Update on the sights, sounds and the slurping

After the last blog entry we headed out for some wicked food. We were going to this great udon noodle place but it was closed. We ended up at another noodle place down the street. Joanie had a prawn tempura udon. GO JOANIE! Anyone who knows Joanie could tell you she’s not really fond of seafood but she’s trying what she can while she’s here. I had some pork cutlets with some egg I believe, probably deep fried over some rice. Very tasty! We had some draft beer to wash it all down and it was perfect.

Now that we were beyond full (not quite to the point of waddling) it was time to work it all off with a walk. We decided to go to Edo-Tokyo Museum. We didn’t know what was there at all but we thought it would be something interesting to see and wouldn’t be too far either. Walking distance isn’t far right? Well we walked for a good while following key directions, had help from another nice man who was an American I believe but had be living there for some time. Along the way we also saw the Asahi brewery (beer mmmm..) It has this French symbol thing on the top of the building that’s pretty funky. I think Joanie had a picture of that one too. I didn’t bring my camera on this walk.

We found the museum apart from being in the shape of a Japanese character it was huge. The escalator going up looked like it was out of a space movie and I think we had to take 6 of them up to where the entrance to the exhibit was. Through the gate we found lifesize model houses, a bridge to the exhibition start and a well layed out floor plan. It showed tons of Japanese history. One very interesting piece was a set of 2 screens. They were showing the evolution of Tokyo at the time with gold leaf etc. This place had great models of small villages with people carrying on with their daily activities. You could look at the villages through binoculars and it would seem as though you were looking at real people. It was totally amazing. While there we saw many school children probably doing school work for a history project or something. It seems so rich. There was a particularly interesting bit showing bombing that had taken place. It showed on a map, the areas affected throughout the different stages. It was very effective. This place even had clothes that David Bowie wore when he was all into the Japanese fashion. Scary stuff!

After the museum closed we walked back to our ryokan and went up for a little nap. We slept well through dinner and decided to sleep through the night. We still can’t believe just how comfortable our sleeping arrangements are. It makes us want to buy tatami mats and futons for home. Retails price – 81 dollars a mat.

We woke up super hungry this morning and made a direct trip to our noodle place. I took a picture of the vending machine today. These vending machine places are quick and cheap and make it much easier than trying to figure out what to eat from a menu. We followed up the breakfast with a Mister Donut coffee and Donut. I had a custard donut again. Grandma would love these. Perfect!

Side – as I write this all down, I’m hearing chanting emanating from the temple across the street I think. It’s very soothing and kind of like song rather than chanting. There is a male and female voice. It’s a duet. I love Japan.

Today we went to Shibuya. This is the place of the famous Shibuya crossing where cars have a turn to go and then all the traffic stops and allows the pedestrians to walk across and in diagonal through the intersection. If you’ve seen Lost in Translation, you know what I’m talking about. It’s quite something to see in real life. Joanie has video.

We turned today into a shopping trip. Our friend Rhi told us about this great store called LOFT.. She’s dead! I think we would have bought the whole store if we were living here. It’s similar to the idea of Caban in Canada, but no clothes. Let’s just say we picked up some really cool nick nacks and we’ll have to find a place to put them all now.

Feeling somewhat more confident on the food situation we found another vending machine based noodle shop and picked food based on the pictures. Delicious! Joanie had some curry noodles with beef in a curry soup stock. I had a miso with the same noodles. In between the size of soba and udon I think. Amazing! We also had some shrimp dumplings I think. They were good and Joanie even liked them. This is a good sign. To wash it all down, we both had a nice pint of Asahi. Very tasty again.

After leaving that place we wondered around a little, found pachinko parlour which was quite loud and lively. I don’t think I quite understand it all. Then we stumbled upon this music culture shop at the top floor of a sporting goods store. They had small sections of memorabilia from tons of bands. I think they had a virtual shrine to Kurt Cobain with Kerrang from when Nirvana was big, photo t-shirts and even Japanese books on the life of Kurt. They even had a section with bands we might recognize like Paramore, Cute is what we aim for and The Academy Is. I was amazed by this store but couldn’t justify a purchase.

We had dinner tonight in a place we’ll just refer to as a pancake house. You order food (which the lady of our household helped us with cause it was all in Japanese) and it comes in bowls. They are simply fresh ingredients like a raw egg, potatoes, cheese, mayo or sour cream, some greens, some thinly sliced meat etc. You mix it all up then put it on a skillet in the middle of the table. It’s built into the middle of the table. Then you cook it like a pancake so it’s round. We ordered one for each of us. I had to finish of the last piece of Joanies and I was beyond full. Now I’m not feeling so bad hah.

There is something going on at the temple tonight so we’ll have to go check it out. I think it’s a long weekend so maybe it has something to do with that. There seemed to be tons of tourists out today. I guess Friday is a more common day to arrive in Japan.

Our house mates that had the adjoining rooms to ours have vacated and now we have a Scottish family in their place.

Anyway, I should get on my way and enjoy some more of Japan. Again, I profess, if you’ve been thinking about coming here, just save up a bunch of money and make it happen. I can tell you that I’ll miss this place once I leave and than a month is just not long enough to be here. I hope everything is great at home. Love you all!