We're Engaged!!!

On Tuesday, at Kiyomizudera in Kyoto, Jake proposed to me and I said yes!!! We are so excited. Kiyomizudera was Jakes favorite sight in Kyoto from his last trip, and it was the temple I was most looking forward to seeing. It is built high into the side of a mountain, with amazing views of the whole city of Kyoto. Because of Nihonbarre, the weather was absolutely beautiful for our visit there.

One of the things you can see at Kiyomizudera is Jishu Jinga, or the Love Shrine. Jishu Jinja is two stones, about 18 meters apart from each other, and it is said that if you can close your eyes and walk safely from one stone to the other, then you will find true love. Jake asked me if I wanted to try and walk. I was a little bit skeptical because there didn't seem to be anyone else doing it, but there were a million people walking back and forth between them to get to the shops that lined either side. I was pretty sure that if I tried I would just walk into people. Jake promised that he would make sure I didn't, so I closed my eyes and started walking. Jake gave me directions so I stayed in a straight line, and helped me to avoid the crowds of people crossing. When I reached the second stone and opened my eyes, he was down on one knee in front of me holding up the most beautiful ring. He asked me to marry him, and because I wasn't sure I could talk I just nodded and gave him a hug. I don't think I've stopped smiling since.

Hooray for nihonbarre!

We got up early on Wednesday to make the most of our last day in Kyoto. As i do every morning, I checked weather.com for some insight as to how the day was going to be. The result, as i had expected, 100% chance of precipitation all the way through until 7 pm, when we were planning on leaving, then it was going to miraculously clear up as we headed back to Tokyo. So we dressed for cold rain, rolled up our pant legs, grabbed the umbrellas and headed out the door. We checked out of the hotel and had them hold our bags to be picked up later.

It wasn't raining outside, but it looked like it could at any second, so we hopped a cab and headed to Ginkakuji to try and get at least one temple in before the eminent downpour. We arrived at the gates just before they opened and were the first people to walk in. Ginkakuji is also known as the silver pavilion. This building itself is a copy of the gold pavilion without the gold. Contrary to the name, it doesn't actually have any silver on it either - just wood. In fact the pavillion itself was under construction as they were re-roofing and doing repairs. What makes this sight special is the garden and surrounding grounds. It was a treat to be able to walk through this treasure without hordes of other onlookers around. Everything seems so peaceful and not one leaf looks out of place. There are also two sand sculptures that must be constantly maintained especially with the recent rain. We saw some of the staff with brooms in hand helping to keep everything perfect and pick up fallen leaves to allow all of the magnificent moss to be exposed. The path around the grounds leads up a tree covered hill and offers some great views of the valley below. We were having the temples calligraphy and stamp done in Erica's book as a group of loud school kids were entering. It made us appreciate our early start even more.

Nihonbarre is a japanese term meaning the cleansing of japan. It is used to refer to the day after a typhoon has passed, and the weather is perfect. It became apparent as we were leaving Ginkakuji that today was in fact Nihonbarre. We have had the pleasure of experiencing this event twice in our trip. We have also had the misfortune of experiencing a typhoon twice during our stay as well. Our current situation was a reminder of how inaccurate weather.com can be as we were both dressed inappropriately for the beautiful day that we were going to have and had to carry around our umbrellas even though we wouldn't need them - ce la vie.

Just down the hill from Ginkakuji is the beginning of "tetsugaku no michi" loosely translated to the path of philosophy, which is a small sleepy path next to a canal along the base of the mountain. The path pointed us back in the direction of the hotel so we walked along. The walk is extremely pleasant, quiet and without much foot traffic. We passed maybe 10 people while following the canal for the next mile or so. Covered by trees, with the sound of the flowing water the entire distance, it was really nice and relaxing.

We continued walking through some back streets and saw some beautiful homes as well as passed some less well known temples and shrines. As we turned a corner we could see the hotel so we headed there to catch a cab to our next point of interest - Kyomizudera.

TokyoBilly

Billy wrote up a post about our visit on his blog TokyoBilly! Check it out to hear about our trip from a different point of view, and also to see some more pictures!

More Temples and Animal Adventures in Kyoto!

Tuesday was another gray rainy day in Kyoto. Apparently our trip coincided with Typhoon #15, which was the cause for our lovely weather. Jake and I were determined to make the best of it, so we rolled up our pants, grabbed our rain coats and umbrellas and headed out anyway.

We took the hotel shuttle back to Kyoto station (which, for some unknown reason, I consistently call "the airport"), and from there we caught the train to Nara. Nara is about an hour away from Kyoto, and it's known for two things. 1: the many beautiful temples and shrines that can be found there. and 2: Deer. Nara is filled with these deer, that just roam around everywhere you go! Their antlers are trimmed down, and they seem very calm (sedated?) for wild deer. It's so crazy that you can just walk right up to them, and they don't run away.

The main thing that Jake and I wanted to see in Nara was Todai-Ji, which was 2.3 km from the station. Despite the rain, we opted to walk rather than grab a bus. On the way there, we passed through Kofuku-ji, a huge temple complex. Kofuku-ji used to be made up of over 125 buildings, however only twelve are left standing today. The most impressive is the beautiful 5 story Pagoda.

Leading up to Todai-Ji is a road lined with small vendor stalls selling souvenirs, deer cookies (for the deer, not people) and, Jake's favorite, Green Tea ice cream. Jake wanted a cone, so we stopped and got some. We stood just in front of the stall, and ate our ice cream, while we watched two tourists feed the deer. We were laughing at how bold the deer were. These poor tourists were quickly surrounded by deer, and the woman, who was holding the food, was getting nipped in the butt by deer who thought she wasn't giving out the food fast enough! The people quickly finished up and hurried along down the road. At this point, one of the deer glanced in our direction, and decided that maybe he would like some ice cream as well! He looked us dead in the eye, and started walking towards us, ever so slowly. Jake and I didn't know what to do, so we just sort of backed up into the stall, and eventually Jake had to hold his umbrella out in front of him to hold the deer off! Just as the deer was about to actually come into the stall with us, the woman running the place came running out from behind us, banging the ground with a huge stick and yelling at the deer to scare him away! Then she turned to us, and calmly said "So sorry!" We couldn't help but laugh, and we decided it was best to throw the rest of our ice cream away and head for the temple.

The main hall of Todai-Ji is the largest wooden structure in the world. Contained within is one of the largest bronze statues in the world, a Daibatsu standing almost 16 meters tall. The building is set up so that you can walk all the way around the statue. It's an amazing thing to see, and one of my favorite parts of Japan so far.

After Todai-ji, we headed back to the station, and from there took a train to Inari, where we visited Fushimi-Inari Taisha. This is one of the craziest sights I have ever seen. It is a series of tunnels made out of bright vermilion tori gates, each carved with a unique inscription. Jake and I had a great time walking through the tunnels, although the rain did make it a bit treacherous at times. Fushimi-Inari Taisha is built into the side of a mountain, so there are lots of steep stone staircases that need to be climbed, and when they get wet, they get slippery! Luckily we made it through without any accidents.

By this time it was starting to get dark, so we headed back to Kyoto. We were both grateful to get back to the hotel and into dry clothes.

Monkeying around in Kyoto

Monday morning came extremely fast as we had to be up by 5am and be ready to leave the hotel at 6. We took a train to Tokyo station and then boarded the Shinkansen (bullet train) which left for Kyoto promptly at 7am. In my opinion this is the best way to get to Kyoto as the alternative night bus takes about 10 hours and costs only 30% less than shinkansen tickets. The train takes 3 hours, so it is more than 60% faster but only 30% more expensive - the time you save makes it very worth while.

We slept most of the way and before we knew it we were in Kyoto by 10am. We spent some time in the station itself. You have to see this place to believe it. It stretched way above the city skyline and includes a hotel, shopping mall and department store. It has all manner of restaurants, travel agents, info booths and stores. The architecture is very modern and is a stark contrast to the old temples and shrines that the city is known for. We got a quick snack, placed our luggage in a locker (since we couldn't check into the hotel until after 3) and headed out to explore Kyoto.

We had decided to start in the northwest corner of the city with one of the most famous attractions - Kinkakuji. This is also known as the golden pavilion. We took a bus from the station which was labeled express (not really as express as you would think) and within 30 minutes we were at the gates to the complex. At this point I can mention that it was raining, not heavily but raining none the less. This was going to cramp our style a bit since there was bound to be quite a bit of walking to do.

The gold pavilion is beautiful. It sits on a picturesque pond within a perfectly manicured environment. it is hard to believe anyone can keep things that perfect without any crew visible. we walked around the grounds for a bit, taking as many pictures as we could and then headed out to the street. We walked to our next sightseeing spot - Ryoanji. Ryoanji is a temple complex but it is most well known for its impressive zen garden. The garden is full of small pebbles that are raked into perfect straight lines except for when they meet the large rock and moss areas. The whole spot is very peaceful even when full of tourists. Erica and I broke out our Kyoto book to decide what to do next. We decided on a spot a bit south west of Ryoanji near the river. We walked from the temple around a beautiful pond and about a half mile to a small train station.

The train was really more of a tram. It was a small rickety single car that poked along at a rather slow pace. The engine seemed to be hiccuping and making all manner of odd noises on the way. We had to change to yet another tram (identical in every way, including noises) and arrived at Arashiyama about 30 minutes later.

From here we walked across a bridge and to the entry of our destination - the monkey park. There was a small set of stairs and an even smaller shrine outside the gate. Surprisingly no one was there. We bought our tickets and headed through a gate and up some old brick stairs. Then our climb began. We walked up a hill then up a long set of stairs and around the mountain. All along the way seeing signs about not feeding the monkeys or even showing them food, also not to stare at the monkeys. I had to laugh - i mean we have seen things like this in the states. Signs leading you to believe that maybe you are in a little danger only to realize that you are all too safe. At this point i am prepared not to see any monkeys at all as we had seemingly climbed half way up monkey mountain and hadn't seen or heard a fricken monkey.

Just when i thought we were nearing the top i could see that we were only half way. Now began a long series of switchbacks up the remainder of the climb. It was fairly treacherous as the rain made it slick and not all areas had hand rails or guard rails. If you weren't careful you could get hurt. We were taking a breather and i turned to look below at are path. There, right where we had been walking only moments before, was a monkey. We aren't talking small rhesus monkey here, this thing looked to be the size of my dog. I was shocked - Erica was shocked. Perhaps my skepticism was unwarranted, at least we saw one monkey though it was far away and had waited until we left to reveal itself.

We went through another set of switch backs and suddenly a monkey started screaming from a tree just behind Erica. She screamed, i jumped, now we realized that the situation was different - there were monkeys, big monkeys and we had yet to see a single person. As we rounded the last switchback and could partially see the safehouse at the top of the hill the situation was fully realized; 2 people versus 50 or so of our simian cousins. They didn't seem afraid of us at all - in fact it was quite the opposite. I have to admit that the thought crossed my mind of the two of us being killed by angry 60 pound mini gorillas, especially since the signs had explicitly noted not to stare at them. We had come too far to turn back so we moved up the path and finally someone came out of the safehouse as i was certain we were about to be overrun by monkeys - he looked at me and said "Please, just inside now". We weren't asking any questions just averted our eyes from the monkeys and walked quickly inside.

Inside the safehouse you can buy some food (for yourself or the monkeys) and rest for a bit. We decided to buy some monkey food and as soon as the 100 yen coin hit the counter the windows were crawling with monkeys. All of the windows were covered in fencing and had a wooden shelf which you could place food on. There were signs showing you the proper way to feed them and handy tidbits like how to avoid injury to your face - good to know. The monkeys all had the same shtick. They would climb to the window, mothers would bring their babies clutched to them for extra effect. They would stretch their hands in and beckon while the look on their faces was one of "i know you are gonna feed me so just give me the fricken food already". We tried to take lots of pictures and after 45 minutes we decided to head on to our next stop. One of the workers escorted us outside to point the way down and made a monkey pose with us for a picture. We carefully climbed back down the path and back out to the river.

We spent the next 30 minutes or so walking to the bamboo forest. This was a beautiful sight. The bamboo is 50 feet high and is so dense it would be hard to walk between the stalks. We then decided to walk to the JR station to use our rail pass and get back to Kyoto station and check in to the hotel. Well the first station we came to wasn't the right one. So we kept walking. The rain had gotten harder and the next 45 minutes were extremely long. By the time we got back to Kyoto station we were drenched and tired. We retrieved our bags from the locker and waited for the shuttle to the hotel. It was great to finally get into some dry clothes. Our first day in Kyoto was definitely a memorable one and we were looking forward to the rest of our stay, despite the fact that it was going to rain the whole time.

(stay tuned for the next post about Tuesday and deer)

Billy style dinner

We had been cramming a lot into each day here in Japan, so on Sunday we didn't do too much. Slept in, got breakfast, did a little shopping back in Harajuku and then headed to Higashi Nakano to meet with Billy and have dinner at his place.

Billy met us at the station and we started walking in the direction of his apartment. We passed some interesting little places including "Parm Tree" with pictures of palm trees on the store front. The place was closed, so i have no idea what the do and or sell. We stopped at a place called Life. Life is kind of an all in one store - the first floor sells clothes and all sorts of things and downstairs is a full fledged grocery store. We headed downstairs to pick up items for dinner. We bought 3 different types of fish (salmon, tuna and a third fish that was seared), rice, udon, carrots, daikon, cucumber, goma dressing, lemon, rice, eggs, green onion, wasabe, ginger, udon sauce, OJ, ginger ale, edemame, gyoza and some ice cream bars. It was a lot of food and the pricing was extremely reasonable. We then walked back to Billy's apartment which was less than a mile away. Luckily the rain held off until we got inside.

We started prepping the food while we waited for Marc to arrive. Chopped veggies for salad, chopped fish, made rice etc. It should be noted that most of the work was done by Erica and Billy. I was in charge of edemame and udon boiling. Everyone should be thankful that i didn't have to do any real cooking. We also watched some US TV shows on Billy's computer. When Marc Arrived it was time to eat.

We started with a salad of Cucumber, Daikon and carrot with goma dressing. We also had edemame and gyoza, then moved on to fish. The salmon was marinated in lemon juice, salt and olive oil. It was very tasty and light. The tuna was raw then dipped in egg (also raw) and then dipped in hot rice before eating - also delicious. The seared fish was delicious on its own. The udon was served cold and dipped into the sauce with ginger, wasabe and green onion - awesome. We finished things up with the ice cream. Needless to say, we were all stuffed after that.

Once dinner was complete we chilled and watched some more TV - the office, 30 rock and californication. Billy also let us contribute to his apple tree painting. So now Erica and I have our own apples at Billy's, stop by his place if you want to see and add your own. Later on we headed back to Shinjuku to pack for our Kyoto trip on Monday.

Thanks Billy for your hospitality - dinner was awesome.

The Coolest Park Ever

On Saturday Jake and I met up with Marc and Billy in Kichijoji, and then rode the train out to Tachikawa. Billy told us that this was home to an amazing park called Showa kinen, so of course we had to go check it out. I must say, even Billy's glowing description of this place didn't do it justice. We walked up to what I thought was the park, and Billy informed us that this was only the pre-park - a free area where anyone could hang out. To go into the actual park, you had to pay 400 yen, so a lot of people just chose to hang out in this area. It made sense to me, as this pre-park area looked nicer than all of Piedmont Park. Once we got into the park, Billy suggested we rent bicycles to help us get around. Jake was a little skeptical at first, but once Billy explained that the park was really too big to walk around, he got on board. We each paid 410 yen for a bike for 3 hours, and we hit the trails. The park is enormous, and every inch of it is perfectly cared for. It was so nice to just ride around and take everything in. Our first stop in the park was the Children's forest. In the parks I'm used to, the kids area is usually just some swings, a jungle gym and maybe some of those little animals on springs that you can ride. Maybe in a really nice park, you'll have one of those big wooden castle like things for kids to play in. Ya, this park put all of that to shame. The first part of the Children's forest we came to was this field with little hills built into it at regular intervals, and a huge mist making machine. The mist would fill up the whole area, and kids could run around and hide between the hills. It was crazy. Then we went over to the fuwa-fuwa dome. Basically, this is a humongous white cloud like thing that is half bouncy bounce and half trampoline. Adults can go on this thing as well, and I have to tell you, it was a lot of fun! After that we walked over to the Sand Dragon area, which was basically a huge sandbox, with these enormous dragon sculptures built to look like they were swimming through the ground. The dragons were't just sculptures though - they had tunnels and slides built into them, so you could crawl all around them.

That was pretty much it for the kids area, so we all got back on our bikes and rode around a bit more. We rode past the BBQ area. Apparently, you can reserve a BBQ area (you have to do it pretty far in advance), and you just tell them how many people, and they provide everything from the grill to the paper plates to the food. How convenient is that?? And it smelled delicious as we went by. Eventually we came to the part of the park they called the open field, which is exactly what it sounds like. We laid our blanket down, and Marc, Billy and Jake spent some time throwing a football around. Then Billy showed us some card tricks that he's learned. Who knew Billy was a magician??

It was getting close to the time that we needed to return the bikes, but there was still so much more to the park that Billy wanted to show us. We rode quickly over to the water area of the park. This part was already closed for the summer, but it was still fun to look around. It was a huge water park right in the park, complete with gigantic slide, lazy river, and this crazy rope net mountain thing that sprayed water. I cannot believe that people can come hang out and use all of this stuff for only 400 yen- that's about $4.00!!!!! If I was a little kid living in Tokyo, I would beg my parents to take me there every day.

Next to the water park, there is a lake with little paddle boats that you can rent, so we rode over there to look around, but then it was time to return our bikes. We never even got to see the sports area of the park, which is filled with games like horseshoes and bocce ball. This really was the craziest park I've ever been to. It was such a fun day, and I'm glad we got to experience this part of Tokyo.

For dinner that night, Marc and Billy took us to a place in Shibuya for Yakuniku. At yakuniku, you have a little grill built into your table. There was a buffet set up of all different kinds of raw meat and vegetables, and you fill up your plate, bring it back to the table and cook it all up. It's one of Billy's favorites because he loves meat, and he loves grilling, and it's not really something you get to do much of in Tokyo. We had fun trying the different meats and trying to figure out which was the best. We didn't know what anything was because all of the signs at the buffet were in Japanese, but the one we decided was best was the ka re be.

After dinner we walked over to a place that had all kinds of games that you could play - things like bowling and darts, and of course karaoke. We decided to rent a ping pong table for a while. Ping Pong is not my best game, so I didn't do so well, but I still had fun. By this time it was already time for last train, so we all had to head home.

Friday night, Tokyo style

On Friday night, we met up with Marc, Marcs friend Mai, Billy and Billy's friend Eri for a fun night out, Tokyo style! We met up at the Hachiko statue outside of Shibuya station. I've been excited to see the Hachiko statue, because I love the story that goes along with it. Hachiko was a dog, and his owner was a professor, who took the trains to work. Each morning Hachiko would walk his owner to the train station, and each evening he would be waiting outside the gate for his owner to return. Sadly one day, the owner passed away while he was at work, so he never returned to Hachiko. Hachiko returned to the station the next day hoping for his owner to come home, and he did this every single day for the next seven years, until he himself passed away. After his death, the townspeople raised money to have the Hachiko statue built at the place he used to wait. The statue is now a landmark where people go to meet up with friends.

Our first stop was the Daibatsu Korokoro Isekaya. In Japan, homes are very small, so it's difficult to have guests over. Instead, people go to Isekayas, which are restaurants divided into many small rooms, where people can eat, drink and hang out. It's meant to be a leisurely meal, and the food is served almost Tapas style, where you order many small plates throughout the evening, instead of each person ordering just one entree. The food at Daibatsu Korokoro was some of the most adventurous that I've eaten in Tokyo. I ate raw horse meat! I was a little hesitant to try it, but everyone insisted that it was delicious, and I needed to at least taste it. And I have to admit, it was pretty good. We also ate marinated beef tongue, and a cheese tofu dish. The cheese tofu was delicious. It was soft and creamy and sweet - almost like a cheesecake!

Next we went to Karaoke. Karaoke is huge in Tokyo, and it was really fun! You rent out your own private karaoke room, so you don't have to wait around listening to strangers sing, and you don't have to worry about making an idiot of yourself in front of strangers - just in front of your friends! We had a great time, and the hour that we'd gotten the room for flew by.

We ended the night at a bar called NOS, where we met up with some of Marcs friends. The trains in Tokyo stop running from about Midnight till 5 am, so a bunch of people headed home at this point to make sure that they didn't miss last train. We opted to stay out a bit later, and just grab a taxi home. We were surprised to find that it was difficult for us to get a Taxi, when we wanted to go home. It seemed that every other car was a taxi, but none of them would stop for us. The japanese people on the other corner didn't seem to be having this problem. Hmmmmmm. Oh well. We eventually got one to stop, and we headed back to the hotel. All in all, it was a great night out. Thanks to Marc and Billy and all of their friends for showing us such a good time!!

Shinjuku Koen and Kichijoji

On Friday Jake and I decided to take it easy. We've been going non stop since we landed here, so both of us needed a little break. Plus, Marc and Billy had planned a big night out for us on Friday night, so we wanted to make sure and save our energy.

We slept in, and then took our time getting ready in the morning. It wasn't until after 11 that we finally made it out of the hotel. First order of business was to exchange some money, so we went to the citibank next to our hotel. If you ever find yourself in Japan, citibank is a great place to exchange money. They have english speaking tellers, which is nice because you have to fill out some paperwork, and they're good about explaining it to you. Also, citibank ATMs accept american cards, which is very convenient.

Next we went to Hana Maru for "breakfast". Hana Maru is the chain Udon place that we went to for lunch on our first day in Tokyo. I loved it, and was very excited to discover that they had a location right around the corner from our hotel. It was just as delicious the second time around, and it only cost us around 1000 yen($10) for both of our meals! I wish we had one of these places in Atlanta!

After that we walked over to Shinjuku Koen. This is a beautiful park/garden. It costs about 200 yen to get in, but it is so worth it. In typical Japanese style, everything in the park is perfectly taken care of. The Koen is divided into regional sections. Since we had plans to meet up with Marc at 2:00, we only really made it through the French garden and the Japanese garden. If we have time later in the trip, I'd love to go back and explore it more fully.

Marc gets off work early on Fridays, so we met up with him for a late lunch in Kichijoji. Kaiten sushi again! I could eat that every day. After lunch we walked around Kichijoji for a bit. There is a great pottery store there (the one that Jake thought was in Akihabara), so we picked up some souvenirs, and then we spent some time wandering around the park. The park has a little lake in it, and you can rent little paddle boats or rowboats. It was really funny to watch the rowboats. It seemed that people sat facing the back of the boat (just like I would), but then instead of pulling the oars towards them to make the front of the boat cut through the water, they were pushing the oars away from them making the back of the boat move forward. I'm not sure if that's how the Japanese do it, or if these people were just confused, but the only person we saw rowing correctly was a gaijin (foreigner).

By that time we needed to head back home, so we could get ready to go out!

of laundry, okonomiyaki and crepes

After a well needed nap thursday afternoon we headed to Shimokitazawa, where Marc lives. He was nice enough to offer his washing machine to us as we were in need of some laundry. We had tried to wash some items at the hotel but the laundry service is outrageously expensive - 230 yen per pair of socks, and we would have had to spend over $100 just to get our clothes clean. We also tried washing a few items in the sink at the hotel but there is a lot of humidity in the room and things were still too wet to wear after 2 full days of sitting out. One of the issues that laundry brings is that almost no one owns a dryer. Perhaps it is a space thing or perhaps people like the feel of clothes dried in the open air. The space argument doesn't make too much sense to me since you have to put all of the clothes out to dry and that takes a lot of fricken space. Not to mention the extra time it takes to dry. Once the clothes were washed we hung them up to dry in Marc's room and headed out to get a bite to eat.

Okonomiyaki is an okinawan style food. It is comprised of 2 pancakes that form a sandwich around a mixture of noodles and vegetables and then covered with extras you can order. There was a great little place within walking distance from Marc's apartment. We waited about 10 minutes there and were seated at a table that had a griddle built in. Erica had hers with lettuce and scallops, i had mine with shrimp and garlic, and Marc had his with shrimp and scallions. The food comes mostly cooked and is placed on the griddle in front of you. You get an interesting tool to help eat your meal, it is kind of like a paint scraper, a small blade bent at a slight angle to help cut the food and scrape it off the griddle. This continued the trend that all japanese food is good.

Afterwards we walked to an interesting store in Shimokita called the village vanguard. It is an eclectic grouping of items from books and music to furniture and clothes. Lots of kitsch in this place and it takes a while to just take it all in. My favorite was the music playing in one section of the store. The japanese cover of bob denvers country road. Most of the song was in japanese except for the chorus where the girl sang in english - country road - take me home - to the prace i berong. Classic.

We then took a walk up to one of my favorite places in shimokitazawa, the crazy crepe lady, who lives and works a couple of blocks from Marc's apartment. If this place were in the streets of an american city, i don't think anyone would eat there. It is a simple boot at the end of a street, kind of dingy, with an assortment of disney character toys out front (all pretty dingy themselves). A small screen with disney animation playing and the items available hand written in japanese all over the front of the booth. It has no name, no sign and needs a new coat of paint. Inside is a woman with one eye, a crepe iron and a fridge surrounded by some small walls covered in pictures of kittens.

Despite all of this she makes a mean crepe and japanese people line up outside her booth for hours to get a taste. Making her one of the most famous people in shimokita.

I ordered a crepe with ice cream and my favorite red bean paste. I had to order in japanese as she speaks no english, and she laughed at me as i ordered. Regardless it was well worth it, and i plan on getting at least one more of her crepes before returning to the states.

Fish heads, fish heads, rolly polly fish heads.

One of the most interesting places to see in Tokyo is the Tsukiji fish market and most notably the tuna auctions that happen there. Unfortunately the auctions start at 5:30 in the morning! Not wanting to miss this, we met our guide - Amaya san - in the hotel lobby at 4am. We grabbed a taxi outside the hotel and headed to the market.

The thing about Tsukiji is that it isn't meant for tourists. This is a real place of business and millions of dollars worth of fish and seafood are bought, sold and packaged there everyday. The reality is that while you stand in a path taking pictures there are people trying to get by and make money. Imagine if people came to your place of work and stood right where you needed to be with flashing cameras, blocking your path while you are trying to make deadlines. That is what Tsukiji is like for the people who work there.

The market is also a dangerous place. There are no areas sectioned off just for tourists (actually one, will get there in a bit), and no pedestrian paths. 20,000+ trucks move in and out of the market every day and there are thousands of little carts that zoom by at dangerous speeds moving fish and other items throughout. You really have to pay attention or you can get hit, maimed or killed in many different ways. That fact helps keep you awake that early in the morning.

Recently, the market has changed its policy on tourists during the hours of the auctions. This is the biggest draw to Tsukiji and it was its most problematic. Tourists would touch the fish, blind the auctioneers with flashes and generally cause issues with the auctions. So now you must be confined to a small area, roughly 4 feet wide by 50 feet long that runs down the center of where the frozen tuna are auctioned off. Flashes are no longer allowed either. It gets rather crowded but it was still quite a site.

There are hundreds of frozen tuna laid out on the floor of the market. Each one is numbered and marked with where it was caught and its weight in kilograms. Representatives of the wholesalers at the market examine the fish by cutting its tail and looking at the color, rubbing the fish meat between their fingers, and sometimes tasting the fish. This gives them an idea of quality of the fish, and it goes on for about an hour or so before the auction begins.

The auctioneer will ring a bell for about 30 seconds and then begin a barrage of fast talk in which he calls out the number of the fish and prices. The wholesalers stand around and make fairly discreet hand gestures using their thumbs and fingers. The whole thing only took a few minutes and was very interesting to watch. It was easy to see how some camera flashes might cause the auctioneer to miss signals from the bidders. The crazy thing is how much some of the fish go for. A big tuna of good quality may go for up to 10,000 yen per kilogram. The biggest fish we saw weighed in at over 250 kilograms, making the fish work over $25,000!

We walked around the market for a while after and Amaya san would point out different fish and tell us what they were called in english as well as japanese. After nearly being killed by hundreds of moving carts we decided to go eat at one of the famous sushi restaurants inside the market walls.

The place is called Sushi Dai and it already had a line outside at 6:30am. We waited for a bit over an hour before we could enter. The place is extremely small with a max capacity of about 15 japanese or 10 americans. It consists of a bar with stools, a shelf to put your bags on, a small kitchen in back, 1 waitress and 3 sushi making men behind the bar, oh and lots of fish. The fish is as fresh as can be and the men make the sushi with their bare hands. They place the pieces on the bar one at a time as they make it and you eat it without plates. The chef will tell you what it is as he puts it down and whether you should dip in soy or eat without any sauce. I have to admit it was amazing, probably the best sushi in the world. We had tuna, sea urchin, mackerel, sea bass, sea eel and some other pieces as well. The sea bass and eel were standouts. I can't believe raw fish can taste so good! - There was one piece that wasn't so good. We got a roll that looked like tuna and cucumber but frankly i thought the fish was bad. It was an awkward moment as you can't really not eat the fish they give you, so i choked it down. Later on while discussing with Marc we found out that it was salmon fetus, and that is just what it tastes like. Even though i was a little disturbed, i was still happy not to have eaten bad fish.

We left the market at about 8:45 and walked to the nearest train station. Amaya san was ready to show us some other great spots in Tokyo. We arrived just outside of the imperial palace. This place is gigantic. The outer moat runs for blocks and the gardens just inside the moat seem to go on forever. It is an extremely lavish space especially in a city that is so crammed together. The unfortunate thing is that no one is allowed inside the palace gates, so you can't even marvel at the space. The farthest you can go is to the inner moat and the 2 bridges that are there. You can see a small guard house overlooking the bridges but that is it. We took some pictures and wondered back into the Maranouchi area of the city.

This is a business / shopping district very close to the main Tokyo subway station. Amaya san practiced his english by saying the names of the stores as we went by. We waked into the Maranouchi building and accessed the Tokyo station through the basement. Next stop Ginza.

Ginza is like Manhattan's 5th avenue, expensive trendy stores and boutiques that stretch for a mile or so. There were people lined up outside a number of the stores waiting for them to open. Most notably was the H&M store, which had a line that went on for blocks and needed security guards to help manage it. This is the only H&M in japan right now, but it was hard to believe that it had been open for weeks already and still had enough buzz to draw a line early on a thursday morning. We visited a bonsai shop which had some amazing trees and the sony building which had an exhibition on Kabuki.

We headed back to Shinjuku for lunch and Amaya san brought us to his favorite tempura shop. The place was made out of an old house and we sat upstairs right in front of the chef. We each got rice, miso soup and tempura dipping sauce with ground radish. The chef would make the tempura while we ate and place pieces down as they were done. Shrimp, whitefish, pepper, sweet potato, and a cake of different seafood. The flavors were amazing and even though the food is fried, it still seems so light.

We headed back to the hotel and thanked Amaya san for his time. He was a gracious host and was too nice for words. I hope he enjoyed our day even a fraction of how much we did - omoshirokatta desu yo. We then headed to the room for a well deserved nap!

Akihabara and Sumo!

On wednesday Jake and I were on our own again. Since it was a beautiful day out, we decided to make our first stop the Tokyo Metro building, which is just a short walk from our hotel. This is the tallest building in Tokyo, and if you take the elevator to the top floor, you can see pretty much the entire city from their observation deck. On a very clear day, you can even see Mt. Fuji! Unfortunately it was a little bit too hazy for us to see the mountain, but the rest of the view was spectacular. It really makes you realize how dense of a city Tokyo is - every bit of available space is being put to use somehow.

Next we hopped on the train and headed to Akihabara, which is home to Electric Town. Basically this is an area of Tokyo that sells every electronic gadget known to man. There are cell phone shops, computer and stereo stores, and even stores that just sell random circuit boards! Electric Town also sells lots of toys and anime memorabilia. We went in one store that had 3 floors dedicated just to models! One floor for historical models, one for model cars and one for model trains! Crazy, huh?

Jake remembered from his last Tokyo trip that somewhere in Akihabara was a street where they sold nice Japanese pottery, but he couldn't remember exactly how to get there. We decided to just walk around and look for it, but we couldn't find it, and instead wound up in a different part of the city altogether. I'm not really sure where we were, but there was a great open air market and lots of golf shops there. Jake and I found a little place to eat lunch and we had some really tasty soba noodles and some Indian Curry. Kind of an odd combination, but it worked. After that we made our way back to Electric Town. We never did find that area that sold pottery, and Marc told us at dinner last night that that was because it actually isn't in Akihabara at all, but in another part of the city! He promised to take us there before the end of our trip.

Our next stop was Ryogoku. Ryogoku is home to the Tokyo-Edo museum, and it is also where the fall Sumo tournament is! Jake and I checked out the museum first. It covers the history of the city and it is a really interesting museum. It has a life size replica of the nihombashi bridge that you walk across as you enter, and it also has lots of beautiful incredibly detailed models of what Tokyo looked like before the big fire and WWII. It was great to see.

After the museum, we got to go watch Sumo! Jake and I are really lucky, because Sumo only happens three times a year, and our trip just happened to fall during one of the tournaments. Our seats were really high up in the stadium, but eventually we snuck down to the ground floor and stood in a doorway there to watch the matches. It was much more exciting when you could see them up close, even though we're still not exactly sure how Sumo works. The basic rule is that whoever gets pushed out of the ring or touches the ground first loses - but thats just the actual fight. Before they fight there are several rituals which we didn't totally understand. First the wrestlers would get into the ring and do some stretches, then they would get into position as if they were about to start - but then they'd sort of change their minds and go back to their corners. They'd repeat this at least three or four times before each fight. There was also lots of arm and chest slapping, and they throw a lot of salt into the ring. Kind of confusing, but still interesting to watch, and the matches themselves are pretty exciting! If you're ever in Tokyo during a Sumo tournament, it's definitely worth checking out!

Kama Kama Kama Kama Kama Kamakuuuuura

Tuesday happened to be a national holiday here in Japan. This meant that Billy and Marc both had the day off so we decided to take a day trip to Kamakura with Billy's friend Sena and hope that the weather held up. We hopped on a train at 10 am and headed out.

Kamakura is a city just south west of Tokyo. It lies on the south shore of Japan and is surrounded to the north by old mountains. It is a generally rich area of the country and the population isn't as dense as it is in Tokyo. The city is also home to some ancient landmarks, shrines and temples.

We picked up a bus once we got to the station and headed to the most recognized of Kamakura's treasures, the Great Daibatsu or big Buddha. The buddha is a giant hollow metal sculpture that stands (sits actually) about 37 feet tall. It sits on a giant stone base and is on an elevated platform from where you enter. There is a low building that surrounds the statue and behind that is just mountains and sky. It is really a breathtaking sight.

The story goes that the buddha was once housed in a giant wooden building but during a tsunami the entire Kamakura area was flooded and the temple was destroyed. Even though the storm was strong enough to was away most of Kamakura, the statue remained intact.

For a whopping 20yen (less than 20 cents) you can go inside the statue. You have to walk up the narrowest staircase ever and then you can marvel at how the statue is formed. Joined pieces of molded metal that must have taken years to complete. You can rub the buddha's belly from the inside before heading out (it gets hot in there).

We found another shrine on a map that looked rather close so we decided to walk. Little did we know that the shrine was close to 3 miles from the Buddha. Thankfully Sena was there to help us communicate with locals and find our way. We navigated some sleepy back streets and walked up a paved mountain path to a tunnel in the mountain with a Torii gate - we had found it.

This shrine allowed you to wash money in a mountain spring. The story said that you will receive many times the amount you wash in good fortune. Billy washed about $100, as for us we settled for about $10 in coins we had. Afterwards we decided to head back to the area near the train station to get some lunch.

Since it was a national holiday - Kamakura was jam packed with visitors and finding a place ready to accomodate 5 people was a chore. We finally found a chinese place and had lunch. Dumplings, chicken & cashews, pork in a miso sauce and lo mein with squid and octopus. Then we walked a few hundred feet up the road and got my favorite thing in Kamakura - ice cream - sweet potato and green tea swirl - yum!

We continued walking north to the main temple in the heart of the city. the view at the top of the main staircase is amazing, and the temple itself is beautiful. After a few minutes there we walked back down the main street all the way to the ocean.

We met with Marc's friends Michael and Mami and got some Chu-hi from the convinience store and drank until the sun went down over the mountains. We then walked back up to the train station and headed back to Shinjuku. It was a long day and that made it easy for erica and myself to catch a few zzzzz's on the train. All totaled we walked about 6 miles around the city over an 8 hour period.

For dinner we walked from the shinjuku station to the NS building which is right next to the Tokyo Metro complex. We went up to the 30th floor and found a Tonkatsu restaurant with a table at the window. Tonkatsu basically means pork cutlet, but the word rather implies a deep fried meal that is usually pork but can be a number of items. We each ordered a set that included the main course, rice, soft boiled egg, miso soup, cabbage salad and a complimentary drink. We chose Sake and the waiter poured us a most generous, overflowing glass. The food was delicious, and we crossed another food off of our list of must eats while in japan.

After dinner we walked down to the main lobby where we could use the lottery cards we were given at the restaurant. Erica won a gift certificate for 1000 yen (10 bucks) and we could see that we should have washed more money a the shrine in kamakura :)