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.

Meiji Jingu, Harajuku and Ikebukuro (Sat 2/13)

Got up, and it was snowing again. It ended up snowing all day long, but it was never cold enough to accumulate. I decided that I'd go somewhere that might look nice in the snow, so I headed over to Meiji Jingu in Yoyogi.









Then I wandered around Harajuku, had some tea and toast at a little tea house off the beaten path, and I practiced some shuji (calligraphy) while I relaxed there for a bit.

While I was wandering around, I saw a familiar site in Omotesando. Someone was taking a picture for bijin tokei (babe clock).



I walked over to Yoyogi park to see that nothing was going on, but I saw some people congregated across the street around the sports stadium. I walked over and they had a big set up for showing the Olympics outside on a big screen TV. I got there 10 minutes before the torch lighting of the opening ceremony, so I stuck around and saw that. Then I walked the rest of the way around the stadium and took a train back to Ikebukuro. I took a break in the hotel, and then went back over to Sunshine City mall to grab some dinner.

First I dropped by a Book Off and bought a couple of childrens books (that seemed to be about my level of understanding). Once I got to the mall, I sat down for a while and read.

I saw an unagi (eel) place. I ordered a glass of sake and when the lady brought it, she put a glass into a little box, poured the glass until it started spilling over, and then proceeded to fill the box from the overflow. One might wonder why they don't just give a bigger glass, but the presentation is kinda nice to give the feeling of giving the customer much more than expected.



Then I got takosu (たこ酢), which is octopus, cucumber and vinegar as an appetizer.



And I ordered what they call the Shinobazujuu (不忍重) set, which came with tsukemono (palette cleansers like takuan, pickled carrots, etc), miso soup with a snail and fish cake in it, a plate with a bunch of random bites of various things, a few pieces of sashimi (of which I ate a few before thinking to take a picture), and of course a giant plate of unagi on rice. The thing that was wrapped in a leaf in the plate of random stuff was really good. I asked the waitress what it was called and she said fumanju (ふうまんじゅう?).







Then I got some green tea / red bean ice (not ice cream, I think, because it said 牛乳、卵　完全不使用 which means, I'm pretty sure, that there's no milk or egg in it)



I'm writing this on Sunday morning (2/14 .. Valentine's day), and the sun is out for the first time, so I gotta finish this up and get out there.

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

Ikebukuro, Shibuya, Ueno, Ameyoko and Akihabara (Thu 2/11 & Fri 2/12)

I forgot to make a post yesterday, so here's what I did. I woke up a little late and walked around Ikebukuro (池袋) a bit. I found the mall called Sunshine City, and got an oyakodon / soba combo for lunch. I came back and took a break. Then I headed to Shibuya for the evening. I was trying to find a club called Lush because I saw that they had live music, but I couldn't find the place for the life of me. But in all my wandering I passed a place with a fantastic smell, turned around and saw a curry place and decided to end my search and fill my belly. I didn't take any pictures that day, because it was raining pretty constantly (light for the first half of the day, and getting pretty heavy by night fall).

Today, I woke up a bit earlier, and got out about 10am, and when I stepped out onto the street, I noticed little white things falling from the sky every once in a while. At first I thought I was seeing things. Later in the day it got a bit heavier, but never enough to stick. I set out for Ueno (上野) thinking that if the snow picked up, it could make the park there really pretty. I ended up going to the Tokyo National Museum and saw their regular exhibit on various artifacts from Japanese history as well as a special exhibit on extremely old statues called Dogu. I took some pictures, but none were allowed in the Dogu exhibit.









Then after I left there I saw a sign for Ueno Toshogu Botanbana (上野 　東照宮　ぼたん花). Botanbana is the peony flower (I just now looked it up). I had no idea what this was ... so I decided to check it out. It was a little path through a bunch of covered flowers, and it would have been so much prettier with a heavy snow, but here's what it looked like anyway.







Then at the end of the path was a little tea house, and I immediately noticed a sign that said amazake (甘酒) or sweet sake, so I decided to get a cup. There was no one else around, so I decided to try talking to one of the ladies that were running the place. Like a little kid, I was asking her to explain things, like what a particular sign meant (since I can't recognize enough kanji yet)

Then I walked to Ameyoko (I had to ask another random lady how to read yoko : 横) and got a bunch of stuff from random food stands, like a tiny okonomiyaki that they called ameyokoyaki.



I walked around some more, got some takoyaki and realized that I had walked to the Okachimachi station, and figured I was half way to Akihabara, and I'd just walk the rest of the way. I got some tonkotsu ramen on the restaurant floor of Yodobashi camera, got a japanese review book, walked around a bit and finally took a train back to Ikebukuro.

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

It Begins (Wed 2/10/2010)

I'm finally here! And it's 9:30pm on Wednesday, after having left California Tuesday morning at 6am. Well, here's a quick shot from my hotel room in Ikebukuro.



Now I need to go grab something to eat quick before I fall asleep =)

Going back to Japan

It's been almost two years since my first trip to Japan, and I've found myself with a very brief opportunity to go back, and I'm taking it.　お金で時間は買えないからね

I'll be leaving on February 9th (arriving on the 10th) and then coming back on March 4th. So I'll be there for just over 3 weeks. So far I've got the plane tickets and I've reserved a hotel for my first week in Ikebukuro (a place in north west Tokyo). I've started a list of places I'd like to see, and so far I've got Kamakura, Enoshima, Kawagoe, a Kabuki performance in Ginza, Tsukiji fish market (for some awesome sushi), Akihabara (of course), Yoyogi park (of course), Ghibli museum (of course) .... man, my schedule is already filling up.

Maybe I should spend all three weeks in Tokyo ... hmmm.