The strange mind of Aida Makoto

After lunch I headed over to Roppongi Hills, a large indoor shopping mall in a slightly less easily accessible part of Tokyo. Only one train line runs idirectly to the building and I'm not on that one. Instead, it looks like I'm going to have to walk a few blocks in what has become a crazy downpour.

Once at the mall I wander around checking out some of the stores. I pass a Joel Robuchon bakery but I don't stop for snacks (a missed opportunity). Instead I opt for a shot of whiskey at a special tasting and then I head downstairs for a Green Macha Latte at Starbucks. I feel like I owed Starbucks at least one purchase while in Tokyo given that I had been taking advantage of their free wifi for a week now.

It also gave me the opportunity to sit peacefully for about an hour while browsing the Internet and catching up on things that had happened in the previous week.

After the coffee I headed up to the 53rd floor of the Mori Tower (still in Roppongi Hills) to visit the Mori Art Museum which had just opened an exhibit to the Japanese conceptual artist Aida Makoto.

I had never heard of Aida prior to this week but it seemed I would appreciate his bizarre and somewhat disturbing sense of humor.

His work covers all kinds of styles, multimedia, sculpture, collage, regular canvas. Some of the pieces brilliantly satirize the Japanese military culture as well as some of the seedier sides ofJapanese society. A large canvas with a blender full of beautiful women being pureed into a red slurry is set next to a canvas showing an ashen landscape where all that is visible are mountains of dead businessmen and salarymen dressed in suits.

A lot of his work also has a sexual or scatological edge to it. A manga parody of WWII called Mutant Hanako was completely demented and perverted but you had to admire Aida for being willing to go so completely over the top in telling his story.

Aida was actually speaking there that night but 1) it was sold out 2) I had other places to be and 3) I don't understand Japanese.

Instead I bought a large overview of his work in an expensive art book. This wasn't the exhibit catalogue since that wasn't available for another month or two. However since Aida had been on site he had signed several copies of this art book and I snagged the last autographed one.

I'm definitely a fan now.

Kaiseki Cuisine

Nov 17, 2012

Saturday morning I woke up much later than the last few days. This is a direct result of having gone to bed after 3AM.

There's a party affiliated with the Kaigai Manga Festival in a Roppongi nightclub later this evening but I have the day to myself until then.

I realize that this is the perfect opportunity to check off the last of the restaurants that I've been planning to visit.

Minase is a kaiseki restaurant located near the trendy shops of Ometosando Dori. Kaiseki cuisine is a traditional Japanese style where a meal is served in multiple courses with each course designed to be a perfect synergy of taste, texture and appearance. My brother and I had been for a meal like this in Kyoto 8 years earlier and I was eager to repeat the experience.

I learned about this place from a blogger who had done a one week dining tour of Tokyo and had highly recommended it (particularly for the very affordable lunches). One thing he and other recommenders had indicated was how difficult it was to find the restaurant. Several people wrote of almost giving up in frustration before stumbling upon the hidden location.

I was not going to be caught in the same trap. Before leaving I mapped out the location on Google Maps. I even went so far as to do a street view search so that I would know what building to look for. Fortunately I had passed by the nearby intersection of Ometosando Dori and Aoyama Dori several times by now so I was relatively familiar with my surroundings.

In the end it was no trouble at all to get to the right location which was fortunate since when I climbed the steps to the second landing I was presented with three separate restaurant entrances, none of which were Minase. Since I was absolutely certain I had come to the right place I didn't leave and instead looked more closely at a white curtain to the side that was concealing a dark staircase. The curtain had some Japanese characters on it but no obvious sign that it was a restaurant entrance. Still with no other options at hand I decided to head up and see what I could see.

Sure enough I had found the concealed entrance to Minase. I was quickly shown to a seat at a counter with a large picture window looking out at a pleasant rock garden.

The staff brought the menu with pictures but I already knew what I was there for, the 8 course lunch for 3900 Yen (about $50).

Course 1- 2 small marinated salads flavored with flower petals. One had some marinated fish and the other some Japanese vegetables
Course 2 - an Osuimono broth with fish cake and a soft tofu cube filled with seaweed. As the tofu broke apart in the soup the seaweed was released to provide more texture to the broth. A brilliantly creative and tasty dish.
Course 3- small sashimi plate with two kinds of tuna. A special sauce was provided for one of the types of tuna.
Course 4- a seafood custard served in a small covered wooden pot.
Course 5- cooked Japanese eggplant and tofu in a light broth served in a beautiful covered lacquer bowl.
Course 6- small tempura plate with shrimp, snow pea and some assorted grilled seafood including a snail and some fish.
Course 7- served with course 6 this was the traditional pickles, rice and miso soup. The rice was made more interesting by being topped with tiny baby sardines
Course 8- small scoop of Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.

Truly a feast for the eyes as much as for the mouth.

What's more Japanese than Karaoke

Nov 16, 2012

Despite having woken up this morning at around 530 I'm not going to pass up an opportunity to go to a real Japanese Karaoke club even if it's already nearly midnight before we get started.

There really isn't a lot of difference between Karaoke clubs in Canada and Japan except that there are more English language songs in Canada. It's really more about actually doing Karaoke in its place of origin.

We end up going for the all you can drink pop and water (instead of beer) as some of our group are not the biggest drinkers (myself included). They've got my green melon sola so everything is just right. Except of course for my voice.

Maybe getting beyond 40 has taken a toll on my once energetic vocals or maybe I'm just worn down by all the running around but whatever's to blame I'm not making it through most of these songs cleanly. Oh well, I'm still having fun.

Fortunately the other members of our group are stepping up. David Namisato, a Toronto based artist who has also done a fair bit of teaching in Japan actually knows some of the AKB48 songs. Meanwhile the girls from Love Love Hill can do Japanese anime theme songs as well as other recent Japanese pop songs. It makes for a very multicultural evening of music.

I bail at around 230 AM but a bunch of them are still at it when I leave. I heard that they stayed until around 4 AM.

Chicken parts for dinner

Nov 16, 2012

After leaving the embassy our group of 20 was faced with the difficult decision of where to go for food. How to pick a place that works for a broad group that includes a number of Vegans, Vegetarians and people allergic to seafood.

The area we were in is more offices than shopping and restaurants so there wasn't a lot to choose from. We found a location that had three separate restaurants. One Indian, one Italian sandwiches and one sushi/noodles. It was decided that the group would split up so that everyone could get what they wanted.

I had just eaten an amazing Sushi breakfast I didn't need that again. Indian and Italian were against my principles of only eating Japanese cuisine of some kind. What to do?

Fortunately I realized that two of my group, Rupert Bottenberg and Jeff Ellis had noticed a yakitori (grilled meat on sticks) restaurant on the 2nd floor of the adjoining building and had headed over to check it out. This made my decision pretty easy. I caught up to them just as they were sitting down.

This particular yakitori restaurant specialized in grilled chicken parts and was clearly popular with Japanese workers out for an evening after a long day at the office as several tables were full of these groups.

An amuse bouche was offered. A raw egg in one little bowl and some chopped octopus with wasabi in another little bowl. We didn't know if what we were doing was right but we added the octopus mix to the egg and then drank the mixture. Pretty good texture and taste although I wouldn't recommend this to everyone.

Jeff had taught English in Japan and was pretty good in Japanese so we were able to communicate with the waiter and place out order. We had ordered some chicken yakitori at the Izakaya on our first night and what they had provided was both dodgy looking and dodgy tasting. Tonight would be a definite improvement.

We ordered a number of different kinds of yakitori including, mushrooms, minced chicken with Green onions, chicken wings and a Chef's Choice which would include 5 skewers selected by the chef. We knew that the choice of the chef would lean towards some of the less popular parts of the chicken but we decided to take our chances.

The charcoal grilled skewers began arriving to great appreciation from our table. The charcoal had perfectly flavored the chicken and the unusual textures of some of the odder skewers like Chicken hearts, livers and backs made the meal even more interesting.

The food was further improved by the addition of some good Japanese beers.

I think we were definitely the happiest of the four restaurant groups