Japan Day 3

Today started with a very early rise to be to the Tsukiji Fish Market while everything was still hopping. We wandered through the various stalls of fish products taking a lot of pictures until Brien was bored to tears and Scott was probably not far behind him. We had sushi for breakfast at a tiny hole in the wall place in the shops part of the fish market. It was very good. I actually had a sashimi layout along with George. Brien and Scott shared some omelet sushi.

After that we wandered through the Ginza area unfortunately before everything was open for the day until we decided it was a good idea to get back to the hotel to get cleaned up before going to the Imperial Palace. As a note, the temperature is more summer than autumn in Tokyo and if it weren’t for a stiff breeze at certain times I think it could almost be oppressive. It seems to be in the high 70s to maybe 80s with a bit more humidity than I could really wish for, but like England it’s an island so I can’t hope for really dry weather. I am expecting it to be a bit cooler in Kanazawa than in Tokyo as we get out of the city heat bubble.

After the short clean up we met and got to Tokyo Station where we spoke the very nice women at the desk for redeeming Japan Rail passes for quite a bit of time in order to get the passes redeemed and then reserve seats for our ride out to Kanazawa. I think we were at it for about an hour including getting all four of our passes and getting the reservations. One really strange thing to me was that their train routes were all figured out by giant books that looked like telephone books and not on computers. As the Australian guy in line behind us said, “They love to stamp everything.” I think our passes have about 10 stamps on them already and we haven’t even used them.

Right on the heels of getting that done we rushed, as fast as Scott can rush, to the Imperial Palace Kyomon Gate and got in line for the tour. The tour was a trip through the palace grounds where we could see a lot of stuff outdoors but could not go inside any of the buildings. We saw the actual Imperial Palace as well as several keeps and some other parts of the grounds and moats. The tour was conducted in Japanese but we were given special recorders that had the tour information in English. There were a couple of guides, one that told the stories and one that kept everyone in line. We were supposed to keep moving and stay in rows of four but no one really paid attention to the rules. No one was supposed to take pictures while we were supposed to be walking and the guy that kept everyone in order had to keep reprimanding people and getting them back in line. Towards the end one lady tried to take pictures from the bridge over the moat and he had to run back and chase her back into line. I am pretty sure the Gaijin in the party (which was mainly us) were the least of his worries. There was at least 100 people all totaled on the tour. I enjoyed it greatly and would recommend it to anyone who visits Tokyo. I should point out that in order to do it you have to request permission. I filled out our form well before we got to Japan. I have linked to the site earlier in the blog. It is well worth the effort.

After the tour we sat at a fountain area for a few minutes. Then we walked back towards Ginza where we visited a book shop and the Sony building. The Sony building was not as exciting as I had expected and really felt nothing more than a showroom and small shop. I was disappointed with it.

Finally the main highlight of the day. We had finished up everything on the agenda and we were ready for dinner. We hadn’t eaten any lunch and breakfast was before 7am. We wandered Ginza for a bit but it was still a bit early for all the various restaurants to be open. I had chosen the place to eat from the day before so George pressed Scott to choose a place to eat. Scott chose the first open place we could find. We got into the place which was not quite traditional Japanese but was obviously not remotely western. We opened the menu and looked through it. The first three pages were dedicated to blowfish meals. I think it was at this point that Brien started cackling hysterically and couldn’t stop laughing for at least 10 minutes. There were approximately 8 items that did not contain any blowfish in the menu. Well, we’d already ordered some sake by this point. Cold sake. Our first sake of the trip. It was dryish and very potent. I liked it but Brien wasn’t too keen on it. George drank his own and most of Brien’s too. Well, there was nothing to do but hunker down and order. George got a cooked fugu with garlic and citrus sauce. I tried the sauce it was nice. I got a plate of fugu sashimi. I didn’t think it would be near as big an order as it was. In any event George ate all of his fugu. I browbeat Scott into eating a piece of mine and Brien even tried a piece as well. I had also ordered some octopus, whitefish and tuna and with the other accompaniments I had a ton to eat. I know the fugu was the most expensive part of the meal and I really liked the flavor but I think I panicked a little and chose to leave behind about half the plate and was stuffed enough to give George some of my octopus and leave behind the rice and the miso soup. In any event the sake gave me a bit of a buzz so I wasn’t sure if I was feeling the beginning sensation of dying or just a potent booze kind of thing. I guess I will know by the time I am supposed to be on my way back from Kanazawa tomorrow. Our waitress was very pleasant and though she didn’t speak much English she was very polite and helpful and we even took a picture with her as we left for posterity.

As Brien didn’t fare too well for eating from the fugu place as he had ordered some soba noodles which he didn’t expect to be cold and didn’t like for that reason, Scott and I went with him back to Kirin City where he had another order of the lamb and potatoes. I had one Kirin Black Ichiban. We waited forever to pay the bill because the waiter seemed to be solo for the whole place. I had to pull out a, “Sumimasen,” to get his attention to get the check and then we had to wait at least another 10 minutes before we could pay and leave. The unfortunate thing about the Kirin City is that it is a typical Japanese place with no designations for smoking or non-smoking and almost no ventilation. Maybe someday they’ll follow suit with the rest of the world. I hope so but I cannot expect it any time soon. Far too many Japanese people still smoke.

Sorry for the lengthy one here, but obviously a lot happened.

Japan Day 2

The majority of the day was devoted to the Panoramic Tokyo guided tour. It included a bus ride tour with our guide Sato-San that stopped at the Meiji Temple, the front gate of the Imperial Palace, the Sensoji Temple, and the Odaiba waterfront. We also had a stop for lunch at the top of a twelve story hotel and a cruise around Tokyo Bay that lasted about 50 minutes. All in all it was a fun tour. Our guide was funny and we laughed at a lot of his jokes. The tour was conducted in English and we had a club of Japanese people learning English along with us which was fun because they actually wanted to practice their English with us. We particularly got along with Oda Tetsuo who called himself Teddy as an American name. He spoke English very well. He said he had been learning it for five years. He is 64 years old. There was a lot to see on the tour and I ran my memory card out of pictures. I managed to steal Scott’s card to continue for the Odaiba waterfront because his camera battery died.

The anecdote of the day. At the Sensoji temple you can pay 100 yen to buy a fortune. You drop your money in and you pick up a canister of sticks and shake it. Then you turn the canister over and pull out the stick that has a number on it, in Japanese characters of course. You find that number on a collection of drawers and pull out the fortune written on a sheet of paper. They have English translations on them. I managed to pull out, “The Lowest Fortune.” Fortunately you can tie your fortune to a stand in the temple and that allows you to leave your bad fortune behind. Everyone else got good or at least regular fortunes. They’ll be bringing theirs home….

I should point out day 2 falls on my Birthday, October 29. It is ahead of the US as we crossed the international date line to get here so for everyone else my birthday falls on our day 3. We finished off the night with a meal at a place called Kirin City. It is the firt place I forgot to take a picture of the meal before I ate it so all I have is a picture of the empty plate. I promise it was roast lamb and potatoes.

Japan Day 1

Let’s start with the flight. It was pretty much all it was supposed to be and more. We flew from Boston Logan to Chicago O’Hare which took about 2 ½ hours. That was fine, we even didn’t have much trouble getting through security and all that. We got to O’Hare a little bit early and that gave us plenty of time to get to the next flight which boarded at 11:11am and even get Brien a burger at McDonald’s. The O’Hare to Narita leg was 12 hours 40 minutes long. It was pretty much boring the whole way as the in flight movies were nothing I wanted to watch. George and I did watch The Departed on my laptop and George liked it. It was his first time seeing it. Got almost no sleep on the flight even though they dimmed the lights early. Someone on the other side of the cabin kept yanking the window open to the vast nothing around us at 35000 feet. In any event we landed pretty much on time but had to sit on the tarmac for a few minutes before disembarking. When we got out the line for immigration looked insane, but it did move pretty quick. I should have taken a picture of it. You wouldn’t believe how fast we go through if you saw it. From there we picked up bags which were already through, danced through customs, everyone got some money and purchased bus tickets to the hotel.

The bus ride was brutal because apparently the weekend is when traffic happens in Tokyo. The ride from Narita to the Shiba Park Hotel was over 2 hours and 15 minutes long. We got into the rooms pretty quickly when we got there and all took quick showers and gathered up for a quick run around the area. We have the Tokyo Tower as well as Shiba Park right in the neighborhood and we managed to see them but chose not to go up to the top because it was close to being too late. Instead we just got dinner at a restaurant in the tower city, a 3 story building underneath the tower. From there we did a bit more walking then crashed somewhat early at 10:30ish to try to get some much needed rest for day 2.
As a minor note, the hotel room does not have an internet connection built in. I only have access to the business center which has an internet connection so I will not likely be uploading pictures as it will take hours. I do apologize about that.

Narita Airport

With just three days to go I figured I'd also post a link to a Narita Airport tourist site. This is where we will be landing when we get to Japan (Conversely it is also where we will depart). There's information about their restaurants and shops there as well as some of the other basic touristy stuff for the airport. Here is the link for the actual Narita Airport site including flight times and the like. This site is a link to the bus line that goes direct to our hotel. We will need 2 hours of bus ride after a wonderful airplane ride to get to the hotel. I can only hope that Sunday traffic is lesser than weekday traffic though I doubt it...

I am basically packed and ready to go already. Just need to get through the rest of the work week.

Weather In Japan

As with last year's blogging I am trying to post a weather in Japan link. The one that is most readable that isn't weather.com that I can find is Japan Times Weather. Well actually George found it, but I'll link it anyway. You are on your own for the Celsius conversions of temperature though.

I found another site as well The Japan Meteorological Agency. If I had to guess, this is where The Japan Times get's their info.

For the record we are well less than four weeks to go and I have started some cursory packing already.