Yoyogi Park, Tokyo Tower and Roppongi (Sun 2/14)

This morning I went to Yoyogi Park (代々木公園) pretty early and walked around a bunch. I saw that the flea market (the way its pronounced here makes it sound like "free market" ... but don't be deceived =) The food stands were just getting set up as I arrived, and I got a giant butaman (pork steamed bun).





There was some live music playing in the little amphitheater there, but it wasn't the bustling scene I remember from last time. I think it might be because the live Olympic broadcast is set up right now ... maybe my last Sunday here will be better.

I walked around a bunch and found a dog run on the other side of the pond. I stood around and enjoyed watching everyone playing with their dogs. While I was standing outside the fence, a girl came up to the fence next to me and tried to get the attention of one of the dogs inside. She bent down and tried to reach him through the fence, but the dog just turned sideways and started peeing. She jumped back a bit, and I said ”ご挨拶。。よろしっこおねがいしますって" to which she laughed and replied "そういう意味ですか？". Explanation: yoroshiku onegai shimasu is something you say when you meet someone, and shikko means to pee, and so I said "Its a greeting, he says 'yoroshiKKO onegai shimasu'", and she laughed and said "Is that what that means?". Hmm, I guess you could translate it as "Pees to meet you" ... yikes ... I'm just as corny in Japanese.

Then I decided that because it wasn't raining, I'd head to Tokyo tower, so I headed back to my room to find directions (only to find out that I was half way there in Yoyogi ... take the Oedo line from Yoyogi toward Roppongi, and get off at Akabanebashi ... then just keep walking toward the giant tower ... you can't miss it). I took a crazy number of pictures, so here's just a few.















Then I figured that Roppongi was on my way back, so I got off there and walked around a bit. I found the restaurant where I went with Tina last time.





Then I came across this nice looking little place called Izakaya Kurahachi. I saw they had a $30 omakase course, and that sounded like fun, so I stopped in. I tried to open the door by pushing ... that didn't work. So I pulled, but that didn't work. I was thinking they might be closed, but the waiter came up and slide the door open sideways .... I think it's a trick to keep the foreigners out =)





They first gave me some sort of little radish in two halves with some sort of sauce (I'm guessing it was sesame based)



Then a salad with broccoli, sliced cherry tomatoes, baby corn, cucumber, and regular old lettuce covered with what I'm again guessing was some sort of sesame seed based salad dressing.



Then the kushi (skewers) started coming. Shishito (peppers), I'm guessing pork, and some kind of seared fish with dots of wasabi came first.



Then they gave me this rediculously delicious ground chicken sausage. It wasn't really tough like you might expect from a sausage, but came apart pretty easily. For those of you I go with to Shinsengumi, it had similarities in taste with the saborodon we get there. Update: My Japanese teacher tells me that this is called つくね (tsukuneh).



The last two skewers were, I believe, chicken meat and roasted beans of some sort (they tasted like little tiny baked potatoes). Update: What I thought were roasted beans are ginkgo seeds, or 銀杏 (ぎんなん, ginnan).



Then karaage ...



and miso with a roasted onigiri.



Finally a tiny scoop of green tea ice cream. Just as I was finishing up, a couple from Australia came in. They made the same push/pull mistake with the door, so I felt a little better.

Here's a link to the whole photo set for today.