Home, sweet Ikebukuro

March 19th, 2010

So bright and early in the hazy Kyoto morning, we joined the commuters on the subway line out to the general area of the Imperial Palace.

Being us, we did not go to the Imperial Palace at all, but instead headed out into a residential area where the shrine to Abe no Seimei. It was a great shrine, very neat, tidy, and not all that surprisingly new, since I imagine that they’ve had a new well-spring of interest since the Onmyouji movies came out. While we were there, there was a steady trickle of people. Which brings me to something critical – everyone prays differently. The guidebooks say that there is a specific order to how you approach the shrine, pay, bow, ring the bell, clap, bow. But I spent about 30 minutes watching people and you know what? They all do it differently. HAH.

We loaded up on nifty Seimei goods (perfect for pagan friends. The pentagram of Onmyou isn’t the pentacle of western paganism, but the goods look cool.) I got an eco-bag with cute mascots of the Five Elements. Bruce says the five elements on the bag are: Fire, Tofu, Eggplant, Diamond and Vegetation of some kind. lol

Then it was time for the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. While waiting for the train, we stopped at a kiosk that had had a line *every* time we passed it. They sold gyoza, shumai and nikuman. A few times, the lines at this place were really long. So, we decided to try these really popular items for lunch. The kiosk is called 551 Horai. The nikuman were good, the shumai were excellent, but goodness, were the gyoza amazing. Totally worth waiting on line for.

When we got into town, we hopped the Yamanote and headed out to Ikebukuro. The hotel we stay at has a great location, although it’s a little worse for wear these days. A little walk over to the Lawson, (so Bruce could get a bag from the store…if you get why, then you get why.) I took a few pictures of junk food we didn’t try, but was photo worthy.

Today’s random junk food: Calbee Consomme flavor potato chips, which is a total cheat, because I knew I liked those, so there was no challege there. :-)

Oh and in keeping with tradition, there is a band at the hotel with us. The Kimiku middle school band is here. A little less famous than the St. Petersburg symphony orchestra, but still, it’s a tradition.

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Tezuka Osamu and Ancient China in Takarazuka

March 18th, 2010

gubijinSo, yesterday, we packed ourselves up and went out to Takarazuka, where it was my incredible pleasure to meet Komatsu Mikikazu-san, the writer of the ULTIMO Spalpeen blog. Komatsu-san and I have been corresponding for some years by email, but to be able to bridge the ocean and meet him face to face was a incredible pleasure.

We went to the Tezuka museum, which was edifying and interesting and quite a lot of fun. I was about the only one in the group who had *not* grown up with Kimba or Astro Boy, and had only started to be aware of his works as an adult. It gave me a completely different perspective of his writing.

From there we went to the Takarazuka Theater and had a special lunch created for the show we were about to see. I took a picture. :-)

We parted ways with Komatsu-san and went in for a Chinese historical piece (虞美人, Yu the Beautiful)  that, while it was indeed colorful and shiny, and well executed, the story was a snooze.  ^_^With my inadequate Japanese, I was just able to follow the story. Mari understood it just fine, and poor wifey and Bruce sat for 3 hours guessing.

At the end, I had wanted to turn to them and say, “So, now, which one was the good guy again?” (Because it was Chinese and therefore both sides were ambiguously good and bad and everyone died at the end) but when I tried to talk, nothing came out. They all started to make fun of me and I started laughing and couldn’t stop. As people were filing past us – I was in the aisle seat – there I am laughing so hard I’m crying, while the three of them are cracking jokes about the gaijin who was moved to tears by the performance. It’s good to have friends.

We then went to Osaka for dinner where we met Geoff Tebbets from Anime Boston. I instantly liked Osaka in a way that Kyoto has not touched me. I’ll definitely go back to visit more.

We have to pack up and head out to the Abe no Seimei shrine this AM, so..see you later!

Posted in Takarazuka, Tokyo Journal | 6 Comments »


Fushimi Shrine

March 17th, 2010

I’m sorry I don’t have the strength for uploading pictures, my legs are shaking too hard…

Fushimi shrine is incredibly interesting and beautiful and has lots of shops where my wife threw money at the Japanese economy. We did not make it to the very top. My wife has a broken foot and we still managed about 2/3rds up the hill, so no shame here.

It slayed us.

So much so, that I have blown off social things for tonight and am now back in my room, enjoying the throbbing of every muscle in my body.

Really, even if I did show you the pictures I took, you’d be like – what the hell is wrong with you? I don’t take normal pictures.

We stopped by the Tezuka World gift shop with statues of characters right at the foot of our hotel. The wife got a picture of me and Safire from Ribon no Kishi. I’ll show you later.

Today’s random junk food report: Calbee Jagariko Carbonara flavor. Potato sticks that taste like bacon tomato sauce. Inexplicable, kinda good, also not good at all.

Tomorrow – well…I’ll tell you tomorrow. :-)

Posted in Miscellaneous | 2 Comments »


Shinkansen to Kyoto

March 16th, 2010

The Prince Sakura Tower Tokyo in Shinigawa is totally worth every penny for the bathtub alone. Not *just* that it is a Japanese soak tub – a nice big one – it’s got jacuzzi jets, too. The room we had was humongous, with a lovely view of the gardens.

When had a nice relaxing walk around the gardens this AM; a few of the 200 cherry trees were rushing to bloom for us and the plum were already in full flower.

The Shinkansen is fun, without being super exciting, because you’re just moving so darn fast. :-)

And the hot mascot of the day appears to be Tony Tony Chopper from One Piece – there are a ZILLION Chopper toys, candy, straps everywhere, with Chopper in a variety of excruciatingly cute outfits, riding other animals (and occasionally, fruit.)

Kyoto. Well, I kind of think of it as the Philadelphia of Japan. :-) We took a brief walk and are now sitting around waiting to be joined by translator extraordinaire, Mari Morimoto for a walk around the giant mall that is the train station, because why not.

Tomorrow, Fushimi. See you then!

Oh, I forgot to mention that today’s random candy choices were Orange M&Ms, which tasted like creamsicles with cheap chocolate, Haribo gummi grapefruit slices, which tasted like grapefruit and sugar, and Sakura/Grren tea Kit Kats which tasted, bizarrely, of cinnamon. They were quite good.

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Greetings from Japan

March 15th, 2010

I’m sitting in a hotel in Shinagawa in Tokyo (that’s far too nice for me, really. I hate when the hotel people are really nice and I feel like a total clod. :-)

What I wanted to share were the movies I watched on the flight over.

First, there was K-20, a very fun action movie based loosely on the adventures of Ni-juu Mensou, otherwise known as 20 Faces. This movie got a thumbs up from both myself and the wife.

Then we watched Three Kingdoms, a fanfic of the Romance, following a new character, and rambling through various un-twists and radical departures from sense until everyone died. It was silly, unfocused and had Cao Cao’s evil granddaughter as the bad guy, go figure. It wasn’t that great, but Guan Yu and Zhang Fei have slightly more than a cameo, which was nice. (No subtext between Guan Yu and Liu Bei, though.) Sammo Hung played himself.

Thirdly, I watched a movie that I’m mentioning here for Serge. It was called Kung Fu Cyborg and my god it was stoopid. It was nonetheless also very funny – honest-to-god laugh out loud funny, and then it had the worst ending ever. What a load of crack.

The airport had a giant hot dog wearing an American flag and slathering itself with ketchup and mustard. I mention this not to make fun of Japan, but to point out that this could well be something you’d see at the Jersey shore. For a lot of reasons, Japan immediately outside Tokyo reminds me of New Jersey.

My wife is laughing at a prepackaged sandwich labeled “Fresh Sand.”

It’s time for sleep.

Tomorrow, the Shinkansen to Kyoto.

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