Monthly Archives: July 2016

Ritz Carlton Kyoto

IMG_3625July 24, 2016

Prior to this trip, my brother-in-law called to tell me that he was being flown on an international trip via business class.  All I could say was that they treat you right and once you have flown business, you never want to fly coach again.  Would my experience at the Ritz Carlton be the same?  The short answer is, YES!  During the early part of my career, I installed system into hotels and I stayed in some very nice hotels.  When I finally started making enough money to travel on my own, I resumed travelling and make it a point to go on an international trip at least once a year.  This trip through Authentiscapes and Admiral Travel had been one of the best and well worth what I paid.

The hotel in Tokyo was upscale with great views of the city.  The rooms were nice and housekeeping attended to them twice a day.  The staff was super nice and if they were on the elevator and got off the elevator before you, they would exit the elevator, turn around and face you and then bow, and bow, and kept bowing until the elevator closed.  In Kyoto, we were greased by staff members who asked about the day and walked us to the elevators.  At one point, there were three members of the staff waiting outside the elevator bowing while we waited for the doors to close. It was one of those awkward moments, do we keep waving and saying goodbye?  Do we bow?  Susanne Curtsied which made it more awkward.  Finally the elevator doors closed slowly and the entire time, the three staff member were bowing and saying something.  Yep – awkward! Continue reading

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Birthday Dinner

_R3A5750Sunday, July 24, 2016

Dinner was at a teppanyaki style restaurant at Kyoto Gion Mikaku .  I didn’t understand what teppanyaki style meant until they said that it was prepared tableside.  I immediately thought “Benihana” and that sounds good.  We sat down and to my right was Ryan Hilton, Roy and Denise Choi.  To my left was Sophon and the rest of the group.   I wasn’t the only birthday boy on this trip.   Roy had his Birthday 2 days ago and Carter, the son of the tour organizers, was turning 13.   The started out with Birthday Champagne and they sang Happy Birthday to Jim and Carter… and then toasted.  Carter wasn’t allowed to have champagne.

Off to the one side of the room was the cutting room.  The slabs of meat were brought into that room where they were cut up and we could all watch through a window.  I was impressed with the large knives as well as the large cuts of beef.  Sophon does not eat beef.  He is not vegetarian, he does not beef for religious reasons that have to do with giving up something that he liked.   He eats other meat, just not beef. They told him at the restaurant that they were preparing seafood.  Lobster to be exact.  A couple of people asked “Who is getting the lobster?  Whose birthday is it anyway?  Personally, I like steak as much as I like Lobster.  I wanted the beef.  No problem with him getting lobster.  I was going to enjoy every bite of that steak!  I am sure Sophon would share a few bits of his lobster! Continue reading

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Tokyo to Kyoto on My Birthday

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Sunday, July 24, 2016

How did I get this old?

The Tokyo Ritz Carlton had sent a birthday cake to the room the night before.  I lit the candles, Sophon sang happy birthday and I blew them out.  I had one piece of cake and jokingly told Sophon to finish the rest of it.  I should have known better, he finished it without hesitation. That was very nice of the the hotel to send that to me.  I am sure Malaka (the tour organizer) had something to do with it.

It was nice starting the day with breakfast and a leisurely morning.  I continued to work on going through pictures and writing things for the blog while enjoying the view from my room.  I loved the view from my room and never got tired at looking out at the Tokyo Tower.  It was time to move on to Kyoto, I was going to miss this room and the view.  After checking out, we met the rest of the group at 11:00 AM we met the rest of the group at 11:00.  Off to Kyoto in a fast train!  I love trains, what a way to spend my birthday.

IMG_3609Shinkansen – The bullet train 

It doesn’t feel like you are going over 200 miles per hour.  It is smooth and not a lot of sound.  It was a 2 hour ride to Kyoto.  I sat back and looked out the window.   If it had been a clear day, we would have been able to see Mt. Fuji, unfortunately, the clouds hid it.

We arrived in Kyoto and.  I was amazed at how different Kyoto looked and felt from Tokyo. Tokyo was a modern city, similar to any other big city.  Kyoto did not have that feel.  It felt old and rustic with a lot of charm.  We checked into the Ritz Carlton Kyoto (More on the Ritz in another posting) and headed out to our Zen Experience.

Upon checking into the hotel, a plate of French Macaroons were delivered from the Pierre Herme Paris shop in the lobby along with a box of candies and a plate of fruit.  I got to celebrate my birthday twice.  How great was this? Continue reading

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Kappabashi – or food street

IMG_3562July 23rd, 2016

This was a stop on the tour and time got away from us and we chose to skip this knowing to come back to it during my free day.  This was a restaurant supply food street.  Uniforms, equipment, gadgets and fake food.  It was all there.  If you needed a gadget to separate egg whites with the yolk, you could find it there.   I bought nothing, I have collected enough kitchen gadgets over the years to fill my kitchen drawers.

I am a sucker for these kind of shops, although I bought nothing, I had a good time going through them.  I have to admit, the fake food looked really good and almost real.  I kept wondering, if I bought that, what was I going to do with it?   Fool some people to think it is real?  Not my thing.

We went to one coffee shop that bought green coffee beans and roasted them to the level you wanted them too.  It smelled so good in the shop.  One of the coffees they specialized in was the coffee from Vietnam where an animal ate the bean and then excreted it out. Those beans are considered the finest and make the finest coffee.    I passed!

Continue reading

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TONKATSU MAISEN Daimaru Tokyo restaurant

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July 23rd, 2016

Tonkatsu is one of the items that I wanted to have in Japan.  I know there are plenty of places to get Tonkatsu here in the US but this was an item that I put down as wanting to have.  Not sure if the origins are with the Austrians who make Schnitzel but it is along the same lines, a deep-fried bread crumb battered piece of pork.

On the table were several Tonaktus sauces and Ponzu sauce.  I am a huge fan of Ponzu which is soy sauce with lemon juice.  I add it to rice, put it in dressings, mix with mayo.  I often think Ponzu is close to ketchup on things that you can use it on!  I noticed after telling the other couple at the able what it was, they took a liking to it as well.

The restaurant was located in the Tokyo Station. It was called Tonkatsumaisen.  I enjoyed every bite of it!

 

 

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Asakusa Kannon Sensoji Temple

_R3A4984Friday, July 22nd 2016
Asakusa Kannon Sensoji Temple is the oldest and largest temple in Tokyo originally built to honor Kannon, the goddess of mercy. The legend says that two brothers found a small statue of Kannon in their fishing nets.  The returned the statue to the river but it always returned to them and to house the statue, the temple was established in 645.  Most of the site was destroyed in the WWII and rebuilt in 1958, the same year the Tokyo Tower was built.

Leading up to the temple is a street of shops selling souvenirs.  The temple and the street leading into it were very crowded.  Definitely a popular spot.

The name Canon (camera and copier company) was named after the god.   Continue reading

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Argento Tatsuji Aso

Friday, July 22nd 2016

We had lunch at Argento Tatsuji Aso, a two-star Michelin restaurant in Ginza.  This is a Japanese take on Italian food from chef Tatsuji Aso.  What really caught me by surprise was the attention to detail.  I had heard that the Japanese were very big on presentation and I think these dishes demonstrate it.  This was truly an outstanding meal.

 

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Ginza


IMG_3441Friday, July 22nd 2016

Ginza, the Champs-Elysee of Tokyo with a lot of shopping.  I am not a shopper but there was something for everyone in this neighborhood, huge department stores, designer shops as well as an Apple store.  This was a short stop and I could have spent the better part of an afternoon.  We went into the Mitsukoshi department store, about the size of Macy’s in NYC.   We went to the lower floor where the entire floor was made up of food stalls selling all sort of good things from sweets, to breads, to tonkatsu.  I could have lunch there everyday for a year and not get tired of it.

Some of the vendors were giving out free samples and I stumbled across this one vendor that made a soft spongy bread with various flavors swirled in – such as caramel, peach liqueur, cinnamon or green tea.  I couldn’t resist and bought a loaf.  Sophon purchased Dorayaki (read bean pancakes).

Have you ever seen a square or pyramid-shaped watermelon?  Maybe I am reading the card wrong but I believe it cost $156 in US dollars. Continue reading

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Tokyo Tower

IMG_3419Saturday, July 22, 2016

Started the day at Tokyo Tower.  It looks a lot like the Eifel Tower but according to our tour guide, it is taller by 13 meters.  It was built in 1958 and at the time, it was the tallest structure in Tokyo.  Today the tallest structure is the Tokyo Sky Tree that was built in 2012.

The itinerary mentions that the today, the tower is used to relay five FM radio stations.  When I travel, I typically bring my iPod (in my earlier days a Walkman) and I tune into FM Radio.  I enjoy listening in to see what kind of music and radio stations are popular.  When I scanned for local stations, my iPod picked up 2 FM stations, the first station that it picked up was playing Domo Arigato Mr Robato by Styx.  What are the odds of that?  It turned out to be an English-speaking station.

Our host, Roy Yamaguchi, was celebrating his birthday that day!

The views were spectacular despite the rain.  I was amazed at just how large Tokyo is.  Tokyo has over 13 million people, NY is about 8 million and Los Angeles is about 4 million.  The city went on and on in all directions.  It really is amazing.

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Omotesando & Harajuku

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Thursday, July 21st, 2016

Omotestand and Harajuku is a shopping area.  One one street they have stores that you would typically see in any shopping area – including an apple store.  Parallel to that street called Takeshita Street that is focused on teens.  I had never seen anything quite like it before.  Although the tour guide and internet describes it as being a youthful area, it was clear this was for young girls.  There was more bright pink along that street than I have ever seen. There were so many candy and ice cream shops that I could smell the sugar in the air.

There were large groups of teenage girls.  Many of them were dressed in their school uniforms.  Others were dressed up as dolls and other – I couldn’t tell you.  This is not a blue jeans and t-shirt culture.  Although this was a three-ring circus, I didn’t take many pictures, I felt there was something wrong with taking pictures of these teenage girls.

At one point, I noticed an old woman dressed as a school girl and I thought, you have gotten to be kidding me!  She had to be at least 70!  As we walked by her, Sophon said, “That is not a woman!”.  I was trying not to be judgmental, but there is something wrong with an old man dressed in a school girl uniform in an area catering to teenage girls. Continue reading

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