Gomen'nasai

Gomen'nasai = I'm sorry in Japanese. That's the first word I learned when I came to Japan last week.  Tokyo is an expensive place to live. Since we are traveling on a limited budget, we seek out the most reasonably priced food and lodging. Lucretia is a guru when it comes to seeking out these bargains. It's not just the lowest priced item, it's the item e.g. room, meal, transportation... that fits all of our criteria once our "filters" are applied. For instance, our hotel room isn't the cheapest on on the internet because that one has a "small double" bed (read twin bed) that sleeps two (child size) people, is a smoking room, and is slightly bigger than the interior of a two door Honda Civic.

So when we found a small pizza and wine bar where we both could eat pizza and have a glass of wine  for about $20 US we were stoked. The service was great. There was even a menu printed in English. (It seems like a small thing, but the day before we were abruptly turned away from another restaurant with a very broken form of the English language, "No English menu!!") The pizza was a little different from what we were used to, but it was really good! It was prepared in a wood fired oven, and the crust was the thin, crisp, flavorful, masterpiece just like what you'd get in a Neapolitan restaurant. Delicious. The $5 glass of red wine was less than delicious, but it wasn't the worst we've ever had.

Pizza with chopsticks. Now that's talent!

So a pizza was ¥500 or $4.95 US (1 each), glass of wine ¥500 or $4.95 (1each), and we had a great salad which we shared ¥620 or about $6 US. So a grand total of ¥2620 or about $26 US give or take. The waiter brought us our check. It was a scribbled amount on a scrap of paper.  It was 42620!!! It was in yen, of course so my mind saw a bill of  ¥4262 or about $42.60 US!!?!!  So I sternly asked our waiter who, I assume was the manager, WTH? "Why is my bill $42.60? That's crazy!!?!" He said, "Tax." I was astounded. "A 60% tax rate??!! NO WAY!" So he left Lu and I to grumble to ourselves and try to figure out why and exactly how this guy was trying to screw us out of $16.42.

So whole time we were trying to figure out what happened, he's chating with a family that looked affluent, bringing out the special, crystal wine glasses reserved for wine that was much better than the swill we were drinking, and opening very expensive bottles of wine for them. I glared at him, but he paid me no attention. I summoned him to our table and started over. I was speaking slowly, clearly, and using lots of charades. "2 pizzas, 500 each, 2 wine, 500 each, that's 2000 plus salad 620. That's 2620. Why 4260?" At that point Lu interjected, "It's not 4260, it's 2620! The "4" of the "42620" is a scribbled yen sign!!" We all had this ah-ha moment together. The waiter, Lu, and myself. "I'm wrong. I'm so sorry. Thank you" we all said it in unison over and over all while he bowed lower and lower at the waist to us and we nodded our heads back at him while Lu and I felt like complete American idiot tourists. When we left he escorted us to the door, walked us out, all while bowing to us! We still felt pretty inadequate in the communication department and it was then that we realized that we were a long way from home.

As soon as we got back to our hotel and wifi I used google translator. "I'm sorry" "Gomen'nasai". My first Japanese word.

Tokyo is an expensive place, but not THAT expensive. Our pizza bargain dinner was so good and such a good bargain that we returned the next night for dinner not knowing what to expect, but we thought we'd give it a go. "What's the worst that could happen? He turns us away?" I asked. "We may get some "extra ingredients" in our pizza, if you know what I mean," Lu sarcastically answered. "I agree, that IS the worst thing!"  We walked in and the same guy was there from the night before. He graciously welcomed us in for another great pizza dinner minus any "extra ingredients", I hope. When he brought us our check it was hand written in large block numbers in the neatest possible script and no yen in front of the total amount on our bill. We all 3 had another moment again only this time we were laughing hysterically.