A month ago, I arrived in Tokyo not knowing what to expect. A month later, I am happy to report that I am living happily and frugally in a city that can literally eat you alive. My Japanese has not improved much but I can say that I understand more than I first arrived. Baby steps, right?

I celebrated my 1 month anniversary with a trip with my good friend and guide to Kappabashi, better known as the restaurant supply district near Ueno and within visible range of the nearly complete Tokyo Sky Phallus...err...Tree. It really does look like a longer, thicker version of the CN Tower in Toronto. The district is a lot of fun, if you enjoy cooking, which I do. You can literally find any cooking tool you can imagine, including wax food models commonly seen on display windows in restaurants all over the city and beyond. The pictures speak for themselves:

All that food made us hungry and we headed over to Shimbashi for some salary-man yaki niku. This was no typical yaki-niku restaurant. It is a traditional Robatayaki, which I found through an article on CNN. The restaurant is called Musashi Robatayaki within a stones throw from JR Shimbashi station. Almost everything on the menu is 290 Yen save for the drinks. Some drinks are pricier like the higher quality sake made with Yamada Nishiki rice. It's a lot of fun if you can sit by the fireplace and randomlly call out food items. It helps to know how to read kana and some kanji of course, but fortunately the restaurant has an English menu that you can ask for. We didn't ask for one though, because we're hardcore like that. Specials are all posted on the wall, so again it helps to know how to read kana. The sashimi moriawase (mixed sashimi platter) for 1050 Yen is a good deal. It's not on the standard menu but it is posted on the wall. There's also horse sashimi (basashi) and yes, WHALE! Crazy! Sorry no photo of those, nor did we order WHALE.

There really is no such tour! I made it up just because it sounded cool, at least at the time of writing, that is....right now! Ok so this is the last portion of my Kansai extravaganza monster post. A trip to Kyoto would not be complete without a trip to the Gion/祇園 the famed Maiko/Geisha district. I arrived in the evening, to a bustling crowd of people walking about. I assume that most are tourists on the same mission as me: to spot a Geisha. Armed with a crumpled up map, I hit the quiet back alleys, most of which seem very non-descript with small signs outside in Kanji.

A blurry silhouette, shuffling down the street, quietly like a thief in the night! A bunch of random French people and I chased after her and managed to grab a picture. Mission Accomplished.

My second day in Kansai involved taking a day trip out to nearby Nara. Nara is a magical place with a temple inhabited with what I like to call four legged furry pigeons. Others call prefer to call them by a more typical name: deers. Seriously, the deers at Todai-ji (東大寺) will literally bite you in the ass looking for deer rice crackers called senbei (せんべい). The weather this time co-operated. It was sunny and mild which made touring Nara a wonderful experience. I don't have much to say other than the fact that the touristy spots were extremely crowded because, like everyone else, I decided to visit during a long weekend. But that's ok because otherwise I would not have been able to show you, dear readers, what happens to you when you withold senbei

It starts out great

Then more arrive

Panic sets in and you RUNNNNNNN

Cornered. That's what happens when you withold

I just got back from a whirlwind trip to Kansai via the ever "classy" and most importantly wallet friendly JR Highway bus! My goodness was it ever a blast. It would have been even better had the weather co-operated, but it's almost always impossible to have your cake and eat it too, I suppose.

I arrived at Kyoto central station early, and in the pouring rain at 8:30am. Great. Fortunately for me, the coffee shops were already open, so I dropped about 500 Yen for a tiny cup of tea and a pastry. I could've gone to the Lawson's down the street for an onigiri and a drink at a fraction of the price but the rain put a stop to that, of course. The tourist office wouldn't open for about another hour so I used the time to explore the massive building. When I say massive, trust me, it's freaking massive.

Kyoto Station is a major transport hub featuring a terminal for the Shinkansen, regular JR commuter train as well as local private railways. In other words, this place is busy, pretty much at all times. Near the central Shinkansen gate lies a lovely "road" of restaurants and shops called Miyako Michi. I picked up some postcards at the bookshop there and simply stared at the wax food models on display outside he restaurants. It never ceases to amaze me.

The rain finally died down a bit so I headed over to the hostel I booked a few days ago. The choice was totally random because my only criteria was that it had to be clean and cheap. That was it. I did my research on Tripadvisor.com, which hasn't failed me so far. I highly recommend it for people's views on accommodation and food -- they are quite honest and to the point. Not a lot of bashing and just facts. Long story short, a gust of wind completely destroyed my flimsy fold-up umbrella from Canada. Lucky for me Tour Club (the name of the hostel) had loaner umbrellas for guests to use. They rock. The place is clean and the staff members are as nice as they come. I recommend it because it's close to the station and it's not expensive. They don't have a lot of rooms so I suggest you book early if you want to use Tour Club.

My trip to Kyoto included meeting up with a former lab colleague from back home. She married someone who lives in the Kyoto area and subsequently relocated to Japan. They were the nices couple ever! They drove me around all day, AND bought me a really fancy kaiseki-style dinner!

My trip consisted of going to two major shrines/temples: Kiyomizu-dera (清水寺), in the eastern part of the city located on top off a hill and Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺) all the way across town. Luckily I had a ride otherwise the trip across town would've been utterly hell. Both temples were gorgeous to say the least and there's so much history within them that I can write volumes about it if I wanted to. I won't since I am 1) lazy 2) don't know anything and 3) you can look it up on wikipedia. But i posted pictures!

Another highlight of the day was the wonderful dinner at a nomiya/izakaya called Kyomon. My gracious hosts called ahead and reserved a set-meal containing about 10 to 12 courses of dishes made of seasonal and local ingredients. It was pretty much kaiseki food but in a casual setting for a lot less than what you'd pay in Canada, all of which I totally dig. It was crazy. The pictures speak louder than words. There are better pictures of the food on the restaurant site gnavi here. Long story short, it really really really helps to know someone local to the area!

Dear citizens of Tokyo, if you had the misfortune of crossing paths with me, I sincerely apologize. By crossing paths, I literally mean crossing paths. Here's a little background: In Canada people drive on the right hand side, so naturally when walking, most would walk on the right side of the side walk. In Japan, however, they drive on the other side of the street like the Brits. Consequently they tend to walk on the left side of the sidewalk. Therein lies my problem. For whatever reason, I always end up walking on the wrong side of the sidewalk and literally cross paths with people. I am getting the hang of it but, I still need to constantly remind myself . Another skill that I must master is how to dodge people most effectively. The locals seem to have an uncanny 6th sense of knowing exactly the location of people around them. They can do this so well that they can walk and text and not run into anybody! I am totally *NOT* exaggerating. I must learn this art.

Other than that, my second week in Tokyo has been great. My friend Jeremy (by the way the nicest guy you'll ever meet, ever!) took me to Kamakura (big Buddha) and Enoshima last weekend. I wouldn't have known of the place had he not told me. Even the associates at work asked how I knew about Kamakura because they were quite impressed that I managed to get there. There were mostly Japanese visitors and very few foreigners. So anyone reading this should head out to Kamakura to make the local/gaijin ratio a little more balanced.

I'll be in Kyoto and maybe Nara this weekend, so I will try to put up a post and a few photos!

]]> http://www.sakurabranch.com/2010/10/blogger-ben-im-so-sorry/feed/ 0 http://www.sakurabranch.com/2010/09/blogger-ben-my-1-week-anniversary/ http://www.sakurabranch.com/2010/09/blogger-ben-my-1-week-anniversary/#comments Thu, 23 Sep 2010 13:32:53 +0000 Ben http://www.sakurabranch.com/?p=507 A week ago, I started the 16 hour journey to Tokyo. In retrospect my fears of getting lost were ill-conceived. Major cities in Japan are probably one of the most tourist friendly places in the world. I was fortunate to have befriended Jeremy, an American who is in Japan teaching English. He was extremely kind [...]]]>

A week ago, I started the 16 hour journey to Tokyo. In retrospect my fears of getting lost were ill-conceived. Major cities in Japan are probably one of the most tourist friendly places in the world. I was fortunate to have befriended Jeremy, an American who is in Japan teaching English. He was extremely kind as he took time out to show me around town and introduced me to his friends. My first few days would have been exceedingly boring if it weren't for him.

The company that I am training at is quite progressive. The staff is fairly young for the type of work that they do. Importantly, people seem to leave work at a reasonable time (around 6:30 -7, but I have not stayed later than 6:30 myself). The work environment is definitely different from North American offices. Everyone is just hard at work, working away quietly. Not a whole lot of conversation or socializing take place. One thing that I have noticed, though, at least at this particular office is that it's OK to snooze at your desk. That's awesome. But being the new guy, I will probably be on my best behaviour for a while.

In terms of communicating in Japanese, I feel very much like a mute. Whatever I learned from text books are thrown out the window as soon as a native speaker begins speaking to me. I get so nervous and forget how to say things, or am too nervous to say anything because I worry that I'd say the wrong thing. It has happened so many times, though I know everyone expects it and it's ok. I guess it's only been a week. I am sure my confidence will build over time.

The neighbourhood around me is pretty upscale, which means there are upscale grocery stores.  I have been to my local (somewhat upscale) Maruetsu Petit location a few times and noticed that the price of their fish is comparable to that of other, more budget locations.  I picked up a package of Aji (from Nagasaki 長崎 prefecture) for JPY 398 (tax in), to tide me over while my rice was cooking.  Good stuff and if you didn't believe me that it was JPY 398, the proof's in the pudding.  It also came with a delightful package of fresh wasabi which was a dream considering that it was purchased from a grocery store.

Score 1 for frugality!

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