Sapporo Traffic Ballet

A few weeks ago I went up to Sapporo for a long weekend. You know, it's on the northern most island  Hokkaido. Yeah that's it, where the beer is from.

Getting there on my first domestic Japan flight was interesting. ANA alone has a dozen flights a day from Tokyo and nearly half of them are big 747 planes.  I'm sure JAL has just as many which is pretty amazing considering it's less than a 90 minute flight. There isn't bullet train (shinkansen) service up to there yet so on regular trains it can take over 12 hours. They are apparently building new tracks so the service should begin in a few years.

The art of traffic direction is alive and well in Sapporo. Check out this ballet I captured:

Is he a Jedi? Is that a lightsaber?

And how about this cute little inflated guy giving you warning about road construction. Ever see things like this back in USA ?

And I can't forget the great lamb "Ghengis Khan" dish we ate at the restaurant  Ram. That's lamb sashimi (yum) on the lower left.

And Sapporo has its own Eiffel-esque tower at the end of a nice park. Hey, it's 12:34!

And the famous old clock tower...

And the newest landmark in town is the Sapporo Apple Store.

Still to come - Owning a French car and driving in Tokyo....

Gotanda: Cats, Curry, Soaps, and Sand Storms

I need to get out more. Now that's not unusual coming from a technie type, but living in Japan has been a challenge and I need to put some more effort into enjoying it. I've decided to take the initiative and explore new areas of Tokyo each weekend. To start I'm going to focus on the train stops I pass during  my commute to work and then branch out to other areas.

My first destination is located on the Yamanote train line which as you know from my previous snow post is a circular line around Tokyo. The link to Wikipedia states that the first part of it was built in 1885 and the loop completed in 1925. Today it's about 1 hour to do the full loop and its 29 stations. And in 2005 it was carrying an amazing 3.55 million passengers a day to its 29 stations! (compared to the all NYC subway lines total of 5.08 million/day and 468 stations)

Gotanda (map) is one of 4 stops on the Yamanote line between Shibuya and Shinagwa. (station map) It's in Shinagawa-ku (ward) and I pass by it every day I go into the office. Usually I'm on a train via Shibuya, but there is also a bus I occasionally ride that takes me directly to Gotanda station.  A few weeks ago I stopped to pick up lunch at one of my favorite Japanese Curry resturaunts which has a store located just outside the station. CoCo Ichiban also has stores in Honolulu where  first discovered them. Their pork katsu curry is hard to beat. 

Wikipedia says that Gotanda is "a busy but unfashionable neighborhood".  Apparently that's got something to do with the legal/ignored prostitution via the "soap" businesses. This sign is advertising a bath/spa where you get soap'ed for 10,000 Yen (~$90) and they are looking for trainees. Sorry no photos from the inside.

Also located here is the theatre showing Cats. Sorry, no litter box shots.

It was pretty moderate on Saturday morning when we arrived, but things changed quickly and cold winds picked up and the clouds turned a bit yellow. Visibility dropped and we experienced what seemd like a dust storm. I thought it was just dust blowing because of the winds, but apparently it was actually yellow sand (asian dust) blown over from the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts in China.  Not very happy to think we were breathing that stuff in.

We had a great lunch at Kua'Aina Sandwich, one of our favorites. They are a Tokyo/Hawaii burger chain and have great avacado cheeseburger sets (aka combos) and they add a Kona Pale Ale beer for only 300 yen more. That's Aloha!

In addition to the Meguro river at one end of the area (didn't make it there), there is a canal running through Gotanda. We saw several large residential towers being built. There were also some mallard looking ducks with brown heads swimming about.

We spotted one of Tokyo's big crows near some pigeons and the photo shows just how large those things are. 

Shinagawa-ku may also be one of the smoke-free sidewalk areas in Tokyo. We saw this official ward smoking area. Nothing worse than tailgating a smoker on a crowded sidewalk. Way to go Shinagwa.

Also near the canal was an old Ryokan (traditional Japanese Inn). Quite a contrast from the rest of the urban Gotanda landscape.

We warmed up looking at music CD's, DVD's, and video games in a big Tsutaya which is one of the large entertainment stores that also rents DVD's and CD's. Yes, rents CD's and has blank CD-R's next to the cash registers. No wonder music costs so much in Japan.

Next time we go to Meguro!

Snow in Tokyo

Snowy Backyard

Had a nice snow in Tokyo yesterday, Sunday February 3rd. I'm not sure what the official snowfall total was but I would say at least 4" fell. I think the temperature was above freezing for most of the day so quite a bit of it melted. 

We trekked up to our nearest shrine, Shoin Jinja, to take a few photos of the snow.

After a short visit to the Tipness gym we headed over to Shinjuku for lunch and some more snow photos. We rode the Yamanote JR train line which is a large circular route around central Tokyo. It's about 1 hour completely around the route. Near the end of the video below you see a train platform on the left that's reserved for use only by the Emperor. Not sure how much he travels by train these days...

 

The NTT DoCoMo tower is one of my favorite buildings in Tokyo. It looks straight out of Gotham City.

And yes even in the snow there is a queue for Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Overall there were many fewer people out and about in Shinjuku on Sunday so apparently the snow did have an effect.

Yamanote JR Train @ Shibuya Station

Video from the back of the Yamanote Train in the snow

Shinjuku Takashimaya Store "Times Square"

Shinjuku Train Station Tracks

NTT DoCoMo Tower in Shinjuku

Line at Krispy Kreme Dougnuts Shinjuku

Small vans in Japan..

To the average American nearly every car in Japan seems small. But how about this modified Japanese mini van that has been made to look like an old Volkswagan Bus. Lots of details including the bumpers and hub caps. I saw this one back in June and thought it was one of a kind but have since seen many other mini VW Buses.

Cute!

Some more photos over at this post at the German Car blog here.

Cats migrate to Japan too...

It's my first week in the office and things are going smoothly. Luckily the cats are adjusting well to the new big house. The process to get them ready to import to Japan was a long 7 months but in the end it was worth it as we breezed through customs without any delay. It consisted of RFID chip implantation, two rabies vaccines, certified rabies blood test, 6 month waiting period, last minute inspection with flea/tick/worm treatment, and official USDA vet certification. Did I mention the loads of cash too ?!?

Lulu is handling it well and really seems to like soaking up the sun in the office window.



My second Amazon.co.jp purchase was a couple of folding outdoor chairs as a reusable supplement to the limited rental furniture we've got. Damian's proclaimed himself "Captian Stag".



And here's Damian learning to bow at the Apple temple (aka the dining room).



Up next - high speed internet in Japan (think bullet train)...

The 1st Curry

A rice cooker seemed like an unnecessary appliance to this mid-westerner. Yes, my Chinese college roommate had one but I never understood the point since you could just put a pot on the stove and get the same cooked rice (and don't forget "Minute Rice"). Mike expanded my horizons in NYC with our first rice cooker and I soon discovered how much easier it was just to dump the rice and water in a pot and press one button. Presto! You've got perfect cooked rice which is especially nice when you eat a lot of rice.

One night last week we went to the giant Yodobashi store in Akihabara to see about a new rice cooker that would work on the Tokyo 100v 50Hz AC power infrastructure. Rice cooking must be an art here. There were more than 40 different rice cookers on display ranging in price from US$80 to US$800! Different styles, bowls of varying metals, heating methods (most induction heating), sizes, and finishes. We settled on one with a medium size bowl, induction heating, and pressurized cooking to reduce cooking time for a mere 24,000 Yen (US$200).

The next day I managed to match Kanji characters on the bag of rice with some cryptic instructions in the manual and made perfect brown rice which I then enjoyed with a quick Japanese Curry sauce. This packaged curry mix had two bags of sauces that only had to be warmed in hot water for a few minutes. Wikipedia helps explain what Japanese Curry is but let me just say yum! Here's the bear on the box, my curry, rice cooker and bag of rice:

First Amazon Japan Purchase

We arrived in Tokyo on Wednesday May 16th, 2007. One of my first tasks was to see about using Amazon.co.jp to make some purchases. I'd become an accomplished Amazon.com consumer in the US and wanted to see if I could continue here in Japan. The Amazon Japan site does have an English setting, but that really only helps with the "foreign" language books section and some of the button labels. Google language tools and it's translator seems to be a good start for finding other things, but I'm sure it's going to be a challenge.

Before leaving New York, I wanted to order the Lonely Planet "Hiking in Japan" book but it was not available on Amazon.com. Luckily I found it over at Amazon.co.jp but I waited until my arrival to order it. I was able to use my US credit card for the order with delivery to my Japan address. Amazon also takes part in a service that lets you place your order online and then go to a local convenience store to make payment. I placed my order on Friday May 18th with free standard shipping and amazingly they attempted delivery on the following Saturday evening. I wasn't home, but they left a note and I was able to call and schedule for delivery the following Monday. Well, I should say that Mike was able to call and reschedule the delivery for me in Japanese. And on Monday my first Amazon Japan purchase arrived:






Next we buy a rice cooker and I cook my first quick Japanese Curry! The suspense must be killing you...