One Of The Reasons I Love Dogs

Here’s a little story I saw in my Lonely Planet guide and a picture I took of Hachiko’s statue in front of Shibuya Station:

"In the 1920’s a professor who taught at what is now Tokyo University kept a small Akita dog named Hachiko. Hachiko accompanied the professor to Shibuya Station every morning, then returned in the afternoons to await the professor’s arrival. One spring day in 1925, the professor died of a stroke while at the university and never came home. Hachiko continued to turn up a the station daily to wait for his master, until Hachiko’s own death 10 years later. The dog’s faithfulness touched the locals, who built a statue to honor his memory in the place where he died. Nowadays, Hachiko’s statue is a favorite meeting spot, so fittingly, he’s usually surrounded by people waiting for their someones."


Here's to you, Hachiko. May all of us, canine and human, take something from your example.

Tokyo Diary: Days 2 and 3

On my second full day in Tokyo I took a bicycle tour with a small group (one British couple a few years older than me and our guide, Ekiku). The ride started at 9am and went through a variety of neighborhoods, some of which I went to the previous day and some of which were new. It was a very enjoyable day, especially after the previous day spent on my own. Some of the highlights included:

1) Eating a tasty mochi sweet that Ekiku purchased at a fancy Japanese pastry shop while we sat in a park and watched some Japanese preschoolers play.
2) Riding through the sumo “stables” that are the training camps for sumo wrestlers. Unfortunately they were all at a tournament outside of Tokyo so we didn’t see any in the neighborhood, but it was still cool to see.
3) Picking out our lunch at a department store that had a food court in the basement. We chose pork buns, chicken skewers, chicken/rice balls, and dumplings. We also saw a $200 cantaloupe at the store. I didn’t know they existed, but they do. $200, I kid you not.
4) Eating our lunch at a park along the river and enjoying the sunshine.
5) Sitting in the grass and having a beer at a courtyard on the campus of Tokyo University.

After the bike trip ended, I walked around in Ginza a bit before heading to my hotel and getting cleaned up for dinner. Dinner at the New York Grill (the restaurant/bar that was made famous from Lost In Translation) was certainly memorable. It was a gorgeous night and the views were absolutely ridiculous—much better than they are even in the movie (note--the city view pic was not taken from the restaurant, it is just something I snapped from my hotel room). I have to say that Tokyo is much bigger than it felt when biking around the many backstreets that we rode during the day. There it seemed quiet and intimate, but from my restaurant view it was expansive. The city stretched on in all directions as far as I could see (and from the 52nd floor, I could see a long way) with no discernable breaks. The service during my meal was also pretty unbelievable—almost too good. I think if I were to drop my fork then someone would have been there to catch it before it hit the ground. Fortunately that opportunity never arose. As for my meal, here’s what I had:

Appetizer: Red wine soup with bacon, comte cheese, and a massive amount of black truffles
Dinner: Rotisserie duck with five spice
Sides: Duck fat french fries and green asparagus ragout with mushrooms

I considered topping the meal off with a $15,000 magnum of Screaming Eagle wine (which they had), but instead decided I was too full for that or even dessert (although I admittedly picked up a dark chocolate bar on the way back to my hotel). All in all, it was a delicious, albeit extremely overpriced, dinner.

For my last day here in Tokyo, I decided to hit a few final spots I hadn’t had time for previously. I first went to the Mori Art Museum, which is at the top of a 50ish-story building in the Roppongi neighborhood. Unfortunately, it was closed as they prepared for a new exhibition opening in a week. So instead I walked to Shibuya, which is where Tokyo’s Times Square is. Apparently it has the busiest street crossing in the world, and I don’t doubt it. Once through the sea of people, I walked around and did some minor shopping before heading on to the Meiji Jingu, which is a Shinto Shrine. It was unreal. Apparently, this shrine and the park that surrounds it was a gift from Emperor Meiji to his wife. And what a gift it was. I think this is probably my favorite urban park in the world (sorry Central Park and Hyde Park), although it is very different from my other favorites. They are still better for laying out, throwing the frisbee, or having a bbq. Meiji Jingu wins on the peaceful scale, however. The park has a huge path with several arch-type structures that you walk through en route to the shrine. What impressed me most, aside from the arches and shrine, were the gorgeous old trees that were everywhere. They completely shut out the noise of the city and created a wonderfully peaceful atmosphere. Apparently this park is also one of the best places to view Tokyo’s cherry blossoms, which should be blooming in about another week or two.

After the park, I had my final ramen (again, delicious) and then headed for the airport. After 3.5 days here, I have to say that Tokyo is certainly one of my very favorite big cities in the world. I still think London edges it out for me, but it is nipping it heels for sure. If you ever get the opportunity to go—take it.

Tokyo Diary: A Busy Day 1

Today was my only full day on my own (tomorrow is a biking tour with a small group, which should be great but won't be my own schedule) so I wanted to make the most of it. And looking back on it, I think I did.

I started off my morning by waking up at 6am with a plan of leaving the hotel promptly at 6:15 in order to get to the Tsukiji fish market. I left my hotel "promptly" at 6:30, but that was good enough. Or not good enough, since upon my arrival I discovered that the fish market was apparently not open today (my Lonely Planet guide conveniently says "closed on some Mondays and Wednesdays." SOME??). As I was walking dejectedly about the few stores that were open, however, I happened to notice a ramen shop and recognized the cooks from one of the photos on the NY Times Tokyo ramen guide I had seen online (given that I'd read up on ramen shops for about 3 hours prior to this trip, I should recognize something like that I guess). It was lucky and, as it turned out, very tasty as well. The ramen shop spoke no English but didn't need to, because they only served one dish anyhow (aren't those kind of places that serve one-and-only-one-thing always the best?). Anyhow, check out the NY Times pic and my pic--not too different, huh?

After the market and this glorious first bowl of ramen, I went on to the Hama-Rikyu-Teien garden, which I felt was the ultimate definition of "urban oasis." This epitome of Japanese gardening had 300-year-old pines and wild baby duck ponds and everything in between. I took a variety of pics to show the mix of nature and the surrounding big city, such as the one to the right.

I then went on to do some window shopping in Ginza, Tokyo's version of New York's 5th Avenue. Unfortunately, it was only 10:30 and most of the stores didn't open until 11. One of the larger (and more impressive) department stores was open, however, and I managed to go on a bit of a surprise shopping spree. After buying too much there, I planned to go to the Sony building (apparently it is pretty cool, with a variety of Sony products that include some which haven't been released for sale yet), but couldn't find the damn place--I must have still been delirious from my over-shopping. Instead of searching aimlessly, I went on to the Imperial Gardens. These gardens, which are in the center of Tokyo and contain Japan's White House as well as some gardens open to the public, were perfect for a stroll. I was particularly impressed my the massive moat and stone walls surrounding everything.

I continued walking north towards my next ramen of the day. Unfortunately, I couldn't find this spot either, but instead stumbled into a different noodle shop. It was 2pm by now and I'd been walking for several hours, so I jumped at the chance for more potentially delicious food. Delicious it was. It was a tiny spot with a few old people cooking behind the counter. When the lady motioned to me to order, I quickly found that we had a serious language barrier. One guy in line stepped up to help me and I ended up getting udon noodle soup and a mixture of tempura shrimp, fish, and eggplant. There was tons of writing on the wall that apparently represented things one could order, but as far as I could tell, the only decisions people made were udon or soba noodles and tempura in or next to their soup. The food was wonderful, and my English-speaking friend even brought salt over and told me to dip my tempura into it, which was a clutch call.

After all that walking and eating, I decided to go across town to a neighborhood the NY Times called Tokyo's hippest (and by hippest, I think they mean most Brooklyn-like) neighborhood. Nakameguro turned out to be amazing. Once there, my first stop was to have a dopio cappuccino at Madeline, a store that was really a big cappuccino maker in the back of a guy's car (he actually had to get into the back seat in order to use the machine and make drinks--so awesome). The spot looked just like what I had seen in the NY Times article. Check out our two pics--yes, theirs is more "professional" but mine is more authentic. Making it even more impressive was the Beagle that held court by howling down at us from his second floor balcony (PS--my first dog was a Beagle named Bagel--coincidence???).

After the cappuccino, I checked out the ridiculously overpriced and painfully cool Cow Books before doing more shopping at some equally overpriced and boutique-ishly cool stores in the area. At that point, I needed a break for some vino at one of the many cool local bars nearby. I have to say, Nakameguro is a great neighborhood. If I ever end up living in Tokyo for some reason then I hope to be in an area this cool.

I ended my evening by going to Sushi Sei, which took forever to find but was worth it. I was seated next to a couple Japanese businessmen, who almost immediately poured me a glass of their sake. This turned into a two-hour conversation with many more glasses of sake to go with my sushi. The conversation was filled with off-color remarks by the senior of the two businessmen who had drank too much sake, but was generally incredible. At some point our conversation ebbed and they went back to speaking together in Japanese. Soon after, a friendly English-speaker came across the bar and invited me to have a drink with him. He turned out to be a Canadian working with the government to promote Canadian food in Japan (apparently since the beef scare, many of the Asian countries have been incredibly reluctant to allow American and Canadian beef back into their countries--I had no idea). After a few beers and some good conversation, I ended my evening by returning to the hotel and writing this (exhaustive) post!

Now it is off to bed to rest up for my all-day bike tour of Tokyo's Sumo neighborhoods tomorrow--should be a heavy experience (boom).

Tokyo Diary: Day 0.5

I arrived in Tokyo earlier this afternoon (late enough that I don't feel I can justify calling this Day 1) on my final trip before heading back to Seoul and then on to America (wow--that's unreal). After getting settled in my clean-and-nice-and-convenient-but-unremarkable hotel, I quickly made two dinner reservations: one for tonight at Cha Cha Hana and one for Thursday night at the New York Grill (the place from Lost In Translation, which is supposed to be very good and have some of the best views of Tokyo). I then managed to navigate the labyrinthine, busy, clean, and quiet Tokyo subway system to the Shinjuku neighborhood. I had an hour or so until my dinner reservation so went to the Golden Gai, which are a collection of bars in Shinjuku crammed into some alleys, which are known for their diversity and size--they are tiny places, some only having room for a handful of drinkers. I went to one recommended by my Lonely Planet guide, which was not busy yet and interesting enough. After having a beer and watching the bartender/cook make dumplings in the smallest bar kitchen I've ever seen, I left and headed to my restaurant.

Cha Cha Hana was recommended as one of the top three places to dine at by the NY Times. It was also predictably hard to find (it is featured in a slide show and article title Hidden Tokyo: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/06/15/travel/20070617_TOKYO_SLIDESHOW_1.html), but I managed to stumble onto the place. Once there, I was escorted to my seat, which was happily at a bar-style table that actually faced an open kitchen. One of the many interesting things about this place was that the open kitchen area I faced, as well as the spot I was sitting at, were both sunken so when you walked up it looked like you were going to be in a low table even though you weren't (it also had heated floors, which were clutch since it is snowy tonight and everyone goes shoeless in the restaurant). Fortunately, they also had an English menu. The food was served in tapas-sized proportions, so I had five items and dessert (which was enough to fill me up but not overstuff me). The menu was impressive, so I wrote down the printed descriptions of each item:

1) Blanched avocado and boiled beans dressed in bean curd skin sashimi-style
2) Braised pork slices and "Arame" seaweed in sweet soy sauce [this dish also had slices of lotus root, which were tasty]
3) Salmon in sweet vinegar marinade
4) Tempura brown beech mushrooms
5) Grated Japanese yam and yolk grilled on "Tohban" pan and topped with dried bonito and radish buds
6) Dessert: Homemade "Warabi Mochi" dumplings with brown sugar syrup [this came accompanied with a delicious, bitter Japanese tea that cut through the sugary mochi very well]

Needless to say, this was a delicious meal. I wish a real foodie would have been there with me (Josh, you missed out) because it was a great experience. I also had a small bottle of warm sake with the meal, which was also quite enjoyable.

During dinner, I planned my schedule for tomorrow. It is going to start early--around 6am--at the big Tokyo fish market, which supposedly is an unmissable place. After getting some pics there, I am going to have sushi breakfast at a highly recommended place, then spend the afternoon doing a variety of things that include some Japanese gardens, window shopping in a mix of 5th Avenue as well as Brooklyn-esque places, having Ramen at least twice (I spent well over an hour researching the best places, and have a list of four that I need to hit before leaving), and going to a contemporary art museum that is related to the MOMA in New York and is on the 53rd floor of a building here. Should be a great day! Hopefully I'll have some cool pics and memories to blog about soon enough.

The Korean Bathhouse Experience

I had my friend Ray in town over the weekend. We had a great time and there are a variety of things I could blog about our trip. One event stands out above all others, however. The Korean Bathhouse. It actually took us a while to find a place, as the first one we went to (that was recommended by a 3-year-old guide we were using) was closed. Once we found a place, however, it met and exceeded all of our expectations (however good or bad they may have been). I don't think I can appropriately blog about all of it, as some things just don't come across fully in writing. But I at least want to hit the highlights.

First off, this Jam-jil-bang (as traditional Korean bathhouses are called) was divided into a few floors--entrance area, male floor, female floor, and a co-ed floor that had a dining hall, TV's, internet connections, etc. After getting checked in and paying only 10 dollars for the privilege of using the place (we had to pay more for massages, but everything else was included), we headed up and checked it out. The most obvious finding upon entering the male floor and checking out the locker area is that it was totally Korean--we were certainly the only Irish/British/American looking guys there. That was to be expected, however. The other clear fact was that jim-jil-bangs, as we read, are fully nude. You can only worry about that for so long, before you have to say "to hell with it" and disrobe. That actually wasn't too big of a deal, since everyone was bare. Once we got over that and entered the main sauna area, we saw there were a collection of about 5 small pools (or large hot tubs, depending on how you define them). Each had a different temperature reading and different minerals in the water. We hit most of them (some normal temp, some cool, and some that cooked you), before trying out the sauna rooms. They had two--one that was normal and one that was 91 degrees CELSIUS. For those that don't know the conversion, let's put it this way--your mom cooks her Thanksgiving turkey at about the same temperature. You could only handle that heat for about 5 minutes.

After getting enough of the pools/saunas, we decided to get massages. There was a group of tables in one part of the big room, so we signed up for something (I say "something" because wed didn't know what we were signing up for, given that everything was in Korean and nobody spoke English). It turned out that we signed up for massages and body scrubs. I think Ray's body scrub was fairly normal. Mine, however, was one of the more painful experiences of my life. My masseuse was putting both hands and all his force into this sandpaper tool he was using, and it was almost unbearable. Ray said after that he glanced over and saw little bits of skin go flying off of me, which i don't doubt at all. It was brutal. Fortunately, it only lasted about 15 minutes. He then gave me an oil massage which helped with the pain a bit.

Since I couldn't go into the baths after my body scrub for fear of passing out from excruciating pain, we decided to get cleaned up and have some Pocari Sweats (Asia's Gatorade) in the dining area.

All in all, it was a memorable and good experience. If it wouldn't have been for the body scrub, I would have thoroughly enjoyed it. My body is no longer too sensitive though, so I'm focusing on the good memories of the jim-jil-bang. Given that this was one of my last full days in Korea, I'm glad I got to experience this uniquely Korean place.

Beijing Journal, Days 3-4

Well, the next day’s adventures brought pretty much exactly what I expected. Our itinerary was to see Beijing for the day, and that’s what we did. More specifically, we weaved through traffic all day, stopping and exploring the good sites and generally having a good time. We stopped in at a local Chinese restaurant he knew and instead of trying to cheap me out on the meal, ordered a ridiculous feast for us that included chicken with peanuts, sauteed green vegetables (I think kale, but am uncertain), mushroom tempura, homemade Chinese potato chips that were amazing, mutton skewers, and pan-friend lamb dumplings (that was kind of his style. He figured that people were spending a lot of money on his tours—even saying he kind of felt bad because it was so expensive—so he made sure to treat you well. I loved his non-profit-driven approach to the experience, as it certainly made everything more enjoyable for me). Other events of the day included seeing Tiananmen Square, the Temple of Heaven, a school where Confucius taught, a place where I could buy more tea and be teased by the tea woman about how much I spent on tea at the airport the day before, a nighttime stop at the new Beijing Opera house (pictured), and several other spots. True to our non-touristy form, we also spent a good amount of time traveling through Hutongs, which are Chinese backstreets throughout Beijing. They were just barely wide enough for us to fit through and much more interesting/local than driving down the big, eight-lane streets of Beijing. At around 5pm I told him I wanted to grab a coffee and he took me to Maison Boulad (sp?), Daniel Boulad’s very high-end French restaurant (where he knew the manager, obviously). After chatting with his friend for a few minutes, our two cappuccinos came with papadams, two bowls of cashews, a selection of chocolates, and two orders of the most unbelievably tasty madelines I’ve ever had. I told him that French cappuccinos were much more filling than the ones I was used to, and it was totally hilarious. Hilarious. We then cruised town a bit more before making our nightly stop at a French bar (the French are always well-connected to each other when they live in non-French places it seems) where we cashed a few beers before he dropped me back at my hotel. All in all, the sidecar tour was awesome. For those that are in Beijing and don’t mind paying to throw caution to the wind and zip wildly through the streets of Beijing, I highly recommend it.

Today was a much more low-key day in Beijing. I slept in a bit and had to do some boring emails, etc, before heading out to see The Forbidden City. I thought it was pretty cool, but got annoyed by my broken audioguide and obnoxious tourists, so cut it off after an hour and a half and decided to have a late lunch before heading to the airport. And now, a mere six hours later (the whole trip, not just the flight) I’m back in Seoul and on the way home (going so slowly that sometimes I worry the driver may have fallen asleep at the wheel and allowed us to coast to a near standstill in light traffic). I’m only in Seoul for four days before heading to Tokyo, however. I’ve got an old friend coming into town tomorrow though, so hopefully we can make the most of the city on my last full weekend here. It’s hard to believe I’m only a little over a week away from heading back to the US.

Beijing Journal, Days 1-2

I am writing this entry on my way back from the Seoul airport, heading back to the apartment. This seems like as good a time as any to recount the events of the last few days, so here goes.

The trip to Beijing was pretty uneventful. I had a connecting flight through Dalian which, from what I could see (from my landing and views from the airport) looks like the most miserable place on earth. It is right on the water and it looks like all waterfront space is taken up by large coal-related factories, etc, that are loading up huge tankers (which are lined in the water like ducks, waiting to get filled up (what?)). The rest of Dalian was the largest collection of ugly apartment buildings I have ever seen. My guess is that the stretch I could see was 5 miles long and went inland for as far as I could tell. It was certainly the biggest mass of big apartments I’ve ever seen (and the most ugly, with the closest rival being some of the ones I’ve seen on the way into Hong Kong). I passed the time in Dalian by spending an hour at a rather nice airport tea shop, in which I sampled a fairly large number of teas that the tea lady was happy to let me taste (as well as some tea treats I’d never had, such as tea-soaked chocolate covered nuts and tea tomatoes). She apparently thought she could get me to buy a bunch of tea just by letting me taste it. She was right. It was overpriced, but I loved it. And bought too much of it.

Once I made it to the hotel, I went immediately to the restaurant that both TripAdvisor and the NYTimes rate as the best place to get Peking Duck in Beijing. It was trendy and expensive, but the roast duck was RIDICULOUS. Seriously, I have never tasted duck as good as this. The skin and layer of fat underneath were particularly unreal. They had coarse sugar to dip it in, which was pretty much ideal. I don’t understand how duck fat could get this juicy and tasty. Each bite was a big duck explosion in my mouth (I had to put that line in there, knowing that only a one-letter typo could completely change the context of my entire message).

Day 2 of the trip began my journey with Gael, the French guide who would be escorting me to the Great Wall. He picked me up promptly at 9:45 (on an expected arrival of 9:30) and we took off. I have to say, this was an awesome way to see the city (and countryside, as we left Beijing and headed for the Wall).sidecar was completely in the air and he was holding the thing in a sideways lean (I’m pretty sure Indiana Jones does that in one of his movies). He did that (and the sliding in the snow stuff) at every practical opportunity and, while ridiculously unnecessary and dangerous, it was a blast.

When we actually made it to the Great Wall, we did so by leaving the bike at some friend’s house in a tiny village that was in the middle of nowhere. We then hiked up a trail in the hills to the Wall and hiked the wall for about 3 hours, stopping one important time for a French picnic of roast pork that he made the night before, baguette, salad, potatoes, cheese, and (obviously) red wine. Once we hiked back and were climbing onto the bike for the ride back he said something like “hey, why don’t we stop by this hot spring I know and have some beers.” Here’s the way my mind worked on that one.

Thoughts racing through my head:
“But you’re driving a motorcyc--”
“I don’t have a bathi--”
“What are we gonna w--”
“Don’t we have to get b--”

What I actually said:
“Sure.”

The hot spring turned out to be at a weird suburban development, but the water was hot, we had some bathing suits (he picked up a couple on the way at a cheap shop), and the guy brought us two huge beers each. I know, you’re thinking “But David, is is smart for a tour guide driving a motorcycle to drink two large beers while sitting in a really hot hot spring for an hour?” My response to that is “Hmm, well when did you go and become Captain Logical all of a sudden? Maybe you should put yourself in the shoes of a French motorcycle/sidecar driving tour guide and I think you may see things differently. Boom.”

Once we got into Beijing, we decided to stop by a French bar/restaurant that a friend of his manages and had three more drinks each, before his wife called to tell him it was 9pm and he should come home. So he dropped me off and did. It is probably worth noting that the web site says this all-day adventure goes from 9:30am to about 4:30pm. It was clear that I had a special guide on my hands, so as I went back to the hotel and crashed, I looked forward to what the next day’s adventures would bring.