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.

Wednesday (3/19)

Well, I'm at the airport. I've got one more hour before my flight leaves. I had a bit of a scare this morning. I had reserved a seat on the shuttle bus at 6:10am, but when I woke up and looked at the clock, it was 7am. Needless to say .. up until now I was pretty stressed this morning. I was able to use the same ticket for the bus leaving at 8:10, and I got here with an hour and a half to spare. I'm just paranoid.

Anyway, its 10:30am here, which is 6:30pm (Tues) pacific time, or 8:30pm central time. My flight (AA 176) gets to DFW around 9:30am (Wed), if I remember correctly, and then my connecting flight (AA 1119) goes from there to Sacramento at around 11:30am, and gets there just after 1pm.

I'm sad that my trip is over, but I'll be glad to be able to talk to people and read things again =)