We interrupt regularly scheduled programing to announce the following bone marrow drives. These two drives are in support of a donor search for Erica Murray who is fighting leukemia for the second time. If you know someone hapa, bring them!
Wednesday, April 2, 11:00 - 4:00
MEDFORD, MA
Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts Campus
160 Packard Avenue, Cabot Basement (Under the Hall of Flags)
Friday, April 4, 10:00 - 3:00
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Hall of Justice, 850 Bryant St, Room 512 (adjacent to the Police Commission Hearing Room)
More details can be found HERE!
Monday, March 31, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Day 6 Part 2: Hakone Ginyu
I could easily just send you to the website and call it a day. This Ryokan was the perfect ending to our trip.
While planning our trip to Japan, Sandra mentioned that she wanted to stay at a Ryokan. Click here for Ryokan definition. Ryokans in Japan come in all price ranges and are located throughout Japan.
We also wanted an onsen experience. So we searched for a Ryokan with an onsen. Sandra got keyed on Gora Kadan and showed it to me. I really balked at the price, but considering it was our 'honeymoon', I mentally loosened the purse strings a bit. As a dear colleague would say, "I'm worth it." Or in this case, WE're worth it. After doing more research on the net, I came across Hakone Ginyu, which offered a similar experience, but the cost was almost 20% less. I went with an online booking site to help bridge the gap between the mainly Japanese speaking personnel at Hakone Ginyu and myself. Here is a plug for the Ryokan Collection website. They made the process amazingly easy by interacting with the Ryokan to guarantee a reservation on short notice, gave us tips on traveling around Hakone and provided a train by train schedule from Hakone to Narita airport.
________
We got off our cable car and asked for directions to the Ryokan, Hakone Ginyu. We walked down the road we were pointed to and was eventually greeted by a man standing in a driveway. He politely asked us if we were looking for Hakone Ginyu. With a slightly recessed driveway on a winding narrow mountain road, I guess this man's job is to direct traffic and pluck wandering guests off the road.
After our affirmative answer, he asked if he could help with our day packs and asked us to follow him down the driveway. We entered the property and was greeted with a scene of serenity. The iconic two chairs placed in front of a panoramic view of the mountains was just as I remembered from the website.
We removed our shoes at the entrance. They would later be returned to us when we left the next day. The flooring was almost completely made of tatami mats, with some choice areas paved with stone or wood. As with all Ryokans, you do not wear shoes when you're indoors.
We checked in and were taken to the waiting area where they served us a warm plum drink. After we finished our drinks, our luggage was shown to us (all 4 pieces that were dropped off earlier in the day at the train station). Our hostess then brought us to our room, and the luggage was brought down by a person whom we later learned was the owner of Hakone Ginyu.
Our hostess showed us around our room:
Work Room/Dining Room
Dinner was served on this table. There is a recess under the table for your legs.
Bathroom sinks, Shower and indoor tub
Patio
Outdoor Tub
Just a plain wow. I'm one of reserved emotions, and I gotta say, this place impressed. It was AS ADVERTISED. We stayed in one of the four garden level rooms that, along with the standard dining room and tatami mat room, had an outdoor patio with a private outdoor onsen (all rooms have a private outdoor tub - upper floors have the tubs placed on the balconies). The water was heated by the underground geothermal source in the area (remember the sulfur vents from the previous post). The view from the patio was pretty good and not amazing only because it was the end of winter and some of the trees were leaf bare. The Ryokan is built into the side of the mountain so every room looked right at the opposite mountain face. I can only imagine what it would be like during the spring cherry blossom season or the fall foliage season. We missed the cherry blossoms by two weeks.
If you have a sharp eye, you would have noticed that I'm dressed in a yukata in one of the pictures. That's another thing about Ryokans. While staying there, most guests will wear the supplied yukata. They ask for your height and weight when making a reservation so they have the right size waiting for you in your room.
Sandra felt more comfortable in the pants style yukata.
I went for the full experience and wore the traditional robe style.
I wish I could say we really made use of the hot spring. But sadly, we didn't muster the courage to try the public baths - which were many times larger than the one in our room and also had incredible views. Check out the website for details. Also, the water was *HOT*.
I couldn't sit in the one in our room for more than 10 minutes. And the last two minutes were practically unbearable but I stuck it out because I conceptually had to having paid for the experience. For those not used to it, the water makes you so hot, your body starts pumping blood real fast to try and bring the hot blood to the surface of your body for cooling....except your body is submersed in near boiling water! I was super sweating after I got out. And when you get out - at least when we went - it was 35F! What a rush. An experience for sure. The penultimate experience would probably be being submersed in an outdoor tub while it's snowing.
Look forward to the next two posts: Dinner and Breakfast at Hakone Ginyu. Dinner was the best meal I've had in my life. Seriously.
While planning our trip to Japan, Sandra mentioned that she wanted to stay at a Ryokan. Click here for Ryokan definition. Ryokans in Japan come in all price ranges and are located throughout Japan.
We also wanted an onsen experience. So we searched for a Ryokan with an onsen. Sandra got keyed on Gora Kadan and showed it to me. I really balked at the price, but considering it was our 'honeymoon', I mentally loosened the purse strings a bit. As a dear colleague would say, "I'm worth it." Or in this case, WE're worth it. After doing more research on the net, I came across Hakone Ginyu, which offered a similar experience, but the cost was almost 20% less. I went with an online booking site to help bridge the gap between the mainly Japanese speaking personnel at Hakone Ginyu and myself. Here is a plug for the Ryokan Collection website. They made the process amazingly easy by interacting with the Ryokan to guarantee a reservation on short notice, gave us tips on traveling around Hakone and provided a train by train schedule from Hakone to Narita airport.
________
We got off our cable car and asked for directions to the Ryokan, Hakone Ginyu. We walked down the road we were pointed to and was eventually greeted by a man standing in a driveway. He politely asked us if we were looking for Hakone Ginyu. With a slightly recessed driveway on a winding narrow mountain road, I guess this man's job is to direct traffic and pluck wandering guests off the road.
After our affirmative answer, he asked if he could help with our day packs and asked us to follow him down the driveway. We entered the property and was greeted with a scene of serenity. The iconic two chairs placed in front of a panoramic view of the mountains was just as I remembered from the website.
We removed our shoes at the entrance. They would later be returned to us when we left the next day. The flooring was almost completely made of tatami mats, with some choice areas paved with stone or wood. As with all Ryokans, you do not wear shoes when you're indoors.
We checked in and were taken to the waiting area where they served us a warm plum drink. After we finished our drinks, our luggage was shown to us (all 4 pieces that were dropped off earlier in the day at the train station). Our hostess then brought us to our room, and the luggage was brought down by a person whom we later learned was the owner of Hakone Ginyu.Our hostess showed us around our room:
Sitting room/Bedroom
Table is moved and futons are setup after dinner.
Table is moved and futons are setup after dinner.
Work Room/Dining Room
Dinner was served on this table. There is a recess under the table for your legs.
Bathroom sinks, Shower and indoor tub
Patio
Outdoor Tub
Just a plain wow. I'm one of reserved emotions, and I gotta say, this place impressed. It was AS ADVERTISED. We stayed in one of the four garden level rooms that, along with the standard dining room and tatami mat room, had an outdoor patio with a private outdoor onsen (all rooms have a private outdoor tub - upper floors have the tubs placed on the balconies). The water was heated by the underground geothermal source in the area (remember the sulfur vents from the previous post). The view from the patio was pretty good and not amazing only because it was the end of winter and some of the trees were leaf bare. The Ryokan is built into the side of the mountain so every room looked right at the opposite mountain face. I can only imagine what it would be like during the spring cherry blossom season or the fall foliage season. We missed the cherry blossoms by two weeks.
If you have a sharp eye, you would have noticed that I'm dressed in a yukata in one of the pictures. That's another thing about Ryokans. While staying there, most guests will wear the supplied yukata. They ask for your height and weight when making a reservation so they have the right size waiting for you in your room.
Sandra felt more comfortable in the pants style yukata.
I went for the full experience and wore the traditional robe style.
I wish I could say we really made use of the hot spring. But sadly, we didn't muster the courage to try the public baths - which were many times larger than the one in our room and also had incredible views. Check out the website for details. Also, the water was *HOT*.
I couldn't sit in the one in our room for more than 10 minutes. And the last two minutes were practically unbearable but I stuck it out because I conceptually had to having paid for the experience. For those not used to it, the water makes you so hot, your body starts pumping blood real fast to try and bring the hot blood to the surface of your body for cooling....except your body is submersed in near boiling water! I was super sweating after I got out. And when you get out - at least when we went - it was 35F! What a rush. An experience for sure. The penultimate experience would probably be being submersed in an outdoor tub while it's snowing. Look forward to the next two posts: Dinner and Breakfast at Hakone Ginyu. Dinner was the best meal I've had in my life. Seriously.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Day 6 Part 1: Planes Trains and Automobiles
Or more like, buses, cable cars, ships and gondolas!
We woke up early on Sunday because we had an 8am train to catch to Hakone. After a rush job to complete packing, checking out, and walking to the train station, we got to the station at 7:50am! Whew!
I asked a station employee where we should be standing, and he pointed me to track 5. When it rolled around to 8:05am...I remarked to Sandra...hmm, the train is late. This was the first time our train was late. I asked the train employee on the platform, and in extremely limited English, indicated we had to be on a different platform. Obviously, that train had departed. Three lessons to learn here for Tokyo/Japan travelers.
1) Despite their best intentions, you can be given wrong information by locals.
2) Tokyo is the most English educated area in Japan - but odds are, the people you interact with will have very limited English skills. Most of the time, you're stuck at a dead end trying to figure out where to go and the first person you see is the person you're going to ask. That person, from my experience, most likely won't know enough English to give you the full story. But it should be enough to give you a general direction.
3) If you think a train is late in Japan, you're standing on the wrong platform or are in the wrong station. In the US, back when I was taking the subway, I would add in 'buffer time'. In Japan, you can schedule things around the train schedule.
Ok, back to regularly scheduled programming.
Luckily on the 'correct' platform, there was a train employee who understood what happened, and changed our tickets for the next
departing train. 8:30am. Not bad, missed our original train, and were only offset by 30 minutes.
The train ride was uneventful. I will say that, for a population that is on average, smaller than the US population, their train seats are a lot bigger! I could actual stretch out!
Arriving at Hakone, we dropped off our bags at the porter stand. As suggested by the people who helped book our Ryokan stay (the evening destination), this company will hold your bags and deliver them to your lodging in Hakone. This way, you can freely explore Hakone without worrying about packs. Hakone is a mountainous region near Mount Fuji.
We wandered around the area near the train stop for a bit and bought some omiyagi (gifts). There were a number of shops selling manju. Some were handmade, some were automated:
After about 30 minutes, we boarded a mini bus that took us to Lake Ashi. A 40 minute ride that wound it's way up and over the mountain, this bus ride helped me get a feel for how the Hakone region was organized.
We arrived at the Lake Ashai area around noon, and were famished! We're always famished...
I chose a homely looking place that advertised fresh soba. They also specialized in local fish katsu and tempura. While ordering, I acted like a dumb tourist. The menu had an extensive list - all in Japanese, and about 5 pictures. We unfortunately, picked from 2 of the 5 pictures. The fish katsu, and the tonkatsu don/soba combo. I had really wanted tempura but didn't want the full assortment that was pictured. It wasn't until after I ordered that I realized I could have ordered a Ten-don/soba combo. If only I remembered that I could phonetically read Japanese!
But you know what, the meal was still awesome. And despite missing out on what looked to be very good tempura, my tonkatsu was probably best tonkatsu I've ever had. I don't think I can order tonkatsu in the US again. I think it has to do with the pork. The pork was about a 1/2 inch thick, had a nice sweet pork flavor to it, and was very soft! Even though it wasn't crispy, due to the onion-egg sauce that makes it a -don, it was fried pork heaven! No farmed pig on corn meal here. You can taste the pork flavor difference.
Sandra had the fish katsu - about 12 long fishies fried whole. I made the assumption that they were fished out of Lake Ashi. Also a very yummy dish.
After lunch, we boarded the ship that would take us across Lake Ashi.
It was a very cold trip. I estimated the temperature to be about 40F + wind chill as the ship cut through the water.
The next mode of transportation on the 'recommended' route through Hakone was the skytram/gondola. A nice leisurely ride up the mountain, we got off in the middle to visit the sulfur mines where we tried black eggs! These eggs, instead of being boiled, are placed at the mouth of the sulfur vents. The natural heat cooks the eggs and turns the shells black. It is said that if you eat one, it will increase your life by 7 years. At $5.00US for half a dozen, it sounds more like a tourist ploy! And boy did we go for it.
Cracked open, the eggs were normal on the inside, and tasted no different than regular eggs. Most expensive eggs ever. But, hey, we're on vacation.
We got back on the gondola, took a cable car down the other side of the mountain to the Miyanoshita area of Hakone, and were right on time for our 3pm check in to Hakone Ginyu. If you think our trip has been awesome so far, just wait until you see the next posts! Until then, happy eating!
**Note, all transportation costs mentioned in this post were covered by the Hakone Two Day Free Pass that cost us $50. It worked out like a self guided tour.
We woke up early on Sunday because we had an 8am train to catch to Hakone. After a rush job to complete packing, checking out, and walking to the train station, we got to the station at 7:50am! Whew!
I asked a station employee where we should be standing, and he pointed me to track 5. When it rolled around to 8:05am...I remarked to Sandra...hmm, the train is late. This was the first time our train was late. I asked the train employee on the platform, and in extremely limited English, indicated we had to be on a different platform. Obviously, that train had departed. Three lessons to learn here for Tokyo/Japan travelers.
1) Despite their best intentions, you can be given wrong information by locals.
2) Tokyo is the most English educated area in Japan - but odds are, the people you interact with will have very limited English skills. Most of the time, you're stuck at a dead end trying to figure out where to go and the first person you see is the person you're going to ask. That person, from my experience, most likely won't know enough English to give you the full story. But it should be enough to give you a general direction.
3) If you think a train is late in Japan, you're standing on the wrong platform or are in the wrong station. In the US, back when I was taking the subway, I would add in 'buffer time'. In Japan, you can schedule things around the train schedule.
Ok, back to regularly scheduled programming.
Luckily on the 'correct' platform, there was a train employee who understood what happened, and changed our tickets for the next
departing train. 8:30am. Not bad, missed our original train, and were only offset by 30 minutes.The train ride was uneventful. I will say that, for a population that is on average, smaller than the US population, their train seats are a lot bigger! I could actual stretch out!
Arriving at Hakone, we dropped off our bags at the porter stand. As suggested by the people who helped book our Ryokan stay (the evening destination), this company will hold your bags and deliver them to your lodging in Hakone. This way, you can freely explore Hakone without worrying about packs. Hakone is a mountainous region near Mount Fuji.
We wandered around the area near the train stop for a bit and bought some omiyagi (gifts). There were a number of shops selling manju. Some were handmade, some were automated:
After about 30 minutes, we boarded a mini bus that took us to Lake Ashi. A 40 minute ride that wound it's way up and over the mountain, this bus ride helped me get a feel for how the Hakone region was organized.
We arrived at the Lake Ashai area around noon, and were famished! We're always famished...
I chose a homely looking place that advertised fresh soba. They also specialized in local fish katsu and tempura. While ordering, I acted like a dumb tourist. The menu had an extensive list - all in Japanese, and about 5 pictures. We unfortunately, picked from 2 of the 5 pictures. The fish katsu, and the tonkatsu don/soba combo. I had really wanted tempura but didn't want the full assortment that was pictured. It wasn't until after I ordered that I realized I could have ordered a Ten-don/soba combo. If only I remembered that I could phonetically read Japanese!
But you know what, the meal was still awesome. And despite missing out on what looked to be very good tempura, my tonkatsu was probably best tonkatsu I've ever had. I don't think I can order tonkatsu in the US again. I think it has to do with the pork. The pork was about a 1/2 inch thick, had a nice sweet pork flavor to it, and was very soft! Even though it wasn't crispy, due to the onion-egg sauce that makes it a -don, it was fried pork heaven! No farmed pig on corn meal here. You can taste the pork flavor difference.
Sandra had the fish katsu - about 12 long fishies fried whole. I made the assumption that they were fished out of Lake Ashi. Also a very yummy dish.
After lunch, we boarded the ship that would take us across Lake Ashi.
It was a very cold trip. I estimated the temperature to be about 40F + wind chill as the ship cut through the water.
The next mode of transportation on the 'recommended' route through Hakone was the skytram/gondola. A nice leisurely ride up the mountain, we got off in the middle to visit the sulfur mines where we tried black eggs! These eggs, instead of being boiled, are placed at the mouth of the sulfur vents. The natural heat cooks the eggs and turns the shells black. It is said that if you eat one, it will increase your life by 7 years. At $5.00US for half a dozen, it sounds more like a tourist ploy! And boy did we go for it.Cracked open, the eggs were normal on the inside, and tasted no different than regular eggs. Most expensive eggs ever. But, hey, we're on vacation.
Eggs:
Sulfur Vent (taken from the gondola - click on it):
Sulfur Vent (taken from the gondola - click on it):
We got back on the gondola, took a cable car down the other side of the mountain to the Miyanoshita area of Hakone, and were right on time for our 3pm check in to Hakone Ginyu. If you think our trip has been awesome so far, just wait until you see the next posts! Until then, happy eating!
**Note, all transportation costs mentioned in this post were covered by the Hakone Two Day Free Pass that cost us $50. It worked out like a self guided tour.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Day 5: Harajuku and Shibuya
It's becoming harder and harder for me to remember every little detail that happened during our trip. I better get it all down soon! This blog will serve as a journal that will remind us of our experiences in Japan. Much like our I-80 Adventures Blog .
The first thing we did this morning was go to the Odakyu Travel Center located near the West Exit of the Shinjuku Station. Another plus for our hotel location! We bought a two day free pass that represented a $30 dollar per person savings for all of the Hakone area transportation. We experienced many modes of transportation - next post.
We took a round about way to Harajuku via subway. After exiting the station, we walked up
Omotesando - the main avenue leading to Meiji Jingu Shrine. We made a couple of stops at cosmetic stores (the 6th and 7th visit of the trip!...grrr..). At least Sandra bought something this time. We then spent about an hour at Kiddy Land. Seven or eight floors of toys?? Amazing! What's even more amazing is that I didn't buy anything. Sandra did though. A few gifts for friends. And a picture book about the hamster I won from the skill crane.
We left the store at 1pm...quite famished and headed toward our main destination of the afternoon. Mominoki House - a natural food restaurant. The food was REALLY good...especially since we had been assaulting our stomachs the last few days. It was good to get in some whole grains and fresh veggies.
Sandra had the Grilled Tofu served with brown rice and 8 kinds of veggies.
I had the free range chicken served with brown rice and 7 kinds of veggies. The chicken- although thigh meat, required a lot of chewing. It wasn't tough, but it definitely was 'harder' than the chicken found in the US. This was probably 'real' free range chicken, where all that walking toughens up their thigh muscles.
The first thing we did this morning was go to the Odakyu Travel Center located near the West Exit of the Shinjuku Station. Another plus for our hotel location! We bought a two day free pass that represented a $30 dollar per person savings for all of the Hakone area transportation. We experienced many modes of transportation - next post.
We took a round about way to Harajuku via subway. After exiting the station, we walked up
Omotesando - the main avenue leading to Meiji Jingu Shrine. We made a couple of stops at cosmetic stores (the 6th and 7th visit of the trip!...grrr..). At least Sandra bought something this time. We then spent about an hour at Kiddy Land. Seven or eight floors of toys?? Amazing! What's even more amazing is that I didn't buy anything. Sandra did though. A few gifts for friends. And a picture book about the hamster I won from the skill crane.We left the store at 1pm...quite famished and headed toward our main destination of the afternoon. Mominoki House - a natural food restaurant. The food was REALLY good...especially since we had been assaulting our stomachs the last few days. It was good to get in some whole grains and fresh veggies.
Sandra had the Grilled Tofu served with brown rice and 8 kinds of veggies.
I had the free range chicken served with brown rice and 7 kinds of veggies. The chicken- although thigh meat, required a lot of chewing. It wasn't tough, but it definitely was 'harder' than the chicken found in the US. This was probably 'real' free range chicken, where all that walking toughens up their thigh muscles.
After Mominoki, we walked next door to have the green tea and milk tea ice cream Sandra wrote about. Next, we headed to the main drag of Harajuku - in search of the fabled Harajuku girls. We did see some very dressed up individuals. But it being about 3pm and Saturday (Sunday is the best day to see them), it wasn't as crazy as some of the typical Harajuku images that are published. After walking through throngs of people, I made it a point to get some ramen. It was our last day in Tokyo, and we still didn't have ramen! We stopped in at a place across from the Harajuku JR Train stop. At 6.50 a bowl, this was better than Ramen we've had before. The texture of the noodles were firm, the broth was fresh (obviously, not a packet), and the 'char siu' pork slice was really soft. Sorry, no photos.
After Ramen, we jumped on the JR Line for one stop down to Shibuya. This where the famed 'intersection' is where thousands of people walk across the street at once. Man, there were a lot of people crossing the street! There were many people, just like me, photographing and filming the phenomenon.
We tinkered around Shibuya for a bit - cruising department stores, stopping into a coffee shop for a refreshment, and being tempted by skill crane arcades. At this point, Tokyo started to feel repetitive. Every 'major area' that we went to had 4 elements: tons of people, lots of retail shops, a destination restaurant and arcade banks. As a 1st time Tokyo visitor, the experience of Shibuya vs. Shinjuku felt the same. Left to wander the streets ourselves, and with minimal knowledge of Japanese, we really weren't in the position to 'discover' the amazing experiences that each area potentially offered.
Considering that we had Mominoki, ice cream, and ramen all within a 4 hour time frame, we decided to skip dinner. We headed back to the hotel to pack our luggage. We had an early train to catch the next morning to go to Hakone - a hot spring area near Mt. Fuji.
After Ramen, we jumped on the JR Line for one stop down to Shibuya. This where the famed 'intersection' is where thousands of people walk across the street at once. Man, there were a lot of people crossing the street! There were many people, just like me, photographing and filming the phenomenon.
We tinkered around Shibuya for a bit - cruising department stores, stopping into a coffee shop for a refreshment, and being tempted by skill crane arcades. At this point, Tokyo started to feel repetitive. Every 'major area' that we went to had 4 elements: tons of people, lots of retail shops, a destination restaurant and arcade banks. As a 1st time Tokyo visitor, the experience of Shibuya vs. Shinjuku felt the same. Left to wander the streets ourselves, and with minimal knowledge of Japanese, we really weren't in the position to 'discover' the amazing experiences that each area potentially offered.
Considering that we had Mominoki, ice cream, and ramen all within a 4 hour time frame, we decided to skip dinner. We headed back to the hotel to pack our luggage. We had an early train to catch the next morning to go to Hakone - a hot spring area near Mt. Fuji.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Day 4
Thanks for tuning in. Day 6 is really the best day to write about...but all in due time.
I woke up at 5:56am with a smile on my face. That's practically a normal wake up time.
This day got expensive really quick. Not because we were splurging, but because we did a few events that rang up the tab rather quickly.
We made our way to Roppongi Hills. Before we arrived to our destination, we stopped at a bakery and had a curry pan (japanese curry wrapped in a slightly chewy bun, fried with a light panko layer) and some kind of salmon cream cheese bun. Quite delicious.
We also made a pit stop at a book store where Sandra spent a lot of time looking at cook books that she couldn't read. Japanese printing is really appealing.
Finally, we made it to Roppongi Hills - an integrated developed blog complete with work, home, and shopping space. The theory is that, but not needing to commute, your quality of live would be better. I believe that.
We went up to the observation deck, which is the highest point in Tokyo ( I think), and included with the admissions fee was a free pass to the Mori Art Museum - also at the top of the building. The museum was showcasing pieces from the UBS collection. Sorry, no pics from the museum.
We had lunch at an Izakaya in Roppongi Hills. This is was one of the few meals that we felt like it would be weird to take a picture of. The place was full of office people on their lunch break. We were a little disappointed that they were serving Teishoku (set menu) lunches and not the Izakaya menu. However, as with all our meals in Tokyo, it was really tasty. Sandra had miso fish and sashimi, I had the tempura. Both meals came with a beverage of your choice, rice, pickles, and a soup full of vegetables, tofu and fish.
After lunch we had dessert, which cost as much as our lunch. Sandra wrote about it in her dessert post, so I won't add much to it. We also visited Foo:D supermarket. I'll write about grocery prices and the lack of fiber later.
We made the trek back to bookstore so that Sandra could buy some cookbooks and headed off to Ginza. Earlier in the day, we had booked a traditional tea ceremony at the Imperial Hotel. It's rare that I feel under dressed, but I definitely felt under dressed at this hotel with my collared shirt over dry fit long sleeve shirt, jeans, hiking boots and a backpack with a large poster attached to it. 90% of the men and half of the male children had suits on! We had a nice tea ceremony explained to us in Japanese. But, to be honest, it was a bit pricey for the 15 minute ceremony.
After the ceremony, we wandered the streets of Ginza again. I stopped by the Sony show room, Sandra spent another half hour in a bookstore looking at cookbooks, magazines, and cooking magazines she couldn't read. We met back up to wander some alleyways. We happened upon three food venues. The first, a Fugu shop. Fugu is the poisonous puffer fisn that if sliced incorrectly will release toxins which are fatal to humans. The chefs are government regulated. If a death occurs, the shop closes down. So rest assured, you're dining at a place where the chef has not failed (yet). We weren't going to test fate on our honeymoon.
I was lead to the next restaurant by my nose. Tucked away in a side alley of an alley was Torijin, a yakitori place. Yakitori restaurants serve skewers of every part of the chicken cooked on a natural flame grill. Torijin also specialized in flavored rice - Kamameshi. We had a fine meal here, but purposefully didn't fill up because we knew were we're going to get an unaju bento to go from the third restaurant we encountered on our walk.
I woke up at 5:56am with a smile on my face. That's practically a normal wake up time.
This day got expensive really quick. Not because we were splurging, but because we did a few events that rang up the tab rather quickly.
We made our way to Roppongi Hills. Before we arrived to our destination, we stopped at a bakery and had a curry pan (japanese curry wrapped in a slightly chewy bun, fried with a light panko layer) and some kind of salmon cream cheese bun. Quite delicious.We also made a pit stop at a book store where Sandra spent a lot of time looking at cook books that she couldn't read. Japanese printing is really appealing.
Finally, we made it to Roppongi Hills - an integrated developed blog complete with work, home, and shopping space. The theory is that, but not needing to commute, your quality of live would be better. I believe that.
We went up to the observation deck, which is the highest point in Tokyo ( I think), and included with the admissions fee was a free pass to the Mori Art Museum - also at the top of the building. The museum was showcasing pieces from the UBS collection. Sorry, no pics from the museum.We had lunch at an Izakaya in Roppongi Hills. This is was one of the few meals that we felt like it would be weird to take a picture of. The place was full of office people on their lunch break. We were a little disappointed that they were serving Teishoku (set menu) lunches and not the Izakaya menu. However, as with all our meals in Tokyo, it was really tasty. Sandra had miso fish and sashimi, I had the tempura. Both meals came with a beverage of your choice, rice, pickles, and a soup full of vegetables, tofu and fish.
After lunch we had dessert, which cost as much as our lunch. Sandra wrote about it in her dessert post, so I won't add much to it. We also visited Foo:D supermarket. I'll write about grocery prices and the lack of fiber later.
We made the trek back to bookstore so that Sandra could buy some cookbooks and headed off to Ginza. Earlier in the day, we had booked a traditional tea ceremony at the Imperial Hotel. It's rare that I feel under dressed, but I definitely felt under dressed at this hotel with my collared shirt over dry fit long sleeve shirt, jeans, hiking boots and a backpack with a large poster attached to it. 90% of the men and half of the male children had suits on! We had a nice tea ceremony explained to us in Japanese. But, to be honest, it was a bit pricey for the 15 minute ceremony.
After the ceremony, we wandered the streets of Ginza again. I stopped by the Sony show room, Sandra spent another half hour in a bookstore looking at cookbooks, magazines, and cooking magazines she couldn't read. We met back up to wander some alleyways. We happened upon three food venues. The first, a Fugu shop. Fugu is the poisonous puffer fisn that if sliced incorrectly will release toxins which are fatal to humans. The chefs are government regulated. If a death occurs, the shop closes down. So rest assured, you're dining at a place where the chef has not failed (yet). We weren't going to test fate on our honeymoon.
I was lead to the next restaurant by my nose. Tucked away in a side alley of an alley was Torijin, a yakitori place. Yakitori restaurants serve skewers of every part of the chicken cooked on a natural flame grill. Torijin also specialized in flavored rice - Kamameshi. We had a fine meal here, but purposefully didn't fill up because we knew were we're going to get an unaju bento to go from the third restaurant we encountered on our walk.
Right after yakitori, we walked over to a 'fastfood' unagi joint and got a take out unaju for the hotel room. I was still famished after dinner. The unagi wasn't memorable. What I did notice, was that unagi was 
not dripping in sauce and also the rice was mixed with some flavor. The flavor was definitely less sweet and less salty that unaju dishes in the US. Look at that take out box! It looks like a wooden box. There was also a piece of absorbent material on the inside of the cover to soak up condensation. What a nice touch.
We got back to our hotel and got the massages that Sandra wrote about. We took off to wander Shinjuku and Kabukicho at 10pm to experience a bit of night life. There were tons of people out and about. But, at about 11:45 hoards of people headed to the subway as the last train is at 12am. A bit inconvenient that trains stop so early...but I guess that deters a lot of late night issues.
That's it for day 4.
Ivan
not dripping in sauce and also the rice was mixed with some flavor. The flavor was definitely less sweet and less salty that unaju dishes in the US. Look at that take out box! It looks like a wooden box. There was also a piece of absorbent material on the inside of the cover to soak up condensation. What a nice touch. We got back to our hotel and got the massages that Sandra wrote about. We took off to wander Shinjuku and Kabukicho at 10pm to experience a bit of night life. There were tons of people out and about. But, at about 11:45 hoards of people headed to the subway as the last train is at 12am. A bit inconvenient that trains stop so early...but I guess that deters a lot of late night issues.
That's it for day 4.
Ivan
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Tip Sheet For Tokyo
Hello, I was going to write this up after my daily reviews, but a friend will find this info helpful in a few days so I'm writing it up now.
Below is a list of items that I found useful on my trip to Tokyo:
Level 1: Must Have for 1st time visitors to Tokyo.
1) A recently published guidebook. Use the guide book to give you places to see, and places to eat. They suggested destinations may be a bit touristy, but at least you have something to guide you. We used the Lonely Planet Tokyo Book. I found the area summaries to be helpful, and it pointed us to a couple of good shops and restaurants. The Soba noodle place we wrote about was from this book. Our typical usage was: Read about an area, go to the area, go to specific places in the book that interested us, then wander around.
2) Tokyo Atlas
Addresses in Tokyo are arranged differently from address in the US. I won't go into the details, but if you get an address from a guide book that says 2-18-4 Jingumae, Harajuku....you need the Tokyo Atlas to get you there. I'm sure at some point during your stay in Tokyo, you're going to look for an obscure restaurant, or shop that isn't easily located by major streets or subway stations. This book is well printed, and has English and Japanese.
3) If you're staying in Tokyo and plan to take the Narita Express Train to Tokyo, get the N'Ex + Suica Card bonus deal. You can use the Suica card on almost all local Tokyo subway lines, and some restaurants and vending machines. The Narita Express ticket is valid for one way to any Tokyo stop. This deal represents an approximately $15 dollars in train ticket savings. When you're about to leave, and you have some money left on the card, you can go to the office to get a refund (minus a transaction charge), or, you can do what we did: spend the money on ready made food to bring on your flight back home. Look for the Suica Card symbol for machines and shops that take the card.
4) A subway map you are comfortable using. The Tokyo Atlas has one, but we ended up using the map we got on our One Day Tokyo Tour.
5) Change money at the airport, or at the post office for best rates. Your hotel will probably give you one of the worst rates. This is a CASH CASH CASH country. Major stores will accept cards, but cash makes it easy. You can carry lots of cash on you because this is one of the safest countries in the world. Guide books will caution you about pickpockets in heavily tourist areas (especially clubbing districts). Use typical wallet safety precautions and you should be ok.
6) If you plan to travel outside of Tokyo, sign up for the Japan Rail Pass before you land in Japan. This pass is must if you are making more than one distant trip outside of Tokyo. There are also other passes that may suit your needs (I've linked the Odakyu Line, but there are others). We used the Hakone Free Pass for our 1day 1 night trip to Hakone. Do your research before you go, and you may be able to save 100's of dollars.
Level 2: If you have the time.
1) Learn how to read Katakana. Yes, the Japanese use many Kanji characters also. However, knowing Katakana can help you a lot because English words are often phonetically sounded out using Katakana. For example, a puff makeup applicator may be labeled pa-fu in katakana.
2) Learn some Kanji. North, south, east, west, in, out, toilet...etc. Familiarize yourself with Kanji, so that you can at least copy the kanji of your destination down so you can point to it when you're lost on the street.
3) Do a 1 day Tokyo Day Drip early during your stay to get the lay of the land. You will most likely be traveling on the subway. Subways often distort how far apart or how near locations actually are from each other. Check out the Sunrise Tours site, for assorted tours in Tokyo and greater Japan.
Below is a list of items that I found useful on my trip to Tokyo:
Level 1: Must Have for 1st time visitors to Tokyo.
1) A recently published guidebook. Use the guide book to give you places to see, and places to eat. They suggested destinations may be a bit touristy, but at least you have something to guide you. We used the Lonely Planet Tokyo Book. I found the area summaries to be helpful, and it pointed us to a couple of good shops and restaurants. The Soba noodle place we wrote about was from this book. Our typical usage was: Read about an area, go to the area, go to specific places in the book that interested us, then wander around.
2) Tokyo Atlas
Addresses in Tokyo are arranged differently from address in the US. I won't go into the details, but if you get an address from a guide book that says 2-18-4 Jingumae, Harajuku....you need the Tokyo Atlas to get you there. I'm sure at some point during your stay in Tokyo, you're going to look for an obscure restaurant, or shop that isn't easily located by major streets or subway stations. This book is well printed, and has English and Japanese.
3) If you're staying in Tokyo and plan to take the Narita Express Train to Tokyo, get the N'Ex + Suica Card bonus deal. You can use the Suica card on almost all local Tokyo subway lines, and some restaurants and vending machines. The Narita Express ticket is valid for one way to any Tokyo stop. This deal represents an approximately $15 dollars in train ticket savings. When you're about to leave, and you have some money left on the card, you can go to the office to get a refund (minus a transaction charge), or, you can do what we did: spend the money on ready made food to bring on your flight back home. Look for the Suica Card symbol for machines and shops that take the card.
4) A subway map you are comfortable using. The Tokyo Atlas has one, but we ended up using the map we got on our One Day Tokyo Tour.
5) Change money at the airport, or at the post office for best rates. Your hotel will probably give you one of the worst rates. This is a CASH CASH CASH country. Major stores will accept cards, but cash makes it easy. You can carry lots of cash on you because this is one of the safest countries in the world. Guide books will caution you about pickpockets in heavily tourist areas (especially clubbing districts). Use typical wallet safety precautions and you should be ok.
6) If you plan to travel outside of Tokyo, sign up for the Japan Rail Pass before you land in Japan. This pass is must if you are making more than one distant trip outside of Tokyo. There are also other passes that may suit your needs (I've linked the Odakyu Line, but there are others). We used the Hakone Free Pass for our 1day 1 night trip to Hakone. Do your research before you go, and you may be able to save 100's of dollars.
Level 2: If you have the time.
1) Learn how to read Katakana. Yes, the Japanese use many Kanji characters also. However, knowing Katakana can help you a lot because English words are often phonetically sounded out using Katakana. For example, a puff makeup applicator may be labeled pa-fu in katakana.
2) Learn some Kanji. North, south, east, west, in, out, toilet...etc. Familiarize yourself with Kanji, so that you can at least copy the kanji of your destination down so you can point to it when you're lost on the street.
3) Do a 1 day Tokyo Day Drip early during your stay to get the lay of the land. You will most likely be traveling on the subway. Subways often distort how far apart or how near locations actually are from each other. Check out the Sunrise Tours site, for assorted tours in Tokyo and greater Japan.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Day 3: More yummy meals by Ivan
Day 3: Tsukiji Fish Market. 
After lunch, we headed out to explore Shinjuku, we spent a few hours wandering Tokyo Hands - an 8 floor department store, and randomly walked down a few streets. I got to play skill crane! Japanese Skill Crane is crazy expensive, and a lot harder. It uses 
only two prongs, so there's no way you're actually picking up a toy. You use the prongs as tools to poke and prod the toy over the edge. After spending about 25 dollars, I won one! You may think that that's really expensive...but luckily we encountered the stuffed hamster that I won at a toy store, and it was priced at $29.
After the skill crane, we looked for an Okonomiyaki place that Sandra found on the internet. Our waiter was really nice and actually showed us how to make the okonmiyaki and yakisoba. Okonomiyaki is super yum. For those who don't know, Okonomiyaki is a savory pancake that is filled with practically anything you like. The 'standard mix', consists of cabbage, pork and shrimp. You stir fry the ingredients for a bit, pour the batter over the ingredients, let it set and then flip it over to finish cooking. It is topped with 'bulldog sauce' (a thickened worcestershire sauce), mayonnaise and bonito flakes. The bad thing was that our clothes was super smoked out after dinner. My jacket smelled like smoke during the whole remainder of the trip.
I woke up at 4am this morning…an improvement! We were out the door by 4:45am catching the 5:05am train to the Tsukiji Market stop on the Oedo Line. Tsukiji is definitely worth the early morning trek. If you’re coming from the US, do it on one of the first few mornings in Japan and you’ll be ok. The amount of seafood at the market was unbelievable. But, I guess the majority of the worlds seafood passes through this market, so it’s understandable.
The place is pretty dangerous, so you have to watch out. There are large push cards being wheeled around, bikes and scooters zooming by, and these mini trucks that drive inches away from pedestrians. Our tour guide told us that her friend was struck and broke some bones recently. These trucks are basically engines that happen to have a flat bed strapped to them.
After buying some assorted dried sundries, we made our way to the food rows next to the outer market. We decided to stand in line at Sushi Dai although Daiwa sushi was suggested by the Lonely Planet Tokyo guidebook. I think we made a good choice. We ordered the Omakase – which technically wasn’t a true Omakase because it listed 11 pieces of fish. True Omakase is when you sit down and the chef just starts serving you sushi. After building a rapport with you over the first few pieces, he would supply you with what he thinks is freshest or what you like. There is usually no set number of pieces. Regardless of this technicality, the sushi was awesome and some of the best I’ve tasted. Of particular note was the uni – which was sweeter and cleaner tasting than the ones found in the states, a slice of some kind of mollusk that was still moving when it was placed in front of us and the standard maguro (tuna) which tasted very different from the gassed versions in the states. To keep red meat (and fish) looking ‘red’ places in the states will ‘gas’ the meat with carbon monoxide. That’s why sometimes you buy beef that’s red on the outside, but brown on the inside.
At the end of our set number of pieces, we asked the chef for a slice of a super large (3 inch diameter) circular piece of mollusk, raw shrimp and a piece of his choice. I wanted him to pick a piece so that we could uphold some semblance of a real Omakase meal. Boy did he deliver. Some cod sperm sac to be exact. We had a good relationship with our chef – a charming, happy faced Japanese male in his mid thirties. His English skills were limited, but we conversed well enough. By observation, he suspected that we were on our honeymoon. Could this have affected his sushi choice for us? See Sandras post for a picture. The premise of the piece of sushi was so shocking, our neighbors all took pictures.
Our Chef:
I would be lying if I said I had no mental barrier while eating the cod sperm sac, but it was lower than Sandra’s mental barrier. I had a stronger negative reaction while eating sweet breads (thalamus gland – part of the brain - of cattle). Technically chewing and swallowing food is a mechanical function. The only think that stops you from chewing and swallowing properly is your mind and imagination. Mental barrier occurs when your mouth starts salivating heavily, a lump in your throat develops, and your breathing becomes shallow so that your sense of taste is dulled. I had what I would call a level 1 barrier, which was only a slight reluctance to chew.
Getting past the mental part, I was able to discern a clean sweet creaminess that was very smooth. The other surprising part of this piece of sushi, was that it was served warm. Unlike all the other pieces we ate, which were chilled or at room temperature, this piece was completely warm – even the rice. An experience indeed. After detecting Sandra's reluctance, the Chef said we should feel lucky. Sperm sac is a winter only delicacy as cod don't spawn in the winter. They end up stock piling their supplies.
After the amazing sushi meal, we wandered the outer market some more and bought some random items of food. From Tsukiji market, we made our way up through Ginza and walked around some of the shops. This place is similar to an upscale shop area in New York.
By 12pm, we were pretty tired and needed a respite. On our way to the subway station, we passed by the Mitsukoshi food court. This is a highend food court with fabulous displays and sales people handing out samples hoping that you would buy from their counter. The fourth picture is what we decided upon for dinner.
After lunch, we headed out to explore Shinjuku, we spent a few hours wandering Tokyo Hands - an 8 floor department store, and randomly walked down a few streets. I got to play skill crane! Japanese Skill Crane is crazy expensive, and a lot harder. It uses 
only two prongs, so there's no way you're actually picking up a toy. You use the prongs as tools to poke and prod the toy over the edge. After spending about 25 dollars, I won one! You may think that that's really expensive...but luckily we encountered the stuffed hamster that I won at a toy store, and it was priced at $29.After the skill crane, we looked for an Okonomiyaki place that Sandra found on the internet. Our waiter was really nice and actually showed us how to make the okonmiyaki and yakisoba. Okonomiyaki is super yum. For those who don't know, Okonomiyaki is a savory pancake that is filled with practically anything you like. The 'standard mix', consists of cabbage, pork and shrimp. You stir fry the ingredients for a bit, pour the batter over the ingredients, let it set and then flip it over to finish cooking. It is topped with 'bulldog sauce' (a thickened worcestershire sauce), mayonnaise and bonito flakes. The bad thing was that our clothes was super smoked out after dinner. My jacket smelled like smoke during the whole remainder of the trip.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Tokyo Tour By Ivan
Day 2: One day Tokyo Tour. As suggested by others, we decided to take a Tokyo day tour to hit up some major landmarks and get the lay of the land. It was a great suggestion because covering all of the landmarks on public transportation, although feasible, would have taken a lot longer.
First Stop, Meiji Jingu Shrine:
Next stop was the public gardens of the Imperial Palace.Buddhist Temple in Asakusa:
The highlight of Asakusa was the strip of vendors that lined the street leading up to the shrine. We bought some hand roasted rice crackers. After I paid for them, I realized that we had just spent $10 dollars on 13 rice crackers. Yikes!
A fine meal of flakey black cod with shrimp or steak was included. The steak- just a sirloin cut- was one of the tastiest steaks I’ve had. Looking at the color of the flesh, I think it was aged.
After lunch, we took a boat tour through Tokyo bay and passed under the Rainbow Bridge and saw parts of Odaiba – a man made island that is home to many architecturally interesting buildings.
We then got off the boat and took a bus over the Rainbow Bridge to walk around Odaiba for a bit.
Odaiba: Home of a Mini Statue of Liberty
And Kua Aina Burgers (Burger shop from Hawaii)?? What is up with that!
After Odaiba, we were finally released and brought back to the hotel. Being the first day in Japan, and having woken up at 3:30am…I was definitely feeling the affects of jetlag. If it was my choice, I would have gone to sleep right away, but fortunately I was able to stay up and find that Soba place that I wrote about earlier.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)