Long Way Home

 I have never been a fan of long plane trips. I have great difficulty sleeping while sitting and knowing that a trip will present this type of challenge works on my head. The trip from Tokyo to Minneapolis is direct, but takes 11 hours. We have already been told we will be delayed by two hours without further explanation. I could use a latte.

We spent the last two days of our trip making a diversion from Tokyo to Odawara to stay in the bed and breakfast owned by Cindy’s interpreter from 22 years ago. The most unique part of this experience was staying in an authentic Japanese home. Yes, the toilet has the weird water thing and you take off your shoes when you enter, but we don’t wear shoes at home. I always wondered if I could sit on the floor around a table when eating. I decided that I could, but standing might become a spectacle for all to enjoy. The home had authentic tatami mat floors, paper room dividers, and futons for sleeping (no wooden frames). The sheets are unusual in that the top sheet is designed to hold a blanket. There is not much padding in this arrangement so I was comfortable on my back that on my side. Something like camping with a sleeping bag and no air mattress. Some photos follow.

Coffee - Japanese Pour-over Style

 I have yet to figure out how to describe the Japanese style of packaging and working with goods we would likely encounter in a very different way. Yes, the Japanese are tea drinkers, but they also consume coffee and believe the American version is too weak. There are Starbucks and the cold lattes we had were familiar and suited to the warmer weather.

Anyway, to prepare the version of coffee I consume most regularly, the approach makes use of the pour-over technique. I am a nerd enough to know about the intricacies of the pour-overs when made for a higher price in shops - the initial splash to open the coffee and let it breath, etc. The daily approach is more like the approach when you make pour-over coffee by the campfire with a plastic gadget you position over your cup and a paper filter holding the coffee. Here is the Japanese version. You buy a bag of these individual envelopes that open to reveal a bag of coffee surrounded by a cardboard sleeve that you open to place over your cup. You then pour hot water from your hot water pot over the bag using whatever technique you prefer. 

Tokyo Outer Market

 The Tokyo Outer Market is closer to maybe what we might experience as a farmers’ market although focused on the goods from smaller providers which are more likely to be sea food in this situation. Of course to those from the midwestern state siders, the wares are often weird - items other than the main meat from fish and other unusual animals or vegetables.

It is often not so much the ingredients, but the methods of preparation that are unique. We are visiting Cindy’s Japanese interpreter from her first visit - Myumi. We are staying at her bed and breakfast in Odawara. The large differences between major cities such as Tokyo or Moscow and the smaller outlying cities are probably what you don’t appreciate unless you can spend some time or have a unique connection. She wanted to take us to a local famous restaurant and asked would be rather have sushi or Oden. We confused Oden with Udon and since we had already eaten lots of sushi we thought noodles sounded good. Oden turned out to be a process of boiling things like eggs, and daikon radish cross sections and fish balls in a broth. I can’t say I really liked the preparation because it was such a different experience, but it was interesting. This restaurant was small with a single row of customers sitting in an L shaped configuration around the server. We had conversations with a student from Taiwan who was a language major and spending a year to learn Japanese. Great skills in English and Japanese. Not the stereotypical tech guy I would have expected. We also met a couple from Lahaina in Maui so we talked about disasters and our own experiences in Kauai. The conversations with fellow travelers and local are such an important benefit of the experience. 

Fish Market

 You have to see the fish market, Cindy kept telling me. So, we booked an interpreter and a taxi and headed for the Toyosu Market this morning at 4:30. The market is different from Cindy’s visit some 22 years ago with the tuna and swordfish sold in a new and separate facility and an outer market at which the tuna and other sea food have already passed through a chain of wholesalers, intermediate wholesalers, and possibly several other vendors before it is available to consumers.

I will try to take you through the presale and sale process. All of the frozen tuna are laid out on the floor of this massive facility at 3. The bidders (yellow card in hat) and assistance can then examine the fish for two hours to determine which the will bid on. A section in front of the tail has been cut off and this meat and meat at the base can be examined. The buyers use of a pick like gadget to separate a small piece they roll in their hands and may taste. The second video here shows the approach of one bidder who kept samples of the fish on which he wanted to bid.

The auction process appears chaotic as each individual fish is sold in only a few seconds. The auctioneer announces the fish and appears to announce a basic bid. The bidder use hand signals to respond (fingers to offer amount), the auctioneer makes a quick call, and they move on. As soon as a tag to indicate the buyer is slapped on the fish, helpers begin to drag the fish into collections that will be sent to the buyer.

There were a few sushi restaurant in the central facility so we decided to have sushi for breakfast. The upload and download time for this post are getting long so I will provide some images from the outer market in a future post.

TeamLab Visual Arts Museum

 Tokyo’s TeamLab Visual Arts Museum was a Stan Trollip recommendation. He told us he had wanted to visit when he was here, but all the tickets for the day they had open were taken. Cindy booked early so we could have the experience.

The exhibit is an immersive experience set in a labyrinth of dark rooms and random passageways that have projected visual art constantly morphing on the walls, floor and ceiling. There are mirrors and floors I swear moved. Cindy says the floor tilting was a side effect of the visuals. The video/music was captured perfectly by my phone.

 

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Sky Tree Tower

 Our final outing from the boat was a bus ride to see the view from the Tokyo SkyTree Tower.  The ride offered the added benefit of providing a prolonged view of Tokyo and Yokohama at night. The SkyTree is the third tallest tower in the world at 2100 feet and though the four floor observation deck is not located on the top, the view is both very popular and spectacular. There were a large number of people which seems to be the general situation in Tokyo, but with a little patience and four floors there ended up plenty of opportunities for photos. This appeared to be a popular location for amateur glamour photos for young Japanese girls who posed endlessly for their photographers with the distant city in the background. I did take one photo of Cindy, but I am quick with a great deal of experience in glamour shots. Cindy doesn’t use that pouty look that seems to be in among the younger set.

My first impression of Tokyo is that it is dense. Great industrial buildings, massive apartment buildings, and lots of people all packed closely together. You may have seen that view of a multiple directional crosswalk containing nearly a thousand people moving through each other every time the light changes. I have my own version of that shot. Not at the same locations, but just a cross walk we used today. It was raining and a large number of folks were emerging from a train boarding site. As each individual hit the street, he or she opened an umbrella. Watching the nearly perfect repetition of this simple process was very interesting. Then the procession began to pile up at the light to cross the street - both sides. Walking into the group walking toward you was like moving through a wall of umbrellas - most it seemed at my eye level.

Sapporo

 Apologies for my lack of attention to the blog. I continue to struggle with my sinus infection/cold and the prolonged coughing fits have made it very difficult to sleep leading to exhaustion. Two trips to the medic so far with several different remedies attempted. It seems to be improving a bit. Cindy has a weaker version for which I am likely responsible and hopefully she will respond better than me. We are soon off the boat with more to deal with.

We did walk around Sapporo a bit. I skipped the four hour tour, but tolerated a slow walk pretty well. Sapporo (yes the home of Sapporo beer) is much quieter than the locations we will soon visit. We found a machine to exchange money because many smaller locations do not take credit cards. A few photos follow.

Cindy has purchased eSIMS for our phones so we can find our way around and use the translation apps. Text translation has been available for some time, but it is the translation of a visual input that I find very impressive. Cindy created two screen captures from her phone to show how this works. Google Translate is the app.

Cindy puts up with my humor when she is often the target of my photos. She made me add this photo. She sent it some folks who we sometimes travel with and know what I like to target in my photos. She calls the picture - Mark works hard to find a way to take a picture without people.