Tokyo Trip Part 3: Maid Cafes? Oh my!

Sorry about the lapse in updates about the Tokyo trip. Here comes part three! We didn't have much planned for this day, other than an evening performance of Kabuki. This gave us a chance to sleep-in (yay beds!) and explore around Akihabara. It's an interesting area, one of the busiest in Tokyo and known as a large shopping area for electronics, anime/manga (Japanese comics), and video/computer games.




It is also a fantastic place to people-watch, as all manner of people traverse its busy streets daily. There are also the Maid Cafes where you can go have a bite to eat while being doted on by a young Japanese girl wearing a maid outfit. These places generally cater to Japanese men who are obsessed with manga, video games, and especially the young girl caricatures which often feature prominently in both. We didn't go into one, but we saw plenty of "maids" walking up and down the streets handing out fliers for their establishment. Think of these places like a Japanese version of a "Hooters" restaurant for nerds. Pictures of some "maids" looking for potential customers, and one of their fliers:




If you're REALLY curious, you can check out the website for one of them: http://candyfruit-strawberry.com/ I think it's mostly work safe, but I can't read any of the Japanese on the page, so visit at your own discretion. Anyways, we didn't go into any of those places, instead settling on a nice normal Western-style (as in European/American, not "Old West") cafe. As we walked around and browsed the shops, we saw a few interesting things:


Yes, that is a mouse pad of an anime girl that has her breasts as the protruding soft jelly-like area where your wrist rests. Classy. They also had pornographic computer games that you'll have to leave to your imagination because we did not take pictures of them.

That last one really creeps me out. After more walking around, I heard a familiar tune cutting through the Tokyo noise. Me: "Is that...Yes...Yes! It's the original Super Mario Bros. theme music!" Like a siren's call, I was drawn to a building by which time the music had changed to the classic Legend of Zelda theme. We entered and followed the signs up to the fifth floor, where there was an arcade of old school video games. It was like a mecca video gamers who grew up in the 80s. Atari, Nintendo, Neo Geo, you name it, if it was old and Japanese, they had it. Tessa played some Tetris while I played some original Super Mario and then Mega Man. Ah, good times:


A throne fit for a king!


Or should I say, Queen?

I even met a celebrity!

It was reeeeally smoky in there, and reminded me what it was like to go to a club or bar before Washington state's smoking ban. Yuck.

We then headed to the Ginza area to get in line to buy tickets for Kabuki at the Kabuki-za theater. While waiting in line, we met some nice Austria who (impressively) spoke perfect English. We chatted with them for a while about life in Japan (she lives in Tokyo with her husband who was there doing research as a physicist) and other general things. The show itself was pretty awesome, though we were way back as far as you could go. We only paid to see one act (about an hour) but it was amazing and well worth it.


A countdown for how many days the historic Kabuki-za theater has left until it is torn down to build a new theater. We were pretty lucky to see it.


That evening, after the show, we went to a bar advertised in the back of our program. It had all drinks and food for 300 yen, not a bad deal, except that each order of food had incredibly small portions. It was still quite fun as it was the first time we had been in a real bar since we've been in Seattle. We got back in a bit late and tired from the long day, but satisfied. Stay tuned for Day Four: The Future is Here, Today! Coming soon, I promise!

Day 2 in Tokyo

Hi All,

Tessa here, Chris' often-absent blogging partner (he intimated that he wouldn't cook us dinner until I posted our Day 2 entry).

So where were we - ah yes, waking up in Tokyo feeling so refreshed (seriously loved sleeping on that mattress, we contemplated stealing it from the hotel, but it's hard to stuff things like that in a shoulder bag).

Ready to take on the city, we hopped on the subway - alas, it was already too late in the morning for me to try out the Ladies Only car, to my utter disappointment ;) - and headed to the world-class Edo-Tokyo Museum. This museum specifically highlights the birth of Edo (what became Tokyo) in the late 16th century through to the present day. It takes you through different ruling shogunates, the arrival of Western traders and goods, devastating fires and earthquakes, and the changing culture. We ended up going through some of the exhibits backwards, but it still made quite an impression. It was especially fascinating (and at times heartbreaking) looking at how the city fared during WWII. A little awkward to be reading the English description of the days surrounding the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, while standing next to an older Japanese couple. How different our perspectives must have been, although hopefully no true animosity remained on their side.

The museum had tons of models, both miniature and life-size.
These two are from the life-size model of a Kabuki theatre:
Here's Chris squeezing into a wooden carrying box, we never found out the name (or found anyone who wanted to lug Chris around).
We also happened to be lucky enough to catch a short museum presentation of Japanese Noh Theatre, an artistic tradition going back to the 14th century. This form of theatre often tells stories through song and dance, and the performers are always masked. Chris and I studied a little bit of Noh in college, as well as some Kabuki, so this was pretty cool. Here are the two performers:

After lunch we changed venues, making our way to the Asakusa district (pronounced A-sak-sa). This area is famous for its Buddhist temple, Senso-ji . Here's the gate to the temple:

However, we didn't get much time in the temple itself because of the crowds; we did squeeze in to toss some coins and say a prayer (being careful not to hit the guards who were standing with big screen box things over their heads to not get pinged in the face!). The real reason for the crowds, we learned, were the countless souvenir stalls. You could barely get around aisles to check anything out, but we did make a few purchases which some of you family members will see when we come home. We also ate freshly okaki, or fried rice crackers, and had a dinner of yakitori (like meat kebabs) and some kind of pancake/noodle dish that we see at festivals but don't know the name of.

We didn't actually get up the nerve to buy any of these octopus (you could choose the one you wanted and hand it to the cook to grill it)
We then went home to rest our feet a bit before hitting the last hotspot (excuse my pun) the Ice Bar! Yep, it sounds just like what you might picture. This is one of those places you will only ever find in a city like Tokyo. You walk into a tiny entryway, pay a fairly steep cover charge (which Chris assured me was worth it to experience a true Tokyo novelty attraction) and then the attendants hand you ridiculous-looking hooded cloak/ponchos with attached gloves. Then you open the door, and whoosh it's cold! You walk into a room literally made of ice - ice bar counter, ice walls, ice tables, ice benches, etc. We even got little glasses made of ice for all of our drinks!

We were there around 7pm, so it wasn't quite hopping yet - but still fun and bizarre. We kept saying to each other, "Are we really here? This is crazy." Anyway, we had a couple of drinks, took pictures, and then after 45 minutes or so, it actually got a little boring. Maybe if it had been busier, with energetic music and a lively atmosphere we would have stayed longer, but in a small room like that with hardly any people, the novelty wears off. However, we enjoyed ourselves and didn't regret it a bit, and we'll always remember doing something so strange.

The day was long and a bit overwhelming (Tokyo is just so huge) but we ended it in a style usually reserved for rich and very eccentric people ;)

Thanks for sticking with me through my ramblings - stay tuned for Day 3: Maid Cafes, old Nintendo collections, and Kabuki theatre!

Tokyo Trip, Part One: A Hotel Bed

We took a four day, three night trip to Tokyo from 01-03 to 01-06. Tessa and I had been to Tokyo a few times already, it's about a 2.5 hour bus ride from where we live, so it's definitely doable as a day trip, but since Tokyo is so huge, we still hadn't seen much of the city. We originally planned on going somewhere else in Japan for our big winter vacation, but high travel costs nixed them. Anyways, we had a great time and will be telling you all about it in 4 parts. This is part one.

We woke up early Sunday morning and caught a bus at 7:40 am, conveniently a two minute walk away from our apartment. To kill time we listened to iPods and did crossword puzzles and the like. About 2.5 hours later we arrived at Tokyo station. Since we couldn't check into our hotel until 2:00 pm, we immediately hopped on the subway and headed to Harajuku to see if we could see some of the famous crazily dressed cosplay partakers. We unfortunately didn't see many, but did get a picture of these two:


The good news though, was that the Meiji Shinto Shrine was also nearby, so we decided to check it out. The place was PACKED, far more people than usual there. We later found out that the number of people was due to a combination of the New Year's holiday, the upcoming Coming of Age Day holiday, and some kind of anniversary of the Shrine. We got to walk amongst the throngs of people, but were not able to go inside the shrine. Still, it was very interesting and beautiful, and we were able to buy a few souvenirs take some pictures:






After we walked around there for a while we decided to go to our hotel and just drop off our bags at the counter so we wouldn't be burdened by them while we explored our next stop. Quick side note, we took the subway everywhere we went. Tokyo is so huge, and their subway system is pretty great, though a bit confusing sometimes. The Tokyo subways are famous for the amount of people that ride it every day, especially during peak times when people are going to or coming from work. It can get so packed that it is not uncommon for women to get groped by a horny Japanese man while they are all packed in there, and the woman can't run or often see who is doing it. To combat this, some subway cars are marked for "women only" in the morning:




Luckily, we never experienced anything like that, had a pleasant time on the subway, and were only packed in like sardines once.

Anyways, when we got to the hotel, they told us that our room was available early (score!) and we could check in immediately. We were thankful for that because we were already a little tired from getting up early and walking around with our bags all morning. Our hotel room was on the tenth floor, and a little on the small side, which was fine because we were not expecting anything huge. What we were really looking forward to was the bed. We sleep on a futon on the floor at home. Now, you can take that mental image of an American futon and throw it out the window, because Japanese futon are quite different. Ours accounts for about 5 inches of padding when we add up all the layers of things covered by our sheets, resting atop the hardwood floor. Traditionally, the Japanese roll them up or fold them after they wake up in the morning. The idea of sleeping on a mattress and box spring up off the floor was something we longed for, and we were not disappointed. A bonus of the room was that it also had a beautiful day and night view of the Imperial palace gardens and the Tokyo skyline:



You can see Tokyo Tower (basically a copy of the Eiffel Tower) lit up on the right side.

After we rested up a bit, we decided to walk around the Imperial Palace (where the emperor and empress live) which was very close to our hotel. The walk around is about the length of walking around Greenlake in Seattle. Honestly, if I had that to walk around on a daily basis, I would probably get a lot more exercise in Japan. The palace (where tourists and the general public are almost never allowed), is surrounded by a moat and some nice gardens:









After that nice long walk, the sun was going down and it started to get cold, so we went back to the hotel where we watched crazy Japanese television programming before going to bed. A long, but adventurous day. And so ends Part One of Chris and Tessa's Big Tokyo Adventure! Stay tuned for Parts Two through Four! If you have any questions just ask us. How, you ask? It's easy. At the bottom of this post you should see something that says "x comments" (x being how many comments that post has). Click that to see what others have said and write your own comment/question. If you have a question, Tessa and I will answer it promptly, and you can check back for our reply. So simple! See you next time for Part Two: The Coldest Bar In Japan.

Sunset Over Lake Kasumigaura

I think we've mentioned before, but in case we haven't, we live next to the second largest lake in Japan. Unfortunately, it's dirty and polluted and you can't swim in it, but it does make for some nice scenery. I remember one time in class, the Japanese teacher asked a student (in English) "Do you want to swim in Lake Kasumigaura?" The purpose being to teach the grammar point of "Do you want to ~ ?" The student gave him a look that seemed to say "I'm not swimming there, you're crazy!" I know a lot of people go fishing there, so I asked the teacher if people ate the fish from there, and he said "Uhh, it is...possible...but uh...I don't want to. It would depend on how hungry you are." So there you go. Anyways, now that Tessa and I are on winter vacation (fuyu yasumi) we need excuses to get out of the apartment (at least before our big trip to Tokyo) for some fresh air, and the lake is a nice enough area to walk, especially right before sunset. See below:

That is a small Shinto (I believe) shrine. You see small shrines like this by the road all over the place.

The Rainbow Tower, Namegata's only claim to fame. It's also pretty boring inside.

This was spray painted on a wall under a bridge. I have no idea why.




Nice shot of the light reflecting off the bridge. It's the best I can do with the crappy 5.0 mega pixel no zoom digital camera we have. That's all for now, we leave for Tokyo on the morning of the 3rd.

Kurisumasu in Japan

In case you didn't know, the Japanese love them some Christmas. It's not a religious holiday over here of course, but a secular one. One of my teachers explained to me how they celebrate Christmas and New Years as the opposite to how they are celebrated in America. For Christmas day they go out and party, and for New Year's, they stay inside and celebrate with family. New Year's is much more spiritual. All the super markets and department stores have Christmas decorations everywhere, and playing Christmas music. Some of the music are the old classics in English, but some are in Japanese. One store has a Japanese version of Santa Claus is Coming to Town playing on a continuous loop. It's all in Japanese, except for the chorus of "Santa Claus is coming to town" and for some reason they throw in a random "merry Christmas" here and there. I have also heard a Japanese Jingle Bells that was similar.

Last week sometime, a friend of ours invited us to a Japanese Christmas party in Kashima put on by the Rotary Club. Yes they have Rotary Clubs. We were pretty nervous, as we didn't know what to expect, and we are both naturally shy when it comes to the unknown, but part of the reason for this whole trip was to do something out of my comfort zone, so we decided to do it. We went to the hotel where it was being held (pretty big for the area) and pushed open the large double doors into the large banquet room. We knew we were a little late, so what would await us on the inside? A lot of Japanese people silently eating, then looking up to see why three foreigners (including our friend) had interrupted them? Naw, not exactly. It was much like I imagine something like that would be in America. A buffet of Japanese and Western foods, and many tables scattered around filled by Japanese people having a grand time, and someone playing Disney favorites on the piano. We got some food and sat down to eat with friends of our friend, and had a good time. At some point, they started having kids play musical chairs for prizes. First, really young kids, then older elementary school aged, then Junior and High school. After that they asked for parents to come up. I laughed and remarked to Tessa that we would (thankfully) not be playing since we didn't qualify. But I was wrong. The slightly tipsy Japanese emcee dragged me up there anyway much to Tessa's delight and my chagrin. Out of like 15 adults, I got second place somehow (with Tessa giggling all the way), and won a box of snack things. Afterward, a random old Japanese man vigorously shook my hand and thanked me for playing. Thankfully, there is justice in this world, as they had another round of musical chairs for adults and dragged Tessa up there. She got FIRST PLACE and won a larger box of snacks. Later in the night they had some kind of raffle and ended up with some nice flowers, and a giant bag of rice (about 30 pounds) that the winner didn't want. It was a really fun night.

We're getting close to Christmas and our winter holiday here. We have to work Monday and Tuesday, then have Wednesday off (national holiday for the Emperor's birthday), then back to school on Christmas eve (what's the point?). We have Dec. 25th through Jan. 11th off, though Tessa has to go back for one day on Jan. 8th for some reason. We love and miss you all. Happy holidays!!!

"Oh the weather outside is frightful..."

Well, just cold, really. We just bought de-icer for our cars, but Chris has only used it once. We have another 2 weeks of school, and then we'll be able to sleep in past the time of day when you need de-icer ;) I've been listening to Christmas music for a little while now, and while it cheers me up, it also makes me pretty homesick. I love this time of year, but it's hard without family and friends. Luckily Chris and I have each other, and we have a lot of fun. I just made him a christmas mix CD for his junior high kids, and I'm already laughing imagining them singing We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Santa Claus Is Coming to Town. (By the way, they call him Santa-san)

I'm sure we'll have more to post about Christmas in Japan, and pictures too! Our town recently put up a great show of lights at the community center, so we'll try getting some snaps. It's not what we're used to, but it'll do for now.

107 days left over here!