Japan

July 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!

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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!

Friday, 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 →

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.

Friday, 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 →

Saturday, 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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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 →