9 posts tagged “tokyo”

It was my birthday on the 9th and for dinner I asked the people at the SAKK office if they knew a good robata-yaki restaurant we could go to.  Robata-yaki is a style of food where everything is cooked at the table on an open grill.  The food comes uncooked on a plate along with any sauces needed.

They start the gril by piling up a lincoln log stack of red hot coals.  After carefully stacking the coals, our watier carefully balanced a metal grill on top.  This is what we cooked on food on.

After getting the grill started, they brought out all the food.  We ordered a lot of different meats, fishes and vegetables and ploped them all the grill.  Only a few were lost to the ash by mishandling.

Of the fish that we ordered one in particular seemed perfect for me to take Lisa up on her boast to be able to eat a fish eyeball, no problem.  Fish eyes are one of those things that a lot of people eat, but if you don't grow up with it, it can be a bit challenging.  For the record, I wouldn't do it, but I don't see a problem with it. 

The fish was big enough that the eye could be removed, but not so big that it would be easy.  Once the fish was actually put in front of her, she began to have second thoughts about the whole deal.  Was it really safe?  Yes.  Even if raw?  Yes.  No way out.  Must eat fish eyeball.

She began to pry the eyeball out of the socket and I could see her resolve really begin to waver.  Its one thing to pop some foreign food into your mouth and wash it down with water, but its quite another to have to dig around and really familiarize yourself with what you are about to do.  Getting it all the way out took about a minute of increasingly desparate work, until finally it came free.

Held at the end of her chopsticks she gave held if up for everyone to see, took a second to cement her resolve and popped it into her mouth:

Lisa has once again proven herself true to her word and world class gourmand.  Next time you eat with Lisa, make sure to save her the eyeballs!

Dinner finished off with some sake and a round of tasty non-grilled deserts:

Our first day in Tokyo is a holiday.  "Coming of Age Day" to be exact.  We spent some time in the morning at the Hama Rikyuu garden.  While we were there we stopped at a tea house in the middle of a lake and had tea:

Landed and Tokyo is cold and windy.  We make it to our hotel and ride to our 15 floor rooms.

My room has a southern view, so I can see Mt. Fuji on clear days:
We have access to these fine drinks at the hotel vending machine:
Note that we have both beer and whisky in this vending machine (upper left and lower left) for those hard nights.

I've been sitting on a few pictures from my trip to Japan and I thought I ought to get them posted before they disappear into the cobwebs of my mind.  I'll put the collection here and hopefully at some point I'll add the titles and descriptions.  Also, its probably in reverse order, so until vox lets me custom order these, you'll have to go back in time to view these properly:

These are from the first Saturday I was in Tokyo.  About 11 people came out to take me walking around some interesting old neighborhoods in northeast Tokyo, just above Ueno park.  We walked around some of the neighborhoods and had a great lunch in a small restaurant in the area.

Afterward, we did as much shopping as the rain would let us and then took the train to Kaminogoya-san and Okubo-san's new apartment.  We watched a DVD of this show called "Game Center CX" where this guy plays an old school video game straight through for 24 hours.

When dinnertime came around we went to an okonomiyaki (a japanese noodle pancake)  where we got to make three styles of okonomiyaki ourselves!  Despite the rain, I had a great time on this day.

Here's a day in the life of Tokyo motorcycles.  I know that at least one bicycle addict out there will appreciate these, Mr Steve C.  Hmm, thats too obvious, lets just say a certain S. Caleron should enjoy these shots.  All these pictures come from just a day of wandering around:

There are a lot of these 2-stroke, 1-cylinder knobby wheeled off road bikes.  I'm not sure how useful they are in Tokyo, but they sure are H-O-T-T hot!

Probably the most amazing scooter ever.

I'm not crazy about this style of bike, but the kids in Tokyo are.  This is one of the most often ridden bikes I see.

Today was my free day in the city so I decided to see some museums I'd read about.  On my way out, I dropped off some laundry at the front desk.  A bag of laundry in one hand and two folded shirts in the other.  "Sentaku" (laundry) I said putting the laundry bag on the desk.  "Du-rai ku-ri-n' (dry clean) I said putting the shirts on desk.  He nodded and then asked me what types clothes were in the plastic bag.  We started writing them down on a note pad, but then he got an "a-ha" look and pulled a pad from under the desk with articles of clothing listed on it.  We filled it all out and I was on my way.

Shibuya

The first was the electricity museum in Shibuya, then the Tin Toy museum in Harajuku, the Honda museum in Akasaka and finally the transportation museum in Akihabara.  All kinda geeky, but I'm in Tokyo, so its about the technology right?  Plus each museum was in an interesting area of town that had plenty to see just by walking around.

When I got to Shibuya it was a pretty short walk to the museum.  However when I got there it was still 15 minutes until it opened so I grabbed a coffee and a pastery nearby and waited.  When I came back the woman at the desk greeted me and gave me an english floor by floor guide.  The first floor seemed to be a cafe and a clothing store, so I went to the next floor.  Aparently the building isn't all museum.

The second floor seemed to have another cafe and some kind of furnature display surrounded by some kind of hanging decorations.  Looking more closely however, the hanging decorations were small diaramas displaying other living room scenes.  There was a finger reader in one so I put my finger on it.  Nothing seemed to happen.  Then a woman appeared from nowhere and showed me what to do;  finger reader on the display then finger reader on a flat table display.  Doing this gave me an all Japanese history and explaination of the cubes.  Hmm, not much electricity so far.  The thumb readers were electric, but...

The next floor seemed to be various home appliances.  Washer/driers, electric ranges, refrigerators.  Everything was new and it looked like a showroom. There was even a large room that seemed to be setup for a cooking demonstration.  This floor contained the first interesting thing; the "Fragrance Personal Computer".

This computer had some sort of olfactory perripheral attached;  two pods with 6 holes in each.  Each hole was labeled with what I'm assuming was a scent component.  The screen showed various types of food.  Each type of food had its own little show with a cook creating something while the smell pods pumped out what I should be smelling during each step.  I went through a few different dishes but everything smelled like ramen to me.

The next floor was an interactive kids floor with a fairly cool activity room.  One wall was covered with hexigonal doors.  Each door had a different science themed toy or device.  There were a few I wanted to play with, but I restrained myself.

Nearby was a table with six seats.  A family of four wsa seated with their faces pressed into some straps in front of each seat.  This somehow connected them to the table and also positioned them to be captured on video for

six monitors just above the table.  Aparently the table read concentration vs. relaxed brain waves.  The goal was to relax which would move a little ball in the middle of the table.  The most relaxed side of the table would move the ball to the opposite goal and win.  The family I was watching was either equally relaxed or equally stressed out because the ball wasn't going anywhere.

On the rest of the floor were various interactive displays, most of which didn't make any sense to me but were amusing to watch.

The next two floors finally had something about electricity.  First there was nuclear energy floor featuring a large cutaway nuclear reactor that spanned both floors.  The next floor was hydro power with some large turbine displays and interactive exhibits.  This is what I really wanted to see.  Too bad it was only a third of the museum.

Harajuku

From there I walked to Harajuku and the Tin Toy museum.  On my way I found something calling itself the Uniqlo museum.  Uniqlo is basically a Japanese Gap with Old Navy pricing.  Its got great, straighforward clothes for cheap.  The Uniqlo museum turned out to be a regular Uniqlo with the whole bottom floor dedicated to t-shirt designs that Uniqlo created for other companies over the years.  All shirts were for sale and it was actually pretty interesting.

Afterward, I walked around for a while looking at the shops and galleries, narrowing in on where the Tin Toy museum was.  The problem was that the museum was probably small and Harajuku is a warren of streets and shops.  I knew I was in the right area but after walking around in circles for 20 minutes I couldn't find it anywhere.

I stopped for lunch at a greek restaraunt and had a salmon gyros (horray for Japan!) and asked the waitress if she knew where the museum was.  She called over the guy at the front and both of them looked over my map.  They both concluded that it was "here" indicating the spot on the map where we were.  Ok, tin toy museum was a bust.

Akasaka

I walked to the subway and took it to the stop closest to the Honda museum.  I'd been to the Toyota museum/showroom on my first visit to Japan and it was pretty interesting;  new cars, concept cars, race cars, interactive displays and a ride in their new electric concept car (along a guided track).  When I got to the Honda showroom, it looked like a fairly standard showroom on the outside.  A selection of the current models were out and people were kicking the tires.  I went inside to see what was going on there.

It was swarming with kids.  The whole place was a zoo.  Kids and parents everywhere.  "Ok, so its kids day" I thought, "it will just be a little more

crowded."  However all I could see was tables with food and a stage with some musical instruments.  Above each table was a flag and there were several non-native Japanese milling about.  It appeared that I had stumbled on to

some kind of "Cultures of the World" event for kids.  Food and activities from around the world.  Pushed to the side of the show room were a few other Honda products (a snow blower; a chainsaw) but that was it.  Nothing to see here, move along.

I walked through a park to the next subway station and stopped for a while to watch some baseball and soccer games going on.

Akihabara

My next stop was Akihabara and the Transporation museum.  Getting off at "Electric Town" I was in "moe" heaven.  Pronounced 'mo-eh', its a Japanese word to describe people to are in love with cartoon characters.  Its a fetish basically, and there were several girls dressed up like cartoon characters feeding that fetish and handing out advertisments.  I plowed through the gauntlnet of moe and got out onto the main street.  In just a few blocks I got to where the Transportation museum was supposed to be.  This one I knew was large and unmistakeable; where was it?  I saw a local area map across the street and looked it up.  It was unmarked on the map, but apparently I was standing right in front of it.  I walked around the corner to find the entrance.  When I got there I found this:

Sigh.  A few other transporation souls came and went, just as disappointed as I was.  I bought an apricot drink from a street vending machine and sat down to rest.

Museum Overview

At this point my museum tour was over.  After much deliberation, I voted the Electricity Museum the best of the bunch.  Here's a breakdown by category:

Existance: 10/10 (perfect score!)

The Electricity museum definitely existed.  It garners a perfect 10 for this category.

Content: 6/10

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a museum as:

  "A museum-like place that contains exhibits and cool stuff to look at; in the case of the Honda showroom it should probably contain race cars, videos and cutaway views of engines."

This was the Electricity museum's lowest scoring category, due to the high homemaker quotient.  However the nuclear reactor and hyro floors were cool enough to give it a 6.

Not a Uniqlo: 9/10

Another strong category for the the Electricty museum.  The clothing store on the second floor of this museum caused my scoring pen to waver, but overall this museum has strong "not a uniqlo" attributes.

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I have to admit I was a little down.  My museum day was not what I'd imagined.  However walking back to Akihabara I realized that nothing can warm my tin heart like gadgets and technology in the raw.  Akihabara opened its arms to me bringing wonders I could only dream about.

It began at the edge of Akihabara where a small shop had several things out on the street for sale.  I almost over looked it, but I was glad I didn't;  Boxes and boxes of every type of small electric motor you could think of, all for sale.  Here were micro motors; here were linear motors, DC, AC, motors with biscut fans, squirrel cage fans, everything and all within a 12 foot stretch of sidewalk.  I bought a small electric pump with plans to make a water fountain for my cats and moved on.

More raw parts;  here was a store that only sold headers (small bits of plastic with metal posts, useful for creating a place to plug things in or make something modular on your project);  another store had all types of small pliers and tools;  yet another place sold discrete electronics.  All these stores were nestled between large, bright neon consumer product shops, as if to show you in full glory what was possible, the things that could be built.

I entered one that seemed to just be about computers (rather than cameras, phones, watches, or household items) and read the floor listing.  First floor: display floor;  Second floor: accessories; Third floor: printing; Fourth floor: Desktops and laptops; Fifth floor: perripherals and robots; Sixth floor: books.

Wait a minute...perripherals and robots?   Hmm, maybe my robot *does* need an upgrade!  I was not disappointed.  A full wall of robot goodness.  There was a section for toy robot kits, some full kits (walking lion, RC car) others components that you could use for some other project (tank tread kit, car kit).  There was a section for structure parts; plates, fabricated plastic bits for X, Y and Z.  There was a section for drivetrains; gears, pullies, rods.  There were partial kits for augementing your robot with a specific feature and there were cosmetic kits for making your robot look good.  There was also some fully articulared robot kits (and already constructed examples) in a display case opposite the wall.

I bought a walking lion robot and took the escalators back down to ground level.  When I got outside I heard something familiar.  What was it?  Where was it comming from?  I looked around in vain.  But then, by chance I looked up and saw it.  Super Potato!  Yes, that's right, Super Potato, the video game super store bargain shop.  Its like a cramped used record store but for video games.  The music I was hearing was from "Legend of Zelda" (which as it turns out was for sale on a DVD filled with complete scores of countless video games.)  Inside, there were countless video game systems, several updates on the classic Nintendo system (from Ninendo and 3rd parties), and rows upon rows of video game cartriges (sans bulky box or instructions.)

After I'd had enough of Super Potato, I walked back to the train station.  It was nearing dinner and I was getting hungry.  I took the train to Shinjuku and walked through the narrow streets around Shinjuku station looking for exactly the right place.  The first time I was in Japan I found this little alley way almost too narrow for two people to pass and packed on both sides with places to eat.  Each place had a bar that extended away from the alleyway, and offered about 6 stools of seating.  One or two people stood behind the bar, took orders and cooked.

Shinjuku has a huge number of small places to eat like this which makes this kind of place very difficult to find among everything else.  I did find a small area that was similar, but it was a whole micro neighborhood of bars, and nothing to eat.  It started to rain so I abandoned my search and found someplace agreeable to eat.

After dinner I was dead tired from walking around all day, so I took the train back to my Hotel.  When I went to get my key from the front desk the person working asked me to please wait one moment.  He came back with a note from the Hotel's english master informing me that because of the overload of clothing, my laundry would not get started until Tuesday.  "When will my clothes be ready?" I asked.  "Ah, probably Thursday night" he said.

Thursday.  Pretty much the whole week without any of my clothes.  "Can I have them back?" I asked.  I'd rather wear slightlyl dirty clothes than wear the same clothes over and over until they were seriously a problem.  "I'm sorry", he said, "they are already at, uh, the factory".

Then it clicked.  "You sent all my clothes to the dry cleaners?"  When I only wanted two shirts dry cleaned, they had sent those shirts, plus my pants, socks and underwear to the dry cleaners.  "This is all I have", I explained as patiently as I could pointing at my clothes.  After a while we worked it out and my normal laundry would be brought back to me Monday evening.  I'm not sure if they are going to wash it or not, but I just be happy to get it back.

Oh, and I'll end this with a shout out to vox, already catching on here in Japan!

The past two mornings I've been walking to the SAKK office rather than taking the subway.  Its about an hour walk and has been a great way to catch some scenery before hiding away indoors for 10 hours.

Yesterday I walked directly from my Hotel, but today I decided to take the train to Harajuku and start from there.  Harajuku and my hotel are equidistant to the office so it gave me another good 1 hour to walk take pictures and think.

Soon after getting of the train in Harajuku I decided to stop into a cafe to get something to eat and drink.  I found a good looking cafe with a good view of the street and ducked inside.  They had some really good looking chocolate banana pasteries, so I thought I'd get one of those and some tea.

I ordered just that and they sat me down near the window.  Then they brought out the menu.  A little perplexed, I asked the waitress in my best Japanese if I could just get some tea with my choco-banana.  She said that they had no tea and that the only drinks available were on the menu.

I was a little horrified to find that the cheapest coffee drink on the menu was about $9 and it went up to $14 (divide the yen by 100):

So I got the cheapest coffee on the menu which was coffee with honey, zarame, (brown sugar), and fresh whipped cream.  With the choco-banana (which also came with fresh whipped cream) and the honey-sugar-coffee, I felt the shakes starting to come on, so I gulped down all my iced water to hopefully stave off an attack of cronic diabetes.

I have to say everything was pretty good, but I felt a little funny paying $14 for a quick breakfast snack.

With sugar in my step and the gleam of caffine in my eye, I left the coffee shop and

set off on my way.  Harajuku is supposed to be known for its outrageous fashion, but it was a little too early for that.  Mostly I just saw business men and school children.  I did see one bit of fashion, though not the type I was looking for.  Bling your hearts out scooter fans!

As I neared the office I hit a stretch of road adjacent to a park.  For as far as I could

see on my side was wall and trees.  This was very peaceful except that I began to realize that I shouldn't have gulped all that water back at the cafe when I still had about 45 min to walk to the office.  I stopped and asked a policeman near the park where the absolute nearest bathroom was and he directed me to a nearby Starbucks, a bit further down and across the street.  With utmost haste I crossed a pedestrian bridge, waded  spawning salmon-like through a pack of people just up from the subway, and to the Starbucks.

I think you'll be glad to know that in Japan, the bathrooms in Starbucks not only do not require a key to get in, the also feature heated seats and, wait for it, full water spraying options.  I did not get a picture of the toilet.

This morning I woke up at 4am and couldn't go back to sleep, so I got up finished my book and quized myself on some vocabulary (yes, I was trying to get myself to fall asleep again).

By 7 I decided that I should just get ready and go to work.  I noticed a lot more people in the subway this morning, probably because I was comming in a little earlier than yesterday (8am vs. 10am).  After getting off my first train in Shimbashi the number of people seemed to grow to fill the wider hallways of this bigger station.

I had to cross the station to pick up my second train and when I got to the platform I was glad to see that the lines queued up were not too long (everyone lines up where the train doors will be when it arrives).  While I waited more and more people filtered onto the platform.

While waiting, I became absorbed by the game the guy in front of me was playing on his Nintendo DS.  None of it made any sense, but it didn't need it to; I was zoning out.  Suddenly I snapped back and looked around.  The platform behind me was filled.  Each queue as far down the narrow low ceiling platform was filled.  I looked to the exit and the stairs going up were completely filled with people. 

Everyone was waiting, everyone was silent.  The station attendants on duty shifted nervously in place, eyes scanning the crowd.  I was in a loaded gun;  I was a particle in an ocean of people;  I was in a giant nose that was about to sneeze itself into the next train car that came.

But when it came, I saw that it too was packed with people.  I clutched my bag close and got ready.  When the doors opened a few people got out and tried to find a path through.  A few people, but not enough.  The crowd surged in to the train anway and any attempt on my part to give anyone any personal space was taken out of my hands as everyone compacted against everyone else.

Then another surge and I began to feel bones popping that I didn't know I had.  One more small crunch.  I turned my head to look at the door; three more people were trying to squeeze in, their hands above their heads grabbing the top of the door frame so that the doors would clear when they closed.  I didn't think they would close and that those station attendents would have to pack us in with those wooden clubs that I'd seen and heard about.

But the door closed with us securely packed inside.  The train lurched forward and we sloshed around like jello, unable to fall or move freely.  After a few lurches forward then backward everyone managed to gain stability either through footing or by propping themselves against someone else.

And then at the next stop everyone got off. The train was now only marginally crowded.  Two more stops and I got off the train, no worse for the wear.  I emerged above ground triumpant and wrinkled.

After a long flight I landed at Narita airport at around 2pm, local time.  I didn't get much sleep on the plane, though you can be sure it wasn't because of this planes myriad of entertaining distractions;  this was the first trans-pacific flight that did not include a screen in the back of each seat with movies/tv/games.  We didn't even get evenly spaced flip down LCDs above each row of seats.  On this 747-400 we had the standard, old-school CRTs hanging above the aisles, spaced for (weight) economy.  Ugh.

After disembarking (sorry, customs-form speak) I got myself a ticket on the Narita Express to Shinagawa station, near my hotel.  The woman at the ticket counter welcomed me in English, but I pushed back with Japanese, determined to engage some language skills.  I mostly understood everying and was understood by her, so it was a success!

The train ride to Shinagawa was hot.  I could hear airconditioning, but maybe they had it pointed out to cool the outside because I wasn't feeling it.  At the station I hefted my bag and walked towards my hotel.  I knew it was near the a subway so I just walked until I found the first one before starting to really look.

When I found the subway I realized my map didn't seem to have the detail I needed and that I didn't feel like sight seeing with a 50lb backpack, so I stopped and asked someone.  We had a short conversation with a better map that he had and I think I understood where to go, but he insisted on accompanying me which was fine.  I tried to tell him what I did and what blogging was but I'm not sure how successful that was.

I found the hotel and checked in.  Aparently this hotel does a lot of weddings (my floor has a chapel someplace) and there was a reception going on as I came in.  As the person at the front desk led me to the elevator to show me my room I felt incredibly out of of place.  The lobby was filled; neatly dressed men in suits and tuxedos, lithe women in summer dresses laughing and taking pictures and then me; the 6'1" American, bags under his eyes from lack of sleep, sweaty from carrying the huge bag on his back through summer streets.  As I escaped to the elevator I got momentarily stuck in the door because my bag is so big. 

After a shower and a change of clothes I leave the hotel to find some food.  I walk back to Shinagawa station looking for restaurants.  However I realize that most of these restaraunts don't have convienent pictures or english;  I can read hiragana and katakana, but I know little kanji.  I can read 'ramen' because its always written in katakana but all ramen has pork in it, which I don't eat.  So I'm stuck with a gift I can't use, like some tragic/ironic greek myth.

I know how to talk about food a little bit, so I finally just pick someplace with hopes of ordering "something not meat or bird, but fish and vegetables are ok."  However it turns out the place I picked has an english augmented menu in addition to its normal one.  So at the "Yabu-kuni 'Beer Restauant'", I order a Kirin, some tuna sashimi and grilled mackeral.

Afterward I walked back to the hotel and fell into bed, deciding against catching up on the reading materials provided my hotel: