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Japan 2010 - Part 1 - Tokyo
Monday, July 19 to Sunday July 25
Monday, July 19, 2010
We started our adventures at the Grand Hyatt DFW. Now that J has a corporate apartment in Phoenix and doesn't fly home as often, he will lose his elite statuses next year so we are making the most of it while we can. That includes a free suite upgrade at the Grand Hyatt.
Living Room, Bedroom, and View
Bathroom
Our friends Robert and Kat came by to visit and share our complimentary bottle of wine and snacks. We then went down to the lounge for some beer and additional snacks.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
L woke with a headache thinking that the last Guinness may have been a bad idea, but we made it to breakfast and to the airplane on time. First Class is only moderately more comfortable than Business Class, but L figures it is a wonderful way to travel.
Our plane, First Class
Given a choice in the future, Business Class is more than adequate but we couldn't pass up the chance to fly First Class on an international flight at least once. Each seat has its own little cubicle but it includes a little jump seat so we were able to eat meals together and visit face to face. A nice touch. We both got a little more sleep on the plane, watched a few movies, the usual and arrived in Tokyo just under 13 hours later.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
With roughly a 12 hour time difference, it is actually now Wednesday afternoon.
We got through customs with no problem in spite of L having filled out a portion of the form wrong, maybe they are use to it, the checker looked at her and the answers to "have you been deported, are you carrying drugs, and are you carrying excessive amounts of money" and said "please you make mistake" The answers all got changed to NO. We picked up our luggage and found the ticket office for the hotel shuttle bus. Having done this before, we were through the line and out to the correct pillar in no time.
It's about a 2 hour ride from Narita airport to our hotel. Once we got into Shinjuku, we began recognizing landmarks. First was the Metropolitan Government Buildings, then Shinjuku Station, then our hotel. We checked in to the Hyatt Regency Shinjuku and were shown to our room on the 23rd floor.
Hotel Room
Bathroom
We face (roughly) South this time, rather than West and have almost no view of the park, but a great view of one of the Government buildings and it's fore-court.
The View from our Hotel Room
After unpacking we went for a "walk". It started with the park across the street, around and down to Shinjuku station, and on into East Shinjuku where the night life is.
These flowers are everywhere
Cool looking building
We actually found the same little bar that we had found on the last night of our previous visit. Again we had a couple of quarts of beer, and a few "skewers" of kabayaki, 2 of fish, 2 of eel back and 2 of eel. (since we didn't know that they were called kabayaki, J insisted on calling them "eel kabobs") They also came with a little grater and a fresh piece of wasabi root.
Eel kabobs
We took a couple of pictures so we would recognize the area again and headed home for bed.
Sure, we can find this place again.
I should add a little note about our bathroom. The bathing area is separate from the "washlet" toilet and a wash basin. The toilet seat was heated (!). Unfortunately, you couldn't really lean back on the lid, otherwise, it would have been way too comfortable. There was a control panel on the wall next to it with lots of buttons. There was also a telephone on the wall so that you could call the front desk and find out which button actually flushed the toilet. Unless you're from France, you wouldn't want to hit the wrong button and have water squirting at you from unusual directions and in different spray modes and intensities.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Over breakfast, L decided we would go see the Imperial Garden. On our way out, we checked at the tour desk in the lobby for the bus trip to see Mt Fuji. It is all sold out for Friday, and thinking that it might be really busy on the weekend we have decided to leave the visit for our return to Tokyo. We hope to have sunshine then too, although at this point we are thinking a bit of rain and (maybe) cooler temperatures might be appreciated. The 10-day weather forecast said scattered or intermittent T-Showers almost every day but, so far, it's been, at worst, partially overcast with daytime highs in the mid 90's.
We only saw a portion of the Imperial Gardens, the main buildings are restricted.
Water Fountaion outside the Imperial Gardens
Not sure
Sure, this explains it all.
Pond near the entrance
Entrance to Imperial Gardens
An old Guard House
Interesting old light fixture
Iris garden
Another water feature
J on a bridge
Fish and Flowers
Wisteria.
Crepe Myrtles
Leaving the Imperial Gardens
We had lunch at a counter in the subway and were back to our room about 3 PM to rest and catch up the diary and e-mails. We went down to the Regency Club for complimentary "cocktails" (enjoying J's hotel status while we can) and a few snacks at 6 PM. J decided we needed to go out exploring so we headed down to Shibuya and we eventually found a little place where everything was the same price 270 Yen. It was pretty cool; each table has a small touch screen and you order off of that. Instead of adding items to your "shopping cart", you add them to your "order" and then you submit your order and get a message back that "Your order has been received by the kitchen".
Snacking at the 270 Yen Restaurant
It was actually 284 Yen with tax but we each had another beer and then we had 2 sticks of pork cheek "sauce flavour", a salad that was suppose to be daikon radish and Japanese plum it didn't mention the bonito flakes (mackerel flakes) or that the plum was plum sauce, and a bowl of fried chicken cartilage (the bit on the breast bone). That came to roughly $18, probably the cheapest supper we have had so far. L is seriously off her "no animal protein after 4 PM diet", and the night time sweats are getting severe. May have to see about being a little more faithful to it. Unfortunately, bar-hopping and snacking is a common practice here and, after all, we do want to blend in as best we can.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Up at 5 AM to go visit Tsukiji Fish Market. We got there by subway no problem, and spent a couple of hours wandering around looking at stuff and talking to people. We were taking a photo of some Edimame beans and a gent stopped to tell us what they were (we already knew...) and how to cook them. A short conversation ensued of where are you from, etc. He had spent time in Vancouver and also Dallas, spoke fairly good English and told us the name of his fish restaurant. Unfortunately, the name didn't stick with us, it got lost somewhere in the Market.
Tsukiji Market - outer areas
Transports and Photo Ops
Inside the market
Tuna
More seafood
This place is BIG
All that seafood made us hungry and L soon heard a bowl of noodles calling her name. After a little searching, we found the same counter as the last time we were here. There is a new waitress, and I think new tea bowls as well. There was nobody seated next to us whose bowl J could point to and then hold up two fingers but the waitress understood "noodles" and "pork", so we did fine. There were several seats open when we arrived but people were waiting to get in by the time we left.
The Noodle Shop
After breakfast (I'm glad J thinks noodles makes a good breakfast) we got some souvenirs for people and a "good" knife for J. That pretty much tapped us out as no one was taking plastic and we had to find a post office 1/2 way through our travels home to get more money for the subway.
Checking our email back at the hotel, we discovered that someone has made an offer on L's mother's house. She'll send off the counter offer this afternoon.
We went up to the observatory level in one of the Government buildings next door. It's a fairly clear day but we still could not see Mt. Fuji, presumably due to the smog..... thus our life with the mountain goes.
From the Government Building Observatory
On a Clear Day…
More views and a model of the buildings
Our Hotel seems small (Even though it is 29 Floors high)
L with a view
We found a nice little restaurant and had the lunch special. It even came with cold tea, we finished 2 pots as well as a couple of glasses of water. L saw a temperature sign that was reading 37 C (almost 99 F). Feeling somewhat refreshed after the late lunch J & L decided to go walking in the heat..... The destination was a large formal garden not far from Shinjuku Station.
Water feature
The French Gardens
A Thai-style building
Flowers
It really was lovely, but the walk back to the hotel just about killed us. We were waiting for the elevator in the basement and a couple of business men came up. We let them take the elevator alone saying that we were "very sweaty and smelled" they didn't even argue. We got the next lift and rode it up alone. It took some doing to peel our clothing off, but a shower has refreshed us both. We have decided to "dress up" for cocktails at 6. A glass of wine or two and some fruit then a quiet evening in, or maybe a swim in the hotel pool. We will decide later.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, we decided to go to Akihabara (Electric Town). After a little struggling to get ourselves oriented (no pun intended... much), we found the Tokyo Anime Center. It had many examples of anime art in various stages of development. It had pictures of the actors who provide the voices for the most popular anime shows. It even had a studio where you could watch the actors doing the voice-overs (but not on Saturdays). There were three girls dressed up as anime characters running a spin-the-wheel promo for prizes ranging from bookmarks to tickets for something we couldn't quite figure out. We took pictures of two of them (the third was hidden from our angle, behind a sign) and sent them to a couple of our friends in Calgary just to make them jealous. J wanted to pose with them but decided it might put a damper on our friend's fantasies.
Tokyo Anime Center
Push a button, win a prize (no, not them)
Models and modelling
Before the Anime Center opened, we had wandered through the building. On the second and third floors were numerous restaurants offering all kinds of mouth-watering (at least for us) dishes. On the 4th floor, near the Anime Center, was a conference room that was still in the process of being set up for a convention sponsered by the Star Trek Far East Official Fan Club. It included all sorts of memorabilia, including a plaster cast of George Takai's feet and hand (in a Vulcan salute) dating from 1985, and a rather "life-like" statue of 7 of 9. Imagine holding a Sci-Fi con in a building with all these great restaurants. What a great combination that would be.
Near this building, we found all kinds of stores dedicated to computer games, robot models, and other things anime. There were several Sega Game stores that all seemed to be filled with those crane-type games where you try and pick up and deposit various stuffed toys, figurines, t-shirts, and just about anything else you can think of, in the hopper. It made J think of the little alien characters in Toy Story 3, "The Crane, the crane!".
Sega Game stores
We also went through some of the Electronics stores that Akihabara is famous for but didn't find too much that really grabbed our attention. J bought an LED light bulb that beats the heck out of those CFL (compact fluorescent light) bulbs you see in North America; 560 lumens (brighter than 100 Watts) at only 7.5 Watts with a lifespan of 40,000 hours. Not a great toy, but still pretty cool. We also went through a few "duty free" shops and picked up some more souvenirs and gifts.
We left Akihabara and headed for Asakusa, stopping for lunch on our way there; a nice little hole in the wall place that served a bento-box-style chicken with rice, egg drop soup, and almond jello for desert. Outside the temple, we wandered through the shops, looking at kimonos and other items of interest. At the temple we both picked I-Ch'ing sticks for our fortune. Both fortunes were "bad", though, so we decided we were doing it wrong and ignored them.
The Temple at Asakusa
After more window shopping, we finally made our way back to the hotel where we showered off the days' sweat and dressed for cocktail hour in the Regency Club. Where does the time go?
Sunday, July 25, 2010
L has started ordering green tea in the morning to go with her breakfast. It comes in a plain white pot with a beautiful little green lidded bowl to drink from. Starts the morning just right.
L orders Green Tea with breakfast
Our first stop this morning was the bus station to buy tickets for tomorrow's trip to Takayama. We are really getting the hang of reading the directional signs and came out right where we needed to be. There will only be one set of stairs to negotiate with the bag tomorrow, and J has said he will "man handle it" if necessary. Of course L will have both 'puters and the "carry on bag so it will probably work out about even.
L found a little dress at the bargain basement store for $15. It is really pretty, and although a little tight at the underarms it is still a good fit. She is looking forward to wearing it if it remains as hot as it has been. It will probably have to wait till we get back to Tokyo, though; we are headed to the mountains tomorrow.
Our second destination today was Yebisu Garden Palace. It is actually a large shopping complex and has the Yebisu Beer Museum too. Established in 1887 using German technology and ingredients it became a well known product. It still has a "tasting center" where you purchase coins from a vending machine then trade them in for a glass of the product or some snacks. The cream stout is not bad (even at 11 AM) and J thought his compared nicely to his usual Heineken. In the end, though, we will remain faithful to Asahi beer.
Ebisu Garden Palace
The Yebisu Beer Museum
The Beer Token machine
A History of Yebisu beer
A History of Yebisu beer
A History of Yebisu beer
A History of Yebisu beer
A History of Yebisu beer
A History of Yebisu beer
The lid kept us from diving in
We stopped at the Ramen shop for lunch. No English menu or staff who could speak it. Fortunately the dishes we wanted were on display in the case out front. We resorted to taking the waitress out and pointing, she brought us back in and pointed to the ticket machine. She showed us which buttons to push for our order. Money was fed into the machine, buttons were pushed, change was dropped back in the slot, tickets were printed, and we were seated just that quickly. J's was a hot and sour ramen, L's had more vegetables and a few small dry shrimps added.
J had the one on the left, L had the one on the right
Our way back to the hotel included stops in shopping malls for a couple of shirts for J, and at the book store where we got the 3rd volume of the Steig Larsson series for J's mom. It isn't out in paperback in Canada yet so she will be really pleased. We also found a Lonely Planet guide book for Kyoto.
We were back at the hotel for about 3 PM, had a quick rinse off under the shower and now have time to rest before dressing for our "birthday supper" at La Rochelle at 7 PM tonight. I cannot begin to say how good supper was. We took a taxi to the restaurant so that we would not be all sweaty when we arrived. We were early (of course) and hung around in the downstairs lobby until we were only 5 minutes early for our reservation. We were escorted into the lounge to have a pre-dinner drink, and were seated at about 7:20. We had a table near the window so had a beautiful view of the downtown lights this time, last time it was raining. Chef Sakai was out of town so we were pleased we had met him 2 years ago when we had been to the restaurant the first time. Linda chose the chef's pick menu and J had the full dinner (of course). L could chose between fish or beef and because J was having the beef and L figured that beef would just be too much so late in the day, had fish. Rather than break out the Thesaurus and try and describe the various courses and flavours, we took pictures of everything so those will have to do. The Japanese beef, however, was incredible. We see it in the meat departments for, at minimum, $50 per pound. As a result, it is used sparingly (as is all meat in Japan, for that matter), but to great effect.
All dressed up and somewhere to go
J's dinner - courses 1 through 3
J's dinner - courses 4 through 6
L's dinner - courses 1 through 4
L's dinner - courses 5 through 7
In the lounge after dinner
When we arrived, we had noticed one of the waiters who looked like the one that had served us two years earlier. Turns out, it was him, and he recognized us as well. Unfortunately, he was working a private room and it was half way through our meal before he could come over and say hello. He has been working at La Rochelle for twenty years so we were impressed that he recognized us. It was nice to see him again.
After dinner, we "retired" back to the lounge for tea and treats. We finally forced ourselves to leave sometime after 10 PM and walked to Shibuya station to catch the train back to our hotel.