My flight to Toronto leaves from Hong Kong which is why I spent the night at my Uncle's in Tai Koo.
In the morning, we had breakfast in a tiny store near his apartment. Ramen with ham, and a piece of toast and fried eggs for me. I never really developed a taste for these noodles and didn't eat a single packet in university. They say it's so different and so much better in Japan. The Hong Kong slang for a coffee with no cream is tsai fe, or, "vegetarian coffee".
There's in-town check-in for luggage, at the Hong Kong and Kowloon MTR stations. Very convenient as my flight was for the afternoon and I was able to drop off my big suitcase and pick up my boarding pass.
We checked out the restaurant supply street, Shanghai Street, in Yau Ma Tei. Aside from the usual things, my uncle wanted to show me the vegetable cutters. You know how some stir fries have carrot or ginger slices in the shapes of butterflies or fish or the Chinese character for fortune? It turns out they're not laboriously carved by hand as I thought, but stamped from sharp metal cutters.
Lunch was at a fish ball noodle place, where I tried some stuffed beef balls and a drink of chrysanthemum and honey.
Well, that's it for my whirlwind trip. I've been away for a long time and it will be nice to come home. There's things I won't miss here, like the humidity and crowds, but I will miss the glorious food and superb public transit.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Monday, July 24, 2006
The journey home
Well, I'm leaving Tokyo this afternoon for an overnight stay in Hong Kong. Of course, I couldn't leave without having a sushi breakfast so I went down to Tsukiji in search of Sushi Say. I was only armed with a business card in Kanji and the knowledge that the last character in the name is the Chinese character for "fresh" or "clear". It wasn't hard to find, although I didn't realize they had two locations on the same street. One was marked with the Chinese character for "new" and was the newer branch, Sinkan, while the original one was the Honten, where I ate.
I splurged on their most expensive omakase set, a selection of sashimi and sushi. At 08:30, there were only a few other businessmen and myself, a much more relaxing atmosphere than the rush of Saturday morning. My sushi chef set to slice and arrange my items on a plate. Highlights from the sashimi included the scallop (so sweet), tuna (meltingly tender) and mackerel (delicious with the grated ginger and scallion). Once I cleared that plate, the chef started making my sushi. They're very generous with the ikura (salmon egg) and uni (sea urchin) pieces. The anago (sea eel) was tasty, but not as good as at Sushi-bun.
To get to the airport, I ended up riding the JR Narita Express again as I was running late. I didn't realize about the slower train on the JR Sobu line, and the Keisei Limited Express, which leaves from Ueno.
You could spend weeks in Tokyo exploring the neighbourhoods and restaurants, it's just so big. A few random things that were on my list I didn't get to see/do, for next time (whenever that is):
Plus, of course, all the other cities in Japan, easily accessible by Shinkansen.
I splurged on their most expensive omakase set, a selection of sashimi and sushi. At 08:30, there were only a few other businessmen and myself, a much more relaxing atmosphere than the rush of Saturday morning. My sushi chef set to slice and arrange my items on a plate. Highlights from the sashimi included the scallop (so sweet), tuna (meltingly tender) and mackerel (delicious with the grated ginger and scallion). Once I cleared that plate, the chef started making my sushi. They're very generous with the ikura (salmon egg) and uni (sea urchin) pieces. The anago (sea eel) was tasty, but not as good as at Sushi-bun.To get to the airport, I ended up riding the JR Narita Express again as I was running late. I didn't realize about the slower train on the JR Sobu line, and the Keisei Limited Express, which leaves from Ueno.
You could spend weeks in Tokyo exploring the neighbourhoods and restaurants, it's just so big. A few random things that were on my list I didn't get to see/do, for next time (whenever that is):
- restaurants: izakaya, yakitori, okonomiyaki, Kitchen Shunju, conveyor belt sushi, ...
- neighbourhoods: Shinjuku
- sights: Hakone Glass Forest, Ghibli Museum
- foods: yuzu, more depachika
Plus, of course, all the other cities in Japan, easily accessible by Shinkansen.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
The Hills are alive with the sound of money
Last full day in Tokyo. Started by getting off Meiji-jingu-mae subway station and walking along the long tree-lined path to Meiji-jingu shrine. Even early in the morning, the main shrine building was crawling with tourists. 
Parts of it were closed off and I'm told it's often used for weddings. There was a huge display of sake barrels along the path, I wonder what they are for? If you have time, there is a huge garden nearby that is said to be quite beautiful, especially in summer.It was still too early to see the display of street fashion at the bridge near the station, so I walked south along Omotesando-dori. Along the way, I saw this street performer who was doing an incredible trick involving a floppy cardboard character. It danced on the street while he walked around. When he said "Jump!", it jumped. When he said, "Play dead!", it dropped to the ground. When he mimed cutting an invisible string above the character, it fell over. Many people were dumbfounded and walked away in disbelief, while others forked over the 3000 yen to buy the figure and presumably the secret. Now that I think about it, there might have been someone in the audience helping him. Anyway, the mystery remains.
YouTube link
YouTube link
Had lunch at Maisen (English review here), a tonkatsu restaurant. Big lineup, but a single seat at the front counter came fairly quickly. Ordered a standard pork cutlet set lunch. Nice variety of condiments including fresh lemon, mustard, worcestershire sauce (?), tonkatsu sauce and seasoning salts and herbs.
Retraced my steps and walked north along Omotesando-dori. Dropped into Oriental Bazaar, a souvenir shop popular with tourists. Roll-your-eyes stuff like T-shirts with annotated sushi items on them. But apparently a good place to get reasonably priced kimonos or yukatas. I found some decent chiyogami here. Braved the noisy crowds at Kiddy Land and spent some time browsing toys. 
There were these neat modular cubic toys with an LCD screen and connectors on all sides that do different things when connected to other, similar cubes. Very high kawaii (cuteness) factor here, especially on the "girls'" floors. Farther up the street, could only tolerate a few minutes on the main floor of Laforet.Wishful thinking: I hope my (future) daughter does not get caught up in fashion.
Inside Omotesando Hills, I wandered all the floors along the gently sloping walkways and had a tea and snack at R Style. Was given a "shooter" of plum-flavoured water in a beautiful opaque pale green shot glass, nice touch. You know it's a destination when there's a brochure called "Gourmet Guide | Beauty Guide" that lists all the restaurants and salons in the mall. In the basement, there's a very cool wine tasting bar called Bisty's which lets you buy a prepaid card then go up to bottles of wine behind glass with a spout attached. Press the button for the amount you want and it fills up your glass. There's a rinsing station and a sitting area that serves light accompaniments.It would be awesome to inline skate inside Omotesando Hills.
The fashion scene is on full display at the bridge near the subway station in Harajuku on a Sunday. I knew this ahead of time which is why I timed my visit to be on this day. Tourists snapped photos of, and with, the outlandishly dressed teenage girls (and a few guys too). Apparently, many parents do not know of their offspring's fashion choices, so there were more than a few toting luggage containing their "regular" clothes.
Next stop was Roppongi Hills, a huge planned megacomplex of shopping malls, residential highrises, hotel, TV studio, cinema and more. Walked through the Mohri Garden and the confusing layout of the mall. Went to the Mori Art Museum in the big tower and took in their modern African art exhibition. Mostly large-scale video installations including one of a video screen of a guy playing a tabla in front of a hundred, smaller drums. The sound shifted back and forth between the screen and the instruments on the floor. But, on the whole, the exhibition was too modern and slightly disturbing for my taste.
It was too cloudy and too late to see the sunset from Tokyo City View but the nighttime skyline is still breathtaking. From the 52nd floor you can see the whole city. It's not as distinctive as the Hong Kong skyline, but still impressive. 
Hadn't had dinner yet, and the restaurant was packed earlier, so I went to Toraya Café a half hour before closing. Meal options were slim so I had a cold squash soup with soda bread (buckwheat, adzuki bean, walnut) and goat cheese spread, followed by a dessert sampler plate. Wow. Some of the most interesting cakes I've ever had, and they were all made with white or red adzuki bean paste. I bought a jar of an paste to take home, and a pricey loaf of one of the cakes so that I can reverse engineer this wonderful confection.
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Tsukiji, Sweets Forest, tofu
My alarm went off at 03:30: I'm going on a behind the scenes Tsukiji fish market tour! Fortunately, the meeting place was a minute walk from the Presso Inn so I didn't have to take a taxi (subways aren't running yet). There were two other German tourists, along with the two guides.
After a brief stop at a shrine, we walked through the external market area. The energy level is quite high for this time of morning: workers were zipping around in these motorized cargo movers, forklifts and scooters. They criss-crossed the narrow streets and laneways while my guides nonchalantly walked in front of them, often missing getting hit by inches.
As we entered the refrigerated buildings where inspections of fish and other seafood were being done, I could not believe the sheer size and number of fish that I saw neatly arranged on the floor. There were people dumping hot water to soften the tails, others using axes and knives to cut them open, men painting ID numbers on the tuna, and buyers using flashlights to inspect the meat.
We were able to watch several auctions of tuna and other seafood. Some are held with middlemen buyers standing or sitting while the fresh tuna auction is done by walking around the actual fish. An old-fashioned handbell signals the start of the auction: hand signs are used to indicate numbers and the whole thing is over quite quickly.
After the auction is over, workers use big hooks to pull the giant tuna onto carts to transport them onto trucks. Some of the butchering is done in the outer area. Here, the president of the middlemen association is using a big saw to behead and then cut the fish up.
The tour isn't cheap, but I don't think you can see half as much as what we did without a knowledgeable guide. Most of the tourists showed up around 06:00 when all the auctions are over (many ignoring the prohibition against flash photography, which can startle the workers wielding very sharp tools). We walked right into buildings that said "Authorized Personnel Only" and we had no trouble wandering into all areas, getting shown an octopus in a big lifted out of a styrofoam container or chatting with a seller who showed us various kinds of shrimp. It helps to know where to stand and how not to get in the way. Nakamura-san and Yoshino-san are quite knowledeable, answering all my questions and were great to talk to.
Of course, the only way to cap off such an exciting excursion is to have breakfast at a sushi bar. I skipped past Sushi Daiwa, as the lineup was enormous, and went to one of the places my guides recommended, Sushi-bun. There was a small lineup but I was seated within 15 minutes. It's very tiny, maybe a dozen seats at a bar; you even have to put the warm towel underneath the counter on a ledge. I ordered the mid-priced omakase set and the chefs set to work preparing the sushi and placing them on a leaf in front of you. Everyone else was using their hands to eat, which was definitely a lot easier than trying to pick each item up with chopsticks. My favourite was the anago, a tender sea eel brushed with housemade sweet sauce; the chef even told me not to dip this one in soy sauce.
Back at the inn, I took a nap and decided to take it easy for the rest of the day as my feet and legs have been really feeling the effects of all the walking I've been doing the last week. I took the subway to Shibuya station, then switched to a train on the Tokyu Toyoko Line to get to Jiyugaoka station.
A note about narrow field of vision: I mistakenly bought a round trip ticket to Yokohama (520 yen) because I didn't see the adjacent map showing what the actual cost was from Shibuya to Jiyugaoka. One suggestion I've read is to just buy the cheapest ticket so you can get on the train, then at your destination, use a fare adjustment machine to calculate the actual cost and pay the difference.
If you go to Tokyo and need to find an address, I highly recommend bringing along a map like "Tokyo City Atlas: A Bilingual Guide" published by Kodansha or "Tokyo Metropolitan Atlas" published by Shobunsha. I bought the latter on the Japanese bookstore floor of Sogo in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Both help you navigate the incredibly confusing address system.
Jiyugaoka Sweets Forest (2-25-7 Midorigaoka, Meguro-ku) is a themed dessert destination with a whole floor outfitted in fake trees and recorded bird chirps. The entire La Coeur building is food-related with a Williams-Sonoma-like store on the ground level, the Sweets Forest floor, and then more restaurants on the upper patio level. The most popular shop was one selling custom-made ice cream with your choice of mixins. 
The cakes and chocolate stores didn't interest me (!) but I did sit down to enjoy a superb soufflé at Le Soufflé. They make them to order so there's a 20-30 minute wait. By the way, skip the tea (600 yen): it was possibly the worst cuppa I've ever had in a restaurant. I watched the two chefs making the souffles: they whip the egg whites in a small Kitchenaid mixer, then hand beat it with a premade yolk mixture. They didn't seem too careful with folding everything in, they must have beat it vigorously for about two minutes. The batter went into greased and sugar-dusted ramekins and into a hot oven. English writeup here
In the evening, I had dinner at the Ginza branch of Umenohana (it's in the building next to the big ABC Mart). The restaurant is very spacious, taking up the entire floor of a building, and is what one thinks of as "Japanese": water trickling over rocks, paper sliding doors, wood everywhere. The 4500 yen set dinner I had included 13 different items, most made with tofu or yuba (tofu skin). Highly recommended.
I wish I could have taken home the frozen shumai dumplings they were selling out front, worth the price of admission alone.
Afterwards, I dropped into the flagship store of Muji, as I liked the little outlet I went to in Hong Kong. The first floor is like a Future Shop meets Toys R Us. The second floor is a weird hybrid of IKEA rolled with Old Navy and Staples: I saw clothes, desk organizers, an optician, seamstress and cafeteria. More furniture on the third floor. There were no labels on anything. Great store.
After a brief stop at a shrine, we walked through the external market area. The energy level is quite high for this time of morning: workers were zipping around in these motorized cargo movers, forklifts and scooters. They criss-crossed the narrow streets and laneways while my guides nonchalantly walked in front of them, often missing getting hit by inches. As we entered the refrigerated buildings where inspections of fish and other seafood were being done, I could not believe the sheer size and number of fish that I saw neatly arranged on the floor. There were people dumping hot water to soften the tails, others using axes and knives to cut them open, men painting ID numbers on the tuna, and buyers using flashlights to inspect the meat. We were able to watch several auctions of tuna and other seafood. Some are held with middlemen buyers standing or sitting while the fresh tuna auction is done by walking around the actual fish. An old-fashioned handbell signals the start of the auction: hand signs are used to indicate numbers and the whole thing is over quite quickly. After the auction is over, workers use big hooks to pull the giant tuna onto carts to transport them onto trucks. Some of the butchering is done in the outer area. Here, the president of the middlemen association is using a big saw to behead and then cut the fish up. The tour isn't cheap, but I don't think you can see half as much as what we did without a knowledgeable guide. Most of the tourists showed up around 06:00 when all the auctions are over (many ignoring the prohibition against flash photography, which can startle the workers wielding very sharp tools). We walked right into buildings that said "Authorized Personnel Only" and we had no trouble wandering into all areas, getting shown an octopus in a big lifted out of a styrofoam container or chatting with a seller who showed us various kinds of shrimp. It helps to know where to stand and how not to get in the way. Nakamura-san and Yoshino-san are quite knowledeable, answering all my questions and were great to talk to. Of course, the only way to cap off such an exciting excursion is to have breakfast at a sushi bar. I skipped past Sushi Daiwa, as the lineup was enormous, and went to one of the places my guides recommended, Sushi-bun. There was a small lineup but I was seated within 15 minutes. It's very tiny, maybe a dozen seats at a bar; you even have to put the warm towel underneath the counter on a ledge. I ordered the mid-priced omakase set and the chefs set to work preparing the sushi and placing them on a leaf in front of you. Everyone else was using their hands to eat, which was definitely a lot easier than trying to pick each item up with chopsticks. My favourite was the anago, a tender sea eel brushed with housemade sweet sauce; the chef even told me not to dip this one in soy sauce.Back at the inn, I took a nap and decided to take it easy for the rest of the day as my feet and legs have been really feeling the effects of all the walking I've been doing the last week. I took the subway to Shibuya station, then switched to a train on the Tokyu Toyoko Line to get to Jiyugaoka station.
A note about narrow field of vision: I mistakenly bought a round trip ticket to Yokohama (520 yen) because I didn't see the adjacent map showing what the actual cost was from Shibuya to Jiyugaoka. One suggestion I've read is to just buy the cheapest ticket so you can get on the train, then at your destination, use a fare adjustment machine to calculate the actual cost and pay the difference.
If you go to Tokyo and need to find an address, I highly recommend bringing along a map like "Tokyo City Atlas: A Bilingual Guide" published by Kodansha or "Tokyo Metropolitan Atlas" published by Shobunsha. I bought the latter on the Japanese bookstore floor of Sogo in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Both help you navigate the incredibly confusing address system.
Jiyugaoka Sweets Forest (2-25-7 Midorigaoka, Meguro-ku) is a themed dessert destination with a whole floor outfitted in fake trees and recorded bird chirps. The entire La Coeur building is food-related with a Williams-Sonoma-like store on the ground level, the Sweets Forest floor, and then more restaurants on the upper patio level. The most popular shop was one selling custom-made ice cream with your choice of mixins. The cakes and chocolate stores didn't interest me (!) but I did sit down to enjoy a superb soufflé at Le Soufflé. They make them to order so there's a 20-30 minute wait. By the way, skip the tea (600 yen): it was possibly the worst cuppa I've ever had in a restaurant. I watched the two chefs making the souffles: they whip the egg whites in a small Kitchenaid mixer, then hand beat it with a premade yolk mixture. They didn't seem too careful with folding everything in, they must have beat it vigorously for about two minutes. The batter went into greased and sugar-dusted ramekins and into a hot oven. English writeup here In the evening, I had dinner at the Ginza branch of Umenohana (it's in the building next to the big ABC Mart). The restaurant is very spacious, taking up the entire floor of a building, and is what one thinks of as "Japanese": water trickling over rocks, paper sliding doors, wood everywhere. The 4500 yen set dinner I had included 13 different items, most made with tofu or yuba (tofu skin). Highly recommended. I wish I could have taken home the frozen shumai dumplings they were selling out front, worth the price of admission alone.
Afterwards, I dropped into the flagship store of Muji, as I liked the little outlet I went to in Hong Kong. The first floor is like a Future Shop meets Toys R Us. The second floor is a weird hybrid of IKEA rolled with Old Navy and Staples: I saw clothes, desk organizers, an optician, seamstress and cafeteria. More furniture on the third floor. There were no labels on anything. Great store.
Friday, July 21, 2006
Ueno, Asakusa, Kitchen Town, depachika
Subway stations have signs that implicitly tell you not to give up hope, as they display the distance you still have to go, e.g. Chiyoda Line 240m. I like that the maps gray out the part of the line that you cannot get to from a particular side of the platform, and that the stations are numbered and indicate how many minutes away they are. Small things but very useful.
It's raining again on Friday. I dropped by a Lawson's drug store this morning to try and get a ticket to go to the Ghibli Museum on the weekend. A clerk helped me use the Loppi terminal but we discovered they were all sold out for Saturday and Sunday. They're not exaggerating when they say you should buy tickets weeks in advance.
First stop today was Ueno Park which houses a zoo and a lot of cultural buildings like art galleries and museums. I loosely followed the Lonely Planet writeup and went to the pond, some shrines and a peace memorial, before seeking shelter in the National Museum of Western Art. 
A worthwhile visit, lots of minor Impressionist and Renaissance paintings, a bunch of castings of Rodin sculptures and a wing of modern art. This was my favourite.
Back at Ueno Station, I explored the Ameyayokocho shopping area which seemed to grow out of the elevated railway tracks. Every vendor yells out what I assume are special deals or enticing banter to get you to buy something. It's very noisy.
Back on the subway to get to Asakusa station where I walked up Nakamise-dori to get to Sensoji and wandered around some of the shrines. From there, I used Lonely Planet Tokyo again which described a walking tour of the Shitamachi area. I was also excited about seeing the Chingodo-ji with the sculptures of raccoon dogs with giant testicles. The real thing was very low key though. However, it gave me an excuse to have lunch at nearby Daikokuya, a tendon (tempura and rice) restaurant recommended in the book.
I skipped the detour to Rokku and went straight down to Kaminarimon-dori where I spent an hour at the Drum Museum. It's basically a very big room with exhibits of drums and percussion instruments from around the world. Eerily quiet, as I was the only one there (they had to turn the light on for me) gingerly banging away on what looked like very old animal skins.
From there, I went up and down Kappabashi-dori checking out stores of "Kitchen Town" which is filled with restaurant supply outlets. Lots of baking items like cake decorating supplies, cake rings and tart molds and I even picked up a German cane brotform. You can buy raw ingredients like miso, pickles, chocolate and wheat flours. You can buy square turquoise glass plates, disposable chopsticks and lidded takeout containers. You can buy neon signs, sandwich boards and deep fryers. You can even buy "do not eat" packets of dessicant.
For dinner, I went to the main branch of Mitsukoshi in Nihonbashi and was awestruck by the depachika (department store food hall). Stalls had everything from freshly made gyoza to French chocolates to kimchee to bento boxes to ultra-expensive gift boxes of fruit (thousands of yen for a canteloupe). So much choice, but my ankles are getting weak. I picked up this box for dinner.
Tried to get to bed early tonight, but I discovered the wireless Internet in the lobby.
It's raining again on Friday. I dropped by a Lawson's drug store this morning to try and get a ticket to go to the Ghibli Museum on the weekend. A clerk helped me use the Loppi terminal but we discovered they were all sold out for Saturday and Sunday. They're not exaggerating when they say you should buy tickets weeks in advance.
First stop today was Ueno Park which houses a zoo and a lot of cultural buildings like art galleries and museums. I loosely followed the Lonely Planet writeup and went to the pond, some shrines and a peace memorial, before seeking shelter in the National Museum of Western Art. A worthwhile visit, lots of minor Impressionist and Renaissance paintings, a bunch of castings of Rodin sculptures and a wing of modern art. This was my favourite. Back at Ueno Station, I explored the Ameyayokocho shopping area which seemed to grow out of the elevated railway tracks. Every vendor yells out what I assume are special deals or enticing banter to get you to buy something. It's very noisy. Back on the subway to get to Asakusa station where I walked up Nakamise-dori to get to Sensoji and wandered around some of the shrines. From there, I used Lonely Planet Tokyo again which described a walking tour of the Shitamachi area. I was also excited about seeing the Chingodo-ji with the sculptures of raccoon dogs with giant testicles. The real thing was very low key though. However, it gave me an excuse to have lunch at nearby Daikokuya, a tendon (tempura and rice) restaurant recommended in the book. I skipped the detour to Rokku and went straight down to Kaminarimon-dori where I spent an hour at the Drum Museum. It's basically a very big room with exhibits of drums and percussion instruments from around the world. Eerily quiet, as I was the only one there (they had to turn the light on for me) gingerly banging away on what looked like very old animal skins.
From there, I went up and down Kappabashi-dori checking out stores of "Kitchen Town" which is filled with restaurant supply outlets. Lots of baking items like cake decorating supplies, cake rings and tart molds and I even picked up a German cane brotform. You can buy raw ingredients like miso, pickles, chocolate and wheat flours. You can buy square turquoise glass plates, disposable chopsticks and lidded takeout containers. You can buy neon signs, sandwich boards and deep fryers. You can even buy "do not eat" packets of dessicant. For dinner, I went to the main branch of Mitsukoshi in Nihonbashi and was awestruck by the depachika (department store food hall). Stalls had everything from freshly made gyoza to French chocolates to kimchee to bento boxes to ultra-expensive gift boxes of fruit (thousands of yen for a canteloupe). So much choice, but my ankles are getting weak. I picked up this box for dinner.Tried to get to bed early tonight, but I discovered the wireless Internet in the lobby.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Ginza, pastries, Electric Town
The nice thing about using the rail pass to book tickets is that if you miss your train, you can just reserve a seat on the next one. My journey from Kyoto to Tokyo this morning began with an embarassing accident involving my just-purchased ekiben lunch box, my camera, a tiny seat tray and a resulting empty stomach.
I'm staying in the Presso Inn Higashi-Ginza which is steps from the Tsukiji fish market which I hope will be one of the highlights of Tokyo for me. After dropping my luggage off, I walked up Harumi-dori through Ginza. My first stop was at the Nissan Gallery, where they displayed this classic Datsun car. There isn't much to this "gallery", just a promotion about road trip tunes over the decades and a boutique selling branded merchandise.
Further up the street, I checked out the Sony Building which features several slick and glittery levels of hands-on toying around with their latest and upcoming products. Check out the second floor where the cameras are: you can pop in your memory card into one of their pro-model printers and get a super-fast print of one of your photos.
While looking for a pastry shop a coworker's acquaintance recommended, I stumbled into Paper Place, a sparsely furnished showroom of colourful papers. They had a display of incredible, textured and raised inkjet printouts that seemed almost like papier-mache.
Qu'il fait bon (2-4-5 Ginza, Chuo-ku) didn't have a name out front but there was no mistaking this was a high-end sweets store. Shelves of packaged cakes, tarts, jams, teas and cookies lined one wall with a pastry case along the other side. There was a 20 minute to eat in the cafe, so I managed to order a slice of peach bavarois (Y680!) from one of the shopgirls. Notes about the packaging: there was a frozen gel pack enclosed to keep it cold; a styrofoam tube to keep the cardboard from getting crushed; separate paper bag for the fork and napkin. Two blocks away, I was startled by one of the employees who had followed me and wanted to know if she could assist me with directions!
Next stop was a pilgrimage to the Hotel New Otani (4-1 Kioi-cho, Chiyoda-ku). I've never had Pierre Herme's desserts before, but knew that a cafe in Japan sold them. I took the JR Yamanote line from Yurakucho to Akihabara, then switched to the JR Sobu line from Akihabara to Yotsuya (several subway stops are closer to the hotel but I wanted to use the train). From the station, I went out the east exit then followed a path past Sophia University. The hotel is really ugly; they're doing renovations right now, but it looks like they're just slapping some glass on top of the existing exterior. Next to the lobby, Cafe Satsuki served a Y1680 tea and cake set which featured desserts from the Herme boutique next door. 
Unfortunately, I was underwhelmed by the available selection: I chose a layered chocolate/coffee cake (nice thin cake layers and rich flavours) and a strawberry shortcake. I also took the opportunity to eat the cake I bought from Qu'il fait bon: delicate cream filling, sweet white peach topping and a baumkuchen outer layer. Back in the retail area, I bought two more pastries to try at home.
As it was nearing sunset, I went back to Akihabara to walk around Electric Town. I was amazed by the specificity of some of the smaller stores: ham radios, security cameras, electric circuit components, batteries, telescopes, laptop computers, cables, manga, etc.
On my way home, I had dinner in the basement of Ginza Core where I mistakenly walked into a restaurant serving European food. The bouillabaisse risotto I had was an interesting take on the two dishes, more of a soup with rice.
I'm staying in the Presso Inn Higashi-Ginza which is steps from the Tsukiji fish market which I hope will be one of the highlights of Tokyo for me. After dropping my luggage off, I walked up Harumi-dori through Ginza. My first stop was at the Nissan Gallery, where they displayed this classic Datsun car. There isn't much to this "gallery", just a promotion about road trip tunes over the decades and a boutique selling branded merchandise.Further up the street, I checked out the Sony Building which features several slick and glittery levels of hands-on toying around with their latest and upcoming products. Check out the second floor where the cameras are: you can pop in your memory card into one of their pro-model printers and get a super-fast print of one of your photos.
While looking for a pastry shop a coworker's acquaintance recommended, I stumbled into Paper Place, a sparsely furnished showroom of colourful papers. They had a display of incredible, textured and raised inkjet printouts that seemed almost like papier-mache. Qu'il fait bon (2-4-5 Ginza, Chuo-ku) didn't have a name out front but there was no mistaking this was a high-end sweets store. Shelves of packaged cakes, tarts, jams, teas and cookies lined one wall with a pastry case along the other side. There was a 20 minute to eat in the cafe, so I managed to order a slice of peach bavarois (Y680!) from one of the shopgirls. Notes about the packaging: there was a frozen gel pack enclosed to keep it cold; a styrofoam tube to keep the cardboard from getting crushed; separate paper bag for the fork and napkin. Two blocks away, I was startled by one of the employees who had followed me and wanted to know if she could assist me with directions! Next stop was a pilgrimage to the Hotel New Otani (4-1 Kioi-cho, Chiyoda-ku). I've never had Pierre Herme's desserts before, but knew that a cafe in Japan sold them. I took the JR Yamanote line from Yurakucho to Akihabara, then switched to the JR Sobu line from Akihabara to Yotsuya (several subway stops are closer to the hotel but I wanted to use the train). From the station, I went out the east exit then followed a path past Sophia University. The hotel is really ugly; they're doing renovations right now, but it looks like they're just slapping some glass on top of the existing exterior. Next to the lobby, Cafe Satsuki served a Y1680 tea and cake set which featured desserts from the Herme boutique next door. Unfortunately, I was underwhelmed by the available selection: I chose a layered chocolate/coffee cake (nice thin cake layers and rich flavours) and a strawberry shortcake. I also took the opportunity to eat the cake I bought from Qu'il fait bon: delicate cream filling, sweet white peach topping and a baumkuchen outer layer. Back in the retail area, I bought two more pastries to try at home. As it was nearing sunset, I went back to Akihabara to walk around Electric Town. I was amazed by the specificity of some of the smaller stores: ham radios, security cameras, electric circuit components, batteries, telescopes, laptop computers, cables, manga, etc. On my way home, I had dinner in the basement of Ginza Core where I mistakenly walked into a restaurant serving European food. The bouillabaisse risotto I had was an interesting take on the two dishes, more of a soup with rice.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Warning, walking tour, more temples, kaiseki
A word of warning to anyone booking hotel reservations through Precision Reservations. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I was unable to book a hotel early enough for Kyoto around July 17 and spent a lot of time searching online the week before. I made a reservation for a hotel via Precision Reservations but careful reading of the "confirmation" e-mails revealed that they had merely received my booking request and didn't secure a room for me. As it was for a booking less than 7 days in the future, they also needed my credit card number. However, their network was unable to give me up-to-date status information about room availability at the hotel I chose. I ended up cancelling as I was able to book a room at a different hotel.
Today (a week or so later), I received an e-mail saying that last-minute cancellations are charged a fee of one night! Apparently, this was in the fine print that I didn't read.
That's ridiculous. I suppose this is my own fault, but nowadays, any online reservation system that can't give you up-to-the-minute availability information is not worth the hassle.
I went on the Johnnie Hillwalker tour today. He's a local who gives guided walking tours of non-touristy places in Kyoto. Our group visited a lot of smaller Shinto shrines, neighbourhood artisans and the history of many streets and stores, e.g. we saw the original Nintendo office which used to make cardboard Japanese game cards. My only complaints were a large Spanish family who talked loudly throughout the whole tour (YMMV, of course) and the amount of time spent at some of the shrines (I'm not all that interested in Johnnie's family). There's several other accounts of this tour here and here.
Afterwards, I walked up to Kiyomizudera, a popular tourist site. The main hall has a huge balcony that is built over the hill and has nice views of Tokyo. There's also a waterfall that many people like to drink from.
Then, I walked back down the hill and found the steps marking the beginning of Sannenzaka a stone-paved path that leads to Maruyama Park. Lots of smaller vendors here too.
At night, I had a kaiseki dinner served to me in my room at the ryokan. Over a dozen beautiful small dishes of vegetables and fish in various preparations. I wished that they would have a description of all of the plates, but I suppose part of the appeal is that you get something different each time. My Flickr stream has more closeup photos of all the dishes.
Today (a week or so later), I received an e-mail saying that last-minute cancellations are charged a fee of one night! Apparently, this was in the fine print that I didn't read.
That's ridiculous. I suppose this is my own fault, but nowadays, any online reservation system that can't give you up-to-the-minute availability information is not worth the hassle.
I went on the Johnnie Hillwalker tour today. He's a local who gives guided walking tours of non-touristy places in Kyoto. Our group visited a lot of smaller Shinto shrines, neighbourhood artisans and the history of many streets and stores, e.g. we saw the original Nintendo office which used to make cardboard Japanese game cards. My only complaints were a large Spanish family who talked loudly throughout the whole tour (YMMV, of course) and the amount of time spent at some of the shrines (I'm not all that interested in Johnnie's family). There's several other accounts of this tour here and here. Afterwards, I walked up to Kiyomizudera, a popular tourist site. The main hall has a huge balcony that is built over the hill and has nice views of Tokyo. There's also a waterfall that many people like to drink from. Then, I walked back down the hill and found the steps marking the beginning of Sannenzaka a stone-paved path that leads to Maruyama Park. Lots of smaller vendors here too. At night, I had a kaiseki dinner served to me in my room at the ryokan. Over a dozen beautiful small dishes of vegetables and fish in various preparations. I wished that they would have a description of all of the plates, but I suppose part of the appeal is that you get something different each time. My Flickr stream has more closeup photos of all the dishes.
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