Food

During my stay in Japan I tried many new foods. It was my first go at authentic sushi. Salmon and Tuna were my favorite but the 'wasabi' or green horseradish brought tears to my eyes.

Then we tried 'yakiniku', a Korean indoor BBQ. You cook a wide selection of meat - including tongue!! - over a pot of hot coals. The most difficult part was sitting on the floor. My legs fell asleep.

Next was 'ramen' which is a big bowl full of chinese noodles and a soup. I tried a miso based soup with pork and a 'raw egg'!! There seems to be some sort of fixation with eggs here in Japan. The fun part is slurping the noodles, which is considered the proper way to eat ramen.

Almost every restaurant store-front has a display window with wax replicas of the dishes they offer. They don't appear as appetizing as they actually are. Case in point, curry window pictured below - It looks like a window full of 'shit'!

My Family in Japan

This was my first visit to Japan, yet my brother Michael has lived here for 14 years. He teaches English at pharmaceutical companies and designs websites for foreign companies in Japan.

Mike met his wife Masayo in Japan and got married on November 7th, 1998. Masayo has lived in Japan her whole life, and was a great source of information during this trip. They were both excellent hosts, without whom I would never have had such a great time. Masayo translates motion pictures from English to Kanji subtitles. It is such a pleasure that we get along so well, and I enjoyed getting to know her better. I was constantly awed at her ability to ignore my western clumsyness and lack of grace.

Almost four years ago, they had a boy named Yuma. The name Yuma stands for brave horse, as he was born in the year of the horse. He is the cutest thing alive. He is quite strong in both his parents native tongues. It was great to awaken to his smilling face and offers of hugs and kisses. It is sad that I will miss all the events of his childhood, so I am trying to take in all his cute habbits while I am here. Yuma has a great imagination and does not require many toys to occupy his time. He would rather act out being a superhero, robot or alien. Childhood innosence is bliss.

I got the opportunity to meet Masayo's family for the first time tonight. Her father took us all out to a buffet restaurant on the 15th floor of a Hotel in Saitama. It had a great view of the surrounding area. Masayo's mother and sister and nephiew joined us, see picture bellow. They were all so kind, and very generous. I enjoyed spending time with such nice company, and felt instantly welcome into their family. It was also cool that I was able to use a fork at this restaurant, a nice break from chopsticks. The hard park was biking home when I felt so completely full!!!!!!

Nakamise Shopping

The Nakamise shopping arcade stands for "the middle store" and is situated between the Kaminarimon and the Sensoji Temple. There was a huge crowd browsing the alley, always a great opportunity to scope out interesting people and fashions. The long strip is filled with little stores or shops offering tourist items and snack shacks. You can get anything you need as souveniers here: from fans, to statues to keychains and on and on. One of my favorite items is pictured behind me below: the maneki neko. It stands for "inviting fortune cat". You will often see these in store fronts, and are supposed to invite good fortune to a business or home. I have to admit that I bought one. This is not for those who are affraid of crowded places, I could barely turn around without knocking something off a shelf.

Kaminari Mon

Kaminari Mon was one of the more interesting entry ways to a temple that I witnessed in Japan. It stands for "Thunder gate" and the passage way is flanked by two gigantic stone guardians. The God on the right is the God of Thunder, note the drums around his head. The God on the left is the God of Wind, note the windbag around his shoulders. This gate leads to the Nakamise shopping arcade and eventually to the Sensoji Temple. The interesting thing with Japanese archetecture is how these old temples are surrounded by tall industrial and residential buildings. They seem to just blend in together, yet contrast so much in style and composition.

Ameyoko - Ueno Station

Ameyoko stands for confectioners alley. Here you can find anything from food items and fish markets to a variety of clothing stores. This market developped post ww2 as a way of trading goods for money. Now that the Japanese government has lifted bans on many foreign goods, the black market basically no longer exists as you can get the items anywhere in Japan now. It was very crowded but was a great place to people watch. I enjoyed watching people "gamble" at the Pachinko parlors. You would not believe the level of noise and the haze of smoke in these parlors. You can see the stacks of metal balls in boxes that some players had amassed behind their seats in the picture above. Apparently the game is very addictive. In Japan gambling is against the law, so you need to trade the metal balls in for prizes or receive a wooden card that you trade in for money two stores down.

Traditional Japanese Wedding

Behind the Sensoji Temple I was fourtunate enough to catch sight of the tail end of a traditional Japanese wedding. About an hour earlier we had seen this couple in a man drawn cart on thieir way to thier ceremony. The clothing worn by the bride and groom was astonishingly beautiful and elaborate. Even the guests attending the ceremony were dressed to the nines, many in kimono. It was funny to see that as the couple posed for photos by their photographer, many foreigners were snapping away.

Sensoji Temple

After the Kaminarimon and Nakamise shopping arcade lies a beautiful temple named Sensoji. This area was formerly the entertainment district in Tokyo, before world war 2. Before entering the tepmle you must cleanse yourself by washing your right and left hands and your mouth with the water from the statuesque water feature pictured. Then you climb the stairs and are greated by the sound of monks chanting within the temple. the sound is hypnotic. I still can not get over the elaborate decor in these temples. Next to the temple I saw a five tiered building known as the pagota, which was dedicatd to commedians. Funny that such an awesome structure would be dedicated to such a profession!

Izakaya - Japanese Pub

At the end of a teaching contact, my brother often goes to an izakaya with his students to relax and hang out. I was invited to the Za-Watami izakaya by my brother, Michael, in order to experience some Japanese food and drink. I met his two students, Lisa and Hide, who were great people to have this first experience with. They introduced me to many native foods and drink they thought were essential to Japanese experience. I tried sake for the first time, as well as many foods. Of note, it was my first experiment with raw horse meat, sashimi and several other delicasies that I can not remember the names of. I am constantly in awe of the quality of service received in this country, espescially since there is no tipping! Good thing I did not get drunk, because I had to take the train and bike it home after.

Ginza and Sony Building

I got to see all of the cool new technology coming our way at the Sony Building in Ginza City. Although all of us know how technologically delayed I am - seeing as I finally just got my own email account - I probably won't be using this technology for another 10 years.

I got to see Playstation 3 in action and the High Definition TVs are amazing!! I do not even have a flat screen TV yet.

On the way back to the JR (Japan Rail) Station we passed by a fruit store selling fruit for unbelievably high prices. 3,000 yen is roughly $30 CND... for one melon!!!

Finally I got to see a rush hour train, but my brother tells me that a packed train would have an additional row of bodies lined up in the middle and flesh squeezed against the windows. You all know how I feel about people invading my personal space. It was a good time to use my size to an advantage and create some space around my person.

Zojoji Temple

This temple is 5 minutes from Tokyo Tower and the first sight I saw of it was of a temple monk blessing a..... CAR!! You can drive your car into the temple grounds, pay some yen, and the monk will bless it so even if you are a crappy driver like me...

The temple was built in 1393 and is run by Buddhist Monks. The inside is filled with tons of gold sheeted etchings and decorations, another example of how rich religous sects are. You feel an instant sense of calm..........until some business man who needs spiritual guidance throws a ton of coins into a wooden box so that he can pray to Buddha for help.

Tokyo Tower

Tokyo Tower climbs 333m into the sky. Our tickets brought us 250m up the tower and the view was incredible - What an experience! In comparison to Empire State Building, you can see 500 times more. The city just seems to go on forever.

The city wasn't built on any grid system. It seems as if buildings and houses were just plopped down anywhere.

Today we are going back to Tokyo to visit the Tokyo Tower, the Sony Display Store, a samurai museum and the Imperial Palace. I'll post pictures on my new blog tonight when we get back.