Adventures in Japan

Tokyo the Second

So we did all wake up real early and catch a cab out to the world famous fish market at Tsukiji. Well, famous in the sense that all the guide books mention it. And it was well worth seeing. We got there at about 5:30 in the morning and the place was bustling. We were there to see the fish auctions, but it took a while for us to find them. We wandered past multiple stalls, selling all sorts of things from the sea. I tried using my meager Japanese to find out where what we were looking for was.

Eventually we found it. Us and other foreigners. I don't know about all the other gawkers, but we felt a bit in the way.


There were tonnes of workers and vehicles zooming all over the place, you had to be aware of your surroundings. Not the easiest thing to do so early in the morning. Anyhoo, fish pics!

After we snapped our picks of the big, dead sometimes frozen fish we wandered off into the morning. We found a sushi place that had a couple seats free, so in we went. We figured we wouldn't get it much fresher. And we were right. It was delicious. Really, really good. I'm not usually a big fan of sashimi, which is just the raw fish without any rice or such, but I devoured it that morning. The only bad part was when I ate the natto roll. And I ate it last. Not so good.

Luckily, Japan is a land where you can go into a convenience store, buy whisky for 2 bucks and burn any bad taste out of your mouth.

We managed to find our way home and crashed for a bit. Then Carla arrived and off we set. We wandered around and did stuff. I don't have the best of recall. I believe we split up. Trev and Ben looked at toys. Nate and Kim went shopping for clothes and sight seeing. I looked at video games.

I think we did that for a couple days. Setting out together, splitting up, then getting back together for dinner.

Maybe I should just look at the pictures and figure out what we did.

Oh yeah! Nate took a picture with a cute thing.

That is a maid from a maid cafe. Maid cafes were all the rage a couple years ago and are still going somewhat strong. They are cafes where all the wait staff dress up as maids and serve you. Really serve you. And I don't mean that in a dirty way. I mean that they are super duper polite and subservient. These things cater mainly to geeks and geeks aren't used to cute girls (or any girls) being polite to them.

I believe that it was me, Carla, Ben and Trev who actually went into one of the maid cafes. You're not allowed to take photos in such establishments, but Carla's coffee was too cute not to capture.


Ben and I ordered somewhat less fancy coffees. Still kinda fancy, one of the maids squeezed whipped cream into my mug.

Here's some more food related pictures. This first one is a big piece of meat on a stick. And me.


This is a curry house with a somewhat unpleasantly suggestive name.

The picture adding is going slowly, so howzabout I stop now and talk about our dinners later? Good?

Good.

In the Now of the Here

Just a quick update as to what is actually happening, right now, in our lives.

Carla is at work and I'm blogging. I'm blogging because I'm not at work. I am not workless, this is just a week off before the new school year starts.

Last time I mentioned work, I said I was training my replacement. Well, the bosses replaced my replacement. With me. A more expensive me. With more time off. Good deal for everyone. To celebrate, the bosses took Carla and I out for dinner at a really swank restaurant. It was one of the few buildings in the area that survived both the bombings of WW2 and the massive earthquake from 11 years ago. It was nice. Still not a big fan of fois gras.

So next week we both work, then we jet off to Canada for Darren and Sue's wedding in Vancouver. Then we work, then visitors visit.

I gotta finish up the recap of the last visitors' visit.

(You) Shook Me All Night Long

Not all night. More like a dozen or so seconds. I am referring to my first real earthquake experience. I'm sure there's been at least dozens of them, but this is the first one noticed. I woke up with a start this morning, thinking Carla was late for work. She, still asleep, reminded me that it was Sunday. I couldn't fall back asleep, so I came out here to use the computer.

Those of you who have bunked with us know that we live quite close to a train station. The noise doesn't bother us at all, but the apartment moves a bit when the big trains go by. So when the swaying started, I thought nothing of it. Then I heard a train pass by, but the swaying didn't stop. It got worse. The curtains started moving. I could hear the bathroom door knock around in its frame. I got up and went to the bedroom. If it got any worse, I would wake Carla. It didn't get any worse.

Carla slept through the whole thing.

Tokyo a Go Go

It was still snowing when we awoke the next day. It snowed during our coffee/breakfast, giving us something to focus on other than the fact that we had spent the night previous karaokeing long past any sane hour.

It snowed as we boarded the Shinkansen. It snowed all the way to Osaka. But not in Osaka. Osaka remained spookily snow free.

Before I forget, I should mention that while Nate Kim and Trev all got to sit together, I sat across the aisle with a sweet old lady. She was in her 80's. She gave us all oranges. We chatted as best we could given our utter lack of skill in each other's languages. She knew her ABC and 123s, but that was about it and I know my ichi ni sans and two of their alphabets, but those kanji man, they defeat me. Anyhoo... she was cute.

The train stopped in Osaka but we stayed on board. We were bound for Tokyo, you see. Also bound for Tokyo: Ben.

He found us straight away and gave us beers. Nate and Kim stayed in their seats and slept whilst Trev and I joined Ben for a walkabout. We walked through various cars and carriages, stopping and loitering near restrooms and beer machines. Ben knew where the beer machines were. We looked out the window and admired the white landscape. The snow started up again just outside Osaka.

It was realy purdy. We also snapped some pics of Mount Fuji as we passed it.


Not good pics, but pics none the less.


All told, we spent close to two hours standing and drinking on the bullet train. Good times...

Luckily, Carla had supplied us with some fairly detailed instructions on how to get to our hostel, so we found it without too much trouble. We also found a delicious Indian restaurant on the way there. It was both tasty and tummy testing. Nate's failed. We didn't get up to much that night, we had to get up early the next morning to look at dead fish.

Either that or we went to a bar. I can't remember (it has been three months), but just to be safe I won't blog about it until tomorrow.

Mizu

Carla did not come with us to Miyajima, she hopped on the bullet train so she could work for two days. We soldiered on in her absence.


The day we spent in the museum was a much warmer day than this day we spent mainly out of doors and near water.

The weather was not nice was, but Miyajima was. It was also full of deer, which I was not expecting. So even though Nate missed out on Nara, he still got in some prime deer taunting.


The big thing to do out Miyajima way is to take pictures of the big red gate out there in the water. So we snapped some pics of that.



And of this big pagoda.


And of this... thing.


In order to walk in this... place, we had to take off our shoes. And put on too small slippers. It was cold. After that, we decided to break for lunch. Lunch was tasty. It was about this time that I noticed that my camera was having some serious issues. Not so much the camera as the memory card. It turns out that it was just too big. My old camera can't keep up with all these new fangled memory cards.


After lunch, we poked around and took more pictures of stuff. It seems they have an aquarium out there. An aquarium that closed just before we got there and wouldn't open again for another week.

Also: GIANT SPOON!


As the sun began to set and the wind picked up, we decided to get outta there. So we did.



What else did we do that day? Oh! We karaoke'd. It was good stuff. The highlights of this time out were Trev's Morrisey, Nate's Grandmaster Flash, Nate and Kim's duet and... at least one other thing.


After Karaoke, it snowed. Nice, big, thick, fluffy snow. It ain't seen snow like that in years. At least two and a half yonks.

Healthier?

We just ate frozen yogurt that actually tasted like yogurt. Not all artificially sweetened and flavoured and stuff. Just sour. Like yogurt. It was cool. Cuz it was frozen. Yeah.

Bright, Sun-Shiney Day

What a fantastic weekend. Actually, it's been a good couple of weekends. We finally met up with L'il Kim's friend Liz and her boyfriend, Eric. We went out to Shitennoji Temple, and the garden within. It was a nice day, and the garden was kinda pretty in a not yet blooming sort of way.

We wandered around the garden for a bit, snapping shots here and there. Then we just kinda wandered around, showing them the sights. Most of which they had already seen. They had not, however, seen robot fights.

Which is what we saw as we wandered through Den Den town. A bunch of robots and a bunch of men with remote controls controlling the robots. It was a hoot to watch.

The evening ended at Go En, the yakiniku place we drag everyone to. Liz and Eric are new in town, they haven't found work yet, it was our civic duty to show them one of the cheapest places to eat and drink in Osaka. And they'll need it, that Eric can put it away. He served time in Ireland, man, he knows things. It was all Jon and I could do to keep up.

A good time was had by all. I hope. I really should get back in touch with them kids.

So that was a pretty good weekend. No offense to Liz and Eric, but this one just past was even better. It might have had something to do with the weather. Saturday was pretty nice. We went out with Michiko who we haven't seen since last year. We went to the Brazilian place. The one where they keep bringing you meat until you tell them to stop. The place where Jerry would spend all of his time in this country. I, literally, ate until I wept. There was no space left in my body, the meat squeezed everything out. So, so good.

So good.

I was not feeling so good afterwards. It took me a while to fall asleep, and longer to wake up. Ben rang us up and asked us out to a big flea market. We weren't feeling so crash hot and were looking to ditch. But then we checked the weather, it told us high of 20. That's Celsius. We were ready in a flash and out enjoying the sun at Banpaku faster than we thought possible.

Banpaku and Expoworld are a bit of a hike away. They sit on the site of the world expo from years and years ago. And there is something else that sits on that site. Something sinister.



That there is the Tower of the Sun, erected in honour of the 1970 Expo. Japan, a country whose main export is cute, decided that this massive monstrosity that has been scientifically proven to creep out even unborn babies and the deceased would be the best way to welcome the world to their country's Expo.



I just don't get it.

It's creepy from behind too.



So we poked around the flea market for a couple of hours, enjoying the sun and each other's company. I didn't buy anything. A guy my size isn't their target audience. Carla bought a hat. When she tried it on the young folk manning the stall broke into applause. They's crafty. She also got a big brown scarf for free with the hat purchase. I take it the warm clothing wasn't doing so well on the twenty degree day. She also got some postcards and some buttons. And a plate.

Ben bought some stuff as well, but I don't think he can leave a flea market without something.

After the flea market, we wandered through the area of the park filled with plum trees. They are in bloom right now, so the joint was jumping. Everyone was taking pictures, so we did too.



That Tower of the Sun, man, you can't escape it.

It was lovely, the blossoms and the bright, warm sun and the slight, refreshing breeze that blew the blossoms through the air. Just a lovely damn day.



After that we bought some plum wine and headed back home. Ben's home. We ate bento, drank chilled plum wine and DS'd. I don't know if it was the sun or the wine, but we were all looking quite pink by the end of the evening.

A Quick Bit About Food

In the last post I mentioned how we all went out for not-so-good Italian. I don't want you all to think that that is indicative of the Italian food situation across Japan. For that is simply not true. There are scads of quite tasty Italian restaurants right near where I work.

Just yesterday, Carla and I went and had lunch at one such establishment. The lady had the asparagus, bacon and cheese pasta. It was delish. It had pockets of chewy gooey cheese. I had the corned beef and cabbage pasta.

When you think pasta, you think corned beef, right? When you think Japanese food, you think corned beef and pasta, right? It was good. Much better than what I was expecting.

That's something that I still have problems with. Expectations. A couple days ago, I was out buying some bread. I saw a crusty bun covered in bacon and cheese. I totally bought it. Bacon cheese buns helped make me the man I am today. So I bit in...

Bacon and cheese buns, man... They ain't the healthiest bits of bites in the world. A person would have to really try to make it even more unhealthy.

Underneath the cheese and the bacon were chunks of potato smothered in mayonnaise.

Yeah.