Why was this day called the “Ueno Death March?” Our stroll lasted until late in the morning (early in the afternoon?) and our dogs were tired from the soles to the top of our heads. We hadn’t slept ands our brains were tired. Our jaunt to Ueno Park was supposed to be just a quick scout and it didn’t seem to be that far away from where we had started. Well, it was quite far away and given how tired and frazzled we were, just getting there seemed to be the only mission. At one point, I had actually forgotten where we were going - all I could think of was putting one foot in front of the other. I’m not sure I ever knew why we were going there so late in the day. As the minutes, then quarters went by, and my feet grew ever stiffer, and my mind ever more numb, I sudden;y thought of the long death march of the Cherokee as they were driven from their homeland in the East to the no man’s land of the dry Midwest. Trudge, trudge, trudge. When we finally get there, we haven’t the time nor energy to stay, and basically just skirt the school and the museums along side, detour briefly into the Rodin garden so that Steven can take a snap of the “Gates Of Hell” (apropos at this point), then we leave. On the way out, a large crow landed upon the head of “The Thinker,” perfectly silhouetted against the sky, black bird upon black figure, and I wanted to take a picture. I had run out of film, so I entertained the notion of catching up Steven to take a picture with his camera, but I changed my mind when I realized that it mean actually stopping the march, turning back ten yards, and standing for a minute while the picture was composed. No, no need for that picture.
I now kick myself for allowing fatigue to slay such an opportunity for a wonderful picture. These crows have profiles far different from those at home, and this would have been a perfect picture. Kick me - I’m an idiot.
- Cindy
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Thursday 18th The Ueno Death March - Gilles
Ok so this was “recover from the flight day”.
So much for that bright idea, try to have a relaxing walk through one of the most visually diverse parts of Tokyo with major shrines and temples. So we get up after not enough sleep, our biological clocks resisting our feeble attempts to stay unconscious. With everyone else in the ryokan asleep early in the morning we go for a walk heading East along Kaminarimon dori with Cindy and Steven stopping to take pictures of various storefronts, shopping arcades and the city waking up. When we reach the famous Kaminarimon gate it is very early, around 6 am, the famous Nakamise shopping arcade is not open, this is a good thing as the area is not crowded and the shutters in front of the shops are down and covered in murals. Cindy and Steven take pictures.
We also see lots of people walking small, very well trained and cute dogs. The Japanese are early risers and it is not unusual to see people out and about at times when most Americans would be just getting up. At the end of Nakamise is the famous Sensoji temple so we walk through the grounds with their sub shrines listening tot he priests do their morning chants. Cindy and Steven take pictures. After some time we head back to the ryokan and ask the manager about where to get breakfast. He directs us to a nice place for traditional Japanese breakfast, most restaurants being closed in the morning. We find the restaurant and are instructed by the waitress on how to use the ticket machine. We later find out such ticket machines are common. This machine has both pictures, prices and the names of the meals. After a breakfast of miso soup, rice, natto, pickles, etc. we head back to the ryokan to pick up items for a short walk around the neighborhood.
That short walk would last until the evening. We headed back towards Sensoji as Steven wanted to take pictures of the Hanayashiki amusement park nearby. We then discovered a lively neighborhood of old shops and homes with potted plants and people walking and cycling. As we continued to wander we kept finding other interesting structures and items which, of course, Cindy and Steven shot pictures of. Over time we reached a very bust street and proceeded down it. At one point we saw a hummingbird moth, looking very much like a bright green hummingbird flitting from flower to flower on a potted plant between a very busy avenue and sidewalk. We were all too enthralled to remember to take a picture.
After some more wandering we found ourselves at Ueno Station, we had done quite a hike with many detours to get there. After finding a restroom, including scary traditional Japanese toilets - which we did not have to use, we decided to skip the famous Ueno Koen (park) and head back, by then it was past 4 pm. We did walk through part of the park and at the National Museum of Western Art sculpture garden Cindy and Steven took some pictures of some Rodin sculptures.
A short subway ride back to Asakusa we dropped stuff off at the ryokan, grabbed dinner at a noodle place, using a ticket machine again; handy things those machines, and headed back to the ryokan to, shower an get to bed early.
Oh yes I did call a friend who is also in town with his mom visiting relatives and we planned to meet the next day.
- Gilles
So much for that bright idea, try to have a relaxing walk through one of the most visually diverse parts of Tokyo with major shrines and temples. So we get up after not enough sleep, our biological clocks resisting our feeble attempts to stay unconscious. With everyone else in the ryokan asleep early in the morning we go for a walk heading East along Kaminarimon dori with Cindy and Steven stopping to take pictures of various storefronts, shopping arcades and the city waking up. When we reach the famous Kaminarimon gate it is very early, around 6 am, the famous Nakamise shopping arcade is not open, this is a good thing as the area is not crowded and the shutters in front of the shops are down and covered in murals. Cindy and Steven take pictures.
We also see lots of people walking small, very well trained and cute dogs. The Japanese are early risers and it is not unusual to see people out and about at times when most Americans would be just getting up. At the end of Nakamise is the famous Sensoji temple so we walk through the grounds with their sub shrines listening tot he priests do their morning chants. Cindy and Steven take pictures. After some time we head back to the ryokan and ask the manager about where to get breakfast. He directs us to a nice place for traditional Japanese breakfast, most restaurants being closed in the morning. We find the restaurant and are instructed by the waitress on how to use the ticket machine. We later find out such ticket machines are common. This machine has both pictures, prices and the names of the meals. After a breakfast of miso soup, rice, natto, pickles, etc. we head back to the ryokan to pick up items for a short walk around the neighborhood.
That short walk would last until the evening. We headed back towards Sensoji as Steven wanted to take pictures of the Hanayashiki amusement park nearby. We then discovered a lively neighborhood of old shops and homes with potted plants and people walking and cycling. As we continued to wander we kept finding other interesting structures and items which, of course, Cindy and Steven shot pictures of. Over time we reached a very bust street and proceeded down it. At one point we saw a hummingbird moth, looking very much like a bright green hummingbird flitting from flower to flower on a potted plant between a very busy avenue and sidewalk. We were all too enthralled to remember to take a picture.
After some more wandering we found ourselves at Ueno Station, we had done quite a hike with many detours to get there. After finding a restroom, including scary traditional Japanese toilets - which we did not have to use, we decided to skip the famous Ueno Koen (park) and head back, by then it was past 4 pm. We did walk through part of the park and at the National Museum of Western Art sculpture garden Cindy and Steven took some pictures of some Rodin sculptures.
A short subway ride back to Asakusa we dropped stuff off at the ryokan, grabbed dinner at a noodle place, using a ticket machine again; handy things those machines, and headed back to the ryokan to, shower an get to bed early.
Oh yes I did call a friend who is also in town with his mom visiting relatives and we planned to meet the next day.
- Gilles
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Tuesday the 16th, Wednesday the 17th
Tuesday 9:31, San Francisco International Airport
We got through check-in quickly with the help of United’s staff. I hope I did not make the woman who was helping me laugh too much.
Steven has found the airport a little different from his memory of what it was the last time he was here in 1974. Now he is running around practicing with his digital camera. All of the photos you will see in this blog will have been taken by that camera.
Cindy has gone looking for a smoking lounge. When she asked me where one would be I told her “There isn’t one, you have to go without smoking until we exit the subway station near the ryokan.” I’m such a meanie!
Wednesday, time :?
Due to crossing the international date line we have not seen night but are in the next day. Time travel is a nifty thing.
But we are detouring into Russian airspace, no not as part of a secret mission or a good will gesture. It seems that somewhere volcanos are spewing nasty stuff like a drunken fratboy so we have to avoid it, just like avoiding fratboys.
Good views of siberia, just wish we knew when we crossed Kamchatka.
Thursday 3:30 am
My Mac claims it is 11:30 AM in Oakland, my body says it is tired but also time to be up and about. I’m sitting in the lounge of Taito Ryokan and the clock says 3:30 am.
We got to the airport yesterday, got through emigration, got the checked luggage, headed to customs in high spirits handed our declaration forms and passports, got a warm welcome have a nice stay and then headed tot eh restrooms. After necessities I went to change a pile of cash into yen, then we found Cindy who had explored the smoker’s lounge, Steven used his ATM card to get some yen, actually that should be en, the y in yen is a leftover of 19th century transliteration of Japanese. In any case when then went downstairs to the train station and bought tickets for the Skyliner to Ueno station. After entering Gilles realized he had spaced on picking up the cell phone, After all it was way past his bedtime in California. A quick run upstairs, the assistance of a station agent and a dash back just in time to get on the train, the phone was now packed.
At Ueno we transferred to the Ginza subway line, platform 2 to Asakusa. After exiting we were tired and somewhat lost. With some careful comparison of the map on the ryokan web site and the map at the station, some assistance from a young woman, we headed in what we hoped was the right direction. Looking for a koban that was on the map we walked right past it. I then stopped a fellow who understood what I meant when I pointed at the map, he got us turned around and headed back in the right direction. The officers at the koban directed us down a small street and soon enough we were struggling out of our shoes in the genkan and being greeted.
After that: got to room, laid out futon, only Cindy had the strength to take a shower, and we crashed.
More on the ryokan in a later posting.
- Gilles
We got through check-in quickly with the help of United’s staff. I hope I did not make the woman who was helping me laugh too much.
Steven has found the airport a little different from his memory of what it was the last time he was here in 1974. Now he is running around practicing with his digital camera. All of the photos you will see in this blog will have been taken by that camera.
Cindy has gone looking for a smoking lounge. When she asked me where one would be I told her “There isn’t one, you have to go without smoking until we exit the subway station near the ryokan.” I’m such a meanie!
Wednesday, time :?
Due to crossing the international date line we have not seen night but are in the next day. Time travel is a nifty thing.
But we are detouring into Russian airspace, no not as part of a secret mission or a good will gesture. It seems that somewhere volcanos are spewing nasty stuff like a drunken fratboy so we have to avoid it, just like avoiding fratboys.
Good views of siberia, just wish we knew when we crossed Kamchatka.
Thursday 3:30 am
My Mac claims it is 11:30 AM in Oakland, my body says it is tired but also time to be up and about. I’m sitting in the lounge of Taito Ryokan and the clock says 3:30 am.
We got to the airport yesterday, got through emigration, got the checked luggage, headed to customs in high spirits handed our declaration forms and passports, got a warm welcome have a nice stay and then headed tot eh restrooms. After necessities I went to change a pile of cash into yen, then we found Cindy who had explored the smoker’s lounge, Steven used his ATM card to get some yen, actually that should be en, the y in yen is a leftover of 19th century transliteration of Japanese. In any case when then went downstairs to the train station and bought tickets for the Skyliner to Ueno station. After entering Gilles realized he had spaced on picking up the cell phone, After all it was way past his bedtime in California. A quick run upstairs, the assistance of a station agent and a dash back just in time to get on the train, the phone was now packed.
At Ueno we transferred to the Ginza subway line, platform 2 to Asakusa. After exiting we were tired and somewhat lost. With some careful comparison of the map on the ryokan web site and the map at the station, some assistance from a young woman, we headed in what we hoped was the right direction. Looking for a koban that was on the map we walked right past it. I then stopped a fellow who understood what I meant when I pointed at the map, he got us turned around and headed back in the right direction. The officers at the koban directed us down a small street and soon enough we were struggling out of our shoes in the genkan and being greeted.
After that: got to room, laid out futon, only Cindy had the strength to take a shower, and we crashed.
More on the ryokan in a later posting.
- Gilles
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Lotsa food
I am going on vacation to Tokyo with a couple of friends for the rest of the month.
I'm hoping to try as many different foods as I can in Tokyo so keep an eye on this blog for news. I hope to post trip news here every 2 or 3 days.
Below are 9 new entries, all are for food, to cover three weeks:
abura-age
amanattô (sweetened beans)
an
azuki
harusame (spring rain noodles)
kara-age (deep frying)
nameko
satsuma-age
tsukudani
I'm hoping to try as many different foods as I can in Tokyo so keep an eye on this blog for news. I hope to post trip news here every 2 or 3 days.
Below are 9 new entries, all are for food, to cover three weeks:
abura-age
amanattô (sweetened beans)
an
azuki
harusame (spring rain noodles)
kara-age (deep frying)
nameko
satsuma-age
tsukudani
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Food, Author, Food
This week we are brat safe again with a double serving of desert and a writer I highly reccommend.
chawan mushi
Kôda Rohan
tamago dôfu (egg tofu)
chawan mushi
Kôda Rohan
tamago dôfu (egg tofu)
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Men (and occasional women) in black
Yesterday when I got home waiting for me was the latest live action DVD from AnimEigo. Shinobi no Mono, the 1962 movie that launched a significant boom in ninja films and stories in Japan. Now we can watch all the intrigue, brutality and action in glorious black and white.
This is great fun, and Goemon Ishikawa is in it.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Buyin' ma manga
Today I hit Comic Relief in Berkeley, a great place to get manga. A pretty good week, the last volume of Old Boy, the newest GTO the Early Years and finally the book version of Ghost in the Shell Human Error Processor.
Well I better hit the sack and get some reading done.
Well I better hit the sack and get some reading done.
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