The Royal Park Hotel in the Nihonbashi district caters to a lot of non-Japanese clients. It’s walking distance to the office. Everyone speaks some level of English, and there are Japanese-to-English translations listed everywhere.

I like to immerse myself in the culture when I travel, so I have purposely avoided their $50 Western-style brunch on Sunday mornings, and their offers for tours that look very touristy. But after a long work day, and conference calls with the U.S. scheduled for the evening hours, my coworker and I decided to eat in the hotel restaurant on the 25th floor.

A beautiful view of the city and it doesn’t do the scale of Tokyo justice. For about $50 we had enough food to qualify as a U.S. appetizer. We each had a half of a scallop, a half of a
prawn, two slices of pumpkin and one slice of beef. All of it seared on the griddle. It was yummy, but glad I had some snacks to munch on back in the hotel room!

The hotel concierge is only available between 8 AM and 6 PM which doesn’t mesh well with my work schedule. So the assistant manager is around at night and has been available to exchange money for me, help with the subway system and most most recent request: baseball tickets.

I recently requested tickets to see the Yomiuri Giants play the Saitama Seibu Lions at the Tokyo Dome on Friday night. (Note: Dice-K Matsusaka played for the Lions.) I had researched the arena and knew the Giants were going to be at home, knew what time the doors opened, when the game started, except I couldn’t find a way to purchase the tickets online.

After 5 minutes with my assistant manager pal, clicking at things on the computer screen and humming in a puzzled sound “Hmmmmm” he tells me that the game is sold out. More clicking and staring at the screen (Japanese are very comfortable with long periods of silence), and a few minutes later and more “hmmmm” sounds, he tells me there are tickets, but only where the opposing team sits. He said it in a tone scoffing at the  idea that I would want to attend the game if it meant sitting with the others. Does he not understand that being from the U.S., I do not have an allegiance towards one team or another? I requested that when the box office opens, please purchase the cheapest ticket possible for me and charge it to my room. Turns out, the tickets he purchased for me were from the convenience store across the street!

The same hotel manager has helped me exchange money. When he saw me today to give me the baseball tickets, he also handed me an envelope with some Tokyo coin currency in it. Turns out, I exchanged for Yen before the market opened (4:30 AM pre-visit to fish market), and when the market opened the exchange rate changed meaning the hotel owed me more money. It was about a dollar or two in coins. I just cannot imagine any bank worker in the U.S. being that honest. I would never have known the difference!