New York State of Mind

I have a confession--I'm a southerner with Yankee blood. Don't get me wrong. I love me some fried chicken, mashed taters, cole slaaaaaw, grits, biscuits and gravy, dumplings, etc....but, I found my Yankee side this past weekend.

The Mr. and I did a road trip home to good ole' Roanoke, Virginia-star city of the south and home to the Texas Tavern-to visit with my parents and some relatives from my mom's side of the family that were visiting.

While none of them live in NYC now, my grandparents, great aunts and uncles all hail from the Bronx. And, this past weekend, I got a chance to reunite with several of them-listening to sex jokes, and stories about their escapades growing up, etc. We laughed, we cried, it was better than Cats.

I love that my grandparents and aunts and uncles all grew up in the same neighborhood-half of the time when they are telling stories, you have no idea if they are talking about a relative or a friend or both-since they all were friends and ended up all being related through marriage--so maybe there is a bit of southern blood in my family after all?

We found out all sorts of interesting facts and weird stories that just kept on coming-a few relatives were bigamists and started new families-so we may have relatives out there that we don't know about, and my great great grandparents got divorced-when nobody else was doing so.....all very bizarre.

The visit was a bit bittersweet-my grandma is going to be moving into an assisted living community soon, and has decided to clean house. And while I'm happy she's made the decision to move-it's the last piece of Roanoke that I can return to that is filled with memories. My parents moved out of the house I grew up in, and my aunt and uncle moved away-so grandma's is the last place that is filled with those sweet memories of playing cards, listening to records, glancing at the Norman Rockwell prints, thumbing through old photos and setting up a "store" and selling my grandparent's own seashells back to them.

It's sad to wave goodbye to that. It's heartbreaking to take some of grandma's records that I grew to love--and know that listening to them will never quite be the same as it was. I guess that is what everyone in my family discovered this weekend-things just arent' the way they were. They ALL used to vacation together. All of the cousins would be together every summer...but you grow up, things change, people move--and nothing is the same.

But, one thing hasn't changed, and that's the feeling I get when I get to spend time with all of these relatives--the feeling of being complete, laughing until your sides hurt, and being a part of something so sweet that words can't even capture the amount of love you feel. I'll always take it---even if it means being part Yankee. Sorry General Lee.

Lasting Impressions

So, now that I'm back, and have had some time to gain some perspective, I wanted to share some observations, impressions, etc from our trip. The landscape was pretty well described in all of the blogs-so I'm not focusing on how pretty the sakura were (cherry trees), or how lovely the Zen gardens were--these are more cultural notes than anything. And, yes, they are generalizations, and maybe even seem a bit rude, but it's just such a different culture, it's hard not to pick out the extremes.

Sing us a song...
-No, I'm not talking Karaoke. One of the things that I loved was how all of the Japanese people in the restaurants, shops, etc, would sing song hello, and if you did or didn't buy anything they would thank you in the same sing-songy manner. A lot of the times when we were listening to people speak, it sounded like song--which is probably why the Japanese language is so hard to learn, is because of the "melody" for certain words that can make what you are saying vary so much.

Humbly yours.
-One of my favorite things about Japan was how humble everyone seemed to be. The bowing became second nature, and I found it very sweet and humbling as well. Not only was everyone most humble and gracious, but almost everyone who we asked for help in getting around sincerely tried to be helpful. We often got walked to our destinations, or if someone saw us staring at a map, they'd come over to help. If they spoke English, they always asked how we were enjoying our stay in their country. While a lot of people seemed cold in their business suits, and their serious work faces, most of the people we were able to converse with were quite lovely and welcoming. It made me want to really go out of my way to be as welcoming to visitors to DC.

Fish, seaweed, and sesame, oh my.
-Because we live in DC, we are no stranger to ethnic foods-Ethopian, Indian, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietanamese, etc....and I just love Asian food, so I thought that Japanese food would not bring that much of a mystery. But, we have definitely Americanized the Japanese food here. Sushi was not as easy to find as we had thought-instead, sashimi seemed to be the norm. And every restaurant seemed to smell of fish and seaweed-mostly because that's the basis for all of their sauces. So, one minute I'd be hungry, and then after entering the restaurant, I'd quickly lose my appetite-just because the smell was so strong and intense--even if the food was somewhat mild, that fish smell was overpowering. Another thing that threw me off was texture-there are a lot of mushy, slimy, jelly-like substances in the Japanese culture-and after awhile, you just want something that has a crunch to it....which is why we fell in love with grilled sesame treats with soy sauce--but that too was wrapped in nori--we couldn't escape the wrath of the seaweed!

Never heard of it
-So, the typical joke about Japanese pronounciation, not too far off the mark. The "l's" and "r's" in words sometimes get a bit jumbled. One day at the market, we were pointing to different fish, asking what they were. We mostly got the Japanese names, but sometimes the store owner would attempt English. So, one was pointing to the fish "butterfish" or "snapper" which we got right away. Then, she said a few Japanese names-saba (mackerel), toro (tuna). And "frounder." We thought that was the Japanese name...until we realized it was flounder. Oh well.

Hi-tech, hi-speed, high-intensity
Everything in Japan is so technilogically advance. All the TVs are HDTV, and the advertisements are just on a completely different level--they are everywhere and everything is an advert. One of the nice things about technology, is that everyone is text-crazy there. Talking on the phone is not allowed on the Japanese trains, so most of the time, people are just texting away. If someone does talk on the phone in public, they cover their mouths to be polite. It is so much nicer than having to listen to someone's phone conversation.

Everything seems to move pretty quickly in Japan-which is probably why the technology is so rapidly advancing. The people move quite fast, and if you don't move, you often find an elbow planted in your rib. It's not out of rudeness-but these people have somewhere they want to be, and if you are in their way, that is your problem, not theirs. No excuse me's, no niceities-just a firmly planted elbow. One of our guides told us we should just elbow back, because that's what people do!!!

The trains are also fast-between the bullet trains, and the regular subway trains, we hardly ever had to wait for a train. In DC, there can sometimes be up to a 15 minute wait for off-peak hours. I think our longest wait in Japan was 5 minutes at most.

Buddha Kitty:
So, one of the biggest things in Japan are the cartoon characters. Hello Kitty is EVERYWHERE. Pens, charms, bracelets, purses, on every sort of souvenier you could imagine. Also big are the mon-chi-chi's (remember those???). But, the Japanese use these little cartoons for everything, and people just eat it up, and can't get enough of their Hello Kitty. I think Hello Kitty may beat out Buddha. Except for my charm, which has Hello Kitty on the lap of Buddha-which effin rocks!

Bathroom Humor:
-Public bathrooms: The one blessing and curse to Tokyo and Kyoto are that there are tons of public restrooms, so you never have to worry about being a tourist and finding a place to "go" because they are located practically everywhere, including the subway. And, while this is a relief, most of the public toilets are not. For some reason, the "Eastern" toilets are just a big hole in the ground-and there may or may not be toilet paper. But, there certainly is no soap, and no hand towels to dry your hands from the COLD water. I finally learned how to scout out the Western toilets, but as the saying goes, when ya gotta go....

-Hotel and restaurant bathrooms: okay, not to get obsessed with toilet talk, but the hotel and restaurant bathrooms made up for the icky public ones. Most of them had heated seats, and offered to play "music" or "flushing sounds" while you went about your business. One bathroom was so fancy that when you opened the door to the restroom, the lid to the toilet popped up, and when you flushed, it went back down. Now that's a fancy toilet!

The Long Life and Smoking Conondrum
-I can't get over how many elderly people there are in Japan. And, most of them are active. I rarely saw canes, or wheelchairs. Most of them walk around with each other at a pretty fast pace, and stay insanely busy. My father's mother walks several miles a day, but she has nothing on the Japanese. I couldn't get over how many train stations had stairs--and not just a small set-I mean, these huge stairwells, and no escalator or elevator in sight. None. So, these older folks were almost forced to be in shape, because they had no choice not to be. And yet, everyone smokes in Japan. How can people live so long when surrounded by so much smoke? It's still a mystery.

And Pachinko is it's name-o
We went, we saw, we didn't understand the obsession with Pachinko. Gambling is not allowed in Japan, so instead, they allow pachinko, which is a mix between pinball of sorts, and a slot machine. I couldn't really figure the whole thing out, but I guess you get a set amount of these steel balls the size of a marble to play with, and then if you win, you get a whole bunch more of the little marbles, which you eventually exchange into a prize (not money since gambling is not allowed). You take your little prize conveniently next store to a small short, and sell your "prize" for money. And that is the magic of pachinko. It's loud, it's smoke filled, it's pachinko.

The Long and the (very) Short of It
-Now that we are back, I feel so short-it was nice being average size, if even for a little while.

I hope you enjoyed reading about our adventures. I'm happy we were able to go, and while it was utterly crazy, I think it only makes us better travellers in the end. And, it opens out minds to something bigger in this world, which is always quite nice.

Karoake at last

Saturday, April 8
Our last full day in Japan. We decided to do a small day trip to Arashiyama, about 20 minutes from Kyoto by train. The main draw to Arashiyama is the dense bamboo forests. It was my first time in a bamboo forest, and it was amazing. The trees are absolutely gorgeous, but my favorite part was when they would blow in the wind. The trees are so much taller than I expected and extremely bendable, so all of the trees curve in the same direction and make a fantastic hollow banging sound when the wind blows. The path is aligned with shrines and temples, so we stopped off at Tenryuji Temple, which was built in 1339, and rated as one of Japan’s top five Zen temples.

The gardens surrounding the temple are breathtaking—the gardens-designed by Muso Soseki, the temple's founding abbot-are mostly made of moss, which is the traditional design of Zen gardens, sprinkled with beautiful ponds and cherry trees throughout. It was a really nice walk, and the path through the garden to us back to the center of the adorable little town where we enjoyed warm tofu in soy sauce with ginger and green onion on top followed by cherry blossom ice cream. Delicious!

After our day trip, we headed back and made plans to meet up with our British friends Jez and Emma for a night out. We headed to Kushya, which is like a Japanese tapas restaurant. We enjoyed several rounds of tasty little skewered appetizers. They cooked some of the meat with grape branches and a charcoal fire—pretty cool. The food was good, but the company even better. We had a great time and enjoyed our new friends company over a couple rounds of beer. A few beers later, we decided it would be the ideal time to get our Karaoke on.

We wondered the streets looking for the Karaoke bar that the waitress told us was close by. Several blocks later, I looked up and said a HUGE neon sign that read KARAOKE. The guys, in their somewhat drunken oblivion didn’t see it, so I had to point out the obvious. There was our mecca.

The karaoke bar smelled of drugs and beer. We got a small room (as I mentioned in previous blog, karaoke is not done in front of a large crowd) and ordered another round of beers, with an extra one for Emma, who wanted to be just about any other place than where we were.

We originally decided to get the room for ½ an hour, just to say that we did it, but 1 ½ later, we finally finished up after several bad impressions of ABBA, Kenny Rogers, Sir Mixalot, Beastie Boys, Beatles, Pixies, and Cyndi Lauper. It was a total laugh, and even Emma got into it after her 2 beers-so MVP to Emma for being an awesome sport!!!

Kyoto closes down pretty early so we hailed a cab home, and settled in for our last night before leaving for DC.

Final Japan blog to come: overall observations.

Memoirs of a Geisha vs. Iron Chef

Friday April 6, 2006
Early morning wake up for our morning tour of Kyoto. The drinks from the night before weren’t helping us get up any faster, but we made it in time for our tour.
First stop-Nijo Castle, were the Tokugawa shogunate ruled from.

It’s hard to believe that only 100 years ago, people were walking around in samurai garb and silk robes before they were influenced by the west. When you walk through the castle, the floor makes a funny squeaking sound. Al and I tried guessing why the floors were so noisy-poor craftsmanship? Preparing for an earthquake? No, instead the floors squeaked as part of a nightingale alarm system, so that if anyone entered the castle at night-time, the squeaking of the floors would give them away--even a tip toe would result in the floors making their chirping noises.



FridayThe Golden Pavilion (Rokoun-ji Temple) was our next stop. This one definitely one of my favorite stops on out of all of the tours, the temple was originally built by the third shogun of Ashikaga, so that he could indulge in the peaceful, serene setting. After his death, it was made into a Zen temple in accordance to his will (yes, even back then people had bequests!) The temple is surrounded by a zen garden, which really does impart a bit of tranquility to the passer-bys.

Our final stop on the tour was the Imperial Palace, which is only open to the public two weeks out of the year, and we just happen to be here during one of those two weeks. The palace housed 2 emperors before the emperor Meiji moved the capital to Tokyo. Due to the unique time of visiting this palace, the place was absolutely packed, and so we only got a quick glimpse of the emperor’s seat before being pushed forward in line.

After the tour, Al and I decided to head to the Nishiki Food Market, which is basically several blocks of food stalls selling all sorts of strange, weird concoctions. We stopped at a few stalls along the way, trying some different fish, skewers, etc, and made our way to Gion, which is where all of the geisha are. We saw a few of the geisha in their day-time wear, which was pretty cool.

Our feet grew tired after several hours on foot hauling our back packs, so we headed back to the hotel to clean up and get ready for dinner-our concierge had made reservations, but we had no idea what we would be getting ourselves into. We found out that we would be going to Ogawa’s, which is a French/Kyoto nouvelle type restaurant.

We arrived at the restaurant, which was tucked behind a small alleyway, and we were led to the chef’s table. For those of you who know my husband and what a foodie he is, sitting at the chef’s table is an experience met with great appreciation. We sat down in front of Chef Ogawa, and we started with the first course (I had ordered the 6 course meal, Al got the 8). It was a little gelatin mold of asparagus and lobster, topped with a warm crab sauce. It was divine! Manna from the heavens! The next course was a tempura of asparagus and monkfish in a rich buttery ssauce with balsamic vinegar. Yum! We were presented course after course-plates of slightly kissed to the flame tuna tartarar, foe gras, an adorable copper pot of anchioves, leeks, shoots, and onions, with a crunchy delicious top. My favorites were a bamboo shoot consume, and the kobe beef that we had for our entrée-as Al said, it was so tender, you could cut it with a chopstick—and it was our first time with the real deal Kobe beef, not the American “Kobe” beef.
After dinner, we were presented a tray of desserts, and we could choose as many as we wanted for dessert. For those who know how much I love cake and sweets, this was music to my ears. But, I was stuffed from such a large dinner, so I only chose two (which sounds like a lot, but had I not been full, I could have done more). I was dumb, fat, and happy after dinner. It was by far the best meal on our trip yet.

We talked with the chef throughout dinner, and he was great—very funny, and made our experience even more delightful. We spoke a little about cooking differences, and types of cuisines, especially among the big time chef’s. We told Ogawa that in our minds, he was truly meant to be Iron Chef (I should know, I watch every damn night—oh crap, I might be missing it now), which I think flattered him quite a bit. After dinner the chef kindly helped us with our jackets and walked us to the door, AND, we got a 90 degree bow, which we had learned from our reading and our tours is a great honor. He and Al exchanged business cards, and the whole thing was so charming--we'll definitely remmond it for our friends.

After dinner, Al and I strolled the canal nearby, packed with people snapping photos of the cherry trees in the night-time. On our stroll, I got to see a Geisha—the real deal, all made up and everything, with her escort for the evening. So cool!!!

The last day: Bamboo forest, the last night would be complete without including Karaoke—how could one say no???

Follow the Path of Philosophy...

Thursday, April 6, 2006
As we awoke in our ryokan, our bodies were absolutely as stiff as a board from our thin futons. We were a bit nervous about our breakfast after our dinner experience.

Our maid (I’m not sure what else to call them, so I guess that works.) arrived promptly at 7:30 with our breakfast. This time, the meal was a little bit better than the night before, but not my cup of tea. Al enjoyed it a bit more than I did, since he likes the more savory soup and fish and rice breakfast, whereas if you give me a bowl of cereal, that’s all I really need.

We finished up our meal, and made our way to the next hotel-Hotel Brighton. Since we were there too early to check in, we made fast friends with the concierge asking for recommendations before our 1:00 pm tour. She recommended a walk along the Path of Philosophy, which is adorned by beautiful cherry trees and lined by temples and shrines all up and down the path.

The walk was about an hour and a half long, and worth every second. Kyoto is so peaceful-even with all of the tourists here for the cherry blossoms, the peace and tranquility just fills the air. We enjoyed our walk, stopping along the way to the little shops off of the path, as well as grabbing an ice cream along the way-green tea and cherry blossom swirl—delicious!! We stopped at a shrine or two intermittently, and did the traditional washing of the hands, swirling incense to our heads, bowing, clapping twice, bowing again. The sun was shining, and it was a perfect way to forget our ryokan experience, and embrace the Kyoto culture.

After our walk, we made our way to join the tour, but I got hungry to the point of grumpy, so we quickly found a little soba noodle place to grab a quick bowl of noodles before meeting up with the group.

We finally met up with our group, and as we were about to board the bus, we started talking to a couple-a British fellow named Jez (who looks like Quentin Tarrentino), and a Scot named Emma (who looks like British local celeb Lorraine Kelly).

Our first stop on the tour was the Heian Shrine, also featured in the movie Lost in Translation. This is a Shinto Shrine, dedicated to the first and last emperors that reigned from Kyoto, Emperor Kammu and Emperor Komei. Behind the shrine’s main building is a series of gardens, filled with beautiful weeping cherry trees, and little cement stepping stones, allowing you to walk across the ponds. Even packed with people, it was inspiring.

Our next stop was at a National Trasure, Sanjusangen-do, a Buddhist temple. The principal images of the temple are the 1001 statues of the Buddhist deity-made up of 1,000 standing statues, and 1 gigantic seated statue of Buddha (the National Treasure). The statues were almost eerie, but also hypnotic in the same sense.

Our final stop on the tour was the Kiyomizu Temple, a Buddhist temple built into a steep hillside with 139 giant pillars supporting part of its main hall. And it really is supported by these pillars-not a single nail can be found. One of the sayings in Kyoto is “I have jumped from the Kiyomizu”, which loosely translates into doing something a bit daring, or taking a chance. The view from the temple was beautiful as we looked over the peaceful city of Kyoto.

After our tour finished, we decided to grab drinks with our new British pals, Jez and Emma. We headed back to the area they were staying, and went up to the food court across the street from their hotel. Emma and I were feeling a bit picky-we needed a bit of a break from anything slimy, fried, or with noodles. We walked past a pizza place, and it just called our name. We decided that pizza and beer sounded too good to pass up, and Al and I were curious about how the Japanese prepared their pizza anyways.

I ordered a Margherita pizza and Jez and Emma ordered a sausage pizza, thinking it would be something like pepperoni, but what they got was little hot dogs cut up on their pizza. It wasn’t really bad, but quite funny. The next round of ordering went better-the pizzas were thin, and we were all hungry from a day on our feet, so we ordered a minced meat pizza, which was quite good.

After dinner, Al and I were setting in with perma-grin, and so we went to Emma and Jez’s hotel bar with them to continue drinking. Al and I had to be up early the next day for a tour, so we ended the night after one more round.

The next day-Kyoto by day, and the most blog-worthy food experience yet. Stay tuned!

Lost in Translation

Wednesday, April 5, 2006

Our stay had come to an end in Okinawa, so we boarded an early shuttle to the airport, and checked in for our flight bound to Kyoto.

We arrived to the Osaka airport late afternoon, and luckily we were right on time for the hour long bus ride to Kyoto, which is the more traditional city in Japan. If you’ve read Memoirs of a Geisha, this is where it took place.

We decided to book a ryokan for a one-night stay, which is a traditional Japanese inn-with tatami mats for floors, an onsen for bath (public bath), futons for beds, and a traditional Japanese dinner and Japanese breakfast. We quickly found our way on the Kyoto subway, and made it to the ryokan—where nobody spoke a word of English. I’m totally fine with people not speaking English-we are not America, and we were staying in a Japanese traditional inn. What I’m not comfortable with is people laughing at me because I’m different and trying to learn their culture, which is what happened in the ryokan. The Japanese have mostly been very humble, welcoming people—and it was surprising that in the one traditional setting, I found the people to be the most unwelcoming. Perhaps it was because I speak very little Japanese (I've picked up a few phrases, but still....)

After checking in, we went to our room-which basically were tatami mats, and to little chairs on the floor and a table. We assumed our futons would be put out later, like Fodor’s had mentioned (but at this point, I was not entirely trusting Fodor’s.). We knew we’d be eating shortly, so I decided to throw on my robe, and head to the onsen (a public bath-same sex only). Of course, I had no idea what to do once I reached the onsen. I desperately looked around trying to emulate others, but all I got was laughter and some women not so discreetly pointing at me. I just shrugged and continued-determined to have the experience we paid for. From what I could glean, you are supposed to sit on a small stool and wash yourself completely-shampoo, soap, etc, before entering the onsen.

I washed myself off and entered the onsen-which is a hot, hot pool of water. And there I sat, with all of me for the world to see and make fun of.

After the bath, I returned to our room to have dinner, which is served in one’s room in the ryokan. Our “maid” brought our food promptly at 8, and we had no idea what we were about to eat. Each dish looked utterly different than any of the foods we’ve been exposed to on our trip so far-with the exception of the sashimi and rice. But, there were all of these other dishes that we had no idea what they were, and while they were beautifully presented, this dinner would prove to be a light one. Al and I are pretty adventurous eaters, claiming to try most things once (with the exception of a few things, but we’re fairly open minded), so we did try a bit of everything, but could not eat most of it. I think that the pictures of the food speaks for itself, as well as our reaction to it.

Once we “finished” our dinner, our tables were cleared and our futons were set out. It was about 9:15 pm. I left the room to briefly wash my face, and returned to Al passed out on his futon. So, this was our much anticipated experience…and while it was nice to do something so traditional, sleeping in a room that reaked of smoke, and having a somewhat uncomfortable encounter, I was relieved to have only booked this hotel one night-the rest of our time would be spent in another hotel in Kyoto.

Next day: breakfast at the ryokan, a tour day in Kyoto, and drinking with some cool Brits.

Japanese Spa

Tuesday, April 4, 2006

We slept in after a long day and a hard work out on our bodies. We finally decided that we wanted to try to get to the Aquarium for the day until we found out that it was about 2 hours by bus, and getting home would prove to be difficult.

A woman by the name of Heetumi at the front desk took pity on our situation, and tried to help us find something nearby to do. All of a sudden, I had a brainstorm—my joints were killing me from diving, and Maggie had always told me about how cheap spas are when she travels in Asia. Inspired, I asked for information on local spas, and we hit the jackpot. We found a spa offering a 3 hour treatment for the same cost as a 50 minute massage in DC. Plus—no tipping in Japan—bonus!

We had some time to kill prior to our spa treatment, and Heetumi recommended the American Village-which would at least be close to the spa, and would provide us with something to do rather than stare at hotel walls while we waited.

We headed to the American Village, and promptly found that we were, in fact, the only Americans IN the American Village. Basically, it’s just a hodge podge of stuff-some of it American fashion for kids in Okinawa trying to emulate American fashion. We struck it lucky though, and found some cool t-shirts and such- Al had been on a rampage making me stop at every possible store that sells t-shirts so that he could get a cool one. I am so relieved we finally found some. I totally dug the stores at American Village-like the punk stores in Tokyo, they are all blasting 80’s music as loudly as possible. I had to keep from doing my own impromptu Karaoke on the spot.

After shopping, we grabbed a quick bowl of Taco Rice-another one of Fodor’s “excellent” recommendations. I’m seriously going to email Fodor’s after this trip and tell them where to shove it.

Anyways, the taco rice-not so original. Basically, it’s like nachos—only instead of the nachos, they use rice. Not really a mind bender.

After Taco Rice we headed to the spa. We walked in to a huge tacky fountain lit up by green and red flood lights. Niiiiiice. We looked around, and there were a ton of Americans there getting treatments-GI wives mostly, and another American couple.

We settled into our 3 hour treatment. I first started with a facial, which was lovely—one of the best I’ve had. After that—75 minute massage-which was good until someone started blaring a TV in the background. And, then a body scrub. I had no idea what a scrub was, but it’s basically like an exfoliating treatment-and doesn’t feel so great when you have a bit of a burn from diving the day before.

After our treatment, we ran into Heetumi as we left the spa, and she helped us order dinner at another traditional Okinawa restaurant. Al got pork with ginger and I got champura, which is a mix of tofu, egg, cabbage, pork, and a spam-like product.

We were pretty zonked after our spa treatment, so we made it an early night after our dinner out.

Next stop--Kyoto

Fear Factor-Okinawa style

Sunday April 2 and Monday April 3, 2006 Okinawa

We set out from our hotel in Tokyo on Sunday to Okinawa, where we would be diving. After making our way to the airport, and trying to figure out which of the 30+ ANA gates to check into, we figured it out, and made our way. Our plane departed about an hour later than scheduled, and it was totally packed (and it was a 747!!). We touched down in Okinawa, and could immediately tell the difference in weather.

Okinawa is very different than many areas in Japan in that their dialect and foods are very strongly influenced by China, but they also have the influence of Japan as well. It’s a tremendously unique place-although some of its uniqueness is taken away from the concrete jungles of military bases.

We arrived at our Hotel Grand Mer ridiculously late (our shuttle bus had to wait for another person to arrive, whose plane was also late.), and there weren’t any restaurants nearby our hotel. So, we meandered our way up to the hotel’s bar and just had some bar food to sustain us until the next day.

The next morning, we woke up at 6 to grab a quick breakfast and meet our dive guide for the day Otis, of Okinawa Ocean Divers (http://www.oodt.jp/english/index.html). We met up with 4 other divers-Juko, Kayode, Miyumi (all from various cities in Japan), and Marco (Finnish and a dead ringer for Kurt Cobain--no pun intended) and began making our way to the Keramas islands-which are about an hour away from Naha. The Keramas are a bit like the Florida Keys, and are a series of chain of islands that stem off of the main island of Okinawa. The boat ride was extremely choppy, and I had to battle some serious sea sickness. We finally made it to our first dive spot-which was a beginner dive-mostly for everyone to build up their comfort level with diving. We fed the fish some sausages, which allowed us to see a lot of tropical fish swimming past our face. The dive was a calm one-got to see a stone fish (deadly), a few sea snakes (also deadly-and first time seeing snakes too!), and sea cucumbers.

The water was pretty cold, and we were shivering on the boat en route to our next stop, which was a coral bed. The coral here is beautiful, and I’ve never seen anything like it. It is most similar to what we’ve seen in Australia, but completely different in size, shape, colors, etc. It doesn’t have as much of the vibrant colors as the Great Barrier Reef, but the amount of life on the corals is astounding and heartwarming. We got to see a ton of tropical fish on this dive-lots of anemone fish (think Nemo), angel fish, parrot fish, sea urchins, flat worms (my first time seeing one), a small shark. Lots of really cool nooks and crannies to look in.

After our dive, we tried to warm up in the sun, and enjoyed a nice bento box of Okinawan cuisine-pork, rice, potato cakes, tofu, and goya (this is a really big thing in Okinawa-looks like a cucumber and super bitter!) After we finished eating, we did our final drift dive to Turtle Reef. With our body temps lowered after the first two dives, this dive was especially cold. A great dive though-tons of reef and tropical fishies—and a SEA TURTLE!! If any of you know about our experience diving, Al and I typically miss the turtles when diving, so I was super psyched to have seen one!

We headed back to the dive shop, agreeing to meet up with everyone later for a traditional Okinawan dinner. After our taxi driver got lost on the way…we finally arrived at our destination-Satto. Almost everyone had made it out, including Miho, Otis’ wife.

Our bodies were tired from diving, and we were ravenous. Luckily-we were in good hands, and Otis and Miho were tremendous hosts. They started ordering, and we just sat back in enjoying dish after dish, laughing our way through dinner. We sat next to Otis, Miyumi (one of the divers) and Marco. Miyumi was totally sweet-she is from Tokyo, and her English is impeccable. Marco is from Finland, and his English was also quite good, so we were able to converse with everyone. After a beer and Sake later, we realized Marco looked like Kurt Cobain, and he started joking that he WAS in fact Kurt, and still alive. We laughed about a lot of cultural differences, and had a great time over our beer and endless amounts of food.

Here is a list of things we enjoyed (not for the faint at heart):
Shima Rakyo-green onions with fried onion shavings on top
Sashimi-included parrot fish, octopus, tuna, squid, scallop
Ceaser Salad-made of goya and fresh sunny side up egg. Super Yummy!!
Goya Pizza-pizza with the bitter goya on top—surprisingly good.
Takowas-Octopus guts with daikon
Tofu-yo-The restaurants homemade tofu that had been soaked in Awamora (alcohol) for two weeks. Tasted like blue cheese soaked in port—a bit strong, and not very tasty.
Rafu Tei-pork with hot mustard—the Okinawans take their pork super duper fatty, so lots of yummy pork fat.
Soki w/ Garlic-pork with a tremendous amount of garlic on top (my dad would have enjoyed!)
Potato w/ muchi (pounded rice) and cheese—Super good!
Umi Budo Salad-sea caviar/sea grapes. Mmm!
California Roll-tuna, avocado, crab eggs
Orion Beer-Okinwa beer
Shima Dofu-warm, smokey tofu with giner, green union and soy sauce-my favorite dish!
Shito-Sake
And to finish off, we had a lovely lemon ice.

The next day....Japanese spa! Woo hoo!

Bright lights, big city

Saturday, April 1
We headed back to Asakusa to check out the side street arcades and cute little stores. There are a ton of street vendors making all sorts of interesting foods in Asakusa-one of our favorites are the cooked sesame crackers dipped in soy sauce and wrapped in nori (seaweed). Another favorite is the warm bean cake-basically a sweet batter filled with beans in an iron cast of some sort of fun shape-like a kabuki mask, or a fish, etc. Best eaten while warm and super yummy. After wondering afound a bit, we set out to get some tempura (which is a specialty of this particular area). Fodor’s had promised a cheap lunch at Aoi Marushin, the largest tempura restaurant in Tokyo. The tempura part true enough, and largest tempura restaurant seems likely, but it was not cheap. Afterwards, we made our way to the restaurant district Kappabashi, where we looked at all of the many chopsticks, rice cookers, pots and pans, sushi containers, and Japanese knives available for Japanese restauranteers.

After that, we went to Shinjuku, which is one of the busiest train stations in the city. Almost every type of train runs into this station-it’s like the Union Station/Grand Central Station of Japan, and when you exit, it is like being in the middle of Times Square. The streets are just a sea of people and it seems impossible to cross with about 1000 Japanese people all in a hurry heading your way, but somehow you are able to make it across the street unscathed and in one piece.

We walked around Shinjuku a bit, passing by the arcades full of weird games for all ages. We stopped at one arcade, where they had this wheel that you spin, and you win a ticket. Al and I decided to give it a try, and won a ticket, but then had no idea what to do with it. We had a pretty good laugh trying to figure it out. While trying to figure it all out, I looked up to see the weirdest commercial playing over and over again with these creepy dancing dolls—it was an ad for some sort of eel pasta or something, and I’m not sure what the creepy dancing dolls had to do with it, but it was mesmerizing and frightening all at once. Words can’t even begin to describe.


Once we walked around Shinjuku, we then headed to Shibuya—which has the giant telecom screen as seen in Lost In Translation. Al and I have definitely noticed that advertising is on such a different level than at home—almost everything has an advertisement of some kind-be it neon, a full screen of advertisements on a building, handouts at the subways, everything is so much more advanced as far as marketing goes. And, the technology—amazing. Everything is HDTV, and the cell phones, cameras, etc. are just mind blowing.

Shibuya was another huge area filled with an endless amount of people, all meeting up to hit the karaoke bars. Al and I have yet to go karoaking, b/c it is not like in the US where you sing to a group of strangers. Instead, you are supposed to get a group of your friends together and a get a room for karaoking, but since Al and I haven’t really met anyone to go out with, we decided it best not to pay a bunch of money to just serenade each other. But hopefully we’ll get a chance to do so in Okinawa—which is our next stop.

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Seeing Buddha

Friday-March 31.
After another sleepless night, we woke up again super early to hit the Tsujiki fish market-the market typically opens around 5 am for the fish auction to local restaurant vendors, but if you ask around, half of the people will tell you it is open to the public, and half will tell you it isn’t.

Since I was not willing to leave the hotel and get our busy day started at 4 am, I decided to believe the second half-and just think that it wasn’t upon to the public. But, we did get up at 6, out the door at 6:45, and made our way to the market around 7:45. The streets of Tsujiki are filled with fisherman and local workers just getting off of the night shift hunched over their sushi, or bowl of noodles. Paving the streets to the fish market, there are tons and tons of stores selling everything under the sun-Japanese knives, paper, ceramics, and a TON of fish-smoked, dried, fresh, etc.

We made it to the fish market by 8, and it was still buzzing with activity. Carts are zooming by left and right with the fish purveyors delivering fish and moving their wares from one side of the market to the other. This is not a typical tourist area-so they do not slow down for the Caucasians, they just continue mulling about their business, and it’s up to each person to make sure they don’t get run over by these carts. The carts nipped right past our noses a few times, but luckily, Al and I were there to yank each other back.

As we meandered through the fish market, it was totally fascinating. There were people hacking away at the biggest fish heads I have ever seen. The pictures can only do it justice-if I tried to describe how big it was, it would only seem like a fishing legend. In some of the stalls, they needed a hacksaw to get through the thickness of the fish. At one stall, we stopped to look at the beautiful tuna, and one of the older gentleman handed us a piece of freshly cut tuna sashimi. “Toro?” he offered. Of course! It was one of the most succulent pieces of sashimi I’ve ever had.

Another thing we noticed were the men hacking away small bits of meat from these huge fish. It wasn’t until we left the market that we realized that they were bonito pieces, which were to be fried and smoked and eventually used to make dashi, or the basis for misos, sauces, etc. Almost EVERYTHING seems to smell or taste like bonito.

We walked through the maze of the Tsujiki streets, freezing to the core. It was a super cold day out, and while we had on our layers, the wind whipped right through to the core. While everyone (including the guide books) recommends sushi while in Tsujiki, we just couldn’t stomach sushi that early-especially as cold as we were. We settled on a nice bowl of noodles in a delicious thick broth. Mmmm!

After the fish market, we decided to do a trip to Hase to see the temple Kotoku-in’s Great Buddha. We traveled about an hour outside of Tokyo to get to the Buddha, and he was a sight to see. Sitting at about 37 feet with cherry blossoms all around, this bronze statue was everything I had hoped it would be. We even got to walk inside his belly! Cool!!!!

We walked around Hase a little bit-it’s a super cute town, and it was nice to get away from the buzz of Tokyo for a few hours. After walking around, we made our way back to Tokyo, and headed to Harajuku. This is the infamous area that all of the teenyboppers in their baby doll dresses hang out. The fashion here is totally different than most of Tokyo (with the exception of Shinjuku and Shibuya which are both relatively close). Most of what we had seen in Tokyo up to this point had been business men and women wearing suits-but it was cool to see the punk rock side of Japan. Lots of hairdye, piercings, neon, and thigh highs.

After walking around for a full day, we retired back to the hotel early and I ended up passing out (finally) and caught up on some much needed sleep.