Sunday, October 30, 2005
It's Pumpkin Time!
In honor of Japan, I did a Hello Kitty pumpkin this year. It turned out way better than I thought it would!
Japan, Day 9
Friday, October 28, 2005
Nothing really happened on Friday. We left for the airport at 6:00 am and boarded the plane at 11:30. The only thing that really happened, was a camera crew was at the gate while we were waiting for our airplane. I'm not really sure why they were there, but I took a picture of it anyways.
I'm really glad we went to Japan. It was definitely a chance of a lifetime opportunity and I know we'll end up going back.
Nothing really happened on Friday. We left for the airport at 6:00 am and boarded the plane at 11:30. The only thing that really happened, was a camera crew was at the gate while we were waiting for our airplane. I'm not really sure why they were there, but I took a picture of it anyways.
I'm really glad we went to Japan. It was definitely a chance of a lifetime opportunity and I know we'll end up going back.
Japan, Day 8
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Thursday was our last full day in Tokyo. Because we were somewhat exhausted, we decided to split up for the morning. Mike and Haywood explored Shibuya while John and I decided to go shopping for Christmas presents. We went across the street to Keio, an elegant shopping center located above the train station. I made an observation while we were there -- Japan doesn't have malls (due to space limitations), so instead, they cram all the shopping into train stations. This particular place was basically a 7 story Lord & Taylor with restaurants on the 6th floor and an open garden complete with pet shop on the 7th. While looking at the restaurants, I happened to take this picture of a "kids meal" on display. Look closely and you'll see a hello kitty crouton floating in a bowl of soup!
After buying gifts for John's family (my family is already saturated with Japanese memorabilia), I went back to the room to rest and John headed out to get some more things.
We all met up again around 6:00 in order to meet my brother and his friend for dinner. This next adventure was by far, the highlight of the trip. Jim took us to meet a fellow architect, Isao Hosoya, who designed the restaurant we were going to. This place was absolutely incredible. When you first walk in, you have to duck way down to enter the chest-height doorway. Once inside, the entire place looks like a miniature village. There are little huts that seat 2 people, and then there are "buildings" with rooms on top. To get to the rooms, you climb a very narrow staircase (after taking off your shoes, of course) and then you enter this tiny room where you sit Indian style at a low table.
Isao ordered for us and to our surprise, we had dish after dish of the most amazing Japanese food. We probably sampled at least 30 different dishes, the first of which, was "service" (this means "complementary") because Isao designed the restaurant. This dish was sashimi inside of an ice igloo. The igloo is the symbol of the restaurant, and is another reason why the huts were designed to look like ice.
In the middle of the meal, all of us were remarking on how much we loved the clay beer glasses we were drinking from. Isao promptly called the manager over and explained to him we were visiting from DC and loved the glasses. The manager gladly gave us each a glass on the house! After the waiter took our pictures, and we ate some dessert (green tea cake, tofu and sweet bean sauce, ice cream and some other things I can't remember) and headed home.
Thursday was our last full day in Tokyo. Because we were somewhat exhausted, we decided to split up for the morning. Mike and Haywood explored Shibuya while John and I decided to go shopping for Christmas presents. We went across the street to Keio, an elegant shopping center located above the train station. I made an observation while we were there -- Japan doesn't have malls (due to space limitations), so instead, they cram all the shopping into train stations. This particular place was basically a 7 story Lord & Taylor with restaurants on the 6th floor and an open garden complete with pet shop on the 7th. While looking at the restaurants, I happened to take this picture of a "kids meal" on display. Look closely and you'll see a hello kitty crouton floating in a bowl of soup!
After buying gifts for John's family (my family is already saturated with Japanese memorabilia), I went back to the room to rest and John headed out to get some more things.
We all met up again around 6:00 in order to meet my brother and his friend for dinner. This next adventure was by far, the highlight of the trip. Jim took us to meet a fellow architect, Isao Hosoya, who designed the restaurant we were going to. This place was absolutely incredible. When you first walk in, you have to duck way down to enter the chest-height doorway. Once inside, the entire place looks like a miniature village. There are little huts that seat 2 people, and then there are "buildings" with rooms on top. To get to the rooms, you climb a very narrow staircase (after taking off your shoes, of course) and then you enter this tiny room where you sit Indian style at a low table.
Isao ordered for us and to our surprise, we had dish after dish of the most amazing Japanese food. We probably sampled at least 30 different dishes, the first of which, was "service" (this means "complementary") because Isao designed the restaurant. This dish was sashimi inside of an ice igloo. The igloo is the symbol of the restaurant, and is another reason why the huts were designed to look like ice.
In the middle of the meal, all of us were remarking on how much we loved the clay beer glasses we were drinking from. Isao promptly called the manager over and explained to him we were visiting from DC and loved the glasses. The manager gladly gave us each a glass on the house! After the waiter took our pictures, and we ate some dessert (green tea cake, tofu and sweet bean sauce, ice cream and some other things I can't remember) and headed home.
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Japan, Day 7
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Wednesday was spent split up. John and Haywood wanted to go see the Tokyo Auto Show, so Mike and I decided to explore Akihabara. Akihabara is sort of the Nerd district of Japan – it is full of electronics, anime, gundum, arcades and porn. I made sure to steer clear of the porn aspect, letting Mike wander in and out as he saw fit.
In order to get to Akihabara, we had to take the train which was pretty intimidating to navigate without the help of Jim. We spent a good 10 minutes standing on the platform with a map and pointing to all different lines. Finally, a Japanese man came up to us and asked us if we needed help. He told us to get on platform 11, which was a good thing, because we were about to go in an entirely different direction. Once on the train, we had an uneventful ride and we exited into Akihabara with excitement and awe.
Once there, we basically spent a good 5 hours wandering from store to store buying random silly things. One of the things that the Japanese love are collectable figures. They sell these things in sealed boxes, so you can’t tell what you’re going to buy. So once you open the box, if it’s not the figure you want, you buy another box in the hopes that you’ll get your figure. It’s sort of like Baseball cards in the form of useless plastic toys. Well, Mike and I managed to find a store (7 floors) that sold these things already opened in clear plastic bags – so you could just automatically buy what you wanted. I managed to pick up a few humorous things for friends with this newfound method.
We also found a store that was sort of like a ghetto version of Tokyu Hands. It was 7 floors of dollar-storeish items. I managed to pick up some dried fish and crabs along with some other “tasty” treats to bring back to my coworkers. At the top of this store, was a pretty cool arcade. You paid by the minute, and all the games inside were free. So for ¥100 (about 85 cents), you could play any game you wanted, as long as you wanted, for 15 minutes. We spent about 20 minutes in there running around testing all the games. One of the coolest games that I played was a typing/fighting game. Basically, all of these monsters are coming towards you and each one of them has a word on their chest. In order to kill the monster, you have to type the word as quick as you can. If you make a mistake, the monster will take a hit at you. I was pretty good at it, but all the words were Japanese which meant there were like a million hyphens. Since typing a hyphen is not a frequent activity for me, I managed to die on level 3 due to this anomaly.
The trip overall was pretty cool. Mike managed to get a hotdog from Mr. Donut and a cheeseburger from Mos Burger (the Japanese Wendys) which he said was awesome. After a while, we decided to head home as basically every store sold the exact same things and it was getting dark and cold and rainy.
Once back at the hotel, Jim called and we agreed to meet at Meguro Station. After a short train ride and a medium walk, we arrived at his office. It was neat to meet his coworkers and see his desk. There were models of buildings everywhere as well as pictures of projects past, present and future. After his office tour, we walked to an Indian restaurant where we had soup, curry, rice and non. The food was awesome. The owner was an older Indian man that spoke Japanese with an Indian accent. Pretty cool. At the restaurant, we happened to catch the end of the equivalent of the Japan World Series. The Chiba Lotte Marines won with the coaching of American Buddy Valentine. Apparently this was a good thing because there were a rowdy group of Japanese in the restaurant screaming and jumping up and down when this happened. One of the guys (who was pretty drunk) was even crying. He eventually stood up and kissed the TV and kept saying “Bobby! Bobby!” I’m glad we were there to witness that.
After dinner, Jim thought we may want to see Shibuya. This area of Tokyo is for the under 30 crowd and is full of bars, clubs and bright lights.
It is also home to Hachiko, the faithful little Akita dog. Hachiko lived in 1923 and his master was a professor in Japan. Each day, the professor would go to the Shibuya train station with his dog, and each day when he would return, the dog would be waiting for him. One day, the professor got very ill after getting on the train and died. The little dog sat dutifully waiting for him in the same place, only to find his master was not returning. For the next 10 years, Hachiko could be found waiting at the Shibuya train station, sometimes days at a time. He ended up dying in the very spot where he had last seen his master. In honor of Hachiko, there is a bronze statue erected here in Shibuya.
After walking around Shibuya for a while, and after Haywood got a cup of coffee from the busiest Starbucks in the world, we headed back to the hotel to get a good night’s sleep.
Wednesday was spent split up. John and Haywood wanted to go see the Tokyo Auto Show, so Mike and I decided to explore Akihabara. Akihabara is sort of the Nerd district of Japan – it is full of electronics, anime, gundum, arcades and porn. I made sure to steer clear of the porn aspect, letting Mike wander in and out as he saw fit.
In order to get to Akihabara, we had to take the train which was pretty intimidating to navigate without the help of Jim. We spent a good 10 minutes standing on the platform with a map and pointing to all different lines. Finally, a Japanese man came up to us and asked us if we needed help. He told us to get on platform 11, which was a good thing, because we were about to go in an entirely different direction. Once on the train, we had an uneventful ride and we exited into Akihabara with excitement and awe.
Once there, we basically spent a good 5 hours wandering from store to store buying random silly things. One of the things that the Japanese love are collectable figures. They sell these things in sealed boxes, so you can’t tell what you’re going to buy. So once you open the box, if it’s not the figure you want, you buy another box in the hopes that you’ll get your figure. It’s sort of like Baseball cards in the form of useless plastic toys. Well, Mike and I managed to find a store (7 floors) that sold these things already opened in clear plastic bags – so you could just automatically buy what you wanted. I managed to pick up a few humorous things for friends with this newfound method.
We also found a store that was sort of like a ghetto version of Tokyu Hands. It was 7 floors of dollar-storeish items. I managed to pick up some dried fish and crabs along with some other “tasty” treats to bring back to my coworkers. At the top of this store, was a pretty cool arcade. You paid by the minute, and all the games inside were free. So for ¥100 (about 85 cents), you could play any game you wanted, as long as you wanted, for 15 minutes. We spent about 20 minutes in there running around testing all the games. One of the coolest games that I played was a typing/fighting game. Basically, all of these monsters are coming towards you and each one of them has a word on their chest. In order to kill the monster, you have to type the word as quick as you can. If you make a mistake, the monster will take a hit at you. I was pretty good at it, but all the words were Japanese which meant there were like a million hyphens. Since typing a hyphen is not a frequent activity for me, I managed to die on level 3 due to this anomaly.
The trip overall was pretty cool. Mike managed to get a hotdog from Mr. Donut and a cheeseburger from Mos Burger (the Japanese Wendys) which he said was awesome. After a while, we decided to head home as basically every store sold the exact same things and it was getting dark and cold and rainy.
Once back at the hotel, Jim called and we agreed to meet at Meguro Station. After a short train ride and a medium walk, we arrived at his office. It was neat to meet his coworkers and see his desk. There were models of buildings everywhere as well as pictures of projects past, present and future. After his office tour, we walked to an Indian restaurant where we had soup, curry, rice and non. The food was awesome. The owner was an older Indian man that spoke Japanese with an Indian accent. Pretty cool. At the restaurant, we happened to catch the end of the equivalent of the Japan World Series. The Chiba Lotte Marines won with the coaching of American Buddy Valentine. Apparently this was a good thing because there were a rowdy group of Japanese in the restaurant screaming and jumping up and down when this happened. One of the guys (who was pretty drunk) was even crying. He eventually stood up and kissed the TV and kept saying “Bobby! Bobby!” I’m glad we were there to witness that.
After dinner, Jim thought we may want to see Shibuya. This area of Tokyo is for the under 30 crowd and is full of bars, clubs and bright lights.
It is also home to Hachiko, the faithful little Akita dog. Hachiko lived in 1923 and his master was a professor in Japan. Each day, the professor would go to the Shibuya train station with his dog, and each day when he would return, the dog would be waiting for him. One day, the professor got very ill after getting on the train and died. The little dog sat dutifully waiting for him in the same place, only to find his master was not returning. For the next 10 years, Hachiko could be found waiting at the Shibuya train station, sometimes days at a time. He ended up dying in the very spot where he had last seen his master. In honor of Hachiko, there is a bronze statue erected here in Shibuya.
After walking around Shibuya for a while, and after Haywood got a cup of coffee from the busiest Starbucks in the world, we headed back to the hotel to get a good night’s sleep.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Japan, Day 6
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
On Tuesday, Jim actually had to go back to work so we were on our own. We decided to explore some of the more memorable stores to see how the average Tokyo shopper acquired their goods. After getting fuel for Mike and Haywood in the form of McDonald’s, we headed past the train station (below)
to Tokyu Hands which is self defined as a “Creative Life Store”. This place was pretty neat. It was 7 stories high, and each story had a different theme and resembled an American store.
The floors were:
• Floor 1, Party Supplies and Toys: very much like “The Party Store”
• Floor 2, Camping Goods: “LL Bean”
• Floor 3, Kitchen Goods: “Bed, Bath and Beyond”
• Floor 4, Furniture Goods and Bedding: the “Bed” part of “Bed, Bath and Beyond”
• Floor 5, Electronic Goods and Crafts: “Radio Shack” and “Michaels”
• Floor 6, Wood Supplies: “Home Depot”
• Floor 7, Stationary and Office Supplies: “Office Depot”
The concept of this store is really great. John remarked that if we had a store like this in America, we would only have to shop at one place for most of our needs instead of driving from store to store. Some of the more unique items to note that we found were: collapsible chopsticks for camping, 6 lighters with 1 month on each side so you can have a lighter for every month of the year, a stapler that staples using paper instead of staples, and a quilt for kids that teaches body functions. This quilt has detachable “poops” “pees” and “bacteria” that you can affix to a body and a toilet using Velcro. You can open up the body and see the bacteria in the digestive tract, too. As Mike was taking a picture of it, a store clerk told him to stop. We’re still really not sure why, but I hope his one picture turned out.
After Tokyu Hands, we headed off to a 6 story arcade. It seems like here in Japan, they are big into themed floors. This building was no different. We went from a floor full of crane machines, to a floor full of photo booths, then 2 floors of pinko slots, then 2 floors of arcade machines.
From there, we went to the Best Buy of Tokyo, called Yodobashi. This place is like six buildings of electronic and toy themed floors. It was difficult not to get lost in here. One of the most intriguing floors was the appliances floor where they had thin refrigerators and countertop dishwashers.
After Yodobashi, John and I went back to the hotel to rest up before going out to dinner prescribed by Jim. Jim sent us by taxi to a quaint little Italian restaurant called Armonia. Seating no more than 25 or so, we were served a Japanese version of Italian food in the form of a six course meal. We had: lightly smoked tuna with vegetables, lotus root and chicken wrapped in cabbage, tomato and basil pasta, snapper with Italian ham, ice cream with a chocolate dusted miniature éclair, cappuccino, and then Japanese tea to finish the meal. The meal was fantastic and was a great way to enjoy Tokyo without the antics of Mike and Haywood.
We walked back from the restaurant on a beautiful 66 degree clear night and back at the hotel, John went out with Mike and Haywood to an English pub while I stayed back and caught up on work email and then went to bed.
On Tuesday, Jim actually had to go back to work so we were on our own. We decided to explore some of the more memorable stores to see how the average Tokyo shopper acquired their goods. After getting fuel for Mike and Haywood in the form of McDonald’s, we headed past the train station (below)
to Tokyu Hands which is self defined as a “Creative Life Store”. This place was pretty neat. It was 7 stories high, and each story had a different theme and resembled an American store.
The floors were:
• Floor 1, Party Supplies and Toys: very much like “The Party Store”
• Floor 2, Camping Goods: “LL Bean”
• Floor 3, Kitchen Goods: “Bed, Bath and Beyond”
• Floor 4, Furniture Goods and Bedding: the “Bed” part of “Bed, Bath and Beyond”
• Floor 5, Electronic Goods and Crafts: “Radio Shack” and “Michaels”
• Floor 6, Wood Supplies: “Home Depot”
• Floor 7, Stationary and Office Supplies: “Office Depot”
The concept of this store is really great. John remarked that if we had a store like this in America, we would only have to shop at one place for most of our needs instead of driving from store to store. Some of the more unique items to note that we found were: collapsible chopsticks for camping, 6 lighters with 1 month on each side so you can have a lighter for every month of the year, a stapler that staples using paper instead of staples, and a quilt for kids that teaches body functions. This quilt has detachable “poops” “pees” and “bacteria” that you can affix to a body and a toilet using Velcro. You can open up the body and see the bacteria in the digestive tract, too. As Mike was taking a picture of it, a store clerk told him to stop. We’re still really not sure why, but I hope his one picture turned out.
After Tokyu Hands, we headed off to a 6 story arcade. It seems like here in Japan, they are big into themed floors. This building was no different. We went from a floor full of crane machines, to a floor full of photo booths, then 2 floors of pinko slots, then 2 floors of arcade machines.
From there, we went to the Best Buy of Tokyo, called Yodobashi. This place is like six buildings of electronic and toy themed floors. It was difficult not to get lost in here. One of the most intriguing floors was the appliances floor where they had thin refrigerators and countertop dishwashers.
After Yodobashi, John and I went back to the hotel to rest up before going out to dinner prescribed by Jim. Jim sent us by taxi to a quaint little Italian restaurant called Armonia. Seating no more than 25 or so, we were served a Japanese version of Italian food in the form of a six course meal. We had: lightly smoked tuna with vegetables, lotus root and chicken wrapped in cabbage, tomato and basil pasta, snapper with Italian ham, ice cream with a chocolate dusted miniature éclair, cappuccino, and then Japanese tea to finish the meal. The meal was fantastic and was a great way to enjoy Tokyo without the antics of Mike and Haywood.
We walked back from the restaurant on a beautiful 66 degree clear night and back at the hotel, John went out with Mike and Haywood to an English pub while I stayed back and caught up on work email and then went to bed.
Monday, October 24, 2005
Japan, Day 5
Monday, October 24, 2005
Monday was spent with a trip through the Japanese countryside via train, cable car, ropeway, boat, bus, then train. Around 10:00 AM we met up with Jim and his friend at the Sinjuku train station. We agreed to go to Hakone which is a historic vacation spot for the Japanese. This area is full of hot springs, water, mountains and on a clear day, you can even see Mt. Fuji. After getting our tickets and stopping for coffee (I got a Green Tea Latte which I was not fond of), we boarded the “Limited Express Romancecar” which is just a really cool name for a train. The train took us in style about an hour and a half from Shinjuku to Odawara. Here we got on a smaller train another few miles to Gora. Once in Gora, we boarded a cable car that was propped at about a 45 degree angle which took us up a pretty steep incline (apparently, this is the second steepest cable car in the world) to Sounzan. At Sounzan, we got into a Busch Gardens like ropeway car which took us up another steep mountain where we could see a huge strip mine complete with the sulfuric smell of the hot springs.
We shared the ropeway car with a group of people from the UK who kept telling their little children that the smell was merely “stinky burps”. At the top of the ropeway, we got out and took another ropeway car, this one much smaller, down the mountain to Lake Ashi where we boarded a cheesy, Disney-ish boat called the Hakone Sightseeing Ship.
On the lake, we got to see the top of Mt. Fuji along with other beautiful scenery. John compared it to upstate New York, and for good reason. We also got some time to take some "action shots".
Off the boat, we took a detour to visit another shrine where I got some great pictures as the sun was setting.
After the shrine, we stopped to eat at a great little restaurant where we had all different forms of noodles, rice, tempura, and soup. After eating, we got on the Hakone Tozan Bus which took us down windy mountains back to the Romancecar.
After getting back, John, Haywood, Mike and I decided to get some good ol’ American cuisine and scoped out a Wendy’s. The food was good, but John and Mike said their chicken sandwich was freezer burnt and dry. A short walk from Wendy’s was an arcade where we spent some time playing a fighting game by typing on a keyboard and a game where you hit a Samurai drum. Exhausted, John, Haywood and I went back to the hotel to crash, leaving Mikey in the arcade. It’s about 10 hours later, and I would not be surprised if Mike was still there.
Monday was spent with a trip through the Japanese countryside via train, cable car, ropeway, boat, bus, then train. Around 10:00 AM we met up with Jim and his friend at the Sinjuku train station. We agreed to go to Hakone which is a historic vacation spot for the Japanese. This area is full of hot springs, water, mountains and on a clear day, you can even see Mt. Fuji. After getting our tickets and stopping for coffee (I got a Green Tea Latte which I was not fond of), we boarded the “Limited Express Romancecar” which is just a really cool name for a train. The train took us in style about an hour and a half from Shinjuku to Odawara. Here we got on a smaller train another few miles to Gora. Once in Gora, we boarded a cable car that was propped at about a 45 degree angle which took us up a pretty steep incline (apparently, this is the second steepest cable car in the world) to Sounzan. At Sounzan, we got into a Busch Gardens like ropeway car which took us up another steep mountain where we could see a huge strip mine complete with the sulfuric smell of the hot springs.
We shared the ropeway car with a group of people from the UK who kept telling their little children that the smell was merely “stinky burps”. At the top of the ropeway, we got out and took another ropeway car, this one much smaller, down the mountain to Lake Ashi where we boarded a cheesy, Disney-ish boat called the Hakone Sightseeing Ship.
On the lake, we got to see the top of Mt. Fuji along with other beautiful scenery. John compared it to upstate New York, and for good reason. We also got some time to take some "action shots".
Off the boat, we took a detour to visit another shrine where I got some great pictures as the sun was setting.
After the shrine, we stopped to eat at a great little restaurant where we had all different forms of noodles, rice, tempura, and soup. After eating, we got on the Hakone Tozan Bus which took us down windy mountains back to the Romancecar.
After getting back, John, Haywood, Mike and I decided to get some good ol’ American cuisine and scoped out a Wendy’s. The food was good, but John and Mike said their chicken sandwich was freezer burnt and dry. A short walk from Wendy’s was an arcade where we spent some time playing a fighting game by typing on a keyboard and a game where you hit a Samurai drum. Exhausted, John, Haywood and I went back to the hotel to crash, leaving Mikey in the arcade. It’s about 10 hours later, and I would not be surprised if Mike was still there.
Japan, Day 4
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Sunday was really a cool day. We decided to head to Roppongi. This is known as the “tourist” area of Japan as it is filled with obnoxious Americans looking to go clubbing and have a good time. Instead of going clubbing, we went to Roppongi Hills, which is a new mega-plex of towers and buildings built by Mori Building Company (the Japanese equivalent of Trump Enterprises). On the top of the building, was the “Tokyo City View” where we would see Tokyo from an amazing vantage point. From this location, Jim was able to point out various landmarks, including some of his firms’ buildings that they had constructed.
In the same area of the building, was the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit (on loan from Bill and Melinda Gates). This exhibit is put on display once per year and showcases the actual pages from da Vinci’s Codex Leicester —all written in mirror image. Amazing to see that in person.
After the da Vinci exhibit, we headed to what was probably the most fascinating thing I had ever seen. Mr. Mori commissioned a gigantic scale model of New York, Tokyo and Shanghai which fit into about 2,000 square feet of space at 1/1000 the scale. These models were breathtaking to see and what was even more eye opening was seeing New York compared to Tokyo – Tokyo filled up about 4 times the amount of space as New York. Along with these models, were interesting statistics on each of the 3 cities, showing population, density, divorce rate, birth rate, class size, etc. The only thing I regretted about this, was we were not allowed to take pictures.
From Roppongi, we headed to Asakusa per Dawn’s suggestion. In Asakusa, we went to Kappa-bashi which is the restaurant supply district. Just about any type of restaurant good can be found here, from aprons to dishes to the piece de resistance – plastic food. Here in Japan, just about every restaurant has a perfect plastic replica of every item on their menu. So if you are hungry, you just point to something and they’ll serve it to you. It’s great for us foreigners who cant speak a lick of Japanese. Well, in Kappa-bashi, they sell these replicas which just totally fascinated Mike and I. Needless to say, I couldn’t leave without purchasing some fake steak and pasta.
From there, we headed to Nakamise-dori which is a street lined with all sorts of vendors selling their wares. I managed to get some good video footage of this, which I will post when I get home. At the end of the street, was a great Shrine where we stopped to take pictures and Mike got his fortune by shaking a metal box, and having a piece of wood fall out. On the wood was a symbol which corresponded to a drawer. When you pull the drawer out, you pick up a piece of paper that tells you your fortune. Mike's basically said, "you'll find the girl, pass the exam, buy the house, live the life, make the money, get the job...etc..." They seem to cover all bases on those things.
At the end of the day, we were completely beat and all of us crashed at the hotel around 7:00 and fell asleep without dinner.
Sunday was really a cool day. We decided to head to Roppongi. This is known as the “tourist” area of Japan as it is filled with obnoxious Americans looking to go clubbing and have a good time. Instead of going clubbing, we went to Roppongi Hills, which is a new mega-plex of towers and buildings built by Mori Building Company (the Japanese equivalent of Trump Enterprises). On the top of the building, was the “Tokyo City View” where we would see Tokyo from an amazing vantage point. From this location, Jim was able to point out various landmarks, including some of his firms’ buildings that they had constructed.
In the same area of the building, was the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit (on loan from Bill and Melinda Gates). This exhibit is put on display once per year and showcases the actual pages from da Vinci’s Codex Leicester —all written in mirror image. Amazing to see that in person.
After the da Vinci exhibit, we headed to what was probably the most fascinating thing I had ever seen. Mr. Mori commissioned a gigantic scale model of New York, Tokyo and Shanghai which fit into about 2,000 square feet of space at 1/1000 the scale. These models were breathtaking to see and what was even more eye opening was seeing New York compared to Tokyo – Tokyo filled up about 4 times the amount of space as New York. Along with these models, were interesting statistics on each of the 3 cities, showing population, density, divorce rate, birth rate, class size, etc. The only thing I regretted about this, was we were not allowed to take pictures.
From Roppongi, we headed to Asakusa per Dawn’s suggestion. In Asakusa, we went to Kappa-bashi which is the restaurant supply district. Just about any type of restaurant good can be found here, from aprons to dishes to the piece de resistance – plastic food. Here in Japan, just about every restaurant has a perfect plastic replica of every item on their menu. So if you are hungry, you just point to something and they’ll serve it to you. It’s great for us foreigners who cant speak a lick of Japanese. Well, in Kappa-bashi, they sell these replicas which just totally fascinated Mike and I. Needless to say, I couldn’t leave without purchasing some fake steak and pasta.
From there, we headed to Nakamise-dori which is a street lined with all sorts of vendors selling their wares. I managed to get some good video footage of this, which I will post when I get home. At the end of the street, was a great Shrine where we stopped to take pictures and Mike got his fortune by shaking a metal box, and having a piece of wood fall out. On the wood was a symbol which corresponded to a drawer. When you pull the drawer out, you pick up a piece of paper that tells you your fortune. Mike's basically said, "you'll find the girl, pass the exam, buy the house, live the life, make the money, get the job...etc..." They seem to cover all bases on those things.
At the end of the day, we were completely beat and all of us crashed at the hotel around 7:00 and fell asleep without dinner.
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Japan, Day 3
Saturday, October 22, 2005
On Saturday, per my request, we “eased” ourselves into Tokyo.
John and I started our day at the hotel’s “American Buffet” where they served “typical” American breakfast food. We had hotdogs, steamed vegetables, lasagna and French fries along with cereal, fruit, bread, and boiled eggs. We also noticed that they had tomato juice there too. Weird.
Jim came to our hotel room around 11:00 and the 5 of us prepared to venture out and explore Shinjuku. We started out by learning the ropes of the train station and going 2 stops to Takeshita Dori where we walked through a beautiful park to the Meiji Jingu Shrine. Once there, we got to see a wedding party walking through as well as some little children dressed in ceremonial dress. Apparently, on significant birthdays, they get dressed up and get their picture taken at the Shrine.
On the way back from the Shrine, we stopped at a cafeteria in the park and had some Japanese fare.
After the Shrine, we went to Takeshita Street, which is known for it’s hip fashions and is the epicenter of Japanese teenagers.
On this route is my brother’s latest building, still under construction, so we stopped to take pictures of the structure. The leopard part is an all glass building that will house Cartier's store. Cartier put the leopard over the glass as an ad to say, "We're coming!". The structure in the back that looks like wood, is actually limestone. The entire building is very impressive.
After that, we went to an antique store that sold all sorts of tourist friendly goods like sake boxes and green tea sets. I noted that Jim probably gets our Christmas presents from this store, as many items looked oddly familiar. After antiqing, we pressed on to Kiddy Land, which is a 5 story building full of Japanese toys. This place was a blast and I'm sure you could see Mike drooling all the way in America. I picked up some miniature Japanese food in this store and John managed to find something close to his heart too.
That night, we met up with several of Jim’s friends for some “Italian” cuisine. The restaurant was located in the Japanese Opera House (which is really an enormous skyscraper). Jim thought we were going to a laid-back place, but we ended up in a very nice place complete with 3 course meal and a half of bottle of wine per person. The appetizer was a jelly with sausage and eggplant… sort of like an Italian Jello. The main course was pasta with black and green olives and red pepper. For dessert, we had cooked pomegranates with cinnamon and ginger with ice cream. Quite a good meal. After the restaurant, we met up with another friend, Sunoco, who informed me she was “so happy for the existence of Jim-san.” We then headed off to a traditional Japanese smokey bar for beer and sake. At the bar, we were served tofu with shredded fish, boiled soybeans in salt water (these were cool – they looked like pea pods and you just popped the soybeans out of the pods to eat them), dried manta ray, nato (this was gross – it was fermented soybeans with raw tuna), baked chicken, potatoes with cheese, and water lily roots. We were seated next to a group of drunk college guys that kept chanting in Japanese (one gulp! One gulp!) and then proceeding to down their sake. By the end of the night, one guy had taken off his shirt and another was drunkenly groping his friend. I think Mike and Haywood were quite intrigued by this.
On Saturday, per my request, we “eased” ourselves into Tokyo.
John and I started our day at the hotel’s “American Buffet” where they served “typical” American breakfast food. We had hotdogs, steamed vegetables, lasagna and French fries along with cereal, fruit, bread, and boiled eggs. We also noticed that they had tomato juice there too. Weird.
Jim came to our hotel room around 11:00 and the 5 of us prepared to venture out and explore Shinjuku. We started out by learning the ropes of the train station and going 2 stops to Takeshita Dori where we walked through a beautiful park to the Meiji Jingu Shrine. Once there, we got to see a wedding party walking through as well as some little children dressed in ceremonial dress. Apparently, on significant birthdays, they get dressed up and get their picture taken at the Shrine.
On the way back from the Shrine, we stopped at a cafeteria in the park and had some Japanese fare.
After the Shrine, we went to Takeshita Street, which is known for it’s hip fashions and is the epicenter of Japanese teenagers.
On this route is my brother’s latest building, still under construction, so we stopped to take pictures of the structure. The leopard part is an all glass building that will house Cartier's store. Cartier put the leopard over the glass as an ad to say, "We're coming!". The structure in the back that looks like wood, is actually limestone. The entire building is very impressive.
After that, we went to an antique store that sold all sorts of tourist friendly goods like sake boxes and green tea sets. I noted that Jim probably gets our Christmas presents from this store, as many items looked oddly familiar. After antiqing, we pressed on to Kiddy Land, which is a 5 story building full of Japanese toys. This place was a blast and I'm sure you could see Mike drooling all the way in America. I picked up some miniature Japanese food in this store and John managed to find something close to his heart too.
That night, we met up with several of Jim’s friends for some “Italian” cuisine. The restaurant was located in the Japanese Opera House (which is really an enormous skyscraper). Jim thought we were going to a laid-back place, but we ended up in a very nice place complete with 3 course meal and a half of bottle of wine per person. The appetizer was a jelly with sausage and eggplant… sort of like an Italian Jello. The main course was pasta with black and green olives and red pepper. For dessert, we had cooked pomegranates with cinnamon and ginger with ice cream. Quite a good meal. After the restaurant, we met up with another friend, Sunoco, who informed me she was “so happy for the existence of Jim-san.” We then headed off to a traditional Japanese smokey bar for beer and sake. At the bar, we were served tofu with shredded fish, boiled soybeans in salt water (these were cool – they looked like pea pods and you just popped the soybeans out of the pods to eat them), dried manta ray, nato (this was gross – it was fermented soybeans with raw tuna), baked chicken, potatoes with cheese, and water lily roots. We were seated next to a group of drunk college guys that kept chanting in Japanese (one gulp! One gulp!) and then proceeding to down their sake. By the end of the night, one guy had taken off his shirt and another was drunkenly groping his friend. I think Mike and Haywood were quite intrigued by this.
Japan, Day 2
Friday, October 21, 2005
We arrived in Japan a little after 3:30 PM in Narita airport. The airplane taxied for about 20 minutes before finally coming to a halt. We got out, went through customs (customs consisted of a guy asking us: “Are you bringing in anything illegal?” Once we said “no” we were free to go through) and went in search of the “Friendly Limousine” that would drive us to the hotel. For ¥6,000 (about $50.00) we purchased 2 tickets and were VERY ready to get settled into the hotel.
We hopped onto the limousine at 4:35 and figured we’d be at the hotel around 5:30. After driving through the equivalent of 4 New York cities, and sitting in rush hour that makes the beltway look like a country road, we arrived at the hotel a little after 7:00 PM (which was 6:00 AM EST) cranky, tired, and as I described it, “feeling like I wanted to scratch my face off” from frustration and exhaustion.
When we got to the hotel, Mikey and Haywood had not arrived, so we called Jim who came over with Shrimp and Mayonaise potato chips, Chinese food, flavored water and Pocky. Mike and Haywood arrived around 8:00 PM and we all decided to walk to downtown Shinjuku to get some Japanese food. We arrived at a place that Jim said was equivalent to “Japanese Dennys” and settled in. To my dismay, I had to take off my shoes (I didn’t have socks on) so walking around in a foreign country barefooted and jet lagged was not a great feeling. We sat for about an hour and had beer, fried octopus balls, pizza with corn, sashimi, a beef and noodle dish, and cheese and garlic bread. After stumbling back to the hotel more tired than I had ever been in my life and being awake for over 24 hours, we crashed.
We arrived in Japan a little after 3:30 PM in Narita airport. The airplane taxied for about 20 minutes before finally coming to a halt. We got out, went through customs (customs consisted of a guy asking us: “Are you bringing in anything illegal?” Once we said “no” we were free to go through) and went in search of the “Friendly Limousine” that would drive us to the hotel. For ¥6,000 (about $50.00) we purchased 2 tickets and were VERY ready to get settled into the hotel.
We hopped onto the limousine at 4:35 and figured we’d be at the hotel around 5:30. After driving through the equivalent of 4 New York cities, and sitting in rush hour that makes the beltway look like a country road, we arrived at the hotel a little after 7:00 PM (which was 6:00 AM EST) cranky, tired, and as I described it, “feeling like I wanted to scratch my face off” from frustration and exhaustion.
When we got to the hotel, Mikey and Haywood had not arrived, so we called Jim who came over with Shrimp and Mayonaise potato chips, Chinese food, flavored water and Pocky. Mike and Haywood arrived around 8:00 PM and we all decided to walk to downtown Shinjuku to get some Japanese food. We arrived at a place that Jim said was equivalent to “Japanese Dennys” and settled in. To my dismay, I had to take off my shoes (I didn’t have socks on) so walking around in a foreign country barefooted and jet lagged was not a great feeling. We sat for about an hour and had beer, fried octopus balls, pizza with corn, sashimi, a beef and noodle dish, and cheese and garlic bread. After stumbling back to the hotel more tired than I had ever been in my life and being awake for over 24 hours, we crashed.
Japan, Day 1
Thursday, October 20, 2005
The ride to the airport was given to us by John’s Mom and after hugs and goodbyes, we made it uneventfully through security. Our flight took off at 12:20 PM and we prepared for the 14 hours ahead. Once on the plane, John and I immediately settled in and started playing with all of the gadgets. There were little TV screens in the back of the headrest of each seat, and we could watch TV, movies, play games and even track our progress to Japan via a GPS image of an airplane flying over a digital map. We constantly got updates of how long to our destination in miles, kilometers, and minutes, but also the current temperature (I was amazed that it was consistently 20-50 below zero) our altitude and our estimated arrival time.
The meals on the plane were a great foreshadowing to the meals we would be eating in Japan. We started out with hot towels, drinks and rice crackers. Then we had a chicken and rice dish with smoked salmon and potato salad with cold noodles and sesame oil, bread and crackers. John observed that most of the people on the plane were drinking tomato juice? We still haven’t figured that one out yet. We had a snack of Cup of Noodles and more rice crackers and then were served dinner that consisted of pasta, tomato sauce and a slice of cheese melted over top with yogurt (not sure why?) and bread.
The ride to the airport was given to us by John’s Mom and after hugs and goodbyes, we made it uneventfully through security. Our flight took off at 12:20 PM and we prepared for the 14 hours ahead. Once on the plane, John and I immediately settled in and started playing with all of the gadgets. There were little TV screens in the back of the headrest of each seat, and we could watch TV, movies, play games and even track our progress to Japan via a GPS image of an airplane flying over a digital map. We constantly got updates of how long to our destination in miles, kilometers, and minutes, but also the current temperature (I was amazed that it was consistently 20-50 below zero) our altitude and our estimated arrival time.
The meals on the plane were a great foreshadowing to the meals we would be eating in Japan. We started out with hot towels, drinks and rice crackers. Then we had a chicken and rice dish with smoked salmon and potato salad with cold noodles and sesame oil, bread and crackers. John observed that most of the people on the plane were drinking tomato juice? We still haven’t figured that one out yet. We had a snack of Cup of Noodles and more rice crackers and then were served dinner that consisted of pasta, tomato sauce and a slice of cheese melted over top with yogurt (not sure why?) and bread.
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