To drown our depression when our wives headed back to Okinawa without us, Rick & I checked out the "electric" neigborhood of Akihabara (where basically any product that uses electronic circuitry or electricity can be purchased). Our mission was to locate cheap SD memory cards for our cameras. Mission was accomplished at about the 5th huge store that we checked out in a 2-block radius - a 2GB card for $16 & a 1GB for $7.50!
We spent the next lovely day in the eastern area of Tokyo, first strolling from the subway station to the Museam of Contemporary Art (in Miyoshi, Koto-ku). After investigating its works, we photographed our way thru Kiba Park before eventually finding ourselves on a blue bridge spanning the Sumida-gawa [river] which offered some wonderful city views around dusk, at which point we strolled our way to the brightly-lit Ginza district. We found some yummy ramen & gyoza for dinner not far from Shinbashi station. We awoke to a very snowy winter's morning on Wed (& I was already starting to miss Okinawa's balmy weather), but it didn't really seem that much colder (thankfully). We set out by subway to the National Art Center just north of Roppongi Hills for our first stop. We were thrilled by its very intriguing architecture & intrigued by its method of hosting changing exhibitions in its multiple gallery areas. None really piqued our interest, although we did briefly stroll through what seemed to be a cooperative show, crammed full of pieces showcasing myriad themes, artists & mediums. So we spent most of our time just marveling & photographing around the building's public spaces. After that we decided to walk in the snow (which soon turned into drizzly rain) rather than jump on the subway again (a rookie mistake, by my calculation). I snapped a few shots in the very scenic cemetery near the art center. Our eventual destination (after a weather reprieve at Starbucks & a delicious lunch of Kaiten-zushi on Omotesandō Street) was the Meiji Jingu shrine located alongide Yoyogi Park near Harajuku station. The weather ruined quite a few photos, but it did not keep us from marveling at this very impressive Shinto site. Thursday turned out to be quite clear so we made our way to the East Gardens (Higashi Gyoen) of the Imperial Palace. Despite the day's brightness & the gardens' beauty, my camera battery did not recharge itself overnight for this visit, so it wasn't a huge ordeal for me when we only really inspected half of it thoroughly, before heading off to the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art. After checking out of the hostel on Friday, backpacks in tow, we made our way (after a souvenir stop at the gift shop of the Edo-Tokyo Museum) to Odaiba for some stunning views towards Tokyo, especially from the suspended Rainbow Bridge stretching across Tokyo Bay, which we walked across on separate sides (Rick got the city side & I took the harbor view) to let our combined photos tell the full story, as our limited time mandated. It was not fun being separated for 4 days but Tokyo definitely impressed us both. As far as cities of that size that we've seen (i.e. New York, Chicago, London, Hong Kong, Seoul, etc.) it seemed to be the cleanest & least congested. It really seemed quite livable (unlike our opinion of the rest). Perhaps we'll find ourselves spending more time there someday! ;-)Friday, January 25, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
Tokyo: It only took us a year to get there!!
So only 1 year after moving to Japan, we finally got around to checking out that one city that most of the rest of the world thinks about when they think of Japan. That's correct. We finally checked out Tokyo!! I'm not sure that we INTENTIONALLY put it off for so long, but we did. So we were thrilled to finally get there for a long holiday (MLK Jr Day) weekend (which turned into a full week for the one of us whose time is somewhat more flexible than the other's). We found nicely timed & inexpensive flights via the only Japanese discount carrier that serves Okinawa, Skymark Airlines. And then we convinced our friends Rick & Denise to join us. And then we found the lovely inexpensive hostel Toukaisou with availability in a 4-person room in the northeastern neighborhood of Asakusa. And that's where the adventure began!
We discovered after making our plans that our newly returned friends, Aaron & Masayo, were also going to be spending the same weekend in Tokyo, so we arranged a dinner rendezvous with them & Anne-Line, whom we'd met at their wedding last April. We thoroughly enjoyed a delicious & delightful meal at an Indonesian (Bali-style) restaurant in a huge skyscraper at Roppongi Hills. The highlight of our visit was a day of sumo spectating at the major January tournament (1 of only 3 major honbasho tournaments per year in Tokyo, 3 others occur in other major Japanese cities) at the huge stadium Ryōgoku Kokugikan. We purchased tickets ahead of time to ensure we could get in on Saturday, Day 4 of 15, which was wise since tickets sold out first thing that morning only a few minutes after the box office opened. So since we spent a bit more than we could have per ticket, we decided to make an event out of it & we arrived around noon, in time to see the junior divisions compete (without all the posturing & delays that happen with the upper divisions). So along with hearty bowls of chankonabe (for only 200 yen each!) in our bellies, we were quite prepared to really get into the spirit of fandom once the stadium began to fill up around 3pm, the enthusiasm increasing steadily until the final 2 matches involving the currently active yokozuna, both from Mongolia, just after 5:30pm. It was quite an experience, a sport we can truly appreciate now that we've really seen what these men have to do to win. The gals' last full day included a lovely day in & around Ueno Park, including a visit to the Tokyo National Museum. The evening was spent admiring the fashions on display along Takeshita Street in the Harajuku area before grabbing some tasty Thai cuisine on Omotesandō. We arose quite early (4:20 am) on Monday morning to catch the first subway train of the day (5:08 am) so we could experience the glory & wonders at Tsukiji's Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market where feeding one of the planet's largest cities is the main priority. It was quite fascinating to see so many edible aquatic species, styrofoam boxes & especially the auctioneers selling row upon row of huge frozen tuna. And that was before the sun came up! Once we'd taken in all we could, we found the nearby food stall (I hesitate to use the word "restaurant") alley & decided upon one that, while not having actual descriptions in English, allowed gaijin to patron & had obvious enough photos on their walls for us to indicate our dining desires (using a laser pointer; ingenious idea on their part). We thoroughly savored the freshest sashimi on rice (perhaps it was more properly chirashi-zushi) that we'll probably ever taste & arrived back at the hostel around 8:15am to begin our day with Rick & Denise. The final highlight for our foursome in Tokyo included a visit to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku. After checking out the North Tower's impressive observatory lookout, we were perusing the tourist office on the first floor when a volunteer guide offered us a free tour of the premises. She was a delightful woman, who had lived for several years in New Orleans (while her husband was a professor at Tulane). She showed us all around the buildings & passed on some very interesting information about Tokyo, before showing us the South Tower's equally impressive views of the rest of the city. That concluded the excursions & time in Tokyo for the hard-working gals, but the boys had decided to stay for the rest of the week & see a few more things. So early that afternoon we headed to Haneda Airport & got the gals back on a plane to Okinawa.Friday, January 18, 2008
Engrish sighting: Shikwasa Cake!
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| From Engrish |
Spotted in one of the large Okinawa airport souvenir shops on the 2nd level, same as the boarding gates. Shikwasa is sometimes called Okinawa Lime, although it's not as sour & larger. It's a very tasty citrus fruit with green skin & yellow meat.
"Shikwasa Cake - It is the cake which used the fresh shikwasa in plenty and the craftsman roasted thoroughly sincerely. Please taste with relish. We send one time which feels relieved to you."
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Exploring Naha (Fukushu-en, Naminoue & Kinjocho)
One of our first adventures in 2008 was to head south to Naha city (the capital & largest city, by population, of both the island & prefecture). We had heard about several attractions that sounded like excellent places to relax & sight-see. So we spent a lovely first Saturday of 2008 exploring first the west side of Naha. Since we had not brought our real camera along for the ride (hey, it happens to the best intentioned adventurer, right?), all of our photos were taken with our Toshiba camera phones, which thankfully sport a CMOS 3MP sensor for decent sized (& reasonable quality) shots.
Our first stop was the lovely Fukushu-en Garden. This garden was officially opened to the public in 1992 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of international friendship ties between Naha City and Fuzhou City in China. This genuine Chinese garden was built using materials from Fuzhou and with techniques unique to that city.
From there we walked to the nearby Naminoue-gu Shrine, which is adjacent to (well, overlooking really) Naminoue Beach. The beach is located on the west side of the Wakasa Seaside Park, and is the only beach in Naha City. Former head of the Eight Shrines of Okinawa, the shrine is located on top of a precipice. An old shrine dedicated to the Buddha incarnate of the three shrines of Kumano, it had a devout following during the Ryukyu kingdom era. Rebuilt after being reduced to ash in the war, this shrine was reconstructed in 1998. We were privileged to witness the first shrine visit of the year for many locals (a very special occasion, on the level of Christmas festivities for Christian westerners). After that we drove around to the east side to find the old Kinjo-cho stone pavement, a 300m long road that leads to Shuri Castle from the southwest.
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