Tokyo - 4

Stopping at Hamamatsucho, the nearest JR station to Tokyo Tower, another surprise awaits. Right in the middle of the hustle street, the same street that houses the Tokyo World Trade Center is the tori leading to Zojoji temple. Pedestrians & motorists travel pass the tori towards the T-junction that stops directly in front of Zojoji Temple's front gate.


What is special about Zojoji temple? Honestly, I don't know. Didn't even step into the temple. The reason I was there is because one of the best view of Tokyo Tower is available from the temple's view. Isn't it amazing to have a tall telecommunication tower so close to a religious temple? Well, that's Japan.


Posted one of my favourite Tokyo Tower shots. Honestly, I think Tokyo Tower is more 'photogenic' than Eiffel Tower due to its colour scheme (which of course corresponds to the Japanese national flag colours). Look how pack Tokyo is from top...high rise buildings stretch beyond the reach of eyes (unless you have binocular, of course). Also played around with my new camera and shot a miniature view of Zojoji temple from top, hehe... Going to the first observatory tower is not a challenge but the second tier requires long wait in front of 1 single elevator, so be ready to spend some time at the tower.


Leaving the tower, proceeding to the smaller of the two parks available in Hamamatsucho - Kyu Shiba Rikyu Garden. My first visit to Japanese garden and I've already fallen in love with the setting at first sight. Kyu Shiba Rikyu is a small garden but the settings are so lovely, craftfully planned, well maintained & quiet. No screaming kids, barking dogs, smokers, garbage lying around...just clean, peaceful & tranquil. It is amazing that despite being 50m away from a busy main street, you can barely hear any traffic, too bad I don't have sufficient skill to take a nice picture of this breathtakingly beautiful garden.


Next on the days itinerary is Sensoji temple in Asakusa. The time was nearly 4pm but because my travel companion insisted on the taking a cruise on Sumida river to the temple, we walked nearly a kilometer to Hinode Pier, waited 40 minutes for a nearly 40minutes ride to Asakusa. I was pretty grumpy about the time wasted but then was also grateful that we get to have a break in the glass top boat and cruise through bridges after bridges along Sumida river, seeing the other side of Tokyo.


Picture on top is the famous landmark for Asahi beer, locating directly opposite the pier in Asakusa. Arriving at Sensoji, the oldest temple in Tokyo dedicated to Goddess of Mercy with slight light remains & most tourists crowd gone, I get to take a shot of the famous Kaminarimon (雷门) lantern without too much 'obstacles'. If you're in the mood for a rickshaw tour, opportunities are plenty around the area, some provide guided tour.

Passing through the gate brings you immediately to the oldest shopping street that stretch towards the temple. I'd say this is one of the best place for souvenir purchasing, the second best is - the airport. So if you missed out the chance to buy yukata / Kokeshi doll here, you can always find better quality ones at the airport albeit more expensive. Strolling the street is a nice experience, probably because the crowd has slightly reduced compare to 'peak hours'.

Aside from souvenir shopping (which totally deviates from the intention of temple visit :p), lots of small tit-bits are also available on the Nakashime shopping street (not to mention the hundreds of restuarants on its branch out side streets). With full enthusiasm, me & my travel companion tried the deep fried mochi & the seaweed senbei. Senbei was so so but the mochi was absolutely delicious.

The Nakashime shopping street ends with blessing lanterns on both sides and another gate that leads to the Sensoji temple. As you can see from the picture, the sky is dark, and thus the temple is closed as well. Too bad for us that it's under some maintenance work, so part of the temple is covered, hence no picture taken to share.

I did my home work and found a century old small family run restaurant that serves best unagi in the area for dinner. Unfortunately for us, when we reach to the small slightly under maintain restaurant/house, it's already close for the days business. Craving for unagi, we proceeded to another restaurant that looks promising.

The meal was fine albeit not the best but it's definitely different from what I experienced before. First, put the spring onion & seaweed (and wasabi if you like) into the tea pot which actually holds dashi stocks, scoop the rice & unagi from claypot to rice bowl, pour some soup into the bowl and eat it. And of course, finish the meal with miso soup. I ordered some char grilled shishamo fish(had to take picture & show the waitress due to language barrier), serve with a lemon wedges and japanese mayonnaise, nice & authentic :)

Hot spring next blog...

Tokyo - 3

First of all, I must admit my own ignorance. When I first saw the tori below, I thought this is already the famous Meiji shrine, was so dissppointed & my travel companion who's been there is not helping by mis-guiding me further away from the truth (I'm sure he enjoys it). Truth is, this tori marks the beginning of the part to Meiji shrine.

Walking a few minutes on a stone path through a small stream with sake offerings on both sides, it amazes me that despite Meiji shrine is just a street away from the happening Harajuku the whole world just transformed into peacefulness & quiet when we stepped through the first tori. When we heard a public announcement in Japanese, it felt absolutely awkard in this almost ancient setting. Anyway, since we're only 30mins away from the closing time, it's not hard to guess that the announcement is a gentle reminder about the approaching closing time.

Speeding up towards the shrine (actually just by reducing the number of pictures taken along the way is already a hige time saver, haha), finally the shrine is in sight. Traditionally, we're suppose to wash our hands and rinse our mouth before entering the shrine, hence this nice bamboo made water dispense system. Not having any intention for praying without knowing the ritual, we skipped this and rush through front gate (the security guard is already starting to 'minimize' the entrance gate).

Visitng Meiji shrine close to closing time has it's advantage (aside from the obvious rushing disadvantage). The shrine is sitting quietly in a peaceful setting while most of the tourists have left. The calming feeling associated with the soft sunset light is so tranquilizing. I almost forgot the rush to the shrine and the husle Tokyo and instead imagining myself in the middle of a sacred woods with the shrine.

Alas, the famous shrine quietly awaits its daily visitors and one of its millionth photo shoot. Photo taking is not allowed inside the hall. After making a small donation, I walked out to the courtyard and zoom in to snap one look of the shrine. If I have more time, I'd have place a wish on the wooden block, next time :)

Leaving the shrine, taking the same stone path out again, we're immediately greeted by Jingu Bridge where cosplayers socialize in weekend. Unfortunaetly, it's just a normal weekday when we're there so, sorry, no unique cosplayers to show. While Ginza offers high end shopping, Takeshita street certainly is the heaven for youngsters and cosplayers. Filled with people all the time, taking a stroll while trying to window shop could be challenging.

I entered Takeshita street with the intention to buy something unique but ended up only buying an egg shaped measuring cup, embarrassing. The fashion is too trendy for me and cosplay is definitely too outrages in Europe; skirts are too short for my fat thigh & shoes are too fine heel for my weight. Well, enough excuse, next stop, we're back in Shinjuku towards the tallest building in Tokyo - Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.

The two top-floor panoramic observation decks of the building are free of charge to the public and are open till 11 pm on weekdays. The best part is: use of cameras is permitted. Unfortunately, after we walked up & down and finally found the entrance, we saw a notice saying special security is in place, hence it's not open to public. Sigh, there goes my Tokyo night scene dream.

Walking back towards the hotel, passing the happening Shinjuku and skipping all the nice izakaya along the way, we headed for McDonald. Yes, McDonald. My travel companion who's been having stomach problem wanted some food that he's familiar with, so... Well, the story is not that sad. Japanese McDonald has some local speacialty as well. We got teriyaki beef burger and prawn burger with grapefruit juice. Fries are the same, haha...

More of Tokyo, next blog.

Finding Totoro

If you're a Japanese anime fan, then it's almost certain that you've heard of My Neighbour Totoro from Hayao Miyazaki (created by Studio Ghibli). Personally, I like his Spirited Away produced years later more but My Neighbour Totoro was the first anime that introduce me to Miyazaki. I still remember when the Totoro anime was first shown in Malaysia, my friends were all crazy over the cute friendly (and chubby) Totoro. Here's how he looks like (the grey one) with the 2 main characters and other wood spirits in the anime.

Ghibli Museum, designed by Miyazaki himself in Mitaka (a suburb of Tokyo) exhibits everything that relates to anime created by Studio Ghibli from animation history to their latest products. Entrance to the museum is by controlled tickets only. As an overseas visitor, I have to book the ticket via their Europe sales office and bring the appointment letter for entry, of course a small entrance fee of 1000Yen is incurred.

20+ minutes train ride from Shinjuku, the first impression I have of Mitaka is that it's a peaceful, tranquil yet classy small town (maybe because of the museum?). Walking from train station towards the museum, it's not hard to notice some 'road signs' along the way, discretely embedded as part of the city. I found some foot prints (with dog's paw prints as well) and some really cute lamp post (if you can read kanji, of course)

I think the museum is not designed for tourists but more for the local, or better yet, Ghibli / Miyazaki fans who dream of becoming a child again. The fact that they implement control ticket limits the number of people visiting the museum and keep the crowd at an optimum level. The real entrance ticket is a film cutout framed with hard cardboard which is so adorable. I was so glad that I get to keep the entrance ticket (worried at some point that they might collect it back).

Picture taking inside the museum is not permitted but outside of the museum (even though still within its compound) is not an issue. Young or old; local or foreign; everyone in the museum (as far as I can see), including myself have just turn more cheerful, excitingly discovering one secret room after another; finding staircase at weird corners and climbing rotating steel 'caged' spiral staircase.

I can't recall where this iron robot on the roof top originates from but he is definitely popular. Everybody takes a photo with him, I have to wait at the side and quickly take a picture during the 'human model exchange window.

Pic: Part of Ghibli musuem exterior

Pic: Totoro & the dust balls guarding the entrance

It's amazing to realize how much work it is to produce an anime, the conventional way. Stacks and stacks of drawings just to produce one scene or capture a movement. Seeing the very place where great animes like My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away, Poko Rosso... are produced really opened up views from different perspective. Think I have to watch the Ghibli animes all over again to further appreciate all the hard work behind.

My visit ends with a 10 - 15 minutes short anime in a small 'cinema'. All explanation / narration is in Japanese only but the anime is so nicely done in a way that you don't need the language to understand the message. Of course, no visit would be complete without some souvenir from the gift shop, one of the few places that sells original Studio Ghibli related products. Personally, I think the entrance ticket is already the best souvenir I can keep but seeing all those lovely products, it's hard not to buy some (and they're not cheap).

Pic: Big & small totorosss...

Pic: More...

Ghibli museum tour can easily take up half day (or more). If you're a Ghibli fan and happen to visit Tokyo, then I'd highly recommend the museum. If you haven't heard of any of the anime that I mentioned, I suggest you to start seeing some of them, starting with Totoro & Spirited Away, trust me, you don't want to live the regret of missing them out.

Tokyo - 2

Having a hard time to wake up the second day in Tokyo at nearly 10.30am, me & my travel companion headed straight to Ginza. The good thing about being in Ginza on weekend is: some main streets are closed for cars so you can walk in the middle of the street without the worry of being hit. Walking across the many posh streets of Ginza somehow intimidated me. I can't gather enough courage to walk into flagship stores. Chanel, LV, Emporio Armani? no thanks, not that I can afford any of those anyway :p

Luckily Ginza has many to offer more than just luxurious shopping (oh yes, people with convertible Rolls Royles shop in Wako while the driver is waiting by the car). The famous kabuki theatre and the biggest fish market are in the area as well. But we're not into those today, we're going to Sony Building.

What's special about Sony Building? Well, aside from seeing some of the new Sony products that are not yet in the market, having beautiful assistance to provide explaination is kind of nice too (only if you speak Japanese, they tend to run away when you speak English). Having found anything that you're interested in, the opportunity to purchase at a tax-free price is available inside the building. Too bad picture taking is not allowed :s

Understand the fact that Ginza is expensive, I have made my homework by searching a reasonably priced restaurant for lunch. Gonpachi provides excellent lunch menu & it's definitely cheap compare to Copenhagen. Coincidently, when (ex)President Bush visited Japan, he was brought to Gonpachi for lunch as well, albeit differnet branch. My travel companion complained that the restaurant looks like a slump from outside and he got really worried when he saw a middle age drunk man sitting at a corner outside the restaurant and no visible customer inside the restaurant (peeping from window).

Just when I was beginning to doubt my choice, we discovered that apparently the restaurant's entrance lies on the other side of the building and they even have dress code! Thank goodness we're decent, haha... Stepping into the restaurant transform the environment 180 degree. We then understand the 'slump' look is part of the decoration to the restaurant's theme and it's a two storeys restaurant and all customers are being placed on first floor, near to the kitchen counter.

I had a grill fish of the day lunch set while my friend took the teriyaki don with soba set. Soba is hand made, fish iss fresh and grilled to perfection, the teriyaki chicken, oh teriyaki chicken...char grilled to perfection (again), tender and juicy, it tasted so so so good. Well, I don't expect less from a place that can host national guest :) At this point, my travel companion Mr.T is no longer complaining :p
Next stop, we proceed to Akihabara, the electronic town. I think it won't be exeggerating to say that if there's any electronic items on sale anywhere in the world, you'll definitely find it here. Just Yodobashi (one of the biggest electronic shop) is already a 6 storey building that covers a wide range of product from computer, house hold electronics, to camera and beauty related electronic appliances. They even have a machine to wash rice before cooking (/faint).

I wanted to buy one of the multi-function rice cooker but they don't support 230/240V supply!!! Then I went on to look at Lumix TZ7 but the 'sleek' salesman demonstrated the function of CX2 and 'cheated' me into buying the camera, its expensive leather casing, an extra battery (nealy also the power converter & screen protector) and the next thing I know, I'm now a proud owner of Ricoh CX2, haha...

Leaving Akihabara (being 50,000Yen poorer), we took a small pit stop back at the hotel before proceeding to Shibuya. At night, no place in Tokyo houses more people than Shibuya. The most famous scene in Shibuya, is its scramble crossing, the intersection among three large TV screen and every 3 minutes, thousands of pedestrians will flock the crossing. To be honest, I think it's a bit scary when you see at least a few hundreds of people walking towards you.

Found our way to one of the Momo Paradise branch in Shibuya for dinner (of course, it was planned). A very distinct diffrence between Europe and Japan is how the shops / restaurants are located. Very often, you'll find a block of building that houses many restaurants in each floor in Japan but in Europe, they are often just by the street, individually. During Mr.T's previous Japan trips, they often have problem finding restaurants and eateries but having a travel companion who reads kanji (a.k.a. me), of course the problem is no longer there :)

Momo Paradise is also a local favourite for their 90minutes buffet hot pot (shabu-shabu, sukiyaki and the new korean kimchi hot pot) with free flow of refill. By the way, Momo paradise opens up a branch in KL, slightly different from its Japanese main shop on side dishes & dipping sauce selections, perhaps I should try when I go back. Anyway, the guests surely come and go at a fast rate due to time limit so we got our seats after 15 minutes of wait (on a Saturday without reservation, that's fast).

Choosen shabu-shabu because we had an expensive one in Copenhagen before and it doesn't taste good at all, so we needed to try out the 'real' Japanese shabu-shabu. Drinks and rice are not included but can be added on small fee. Shabu-shabu pot with konbu soup base on top of infra red heating, 2 bento layers of very thinly sliced beef, a plate of vegetables, ponzhu & sesame sauce marks the start of our shabu-shabu journey.

Mr.T likes it so much that he labelled this meal as one of the best during the whole trip (after we returned from Japan of course). It is definitely way better than in Copenhagen but I have an ambition to try it with Kobe / Wagyu beef the next time (if) I visit Japan. Ending the meal with a total of 6 bento layers of beef (not much compare to other customers but enough for us), it was a satisfying dinner that billed less than 6,000Yen with 2 more very happy customers :)

Japan Fast Food 1

One harmless little visit to a Japanese convenient store AM-PM with the intention to buy some simple convenient food to munch on ended up with a big shopping billed to 2700 Yen, I was a little embarrassed when I go to the counter for payment. But look at how much I bought, so excited. Some of these items became my first dinner in Tokyo. The convenient store even provide wet tissue for hand wiping before eating, spoon, chopstick with toothpick and serviette after food, all free of charge.

I start my 'dinner' with an instant clam miso soup. Clams were provided in a vacuum sealed pack with dried spring onions and miso paste. Pour 200ml of hot water into these unpacked ingredients, wait for 3 minutes and voila, a steaming hot clam miso soup. It tasted good too. My appetizer was a small piece of spicy fried chicken from the hot counter, really spicy. Main course was some inari sushi and triangle rice. The triangle rice is not that exciting though, rather tasteless but full filling. The dinner ends with the special edition kit kat, with rice crackers coated by chocolate, yum...Oh, nearly forget, all food was accompanied by Japanese milk tea (too sweet and lack of tea taste for me), not bad huh?

Tokyo - 1

After nearly 15 hours flight, I finally arrived in Tokyo Narita airport. Bought the airport express train to Shinjuku where the hotel is but is not allowed to checked in before 2pm. Shinjuku station is a huge huge huge station with 3 train lines and 5 metro lines intersecting, taking the wrong exit could result in having to walk a big round to find your way again.

Me and my travel companion (who's having a bad stomach) , both tired, sleepy (it's midnight Copenhagen time) after attempting several times (east exit, south exit & new south exit) and several argument about directions, we finally manage to find our hotel which is only 320 meters away from the nearest entry point to the Shinjuku station (if you know the way, of course).

Despite our desperate need for a refreshing shower and a couple hours of power nap, we were rejected to check in because we arrive 2hours prior to check in time. Without any choice, leaving out luggage in the hotel, we set off to Takashimaya Time Square which is 300m away from the hotel for lunch and time killing.

Took a quick stroll in Takashimaya's basement food center and I was absolutely overwhelmed. Seafood, fruits, cooking ingredients, western, eastern, you name it, they've got it. There're so many food stalls selling different things: sushi, bento, sashimi, don, pasta, cakes, rice, noodles, mochi... Being greeted by a bow from the sales persons in Japanese when you walk from stall to stall made me even more confused. How do I pay? by cash over the counter or by coupon? Anyway, having a real hard time to choose, we decided to go up to the restaurant floors.

Spreading across 3 floors (12F- 14F), Takashimaya's 30+ garden restaurants (named garden because most of them have outdoor garden, from 12th to 14th floor) is not making my decision making process easier either. Considering my travel companion Mr.T's stomach condition, I finally gave up and settled for a food that is known to his stomach - egg wrapped tomato chicken fried rice and fruit juice. The rice turned out to be nicer that I thought but the bill is not cheap for lunch as well (~5000Yen for both of us).

Dragged ourselves through the neighbouring Tokyo Hands shopping mall and killed the 2 hours, we finally get to check in. The room is a tiny one (guess Tokyo's space is precious) but the toilet is nevertheless still impressive :). Toiletries provided are also very extensive, they even provide shower sponge ;) found a funny 'Japlish' (my term for Japanese English) too: 'Please finish up a roll of toilet paper to prevent wasting resources'. Well, it was really hard for me to finish a roll of toilet paper, hmm...

After a nice shower & 2hrs of power nap, feeling fresh again, we set off to the Yodobashi electronic shop 200m away from the hotel, opposite Lumine1 shopping mall. Apparently there're 8 Yodobashi's scattered around every corner of Shinjuku East, varied from 3 to 6 floors height, each specialized in a field: camera; audio & visual; home electronics; time pieces etc. I was stunned to see the amount of gadgets display. Just the camera shop (building#5, the red neon lighted building in picture below) is already almost like an essence of Malaysia's PC fair.

Mr.T and I made an agreement to forfeit our original plan of dining out but instead buy something from Takashimaya basement and eat at the hotel instead (due to his stomach circumstances, he needs a portable toilet to feel comfortable, poor guy). Unfortunately when we made it back to Takashimaya, the basement is already closed by 8.30pm, only the garden restaurants are open. All because we took a lot of picture on our way there, else we might have made it.

Anyway, failing to eat what I planned and worse, don't even get to buy anything from the basement food section got me into a grumpy depressed mood. I was 'nagging' Mr.T along the way until we went to AM-PM. I like Japan, if there's anything that can be made into can / pre-packed / cup noodle type, they'll do it. Found clam miso soup in a cup noodle form, clams vacuum sealed, amazing. Bought a lot of convenient items and ate some as dinner instead, the convenient shopkeeper was slightly shocked :)

Tarts

Two days before my trip, instead of packing, I baked a tart. Not because I've packed and ready but due to the fact that the tart dough will go bad before I return to Copenhagen. I've been brought up with the teaching of 'do not waste food' so might as well make something out of it. Baked a French pear tart with chocolate base. Distributed it among my colleagues but it doesn't taste so good to my opinion, the chocolates are too overwhelming.

Another tart that I really like is apple cream tart. Bakes it not so long ago, recipe from Joy of Baking. My colleagues gave me two thumbs up for the apple tart but didn't say anything about the pear tart, so....