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March 26 to April 5, 2007
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Our ten days exploring food, culture, architecture and history were made glorious by the peak of cherry blossom season. We had pals Hiromi and Jimmy with us for a few days. They went on to Thailand while we continued on to Kyoto where Lauren's friend, Masami, joined us. Our travels were a richer experience with our good friends.
Lauren and Tien Sng in Kyoto
Trains are the way to get around. We bought vouchers which are only available from travel agents in the U.S. and, once arriving at Tokyo's Narita Airport, redeemed them for a two week “Japan Rail Pass.” Trains are on Atomic time and punctual to the second. We never waited long; LED signs alerted the next train's location. Once aboard, signs showed remaining minutes to your station. Passengers used cell phones for instant messaging; rarely did anyone speak into phones, which is discouraged via recorded broadcasts in Japanese and English. Cell phone users are expected to talk only at the far ends of each train car. Seats are sized for Asian body types (ahh, my feet touch the ground) and young people relinquish their seats for elders. A woman in her 20s offered her seat to me; I sat down thinking she was departing at the next stop – we got off together. Yikes, that's what I get for leaving my graying hair au naturelle. Yellow textured paths at train stations are for sight impaired passengers' navigation.
This tree-lined avenue leads to the Tokyo National Museum. The Museum's main building houses an array of art in chronological order including items deemed National Treasures, Important Cultural Artifacts and Important Art Objects. Most impressive to us were the sword collection, armor of the military elite, and scrolls, esp draft works of finished paintings. There was a traveling exhibit of DaVinci's “Annunciation.” We missed the cemetary in the rear of the complex where the famed 47 Ronin (masterless samurai) are buried. Note the woman wearing the face mask - this was a common sight. Blue tarps laid out all along this route were for hanami (flower viewing parties).
Our stroll along Ueno Lake included mouth-watering smells of weiners, fish cakes, other grilled foods. A naughty kitty was hungry too and plotted an attack on beautiful black and white water birds. Antique markets are common, with many held nearly every weekend all over Japan. Under the tents in the background were vendors of vintage toys, books and periodicals, pre-worn kimono and cloth, household goods and even ornately carved sword guards from samurai weapons.
Here's that toy vendor -- FUN!! See Ultraman in the upper left corner?
Akihabara district was touted as loud and an attack on your senses for all the electronics sales, but it seemed tame. I enjoyed the colors of cell phones available – the selection was astounding.
Young Japanese men look hip in their fitted clothes, while carrying shoulder bags and wearing their hair stylishly long or under a cap. This is not a country of flab covered by sloppy tees driving SUVs, mini-vans or Hummers. Everyone walks.
From this map, try to select a seafood restaurants near Tsukiji Fish Market! The wholesale market is open 7 days a week all year 'round, EXCEPT on the day we visited, so we couldn't go inside. It was almost a good thing that 75% of the restaurants were also closed (how would we choose?), but a few shops were open and selling fresh and dried seafood, as well as kitchen wares.
We stopped to eat fish cake at a take-out shop... . ... before going into a restaurant for lunch! Above is anago. Their miso soup (not shown) was crab-based and out-of-this-world delicious.
Whale sashimi came in two parts. The red bottom layer was the lean portion and was textured like beef. The white top layer was the fatty portion and, initially, hard. However, once chewed, yummy-tasting oils were released.
This was Lauren's chirashi bowl of crab meat, salmon roe, uni and sweet tamago over vinegared rice. My taste buds were in heaven. Most of the uni went to Jimmy -- he enjoyed it more than I did.
Jimmy found bliss in a knife shop near Tsukiji Fish Market. Look at his face -- so happy!
This store sold packaged dried seafood products. It also had an array of unusual taxidermies on display. Deer and jaguar are in the center. On the left under the plastic is a polar bear and to the right of the deer is the foot of an enormous alligator. There is a small vertical alligator near the polar bear. We saw a mountain lion, lynx, tortoises, leopard, armadillo, and puffer fish. YIKES.
My impression of Ginza shopping district was lukewarm, until we got to the two level depachika beneath Mitsukoshi department store. The US$100 fruit is not a fable! It was evenly-ripened, beautiful, PERFECT mango encased alone in a wooden box and priced at ¥12,500. Jimmy and Hiromi explained that these are for corporate gift-giving purposes, with a lower level employee offering the precious goods to his boss. We imagined that the CEO ends up with several.
Mini mangos: only US$9 per fruit
A mouth-watering selection of sweets
Yummy breads on display -- we love to eat bread!
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