In Japan, food has brought me many friends. In particular my association with Iron Chef Sakai Hiroyuki's restaurant, La Rochelle has put me together with great people. (This is a good time to remind you that there is a link to La Rochelle Restaurant on my author page at my publisher's website, www.pensmithbooks.com.)
First the staff of the restaurant, they have become not only good friends but great helpers in arranging my situation in Japan and keeping me entertained. These good people have also introduced me to their friends and families and so I've made new friends through the restaurant.
In particular this trip I met a young professional couple one night at a special dinner at La Rochelle. We exchanged emails and have now gotten together twice for meals in other restaurants. Both times to experience different types of Japanese cuisine; once for Chankonabe and then yesterday for Tempura (Tenpura in Japan).
The tempura excursion was a result of seeing a restaurant review for a famous tempura chef, Saotome Tetsuya, in the Japanese times the other day. As I mentioned in previous posts one of the nice things about being in Tokyo is reading the JT Online and if I see something interesting I can follow up on immediately. The restaurant looked interesting so I emailed the link to my new friends. (Link info available on my author page at www.pensmithbooks.com.) They were interested in checking it out and it turns out the restaurant is close to where they live.
They told me which train station the restaurant, Mikawa Zezankyo Tenpura, was closest to and then were kind enough to make a reservation. If you read the article you will discover that there are actually three locations for the Mikawa restaurants. I thought we were going to the original restaurant but I was mistaken. My friends had told me the station nearest to the one at which they made a reservation but I wasn't quick enough to figuring that out so I got to take two extra taxi rides.
I found a taxi immediately outside of the station and gave the driver the address to the (wrong) restaurant. I had written it down and handed it to the driver (a good thing to do in Tokyo). Addresses in Tokyo are very complicated and not similar at all to addresses in North America. The taxi driver had to pull over to the side and key the address into his GPS to figure out where we were going. He got to within a block of the place but couldn't find it, even with a GPS map showing the building on his screen. That's how difficult it is to find a place in Tokyo.
On the paper with the restaurant's address I had also written the phone number (another good thing to do in Tokyo) so the cab driver called the restaurant and told them where we were and someone from the restaurant came and found us. Once again, the people in Japan are willing to do a little extra to help out a foreigner.
When I entered the restaurant there were no other customers. I told them I was to meet two other people and that we had a reservation. They realized that I had the wrong restaurant and called the correct one confirm. They were right and the young lady who came and found me in the cab took me back out to the street and found me another cab. Before we left she gave the driver detailed directions and I arrived at the correct restaurant only fifteen minutes late.
The restaurant was tiny and elegant and my friends were dressed in Kimono which made the experience all the more elegant and authentic. My friend's love of their country's culture is quite evident. They have worn Kimono on each occasion that we have met. I don't know how many Kimono the average Japanese lady owns but my friend told me she owned fifteen. This day she wore one in the colors of fall and it was very beautiful. The night we went for Chankonabe together my girlfriend was extremely impressed by the Kimono and our friends told us about the difficult process of dressing in the garments.
They are involved in other Japanese cultural pursuits but more on that later.
The food was a truly great food experience. I have had tempura before but I don't eat it that often while in Japan. After this experience I will be increasing the frequency.
To begin with the chef, who cooked standing in front of us the whole time, served two amazingly tender and flavorful shrimp in the most delicate tempura batter I've ever had. The shrimp were followed by small fish that we dipped into little piles of sea salt for the first bite then into tempura sauce with ground diakon radish for the second. The fish was tender as well with a mild fish flavor that was brought out nicely by the salt.
I wasn't certain how to eat each course so I watched the young lady of the couple I was with and how she ate the food. By dipping in salt and tasting then dipping in the sauce and ground radish you can check the flavor changes of the same ingredient. After this small fish my new favorite fried item was served, the heads of the shrimp. I've had them before but in Mikawa they are perfection. Crunchy and light in the same light tempura batter but then the stuff inside the head (brains etc.) fill your mouth with intense shrimp flavor and you realize what shrimp really taste like, delicious.
I asked my friend if he cooks the shrimp heads when he cooks at home and he said mochiron (of course). He deep fries them or grills them, so I asked how I would do it on my barbeque grill at home and I now have a new shrimp dish to try when I get back.
Next came a fried young ginger plant bud. It is layered like an onion and has a stronger flavor than most Japanese vegetables but was more of an onion flavor than a ginger flavor. I have seen them in the grocery stores and tonight when I make my stir-fry in the apartment I will add a young ginger plant bud to the mix.
After the bud came a bowl of soup with a gentle shrimp broth and a ground shrimp ball. The ball was tender and supplied a reminder of the great shrimp flavor of the head. Then slices of battered ika (squid) were placed in front of us. Squid is one of my favorite seafood ingredients. Sometimes it can be a little chewy but if the chef knows how to cook it, it's the best thing to be plucked from below the waves. This chef knew what he was doing and has been doing so for many years. Dipped into the sea salt and eaten in just that simple manner is the best way to eat fresh squid. The meat wasn't overly thick but was still rare in the middle. It gave mild resistance to the teeth but can only be described as beyond tender. True squid flavor complemented by salt from the sea it came from made for a squid taste that was pure, simple and one you wanted more of.
Another small white fish,Kisu, was served then a choice of two vegetables (I took a small eggplant which had a nice smooth texture when cooked and a slice of sweet potato, dry at first but then it drew the moisture out of your mouth and became a sweet easy to eat delight), a tempura anago (sea eel, very tender with a full eel taste the way it should be, no doubt from the sea but not too fishy or salty) and finally a rice course selection. I chose a bowl of rice in the same light shrimp broth as the shrimp ball that had been served earlier. It came with a fritter filled with small scallops that were good and sweet and matched well with the plump slightly shrimp flavored rice.
But wait, there's more. A small bowl containing three large beans was set in front of each of us. They were very large black beans and they had been stewed in a sweet broth for a day or two. There was a dusting of powdered sugar that added to the sweetness that wasn't too sweet but just right for the end of a great meal.
After the meal my friends asked me to return with them to their home where they have set up a tea room to perform the traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony (Chanoyu). It is a very distinctive cultural practice that goes back many years in Japan. There is a famous tea ceremony that was hosted by the Taiko of Japan (Great Leader), Toyotomi Hideyoshi, that lasted for three days in Kyoto and he served over a thousand people. I tried to research exact numbers but couldn't find them. You can find a link to more information regarding the Tea Ceremony on my author page at my publisher's website, www.pensmithbooks.com.
I wasn't unable to join them that afternoon due to another appointment but I look forward to experiencing my first Chanoyu with my new friends.
Later that day I met with my longest term friend in Japan who works at the Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo. He has recommended that his customers visit a small historic town just west of Tokyo named, Kawagoe, and decided he should go visit it himself so he could provide a personal opinion of the place. He knows I'm interested in this type of historical trekking so we took the train ride out to the Saitama area to walk around the town.
It was a festival atmosphere because of the national holiday so the streets were crowded and all the shops were open with plenty of Japanese O-miyage (souvenirs) available. The town is well known for its preserved old buildings and I was amazed at how many there were. Most of them were huge old warehouses that stored material produced by the farmers in the area. The area is know for having delicious unagi (fresh water eel) and sweet potatoes of the same variety as I had eaten in the Tempura restaurant, the Satsumaimo.
At this point food was not of interest so we walked to all the famous sites in the town and took many pictures. Kawagoe identifies itself strongly with the third Tokugawa Shogun, Iemitsu, who was apparently born and raised in the area. I couldn't find anything to confirm that and no source provided an exact day of birth. Iemitsu is famous for a number of events but the one I remember most is that he hosted the Emperor at Nijo Castle (The Shogun's residence while in Kyoto)for three or four days. It was the first time the Emperor had gone to someone else's castle to be hosted rather than being the host. It was a major statement of power for the third Shogun.
After the event, Iemitsu returned to Edo (modern day Tokyo) and no Shogun returned to Nijo castle for about two hundred and fifty years when the balance of power had shifted and the Emperor summoned the fourteenth Shogun, Iomouchi, to Kyoto. It is also where the fifteenth and last Shogun delivered the document returning power to the Emperor, to one of the Emperor's emissaries, marking the beginning of the Meiji Restoration. Nijo Castle is a popular tourist attraction in Kyoto and certainly worth a trip if you are in Japan.
Back in Kawagoe there is a large parade float dedicated to Iemitsu. It is stored in one of the old warehouses of Kawagoe and every year in October when the town has a Matsuri Festival the float is paraded through the streets.
Along with the older buildings, Kawagoe has about thirteen Buddhist temples and five Shinto shrines. We only went to one temple and it was closing for the day so we didn't see much of it. We walked for about three hours and amazingly I built up another appetite so we went looking for an unagi restaurant that we had seen earlier. The smell of the grilled unagi as we walked by when we first arrived was so tempting we knew that at some point we had to try it.
To find the restaurant we returned to the station and then tried to replicate the path we had taken the first time. We made a wrong turn and walked a good distance in the wrong direction then turned back and got on the right path. It turned out the restaurant was quite a long way away from the train station and we had added some distance and time to our walk. When we arrived at the restaurant, it was closed.
This habit of getting lost on the journey to find food is a bit of a theme with my friend and I but as I mentioned, Kawagoe is famous for eel so there were plenty of other restaurants. We had also walked by a restaurant that indicated it had been serving eel in the same location for over two hundred years so we set out to find it.
It was now dark and there were very few people left walking the streets. As we turned one corner to head toward the old restaurant we smelled eel and decided to have dinner at the source of the wonderful aroma. It turned out to be a restaurant that had opened the day before so we went from wanting to eat at the oldest eel restaurant in town to eating at the newest.
The new restaurant was in an old warehouse (kura) that used to store grain. The grain was sold in heavy loads so running from the back of the restaurant out to the side walk was a small rail track on which they ran carts full of grain to the customers in the street. The area of the restaurant we sat in was an open court yard in the past that had at some point been walled in to make additional indoor space.
The unagi was a tasty treat. My friend is not an unagi lover and I have been with him in unagi restaurants before and he did not order unagi. This night, in this restaurant, in a cloud of savory unagi smells he couldn't resist and he ate and lover the unagi.
There are a couple of pictures from my terrific day of food and friends on the right side of the www.Zonajin.blogspot.com blog page.
It's getting close to dinner time the next day and all I've had to eat is a bowl of cereal, an apple and a banana. For dinner I know I won't have the same quality of delicious food nor will I have the great company that I was able to enjoy yesterday. A big thank you to my friends in Japan.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Eating Guts and Lucky Me (Honto Ni, Really) I Went to a Taiko Concert
In 2009 my girlfriend and I went to the City of Fukuoka for four days to attend the sumo basho. We walked around the district near our hotel one night looking for a place to eat and we saw this weird looking restaurant with big pipes leading down from the ceiling and pointing to the middle of the tables. On top of that the place was full of smoke. We decided to go in.
The employees saw us and started yelling for one of their people who knew a little English to come and greet us. I spoke to him in Japanese but when he tried to tell us about the food they served he reverted to English, rubbed his belly and said, "Guts." Indeed, that's what they served, internal organs and intestines. We stayed.
I have no problem eating liver, kidney, heart and tongue so we order a little. After you order they bring a hibachi with charcoal glowing away and place it under one of the pipes coming down from the ceiling. There's a grill over the coals so you cook your own guts. We ate and left, nothing crazy.
Just the other night my friend that now works for his families towel company asked me to join his friends for dinner in Chiba, a city near the airport. He and his friend from his former company get together once a month and go out for dinner. They had known of me as a customer when my friend worked at the previous company so I said yes and met them at the train station in Meguro. We traveled by car, which took about ninety minutes, from Meguro. During the trip my friend told me we were going to a Horumon Restaurant which it turns out is a restaurant that serves guts. In fact it turns out horumon is the Japanese word for guts and internal organs and the name of the restaurant was Horumon. I mentally prepared myself. Like I said, I don't mind eating certain kind of internal organs but I didn't know what to expect.
We arrived and the first thing were served was a bowl of soup. There was a slice of tongue in a clear broth with a dab of something like wasabi on the side of the bowl. The tougue was about three inches by four inches and about a quarter inch thick. It was a little tough but it tasted really good and as I always say when I eat tongue, I don't know if I was tasting it or it was tasting me. What was exceptional about the soup was the broth. Not strong in flavor but very beefy; rich without coating your own tongue with fat. I added the dab of mustard like stuff but didn't notice a change in flavor. It didn't matter, it was so good I like it the way it was.
My friend isn't crazy about the crazy parts of the animals at all so he made sure to order some of the somewhat regular looking meat and it was very tasty but, it didn't have the flavor of the various guts that we ate. The only thing I really recognized was tripe. Some of the stuff I asked about but no one could really say the word in English because my friend had asked that they speak to me in Japanese only so I didn't know what I was chewing on most of the time.
It didn't matter, everything we cooked, except for one item, I ate and enjoyed. We cooked everything to be well done so the burnt meat flavor was excellent. Everything was a bit chewy but we knew that going in. The tripe had a more beefy taste than I experienced in the past but I've only eaten it in Chinese food where it is most often steamed. This night it was more tender that any tripe I've had before. The rest of the stuff was very fatty. I am pretty finicky about removing fat from my meat so I thought I may have had a problem but that wasn't the case. The burnt edges on the fat really added to the flavor so it was easy to eat.
There was even a sausage that was cut into inch long pieces and it looked like only fat when it wasn't cooked and it looked like only fat when it was cooked and when you bit into it, it turned to liquid fat and coated your whole mouth with deliciousness. The casing added some chew to the experience but it was good.
We also had three-eights inch thick sliced bacon to grill and when you got a piece of that all burnt on the sides you had a marvelous bacon flavored taste-bomb go off in your mouth. The meat that goes good with bacon is liver and my friend said to me, "Have you ever had liver sashimi?" I haven't and I really wasn't too keen on having the new experience in the immediate future. Too late, they had already ordered it. It wasn't completely sashimi style, it had been seared but the center was raw liver, red and bloody. It came with a finely chopped onion and sesame oil garnish which added a nice flavor but it didn't really need it. The taste on its own was mild beef liver and the texture was soft as pudding. Makes you want to eat some right now doesn't it. Well, if you get the chance you should take it.
The thing I didn't eat, I looked at for a minute then looked at the young lady sitting across from me. I didn't say a word and she said in perfect English, "Don't even ask." I didn't ask and I didn't eat it. It turns out the young lady lived in New Jersey for a number of years and could have explained every part of the meal but she was told to speak Japanese only.
What ever the substance was, I'll never know, so I just think of it as the most gross and obnoxious part of any animal that I don't ever want to think about. It could probably pass gas so I consider myself lucky that I never ate it. It's safe for you to try that thought at home but, imagining the opposite ending doesn't seem like it would be any fun.
The beer was cold, the friends were great and the guts were really tasty but I wouldn't think there would be much chance for success with a restaurant that only served guts in the US or Canada.
Then, the next day I went to a Taiko Concert. Taiko is the drum music that is native to Japan. On out first trip to Japan we went to see the Kodo Taiko Troup and when they came to Mesa, Arizona a year later we went to see them in Arizona as well.
This concert was a mostly amateur concert. The organization that held the concert, Mirai Taiko Doujou, is owned by a professional Taiko artist and he provides lessons at a number of locations through out the Tokyo area. (See my author page at my publisher's website, www.pensmithbooks.com, to find links to Mirai Taiko Doujou.) Once a year he has his students put on a concert.
I am lucky that The owner of La Rochelle Restaurant, Iron Chef Sakai Hiroyuki, is a student of the Mirai group and as a result one of the young chefs is also a student and he told my young friend, who works at La Rochelle, about the concert. He, the young chef, was also playing in the concert.
It started at noon so I met my friend and we went to the venue which was a pleasant little theatre right next to the train station in Komae. There were twenty two groups that performed and we were there until five thirty. I never got tired, my back never got weary and I wasn't for one minute wishing I was doing something else. From the moment we sat down we could feel the pounding of the drum deep into our stomachs and chests.
Taiko is made up of a wide assortment of wooden drums played by a group who together explore a variety of rhythms. I've been a fan since the first time I heard them at EPCOT center in Florida. The rhythms seem predictable; they build on a pattern and you can easily figure out where the pattern will end but you never know what type of rhythms will be coming after. It could be a change of pace, it could be a change of drums, it could be an addition of different drums, it could be the overlay of a new rhythm, it could be a change in volume, you don't know until it happens and then you start to figure out that new rhythm as well.
But you feel it, you can't help but feel it inside and you can't help but tap your foot or slap your leg or drum your fingers.
The performers came from all age groups. There were kids groups, some all girls and now that I think about it there were more female performers than male performers. One kids group had a boy who looked to be about three and a girl who looked to be four years old. Then you would have a group of all women who were in their fifties and sixties.
They all played with gusto. Many had looks of concentration on their faces and many had smiles. They worked hard and the physical demand was quite evident, sweat was pouring off some of the boys as they played. They often had on slight costumes while the women wore more loose fitting clothes. From our angle I could see back stage and saw many performers drinking from bottles of water after they left the stage.
There was one lady who looked like a normal older woman who might be a teacher or an office lady or a sales clerk during her normal activities but when she stood in front of the drum she was a strong sinewy force that did battle with drumsticks to pound the music out of the instrument before her. Later she moved from one drum to another and as she played she smiled in pure joy at what she was doing.
There was a young boy who was maybe ten years old. They had to put a small wooden platform in front of the drum for him to stand on. He played in an all adult group and the entire time he performed he smiled. His movements were very strong; his wrists were very fluid in their movements and he was on time with every beat. As he played his head was more active than the other players as he swayed his neck during his wind up to strike. Then during one section where all the performers hopped back and forth jumping as they struck the drum he lifted higher and was more bouncy that anyone else on the stage. During the finale, when all the performers were on stage together moving about from drum to drum, he moved with confidence among the adults while the other young ones stayed pretty much in place.
But one lady really caught my attention. She was part of a group and had been playing a standing drum. When it was time for her to change she went to the very back where the biggest drums were stationed and she stood behind the absolute biggest drum on the stage. She did not have drumsticks, she had what looked like a shorter thicker version of a baseball bat and she didn't just use it to strike the drum, she flourished it through a series of wrist twirls, first on one side of her head and then the other, to bring it down skillfully with the force of both hands onto the skin of the large drum. She did the twirl again and again and you could see her shoulder muscles and arms muscle working hard to deliver the blow that was easily heard among all the other drums. She was the only one in the back row and she was the backbone of support for all the other music.
The young chef from La Rochelle was in the sixth group to play and also in the finale. He played on one of the larger back row drums with a pair of thick drumsticks. He is a well muscled young man and the drummers that play in the back row wear sleeveless tunics with thin straps over their shoulders so you can clearly see the muscles and how they have developed from the constant drumming. He started the piece for his group and set the tempo for the other players and the group played well. In the finale he moved from drum to drum and there were about a hundred drummers on the stage playing a famous piece of music that I had heard at all the street festivals I went to in August.
For one of the young women staff members it was possibly her last concert so it was quite emotional for the girls of her age. There were plenty of tears and many people had flowers to present to her and it provided a touching ending to the concert.
I really enjoy the Taiko music and this was an exceptional five and a half hour chance to enjoy it. There was nothing about it that indicated amateur performance. It will rank as one of the highlights of my stay and I will remember the music for a long, long time.
The owner of the group is a member of the professional troupe called, Bonten. When I tested the link it didn't work. It may later so it's on my author page of my publisher's website, www.pensmithbooks.com. They have concerts throughout the year.
The employees saw us and started yelling for one of their people who knew a little English to come and greet us. I spoke to him in Japanese but when he tried to tell us about the food they served he reverted to English, rubbed his belly and said, "Guts." Indeed, that's what they served, internal organs and intestines. We stayed.
I have no problem eating liver, kidney, heart and tongue so we order a little. After you order they bring a hibachi with charcoal glowing away and place it under one of the pipes coming down from the ceiling. There's a grill over the coals so you cook your own guts. We ate and left, nothing crazy.
Just the other night my friend that now works for his families towel company asked me to join his friends for dinner in Chiba, a city near the airport. He and his friend from his former company get together once a month and go out for dinner. They had known of me as a customer when my friend worked at the previous company so I said yes and met them at the train station in Meguro. We traveled by car, which took about ninety minutes, from Meguro. During the trip my friend told me we were going to a Horumon Restaurant which it turns out is a restaurant that serves guts. In fact it turns out horumon is the Japanese word for guts and internal organs and the name of the restaurant was Horumon. I mentally prepared myself. Like I said, I don't mind eating certain kind of internal organs but I didn't know what to expect.
We arrived and the first thing were served was a bowl of soup. There was a slice of tongue in a clear broth with a dab of something like wasabi on the side of the bowl. The tougue was about three inches by four inches and about a quarter inch thick. It was a little tough but it tasted really good and as I always say when I eat tongue, I don't know if I was tasting it or it was tasting me. What was exceptional about the soup was the broth. Not strong in flavor but very beefy; rich without coating your own tongue with fat. I added the dab of mustard like stuff but didn't notice a change in flavor. It didn't matter, it was so good I like it the way it was.
My friend isn't crazy about the crazy parts of the animals at all so he made sure to order some of the somewhat regular looking meat and it was very tasty but, it didn't have the flavor of the various guts that we ate. The only thing I really recognized was tripe. Some of the stuff I asked about but no one could really say the word in English because my friend had asked that they speak to me in Japanese only so I didn't know what I was chewing on most of the time.
It didn't matter, everything we cooked, except for one item, I ate and enjoyed. We cooked everything to be well done so the burnt meat flavor was excellent. Everything was a bit chewy but we knew that going in. The tripe had a more beefy taste than I experienced in the past but I've only eaten it in Chinese food where it is most often steamed. This night it was more tender that any tripe I've had before. The rest of the stuff was very fatty. I am pretty finicky about removing fat from my meat so I thought I may have had a problem but that wasn't the case. The burnt edges on the fat really added to the flavor so it was easy to eat.
There was even a sausage that was cut into inch long pieces and it looked like only fat when it wasn't cooked and it looked like only fat when it was cooked and when you bit into it, it turned to liquid fat and coated your whole mouth with deliciousness. The casing added some chew to the experience but it was good.
We also had three-eights inch thick sliced bacon to grill and when you got a piece of that all burnt on the sides you had a marvelous bacon flavored taste-bomb go off in your mouth. The meat that goes good with bacon is liver and my friend said to me, "Have you ever had liver sashimi?" I haven't and I really wasn't too keen on having the new experience in the immediate future. Too late, they had already ordered it. It wasn't completely sashimi style, it had been seared but the center was raw liver, red and bloody. It came with a finely chopped onion and sesame oil garnish which added a nice flavor but it didn't really need it. The taste on its own was mild beef liver and the texture was soft as pudding. Makes you want to eat some right now doesn't it. Well, if you get the chance you should take it.
The thing I didn't eat, I looked at for a minute then looked at the young lady sitting across from me. I didn't say a word and she said in perfect English, "Don't even ask." I didn't ask and I didn't eat it. It turns out the young lady lived in New Jersey for a number of years and could have explained every part of the meal but she was told to speak Japanese only.
What ever the substance was, I'll never know, so I just think of it as the most gross and obnoxious part of any animal that I don't ever want to think about. It could probably pass gas so I consider myself lucky that I never ate it. It's safe for you to try that thought at home but, imagining the opposite ending doesn't seem like it would be any fun.
The beer was cold, the friends were great and the guts were really tasty but I wouldn't think there would be much chance for success with a restaurant that only served guts in the US or Canada.
Then, the next day I went to a Taiko Concert. Taiko is the drum music that is native to Japan. On out first trip to Japan we went to see the Kodo Taiko Troup and when they came to Mesa, Arizona a year later we went to see them in Arizona as well.
This concert was a mostly amateur concert. The organization that held the concert, Mirai Taiko Doujou, is owned by a professional Taiko artist and he provides lessons at a number of locations through out the Tokyo area. (See my author page at my publisher's website, www.pensmithbooks.com, to find links to Mirai Taiko Doujou.) Once a year he has his students put on a concert.
I am lucky that The owner of La Rochelle Restaurant, Iron Chef Sakai Hiroyuki, is a student of the Mirai group and as a result one of the young chefs is also a student and he told my young friend, who works at La Rochelle, about the concert. He, the young chef, was also playing in the concert.
It started at noon so I met my friend and we went to the venue which was a pleasant little theatre right next to the train station in Komae. There were twenty two groups that performed and we were there until five thirty. I never got tired, my back never got weary and I wasn't for one minute wishing I was doing something else. From the moment we sat down we could feel the pounding of the drum deep into our stomachs and chests.
Taiko is made up of a wide assortment of wooden drums played by a group who together explore a variety of rhythms. I've been a fan since the first time I heard them at EPCOT center in Florida. The rhythms seem predictable; they build on a pattern and you can easily figure out where the pattern will end but you never know what type of rhythms will be coming after. It could be a change of pace, it could be a change of drums, it could be an addition of different drums, it could be the overlay of a new rhythm, it could be a change in volume, you don't know until it happens and then you start to figure out that new rhythm as well.
But you feel it, you can't help but feel it inside and you can't help but tap your foot or slap your leg or drum your fingers.
The performers came from all age groups. There were kids groups, some all girls and now that I think about it there were more female performers than male performers. One kids group had a boy who looked to be about three and a girl who looked to be four years old. Then you would have a group of all women who were in their fifties and sixties.
They all played with gusto. Many had looks of concentration on their faces and many had smiles. They worked hard and the physical demand was quite evident, sweat was pouring off some of the boys as they played. They often had on slight costumes while the women wore more loose fitting clothes. From our angle I could see back stage and saw many performers drinking from bottles of water after they left the stage.
There was one lady who looked like a normal older woman who might be a teacher or an office lady or a sales clerk during her normal activities but when she stood in front of the drum she was a strong sinewy force that did battle with drumsticks to pound the music out of the instrument before her. Later she moved from one drum to another and as she played she smiled in pure joy at what she was doing.
There was a young boy who was maybe ten years old. They had to put a small wooden platform in front of the drum for him to stand on. He played in an all adult group and the entire time he performed he smiled. His movements were very strong; his wrists were very fluid in their movements and he was on time with every beat. As he played his head was more active than the other players as he swayed his neck during his wind up to strike. Then during one section where all the performers hopped back and forth jumping as they struck the drum he lifted higher and was more bouncy that anyone else on the stage. During the finale, when all the performers were on stage together moving about from drum to drum, he moved with confidence among the adults while the other young ones stayed pretty much in place.
But one lady really caught my attention. She was part of a group and had been playing a standing drum. When it was time for her to change she went to the very back where the biggest drums were stationed and she stood behind the absolute biggest drum on the stage. She did not have drumsticks, she had what looked like a shorter thicker version of a baseball bat and she didn't just use it to strike the drum, she flourished it through a series of wrist twirls, first on one side of her head and then the other, to bring it down skillfully with the force of both hands onto the skin of the large drum. She did the twirl again and again and you could see her shoulder muscles and arms muscle working hard to deliver the blow that was easily heard among all the other drums. She was the only one in the back row and she was the backbone of support for all the other music.
The young chef from La Rochelle was in the sixth group to play and also in the finale. He played on one of the larger back row drums with a pair of thick drumsticks. He is a well muscled young man and the drummers that play in the back row wear sleeveless tunics with thin straps over their shoulders so you can clearly see the muscles and how they have developed from the constant drumming. He started the piece for his group and set the tempo for the other players and the group played well. In the finale he moved from drum to drum and there were about a hundred drummers on the stage playing a famous piece of music that I had heard at all the street festivals I went to in August.
For one of the young women staff members it was possibly her last concert so it was quite emotional for the girls of her age. There were plenty of tears and many people had flowers to present to her and it provided a touching ending to the concert.
I really enjoy the Taiko music and this was an exceptional five and a half hour chance to enjoy it. There was nothing about it that indicated amateur performance. It will rank as one of the highlights of my stay and I will remember the music for a long, long time.
The owner of the group is a member of the professional troupe called, Bonten. When I tested the link it didn't work. It may later so it's on my author page of my publisher's website, www.pensmithbooks.com. They have concerts throughout the year.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
The Best Indian Food In Japan, Dogs and Inokashira Park
The first day I was here in Mitaka my friend from La Rochelle restaurant introduced me to his friend who owns an Indian food restaurant just down the street from my apartment. Since then I have eaten at his place four times and his food is some of the best Indian food I've ever eaten. If you aren't a big fan of Indian food you are missing out on one of the most diversified cuisines in the world. It's not all that yellow curry that you see all over the USA. Go into an Indian restaurant and ask them to introduce you to some of the best foods of India and you'll be in for a treat.
One thing my new friend makes that is the best I've ever eaten, is Nan, the bread that is stuck on the inside of a tandoor oven to cook.
A tandoor oven is a clay oven with charcoal burning in the bottom. The restaurant starts the charcoal early in the morning so that it heats up the entire clay surface for cooking. The most famous dish made in a tandoor is tandoori chicken and it is the dish I use to judge an Indian restaurant's cooking skills.
I had some from my new friend's restaurant one night when I went to the Mitaka Matsuri festival. His wife had a grill and was re-warming tandoori chicken and selling it on the street. It had been cooked inside and he has a nice spice blend that he applies to the chicken although he told me on a later visit that he doesn't put too much heat in his curries because the Japanese palate doesn't tolerate too much hot spice.
The first night I ate inside his restaurant I ordered chicken biryani and nan. He looked at me and said, "You want nan with the biryani?" I said, yes and asked if that was alright and he said, "Sure."
I sat watching the kitchen and then I noticed he was flipping the nan dough back and forth in his hands, elongating it to the traditional triangular shape. Then I noticed the tandoor sitting in the corner so I got up and went to watch through the window. He pulled the lid off the tandoor placing it to the side then took a small towel that he rolled into a, 8 inch ball. He placed the nan over the towels then reached into the tandoor and stuck the nan dough to the clay side of the over. He patted it a number of times to make sure the whole back surface of the nan was stuck.
A few minutes later he reached in with a metal hook and snatched the nan off the clay wall. It was puffed up and nicely toasted. He brought me the biryani and the nan and I realized why you may not want nan with biryani. There's no sauce to dip the nan into since biryani is essentially fried rice.
We talked about the preparation of nan for a few minutes and he showed me all of the burn marks on his forearms from placing the nan in the oven. The opening of the oven is a metal ring and over time a chef is bound to touch it. His other chef in the kitchen has a matching set of burn marks.
The nan was delicious on its own and I did manage to get some flavor from the biryani to go with it. I stacked some rice on the nan then ate it. It was kind of like having a rice sandwich. When it first arrived it was extremely hot. I could barely touch it to tear it apart and when I did make a tear the steam that came from inside was dangerous.
When I order, the owner had asked me how spicy I wanted my curry and I told him I liked it higher than medium but added that I didn't want it English hot.
I explained to him that once when I went out to lunch with an Indian IT consultant in Atlanta to an Indian restaurant, I told him I like hot spicy food and he asked me, "Indian hot or English hot?" The consultant then told me that when the English had colonized Indian and discovered a liking for Indian food they seemed to like it best when it was extremely spicy. Indian people like it spicy but apparently not as spicy as the English.
My new friend, the owner of the restaurant who is actually from Nepal, was happy to be able to add some heat to his sauces and he got it just right for me.
I went back another night when my girlfriend was visiting and this time we ordered some chicken vindaloo and some curried begin (eggplant). The owner invited my girlefriend into the kitchen to watch his chef prepare and place the nan in the tandoor.
When the dishes arrived they had ample sauce and the large nan did its job and made sure that there was no sauce left when we were done. The sauce was so good there was no chance we wouldn't eat it all.
I've been back one more time since then with my friend from La Rochelle and that time we went for lunch. That day I had the lunch portion (the nan was still full size) of curried butter chicken, which he had told me was the favorite curry dish of Japanese people, and curried mutton. Once again, the sauce was fantastic and I ate the whole nan making sure no sauce was left on the plate.
This restaurant also confirmed that the best thing to drink with curry is beer.
The owner told me one night, that he was working late every night in Kabukicho which is in Shinjuku. It turns out at the time he was preparing to open a new restaurant though not an Indian restaurant, it's Okinawan. The building he is going into has a floor that is like a food court only there isn't a center court. All the restaurants are Asian and there was already an Indian restaurant on the floor so he had to come up with an Asian theme that wasn't already represented. He chose Okinawan.
I asked if he knew how to cook Okinawan food and he said he was learning. He said if he put one or two Okinawan dishes on the menu and then added some other Chinese dishes he'd be alright. He opened the other night so we're going to go to Kabukicho one night soon to check it out.
Interesting thing about this food floor, each restaurant has its own space with tables etc. but you are allowed to bring food in from the other restaurants on the floor. The customers are required to but their drinks in the restaurant they eat in but, if you wanted Okinawan food and one of your friends wanted Indian and another wanted Thai food, you could all have your food in the same place. You just go and order the food at the other place, telling them you are eating in the Okinawan restaurant and they deliver the food to you.
Now a word about Kabukicho; as I said, it is in Shinjuku, just east of the station. One night my son and I were out walking in the area with the intent of trying different foods in a number of different restaurants. We didn't actually know that we were in Kabukicho until it got dark and we were constantly harassed by men on the street trying to get us to go to their strip club. Then we noticed a number of nude posters on the walls of buildings and erotic names for some of the clubs we were walking near.
As strangers who didn't know the area we weren't too keen on discovering it without the assistance of a local so we got out of there pretty quick. I will be going back to visit my friend's Okinawan restaurant but I will be going with my friend from La Rochelle who had wanted to take me to some Izakayas in the area anyway. With him as a guide I won't be overly concerned; in fact I'm looking forward to it and I stated to my friend that there were to be no girly shows, just food.
I found another grocery store close to the train station today. It's bigger than the others I mentioned in an earlier post and had a great selection of sauces. I picked up some miso (fermented soya bean paste), a few vegetables, some scallops and another type of clam that I will be cooking up as a one pot dish and finishing by adding fresh udon noodles. I'm getting hungry thinking about it.
Another topic that has become more prevalent these days is dogs. Here in Japan and on the home front. I mentioned in a previous post that we are getting two dogs sometime in the next two weeks. I'm looking forward to having dogs again. They tie you down a little when it comes to traveling but the benefit of having them outweighs that little problem.
In Japan it now seems there are plenty of dogs. Due to the hot weather in Japan for the first six weeks I was here I didn't see too many dogs. I remembered seeing a lot of small dogs during previous trips and now that they are back outdoors here it is very noticeable that there are mostly small dogs in Japan. A lot of Dachshunds, Chihuahuas, Pomeranians and small Poodles.
They do not bark at strangers and seem well adjusted to being among lots of people. The other thing I noticed is that a lot of them are dressed up. Japanese people like to put cloths on their little dogs and not just little jackets or warmers, they have full outfits. The other day I saw a small terrier wearing a pair of overhauls with back legs, a shirt underneath with sleeves and a little red hanky poking out of the back pocket.
Quite often I see women riding their bikes and they have a small dog in their basket. Most times the dog is a dachshund. I don't know if they have to ride more often because of their short legs or because there are so many of them that you're bound to see them in the basket more than other breeds.
I've attached a couple of pictures of two dachshunds I met the other day. You can see them on the right side of the www.Zonajin.blogspot.com blog page. The puppy in the basket had a really soft whine and wanted attention. When I petted it, it gently grabbed my fingers with its needle sharp puppy teeth. I had difficulty getting a well focused picture because the little mutt was so squirmy. The other one is two years old and I think it is the puppy's mother.
The place where I see the dogs the most is Inokashira park. It is a huge and very natural park that does not have the usual elegant landscaping that you see in most Japanese parks. I believe I've mentioned this in previous posts.
I went to walk in the park last Sunday. I've been to the park a number of times but let me tell you it is quite different on a Sunday. It was wall to wall people (and dogs) everywhere and I walked further into the park than I have in the past. The park is known to be a 'date' park so there were a large number of young couples walking about or sitting on the benches by the pond. At the far end near some open fields there were a number of large family gatherings with picnics set out and lots of kids playing in the small stream or kicking around a soccer ball.
As I walked back and around the pond I heard a number of boat collisions. The pond has boat rentals available and in Japan it seems people like to ride in paddle boats that look like large swans. They have at least a hundred of them at this park and all of them were being used. Add in the regular paddle boats and the row boats and there was the potential for nautical gridlock. I heard the boom of wooden and fiberglass hulls coming together and then the Japanese words of apology, "Sumimasen" and "Gomen Nasai", many times.
On the far side of the pond near the exits to go to Kichijoji station a small crafts fair had been set up. People had various items for sale and when I got into the middle of the fair I was able to solve a mystery. I'd seen a number of small dogs, Boston Terriers, Beagles and Shibas wearing little hats and a number of them were Halloween witch hats. There, in the middle of the craft fair, was a lady selling dog hats and based on what I'd seen and how many people were at her stand I'd say she did alright that day; especially when the Japanese people like to dress up their dogs as much as they do.
Please visit my author page on my publisher's website at www.pensmithbooks.com for links to more information about Japan.
One thing my new friend makes that is the best I've ever eaten, is Nan, the bread that is stuck on the inside of a tandoor oven to cook.
A tandoor oven is a clay oven with charcoal burning in the bottom. The restaurant starts the charcoal early in the morning so that it heats up the entire clay surface for cooking. The most famous dish made in a tandoor is tandoori chicken and it is the dish I use to judge an Indian restaurant's cooking skills.
I had some from my new friend's restaurant one night when I went to the Mitaka Matsuri festival. His wife had a grill and was re-warming tandoori chicken and selling it on the street. It had been cooked inside and he has a nice spice blend that he applies to the chicken although he told me on a later visit that he doesn't put too much heat in his curries because the Japanese palate doesn't tolerate too much hot spice.
The first night I ate inside his restaurant I ordered chicken biryani and nan. He looked at me and said, "You want nan with the biryani?" I said, yes and asked if that was alright and he said, "Sure."
I sat watching the kitchen and then I noticed he was flipping the nan dough back and forth in his hands, elongating it to the traditional triangular shape. Then I noticed the tandoor sitting in the corner so I got up and went to watch through the window. He pulled the lid off the tandoor placing it to the side then took a small towel that he rolled into a, 8 inch ball. He placed the nan over the towels then reached into the tandoor and stuck the nan dough to the clay side of the over. He patted it a number of times to make sure the whole back surface of the nan was stuck.
A few minutes later he reached in with a metal hook and snatched the nan off the clay wall. It was puffed up and nicely toasted. He brought me the biryani and the nan and I realized why you may not want nan with biryani. There's no sauce to dip the nan into since biryani is essentially fried rice.
We talked about the preparation of nan for a few minutes and he showed me all of the burn marks on his forearms from placing the nan in the oven. The opening of the oven is a metal ring and over time a chef is bound to touch it. His other chef in the kitchen has a matching set of burn marks.
The nan was delicious on its own and I did manage to get some flavor from the biryani to go with it. I stacked some rice on the nan then ate it. It was kind of like having a rice sandwich. When it first arrived it was extremely hot. I could barely touch it to tear it apart and when I did make a tear the steam that came from inside was dangerous.
When I order, the owner had asked me how spicy I wanted my curry and I told him I liked it higher than medium but added that I didn't want it English hot.
I explained to him that once when I went out to lunch with an Indian IT consultant in Atlanta to an Indian restaurant, I told him I like hot spicy food and he asked me, "Indian hot or English hot?" The consultant then told me that when the English had colonized Indian and discovered a liking for Indian food they seemed to like it best when it was extremely spicy. Indian people like it spicy but apparently not as spicy as the English.
My new friend, the owner of the restaurant who is actually from Nepal, was happy to be able to add some heat to his sauces and he got it just right for me.
I went back another night when my girlfriend was visiting and this time we ordered some chicken vindaloo and some curried begin (eggplant). The owner invited my girlefriend into the kitchen to watch his chef prepare and place the nan in the tandoor.
When the dishes arrived they had ample sauce and the large nan did its job and made sure that there was no sauce left when we were done. The sauce was so good there was no chance we wouldn't eat it all.
I've been back one more time since then with my friend from La Rochelle and that time we went for lunch. That day I had the lunch portion (the nan was still full size) of curried butter chicken, which he had told me was the favorite curry dish of Japanese people, and curried mutton. Once again, the sauce was fantastic and I ate the whole nan making sure no sauce was left on the plate.
This restaurant also confirmed that the best thing to drink with curry is beer.
The owner told me one night, that he was working late every night in Kabukicho which is in Shinjuku. It turns out at the time he was preparing to open a new restaurant though not an Indian restaurant, it's Okinawan. The building he is going into has a floor that is like a food court only there isn't a center court. All the restaurants are Asian and there was already an Indian restaurant on the floor so he had to come up with an Asian theme that wasn't already represented. He chose Okinawan.
I asked if he knew how to cook Okinawan food and he said he was learning. He said if he put one or two Okinawan dishes on the menu and then added some other Chinese dishes he'd be alright. He opened the other night so we're going to go to Kabukicho one night soon to check it out.
Interesting thing about this food floor, each restaurant has its own space with tables etc. but you are allowed to bring food in from the other restaurants on the floor. The customers are required to but their drinks in the restaurant they eat in but, if you wanted Okinawan food and one of your friends wanted Indian and another wanted Thai food, you could all have your food in the same place. You just go and order the food at the other place, telling them you are eating in the Okinawan restaurant and they deliver the food to you.
Now a word about Kabukicho; as I said, it is in Shinjuku, just east of the station. One night my son and I were out walking in the area with the intent of trying different foods in a number of different restaurants. We didn't actually know that we were in Kabukicho until it got dark and we were constantly harassed by men on the street trying to get us to go to their strip club. Then we noticed a number of nude posters on the walls of buildings and erotic names for some of the clubs we were walking near.
As strangers who didn't know the area we weren't too keen on discovering it without the assistance of a local so we got out of there pretty quick. I will be going back to visit my friend's Okinawan restaurant but I will be going with my friend from La Rochelle who had wanted to take me to some Izakayas in the area anyway. With him as a guide I won't be overly concerned; in fact I'm looking forward to it and I stated to my friend that there were to be no girly shows, just food.
I found another grocery store close to the train station today. It's bigger than the others I mentioned in an earlier post and had a great selection of sauces. I picked up some miso (fermented soya bean paste), a few vegetables, some scallops and another type of clam that I will be cooking up as a one pot dish and finishing by adding fresh udon noodles. I'm getting hungry thinking about it.
Another topic that has become more prevalent these days is dogs. Here in Japan and on the home front. I mentioned in a previous post that we are getting two dogs sometime in the next two weeks. I'm looking forward to having dogs again. They tie you down a little when it comes to traveling but the benefit of having them outweighs that little problem.
In Japan it now seems there are plenty of dogs. Due to the hot weather in Japan for the first six weeks I was here I didn't see too many dogs. I remembered seeing a lot of small dogs during previous trips and now that they are back outdoors here it is very noticeable that there are mostly small dogs in Japan. A lot of Dachshunds, Chihuahuas, Pomeranians and small Poodles.
They do not bark at strangers and seem well adjusted to being among lots of people. The other thing I noticed is that a lot of them are dressed up. Japanese people like to put cloths on their little dogs and not just little jackets or warmers, they have full outfits. The other day I saw a small terrier wearing a pair of overhauls with back legs, a shirt underneath with sleeves and a little red hanky poking out of the back pocket.
Quite often I see women riding their bikes and they have a small dog in their basket. Most times the dog is a dachshund. I don't know if they have to ride more often because of their short legs or because there are so many of them that you're bound to see them in the basket more than other breeds.
I've attached a couple of pictures of two dachshunds I met the other day. You can see them on the right side of the www.Zonajin.blogspot.com blog page. The puppy in the basket had a really soft whine and wanted attention. When I petted it, it gently grabbed my fingers with its needle sharp puppy teeth. I had difficulty getting a well focused picture because the little mutt was so squirmy. The other one is two years old and I think it is the puppy's mother.
The place where I see the dogs the most is Inokashira park. It is a huge and very natural park that does not have the usual elegant landscaping that you see in most Japanese parks. I believe I've mentioned this in previous posts.
I went to walk in the park last Sunday. I've been to the park a number of times but let me tell you it is quite different on a Sunday. It was wall to wall people (and dogs) everywhere and I walked further into the park than I have in the past. The park is known to be a 'date' park so there were a large number of young couples walking about or sitting on the benches by the pond. At the far end near some open fields there were a number of large family gatherings with picnics set out and lots of kids playing in the small stream or kicking around a soccer ball.
As I walked back and around the pond I heard a number of boat collisions. The pond has boat rentals available and in Japan it seems people like to ride in paddle boats that look like large swans. They have at least a hundred of them at this park and all of them were being used. Add in the regular paddle boats and the row boats and there was the potential for nautical gridlock. I heard the boom of wooden and fiberglass hulls coming together and then the Japanese words of apology, "Sumimasen" and "Gomen Nasai", many times.
On the far side of the pond near the exits to go to Kichijoji station a small crafts fair had been set up. People had various items for sale and when I got into the middle of the fair I was able to solve a mystery. I'd seen a number of small dogs, Boston Terriers, Beagles and Shibas wearing little hats and a number of them were Halloween witch hats. There, in the middle of the craft fair, was a lady selling dog hats and based on what I'd seen and how many people were at her stand I'd say she did alright that day; especially when the Japanese people like to dress up their dogs as much as they do.
Please visit my author page on my publisher's website at www.pensmithbooks.com for links to more information about Japan.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Only Four Weeks Left
Sadly, there are only twenty seven days left in my trip and I am becoming depressed about leaving Japan. Then I think about the fact that the last day that I've include in my remaining days calculation is all travel and, I'm down to twenty six. Kanashii (sad).
It will be good to get home and see what has changed, to see my kids again, to meet my new dogs (my girl friend is taking the two four year old dogs from her parents ranch to make it easier for her parents) and to see my girlfriend everyday.
I will miss the food here in Japan and the opportunity to see things of interest in Japan. It's amazing how you take things for granted in your home town. Here in Japan if I see something in the paper that looks interesting I go out and see it; at home I know it will always be there so maybe I'll go another day. People should start thinking their own home towns as more of a tourist destination and start seeing the points of interest that are nearby.
I won't miss the bicycles here in Mitaka. As time has gone by I've found them to be more annoying that I thought they would be and the main reason is because they are so quiet. I mentioned this in an earlier post but at this point in my stay I fine that when I walk I have to spent considerable time looking backward to see what's coming from behind and stepping to the side to let oncoming bicycle traffic have the right-of-way.
Most bikes have a bell on them and the riders ring them if you are about to collide with them. In America bikes riders usually indicate which side they will pass you on and they let you know much earlier and by voice. In Mitaka most times they just blow by in silence.
My friend from La Rochelle restaurant was telling me that Mitaka has more bicycles parked near the train station than any other station in Japan. Since I'm walking near the station quite often I am always in the middle of riders coming and going to the station. I am also near the Inokashira park where hundreds if not thousands of bikes are ridden and parked for riders to go to the Kichijoji train station.
He also said that Mitaka has the fewest bicycle accidents of any area in Tokyo and that Kichijoji has the most. I believe him about Kichijoji, when you cross the main streets near the station there is a horrendous mix of bicycles and pedestrians competing for space in the crosswalks and spilling into the roadway where many cars are stuck in the intersection and trying to move out of the way.
I don't blame the riders either because riding the bikes in the vehicle traffic looks more dangerous than mixing wheels and pedestrians on a sidewalk. As I mentioned in a previous post, it's all a matter of a lack of space. The roads are narrow so it's dangerous for bikes to be with cars. To keep the roads as wide as possible street lamps are placed in the sidewalk making them too narrow for anything but single file movement in both directions.
It gets even trickier when it rains and you add umbrellas to the equation. First, two people can't walk side-by-side on these narrow sidewalks at all if they both have umbrellas raised so there's no conversation while you walk. Second, the bicycle riders have umbrellas too. Some have little posts with clamps on their handlebars but most just hold the umbrella with one had and steer with the other. Steering control is more difficult at low speeds and when a rider gets close to a pedestrian with an umbrella the rider has to slow down. The pedestrian in all likelihood is looking down at the sidewalk and not seeing the bicycle approach.
I've seen mothers on bicycles with young children in child seats on the front and back in the rain. They have a post-mounted umbrella on the back seat and hold a large umbrella over the front seat and themselves. I assume they get where they are going and have done it before but it looks dangerous.
At least when they have to use an umbrella they aren't texting and, on days when it doesn't rain they text a lot while riding their bikes.
I will miss the train system. I'm getting to know it a lot better that I did before and I had complete confidence in my ability to get anywhere in Tokyo on the system even then. Now I'm staring to think about which end of the train to get on so I get to the correct exit faster when I get off.
Mitaka is on the Chuuou line so I ride that line almost every time. There are two versions of the Chuuou, one is the local line that stops at every station (it usually has a yellow stripe on the cars) and the other is the Rapid line which skips certain stops along the way (it always has orange stripes). If you are going to one of the stops that are skipped, you ride the Rapid to the nearest station then transfer to the local to make the rest of the trip.
The Chuuou line is always crowded. I very seldom get a seat but I don't mind since it's only a 15 minute ride to Shinjuku Station and it seems everyone transfers at Shinjuku. As usual most of the people sitting are sleeping. I mentioned in an earlier post how the Japanese people supplement their sleep by taking naps on the trains. Some say the young people close their eyes so they don't have to give up their seats to the elderly. I think they actually rest. If you recall, Winston Churchill could take twenty minute power naps and then be good to go for another twenty four hours. He did this through most of WWII.
If Japanese people don't get a seat then the majority of those standing pull out their phones and start to text or read an ebook or play a game or transfer music to their iPods.
Not just the young kids either, the older set is just as active with their phones as the young kids. A few years ago on a trip to Japan with my son we were out touring around Tokyo with my friend from the Keio Plaza Hotel. My son mentioned a Japanese musical group called, Guitar Wolf, and since my friend's son is a guitar player we asked him to ask his son if he knew where to buy the band's CDs. We expected him to ask later that night and get back to us but (we didn't notice) he pulled out his phone and texted his son right then and a few minutes later told us his son had heard of the band but thought they had broken up. I was doubly surprised because my friend used texting and was from my age group but my son thought it was only natural.
Speaking of technology and using the telephones, I've just spent the last three days getting my first book, A Wind In Montana (see link on the right side of the www.Zonajin.blogspot.com blog page), into ebook format for all ebook formats. Previously my book was available in Kindle format only but via some internet reading I discovered a website called Smashwords. They have a style guide that helps you reformat you manuscript in MSWord so that it will look professional in all ebook formats.
It took me a few tries but I got everything straight and I submitted my book for publication. Smashwords turns it into all the popular ebook formats and then gets it listed in catalogues at all the popular ebook sales sites. The good news is they don't charge you a thing to do it but they make a royalty when copies are sold. The author gets 70 to 80% of the net sale.
So, if you have an ebook reader like the nook from Barnes and Noble, an iPad from Apple, a Sonyreader from Sony or a Kindle from Amazon, you can get my book from Smashwords or any of the sites they distribute to. The paperback version of my book is $17.75 but the ebook version is $4.95 ($4.99 on Sony).
If you don't have an ebook reader you can download a free PC based reader for any one of the formats and then purchase the book or books and read them on your PC.
Some of the new cell phones and most in the future will have the ability to download ebooks as well. There is a link to the Smashwords site on my author page at my publisher's web site, www.pensmithbooks.com.
The large traditional publishing houses are putting all of their new publications into all the ebook formats and they're going back to their old books to make them available in e-formats as well.
Well, it is nice today in Mitaka. I'm going to go dodge bicycles on my way to the park where I plan to get a Macha Softserve Ice Cream Cone and read for a while. My friend and I are supposed to go fishing in Yokohama tomorrow but it's supposed to rain so I may be shut in. I better get out while I can when I don't have to walk with an umbrella.
It will be good to get home and see what has changed, to see my kids again, to meet my new dogs (my girl friend is taking the two four year old dogs from her parents ranch to make it easier for her parents) and to see my girlfriend everyday.
I will miss the food here in Japan and the opportunity to see things of interest in Japan. It's amazing how you take things for granted in your home town. Here in Japan if I see something in the paper that looks interesting I go out and see it; at home I know it will always be there so maybe I'll go another day. People should start thinking their own home towns as more of a tourist destination and start seeing the points of interest that are nearby.
I won't miss the bicycles here in Mitaka. As time has gone by I've found them to be more annoying that I thought they would be and the main reason is because they are so quiet. I mentioned this in an earlier post but at this point in my stay I fine that when I walk I have to spent considerable time looking backward to see what's coming from behind and stepping to the side to let oncoming bicycle traffic have the right-of-way.
Most bikes have a bell on them and the riders ring them if you are about to collide with them. In America bikes riders usually indicate which side they will pass you on and they let you know much earlier and by voice. In Mitaka most times they just blow by in silence.
My friend from La Rochelle restaurant was telling me that Mitaka has more bicycles parked near the train station than any other station in Japan. Since I'm walking near the station quite often I am always in the middle of riders coming and going to the station. I am also near the Inokashira park where hundreds if not thousands of bikes are ridden and parked for riders to go to the Kichijoji train station.
He also said that Mitaka has the fewest bicycle accidents of any area in Tokyo and that Kichijoji has the most. I believe him about Kichijoji, when you cross the main streets near the station there is a horrendous mix of bicycles and pedestrians competing for space in the crosswalks and spilling into the roadway where many cars are stuck in the intersection and trying to move out of the way.
I don't blame the riders either because riding the bikes in the vehicle traffic looks more dangerous than mixing wheels and pedestrians on a sidewalk. As I mentioned in a previous post, it's all a matter of a lack of space. The roads are narrow so it's dangerous for bikes to be with cars. To keep the roads as wide as possible street lamps are placed in the sidewalk making them too narrow for anything but single file movement in both directions.
It gets even trickier when it rains and you add umbrellas to the equation. First, two people can't walk side-by-side on these narrow sidewalks at all if they both have umbrellas raised so there's no conversation while you walk. Second, the bicycle riders have umbrellas too. Some have little posts with clamps on their handlebars but most just hold the umbrella with one had and steer with the other. Steering control is more difficult at low speeds and when a rider gets close to a pedestrian with an umbrella the rider has to slow down. The pedestrian in all likelihood is looking down at the sidewalk and not seeing the bicycle approach.
I've seen mothers on bicycles with young children in child seats on the front and back in the rain. They have a post-mounted umbrella on the back seat and hold a large umbrella over the front seat and themselves. I assume they get where they are going and have done it before but it looks dangerous.
At least when they have to use an umbrella they aren't texting and, on days when it doesn't rain they text a lot while riding their bikes.
I will miss the train system. I'm getting to know it a lot better that I did before and I had complete confidence in my ability to get anywhere in Tokyo on the system even then. Now I'm staring to think about which end of the train to get on so I get to the correct exit faster when I get off.
Mitaka is on the Chuuou line so I ride that line almost every time. There are two versions of the Chuuou, one is the local line that stops at every station (it usually has a yellow stripe on the cars) and the other is the Rapid line which skips certain stops along the way (it always has orange stripes). If you are going to one of the stops that are skipped, you ride the Rapid to the nearest station then transfer to the local to make the rest of the trip.
The Chuuou line is always crowded. I very seldom get a seat but I don't mind since it's only a 15 minute ride to Shinjuku Station and it seems everyone transfers at Shinjuku. As usual most of the people sitting are sleeping. I mentioned in an earlier post how the Japanese people supplement their sleep by taking naps on the trains. Some say the young people close their eyes so they don't have to give up their seats to the elderly. I think they actually rest. If you recall, Winston Churchill could take twenty minute power naps and then be good to go for another twenty four hours. He did this through most of WWII.
If Japanese people don't get a seat then the majority of those standing pull out their phones and start to text or read an ebook or play a game or transfer music to their iPods.
Not just the young kids either, the older set is just as active with their phones as the young kids. A few years ago on a trip to Japan with my son we were out touring around Tokyo with my friend from the Keio Plaza Hotel. My son mentioned a Japanese musical group called, Guitar Wolf, and since my friend's son is a guitar player we asked him to ask his son if he knew where to buy the band's CDs. We expected him to ask later that night and get back to us but (we didn't notice) he pulled out his phone and texted his son right then and a few minutes later told us his son had heard of the band but thought they had broken up. I was doubly surprised because my friend used texting and was from my age group but my son thought it was only natural.
Speaking of technology and using the telephones, I've just spent the last three days getting my first book, A Wind In Montana (see link on the right side of the www.Zonajin.blogspot.com blog page), into ebook format for all ebook formats. Previously my book was available in Kindle format only but via some internet reading I discovered a website called Smashwords. They have a style guide that helps you reformat you manuscript in MSWord so that it will look professional in all ebook formats.
It took me a few tries but I got everything straight and I submitted my book for publication. Smashwords turns it into all the popular ebook formats and then gets it listed in catalogues at all the popular ebook sales sites. The good news is they don't charge you a thing to do it but they make a royalty when copies are sold. The author gets 70 to 80% of the net sale.
So, if you have an ebook reader like the nook from Barnes and Noble, an iPad from Apple, a Sonyreader from Sony or a Kindle from Amazon, you can get my book from Smashwords or any of the sites they distribute to. The paperback version of my book is $17.75 but the ebook version is $4.95 ($4.99 on Sony).
If you don't have an ebook reader you can download a free PC based reader for any one of the formats and then purchase the book or books and read them on your PC.
Some of the new cell phones and most in the future will have the ability to download ebooks as well. There is a link to the Smashwords site on my author page at my publisher's web site, www.pensmithbooks.com.
The large traditional publishing houses are putting all of their new publications into all the ebook formats and they're going back to their old books to make them available in e-formats as well.
Well, it is nice today in Mitaka. I'm going to go dodge bicycles on my way to the park where I plan to get a Macha Softserve Ice Cream Cone and read for a while. My friend and I are supposed to go fishing in Yokohama tomorrow but it's supposed to rain so I may be shut in. I better get out while I can when I don't have to walk with an umbrella.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Numerous Updates, The Japanese Movie Theater Experience and Manga
Today my girlfriend left for home and after seeing her off on the Narita Express I went to the book store and then to a movie. More about that later but now a few updates.
First, I forgot to mention that the day we went to the morning sumo practice while I was sitting on the platform watching the wrestlers I was also looking around at the facility. We were sitting on cushions (zabuton) about three feet off the ground on a wooden wrap-around deck. At the one end of the deck to our left I counted fourteen, one-hundred pound bags of rice. Rice is the food that the rikishi eat the most so I guess it was natural for me to see it in the beya.
I'm sure that many of their supplies are supplied by benefactors and since Takamisakari is in a number of food commercials the beya receives more than their fair share of goods.
I don't think that Azumazeki beya is very large with only about seven to ten rikishi but there are some with around sixty. Imagine how much rice, not to mention steak and eggs, the larger beyas have stacked up some where.
Staying with sumo, the basho is over and Yokozuna Hakuho did go undefeated and set a record of four consecutive undefeated tournament wins. He has only lost three matches this year and they all came in January. He holds the record for fewest losses in a year at four, which he set last year. If he goes undefeated in the November basho in Fukuoka he will set three new records; five consecutive undefeated bashos, fewest losses in a year at three and longest winning streak which would be seventy seven. He will also be the only rikishi to have won seventy in a row.
My favorite rikishi, Homasho, had a good final week and ended up with a 7-8 won/loss record. He will not get demoted too far and won't have to face the top rikishi next time. He needs to work harder so he can beat a few Ozekis.
The Ozekis all had mediocre tournaments. The old Ozeki, Kaio, did get a winning record of 8-7 so he remains an Ozeki going into Fukuoka, which is his home town. They are saying again that he will retire in his home town so we'll watch and see. The big Bulgarian Kotooshu had the best Ozeki record at 10-5.
We went on the last day and it was another new experience at sumo. We stayed for all the presentations at the end and believe me there are plenty of presentations. First Hakuho receives the Emperor's Cup as the champion. It was presented by the Japanese Prime Minister, Naota Kan. The trophy was too heavy for the Prime Minister so one of the assistants had to help him carry it. Then Hakuho was presented the Japan Sumo Association victory flag.
Then, they just keep coming. The French Cup, the Hungarian Cup, the Chinese Cup, and the one we found most amazing, The Mexico Cup. We've never seen a Mexican sumo wrestler but along with the cup Hakuho received a year's supply of Corona Beer.
Beer may be second to rice in consumption in a sumo beya so this could have been an expensive gift. The United Arab Emirates gave him a year's supply of gasoline but since rikishi aren't allowed to drive I don't know how much that will amount to.
The Japanese Prefecture (state/province) of Miyazaki gave Hakuho a cow (they are famous for beef and have just been cleared of a hoof and mouth disease outbreak) and one ton of vegetables. The cow and the vegetables were not present. I told this to people here and they asked me if they walked the cow into the building. Coca Cola gave him a giant silver Coca Cola bottle but I didn't hear of a gift but I'm sure there was a year's supply of Coca Cola involved.
After the Yokozuna received more than he could handle they awarded the certificates to the winners of the other divisions then there was a promotion ceremony. Three young boys were promoted to sumo apprentices. They were very young and they came out in their mawashis to the center of the ring along with one of the top Gyogis (referees, who are Shinto Priests or similar) and their Oyakata (head coach and beya manager). The youngsters didn't know what the procedure was and got pushed into position by a rather aggressive gentleman in a gray suit.
They were each given a drink of sake which I don't think they are old enough to drink and then they all did a chant. The entire audience knew the chant and chimed in to announce the promotion. After that they all gathered in the center of the ring and picked up the Gyogi (referee) whom they tossed in the air three times as a symbol of rising up.
I've been following sumo very closely for five and a half years now and I experience something new with regard to sumo every time I come to Japan.
Now an update on another subject; the weather has turned severely in the opposite direction of summer. For the past three days it has been cold and raining. Sometimes it rains very hard and sometimes it's very cold. My girlfriend and I didn't have to fight over the temperature in the room at all. Today we had to take a cab to the train station because it was raining so hard. We got soaked crossing the street to get in the cab and we both had umbrellas.
The week after I arrived my friend and I found two umbrellas left on a train and since it was raining we took them. They were the smallest cheapest kind that you get for about 300 yen at the 7Eleven. They get left behind everywhere. Trains, umbrella stands, chairs in restaurants, bathrooms, you name it. My friend kept one and so did I. I found a much better umbrella left on a train two days ago and I've been using it since.
This morning though I used the tiny crappy one. I had bought a decent umbrella for my girlfriend, we each needed an umbrella to get to the station and I didn't want to be carrying two umbrellas after she left so I took the crappy one intending to leave it on the train or in the bathroom afterwards. It lived up to its ability and my jacket and pants were soaked when we got to the station after only walking about a block. The closest escalator to where the cab dropped us was being repaired so we walked to another one.
It felt good leaving it on the umbrella hook in the men's room, the way these umbrellas float around it's kind of like 'catch and release'.
My girlfriend and I had a great time while she was here. We only cooked in the room one night and then the night after the last day of sumo we didn't eat at all. The reason? Well, if you read one of my earlier blog posts you will remember that my friend from the Keio Plaza Hotel and I went to see a museum in a small area called Musashi Koganei. We met a lady there who was extremely generous to us when we went into her restaurant to ask for direction to find the number 4 bus. Remember?
Well, if you don't, she ended up having one of her employees drive us to the museum. When we decided to go back and eat at her restaurant to pay her back, she put on a fantastic meal for us and then refused to let us pay. So, before we went to the last day of sumo we went to her restaurant for lunch. My friend phoned to make sure she would be there and off we went.
Well, this time she out did her previous delicious meal. She supplied us with course after course of unbelievable food. Appetizers of mitake mushrooms and rice in the shape of bunnies, grilled mitake mushrooms, a delicate consume with a shrimp shumai dumpling, a whole grilled sanma (a fish I pictured earlier on the right side of the Zonajin blog page, www.Zonajin.blogspot.com), grilled lamb, a giant deep-fried shrimp and the highlight of the meal, a whole sea breem (Tai in Japan, red snapper in America) sashimi style with the head and tail for decoration. I have the picture on the right of the Zonajin blog page.
When we tried to pay she was very adamant that she wasn't going to accept our money. We continued to insist and she said we were going to be late for sumo and had better leave so we could pay her another time. She is the most generous person I think I've ever run into. I've certainly received more valuable things from people I know but this lady has no reason to be so nice to strangers in the manner that she has been nice to us. My girlfriend couldn't believe how nice this lady is. We ate so much good food that we couldn't eat dinner that night.
After my girlfriend left on the train for Narita I went to the book store. I've read two of the three books in, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, trilogy and they are so good I'm saving the third book for the plane ride home. Since I'm in Japan I thought I would check out the manga scene. My first attempt was a juvenile manga written in Japanese but it had Furigana Characters (Hiragana and Katakana pronunciation syllables) and I thought it would help me learn Japanese Kanji characters. The problem was that the juvenile mangas use a lot of slang so I couldn't figure out what the words were anyway. I mentioned this in an earlier blog post.
Next I tried a manga that was written in English. I'd read two in North America before and enjoyed that method of telling a story. I mentioned in earlier blogs I had been a comic reader when I was younger so I don't have a problem with graphic novels. I bought a samurai manga and it was fairly easy reading and easy to follow but I didn't notice that it was volume one of a series and volume two comes out in December. I don't know if it is going to be interesting or not since it really just got started.
While I was looking I saw a few others that I thought would be interesting and when I saw a review of one of them in the Japanese times online I decided I would go back and buy volume one of this series. If I like it I know I can get other volumes. The one I bought is called, Black Jack. Each volume is a number of individual stories about the world's greatest surgeon who happens to be very greedy and does surgery for what appears to be the wrong reasons. He doesn't have a license and seems a bit cutthroat about his profession but things work out fine in the end.
This series is from the same author/artist who created Astro Boy. I read two of the stories in a bar while I was waiting to go to the movie and I'm not sure they can hold my interest very long. So far, I don't get manga.
After a 99 yen beer, some edamame (they don't salt them too strongly in Japan) and some hot and spicy chicken wings (spiced with white pepper and sesame seeds but no red sauce like in America) I went to the theater to see a samurai movie that came out last Friday. It did not have English subtitles so I was going to have to try and follow some of the details with my limited Japanese. I had read a review and so I knew something about the plot and I've watched a number of samurai movies so I kind of know what's likely to happen.
The first thing I noticed that was different about going to a movie in Japan is the price, 1,800 yen, about $20. I wouldn't pay that in America but I wanted to see what it was like to go to a movie in Japan. I paid and walked up the stairs to the second floor. It appears the theaters are stacked on top of each other because there was a different floor for each movie.
I walk into the lobby area and didn't realize the guy that takes the tickets is behind the door so he had to chase me down to tear off the stub. Then I notice that there are no concession stands. The lobby is full of vending machines. Sodas, tea and the regular Japanese vending items but then there is a sandwich machine and a machine filled with popcorn. It smelled fresh.
But the most amazing vending machine was the Sapporro Beer machine, yes, you can buy beer to take in with you to watch the movie. The picture is on the right side of the Zonajin blog page. That ain't happ'nin' at home. I didn't have one.
The theater was nice, it sat about two hundred people but it was less than half full for the 4:20 showing. Most of the audience was older men since they are the main audience for samurai movies these days.
It was an interesting experience but I didn't get much of the dialogue. Some of my Japanese friends say they have trouble with samurai movies as well because they use old style language. Probably why young people don't go.
The fifteen minute walk home from Kichijoji was extremely pleasant. The rain had stopped and I didn't need to wear my jacket. I was enjoying the evening so much I almost wanted to keep going past the apartment when I arrived.
I have links to a website where you can watch Japanese television dramas and movies, many of which are samurai movies. To see the link go to my author page at my publisher's website, www.pensmithbooks.com.
First, I forgot to mention that the day we went to the morning sumo practice while I was sitting on the platform watching the wrestlers I was also looking around at the facility. We were sitting on cushions (zabuton) about three feet off the ground on a wooden wrap-around deck. At the one end of the deck to our left I counted fourteen, one-hundred pound bags of rice. Rice is the food that the rikishi eat the most so I guess it was natural for me to see it in the beya.
I'm sure that many of their supplies are supplied by benefactors and since Takamisakari is in a number of food commercials the beya receives more than their fair share of goods.
I don't think that Azumazeki beya is very large with only about seven to ten rikishi but there are some with around sixty. Imagine how much rice, not to mention steak and eggs, the larger beyas have stacked up some where.
Staying with sumo, the basho is over and Yokozuna Hakuho did go undefeated and set a record of four consecutive undefeated tournament wins. He has only lost three matches this year and they all came in January. He holds the record for fewest losses in a year at four, which he set last year. If he goes undefeated in the November basho in Fukuoka he will set three new records; five consecutive undefeated bashos, fewest losses in a year at three and longest winning streak which would be seventy seven. He will also be the only rikishi to have won seventy in a row.
My favorite rikishi, Homasho, had a good final week and ended up with a 7-8 won/loss record. He will not get demoted too far and won't have to face the top rikishi next time. He needs to work harder so he can beat a few Ozekis.
The Ozekis all had mediocre tournaments. The old Ozeki, Kaio, did get a winning record of 8-7 so he remains an Ozeki going into Fukuoka, which is his home town. They are saying again that he will retire in his home town so we'll watch and see. The big Bulgarian Kotooshu had the best Ozeki record at 10-5.
We went on the last day and it was another new experience at sumo. We stayed for all the presentations at the end and believe me there are plenty of presentations. First Hakuho receives the Emperor's Cup as the champion. It was presented by the Japanese Prime Minister, Naota Kan. The trophy was too heavy for the Prime Minister so one of the assistants had to help him carry it. Then Hakuho was presented the Japan Sumo Association victory flag.
Then, they just keep coming. The French Cup, the Hungarian Cup, the Chinese Cup, and the one we found most amazing, The Mexico Cup. We've never seen a Mexican sumo wrestler but along with the cup Hakuho received a year's supply of Corona Beer.
Beer may be second to rice in consumption in a sumo beya so this could have been an expensive gift. The United Arab Emirates gave him a year's supply of gasoline but since rikishi aren't allowed to drive I don't know how much that will amount to.
The Japanese Prefecture (state/province) of Miyazaki gave Hakuho a cow (they are famous for beef and have just been cleared of a hoof and mouth disease outbreak) and one ton of vegetables. The cow and the vegetables were not present. I told this to people here and they asked me if they walked the cow into the building. Coca Cola gave him a giant silver Coca Cola bottle but I didn't hear of a gift but I'm sure there was a year's supply of Coca Cola involved.
After the Yokozuna received more than he could handle they awarded the certificates to the winners of the other divisions then there was a promotion ceremony. Three young boys were promoted to sumo apprentices. They were very young and they came out in their mawashis to the center of the ring along with one of the top Gyogis (referees, who are Shinto Priests or similar) and their Oyakata (head coach and beya manager). The youngsters didn't know what the procedure was and got pushed into position by a rather aggressive gentleman in a gray suit.
They were each given a drink of sake which I don't think they are old enough to drink and then they all did a chant. The entire audience knew the chant and chimed in to announce the promotion. After that they all gathered in the center of the ring and picked up the Gyogi (referee) whom they tossed in the air three times as a symbol of rising up.
I've been following sumo very closely for five and a half years now and I experience something new with regard to sumo every time I come to Japan.
Now an update on another subject; the weather has turned severely in the opposite direction of summer. For the past three days it has been cold and raining. Sometimes it rains very hard and sometimes it's very cold. My girlfriend and I didn't have to fight over the temperature in the room at all. Today we had to take a cab to the train station because it was raining so hard. We got soaked crossing the street to get in the cab and we both had umbrellas.
The week after I arrived my friend and I found two umbrellas left on a train and since it was raining we took them. They were the smallest cheapest kind that you get for about 300 yen at the 7Eleven. They get left behind everywhere. Trains, umbrella stands, chairs in restaurants, bathrooms, you name it. My friend kept one and so did I. I found a much better umbrella left on a train two days ago and I've been using it since.
This morning though I used the tiny crappy one. I had bought a decent umbrella for my girlfriend, we each needed an umbrella to get to the station and I didn't want to be carrying two umbrellas after she left so I took the crappy one intending to leave it on the train or in the bathroom afterwards. It lived up to its ability and my jacket and pants were soaked when we got to the station after only walking about a block. The closest escalator to where the cab dropped us was being repaired so we walked to another one.
It felt good leaving it on the umbrella hook in the men's room, the way these umbrellas float around it's kind of like 'catch and release'.
My girlfriend and I had a great time while she was here. We only cooked in the room one night and then the night after the last day of sumo we didn't eat at all. The reason? Well, if you read one of my earlier blog posts you will remember that my friend from the Keio Plaza Hotel and I went to see a museum in a small area called Musashi Koganei. We met a lady there who was extremely generous to us when we went into her restaurant to ask for direction to find the number 4 bus. Remember?
Well, if you don't, she ended up having one of her employees drive us to the museum. When we decided to go back and eat at her restaurant to pay her back, she put on a fantastic meal for us and then refused to let us pay. So, before we went to the last day of sumo we went to her restaurant for lunch. My friend phoned to make sure she would be there and off we went.
Well, this time she out did her previous delicious meal. She supplied us with course after course of unbelievable food. Appetizers of mitake mushrooms and rice in the shape of bunnies, grilled mitake mushrooms, a delicate consume with a shrimp shumai dumpling, a whole grilled sanma (a fish I pictured earlier on the right side of the Zonajin blog page, www.Zonajin.blogspot.com), grilled lamb, a giant deep-fried shrimp and the highlight of the meal, a whole sea breem (Tai in Japan, red snapper in America) sashimi style with the head and tail for decoration. I have the picture on the right of the Zonajin blog page.
When we tried to pay she was very adamant that she wasn't going to accept our money. We continued to insist and she said we were going to be late for sumo and had better leave so we could pay her another time. She is the most generous person I think I've ever run into. I've certainly received more valuable things from people I know but this lady has no reason to be so nice to strangers in the manner that she has been nice to us. My girlfriend couldn't believe how nice this lady is. We ate so much good food that we couldn't eat dinner that night.
After my girlfriend left on the train for Narita I went to the book store. I've read two of the three books in, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, trilogy and they are so good I'm saving the third book for the plane ride home. Since I'm in Japan I thought I would check out the manga scene. My first attempt was a juvenile manga written in Japanese but it had Furigana Characters (Hiragana and Katakana pronunciation syllables) and I thought it would help me learn Japanese Kanji characters. The problem was that the juvenile mangas use a lot of slang so I couldn't figure out what the words were anyway. I mentioned this in an earlier blog post.
Next I tried a manga that was written in English. I'd read two in North America before and enjoyed that method of telling a story. I mentioned in earlier blogs I had been a comic reader when I was younger so I don't have a problem with graphic novels. I bought a samurai manga and it was fairly easy reading and easy to follow but I didn't notice that it was volume one of a series and volume two comes out in December. I don't know if it is going to be interesting or not since it really just got started.
While I was looking I saw a few others that I thought would be interesting and when I saw a review of one of them in the Japanese times online I decided I would go back and buy volume one of this series. If I like it I know I can get other volumes. The one I bought is called, Black Jack. Each volume is a number of individual stories about the world's greatest surgeon who happens to be very greedy and does surgery for what appears to be the wrong reasons. He doesn't have a license and seems a bit cutthroat about his profession but things work out fine in the end.
This series is from the same author/artist who created Astro Boy. I read two of the stories in a bar while I was waiting to go to the movie and I'm not sure they can hold my interest very long. So far, I don't get manga.
After a 99 yen beer, some edamame (they don't salt them too strongly in Japan) and some hot and spicy chicken wings (spiced with white pepper and sesame seeds but no red sauce like in America) I went to the theater to see a samurai movie that came out last Friday. It did not have English subtitles so I was going to have to try and follow some of the details with my limited Japanese. I had read a review and so I knew something about the plot and I've watched a number of samurai movies so I kind of know what's likely to happen.
The first thing I noticed that was different about going to a movie in Japan is the price, 1,800 yen, about $20. I wouldn't pay that in America but I wanted to see what it was like to go to a movie in Japan. I paid and walked up the stairs to the second floor. It appears the theaters are stacked on top of each other because there was a different floor for each movie.
I walk into the lobby area and didn't realize the guy that takes the tickets is behind the door so he had to chase me down to tear off the stub. Then I notice that there are no concession stands. The lobby is full of vending machines. Sodas, tea and the regular Japanese vending items but then there is a sandwich machine and a machine filled with popcorn. It smelled fresh.
But the most amazing vending machine was the Sapporro Beer machine, yes, you can buy beer to take in with you to watch the movie. The picture is on the right side of the Zonajin blog page. That ain't happ'nin' at home. I didn't have one.
The theater was nice, it sat about two hundred people but it was less than half full for the 4:20 showing. Most of the audience was older men since they are the main audience for samurai movies these days.
It was an interesting experience but I didn't get much of the dialogue. Some of my Japanese friends say they have trouble with samurai movies as well because they use old style language. Probably why young people don't go.
The fifteen minute walk home from Kichijoji was extremely pleasant. The rain had stopped and I didn't need to wear my jacket. I was enjoying the evening so much I almost wanted to keep going past the apartment when I arrived.
I have links to a website where you can watch Japanese television dramas and movies, many of which are samurai movies. To see the link go to my author page at my publisher's website, www.pensmithbooks.com.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
A Whole Lot of Sumo Goin' On
First, it got hot again here in Tokyo. As a result my temporary roommate and I are in agreement about keeping the room cool while we are in the apartment. No conflicts on that front so far.
Over the past two days we have been immersed in sumo. We went to the Ryogoku Kokugikan (Sumo Stadium) for the Day 9 matches. My favorite rikishi, Homasho, won his match that day but returned to his losing ways the next. He is now 3 and 7 and one loss away from a losing record. Yokozuna Hakuho is still undefeated and has a winning streak of 57 straight matches that he is working on. The big Bulgarian, Kotooshu, lost his first match and now must win his matches on the last 5 days to get into a playoff with Hakuho whom he would have to beat.
On the day we attended 3 of the 4 Ozekis lost their matches. Aside from Kotooshu, Yokozuna Hakuho has no competition.
There is another rikishi who is very interesting and supplies a lot of fun at the matches. His name is, Takamisakari. He is very famous in Japan and is seen a lot in television commercials. He has a very exuberant warm-up process when he gets in the ring which involves a lot of chest pounding, arm thrusts and foot stomping followed by the tossing of a large handful of salt. The crowd grunts along with him on each arm thrust and cheers loudly when the salt flies clear across the ring.
If Takamisakari wins, the crowd is happy and he marches out of the stadium with his shoulders back, his head high and his chest bursting out with pride. If he loses, well, you know what it was like when you were a little kid and your older brother threw dirt on your popsicle, that's what Takamisakari looks like when he walks out after a loss. The crowd groans with sympathy then applauds to give him a little moral support.
So far this basho Takamisakari has won only twice and, that costs him money. Before some matches there are some banners that are carried around the ring. These banners are advertising banners that companies pay 60,000 yen ($600) to have presented before the crowd. The 60,000 yen is placed in an envelope which is given to the winner of that particular match. Fifty percent of the money goes to the government for taxes; five percent goes to the rikishi's sumo stable and the remaining forty five percent goes to the rikishi himself so each packet means about 2,850 yen ($280) to keep. Before each Takamisakari bout, the company that he does so many television commercials for puts up 5 to 7 banners so, Takamisakari or his opponent gets $1,500 to $2,100 (round numbers).
For the Yokozuna matches there are anywhere from 12 to 25 packets on a regular day and I have seen as many as 50. I did the calculations once for a years worth of packets for former Yokozuna Asashoryu and it came to around $1,000,000.
Takamisakari usually wins between 6 and 9 bouts each basho so he makes a good buck but his opponents also have a chance to make some pocket money.
After sumo that day our new friends that I met one night at La Rochelle, asked us to meet them for Chankonabe. Chankonabe is the food that sumo wrestlers eat to increase their bulk. It is a rich stew with meat and seafood, plenty of vegetables and a delicious broth. There are a number of restaurants that offer Chankonabe but our new friends have a favorite one so we met there. This restaurant is owned by former Yokozuna, Mienomi, who was the head of the Japan Sumo Association up until about 4 weeks ago. He retired due to the betting scandal and for health reasons.
The food was delicious. There was more than just the stew. As usual there was an appetizer that was two kinds of fish roe followed by a sashimi platter. Tasty as always. Then there was a dish of home-made tofu with sea urchin roe (uni) in a thick brown sauce that they called turtle shell broth because of the color (no turtles were killed during the courses of the meal). We were then each presented with a whole grilled halibut about 8 inches long. Fantastic flavor with a crispy skin and tricky to take apart with chopsticks.
The stew had meat balls of chicken and fish that the lady formed into balls with chopsticks then dropped into the broth. After eating the contents of the stew it is customary to add either rice or noodles to the remaining broth so you finish your meal with a hearty bowl of starch. We chose noodles and at this restaurant they used home made ramen. They were nice and firm yet fully cooked and we slurped away enjoying the texture and the savory broth, umame.
We knew that the next day we had to get up very early because our young friend from La Rochelle restaurant had arranged for us to attend morning sumo practice at one of the sumo stables. Her uncle has some connections but we didn't know which stable we would be visiting.
My friend that works at the Keio Plaza Hotel who was with us for sumo and Chankonabe, had joked that we might get lucky and be asked to eat Chankonabe with the wrestlers in the morning.
We got up about 5:00 AM and took a train to meet our young friend, her uncle and her uncle's friend then we went to the sumo stable. We were very lucky. We got to visit and watch the sumo practice at the Azumazeki Beya, which is the beya of none other than, Takamisakari. We were shown where to enter by one of the young rikishi who was covered in sweat since he had just finished a practice match. I was amazed at how tall he was.
We took off our shoes then stepped onto the platform around the practice ring and there was Takamisakari warming up in the corner. We watched the rikishi work out for about 45 minutes. I was amazed at how hard they worked in practice on a day when they would have to fight a real match at the stadium. I also couldn't believe the loud sound of smacking flesh as the two wrestlers came together at the start of the match (tachiai). In the stadium or on television you can hear these collisions but when you are just ten feet away it's hard to believe they can make that big a noise without someone getting hurt.
After the practice matches we received another bonus. The former Oyakata of the beya, Takamiyama, came to talk with us. Takamiyama was known by all in Japan by his Christian name, Jesse. He is a Hawaiian and left Hawaii after high school to join sumo in Japan. He's been there for 45 years. Jesse was the first foreign born wrestler to win a Grand Championship (see the picture of his championship portrait on the right of the www.Zonajin.blogspot.com blog page). He also recruited, Ake Bonno, the Hawaiian who became the first foreign born Yokozuna.
After our chat he pointed to the kitchen and said that they were waiting for us to join them for Chankonabe. We felt honored and went to the kitchen to eat. Throughout the practice session we could hear chopping coming from the kitchen and then we could smell food being cooked. Each beya makes their own version of Chankonabe and they will never give out their recipe. Each beya thinks its version of Chankonabe gives them a competitive advantage. Now we were going to eat Azumazeki beya's version.
When we got to the table (we were actually sitting on the floor) and I got to sit beside Takamisakari. We each had a bowl of stew set in front of us then big platters of fried eggs and steak were placed on the table. They wanted us to take food first so I took some steak. The stew was in a spicy broth. You don't get much in the way of chili spiced food in Japan but this broth had chili in it. It was very tasty with a back ground chicken flavor. There was chicken meat, youba (tofu skin), cabbage, carrots and mushrooms. They offered a side of rice but I didn't take it.
I spoke Japanese with Takamisakari. I told him about the temperature back home in Phoenix and he commented that it was hot like that in Las Vegas as well. This reminded me to tell him that when all the rikishi came to Las Vegas in 2005, my girlfriend and I had gone to Las Vegas to see the matches. He was very impressed that we had seen him there.
The other young rikishi were standing around listening and watching us eat and I realized that they wouldn't eat until Takamisakari and his guests were finished and that anything we ate, they wouldn't.
After the meal we watched as the stables hair-dresser groomed the hair of a few of the wrestlers. That was pretty interesting as he pulled, combed and waxed the long black hair into the traditional topknot of the sumotori.
That afternoon as we watched the sumo matches on television we were especially interested in Takamisakari's match. Unfortunately his older brother threw dirt on his popsicle again and he marched out with his head down as his opponent pocketed the reward money.
It was a great two day stretch of sumo and I will never forget the morning sumo practice and the Chankonabe with Takamisakari. See the picture on the right side at www.Zonajin.blogspot.com and visit my author page on my publisher's website, www.pensmithbooks.com, for links to the Japan Sumo Association.
Over the past two days we have been immersed in sumo. We went to the Ryogoku Kokugikan (Sumo Stadium) for the Day 9 matches. My favorite rikishi, Homasho, won his match that day but returned to his losing ways the next. He is now 3 and 7 and one loss away from a losing record. Yokozuna Hakuho is still undefeated and has a winning streak of 57 straight matches that he is working on. The big Bulgarian, Kotooshu, lost his first match and now must win his matches on the last 5 days to get into a playoff with Hakuho whom he would have to beat.
On the day we attended 3 of the 4 Ozekis lost their matches. Aside from Kotooshu, Yokozuna Hakuho has no competition.
There is another rikishi who is very interesting and supplies a lot of fun at the matches. His name is, Takamisakari. He is very famous in Japan and is seen a lot in television commercials. He has a very exuberant warm-up process when he gets in the ring which involves a lot of chest pounding, arm thrusts and foot stomping followed by the tossing of a large handful of salt. The crowd grunts along with him on each arm thrust and cheers loudly when the salt flies clear across the ring.
If Takamisakari wins, the crowd is happy and he marches out of the stadium with his shoulders back, his head high and his chest bursting out with pride. If he loses, well, you know what it was like when you were a little kid and your older brother threw dirt on your popsicle, that's what Takamisakari looks like when he walks out after a loss. The crowd groans with sympathy then applauds to give him a little moral support.
So far this basho Takamisakari has won only twice and, that costs him money. Before some matches there are some banners that are carried around the ring. These banners are advertising banners that companies pay 60,000 yen ($600) to have presented before the crowd. The 60,000 yen is placed in an envelope which is given to the winner of that particular match. Fifty percent of the money goes to the government for taxes; five percent goes to the rikishi's sumo stable and the remaining forty five percent goes to the rikishi himself so each packet means about 2,850 yen ($280) to keep. Before each Takamisakari bout, the company that he does so many television commercials for puts up 5 to 7 banners so, Takamisakari or his opponent gets $1,500 to $2,100 (round numbers).
For the Yokozuna matches there are anywhere from 12 to 25 packets on a regular day and I have seen as many as 50. I did the calculations once for a years worth of packets for former Yokozuna Asashoryu and it came to around $1,000,000.
Takamisakari usually wins between 6 and 9 bouts each basho so he makes a good buck but his opponents also have a chance to make some pocket money.
After sumo that day our new friends that I met one night at La Rochelle, asked us to meet them for Chankonabe. Chankonabe is the food that sumo wrestlers eat to increase their bulk. It is a rich stew with meat and seafood, plenty of vegetables and a delicious broth. There are a number of restaurants that offer Chankonabe but our new friends have a favorite one so we met there. This restaurant is owned by former Yokozuna, Mienomi, who was the head of the Japan Sumo Association up until about 4 weeks ago. He retired due to the betting scandal and for health reasons.
The food was delicious. There was more than just the stew. As usual there was an appetizer that was two kinds of fish roe followed by a sashimi platter. Tasty as always. Then there was a dish of home-made tofu with sea urchin roe (uni) in a thick brown sauce that they called turtle shell broth because of the color (no turtles were killed during the courses of the meal). We were then each presented with a whole grilled halibut about 8 inches long. Fantastic flavor with a crispy skin and tricky to take apart with chopsticks.
The stew had meat balls of chicken and fish that the lady formed into balls with chopsticks then dropped into the broth. After eating the contents of the stew it is customary to add either rice or noodles to the remaining broth so you finish your meal with a hearty bowl of starch. We chose noodles and at this restaurant they used home made ramen. They were nice and firm yet fully cooked and we slurped away enjoying the texture and the savory broth, umame.
We knew that the next day we had to get up very early because our young friend from La Rochelle restaurant had arranged for us to attend morning sumo practice at one of the sumo stables. Her uncle has some connections but we didn't know which stable we would be visiting.
My friend that works at the Keio Plaza Hotel who was with us for sumo and Chankonabe, had joked that we might get lucky and be asked to eat Chankonabe with the wrestlers in the morning.
We got up about 5:00 AM and took a train to meet our young friend, her uncle and her uncle's friend then we went to the sumo stable. We were very lucky. We got to visit and watch the sumo practice at the Azumazeki Beya, which is the beya of none other than, Takamisakari. We were shown where to enter by one of the young rikishi who was covered in sweat since he had just finished a practice match. I was amazed at how tall he was.
We took off our shoes then stepped onto the platform around the practice ring and there was Takamisakari warming up in the corner. We watched the rikishi work out for about 45 minutes. I was amazed at how hard they worked in practice on a day when they would have to fight a real match at the stadium. I also couldn't believe the loud sound of smacking flesh as the two wrestlers came together at the start of the match (tachiai). In the stadium or on television you can hear these collisions but when you are just ten feet away it's hard to believe they can make that big a noise without someone getting hurt.
After the practice matches we received another bonus. The former Oyakata of the beya, Takamiyama, came to talk with us. Takamiyama was known by all in Japan by his Christian name, Jesse. He is a Hawaiian and left Hawaii after high school to join sumo in Japan. He's been there for 45 years. Jesse was the first foreign born wrestler to win a Grand Championship (see the picture of his championship portrait on the right of the www.Zonajin.blogspot.com blog page). He also recruited, Ake Bonno, the Hawaiian who became the first foreign born Yokozuna.
After our chat he pointed to the kitchen and said that they were waiting for us to join them for Chankonabe. We felt honored and went to the kitchen to eat. Throughout the practice session we could hear chopping coming from the kitchen and then we could smell food being cooked. Each beya makes their own version of Chankonabe and they will never give out their recipe. Each beya thinks its version of Chankonabe gives them a competitive advantage. Now we were going to eat Azumazeki beya's version.
When we got to the table (we were actually sitting on the floor) and I got to sit beside Takamisakari. We each had a bowl of stew set in front of us then big platters of fried eggs and steak were placed on the table. They wanted us to take food first so I took some steak. The stew was in a spicy broth. You don't get much in the way of chili spiced food in Japan but this broth had chili in it. It was very tasty with a back ground chicken flavor. There was chicken meat, youba (tofu skin), cabbage, carrots and mushrooms. They offered a side of rice but I didn't take it.
I spoke Japanese with Takamisakari. I told him about the temperature back home in Phoenix and he commented that it was hot like that in Las Vegas as well. This reminded me to tell him that when all the rikishi came to Las Vegas in 2005, my girlfriend and I had gone to Las Vegas to see the matches. He was very impressed that we had seen him there.
The other young rikishi were standing around listening and watching us eat and I realized that they wouldn't eat until Takamisakari and his guests were finished and that anything we ate, they wouldn't.
After the meal we watched as the stables hair-dresser groomed the hair of a few of the wrestlers. That was pretty interesting as he pulled, combed and waxed the long black hair into the traditional topknot of the sumotori.
That afternoon as we watched the sumo matches on television we were especially interested in Takamisakari's match. Unfortunately his older brother threw dirt on his popsicle again and he marched out with his head down as his opponent pocketed the reward money.
It was a great two day stretch of sumo and I will never forget the morning sumo practice and the Chankonabe with Takamisakari. See the picture on the right side at www.Zonajin.blogspot.com and visit my author page on my publisher's website, www.pensmithbooks.com, for links to the Japan Sumo Association.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Homasho Wins One
It had to happen. Today my favorite rikishi won his first match of the tournament. That means my prediction of him staring 0-5 was correct and since his first victory came from a lower ranked rikishi it proves my point about him having difficulty with high ranked opponents.
As my friend from the Keio Plaza Hotel always says, “Homasho now has one eye open.” Once a rikishi wins two matches he has both eyes open and he will begin to see how the tournament should go.
The big story for this basho is Hakuho’s winning streak. Today he won his 53 straight match which ties him with Chiyonofiji for the second highest number of consecutive victories. Tomorrow he goes against Kinsenosato who has beaten Yokozunas in the past. If he wins and takes sole possession of second place he then has to keep it going until he wins 70 to set the all time record. That would also mean that he wins this basho with a 15-0 record which would beat his own record of three undefeated bashos in a row.
Now, you may be thinking that Futabiyama who won 69 in a row would have won at least three bashos in a row but somehow that isn’t the case. Since he retired in 1945 and his record was set before that, there must be some circumstances I’m not aware of that resulted in him not winning three tournaments in a row with an undefeated record. It may have been that he skipped a basho or two with injuries or that some bashos didn’t take place because of the war. I also believe that at that time there were only four tournaments a year but that shouldn't affect this type of record.
The big Bulgarian, Kotooshu is still undefeated and so is the small Yoshikaze. They will start moving Yoshikaze up against some higher ranked rikishi next week to give him a stronger test but Kotooshu is where he is expected to be and will go against Hakuho on the third or second last day.
With regard to the rest of Japan, the weather has cooled considerably. On the weather report one night they showed a map of Japan with all those weather lines that show fronts and high and low pressure areas. One line was long and ran from the southwest to the northeast almost splitting the country in half. The weather man pointed to the right side of the line and said, “This is summer.” Then he pointed to the left side and said, “This is autumn. When this line is completely east of Japan it is officially autumn.” The next day the temperature dropped 15 degrees and it rained constantly for 24 hours. It was autumn. One day later it has cleared beautifully, the temperature is in the high 20’s (80’s F) and the humidity is only about 50%. Quite comfortable. I sleep with the windows open and turned off the air conditioner. This morning it was so cool in the apartment I actually had to turn the heat on for a short time.
This was a good thing to test since my girlfriend is arriving tomorrow. We will be fighting over the room temperature for the next ten days.
We have a busy schedule. We’re going to sumo twice. I’m quite excited because we have tickets for the last day. I expect that Hakuho may have it wrapped up by then but you never know.
We have also been asked to go to morning practice at one of the sumo stables. During a basho they all work out in their home stable in the morning. The younger rikishi work out really early because their matches are early in the day. The senior rikishi go a little later then eat and sleep until it is time to go to the stadium. The young girl who works at La Rochelle has an uncle who knows the Oyakata (Head Coach) of one of the stables and they got permission for us to go.
This same young lady asked us to go to Disneyland with her so we will be doing that one day as well.
We will also be dining in a few new restaurants with friends. As usual, the first meal is okonomiyaki with our friend from the Keio Plaza and we will be eating one night at La Rochelle. I ate there a week ago at a special food presentation event and it was a great evening. I’m looking forward, as always, to going back.
Our friends that we met in Hawaii have planned a day for us involving a visit to a Japanese Garden, lunch at their home and then he says a surprise.
My friend who is in Paris right now on family business will be back next week and we plan to go to a baseball game with him.
There are a few new places in Tokyo that my girlfriend wants to see so we will be out and about every day.
A picture up date for you all. I have replaced the picture I took of the Seibu Dome the night we went to the baseball game out in Saitama. My friend from the Keio Plaza has much better camera skills than I do and when he sent me his pictures I had to use them. His picture of the dome does a better job of showing that there are no walls. You can see the park out behind the scoreboard. I also added a picture he took of the Shrimp and Pork fry meal we ate at the stadium as well as a shot of one of the displays of support that the crowd pulled off in support of their team.
More sumo updates in future posts and I’ll let you know who’s winning the basho of room temperature.
As my friend from the Keio Plaza Hotel always says, “Homasho now has one eye open.” Once a rikishi wins two matches he has both eyes open and he will begin to see how the tournament should go.
The big story for this basho is Hakuho’s winning streak. Today he won his 53 straight match which ties him with Chiyonofiji for the second highest number of consecutive victories. Tomorrow he goes against Kinsenosato who has beaten Yokozunas in the past. If he wins and takes sole possession of second place he then has to keep it going until he wins 70 to set the all time record. That would also mean that he wins this basho with a 15-0 record which would beat his own record of three undefeated bashos in a row.
Now, you may be thinking that Futabiyama who won 69 in a row would have won at least three bashos in a row but somehow that isn’t the case. Since he retired in 1945 and his record was set before that, there must be some circumstances I’m not aware of that resulted in him not winning three tournaments in a row with an undefeated record. It may have been that he skipped a basho or two with injuries or that some bashos didn’t take place because of the war. I also believe that at that time there were only four tournaments a year but that shouldn't affect this type of record.
The big Bulgarian, Kotooshu is still undefeated and so is the small Yoshikaze. They will start moving Yoshikaze up against some higher ranked rikishi next week to give him a stronger test but Kotooshu is where he is expected to be and will go against Hakuho on the third or second last day.
With regard to the rest of Japan, the weather has cooled considerably. On the weather report one night they showed a map of Japan with all those weather lines that show fronts and high and low pressure areas. One line was long and ran from the southwest to the northeast almost splitting the country in half. The weather man pointed to the right side of the line and said, “This is summer.” Then he pointed to the left side and said, “This is autumn. When this line is completely east of Japan it is officially autumn.” The next day the temperature dropped 15 degrees and it rained constantly for 24 hours. It was autumn. One day later it has cleared beautifully, the temperature is in the high 20’s (80’s F) and the humidity is only about 50%. Quite comfortable. I sleep with the windows open and turned off the air conditioner. This morning it was so cool in the apartment I actually had to turn the heat on for a short time.
This was a good thing to test since my girlfriend is arriving tomorrow. We will be fighting over the room temperature for the next ten days.
We have a busy schedule. We’re going to sumo twice. I’m quite excited because we have tickets for the last day. I expect that Hakuho may have it wrapped up by then but you never know.
We have also been asked to go to morning practice at one of the sumo stables. During a basho they all work out in their home stable in the morning. The younger rikishi work out really early because their matches are early in the day. The senior rikishi go a little later then eat and sleep until it is time to go to the stadium. The young girl who works at La Rochelle has an uncle who knows the Oyakata (Head Coach) of one of the stables and they got permission for us to go.
This same young lady asked us to go to Disneyland with her so we will be doing that one day as well.
We will also be dining in a few new restaurants with friends. As usual, the first meal is okonomiyaki with our friend from the Keio Plaza and we will be eating one night at La Rochelle. I ate there a week ago at a special food presentation event and it was a great evening. I’m looking forward, as always, to going back.
Our friends that we met in Hawaii have planned a day for us involving a visit to a Japanese Garden, lunch at their home and then he says a surprise.
My friend who is in Paris right now on family business will be back next week and we plan to go to a baseball game with him.
There are a few new places in Tokyo that my girlfriend wants to see so we will be out and about every day.
A picture up date for you all. I have replaced the picture I took of the Seibu Dome the night we went to the baseball game out in Saitama. My friend from the Keio Plaza has much better camera skills than I do and when he sent me his pictures I had to use them. His picture of the dome does a better job of showing that there are no walls. You can see the park out behind the scoreboard. I also added a picture he took of the Shrimp and Pork fry meal we ate at the stadium as well as a shot of one of the displays of support that the crowd pulled off in support of their team.
More sumo updates in future posts and I’ll let you know who’s winning the basho of room temperature.
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