Posts made in May, 2015

Shinkansen Ride to Kyoto, Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, and Tenryū-ji

Posted by Chelsie on May 27, 2015 in Japan, Kyoto | 3 comments

This morning we woke up bright and early and were excited to take a bullet train (Shinkansen) to Kyoto. The train was beautiful and we had spacious first-class seats which were really comfortable. Like everything else in Japan, the Shinkansen was a wonderful experience. We were treated to beautiful views of cities, rural farming areas, mountains, and even the ocean at a few points as we were jetted away at 150 mph to our destination. Despite being a 285-mile journey, it only took us 3 hours to get to Kyoto.

When we arrived at the station we were totally overwhelmed. The main station in Kyoto is a multi-level sprawling complex that seems to never end. It’s literally a city with a city here and guess what? Our hotel is actually inside the train station…that’s how big it is. The great thing is that there is enough people-watching and food options to last a lifetime. After checking into our hotel, we ventured further into the station and found a large department store with a whole floor dedicated to restaurants. We found a delicious-looking katsu (fried pork) place and enjoyed a leisurely lunch that was out of this world. The pork was perfectly fried crispy and tender and the rice was a much superior quality to anything you would find at home. Andrew especially liked the special katsu dipping sauce which was kind of a sweeter, milder version of steak sauce.

After lunch we relaxed a bit in the hotel in our Yukata (lightweight, Japanese house robes) before catching a train to Arashiyama to enjoy the famous bamboo grove and Tenryū-ji, the head temple of the Tenryū branch of Rinzai Zen Buddhism. The inside of the temple had closed already, but the views of the outside were just stunning. Since it was late in the afternoon, the sun was low in the sky, casting a beautiful golden glow to the buildings and surrounding mountains. After that we walked through the famous bamboo forest which was cool and calming.

For dinner we enjoyed Okonomiyaki which are savory pancakes grilled tableside and some Wagyu beef with vegetables. When we asked for a table, the hostess told us that there were no open seats, but that they had another location just a short walk away. We assumed that she would give us a map, but she was so gracious that she called ahead to make sure they had a table and then walked us there herself. The graciousness of the Japanese people never fails to astound us. Dinner was great, but we both decided that the pancakes weren’t our favorite thing.

Tomorrow we are looking forward to seeing some more temples.

Cheers!

Chelsie and Andrew

 

 

 

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Ginza, Asakusa, and Tokyo Sky Tree

Posted by Chelsie on May 26, 2015 in Japan, Tokyo | 4 comments

We started our morning by heading back to the building that our sushi dinner was in to scout out some breakfast. While nothing on the upper floors was open, we were treated to a pretty spectacular aerial view of the fish market and harbor. Lucky for us, there was an onigiri (rice ball) place open on the first floor so we could enjoy a quick snack to get us started for the day. I had the tempura onigiri and it really hit the spot.

After that we headed to Ginza, a high-end shopping district nearby our hotel. While they did have the usual things you would expect from a high-end shopping area (Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci, etc.), they also had an amazing high-end Japanese department store called Matsuya where we found the most beautiful wind chime for our patio back at home to remind us of our trip. We also found a really cool stationery store and picked up a few souvenirs there before checking out the flagship UNIQLO store.

At this point we were starting to wonder what we were going to do for lunch (leave it to us to always be thinking about our next meal) and I suggested we look for udon because we hadn’t had any yet. After striking out in Ginza in the udon department we decided to head back to a ramen place we had noticed the evening before. The reason it stuck with us is that they were hand-making noodles as we came out of our sushi dinner late in the evening. Well, it turns out that we didn’t look very closely at the noodles they were making because they were actually udon noodles and I got my wish in the end. Also, this wasn’t just any run of the mill udon joint. It was a happening lunch spot for business people and had really delicious food. Everything about our lunch was just right…the noodles were the perfect texture, the broth was flavorful but delicate, and the tempura toppings were crisp and fried to perfection. I think my face in the photo says it all. Micah and I both thought this restaurant concept would easily translate to the Los Angeles scene. Next business venture?

After lunch we headed back to the hotel to bid farewell to Micah as he embarked on the next part of his trip. As we headed for the subway, Andrew’s phone started making strange noises and speaking to us in Japanese. For a moment, we were really confused and then other people’s phones started doing the same thing. It turned out that there had been a sizeable earthquake and they were using their warning service to make sure everyone was aware. The earthquake delayed the train service for about a half hour while engineers did safety checks, but the whole experience really showcased the levels of organization, preparedness, and order here. Communication was good, people remained clam, procedures were followed, and the trains were back up and safely running in a very short amount of time. We were impressed and the experience definitely made us feel like Tokyo knows what they are doing. California can certainly learn a few things in this area. I suppose in the city of this size, you can’t afford to not have a highly organized emergency response plan.

Since Andrew really didn’t get enough of the electronics store the day before, we returned to Asakusa so he could explore two additional floors (mostly computer-related) of the Yodabashi-Akiba. This time we took more pictures so you can see it. It’s almost impossible to really describe the madness in words. We also checked out a 7-floor arcade and a Pachinko place. Pachinko is one part carnival game, one part slot machine that seems to be very popular with young men here. As soon as the automatic glass doors parted, you were immersed in deafening and smoke-filled madness. At first we thought that something was horribly wrong with their air conditioning because of the noise, but it turns out that’s just Pachinko. If it weren’t so smoky, I would have loved to try it. Maybe we will revisit later in the trip.

For our evening activity, we really wanted to visit the Tokyo Sky Tree, the world’s tallest tower. At 600 meters, it had a 360-degree jaw-dropping view and we were there just in time to watch the beautiful pink sunset. The colors of the sky here are relatively similar to those in Los Angeles…a beautiful range of pink to orange fading to purple as the night sky closes in. The entire tower was an amazing engineering marvel, but I have to give extra props to the people who designed the elevator. In 45 seconds, it whisked you all the way to the top without even a hint of a bump or elevation change (except for a quick ear-pop of course). Andrew said it best when he pointed out that the tower is amazing, but its best feature is that it showcases how amazing Tokyo is as a whole. Stretching all the way to the horizon is a densely packed skyline of high-rises and infrastructure. The sheer magnitude of the size of the city is overwhelming and completely wonderful at the same time. We feel like we saw so much in the few days we were here, but we really only scratched the surface. It was a very fitting last night in Tokyo as tomorrow we leave on a Shinkansen (bullet train) for Kyoto.

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Asakusa, Akihabara, and Kaiseki

Posted by Chelsie on May 24, 2015 in Japan, Tokyo | 6 comments

As we had promised ourselves yesterday, we once again opened the day at the fish market. It was Sunday here and while the inner market and some of the shops in the outer market were closed, there were still enough vendors to throw together a delicious breakfast. My favorite thing was the incredibly juicy ginger pork dumplings one woman was steaming out in the open. They were the size of a large meatball and were served with some kind of mild soy sauce concoction. We went back for multiples. We also had more omelet, this time with grated radish on top which most of us decided we could live without for next time. After snacking, we did some serious knife buying at one of the vendors we had checked out on Saturday. All together, our group bought six knives with Micah and I both taking home a damascus steel sashimi stunner.

In the afternoon we headed over to Asakusa for a tempura lunch and to visit Senso-ji, Tokyo’s oldest Buddhist Temple. The neighborhood was quaint and honest with more Japanese locals than tourists which was a nice change of pace. The buildings were also a lot older and many featured playful and colorful samurai warrior figures protecting the city. We queued in a line that stretched around the corner for a table at a bustling tempura joint known for their ebi tendon (tempura shrimp over rice with sauce). It was a lot of fun getting to sit on the floor on tatami mats and the waitresses didn’t speak any English so ordering was a fun experience with lots of pointing and hand gestures. It mostly worked out well although I can imagine we weren’t their favorite customers of the day.

It was Sunday so the temple was busy (or maybe it’s always busy?). If you look at the pictures you can see how beautiful it is with it’s traditional red and white pagoda-style architecture. The temple has been here since AD 628, but it was rebuilt after being damaged in bombings during WWII.

On the way back to the hotel we decided to drop by Akihabara which is known as “electric town” to see the latest and greatest electronics on display. For some reason they had closed down the large main street so we were able to walk right down the middle and take in the sights. Thousands of people milled about shopping for the latest gadgets and anime. The main highlight was Yodobashi-Akiba, an immense store selling every item you can imagine. It was seven massive floors and it looked like they had taken every item for sale at Amazon.com and put in on display for people to mess around with. We only visited the floor with the cameras of course, but we are going back tomorrow I think so hopefully Andrew can get some photos.

To close off the night, we had the hotel make us reservations at a high-end sushi restaurant nearby. The views were spectacular and as we watched the sun set over Toyko from the 46th floor, we enjoyed an amazing kaiseki meal of around 8 or so courses. Kaiseki is a traditional multi-course Japanese dinner that features alternating hot and cold seasonal dishes created by the chef. Highlights for me were the smoky, salty sea snail in course one and the sashimi in course two. Especially noteworthy were the two small shrimp that tasted as if they were somehow magically made of cream. They were unlike any shrimp we had ever eaten and will stick in our minds for a long time to come.

 

 

 

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Tsukiji Fish Market, Shibuya, and Shinjuku

Posted by Chelsie on May 23, 2015 in Japan, Tokyo | 4 comments

Wow, what a day! I’m sure you will see from the pictures that we covered a lot of ground in our first day and saw many very diverse sights.

We started off at the Tsukiji fish market, a huge sprawling complex made up of the inner fish market and the outer food and kitchen wares market. The pictures don’t do the size and impressiveness justice. The smells are out of this world and the diversity of snacks, seafood, sushi, knives, etc. etc. etc. is amazing. The first thing that caught my eye (or maybe more accurately, my nose) was some delicious bubbly, porky soup. They had a quite a line going so we made a note to try back tomorrow. It only took us about 2 seconds to agree we would be back tomorrow, and that was before we even tasted anything.

Next we wandered on through the maze of vendors and spotted a woman selling beautiful raw oysters with a bit of sauce (ponzu?). It was a delicious and fitting first bite in Japan and was likely the freshest and tastiest oyster I’ve every eaten. We purchased the smallest ones and they were absolutely HUGE. Then it was off to find some real breakfast which of course at the fish market means one thing…sushi! Andrew, John, Micah and I enjoyed a beautiful bowl of toro (fatty tuna), uni (sea urchin) and roe. Delicious and quite a steal at only 10 bucks. We definitely would have paid at least three times as much at home for that quality. After some more browsing, and even more snacking (warm omelet, skewered squid with eel sauce, crunchy Japanese snacks) we headed over to the inner fish market where the actual seafood is sold. This part of the market doesn’t open to tourists until 9:00 a.m. (it was only 8:00 at this point), but Micah had done some research ahead of time and found out that if you tell security guards “kaimono” (I’m shopping), they will let you in. With our most confident demeanor, we tried it and guess what? It worked! Even with Andrew and John’s giant cameras, they let us in although I will say that they looked pretty skeptical. “The fuzz” as we called them tried to track us down multiple times, but we evaded them pretty easily in the crowded and overwhelming market. The market itself was an intensely-packed jumble of vendors and buyers and sold about every kind of seafood you can imagine, and even lots you wouldn’t imagine. Crab, giant tuna, live octopus, just about every mollusk, sea snails, monkfish liver, tiny quid, medium squid, giant squid, whole fish in thousands of varieties and with the clearest eyes you can imagine, live snapping turtles, sea urchin, sea cucumber, and the list goes on and on. The market stretches on for what seems like a mile of crowded tiny walkways where there is barely enough room for one person to pass at a time. Also, there are motorized carts that workers zoom around on at breakneck speeds and if you are not careful you can easily meet your doom. Good thing there were a few of us. More eyes means we could watch out for each other and yell or grab an arm when a cart was zooming by.

After all that excitement, we headed back to the hotel around 11:00 to rest a little before taking the Subway to Shibuya to see the famous Shibuya crossing and witness teenage Japanese fashion at its finest. When we first exited the station, we had a little trouble finding the right intersection, but once we did it was incredibly recognizable. Shibuya is one of the busiest pedestrian crossings in the world and every few minutes, when the walk light turns green, hundreds (maybe even thousands) of people rush to cross the street in every direction imaginable. It was amazing to me that with so many people, there weren’t any collisions. We had a fun time crossing in every direction before deciding to find some lunch. We settled on a fun ramen spot where you order your food at a machine and then the waitress brings it for you. It was actually a great system for us since there were lots of pictures and we don’t speak Japanese. The ramen was delicious. Great broth flavor and consistency and the noodles were cooked to perfection.

After enjoying the madness of Shubuya, we decided to head a little further north to visit Meiji-Jingu Tokyo’s most famous Shinto shrine. It was a stunning and peaceful shrine nestled in what seemed to be a pretty large forested area right outside the city. While we were there, we got to see two wedding processions which were really beautiful.

As if we hadn’t seen enough already, we topped off the night with what can only be described as a “bat-shit crazy” (Andrew’s words) robot show in the crazy Shinjuku nightlife area. We saw it on one of Anthony Bourdain’s shows and knew our visit to Tokyo wouldn’t be complete without it. It was basically an hour-long assault on the senses with lasers, robots, loud music, girls, dancing, drumming, animatronic animals, someone in a panda suit riding a plush cow, epic battles, clowns, costumes and lights galore. Take a look at the photos and see for yourself.

Cheers!

Andrew and Chelsie

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