A Fortnight in Japan - Day 7 in Kyoto

Our second fantastic day in Kyoto started just out of the city, at Fushimi Inari and would end in the western suburb of Arashiyama, with our dinner reservation at Nishiki Restaurant.

In the morning, we trained out to Fushimi Inari, where those rows upon rows of orange torii gates are found (Brian posted a picture in an earlier post). It is romantic to think, wow, those tens of thousands of gates have been standing there for hundreds of years, guarding an important religious pilgrimage. But the truth of the matter is that they are basically for sale to whoever can afford them, which buys both advertisement (most are purchased by companies, whose names are painted on one side), and blessings. They are renewed every 10 years - no lifetime blessings bought here! Though they are packed in quite tightly, we saw some empty post holes, presumably where a company let their blessing subscription 'lapse'. Still, they are a beautiful and iconic sight.

Torii avenue at Fushimi Inari

From Fushimi Inari, we headed back on to Kyoto on the train, stopping first at Tofuku-ji temple. Here we got our first glimpse at a zen rock garden, where the gravelly sand is carefully raked into forms around the carefully placed stones. You are supposed to sit and meditate on these gardens, drawing your own meaning from their usually abstract form. However, our schedule didn't really allow for such lengthy contemplation! Really though, I've never really tried to meditate, and I'm not sure I would be very good at it - too much noise always filling my brain!

Ripples in a gravel pond at Tofuku-ji

There was also a lovely moss garden at Tofuku-ji.

Back in the city, we took the bus to Tetsugaku-no-michi, Philosopher's Walk. We walked along the canal path heading north. A few weeks earlier, it would have been framed by delicate, overhanging cherry blossom trees, but when we were there it was peaceful and green. The path was quiet, with very few other people, so it was quite jarring to me when we reached the end and emerged at the entrance to Ginkaku-ji (the Silver Pavilion), with its tourist shops and cream-puff stand. Along the way, we had stopped for lunch at a tiny restaurant that basically looked like a woman's home kitchen. We had our first taste of okonomiyaki, a sort of pancake made with cabbage and thin slices of pork in batter. This would be a very different version than what we would later have in Hiroshima, which is known for their okonomiyaki.

Philospher's path, which runs between Nanzen-ji temple at the south end,

and Ginkaku-ji at the North end.

Okonomiyaki, what is often, I think erroneously, called Japanese pizza.

At Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion was not, as you might have thought, leafed in silver (though it was supposed to have been, they just never got around to it). It was actually under restoration while we there, and years of wear made it rather unsightly. Around it were some zen rock garden formations, most strikingly a meticulously raked gravel 'sea' that flowed around a stone cone representing Mt. Fuji. The cone is permanent, but the sea around it is apparently reshaped every day.

We got a glimpse of Mt Fuji after all, just on a much smaller scale...

After the Silver Pavilion we felt the need to upgrade metals, so we took the bus West to the Kinkaku-ji, or Golden Pavilion. Originally built in 1397 as a private estate, it was later turned into a Buddhist temple. Each of its three levels was constructed in a different architectural style,, but only the top 2 storeys of the pavilion and the phoenix that crowns it are, true to its name, covered in gold leaf. It is stunning and gaudy at the same time, especially since I prefer white metals to yellow ones, heh... Platinum Pavilion, anyone? It is probably really beautiful at night (if lit well), and in the fall when the maples around it are lush and turning red and orange.

Kinkaku-ji, reflected in the Mirror Pond. It's much shinier in person.

We were a little worried about time (dinner was at 6:30pm and it was about 4), but to Brian's consternation I decided that we would run up to Ryoan-ji, another temple complex that was pretty far NW. Otherwise, it was unlikely that we would make a special trip out to it the next day, and we didn't want to miss it. So we bussed out there, to see Japan's most famous zen garden. On the approach, you walk alongside what seems to be a lantern depot, with stone lanterns of all shapes and sizes, which was pretty fun. The zen garden has 15 stones placed so that no matter where you stand (within the viewing area), you can never see all of them at once. This garden was very abstract, definitely needed more time than we could give it to truly appreciate it, I think.

Found in the lantern depot, one cute statue

Rock garden at Ryoan-ji (the picture does it little justice;
this is just a small part of the large garden).

We rushed back to the hotel (the biggest difference between the bus and the metro is of course that the bus is dependent on traffic, so it took longer than we wanted) and changed for dinner. We decided to take a cab - our first and only cab ride in Japan - for fear of being late. We had a bit of a mixup which involved the non-English speaking driver heading in the wrong direction, a lot of one-word broken English and Japanese, and a call to the restaurant (the driver put ME on the phone - what good was that?!?!) In the end, though, the driver figured it out, we relaxed, and arrived at the restaurant early. Whew!

Nishiki Restaurant specializes in kaiseki, the Kyoto cuisine which uses very fresh, seasonal ingredients. Two geishas met us at the door and led us into our private tatami room, with a view of the Hozu-gawa river. They didn't speak English, but we were soon joined by one who did. She was our server the whole evening, but unfortunately, we didn't get her name - she was really sweet and took care to explain each of our dishes to us. Soon after we sat down (cross legged on the floor), the courses started to arrive. Since it was a 10 course meal, I won't post photos of all of it, just some of the standouts. (You can see the complete set of pics on the Picasa site.)

Because of the complaints that we aren't in any pictures... here we are,
happy to be have made it and to be eating such beautiful food in a lovely setting.

Crispy tofu - the outside of this was so delicate, it almost shattered when I broke into it.

A bunch of different small portions served in a beautiful lacquerware box.
The unassuming broad beans in the middle of the top compartment were
wonderfully tasty, sweet and creamy. The bottom compartment was
actually a drawer that pulled out of the box.

Our server explaining all the little dishes in the box.

Brian's favorite course, a grilled mackerel-type fish topped with grated daikon in a light broth.

A whole deep-fried mini-eggplant, stuffed with a thick, sweet ginger-miso sauce.
Delicious and rich - I actually opted not to finish the whole thing
since this was only course number 6!

As you can guess, we were stuffed and very pleased at the end of the meal. Everything was quite flavorful, fresh, and lovingly presented. We were quite glad that we had chosen it as one of our few splash out meals, as it was another experience - like the previous night's cooking class at Emi's - that gave us a very unique and personal experience. Nishiki is one of the more affordable kaiseki restaurants in Kyoto, and it was perfect for us.

A short after dinner stroll (ok, we got a little lost finding the bus stop), a bus ride back to the hotel, and we quickly fell into a deep, satisfied food coma.

A Fortnight in Japan - Day 6 in Kyoto

Early on the 7th, we left Mina's (goodbye, home sweet homebase!) and made our way to Tokyo Station, where we would pick up a Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. We had purchased 7-day Japan Rail passes before we left Chicago - they are unlimited passes only available to tourists, so you can't buy them in Japan - but we weren't going to activate them until we were leaving Kyoto. So while we were in Tokyo, we had bought tickets for the fastest train available, the N700 Nozomi. Woohoo superfast trains! It's a shame that rail travel isn't as easy or advanced at home, because it was pretty pleasant (and so much less hassle than plane travel!)

The front of the train - different models had different 'noses,'
and it even looked like the headlights were made to look like
nostrils. Everything's so cute in Japan!

I'm thinking, "let's get this show on the road... onwards to Kyoto!"

The ride between Tokyo and Kyoto is about 2.5 hours, so we bought some food for the train. All train stations have a lot of food for purchase, but I think the Shinkansen ones in particular have a lot of bento boxes for sale - food sets that have several different small dishes, usually a rice dish, prettily prepared in a cute box. We got one that ended up being a Japanese take on Chinese food:

Beautifully packaged bento for the train

Arriving in Kyoto, we quickly stashed our bags at our hotel (a Toyoko Inn, part of a huge chain of business hotels in Japan. These are great and highly recommended wherever you go; they are small but affordable and consistent. Breakfast is always included, as is internet access) and were on the move again. We had a busy plan for our 3 days in Kyoto, so we didn't want to waste any time! Again, the rain was falling hard, and we were armed with umbrellas, but the day would prove to go by in a bit of a blur because the rain made it kind of a challenge to really enjoy seeing the sights.

Kyoto, once the capitol of Japan, has gotten quite used to its status as a tourist destination, and is pretty user-friendly for foreigners. Though there are two subway lines running through it, the extensive bus system is really easy to navigate. All major sights are easily accessible by bus, all stops are announced and signed in English, and we got a very helpful map available at the info centre in Kyoto station with every stop listed. All this, and an unlimited day pass for 500Y ($5), = smooth busing.

We took the bus to Kiyomuzu-dera, one of Kyoto's famous temples. Our plan was to make our way North through the smorgasbord of temples and shrines that flank the Eastern part of the city. On the way to Kiyomuzu-dera, we stumbled upon the cutest little ceramics shop. Foolishly, I didn't buy anything, thinking that there would be a hundred more like it along the way (there weren't - turns out this was kind of a gem in terms of actually having handmade, unique pieces, as opposed to the standard tourist crap you can find everywhere). But not to worry, we got back there and I ended up buying a couple of cute pieces.

Storefront of the cute ceramic shop on the way to Kiyomizu-dera

I'll just post a few pictures from the sights that we saw on that walk, as there isn't really a need to explain much about them. Like I said, the rain made it a bit of a blur. At some points, we weren't quite sure what we were looking at, or we would arrive at a place that we thought we had just visited... Stupid rain!

A huge statue, the Ryozen Kannon - a monument to WWII soldiers.

A pretty little path in Maryuma park

Gate to Kiyomizu-dera, through a sheet of rain

Gate and pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

A huge San-mon (three-gate) that we actually got to go up and
inside - access is apparently only allowed for a couple of weeks during
the year, lucky us! There are a bunch of kannon statues in that top level

A "tree" at Heian-Jingu. It kind of looks like it's full of cherry
blossoms, but the blossoms are actually paper tied to the tree, on
which people have written prayers and blessing requests

We made a special effort to get to the Murin-An gardens, and were very glad when we got there. it is a meticulously cared-for little green oasis, worth a spin through.

Pretty Murin-an gardens

On the way there, we had checked out the hard-to miss giant orange torii. Can you imagine having this in the middle of the city? Right over Michigan Ave, perhaps.

Giant torii near Heian-jingu

We also stumbled upon this cute shrine dedicated to rabbits, where people go to pray for... any guesses? Anyone? Blessings of childbirth (and probably, conception). I guess Japanese rabbits are just as...prolific as American rabbits!

Rabbit sculpture at the washing area of the Okazaki shrine

As night started to fall, we made our way up to the Kyoto University of Art and Design. There, we were meeting Emi Hirayama, with whom I'd made arrangements for a private cooking class. I found her through the Rough Guide (and her own website), and had emailed with her before we arrived in Japan. Kyoto has a distinct style of cooking which is very pure and simple, involving the freshest, seasonal ingredients and simple preparations such as simmering, grilling, and steaming. Emi invites you into her home and shows you how to cook whatever you want - in this case I had asked her to show us some dishes with yuba (soy bean skin), fish, chawan mushi (egg custard), and sweets.

Emi picked us up at a bus stop and immediately I loved her. She was very sweet, and had closely read my emails before our arrival ("How do you like Chicago? You are a PhD, what do you study?") Her English was very good, but she would say a sentence in Japanese first, think for a second, and then translate it into English. It reminded me of the time that I was talking to Brian's grandfather in my laboured Mandarin at dinner, thinking hard about each sentence before I spoke aloud, and he basically announced to the table that my Chinese was... very laboured :)

Anyway, we spent 4 lovely hours in Emi's little kitchen, cutting, peeling, mixing, and, best of all, eating. Each course used similar flavors - dashi (soup stock made from kombu seaweed and dried bonito fish flakes), mirin (cooking wine) and soy sauce. We ate more than enough, and then had fun making the little mochi balls with cinnamon and green tea. Mochi with cinnamon? Brilliant!

Brian rubbing down on some veggies

Me filling the rice mold with green pea-sticky rice to make a
gourd shape. We liked this so much we bought a couple
of rice molds later on!

The banquet (clockwise, from upper left): bamboo shoots in miso,
chawan mushi with shiitake mushroom, eel, and shrimp, yuba-wrapped fuki greens,
rice with green peas and ginger bud (note the lovely gourdy shapes), grilled sawara fish

Fresh green tea and cinnamon mochi balls, ready to
be dressed with red beans and soybean powder

Emi's class is highly recommended, for a personal take on Kyoto. (Oh, and remember how the Tokyo tourism office wouldnt' make recommendations for us at a Kyoto restaurant? I had emailed Emi while we were still in Tokyo and asked her if she would make the reso for us, and she did. So nice.) At the end of the class, as we were saying goodbye at the door, I kind of leaned in for a hug - that's how awesome I thought she was... But there were no hugs, I didn't want to force myself on her because I wasn't sure of what is customary. Brian laughed at me for this, because he knew exactly what I was thinking when he saw me lean in with misty eyes...

Us and Emi

After that lovely, filling meal, we rolled ourselves back onto the bus and back to our hotel. My feet were wet and achey from the distance we covered, but it hardly mattered after such a great day!

A Fortnight in Japan - Day 5 in Tokyo

**Brian has posted an annotated album of our Tokyo pictures on our Picasa site, found here. We'll post up albums after we finish posting about each city, so you're not totally inundated with pics! We put the food photos into another album, which will go up soon as well.

May 6 was our last full day in Tokyo. Having dumped the Mt Fuji trip, we finished up some areas that we hadn't seen (leaving Ueno and Asakusa for the day or so we would have on the way back to Narita). Again, we woke up to a cloudy, overcast day with sprinkles of rain threatening a repeat of the deluge from the day before. We were smarter today, though, and borrowed two of Mina's umbrellas before we headed out.

That's me, with the orange umbrella under the big wooden torii leading to Meiji-jingu

We began at Meiji-jingu (jinja/jingu = shrine), which has a lovely approach path. There were several weddings, or wedding portrait sessions around the shrine on this day, probably because it was a holiday. It is hard not to stop and stare when you come upon one of these wedding processions, as they are beautiful and the attire worn by the bride and groom is much different than the usual western wedding. Some examples:

This picture was about 20 minutes and 2 arrangers in the making...
the fold of the kimono had to be just so.

Wedding procession at Meiji-jingu

While we were waiting for the first procession to pass, a man was getting his son to take a picture of him with the procession in the background. Brian nudged me and said, "is that Brian Grazer?" and yes, yes it was. He's a big producer, of the film A Beautiful Mind and favorite TV shows of ours Friday Night Lights, 24, and Arrested Development. We didn't talk to him, but I did manage to catch a photo of him on the sly (check it out in the Picasa album). 

Next, we checked out the Yoyogi National stadium, a gymnastics stadium built for the 1964 Olympics. Designed by Kenzo, it (and the smaller stadium next door) resembles a big ark. On this day there was a very long lineup of young girls in gymnastic uniforms sitting outside, probably a meet going on. (Side note, people here are great about lining up for things, even if it's just to get into a store when it opens, or, most appreciated by us, to get onto the subway trains.)

Yoyogi National Stadium

We then took the subway to Ebisu station to check out the Japanese Metropolitan Museum of Photography at Ebisu Garden Place. In some cases, "u" is not pronounced so it actually sounds like "Eh-beese." Anyway, we paid for two exhibits, the first on historical Japanese photography (meh, a bunch of faded old daguerrotypes). The second one was a phenomenal display of recent work called Nomachi's Sacred Lands. Beautiful, emotional pictures of people and landscapes in Iran, India, Africa and the Andes. The exhibition only ran until May 17 (I feel very lucky to have seen it!) bu you can check out the work on Kazuyoshi Nomachi's website.

For lunch, we bought nigiri sushi from the department store in Ebisu Gardens Place, a huge box for about $12, and a big cream puff. Loving the price of sushi! (We had first checked out the fancy Joel Robuchon complex of 3 restaurants on 3 floors, where we were told in not so many words that we were not properly dressed to eat there... but decided that a lower-brow lunch would do the trick.) A quick, dizzying ride up to the 38th (restaurant) floor afforded us some more nice views of the city.

Seriously, about $12! Mmmmm

Though the rain was coming down heavily, we were foolishly emboldened by our umbrellas. We trekked a long ways to the Meguro Parasitological Museum. Yes, this is a showcase of bugs and worms and other gross things. The kind of thing that gives you the willies but is impossible to turn away from. It was actually really busy, and Brian remembered that one of the guidebooks said that it has surprisingly turned into a popular date destination! Most impressive by far was this, extracted from some poor guy's...um...nether regions:

Um... 8.8m long... tapeworm... extracted... ewwwwwwww

After we finished cringing and shuddering, it was pouring (hello) kitties outside, so we re-thought our plan to walk around Naka-Meguro, the area near Mina's house. We walked too long to a store she had recommended, unfortunately named BALLS. I was really, uncomfortably wet, and didn't particularly enjoy squishing around what was otherwise a very cool store, with mod, stylish home furnishings. After that we were pretty fed up with our drippiness, and decided to just go home and warm up. Given how hard we'd been going for several days, a couple of hours off of our feet sounded pretty good... After a couple of hours of resting up, we had noodles close to Mina's house and called it a night. We packed up and got ready for our next adventure... Kyoto, here we come!

Gratuitous picture of adorable little schoolkids on the subway. The
pack on the very left has a little rain guard on it!

A Fortnight in Japan - Day 4 in Tokyo

On Tuesday, May 5th we woke up to a cloudy, gray sky (a change from the nice, sunny mornings we'd been seeing). Rainjackets in our bags, we headed out to Shinjuku-gyoen. The garden was quite pretty, with large ponds full of jumping carp and a Taiwanese Pavilion. We briefly met a woman from Japan who was hanging out in the garden, and was interested in where we were from, how long we were staying etc. It felt kind of weird and we hurried to get away from her, but afterward I felt really bad. She was just being nice, probably enjoying practicing her English, and we were so, what, cynical? Xenophobic? Ugh, I vowed to be more open from then on.

Taiwanese Pavilion, Shinjuku-gyoen

We had a tea ceremony in the Rakutei teahouse in the garden, which was a bit disappointing. We paid via the vending machine outside (definitely not traditional!), slid the wooden screen door open and sat down. A woman came out with two bowls of green matcha tea (traditional) and two little sweets. We were left alone to drink and eat, so it didn't feel all that special. I think in a more elaborate tea ceremony, the host actually makes the tea in front of you (which involves whipping the tea powder into water), so I guess we got an abbreviated version. The sweet was interesting, kind of a chalky, not-sticky mochi - similar in texture and moisture to the inside of a moon cake, if that rings any bells.

Tea ceremony elements at Rakutei, Shinjuku-gyoen

Leaving the garden in search of lunch, we came across a restaurant called Tsunahachi, a tempura bar of some renown. Tempura is obviously widely available in Japan, but this restaurant is a bit higher-end, because you sit at a bar where the chef actually fries up each piece for you to order. Hello, personal deep-fry chef! We were seated at a little bar in the back, and expertly guided toward the set menu which comprised tempura fish, shrimp, prawn, eel and veggies, with soup and rice. Delicious! Full on our set menus, we watched covetously as the people next to us ordered very fresh scallops, scooped right out of the shell.

Our tempura chef, placing some fried goodness on my plate

Our next stop was one we'd been looking forward to for a while, the Isetan foodhall. Now, to this point we'd been in several foodhalls, and been suitably impressed. As I mentioned in a previous post, these are the bottom (usually 1st or 2nd basement) floors of Japanese department stores, filled with prepared foods to go. There are always sections of sushi, cakes, fried foods, and hot items. And everything is nicely presented, of course. We don't have anything like it at home, and boy, do we wish we did! But back to Isetan, which had been touted in every guidebook we'd seen as the "king of foodhalls." We walked in and it was truly a sight to see. We tried to take pictures, but they just don't do justice to the selection, beautiful presentation, and the general busy-ness of the place. It was packed with people buying snacks or perhaps supplies for dinner. We didn't actually buy anything because it was not really cheap. It was enough just to look!

Stages of tamago(egg omelette, the kind that is often used in sushi) making

The rain had started falling while we were inside (I think God was crying with joy at the beautiful foodstuffs), so we donned our jackets and went to find the intersection that includes the Studio Alta building. It wasn't very impressive, just another big intersection full of huge, loud TV screens. So jaded, so soon - There goes another famous intersection, *yawn*

Studio Alta building, Shinjuku

We then made our way SW of the station in search of some more cool architecture. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building is a huge blue and grey complex that consists of 2 towers and a half-circular columnade. It was built to resemble Notre Dame, with Japanese accents (though we didn't quite get that part, other than that the facade kind of looked like a giant computer chip). You can go up to the top of either tower for views of the city, so we did that as a welcome respite from the rain. It was here that we made a big decision about the trip - no visit to Mt Fuji this time around. (It is apparently notoriously shy and so you need a perfectly clear day to see it. With the rain coming down pretty hard and probably continuing to fall into the next day, we figured that we didn't want to waste our last whole day in Tokyo, not to mention a bunch of money, going out to it if it wasn't going to be rewarding. So that was that).

The Kenzo-designed Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

Back out in the pouring rain, we looked for "yakitori alley" (or "piss alley," as it is more crudely known) which is supposed to be a small lane of teeny yakitori (yakitori = chicken skewer restaurants) establishments near Shinjuku Station. We gave up after a few minutes, our attention spans probably being curtailed by the rain falling in our eyes. Instead, we got back on the subway and made our way to the neighborhood of Ikebukuro.

A cool art piece in Shinjuku Station

Off the subway, we beelined it for a ramen shop, Ramen Jiro, that I had heard about on rameniac.com. Unfortunately, the line was longer than 10 people and the wait would have been in the rain. I was sad, as rameniac had given this ramen shop a rare 10/10 rating, but my spirits and stomach quickly rallied when I saw that a different ramen-ya (ya = store/shop) listed in the Rough Guide was pretty nearby. We ran over there and saw a thankfully shorter line. It moved pretty fast (it seems like people really tend to eat and run here), though we were still soaked by the time we were seated. I began to realize that my supposedly waterproof (not water-resistant) rain jacket was, in a word, not. Luckily it wasn't terribly cold, or I would have been really miserable!

The ramen went a long way toward making us forget about how wet we were. I'll just show you a picture:

Restorative ramen at Mutekiya, Ikebukuro

Full and re-energized, we backtracked to the station and went to the Japanese Traditional Crafts Centre, which was really a glorified gift shop, but a cool one nonetheless. It showcased (and sold) artisanal items, one of the requirements for the "craft"designation being that they are used in daily life. So there was beautiful washi paper, ceramics and lacquerware, kimono fabrics, etc. Too expensive for the most part, though I spent a bit of time trying to convince myself that we really need this lovely, 315 dollar bowl, so I should buy it. (We don't. I didn't. I kind of regret it.)

Next we left the station again and ran up to a store called Tokyu Hands. We had already been to another branch of this earlier in the day (up by Shinjuku), and I wanted to go to this one to see Nekobukuro. What is that, you ask? First, Tokyu Hands is an amazing store. With many branches, they all have no less than 8 huge floors filled with stationery, housewares, camping equipment, kitchenwares, woodworking supplies, art and design supplies, luggage, etc. etc. Like Muji, but not quite as cool, more supply-y than product-y. Another heaven, and a destination for me as I was looking for some specific screenprinting supplies (found them!). So that alone made me love it. This branch was also blessed with Nekobukuro, which is a part of the 8th floor where you can pay a nominal fee (around $6) to go in and play with the 20 or so cats they keep there. Yep. Apparently this really appeals to kids (duh) and adults whose apartments are too small for pets. Odd and fascinating. We didn't go in (being the non-animal people we are) but we definitely checked out the cute entrance.

Nekobukuro, the ultimate in surrogate pet-dom

Heading back to Ikebukuro station, Brian remembered seeing some fish-shaped red-bean pastries (tayaki) being freshly made when we had gone through the station before, and we decided we had to find them again for dessert. Now, this is not necessarily an easy feat given that Tokyo train stations in general are huge and mazelike, and Ikebukuro in particular is the second-most busy station in the city (in fact, the world, according to Wikipedia!). 2.71 million people move through it per day! Wow. Anyway, amazingly, we somehow found the fishcake stand, and watched as they made our red-bean and custard cakes from scratch.

The magic of tayaki, Ikebukuro Station

Happily, we decided we'd had enough for the day, and headed on home. Rain or no rain, we were loving Tokyo for all of its crazy, cute, dizzying, and decidedly tasty quirks.

A Fortnight in Japan - Day 3 in Tokyo

One thing we knew we had to do in Tokyo was to visit the Tsukiji Market, where much of Tokyo (and other places in Japan) gets their sushi and sashimi fish. Because of the holidays that were going on during the time we were in Tokyo, the only day that the market was open during our stay was on Monday the 4th, so there was no doubt about our plans for that day! Brian already wrote a bit about it and described our big adventure there, when we stalked, uh... met Alton Brown and had a great sushi meal, so I'll just add a few more photos and descriptions.

Tsukiji is basically divided into the warehouse part, where things get offloaded from trucks, the wholesale market, where unimaginable amounts of fish and seafood get bought and sold every day, and the retail/restaurant part, where visitors like us stand in line for an hour to eat. The warehouse part is crazy busy, with little trucks and forklifts zipping around without much concern for dumb, awestruck camera-toting tourists. You really had to watch yourself, or this would be the last thing you'd see:

Vehicles rushing around Tsukiji Market

Lineups for all the sushi restaurants were really long the whole time we were there. The restaurant we went to had a relatively short line when we got there, but it also grew pretty long:

Brian being patient on the outside, seething with sushi-lust on the inside

And finally, the wholesale market was seemingly endless rows of stalls selling much of the same:

Terrific tuna

Fantastic fish

Awesome octopus

A little ways away from the fish market is a more general market where other types of food are served and sold, along with other things. While Brian was in line at the restaurant, I happened upon this scene, and I stood there gawking and taking pictures for a few minutes:

Big whole tunas on the ground

After the fish market, we walked around the outer markets a bit, and they were incredibly crowded. We got jostled and pushed, and once again I regretted being so short! Next, we walked to the Shiodome neighborhood, a modern business-y area filled with skyscrapers. We checked out the Advertising Design Museum of Tokyo, housed in the Caretta Shiodome building (it was ok, not too exciting but it did have some fun retro ads). In the same building, we took the elevator up to the 46th floor (which has a bunch of restaurants), and got some nice, free views of the city.

The three bluish low buildings in the middle of the photo are part of
Tsukiji Market

Next, we decided to visit Odaiba, a small island SE of the city that is served by a monorail. Sights, which include a manmade beachfront and souped-up boardwalk, are clustered around monorail stops. It all felt cute and contrived, which led me to keep calling it a "weekend leisure destination" even though many people work and live there.

First stop for us: Tokyo Big Sight, a big convention centre with a giant saw out front, and inverted pyramids in its design. When we got there, we were very curious as to why there were streams of girls and women coming out of it. A little further investigation revealed that there was a manga (Japanese comic) convention being held there, which apparently is very popular among females.

Tokyo Big Sight

On to a complex named Palette Town, next door to the Toyota Design Centre, where they have every Toyota model on display (and available for testdrives), most of which are not available in the US. They were demo'ing some of the robots they have developed to help people with disabilities (this seems to be quite a priority for their R&D department), but we couldn't take part since you needed an International Driver's License. Boooo!

Cutting-edge technology by Toyota, to help those who
aren't very mobile.

In the same complex was a huge arcade filled with lots of pachinko* machines and all sorts of arcade and simulation games, even large mechanical animals that you could ride around. We played a game of "double table tennis" which consisted of us running around in a big circle banging on buttons. Fun!

Stick a hundred yen coin in this guy and you could be in your very own rodeo.

Double Table Tennis... we definitely need one of these in our apartment

Further along the monorail line was the MeSci science museum, that looked neat but had a line that snaked around too many corners, so we passed. The Fuji TV building is a futuristic, grid-like building with a large ball floating in the middle of it. Think Rambaldi's Device from Alias (though disappointingly, it isn't red).

Fuji-TV building in Odaiba

Lastly, we walked through Deck's Beach, the fake beach and boardwalk that reminded me of Santa Monica pier, but with a huge shopping complex attached.

Back in Tokyo, we metroed over to Harajuku (yes, where Gwen Stefani got the idea). Right off of the station we hit Takeshita-dori, which was crazy-full of young adults hopped up on shopping fumes. Some of the girls were dressed up in the lolita costumes that were sold in many shops along the street, but mostly women were just really dressed up. Casual wear is definitely in the minority around Tokyo (my sensible shoes making my tourist status all the more painfully obvious!)

Elbow to elbow with Tokyo's youth culture

After we slogged our way through Takeshita-dori, we checked out Design Festa Gallery, an eclectic contemporary arthouse recommended by the Rough Guide. It was interesting, with every (small) room displaying a different artist's work, and some of the artists even being in the room with you. Cool, but not what I would normally think of as the Rough Guide's normal cup of tea.

The exterior of the Design Festa Gallery

As it started getting dark, we continued down Omotesando-dori, a street known for high-end stores and boutiques. Really in search of our next meal, we found Maisen, a restaurant that is famous for its katsu (katsu=fried breaded pork cutlet). The prices on the menu outside (which was all in Japanese) were a fair bit higher than your usual katsu-and-rice dish, but we didn't know why. Tired and hungry, we decided to follow the old, sometimes-true adage, "if it costs more it must be better" and head on in. Once seated, the english menu told us why things were a bit more expensive; they use Kurobuta, or "black" pork instead of regular old pork. At 3 times the price of the regular pork (and being deep fried, anyway), we weren't really game, so we just had regular tonkatsu-don, along with another set menu with several dishes. Yum!

Katsu-don with egg @ Maisen

I should note here that during our whole trip, meals were a highlight. Not only because we love food (and it was all good), but because it gave us a chance to rest our feet! We were going so hard all the time that sitting for a while, eating yummy food and gulping down ice water was really very enjoyable.

After our katsu dinner, we kept walking down Omotesando and came upon the beautiful Swiss-designed Prada building, all glass and steel diamonds:

Prada Building. So cool on on the outside,
who needs the 'stuff' inside?

We also checked out the gaudy Cartier building beside it, and a few others around.

Maki Fumihiko's Spiral building, on Aoyama-dori.
They sure like their cones here!

After that, it was time to head back to homebase for some zs with another terrific day in Tokyo under our belts.



*a difficult to grasp gambling/plinko/loud/flashy game that has the same kind of hold on people as slot machines. They are all over Tokyo, except since gambling is illegal, you win small silver balls instead of money. You can turn those balls in for 'prizes,' or go next door and collect money from a supposedly independent establishment, while everyone around pretends not to notice.

A Fortnight in Japan: Day 2 in Tokyo

Waking up on the second day was a little bizarre. It took me a minute to realize that I was lying on a futon mattress on the ground (which is common Japanese practice)... in an unfamiliar room... in Tokyo!! Once that set in, I was up and ready to go. Our days in Tokyo (for most of the trip, really), were jampacked, as we wanted to sightsee until our eyes hurt and eat until our bellies burst. (Note, we will soon have our complete photo albums up on our Picasa site - for now I'm including highlights, but there you'll get a play-by-play of, among other things, all the food we ate! Stay tuned...)

So for Day 2 we decided to chart a course that went through central Tokyo, beginning with the Roppongi area, through Akasaka, the Imperial Palace, Ginza, and ending up in Akihibara.

We arrived in Roppongi around 9:15am, which was really too early to see much. The main 'attraction' is Roppongi Hills, a huge, multi-structure complex of stores, housing, theaters, and restaurants. Coming from Canada, which has such a relatively small population, it is amazing to me that a city can support something as big as this (let alone several, as Roppongi Hills is just one of many such complexes around Tokyo). Anyway, it wasn't that interesting because everything was closed.

So, we moved on to the National Art Center, which is a beautiful building with a wavy green glass exterior designed by Kurokawa Kishi. It has no internal pillars, just two big inverted concrete cones. We didn't actually pay for any of the exhibits, but spent some time in and outside the building, and bought a curry bun from the cafe for breakfast.

The beautiful undulating exterior of the National Art Center of Tokyo

From there, we walked into Midtown, to the 21_21 Design Sight building, designed by the reknowned Ando Tadao. Two small, angular glass buildings rise up from (or descend into) the ground, housing temporary, single-theme exhibits. As far as we could tell, the exhibit had something to do with pottery, but we chose to move on to make sure we could catch all of the sights we had planned for the day.

Brian, checking out how he sizes up at 21_21 Design Site

In adjacent Hinokicho Kyoen (Kyoen/Gyoen/Koen/Goen = garden), there was some kind of group exercise/relaxation session, which lots of people stretching (and snoozing) on mats in unison to some guy's instructions. From here, we got a good view of Midtown Tower, the tallest building in Tokyo. It was your average skyscraper (we were meh about it, since it kind of pales in comparison to the Sears Tower (814 ft vs. 1450 ft!).

Next, we walked through the Akasaka neighborhood to see the Hie-jinja (jinja = shrine), scoping out locales for lunch along the way (and snacking on some super cheap sushi rolls from a tiny store.) The path up the hill leading to the jinja was supposed to be lined with red torii (torii = gate) but, to our disappointment, wasn't! The shrine itself is notable because it is the site of one of Tokyo's biggest festivals, the Sanno Matsuri, in June.

The big stone torii leading to Hie-jinja

After a stop for some udon noodles and a mysterious, dry powder-coated ball of red bean-stuffed mochi (my motto for the trip was "you never know until you try!" We later found out that this ubiquitous coating is dried soybean powder), we metroed up to Hibiya Station. The train spits you out at the corner of the Imperial Palace grounds, which is surrounded by a huge moat. In old times, the moat served the usual defensive duties, a protective, military function. Now, however, it brings an appreciated measure of peace to the city, an artificial river running through its center. The stone walls of the the Palace buildings rise somewhat imposingly above the moat and walls, with cool lookout towers peeking out.

A lookout tower at the Imperial Palace

You can't actually visit the Inner Palace grounds (unless you arrange for a tour that's in Japanese anyway), so we just walked around a bit. Families were picnicking in the grassy areas, but much of it was covered with gravel. Further to the NE is the Imperial Garden which was quite pretty, although we were in between cherry blossom (April) and iris (June) viewing seasons, so it wasn't as scenic as it could be.

Pretty Japanese maple leaves

From the Palace we headed East into Ginza, a busy area known for good (mostly expensive) shopping. Our first stop was the beautiful Tokyo International Forum, a steel and glass building that looks like a huge ship. Just lovely, all angles and light. There was a big Bach festival going on, so it was alive with a ton of activity.

The big glass hull-like ceiling of the Tokyo International Forum

We hit up the Tourist Info Centre nearby to see if they would make a reservation for us at a restaurant in Kyoto (they wouldn't), and got a bunch of pamphlets and info for things we wanted to do. It was oddly situated though, on the 10th floor of a random building near the Ginza train station. (General note - tourist info offices were a great help along the way, very friendly and chock full of useful maps, tips, and sometimes, even coupons. They are usually situated in or very close to the main train station in each city.)

We then went into the SONY building and looked at some gadgets (it's basically a showcase for current and upcoming technology). Back out on the street, there was some kind of demonstration going on. We heard its rumblings even when we were at the Palace, and saw lines of riot cops standing in formation at subway entrances. Too bad we had absolutely no idea what it was about!

Chuo-dori (dori = street) is the main shopping street in Ginza, with the usual high-end stores like Tiffany, Apple, Louis Vitton, and a bunch of Japanese department stores. It was a particularly pleasant stroll because they had closed the street to cars, providing some relief from the usual crowding on the sidewalks. It was still busy though:

Chuo-dori, in Ginza

I had a short list of stores to check out - a couple of fantastic stationery stores with handmade washi papers and cards, and a bakery. I also made sure that we visited the flagship branch of Muji, a store that I first encountered when I was in London in 2003 (now there are several branches in NYC). Back then, I remember that it sold stationery and some clothes, maybe a bit of furniture. This Muji, though, was so much more than that. All those things, plus bikes, gardening stuff, luggage, etc. And all of it was cool, nothing tacky. My kind of heaven!

Muji was right next to the Tokyo subway station, so we hopped back on the train and headed up for Akihibara, also known as "Electric Town." As the name suggests, this is an area where you can find all sorts of electronics, from MP3 players to phones to computers and accessories. We weren't in the market for anything which was good given that we had actually heard that prices weren't cheaper than in the US. (When I was in Hong Kong in 2004, we went to the equivalent area there and there were actually pretty good deals to be had.) It was a huge blur of neon and blinking lights, though, with sales people shouting from each store. (General note - sales staff are ALWAYS talking, shouting, hawking here... it would never fly in the US!) Akihibara is also known for "maid cafes," where girls dressed up in elaborate lolita/maid costumes *serve* you (we don't really know the details, never really bothered to find out!) Such maids were all over the street, handing out advertisements for the cafes and generally classing the place up.

A bad photo of some of the costumed folks we saw

Not looking for a specific gadget, our No. 1 mission was to find Jangara Ramen, a noodle house that I had seen on the appropriately named website, rameniac.com. We love ramen (I dearly miss Daikokuya, a terrific ramen restaurant in LA), and it was one of our primary missions to get some of the good stuff on the trip. Trying to find the restaurant was a huge endeavour, though, given the nonsensical arcaneness of Tokyo's address system. Addresses are a series of numbers identifying building , chome (area) , and block numbers in a given area, but not every map has these numbers identified, and the buildings themselves *might* have a teeny, dark plaque with its number on it. Argh. So, even armed with the address, I began to doubt that we would ever find my beloved ramen after we spent about 15 minutes scratching our heads and hesitantly walking around. My feet hurt, I'm getting a headache from all the beeping and yelling, gimme my ramen, dangit! I even had my phrasebook out and was ready to ask someone, but feeling a bit shy. Ramen Jangara wa doko deska?

So, Brian to the rescue. He carefully reread the section on addresses in our guidebook, and kept a keen eye out for building plaques. Suddenly we found a map stand that identified the block numbers, and, just when I was about to give up in frustration, we turned a corner and found it! Luckily, I had looked it up on the internet that morning and taken note of the store's blue and yellow logo, so I recognized it immediately. I was SO glad and so very proud of my very bright husband! After all that, we were rewarded with this:

Mmmmm, miso ramen with chashu pork, cod roe, bamboo shoots, and an egg

After filling up on tasty delicious noodles, we headed back out and decided that we just had to check out the "Taito" building, with its familiar space invaders-alien logo beckoning us in. Each floor of the 6 storey building had a different focus, the first floor comprising a ton of those grabby-crane games. The toys you could win ranged from the usual innocuous stuffed animal to PSP consoles, to some very sexy-looking barbie-like dolls... Rrrrrrrrowr. Another floor was filled with nothing but those sticker-photo booths! And of course, there were a couple of floors devoted to big, noisy arcade games. A vertical circus for the 21st century.

Taito game station, a multi-storey arcade in Akihibara

Tired, full, and overstimulated, we decided to hop back on the train and head home to Mina's. Once again, sleep came pretty easily, and after some planning for Day 3, we were snoring within minutes!

A Fortnight in Japan: Day 1 in Tokyo

It is hard to believe that we've been back in Chicago for exactly one week since we were in Japan. It feels like we are worlds away from the busy intersections we crossed, the hushed temples we explored, and the ramen shops where we slurped away.

Since we got back, I have been journalling and Brian has been annotating the hundreds (erm... thousands?) of photos we took. Each picture reminds me of the surreal, awesome sights, sounds and tastes we experienced, so different than anything else we know and any other country I've been to so far. We'll try to recount our experiences without running on and on, though every day we spent there could fill volumes! Let's begin...

After literally being up all night packing (and still feeling rushed and forgetting some things!), the taxi picked us up at our apartment at 4am. Still dark out, we spent most of the ride in silence, exhaustion and anticipation alternately filling my mind and rippling through my body. At the airport, we went through the motions of checking in and getting through security, and I got the rush of excitement that always hits me at the airport when I'm going somewhere or picking someone up. We're going to Japan!! A quick stopover in Dallas, and all of a sudden we were settled into our 12 hour flight to Narita. (When you fly to Tokyo, you use the NRT airport, which is about 60km NE of Tokyo). A few naps, one viewing of "Taken" (not really worth it) and a couple of compartmentalized meals including bad sushi later, we landed at NRT. We were told to stay put until the health officials had come onto the plane and screened us for swine flu. A few young Japanese men in plastic suits boarded the plane, one took a bunch of thermal images with a large camera, and we were soon cleared to disembark. In all, that probably took half an hour, but it felt like the longest part of our travels so far. We're on the ground, we don't have H1N1, let me out!

At the airport, we used the ATM and the internet - I had forgotten to print out the combination to the lock on the mailbox holding Mina's housekey, where we were staying... hehe - and got our express train/subway card combo tickets. It was pretty easy to get out of the airport, once we figured out where to buy the tickets, and suddenly we were on a comfortable train speeding toward Tokyo.

Arriving at Shinjuku subway station, we transferred to another subway line, traveled three stops to Shibuya, transferred to another train for three stops, then dazedly attempted to find Mina's apartment building. (Mina is a friend from high school who has been living in Japan for several years. I had bothered her on facebook for advice about our trip, and she offered to let us stay at her place - even though we hadn't seen each other since 1996. So incredibly generous! Coincidentally, she was out of town on her own holiday, so we got her place all to ourselves. Luckily, we did get to meet up with her on the last night of our trip - more on that later!)

After dropping our bags at her place and taking a few minutes to sit and take it all in, we wanted to press on and fight off the urge to sleep off our 25-hour travel odyssey. We didn't want to go very far, for fear of having to try to interpret this in our tired and disoriented state, so we just took the subway back to Shibuya and decided to walk around and find something to eat.

Coming out of the subway station, we were immediately assaulted with sounds, lights and people. The intersection right outside of the station is a common image of Tokyo in the media (e.g., it was shown in "Lost in Translation") and it was every bit as mad and chaotic as it is portrayed. We just stood at the corner for a few minutes, mouths agape, taking it all in. Am I really here?? I felt like I was scuba diving underwater, with schools of fish deftly swimming past me and voices from people on the street and from the huge TV screens above unintelligibly blurring together. It was the epitome of sensory overload.

This picture doesn't really do it justice - I'm too short, and should have held the camera higher! There are about 100 feet between us and the building straight ahead, and the intersection was FILLED with people.

Only slightly daunted, we picked a direction and threw ourselves into the thronging crowd, which moved surprisingly easily in every direction. The ultimate mission was to find food, and to that end we wandered in and out of food halls (in the basement storey of every department store, where tons of counters sell every kind of edible - more on that later) and looked at the plastic food display models in front of dozens of restaurants. Unusual for us when it comes to food, we were plagued by indecision. Finally, after wandering up and down several blocks, we found an izakaya (a Japanese pub, basically, but with more emphasis on food) that had been recommended in our Rough Guide book. The staff spoke very little English but had an English menu, from which we ordered a beef stew, chicken wings (for which they are known), and chicken gizzards. Not a bad start to our eating adventures!

Mmmmm... deep fried gizzards!

After that we walked around a bit more but were pretty tired, so we made our way back to Mina's and fell into a very satisfied sleep.

Celebrating the Dirty Dozen

A year ago today, we had the most awesome day of our lives. It is so hard to believe that a whole 12 17ths have passed since then! It has been a good year, capped off with our travels in Japan.

Happy one-year anniversary, my dear!

Ah, memories... (photo by Jen)

P.S. Yes, we are back in Chicago, returning to real life. Many pics and posts about Japan to come your way shortly. I am just finishing up my personal journalling and then we'll get on with it!

Random Japan Pictures

As promised, a photo of our sushi breakfast as Tsukiji fish market. We each had a combo plate, containing outstanding botan-ebi (spot prawn) and uni (sea urchin) amongst other things. The anago (second from the left on the bottom row) was a first for both of us: salt-water eel (as opposed to unagi, which is fresh water eel) with sprinkling of pink salt. Everything was so good, we chose to order a few additional pieces: toro (fatty salmon), oh toro (the fattiest tuna), and hotate (scallop) were all as great as you would expect. We also noticed something on the menu we've never seen, so we had to order it: kujira (whale).



It was...interesting, worth trying, but not something I would order again. The texture was not as pleasant as other sushi fish (a bit more like meat than fish), and there wasn't much flavor. After breakfast, we explored deeper into the market, where there were literally hundreds of stalls selling all manner of seafood. Definitely an exciting experience.

We're already nearing 1000 pictures, so here's a couple interesting ones to tide you over until we have time to write more:

Virtually every department store in Japan seems to have an enormous "food hall", typically covering the entire basement. In addition to groceries, there are dozens of stalls selling almost any kind of food you can think of. By far the most impressive we've seen was at Isetan in the Shinjuku neighborhood in Tokyo. I guessed that they had at least 1000 employees covering the assorted stalls. One meat counter seemed to specialize in what I assume was Kobe beef. 12,600 yen/100 g works out to about $570 USD/lb.



After four full days in Tokyo, we spent three days in Kyoto and Nara, which provided an extreme change of pace, especially since we focused on the older areas heaviest in shrines and traditional gardens. At Fushimi Inari, there is a literal avenue of torii, the red gates shown below. They say that there are over 20,000 gates. We took their word for it.



Finally, here's a picture of Michelle standing in front of a 15 m buddha statue at the Todai-Ji temple in Nara. They say that when they clean the statue, you can see up to 5 monks just standing in his hand.

Is That Alton Brown?

Our stolen wireless connection is a bit spotty, so we're going to start with uploading just this one picture. Make no mistake, our first two full days in Tokyo have been amazing, but one thing has made Michelle giggle like a schoolgirl, so let's start here.

This morning we visited the Tsukiji central wholesale market, where they have the famous tuna auctions at 5 AM. We were not able to get up that early (and we had conflicting information as to whether or not we would even be allowed to watch the auctions), but we did arrive around 8 AM. The level of activity was off the charts, and there were long lines for all the sushi stalls. At one point, we saw a parade of Americans (ie, "white people"), which we assumed was a tour group. But towards the back of the group was someone that looked pretty familiar. I wasn't sure, so I pointed him out to Michelle, and sure enough, it was Alton Brown (host of Food Network's "Good Eats" and "Iron Chef America").

So we stalked him. And got a picture.



He was actually very nice ("Hi, I'm Alton, I'm from Atlanta"). Apparently, they're filming a special in Tokyo, but we're not supposed to say anything about it. (We really don't know anything.)

We did wait in line, and had some great sushi for breakfast. Stay tuned for more pictures...

Seven ELEVENs sure are popular here in Tokyo...

OOPS! I forgot to post this (bad me! I guess I have the excuse that I was out of town...)

Happy belated Eleventh 17th, hubby of mine!

Konichiwa!

We made it safe and sound to Tokyo! I am writing from our super generous friend Mina's apartment in Shibuya (she's not here, she's on her own vacation in the Phillipines). It is about 5pm here, which means 3am in Chicago, on Saturday morning. We left our house at 4am on Friday morning for the airport. Yes, that means we have been traveling for 23 hours. But we're here and SO excited to start exploring! (And eating, of course!)

It looks like we have internet at least while we are here in Tokyo (for the next 4 days) so we should be able to update you and hopefully even upload photos of our time here. And I *do* want to write more about New Orleans since I've never been before, so stay tuned for more commentary to go with the pictures.

Ok, think we'll hit the streets in search of some adventure with a side of noodles. Hm, it looks like you may actually call this a vacation :)

P.S. Here is our itinerary, in case you want to follow along: 

May 2-6: Tokyo

May 7-9: Kyoto (maybe a day trip to Nara)

May 10-11: Hiroshima (+ day trip to Miyajima)

May 12-13: Kobe 

May 14: Koyasan

May 15: Tokyo

May 16: Back to Chicago

Weekend in New Orleans

Things have been pretty hectic for us in the last few weeks, so please accept our apologies for the spotty blogging.

We are in the middle of many travels for both of us, as Michelle had conferences in Banff and New Orleans. I joined Michelle in New Orleans toward the end of the conference, and we had a very enjoyable couple of days. Not surprisingly for us, we didn't have much planned in the way of sightseeing, but we did manage to eat a lot. Check out our Picasa Page for pictures and comments. (For the record, we don't normally take this many pictures at restaurants, but Michelle insisted since we were "on vacation". I think she originally wanted to write more, but we just haven't had time.

It's been less than 2 weeks since we got back from NOLA, but we are heading to the airport in less than 2 hours, on our way to 2 weeks in Japan. Stay tuned...