tokyographers

The next day was Monday. Sometime on Sunday, we had stopped by the travel center so that I could turn in the exchange order for my JR Rail Pass, which I was going to start using this day. First order of business to take care of: we went to the travel office to get our Shinkansen tickets to Kyoto for the next day. It wasn’t difficult, and we were out of there quickly.

The next item on the agenda was a suggestion from Nate - we were going to eat at Ramen Jiro. Eating there is an adventure, because this is no ordinary ramen, as anyone familiar with the place can tell you. The ramen there has noodles at least three times as thick as regular ramen, and the portions are bigger as well. It’s also a lot oilier and saltier.

Despite all that, Jiro has generated quite a following. It appears to have developed its own culture and a community of Jiro addicts, complete with its own lore throughout the decades of Jiro history. There are at least ten Jiro shops throughout Tokyo, though the original is found in Mita, near Keio University. That particular shop was our destination this morning.

We got off the train at Mita Station, but we soon realized we had forgotten to write down exact directions. Well, we figured we could just ask around - people there should know about Jiro, right? Not quite. We stopped at a few convenience stores to ask where it was, and none of the clerks knew. We kept walking in the general direction we thought it was, and we were finally rewarded when Chuck asked at a lottery stand, and the two women in there told us to just keep walking down the street several blocks. And so we were on our way.

It wasn’t quite what I expected. The shop was on the bottom floor of a tall, narrow, nondescript building, with none of the exterior decor typically associated with ramen shops. I would have completely missed it if it hadn’t been for the two kanji at the top of the building that said “Jiro.”

The Mita shop is small - it’s basically a small central kitchen (enough for the three employees, at least, perhaps a 7′ x 9′ space?) surrounded on 3 sides by a counter. There are maybe about 15 stools at the counter, with the walls almost right behind the stools. In fact, for those sitting at the front side, the walls are less than half a foot behind you, leaving barely enough room to squeeze behind someone to get to one of the middle seats. There are actually two doors for the customers, one on either side of that front part of the counter (so you cross to the other side of the room by going outside).

Fortunately, we got there before the rush. There were only three people in line in front of us, and by the time we left, there were at least fifteen waiting. Anyway, even before you get seated, you have to make your choice. There’s a vending machine that gives you a plastic ticket, which you then place on the counter when you finally get a seat. There are only 6 choices on the menu: you choose either a small bowl or a large one, and then you choose how much chashu pork you want (none, normal, or double). Being foolishly ambitious, Chuck and I both selected the large with double pork.

By the time I sat down (and I ended up in one of those front seats), I had realized my mistake. Looking at the bowls next to me, I knew this was going to be a challenge. I patiently waited, drinking my water, and in the meantime Chuck sat down two stools away. Eventually, my bowl came, with an intimidating mountain of cabbage, bean sprouts, and chashu staring me in the face. I mentally prepared myself for battle.

A few mouthfuls in, I already knew I was beat. I did my best, trying to pace myself and pausing when necessary. But in the end, there was no way I could handle the entire bowl. Looking over at Chuck, I saw he did much better than I did. But I had to admit defeat, finishing maybe only 80-85% (and that’s ignoring the soup!). I left the shop in shame, but with a much heavier stomach and a feeling of being covered in grease. Needless to say, Jiro is a ramen I will never forget.

Coincidentally, we saw the finals of “The King of Gluttony” on TV the night before, where Nobuyuki “The Giant” Shirota ate 20 bowls of ramen (normal ramen, not Jiro) in an hour, defeating Takuya Yamamoto (18 bowls) and Natsuko “Gal” Sone (14 bowls). After having had the Jiro, I couldn’t bear the thought of ever eating that much ramen, and I didn’t even want to think of ramen for the next few days.

We took our time walking back to the station, but not before stopping at a nearby conbini to get some cold tea (and for Chuck, some Coolish) to help wash down the oily feeling.

When we got back to the hotel, we headed for the internet cafe to check our e-mail. I got a message from my friend Nate with a list of suggestions about things to do, so we wrote down some notes. One place he mentioned was Nakano Broadway. Since we were already planning to visit Shinjuku that night, we figured we would stop by Nakano first. But not after getting some rest in the hotel room.

We set out for Nakano a couple hours later. Nakano lies a little west of Shinjuku, three stops down the Chuo Main Line. Right across from the station’s north exit is the entrance to the Nakano Sun Mall, a fairly typical shopping arcade, and at the other end of the mall is Nakano Broadway. Nakano Broadway is a four-floor building, and the first floor seems just like an extension of Nakano Sun Mall. But the other three floors are often referred to as an “otaku heaven,” though it’s much less known than Akihabara. Nakano Broadway houses dozens of specialty stores, particularly for toys and collectibles. In fact, the Mandarake chain of stores started there, and currently there are over ten Mandarake stores in Nakano Broadway alone, each with a different specialization. Their manga store is particularly impressive, as it’s fairly easy to find complete collections for almost any series, and the prices are typically much lower than normal.

One of the stores I liked best was the Trio 2 shop, located near the main Mandarake store. It’s basically an idol merchandise shop, filled with pictures, photobooks, calendars, posters, and the like. Not that this type of store is hard to find, but it had the best selection of large posters out of all the stores I came across during my trip.

We took our time trying to thoroughly explore the place (it’s pretty easy to overlook a whole section of shops), but it was eventually time to move on. Shinjuku was our next stop. Out of all the places we went, Shinjuku definitely felt the busiest (and perhaps it actually was). The JR Station there is huge, and it’s still packed with people. The immediate area around the station seemed to have a very high concentration of tall buildings, which only adds to the sense of crowdedness. I really felt disoriented there. Even Chuck gets easily lost in Shinjuku, despite having been there a few times before.

Our main goal was to pass by Kabukicho, the infamous red-light district in Shinjuku. Kabukicho is home to thousands of bars, nightclubs, love hotels, etc., and many yakuza and mafia operate there, though in recent years there’s been a movement to try to “clean up” the area. But despite the remaining criminal element and the seediness, it’s still a generally safe place (provided you don’t do anything stupid, of course).

Anyway, it actually took us a while to get there, since as I said, even Chuck gets lost in Shinjuku. We were walking down small streets for quite some time (at least the rain was only sprinkling now), but we eventually found our way. It was definitely a lively place, though I’m sure it would’ve been much livelier if it hadn’t been so early in the evening. Anyway, we didn’t stay there long (we obviously weren’t going to spend any money there). We returned to the area near the station to continue looking around.

Rather than eat dinner in Shinjuku, we decided to try finding something in Shinagawa. Well, when we arrived at Shinagawa station, something unusual was going on. Hundreds of men and women in their early twenties were walking around in packs, all dressed in formal business attire. Suits aren’t an uncommon sight, given the numbers of salarymen in Tokyo, but this many young people dressed up (women included) meant there had to be some kind of event. Chuck’s first guess was that it was some kind of company training.

Lots of these men and women were in our hotel (staying there or just having an activity there, I’m not sure). Chuck, seizing the opportunity to be social as always, suggested finding a place where they were hanging out. Our first try was the top floor of the hotel’s New Tower, where there are some lounges, a dining room, and a party room, but the food and drinks were too pricy. We settled for walking down the street to see if we could find anything.

Not too far away, we found a decent restaurant and ended up seated next to a table with three girls in suits. Worked out perfectly, apparently. Well, we started eating and drinking while the three were having their own conversation. Chuck waited for an opportunity to break in, and he eventually found one. He’s really good at this sort of thing, and he knows just how to use the fact that he speaks English and fairly good Japanese (including his trump card, Yamagata-ben).

The whole time, I was just sitting back watching Chuck work his magic. He was mainly talking to the girl closest to us, who also happened to be the cutest and seemed to speak the best English. Chuck’s second guess about the suits had been right: all the young people were there for a recruiting fair. These three girls were from a college in Kyushu (Fukuoka, I think). We (or rather, they) talked for a while about different things - like I said, Chuck knows how to work it - but they ended up leaving before us. Ultimately, Chuck didn’t get any numbers that night (they didn’t even give us their names after we gave ours!). Oh well.

I don’t know how I woke up after that long day and only four hours of sleep. But we had places to go and things to do, so I resisted the temptation to go back to sleep. We left the hotel and got a quick bite to eat at Yoshinoya. Mmmm, the gyudon there is soooo much better than the beef bowls at Yoshinoya in the U.S. (As a sidenote, gyudon has apparently been impossible to find in Japan for the past two years because of a ban on importing American beef, due to the fear of mad cow disease. The ban was lifted in September of this year, much to the joy of gyudon fans.)

Our plan was to first see Harajuku, known to outsiders primarily for its fashion scene. It’s particularly popular on Sundays when large numbers of youth gather, dressed up in a variety of styles such as Gothic Lolita or anime cosplay. It also gets crowded in the major shopping areas, Takeshita Street and Omotesando. The nearby Yoyogi Park and Meiji Shrine are also popular spots, though you can guess that the crowd is a little different (aside from the tourists).

By the time we arrived at Harajuku Station, it had started raining. We ended up buying some cheap plastic umbrellas from a street vendor who had set up right outside the station (rain can often come suddenly in Japan, so I guess this guy goes out there whenever it happens). Anyway, close to the station is an open space before the path to Meiji Shrine, and that’s where most of the dressed-up teens gather. There weren’t many this time, with one girl standing around and a few sitting down by the walls. But it was still early, and we figured the rain was holding people back, so we decided to come back after lunch.

In the meantime, we went down Takeshita Street to check out the shops. The street is filled with fashion shops and cafes, and it’s a good place to get a feel for current and upcoming trends. Maybe someday I’ll be fashionable enough to rock some of that stuff.

On that day, the addition of hundreds of umbrellas made it feel more packed than it already was. We still made our way down the entire street (it’s not that long), browsing through some of the shops. Chuck pointed out these cute phone straps that I guess are meant to resemble voodoo dolls - they’re basically little figures made of string and come in different styles. I don’t remember the name, though online store STRAPYA seems to call them “Yakkun.” Chuck was also considering buying a sweater that read “choi-waru,” a term meaning “a little bad.” He had come across the term in a hilarious skit done on the variety show “Lincoln.” I later found out that the term is more commonly associated with “choi-waru oyaji,” a term coined by fashion magazine LEON to describe a trend among middle-aged men trying to look a little more bad-ass (since the average middle-aged Japanese salaryman hardly comes close to looking bad-ass). Chuck also took the chance to play a UFO catcher-type game in hopes of winning a Louis Vuitton bag, but no luck this time. Meanwhile, I tried the machine next to him for a PSP or DS Lite. I came very close, but it wasn’t good enough.

We took a different path on the way back and stopped at a little shop to eat some döner kebab, which has been gaining popularity in Japan. It was still raining lightly when we got back to the station, so disappointingly there still weren’t many of the dressed-up youth gathered in that open area. Not fond of the weather and still tired from the day before, we decided just to head back to Shinagawa and get a little rest before deciding what to do next.

The Roppongi district of Tokyo is mainly known for its nightlife, with plenty of bars, nightclubs, hostess clubs, and the like. It’s also known as a spot with a large number of foreigners (or as some would say, too many). The crowd is still predominantly Japanese, but there is something about the place that feels distinctly Western. Maybe it’s the abundance of Western-oriented stores, or perhaps it’s hearing people speak in English so frequently. Whatever it is, it sure provided a strong contrast to the rest of the day.

There’s not much in terms of sightseeing, as the area is mostly centered on commerce. Chuck and I looked around a bit, and we got as far as the TV Asahi building (not nearly as spectacular as Fuji TV). Roppongi’s really not the type of place to interest me. But we were there for a particular reason - to go clubbing with Chuck’s friends that night.

At 7:00, we met up with his cute friend Mie outside of Almond Cafe, a popular meeting spot. The rest of his friends were coming later, so the three of us were going to have dinner first. Chuck and Mie grabbed a copy of Hot Pepper and started flipping through the pages. Hot Pepper is a free magazine that’s basically a listing and coupon book for things like local restaurants, beauty salons, and shops. Anyway, they picked out a nearby izakaya (Japanese style bar) called Jidaiya (you can actually follow this link to see a 360° view of the Jidaiya interior). I can see why izakaya are so popular - it’s very easy to relax and have fun with friends. Chuck and I had a little confusion finding the entrance, though, but it turned out to be one of those low doors where you have to basically bend all the way over to pass through.

I think we ordered over ten different things on the menu, along with three rounds of beer (man, I love Japanese beer!). At some point, three friendly guys came in and sat down with us (we were at one end of the long table, which had been kind of divided in half, and there were three empty seats across from us). They were originally from Switzerland, and were working in Japan for their company, which I think had something to do with telecommunications or IT. In any case, we enjoyed their company until we were finished. We were heading back to Almond Cafe to meet up with the others, and as we left, Jidaiya gave us free cans of soba tea! Well, that was unexpected.

In front of Almond Cafe, we met up with Chuck’s other friend Keiko (who somewhat reminds me of my friend Sheila) and her friend Mari. Keiko was the one who had decided on Club Vanilla (which is pretty popular and is quite large), which happens to have free entrance until 11:00. There are three dance floors: one for hip-hop, a small one for house, and one for a wide range of stuff but seems to mostly consist of trance and eurobeat. Most drinks are 500 yen (a little less than $5.00), and you get two free drinks if you come in after 11:00 and pay the 3000 yen cover charge.

It was still early, so we got some drinks and chilled at a table before making our way into the hip-hop crowd. I was reminded of home for a bit when three older black women (who I’m pretty sure were also from the U.S.) started getting their groove on with us - it always makes me happy when I see people really having fun just shakin’ their thang.

A little later, Keiko’s other friends joined us - Toshi, Masa, Ong, and a few others whose names I don’t know. One of them was a girl whose mother or aunt or grandmother was from Yamagata, and as a result she spent a pretty long time talking with Chuck. People always comment on how good his Japanese is for having lived in Japan for only a year, but what surprises them even more is that he’s also picked up his local dialect, Yamagata-ben. So apparently this girl was just thrilled to hear him speaking in Yamagata-ben.

The night continued, and I was getting pretty tired. One thing to know about Japan is that the trains stop running a little after midnight, and they don’t start again until 5:00 in the morning. If you’re out late, you can either suck it up and pay a lot for a taxi ride home, or you just stay out until the trains start running. Incidentally, there are actually a lot of other things you can do if you happen to miss the last train: go to a 24-hour manga or internet cafe, go karaoke, read magazines at a conbini (convenience stores), spend the night in a capsule hotel, etc.

The club ended around 5:00, and the crowd began to filter out. Overall, I considered it a pretty decent club, except for all of the cigarette smoke (which unfortunately is common in Japan). Anyway, we got our stuff from the locker and left to find Mie and Mari, who had left earlier and were chilling in the First Kitchen (a chain restaurant) down the street. The two of them left soon after to go home, while Chuck, Keiko, and I stayed behind for a bit to talk. It was eventually time for us to go, but we got stopped briefly outside as we ran into Toshi again. We ended up hanging around until about 6:00 or 6:30, when we finally joined the mass of people catching trains home to get some sleep.

So far I’ve made my journey from a more traditional Japan to a Saturday afternoon in the park to a bustling street market, and now I find myself in Akihabara, Akiba, Electric Town, whatever you prefer to call it. In any case, it’s quite the electronic paradise it’s been made out to be, though the otaku aren’t as conspicuously geeky as the stereotypes claim. Store after store, floor after floor, filled with everything electronic you could ever need (and plenty more that you don’t need!).

Not particularly interesting, but it appears to be the only picture of Akihabara that I took

We started off with the monster Yodobashi store - 9 retail floors above ground and several floors of parking underground. Varying sources online tell me that the retail floor space is somewhere between 23,000 and 27,000 square meters. Either way, that’s a damn lot of merchandise! Just being there was an experience.

Chuck and I skipped the first few floors (cell phones, home electronics, etc.) to get to the entertainment sections. Toys, video games, CDs, DVDs, and so on. Just rows and rows and rows of the stuff. But I think the most notable thing that I saw (other than everything) was that the video games section had a display booth running demos of Playstation 3 games. I have to admit that the graphics are impressive, but I’m still going to be opting for a Wii this November.

We then hit up stores on the smaller streets. I was tempted to buy a bunch of anime and manga-related merchandise, but I decided against it. Chuck spent a fair amount playing the UFO Catcher games. He’s generally very good at them, but he struck out in Akihabara - perhaps the result of the dai-kyo in Asakusa? We spent a good couple hours going up and down several stores throughout Akihabara (yeah, pretty much every store is multiple floors), and that was barely scratching the surface. It’s still hard for me to imagine a whole area that large so densely packed with stuff to buy.

A missed opportunity: we almost went to a maid cafe (we were actually right outside the door), but it was getting late and we had to make it to Roppongi by 7:00. We decided to postpone it until another day, but unfortunately another chance never materialized. We returned to Shinagawa to get ready for the night, then left early for Roppongi.

Chuck and I made the walk from the station to Ueno Park. It’s still a beautiful park even though it’s not cherry blossom season. Lots of families were there, since it was a Saturday, and we saw several street performers entertaining the crowds. We saw one guy trying to sell a toy - it looked like a cutout of a person with some thin rubber legs attached, and it would dance on command and even jump and float in the air, all supposedly without any strings of any sort. We didn’t have much time to study it though, since he was soon stopped by policemen (people aren’t allowed to sell things in that manner). I’m still puzzling over how it works. We continued to roam around, stopping at one of the shrines but not going to any of the museums or the zoo. A rather pleasant experience, overall, and it did give me the vibe of a nice weekend place for families with children.

We then went through Ameyoko, a busy shopping district with a genuine street market feel, and there are plenty of good deals there. Most stalls sell foodstuffs (fish, seaweed, nuts, etc.) or clothing items (jeans, shirts, shoes, hats, etc.). Research tells me that it used be the site of a thriving black market in the postwar years, especially for imported goods, and it still kind of feels like one. Neither of us bought anything there, though Chuck stopped a few times to look at shoes (they’re his weakness!). Fortunately, he restrained himself then (and many times later throughout my trip) for the sake of his wallet.

After all the browsing, we returned to the station to reach our next destination: Akihabara.

I realize it wasn’t that first night that I had the omuretsu with curry. So many things happened that the whole trip feels like a blur, and sometimes I can’t even remember major details, let alone minor things like when I ate what. But I remembered that we got omuretsu on a day it was raining, and that didn’t start until Sunday.

Anyway, Day 2 was quite a trip (in the weird sense), simply because it was almost like visiting several different worlds. That’s one interesting thing about Tokyo - some of the areas have a very distinct feel and culture, and you can have incredibly different experiences just a few train stations apart. And that’s just how it is - people are comfortable with the juxtaposition and blending of worlds.

First stop: the Asakusa area of Tokyo’s Taito Ward. Asakusa has a more traditional atmosphere than most areas of Tokyo, and it also seems more populated with temples. The most well-known of these is the Buddhist temple, Sensoji, generally recognized by the presence of its kaminari-mon (”Thunder Gate”).

The Kaminari-mon at the entrance to Sensoji

Just past the kaminari-mon is Nakamise-dori, the main shopping arcade that leads to the temple. There you can find all kinds of souvenirs and foods for sale. Here’s a picture, though you can’t really see the individual shops very well:

Nakamise-dori at Sensoji

I didn’t buy anything, and we kept on going until we reached the main temple. We decided to try the nearby omikuji (fortunes) before entering the actual temple. Chuck went first, and he got… dai-kyo (very bad luck)! Oh no! He quickly tied it to a rack before I took my turn. Fortunately, my omikuji turned out to be dai-kichi (great luck), so I suppose that balanced it out.

The main temple area of Sensoji

We then went up the stairs into the temple and made our prayers. Omikuji were available in there as well, and Chuck decided to give it another try… dai-kyo again! I guess it was just meant to be. Poor Chuck.

We walked around the surrounding area, going down some of the other shopping arcades. At one point, we passed the Asakusa Public Hall, which is a fairly large performance hall, and on the floor right in front of the entrance are square tiles with handprints and autographs of famous people, reminiscent of Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood. I looked over many of the names, but I only recognized one.

It was around lunchtime now, so we decided on a noodle shop and we both had ebi tenzaru. This is shrimp (ebi) tempura served with cold soba noodles on a type of shallow bamboo basket (known as a zaru). I had never had zaru soba before, but Chuck showed me how to properly eat it. After adding some wasabi and green onions to the soy-based dipping sauce, you simply dip the noodles in the sauce before eating them. After you’re done with the food, you’re also generally given hot water to add to the sauce, which you can then drink to finish off your meal.

One other thing we saw in Asakusa (and I think it may have actually been before we went to Sensoji) was the Asahi headquarters building. I didn’t take a picture of it then, since I wasn’t quite sure what it was at the time, but it’s easy enough to find pictures elsewhere online. The Asahi Beer Tower is designed to look like a glass of beer (particularly when the lights are on), with a structure at the top that resembles a head of foam. Sitting next to the tower is the shorter Super Dry Hall, recognized for the Flamme d’Or (”golden flame”) on top. But honestly, it’s a little hard to tell it’s a flame, and people will sometimes refer to it jokingly as a “golden turd” or even a “golden sperm.”

We left Asakusa soon after lunch and took a brief train ride to Ueno.

On the morning of Thursday, September 28, I started out on my first trip to Japan. I had just finished packing the night before, while at the same time watching the whole Kekkon Dekinai Otoko drama series (not my fav, but I still found it entertaining). I flew on Northwest out of LAX, and I slept most of the way through since I didn’t really sleep much the night before. The flight was adequately comfortable, and I stayed awake long enough to watch the second in-flight movie, “Inside Man,” which I thought was great in concept but a little lacking in execution.

Anyway, I got through immigration at Narita roughly on time, and fortunately it was easy to find my friend Chuck (or for him to find me). Chuck’s been in Japan for over a year working through JET (which I may be doing next year), so he was going to show me around Tokyo. We took the trains to Shinagawa to check into the Shinagawa Prince Hotel. It’s somewhat expensive, but it’s a nice place and even offers some extra entertainment: a bowling alley, a movie theater, an aquarium, etc. It’s conveniently right across the street from the JR station, too.

Anyway, first destination is one of Chuck’s favorite places in the Tokyo area: Odaiba. Odaiba is actually an artificial island that has become popular in the past decade or so, mainly for shopping and sightseeing. Some of the main attractions there are the Fuji TV headquarters, the Aqua City shopping center, and the Daikanransha ferris wheel (the world’s second largest after the London Eye).

To get there, we took the JR Yamanote Line to Shinbashi. We stopped there briefly for some gyudon (yummm, my first taste of food in Japan), then took the Yurikamome line to Odaiba. The best part of taking the Yurikamome (instead of going underground on the Rinkai line) is that you get a pretty awesome view of the Tokyo area, and you get to cross the Rainbow Bridge on the way to Odaiba.

An awful picture of Rainbow Bridge with the Statue of Liberty replica and Tokyo Tower (way in the background)

The Aqua City shopping center

The Fuji TV building

We walked around Aqua City, though most of the stores were closed. Nearby, there’s a walkway near the water and a small beachlike area, which seems to be popular among couples. There were also several yakatabune (also known as “pleasure boats”) out on the water - definitely something to try with a large group of friends. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a clear enough picture, though you can kind of see them in the Rainbow Bridge picture above.

Our next stop after Odaiba was Tokyo Tower. We took the Yurikamome back to Shiodome (after first getting on in the wrong direction), then went two stops down on the Oedo Line to Akabanebashi station. Tokyo Tower is a little of a walk from the station, but you can easily see the tower from far away. Although we didn’t go up the tower, I was able to at least get some decent pictures. Here’s one from a corner of the base:

Tokyo Tower at night

We then headed back to the hotel, stopping somewhere along the way for food (I enjoyed my omuretsu with curry). I stayed up watching some TV, but had to eventually go to sleep because the next day was going to be long.

So, I’ve decided again to try keeping a blog (after having abandoned my Xanga long ago). This time, I have more things to write about, now that I’m busy managing Tokyograph. But first of all… I have to cover my recent trip to Japan! I’ll be writing up the adventure in the next several posts. (I should’ve taken more pictures!)