least a few of the employees could speak a little English, but didn't want to deal with the hassle of translation. One guy said "I don't speak English" with such perfect pronunciation that I would be very surprised if he wasn't at least semi-fluent. The store that finally did help us called someone from another branch to translate over the phone, and while we are uncertain what plans we purchased, we are now the proud owners of two hi-tech Japanese cell phones.

The instruction manuals are all in Japanese of course, but both phones have GPS, Internet, picture, video, music and god knows what else. The trend in Japan is to attach chain things to one's cell phone, so I bought a Kuromi chain to attach to mine. Kuromi is an evil Hello Kitty character for those of you not in the know. Here is a photo of our two phones. Mine is the pink one of course.



If you're wondering what character my husband has attached to his phone, it's the monocle cat of Namjatown. And what is Namjatown you ask? Why, it's a food theme park of course. And just what is a food theme park? According to japan-guide.com, a food theme park is a magical place specializing "in one type of food or dish, giving visitors the opportunity to taste various versions of that dish in one place. Unlike conventional theme parks, food theme parks are located indoors, and many are atmospherically decorated according to a specific epoch or fantasy theme." My husband and I stumbled upon Namjatown while waiting for the cellular people to set up our phones and decided to check it out. Here is a photo of me outside the main entrance.



The theme of Namjatown, apparently, is evil cats. One wears a monocle and the other looks like this.



Upon first entering Namjatown, my husband and I followed a path into what can only be described as some sort of evil cat haunted house. The lighting was ominous, the noises spooky and the cats malevolent. There was also a variety of bizarre games, television screens and weird displays, but as we don't understand Japanese, my husband and I had no clue what was going on. My husband, however, is enamored by evil cats for some reason, and chuckled with glee the entire time.

I wish I could better describe the experience of Namjatown, but it's difficult because I'm still not sure exactly what I saw. There was a boy band performing with a dancing cat on the main stage near the entrance. We were bedazzled by fake jungle paths, fake war zones, fake European chapels, all complete with evil cats and the occasional worm looking thing. It was a strange, strange place.

However, one doesn't visit Namjatown for the evil cat shows. The best part of Namjatown is the giant food courts. The park features three giant courts, one dedicated to ice cream, one to desserts and another to gyoza, a sort of meat pocket thing. Of course, my husband I had to visit Ice cream City and sample some of the goods. We each tried a cup of gelato and found it mighty tasty. In addition, we strolled through Gyoza City and the Tokyo Dessert Stadium, but didn't eat anything from either court. By then our cell phones were ready, so we sadly left Namjatown with promises of returning again.