Month: April 2005

Big Trek through Little Tokyo

Last day in Tokyo: morning at the Tsuji Fish Market, where one third of the world’s fish passes through. Absolutely an incredible sight! Then amazingly we found Sushi
Dai, a famed sushi purveyer. I really wished that I knew Japanese,
because the three guys behind the counter not only put together the best
sushi ever (hey, even the bad sushi places can’t go wrong if they have
access to fish this fresh) but they banter with the customers like they
were bartenders. The most interesting one was a snapper nigiri flavored
with lime juice and rose rock salt. Incredible!

Checked out the Sony Center, where they demoed incredibly great and
expensive home entertainment systems. Met up with P’s friend M and his
girlfriend SC again in Ginza. We went to the Toyota showroom center,
where we got to ride in self guided electric cars, I crashed a GT at the
Fuji Raceway simulator (not simulated: I took a turn hard and crashed
into the guiderail, the simulator jerked me back, there was a popping
sound and the entire steering wheel ripped out of the console. I thought
that the airbags had deployed). Saw the most expensive thing I’ve
touched in Japan: a sports car with a sticker price of 6,300,000 Yen
(drop 2 zeroes for the $US price).

Had Japanese Okonomi-yaki pancakes on Harumi island for dinner —
absolutely fantastic. Many of the traditional Japanese foods were
originally designed to stretch limited meat with lots of rice, broth or
starch. Of course if they are delicious, that helps too.

Finally had dessert at some place in Harajiku that had an American
Indian/Italian motif. Very funky. SC was trying out her English, and she
was doing very well. Off to try to see the department store opening production and to the
airport. Will make reflections on the trip on the plane. See you back on
your side.

Shin Guards

Everything around begins with “shin” (“new”) nowadays. The bullet train is called shin-kansen. The neighborhood we are at is called Shinjuku. And today we went to Shin-Yokahama, a western suburb of Tokyo, where we spent the day at Chinatown, the waterfront and the Shinyokahama Ramen Museum, a monument to a national staple. Unlike other museums, it is entirely interactive: you are brought back to a train station town of the 1950’s where there are 8 fully operating ramen restaurants, real branches of real ramen restaurants from around the country. In two sittings (thanks for the free multiple reentries), I polished off 5 bowls of extraordinary ramen. I was kind of hurting afterwards, but it was well worth it. At Chinatown, found mostly kitch, but also saw Henchinrou, the restaurant that beat Iron Chef Chen after 3 tries.

More fish market tomorrow.

Sunday

While I am not Catholic and may not have agreed with some of the positions Pope John Paul II took, I respected him. May he rest in peace.

Last night, my APA alumni group sponsored a group to see “China Doll,” presented by the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre. The play is described as a “reimagining” of the life of Anna May Wong, an Asian American pioneer in the Hollywood of the 1920’s to the 1950’s. Switching back and forth between the memories and the fantasies of Wong and replaying of Wong’s movies , with appearances by her contemporaries, like Douglas Fairbanks, Marlene Dietrich. Fascinating portrayal of ironies – Wong was considered too Asian to be doing serious leading roles, yet too American to be Asian. The play tended to be too wordy (a playwrite’s literary work), but I thought it was interesting to see how theater would try to be very cinematic, with the minimal prop/scenery. We were also treated to an illuminating Q&A with the director and cast.

Losing an hour, no thanks to Daylight Savings. More light, less time. Eh.