Not Necessarily Interesting News

Today was supposed to be an easy day to relax. We didn’t, of course.

We really wanted to visit Kappabashi, or ‘Kitchen Town‘, on this trip as we missed it last time. Everything you need to open a restaurant or stock a professional kitchen can be found here. What we were most interested was the plastic food. Shannon mentioned in a previous posting that many restaurants have plastic versions of the dishes they serve in the front window of their store. Kappabashi is where they get them. It’s really a wholesale district but you can visit stores and look around. It’s pretty popular with tourists much to the surprise of the locals. Why would anyone want to see fake food for fun? There are several stores that specialize in the fake food. They have everything from sushi, to ramen noodles, to desserts. It’s not a good place to go when you’re hungry. The food is extremely realistic and looks good enough to eat. It is also very expensive in most cases. A fake bowl of ramen going for about $40-50. We wandered through several stores and I purchased a very realistic fatty tuna nigiri sushi for my desk at work. Shannon found a few dishes in a pattern that she liked. After spending a couple hours here we moved on.

From Kappabashi we walked the mile or so to Asakusa. This is a very popular tourist destination. Its focal point is Sensō-ji Temple. This is Tokyo’s oldest and one of its most significant shrines. It’s also one of the largest. The first temple here was erected in 645AD. It’s a place of special significance to the Japanese. The area is also home to one of the largest paper lanterns in Japan and makes a great photo op. There is a shopping street out front that has been active since the 1300s. Some of the booths and buildings have been passed down through families for hundreds of years. Now they mostly cater to the tourists and are filled with cheap tchotchkes. There’s not much there of interest. Outside the temple is a very large incense pot. Before entering the temple you wave the smoke over you in a ritual cleansing. The inside of the temple is quite impressive. We also made sire to get our fortunes from the fortune tables where you shake a canister until a stick falls out. The number on the stick directs you to a drawer where you’ll find your fortune. Always an interesting time. We wandered the grounds for a bit and went in search of lunch.

We ate at a little restaurant we’d visited last year. We got a table on the second floor. Before entering you must remove your shoes and put them in a locker by the door. This is actually a god-send when you’ve been on your feet all day. It feels great to take off your shoes for a bit. The tables are very low and you sit on the ground. There is a small well where you can put your legs should you not enjoy sitting cross-legged or on your knees. Lunch was delicious as it was last year.

From there we headed back to Akihabara again. Dakota was really looking for a specific toy to bring home so we were going to give him time to browse the electronics district. There are also many stores catering to the otaku, or people obsessed with manga, anime, and video games. As we exited the station a small crew with a camera stopped us and wanted to ask Dakota a few questions. They were interviewing foreigners about Japanese pizza and started asking him many questions. Shannon and I watched as our shy son tried to answer their queries. They were asking what is normally on a pizza in the US and if he’d had pizza in Japan. One question was about seafood on pizza. I shook my head and made a funny face which the producer saw. The interview quickly shifted to me.

“Have you ever had squid on a pizza?”

“No way. You never see seafood on pizzas in the US.”

This revelation seemed to shock them. They had a menu from a restaurant and let me look at it. Browsing it I noticed a pizza with something white on top. I looked at her and asked “Is this mayonnaise?” She said yes and that it’s pretty popular there. I saw another with corn on it. I explained you’d never see that in the US. We also noticed a pizza with pumpkin, bean paste, and marshmellows. Ewwwww. I’d like to think I was a pizza connoisseur but I’ve never seen pizza with mayo or pumpkin on it. They thanked me for my time and we walked towards the toy stores.

Dakota wanted to go off by himself to look for his souvenir so we gave him a time to meet and went in search of something to do. I found another robot store and drooled over the fun toys there for a while. The dollar is so weak right now that I couldn’t really afford to bring one home, sadly. Shannon and I found a place to sit and wait for Dakota near the major street in Akihabara. There we watched the girls from the Maid Cafes try to drum up business. The girls stand on the corner in their little maid outfit and hand out flyers and try to talk lonely guys into visiting their establishment. We met up with Dakota and headed home.

By the time we got back to the hotel it was after dark and we were bushed. We got a couple drink from the lounge and turned in early.

For the day 8 trip report see Shannon’s blog here: Valued Trees, Vibrant Trends, and Vintage Thrift – Day 8

Woke up this morning after a good night’s rest. It rained all night and was still raining at dawn. We had a train to catch around 2pm so had the morning to explore Kyoto a bit more. As it was raining, we wanted something that wasn’t too much outside walking. We decided on visiting the old Nijō Castle and grounds.

We wandered out of our hotel about 9am with our backpacks on, went across the street to the train station, locked them up in pay lockers, and headed off in search of breakfast. Shannon and I chose a couple of $3 bagels from a small bakery in Kyoto station while Dakota had another of the ham, cheese, and wasabi kolache thingys. Delicious.

We walked down to the bus station and bought a day pass for the Kyoto bus system. It’s a good deal at 500Yen for all you can ride for the day. Three bus rides and you’re ahead of the game. I studied the map and found there was an express bus to Nijō. Kyoto is less English friendly than Tokyo as it seems less overseas tourists make it down here. This makes navigating the city a bit more challenging, but not impossible.

We arrived at Nijō about 9:30. I figured we’d spend an hour or so here. Once we actually got a look at the grounds, I knew we’d spend a lot longer time. Nijō Castle was established originally in 1601. Actually, it is quite young compared to many of the temples and shrines we visited in this ancient capital. It’s had several fires raze sections of it to the ground and it’s been rebuilt. The current buldings date to the late 19th century. There were many tour groups on the grounds today but not as many as a weekday because there were less schoolkids. It seems counter-intuitive but all the major sights are less crowded on weekends because on weekdays is when the schools do their field trips it seems.

We saw you could take a tour inside the old shogun’s quarters and this was something I was keen to do. Before entering you were required to remove your shoes. You tour the buildings in your stocking or bare feet. The interior was very dimly lit to protect the several hundred year old paintings, some dating to the late 1600’s. Being able to get up close and see the individual brush strokes of some of the masterpieces was quite neat. It’s amazing how from a distance they look extremely detailed but when you are up close you can see that they accomplish this with very few actual brush strokes. I was in awe of the construction of the building. The floors were made from boards of Japanese Cypress over 2 feet wide. You don’t see trees that big around any longer. My favorite part of the building was those same floors. I’d heard about ‘Nightingale Floors or uguisubari‘ before and now got to hear them in person. These floors are designed to squeak when walked upon to prevent assassins or ninjas sneaking around the palace. When you hear ‘squeaking floors’ you think about what you’ve always heard in an old house. These sound nothing like that. They really do sound like a bird chirping or squeaking. It’s actually quite beautiful to hear. It’s an architectural marvel. I’d stop and wait for a room to clear out of tourists just so I could walk across in my socks and hear it without distraction. It’s not a sound that could easily be captured with a video due to background noises. edit: I found a video on youtube of the floor. It’s a bad recording but you get the idea. Sounds much clearer and more bird-like in person.

After touring the buildings, we climbed onto the walls of the inner keep and could get a good view of the palace and grounds. With rain always a threat, we didn’t stay long after taking some pictures. On our way out we found they were having a small ‘Autumn Festa’ as they called it. It was many booths filled with, unidentifiable to us at least, foods, both hot and pre-made. As we were leaving the festival area, I was approached by a grade school boy. He first asked me my name and I realized he was looking at a cheat sheet. I was being used for English practice. Pretty cool. He asked some basic questions like where I was from, if I liked Japan, and if I spoke Japanese. At the end of my little interview he asked me to sign his little logbook. I guess to prove to his teacher he talked to a native English speaker. Shannon got the same interview from a different kid. In Kyoto they really seemed to like interacting with Americans. I guess they see less tall, white people there so we’re an oddity to them. The night before I got stopped in the street by an older gentleman who wanted to find if I liked Japan and Kyoto. It’s odd being treated like a celeb.

Once we were done touring the Castle grounds it was nearing noon. We had a Shinkansen to catch at 2 so we had time for a quick lunch. I really wanted to try takoyaki so we headed back to Nishiki Market. If you don’t know what takoyaki is, it is fried octopus balls(no, not those balls). It’s really more like a dumpling fried on a special grill. It takes a master to cook them correctly as they require constant turning to make sure they cook evenly and are shaped round. The entire menu was in Japanese so I took a guess as to which ones to order. We gave our order to the chef and he started cooking them up. About 5 minutes later they were ready. I apparently choose ones with cheese and some sort of sweet sauce on them. Good choice. I thought they were delicious. Shannon ate one and Dakota a couple of the 6 in the order. If you looked closely you could see the small octopus arms with the suckers attached in the ball. I’d eat them again but it’s something you’ll never find in the US. It’s a uniquely Japanese food.

After lunch we made our way back to the train station to catch the bullet train back to Tokyo. Before boarding we grabbed an order of the Chinese dumplings the Shannon liked so much from the evening before. We talked about the dumplings and decided that a small shop or trailer selling them in Austin near campus would make a killing. They are delicious and easy to eat on the run. Maybe we’ll open our own store. 🙂

The ride back to Tokyo was faster than the ride down. just after we boarded we all popped some Excedrin the deal with headaches. Still had a bit of jet lag. We learned that Dakota couldn’t handle the caffeine in a couple of pills. He looked very flush for most of the ride home. I fired up the GPS and clocked our top speed around 165MPH on the ride back.

We arrived in Tokyo right at rush hour. this makes navigating the train stations very fun as they are packed with commuters. We got back to the hotel around 6:30 and were bushed. We got a drink or two at the hotel’s Executive Lounge and called it an early night.

For the day 6 trip report see Shannon’s blog here: Giggles, Geisha, and Gag me with Red Bean Candy – Day 6

Today is the big day, we get to ride the Shinkansen. Otherwise known as the Bullet Train. We are heading to Kyoto for three days of sightseeing. It looks like the weather isn’t going to cooperate though.

We didn’t eat breakfast before we left Tokyo. We didn’t because we knew by the time we got to Kyoto 300miles away that it’d still be breakfast time. You read that right. 300 miles and into Kyoto by 9:30am. Let me say that the Shinkansen is a marvel of technology. From a stop to 150+ mph in about 1.5 minutes. It’s quieter at 150mph than an average American commuter train at 40mph. It’s smoother, more comfortable, and the service is awesome. A cart with everything from candy to sake comes by every 10-15 minutes. The countryside flies past so fast that it’s hard to focus on the passing scenery sometimes. Before we knew it we were in Kyoto. And we didn’t even take the fastest train. We _need_ these things in the US. Too bad the polititians won’t stop bickering long enough to do things right.

As we were in Kyoto so early we really had an entire day to explore. The sky was dark and cloudy so we wanted to make the most of it before any rain started.

The first place I wanted to visit was the Fushimi-inari taisha shrine. If you’ve ever seen promos for Kyoto or even Japan this place shows up often. Finding what the name was and where it was actually located was the trick. Many guide books show pics of it but don’t tell you where it actually is. It’s like it’s some sort of big secret. 🙂 What it is is a shrine with walkways lined with thousands of Shinto gates. They are bright orange and range in size from about 6′ to 25′ tall. The gates are lined up one after the other nearly touching. There are about 4km of trails through the shrine and all over the mountain are decorated thusly. It is stunningly beautiful even though it was just starting to rain. I think that made it all the more mysterious.

Now I get to preach a little. Whenever we travel we try to respect our host country’s culture and history. We take time to learn their rituals and will even perform them if allowed. We may not believe what they do, but we appreciate the dedication needed to build the shrines and temples. Near the top of this shrine we were taking pics and enjoying the quiet when a large group of Chinese tourists walked in like they owned the place. Loud, obnoxious, walking through your pics like you weren’t there, blocking the trails to take their pics and so on. We couldn’t get out of there soon enough. Sadly, that also meant we left sooner than we’d have liked.

From there we decided to walk down the road about 1 kilometer to another nearby temple, Tufukiji Temple. Going to this place was kind of an afterthought, more a ‘let’s ditch those Chinese folks’ move. We were glad we did. The complex was huge and ancient. It was founded in 1236 and contained the oldest Zen gate in Japan. A slight rain started to fall as we explored the well matured grounds but it didn’t slow us down. We also found there the oldest communal toilet in Japan where as many as 100 monks could ‘do their business’ at once. Um, okay.

From there we walked down to the train station and boarded a train back into Kyoto. Or so we thought. I made a rare mistake when it comes to map reading and we ended up on the wrong side of the river. No worries, we’ll walk back. And we did. We wandered through southern Kyoto back to our hotel a couple miles away.

Our hotel was right across the street from the massive Kyoto train station. In there we found a bakery that sold these delicious rolls filled with cheese, ham, and wasabi. Yum! We don’t know what you called them but we sure had our fill. This was only the first of our ‘adventurous’ eating for the Kyoto trip and it was very tame compared to others.

After eating, we decided we were wiped out from all the walking and waking so early. Also, the rain was starting again so we called it an early night. Tomorrow was going to be a fun day and we needed our rest.

For the day 4 trip report see Shannon’s blog here: Sacred walls, famous malls, and batting balls – Day 4

All three of us were wide awake again at 4:30 this morning. Jet lag is no party. Japan is 14 hours ahead of home meaning we are essentially flipping night and day as far as our bodies care. If you’ve ever experienced it you know what I mean. There’s not a whole lot you can do at that time of day but sit around and read. Watching tv is useless as it’s all in a language you don’t speak. No place is yet open that you can get breakfast either. The Executive Lounge of the Tokyo Hilton finally opened at 6:30 so we could get some eats.

This was to be a nice easy morning as we had tickets for Kabuki at the Tokyo National Theatre at noon. As the Kabuki didn’t start until noon we had a bit of time to waste. We left the hotel around 10 and headed towards the theater across the moat from the Imperial Palace. We rode the Maranouichi Line over. It’s amazing how familiar it felt to be walking around Tokyo. It’s always an adventure to roam a different city. We wandered around about an hour before arriving at the National Theatre. There was a bit of trouble sorting out our tickets. We finally figured out where we needed to be. As the entire play is in japanese we needed to pick up translators. We found our seats in the balcony and settled in for what was a four hour play.

One thing I’ve noticed time and again is that the Japanese do not size things for people over six feet tall. I got to sit with my knees crammed into the back of the seat in front of me the entire time. The discomfort was worth it. The play was amazing. The sets were stunning. I’m an old theater stagehand and this stage was huge! They had about a 20 meter turntable that could swap an entire set in less than 30 seconds. It had about 6 elevators too. They used wires for flying actors over the audience in a dream sequence. The costumes were beautiful and extremely detailed. You didn’t even notice time passing and 4 magical hours were gone before you knew it. Sorry, no pics as photography was mercifully not permitted.

After the play we dragged ourselves back to the hotel and took a nap. We were wiped out. After a couple hour nap we drug ourselves out of bed. We could have slept through the night but knew that was bad for adjusting to Japan time. We went down to the subway stop in the basement of the hotel and rode a few stops down the line to Shibuya. Shibuya is _the_ place to be seen for kids in their 20s. Imagine Times Square in NYC. Now grow that out in all directions about 10-15 blocks. At night it’s lit up like Times Square and Las Vegas. The sound of music and people calling from stores to try to get you to come in assaults you from all directions. Even on a Monday night it was packed. Add this to jetlag and it’s like walking through a dreamy haze. We could only manage an hour here before our bodies could take no more. We made out way back to the station and our hotel. At the hotel we took advantage of the free drinks in the Executive Lounge and had a couple vodka cranberries to help us sleep. We collapsed about 10pm hoping we’d be able to sleep longer than a couple hours