Akihibara

After the Sky Tree I make my way to the Akihibara district which is the home of the original Otaku (obsessive fan, often creepy, of manga and anime). This place is famous for discount electronic stores and maid cafes where patrons are waited on by subservient maids in traditional uniforms.

This is also the home base for AKB48, Japan's most popular music group. The band is actually some weird kind of collective with over 90 members. All cute girls in skimpy outfits. Apparently one member may even be a composite computer program. With over 90 members they are always releasing singles and performing so they have been able to retain dominance of the pop charts for the last 2 years.

There is a massive fan base for the group (as much male as female, maybe more male). People can vote for who they want to sing lead or which sub group of the band (yes, there are subgroups) they want to release the next single. Who needs actual politics when your favorite pop group already operates like a small country.

Anyway Akihibara is pretty seedy and I'm not finding anything of interest. Plus there's a 6 story tall poster of Celine Dion on one of the buildings so I need to get out of here as soon as possible.

Dipping Ramen

Another bonus to going to the Sky Tree first thing in the morning is that if you come back down for 10:30 you'll be there just in time for the opening of the food court and that means you can get an immediate seat at Rokurinsha, Tokyo's most popular Tsukemen Ramen joint.

Popularized by Rokurinsha, Tsukemen Ramen noodles are served separate from the thick broth. You dip your noodles into the broth and soak it up at your leisure. Often the wait here could be 2-3 hours.

This is yet another triumph and it blows away the Miso Ramen from the previous evening. The broth has a nice kick but it's the thick chewy noodles that really stand out. I'm happy for having ordered extra noodles and the Ajitama sweet egg but it is way too much food.

If, at the end, you still have a little of the thick broth left you can ask for some extra thinner broth which makes the remainder into a tasty soup. This is also more to eat but you just can't let any of it go.

After lunch I wander through the Solemachi Mall. Not much to write home about but I do see the store called Rodeo Crowns. Their logo is a lasso and a crown. Nice going Japan, way to embrace the inability to pronounce the letter l.

I also pick up some banana chocolate cream cakes from Tokyo Banana Tree. They look too silly not to buy and judging from the lineup they are pretty popular.

Tokyo Sky Tree

I'm up pretty early this morning and I hit the road at 730 in order to be one of the first people to go to the top of the Tokyo Sky Tree today.

Located just a little outside central Tokyo, the Sky Tree is now the tallest freestanding tower in the world. The Burj al Khalifa in Dubai is even taller still but it's a building and doesn't count on the list of towers. To me this is a little semantic trickery in order to claim a "tallest in the world" status. Still it's an impressive structure and I'm looking forward to this. I was warned by people who had visited yesterday that the wait in the later part of the day could be hours and that it was better to show up at 8 AM. They were right.

I was rushed immediately into the elevator waiting area (which is all black in order to heighten the dramatic tension) and the up to the main deck at 350 meters. From here the 360 degree views of Tokyo and Mount Fuji are spectacular. I'm not done yet though. I now have to line up for another ten minutes to buy a 1000Y ticket to go to the 450 metre level (the first deck costs 2000Y).

Once at 450 meters, a winding path takes you around the top of the tower and provides you with the most spectacular views of all. The perspective from here is a unique experience and unlike in Toronto the denseness of Tokyo provides endless amazing things to look at.

Collision of Collectives

The Design Festa Gallery is located in the middle of Harajuku and is a less pretentious oasis of cool in an otherwise too hip to live area.

I've come because Rupert Bottenberg from our group is holding an En Masse collaborative project where some of the Canadian artists from our group and other Tokyo based artists are working on a series of canvases. Everyone is supposed to take a graffiti approach to the work and fill as much as they want of one of the four canvases set up in the small room that Rupert has reserved for three days of work.

When I arrive a number of local artists (some Japanese, other expats) are working and the canvases are a little more than half filled. Three of the Canadian girls traveling with us, Kim, Wai and Julie, who release their own manga as part of the Love Love Hill collective, have already done some work on the canvases and will come back later in order to help complete the canvas.

It's nice to spend some time observing the creative process. As a non creative type it's fun watching the artists bring their imaginations to life.

I will revisit the gallery again tomorrow to see the paintings when they are finished. I'm sort of an unofficial photographer or the group (what with my new camera) so I want to record as much of the process as possible. (Photos to be posted later as they are all on my digital camera.)

After leaving the Design Gallery I walked down Omote-Sando as the dusk turned to night. This was an ideal time to take photos of the really incredible buildings and stores that line the street. Buildings like Prada, Tod's, and Dior all provide unique sights that make this the new street to shop on.

(Pictures to come later)

I got a call from Chris telling me that a bunch of people had gone to the Nakano Broadway store to shop so I headed over to meet them. Nakano Broadway, just West of Shinjuku, is an old mall (seems like it was built in the 60s) which has been divided into small stores each catering to a particular interest in anime or manga. Fan of old classic manga from the 50s? There's a mini store for you. Looking for a rare animation cell from our favorite movie? Another store. And so on. It can be vey confusing but I focus on a store that actually appears to carry some North. American and European comics.

After spending some time in the shops I meet up with the group at a local Indian restaurant. They've already eaten and I can't justify not eating Japanese at any point during this trip. Still I do try some of the Naan as well as some of the leftover curry. It's pretty good.

Instead, I head over to the Takadanobaba area for some Miso Ramen. I vaguely know where the restaurant I'm looking for (Sapporo Junren) is. When I suddenly encounter a line up of salarymen lined up at a small counter restaurant I know I've reached the place.

The miso ramen is more oily than I'm used to and the pork that I've ordered is a little too fatty but the salty miso flavor is very good and the noodles are excellent. As this is a reasonably well known Ramen restaurant the people around me are all experienced Ramen eaters and they are slurping up a storm. The more noise they make while eating is actually a good thing. Unfortunately the guy next to me seems to think that this is a competition. Oh we'll, when in Tokyo. Anyway I do my best to keep up.

On my way back to the JR station I take some photos of two large Tezuka murals done to commemorate the fact that Astro Boy (Japan's greatest hero) was created (in the comics) in Takadanobaba.

Wandering through Tokyo

After my fried fish lunch I found myself only steps away from the Ginza shopping district so I decided to walk around and browse through some of the more interesting stores.

Uniqlo is one of Japan's best known chains. A wildly colorful and affordable assortment of casual clothes. Their 12 story flagship store is well designed with excellent views from the top floor. The 11th floor has an amazing collection of T-shirts by some of Japan's best known anime and manga artists and tie in to recent films as well like the new Evangelion movie (giant robots and the end of the world) that happens to be opening this week.

Unfortunately I can't even get what passes for the largest size in Japan (XL) onto my arms let alone over my head so no dice here. They do however have excellent socks and I picked up more than a few pairs over the course of this trip.

I then wandered through the Ginza version of Abercrombie and Fitch which was bizarre. Everything was darkly lit and almost all surfaces were Onyx black except for the lit floor. Heavy perfume wafted through the air and there was heavy pulsing club music. Apparently all of their stores are like this but I just can't believe that they're all this insane.

After Ginza I headed over to revisit the Meiji Jingu shrine near Harajuku. This is one of the most important shrines in all of Japan. It's a magnificent structure hidden in the middle of a heavily forested park. It can only be accessed by walking about 1 KM down a wide tree covered path through the forest. Along the way passing through a number of towering wooden gates (tori as they are known here). The longer journey makes it feel like a solemn pilgrimage. When you approach the Buddha you traditionally throw a coin, bow your head and clap twice (at least that what most people are doing).

After leaving the shrine and park I make my way down Takeshita Dori the famous pedestrian street through the hip and trendy Harajuku district. This is where all the cool kids come to hang out and set fashion trends. It's a little too young for my taste but it's always fun to walk around.

Search for scarce lunch

So there's this restaurant that's only open for lunch at Noon on Wednesday. They only have one dish available for 1000Y ($12.50 Can) and they only make dishes for the first 10 people. Everyone else is out of luck. Sounds like a successful model for a business. The restaurant, Budohya, was mentioned on a blog I was using to plan my eating strategies and the set meal looked amazing. It was a mini kaiseki plate with nine small appetizers and one main dish. I had to at least make an attempt at finding this place.

Using Google Maps I was able to pinpoint the precise location of the restaurant as well as the route to it from Shinbashi Station.

I took the JR line from Ikebukuro to Shinbashi. The JR Yamanote line is a circle around Tokyo and Shinbashi is almost exactly opposite Ikebukuro on the other side of the circle making my initial directional choice a coin toss.

I may have underestimated the amount of time this was going to take since it appeared that I wouldn't get to the restaurant any sooner than 1130. It was very likely that there would already be a line up and since there were only 10 meals served my odds were getting worse by the second.

Upon arrival at Shinbashi Station I high-tailed it through the correct exit and using the street map made my way as quickly as possible to Budohya. Fortunately my navigation skills were operating at full strength and I instinctively knew which way to go. Minutes later I found myself in front of Budohya and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that there wasn't even a line at all.

Wait, no line at all? That doesn't sound right for something this exclusive. A woman walking by helpfully translates the sign out front that says that the restaurant is closed. D'oh. With total weekly sales of $125.00 CAN per week how could they possibly have failed?(actually, the restaurant is only closed this week. It looks like it will continue to operate in a Brigadoon like manner for the foreseeable future).

Oh well, nothing I could have done about that. Fortunately my quest for scarce lunch has not yet come to an unsuccessful premature end. I do have a backup plan. There is a restaurant called Matsuya that only serves 60 plates of deep fried Aji (horse mackerel) per day. It usually sells out within an hour of opening and there is always a line-up.

When I was running late on the Yamanote Line I began to consider the possibility that I would miss out on Budohya and that I should see where else I might go. I looked at my google map printout for Matsuwa and noted that it was a two minute walk from Kyobashi Station and that that was only two stops away on the Ginza line from my current location.

Wasting no time at Budohya I raced back to find the Shinbashi entrance for the Ginza Line. Unfortunately this turned out to be frustratingly difficult since signage was poor and I lost five valuable minutes flailing about.

Upon reaching Kyobashi Station, I headed right for the correct exit. When I made it to the street I glanced around quickly. I spotted a line of people waiting outside a small restaurant and immediately headed over to join them.

This was the right place but had I made it in time? There were about 20 people between me and the door but the line continued down some stairs and since the restaurant had opened at 1130, they had already served their first batch of fish. The people around me didn't know if we'd made it either.

About 10 minutes later someone from the restaurant came out with a clipboard and began counting off the people in the line. This was it. Would I make it under the 60 fish threshold?

No, I would not.

However, today must have been a good day for catching fish since it turned out that they had 70 fish available and at number 65 I was safely within the limit. Sugoi!!!!

I end up waiting for about 40 minutes in line where I spend time talking to the two women standing behind me who are interested in hearing about my trip so far.

Ajj is a pretty rare and expensive fish. These guys get their fish directly from fishermen in the Matsuwa area bypassing the Tsukiji Fish Market entirely.

The fish was lightly fried and still had a light and fluffy texture. It was excellent. The proper way to eat the fish is to pour soya sauce over the provided shredded daikon and then put the soya soaked daikon on the fish (most people just use Worcestershire Sauce on their Aji.

As with the eel, the Aji bones are also deep fried and served alongside the fish as a sort of salty cracker.

The meal comes with the usual rice, Oshinko and a clear, fish based Osuimono soup. There is also a couple of cubes of Tofu as an appetizer.

The meal is yet another success in Japan and a triumph for strategic planning (and backup plan having). I could have been a great military commander (provided of course, that my military objective was finding delicious meals for the troops).

The Gaijin That Ate Tokyo

Well, more like the Gaijin that ate in Tokyo but the other title has a more devouring sound to it.

I had already spent a day and a half in Tokyo but had yet to visit any of my researched spots. I've got a lot of ground to cover so let's get started.

On my first morning back in Tokyo I was up pretty early at around 7 AM. I found Rupert Bottenberg, an artist and writer from Montreal, downstairs and we decided to head back to the same place Rupert had gone the previous day.

I have no idea what the restaurant's name was. It's just one of hundreds of tiny eateries that dot the streets of Ikebukuro. Many of these restaurants serve Ramen but this one's specialty appears to be Donburi (bowls of rice with assorted toppings).

Like all of these restaurants, a ticket machine can be found at the entrance. You place your entire order by punching the buttons for the dish and toppings you want. Sometimes there are pictures but often it's just in Japanese. You then give the tickets to the hostess and she brings you your meal.

Rupert and I both ordered the Tonkatsu Donburi, a fried pork cutlet cut up on rice and covered with a fried egg. The egg acts as a binding agent and helps make a nice gooey mixture. There's already a good soya flavor so I don't need to add anything.If I want, there are jars with 2 kinds of pickles (unlimited Oshinko, Sugoi!!!!).

From the first bite I'm totally blown away by how delicious this is. Why would you ever want to have anything else for breakfast? (Although I suppose the desire to live another few months is a good enough reason not to have this every day).

After breakfast we go our separate ways. I walk a few minutes to Sunshine City where I head up to the 60th floor observation deck. From here you get a decent view of Tokyo but the sun is already pretty bright at 10 AM so the light is too strong to get a lot of good camera shots. Still it's a good way to get the lay of the land.