A View of Tokyo

On Sunday, our Ploss pod set out to find an aquarium. We were going to a part of the city called Ikebukuru. While walking through hoards of people, hearing people shouting at us to come into their stores for the latest deals, I really felt alien again. I won't get used to that, it seems. In addition, I am not a good crowd walker. There is a method to use when coming face to face with on coming traffic- a way to avoid the awkward "side step shuffle" dance, but I haven't figured it out yet. I am either crashing or dancing in the really busy pedestrian traffic. My favorite strategy is to get RIGHT BEHIND Robin, and follow him. I like to think of him as an ice breaker in the Arctic. I am just a tug boat, following in his wake.

We found the place. It was a nice aquarium, but not the biggest or best we've seen here. At one point while Matt and I were standing in a pretty tight crowd, looking into a tank of sea creatures, a little girl walked right in front of us, her eyes huge, looking at me the whole time, her head turning to keep me in her sights. Matt didn't miss a beat. He turned to me and said, "And yet Mom, YOU are the most interesting thing here." He makes me laugh so.

Before the aquarium, we found the observation floor and I took some pictures of the city. One of the pictures is of a very pale Mt. Fuji. It was slightly hazy, but one could still see it. Tokyo is vast. It goes on for as far as the eye can see. And it is really not separated much from other cities like Yokohama. It takes about an hour by train to get to Yokohama, but the cityscape outside the window doesn't really change much.

Can you see Fuji-san in this picture? It is far, far away, but you can see it through the haze, majestically presiding over Japan.

Falling Georgie

I'm taking a risk of offending people, but for a good time, go to:

http://www.planetdan.net/pics/misc/georgie.htm

Hours of entertainment. When he gets "stuck" you can use your mouse, click on him and rough him up a little more.

I have a counter on my fridge. Right at the moment it tells me that there are 361 days, 18 hours, 58 minutes and 53.8 seconds until Bush's Last Day. It is constantly counting backwards at a breakneck, 1/10 of a second pace. Each day it makes me a little happier.

(By now it says 55 minutes and change!)

Cheers!

Snow!

It was a grey dark morning. The boys have exams today, so I made sure they had a good hot breakfast. (Actually, I do that almost every morning.) Matt was ready first, and went out the front door, but immediately put his head back in and announced, "It's snowing!"

Well! Nathan was so excited, he reverted back to his elementary school days, and hooted and screamed in delight. I think the poor guy misses Greek Peek. I caught my neighbor through the window, all bundled up and heading out with, I suspect, his camera. Snow in Tokyo is a fairly rare occurance. My Japanese teacher told me it's been years since there's been any real snow fall here. So, instead of riding my bike to yoga class, I set out on foot to take some pictures of this exciting event. It's been snowing for at least 4 hours, and the flakes right now are the big, fluffy, stuck together kind. There is enough to form slush and make the roads slightly slick and messy. How fun! I wonder if the drivers here are as hopeless in snow as the Houstonites were when we lived there? It was laughable.

Robin is in China this week, teaching his class, so I took a couple of short videos for him so that he can see the snow.

Tokyo snow- difficult for the pansies...

The International Quilt Show

Last Friday, a group of us went to the Tokyo Dome to view the International Quilt Show. The Tokyo Dome is a professional sports arena- especially, I guess for baseball, and it's HUGE. Half the field was covered in quilt displays, and the other half, vendors of all things related to quilts and quilting. I thought of my friends Polly G., Kaye T., Barb M., and Joan K. who love to quilt and wished they could have been there with us. My friends didn't know what to expect, but as soon as we got close enough to really see what was in store, excitement mounted. We were all stunned by the fabulous designs and magical use of colors and textures used to create these beautiful works of art. As I wandered around amongst the thousands of Japanese women, I noticed a trend. Many, many of them were uttering a word that sounded like "sugui" as they walked up to examine the quilts. Turns out, they shared my sentiment, because they were all exclaiming something similar to "WOW!"

Some Highlights of the Quilt Show

There were probably 8 quilts made by the same person, all having a tea pot/tea cup theme.

I liked the color, movement and 3 dimensional aspect of this design.

This is just a small part of a larger piece, but I loved all the small detail in this image of a shrine.

All the shades of blue that I adore!

The colors in this one made me think of Sarah Ploss.

I love this little detail. So cute.

Took this picture for my Dad!

I couldn't resist!

Here's a detail of the hanging flowers

Race to the Moon

This quilt, entitled "Race to the Moon," shows baby sea turtles racing from their nest to the sea in the light of a full moon.
Three dimensional sea turtles clambered over what looked like a real sandy beach.

A bit of under sea whimsy.

Girls' Night Out

There is a group of women who were all taking Taiko together last year before I even knew I was coming to Japan. I joined their class in September. They have been kind enough to take me into their circle. I knew when I met them initially that they were "my kind" of women. First, they LOVE to laugh. They like to beat drums loudly, like warriors with big sticks. They have a combined wacky sense of humor that "fits" just right. So I was delighted in the Fall when they invited me to a recipe sharing luncheon. It was the first place where I really felt "at home." We laughed over lunch till my sides ached, and I was so incredibly grateful to have been welcomed into their midst like that. We had another good time at another friend's house last Fall, and then everyone got caught up in the holidays, traveling and life happened, the good and the bad.

We had an opportunity to get together last night however, and made plans to to meet at Shibuya Station at a famous statue of a dog called "Hachiko." Read his story. It made me cry the first time I read it: http://www.fabuloustravel.com/globe/hachiko/hachiko.html

We met at Hachiko, and walked together to a Korean Barbecue Place in the huge city of Shibuya. Of course, it being Shibuya, I had no idea where we were, and got completely turned around, but I expected as much. Thankfully I was with friends who knew the way. At Korean B-b-q, there are open flame charcoal pits in the table, and you cook your meat and veggies right there in the flames. I was a little bummed by the prospect of eating beef tongue at first, but it was very thinly sliced and very good. (Once when I was a kid at my grandmother's house in Oneonta, she cunningly served me a tongue sandwich, telling me simply that it was beef. I remember knowing immediately by the taste and texture that she was trying to pull a fast one and further scrutinized the meat in between the bread. Oh horrors! Those little things looked like.....like.....TASTE BUDS!!?? I remember vowing to myself at that moment never to eat anything that could taste me back.) But, I'm off the point here. Last night's meal was delicious, and we were the loudest, rowdiest, gaijin in the place. Actually the only gaijin in the place, although we were accompanied by Ikuko, a Japanese friend of one of our group.

There was conversation about the difficulties of daily life in Japan: ordering pizza, finding the way to places by car, and funny stories about buying things to eat that turn out not to be what you thought they were. One of our gang chimed up with, "Is there anyplace else in the world where we could have a discussion about how difficult it is to ORDER A PIZZA?!" Laughter is the universal steam release valve, let me tell you.

We were pleasantly surprised when the proprietor came to the table and put down a black velvet mat and told us he was going to do magic. He was pretty darn good! Cards and balls and pens appeared and disappeared to our delighted amusement and amazement. When we left the restaurant, I was the last one out of the place and I noticed him following us close behind. He followed us up the stairs, around a corner and onto the street. I was just starting to be aware of my creep-out warning system, when I realized he was just making sure we got up to the street alright, and he happily wished us a good night.

Dinner was followed by karaoke for an hour and then on home. I found out last night that one of this group is moving to Switzerland after this school year ends. That's the way of the expat community. I asked her if she wanted to eventually go home to the States, and she immediately expressed their desire to return to Tokyo after the 3 years in Switzerland. There are many many people who are global nomads here, and seem happily content to be so.

I have been soaking up (nay, luxuriating in) the international community in which I now move. In my yoga class there is an Italian, a Japanese, and a French woman, plus of course, Americans. The class is taught by a young woman from Switzerland. At Monday night's rehearsal for the up-coming Brahms Requiem performance, I sat next to a young woman from Montenegro. (I am embarrassed to tell you that I had to look up Montenegro to find out more about it!) I have made plans to attend a party for the chorus after our rehearsal the week before the concert so that I can meet some more Japanese folks. The members of the chorus are so nice, but we never have the time to meet and greet. Wouldn't it be a shame if I lived here for a time and never really got to know some native Tokyoites?

Tomorrow is FRIDAY! We are off to a Quilt Show in the Tokyo Dome City Center.

Cheers!

On having fun

Fridays are now fun day. I have enlisted 2 or 3 of my neighborhood friends to set aside Friday each week. This week there should have been 3 of us, but unfortunately one had a knee/shower/gravity incident and couldn't accompany us. She was with us in spirit. Terry, my new tomodachi (friend) and fellow musician, mother of McGill student, and adventurer and I set out to visit someplace new. She chose the Museum of Photography in Ebisu. Ebisu is still Tokyo, it's just one of the smaller "cities" within the massive Tokyo region.

We discovered some wonderful exhibits. Some fun, some sad (stories and "where are they now" photos from the bombing of Hiroshima, taken in 1970's), and some interactive very modern cool exhibits using light and Japanese text. We spent a couple of hours happily engrossed in the quiet, unpopulated museum space. When stomachs started growling, we left in search of something fabulous for lunch. At the Ebisu Garden Place where we were, we found a restaurant on the 39th floor! Our delight deepened when we were seated at a table for 2 by a window. It was uncharacteristically smoggy that day for winter, but the view was still pretty good, and the food great. We talked about families, jobs, life, and just enjoyed being out on an adventure.

There exists a parasitological museum here in Tokyo that I am curious about. It's claim to fame: "It's grisly centrepiece is an 8.8m-long tapeworm found ensconced in the body of a 40-year-old Yokohama man." (Tokyo city guide- Lonely Planet)

Ewwwww. Maybe that's a museum I could get the boys excited about!

Curious things

As I was looking out the window on the 39th floor from another view point, I noticed an apartment building with cars on the roof. Cars! On the roof?! My small mind was confounded by this, as I stared at it, trying to figure out how the heck they got those cars on the roof. But then, I noticed on one corner of the roof what appeared to be the top of a large elevator shaft- just the right size for one car at a time. How clever. Maybe there are car elevators in NYC, but I wasn't aware of them. Those clever Japanese.

Look what's blooming in January!

New Year's Resolutions

Well, it was a close shave, but the girls caught the 11:42 Narita Express this morning. We didn't mean to, but we got a late start, enjoyed several wrong-way moments in Shinjuku station, but inspite of that, managed to get everyone on the waiting train car. I of course, burst into tears as soon as I said good-bye to them all. I tearfully found the train I was to take home, when Robin called and invited me out for lunch. As I accepted, I complained to him that I felt like a bloated whale after eating my way through Tokyo for the last 3 weeks non-stop. My New Year's Resolution is to eat less, completely cut out desserts, and make sure I get plenty of exercise. Thankfully, the exercise isn't a problem in walk-everywhere Japan. And fun. I want to have more fun. I am now a fun junkie.

We ate a delicious curry restaurant very close to his office. It wasn't a huge amount of food, just a bowl with rice and very delicious chicken curry. No dessert! There are some things that have changed for me over the last 3 weeks. I really am having fun getting around, looking in shops, feeling confident, understanding the Japanese of 2 year olds. It's a feeling of competence that I honestly haven't enjoyed since I stepped off the plane in Japan on August 14. As little as I know about Tokyo, Japanese culture and getting around, I knew more than my visitors, and that made me a teeny tiny expert. It's a hoot to see this place through the eyes of visitors. Anyway, feeling my new found confidence, and new found frustration at not really understanding how this city is laid out, I decided to walk home from Akasaka (where Robin works) to Oyamacho, where we reside. Plus- I would be true to my resolution to get exercise. Robin told me it was about 4 and a half miles- "No sweat," I thought. That's like doing the rim trail and the gorge trail together plus a little more, something I've done on several occasions. So I set out. The sun came out. I saw places I'd never seen before. I wasn't really afraid of getting lost, because I knew I could hop on a train if I needed to. I followed the street signs over the road that point cars in the right direction. I was right on track until I came to Shibuya. (We live in Shibuya, but not the city part) I got completely lost, couldn't find the park, saw no metro signs, and was walking around an area I didn't even know existed. I did manage to find a backstreet that had several "Love Hotels" on it. They had seperate room rates listed out front: a "rest" rate that was for 3 hours, and a "stay" rate which I assume meant over night. There were some interesting displays in the windows out front. The French maid lives on in the imaginations of Japanese men, it seems.

Anyway...I digress. I was seriously lost, my feet were starting to ache, and I had called Robin, but what he was telling me didn't feel right. I saw a young woman stepping out of her house, and waited until she was right near me, and I asked her in Japanese, "Excuse me. Yoyogi Park, where is it?" Nakamura-san, my Japanese teacher would have been proud of me! The young woman pointed in the general direction of the Park and in English asked me where I was from. She told me she would "walk with." She explained that she was on her way to the Olympic Swimming Pool right by the park, and we made our way back there. Boy, was I LOST! I think she was delighted to have the opportunity to practice English, and I found out that her name is Yumi, she works in Real Estate, she loves Tokyo, grew up in the country, has been to NYC several times (and loves it!) and studies English after work. I think that means she takes classes. She was a delight, and so nice. I tried out several of my Japanese phrases on her. When I finally got my bearings, she shook my hand several times and we parted like old friends. Today's mistake of getting lost was a lovely opportunity.

Kabuki Theatre

Here's where the girls and I went this morning:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabuki-za

The Kabuki-za is a HUGE theatre with an interesting history. We went there with the intent to catch a 21 minute Kabuki Act. When we came up out of the subway station, we were right AT the theatre, and got in the line that went to the box office. There was a man with a sign at the end of the line, and as we stood there for a moment, he must have known we were clueless. He explained to us that we were standing in the "members only" line, and beckoned us towards the correct line. Ah yes- the line for the "one act" audience members. We bought the cheapest tickets for the one act which was mostly dancing about sake, spirits from the ocean and a sake seller. The theatre has a 2 row section way up on the 4th floor across the back for the "one-act whimps." Claire and I got the earphone English commentary receivers that helped us know what we were watching.

The performance today was lovely to watch. The costumes were so colorful, the movement graceful, the music wonderful hear and see being performed. This was an all male show- the musicians were all lined up on two tiers across the back of the stage, sitting motionless, except for their string plucking, drum hitting and singing. I loved the singing. Quite high in places, and there was some strain to their sound, but I think it was supposed to sound that way. And during the singing there were 2 or 3 guys who were making funny sounds, at seemingly random intervals in time, that were ascending in pitch, like a surprised sounding "Ohh!" It made me want to giggle, but I loved this new sounding singing.

The sake spirits in their white faces and bright red long wigs danced into the sake establishment, drank until they were tipsy, and were so grateful to the sake seller that they magically made his sake vessel overflow for all eternity. They danced happily inebriated back into the sea.

We went to leave as soon as it was over, although everyone around us was sitting comfortably. When I tried to return the earphone receiver, the woman behind the counter pointed to a paper in her hand that said, "You may stay for another show." So we did. Or at least we stayed for part of the second one. This had a more complicated story, a very large cast with lots of cross-dressers, dialogue, and humor. The musicians were behind screens, so were much less conspicuous. The girls had an appointment to tour the Imperial Palace at 1:30, so we had to leave at noon.

An interesting thing: the people who were in the regular sections were given bags with lunch bentos in them, and some people were eating the contents of their bento with hashi (chopsticks) while they waited for the show to start. If you wanted to, you could make a full day of Kabuki. The first act of the matinee begins at 11:00, and the last act finally ends around 4:00. They provide the food, the potty breaks between acts, and the cool entertainment. Then in the evening, the tickets are much more expensive, and they do it all over again.

Engrish, anyone?

More great stories

If you like reading my blog entries, check out my niece's take on her visit here. She is a VERY clever writer with a fabulous descriptive vocabulary.

She loves describing food, and has earned points for being very adventurous!

Also she has a photo line up of our "bean paste faces." It is not to be missed.

http://t-shirt-savior.livejournal.com/

Shoes.

I am still pretty obsessed with footwear. I love looking at the outrageous shoes, boots and wild variety of styles I encounter everytime I step out. I am now comfortable enough to take pictures unobtrusively, and plan to share some of the sights with you. So today I will share some pics of shoes on a woman on the train, and shoes we found in an underground lair in Harajuku.

I am guessing that the styles will get more exciting with the approach of spring, so stay tuned.

It's hard to tell, but these are red velvet shoes. Eat your heart out Dorothy Gale.
We've been having a discussion as to what "Group Treedom" is.
These metallic beauties are often seen paired with jeans.
Imagine colors 2 shades more vivid, and you have the real things.
Leopard print has to be my all time favorite!

Fake food for sale

Kappabashi is a fun place to go to find everything you could ever want for the kitchen or restaurant. We went there today and found fake food- it's everywhere in Japan. Outside of almost every restaurant you can find a display of what's cookin' inside. The displays are made out of- ??? resin or something. Some of the displays are so convincing, I'm sure they are real. But TODAY! We found a couple of stores that sell the realisitc looking fruits, veggies, rice dishes, meats, curries, sushi, dumplings, beer, desserts- everything. What a hoot.

Fake
Fake
Fake
Fake
Fake

Conveyor Sushi: It's the real thing.

(Fake)

Time is winding down for the Wayman girls' visit. So today they checked a few more things off their "must do" list: bought happi coats, found fake food charms, bought more jewelry, met their friend from Allegheny College, went up Tokyo Tower, ate in an authentic Japanese restaurant for lunch, bought their tickets to Nikko for their trip tomorrow and visited the kitchen district. Whew! Oh yeah- and really good conveyor belt sushi for dinner. Sandra loves to try new food.

(Real)

Friends from Trumansburg and hot salsa!

I was so excited to see Sarah Saxon and her Mom Tanya, and her and Dad John today! I got to know Sarah last year, as she was in my 5th grade chorus and the cast of Peter Pan. She and her family spent a couple of wonderful weeks in New Zealand over the Winter Holiday, and stopped in Tokyo for several days on the way back. I met them in my station yesterday, and was so happy to meet them, that I bear hugged everyone and gave John Levine a big kiss on the cheek! He was a good sport about it. We walked around my neighborhood briefly, then took the train 2 stops to Harajuku to see some of the wonky fashion on the local teens, traversed up and down Omoto-sando Dori, got some coffee, and then came back to my house for more conversation. It was a gorgeous day for a walk in the sun! They gave me a beautiful photograph of a "Trumansburg garden," taken by local photographer Polly Joan. OUR photograph here shows how happy I am to be with them (and also a mountain of dirty laundry on my kitchen floor- we call it "Mount Washmore," a term I first heard from Karen Bartishevich!)

I gave Sarah a hug to be shared when she gets back, so if you want a hug from me, just ask her for one!

When Robin brought the forwarded mail home from work yesterday evening, I found a package from the middle school. It was a photo album with holiday wishes (and curses) from my dear colleagues at Tburg MS! I have been looking and looking at it. It makes me smile. It was a day filled with Trumansburg people and thoughts!

And now onto the salsa!

While I was out yesterday, Nathan made some salsa that was really delicious. It had a lot of chipotle pepper with adobo sauce flavor, fresh vegetables and was smoky and hot. He was so proud of it, he took some liberties with the salsa jar we had been using.

Finally Fuji!

Thursday we enjoyed taking the train to the Hakone region to see fickle Fuji. The day dawned clear and blue and chilly, so we knew it was the perfect day to try to see Fuji-san. We bought Hakone "Free Passes" for everyone and hopped on the first train car. In this picture, you can see Sandra photographing a little boy who was VERY excited to be in the front of the train. He was having a big time watching the train operator. It really is more exciting to be in the front, and Sandra and I were looking over the operator's shoulder for a long time, trying to figure out exactly how he was making the train start and stop. Apparently it takes 2 hands. Left hand for accelerating, and right hand for breaking. The trains that are NOT shinkansen (bullet) go around 65 miles per hour when they are really moving in the open straight stretches of track.

There was great excitement in our first car when Fuji finally came into view. Just about 2 hours after we started, we stopped. Robin bought bento boxes for lunch and we all hopped on a bus. Bentos are little disposable lunch boxes that are made of carefully crafted wood, and are filled with little samples of Japanese yummies. The bus took us up curvy, hairpin turns, up, up the side of a mountain, on narrow little roads. I was sitting directly in the middle of the very back of the bus, trying to eat my Japanese lunch while feeling like I was on a ride at Disney. It's pretty disorienting to be doing that while on the left side of the road. It was pretty scary- but in a good way.

Our day also included a cruise on a lake, a ride up the side of a mountain in a gondola, a ride back down part way in a cable car, and finally a train ride back home to Tokyo. Some of the things we saw yesterday included gorgeous views of Mount Fuji and the surrounding peaks, sulfurous, steaming pits, ancient giant cedar trees, pirate ships (har), Lake Ashi and happy families everywhere. The day was capped perfectly by a late dinner in a teeny tiny Indian restaurant right here near home. It felt exceedingly good to have the opportunity to walk to and from dinner. Our day was mostly spent in passive sightseeing ecstacy.

Some quirky Japanese highlights from the day:

At the top of the goldola ride, while viewing the steaming pits, (called "Hell Valley") we here treated to the lovely melody of Elton John's Can You Feel the Love Tonight, played by some tinkly little instrument. A weird juxtaposition. We got a snippet of it on video clip.

While waiting for our pirate ship to arrive to take us up the lake, we stopped for a treat. The girls had a sundae of sorts that included green tea icecream on top of sweetened red beans, with mochi on the side. Mochi is the pounded rice cake that is quite chewey and has little taste. Sandra and Claire popped the little mochi balls into their mouths at the same instant and immediately burst into giggles.

I realized that I have some basic understanding of Japanese because I could understand most of what the little adorable 2 year old was saying to his parents on the train. "Papa, Papa! Nan ji?"

"Papa, Papa, what time is it?" AND "Koko a doko?" "Where are we?"

So...I am at a Japanese level of a 2 year old!

Found a box of cookies that had the name "Crunky" on the front.

Now: enjoy the pics from Thursday!

Hakone Pics

Bento boxes on the bus
Our first glimpse of Fuji!


Nice fake pirate ship to take the sightseers up Lake Ashi