I've been thinking about the writing of this blog and some of the photos that I could and have posted in the past. Most of them are cheesy and the rest have been better done by others.
So, unless there is something spectacular or unique to show you I'm not going to bore you with any more pics.
I will however continue to include links to stuff that is of interest, needs more explaining or deserves a mention.
Let's see how it works out.
We slept in today, because we could.
It was great, but it got us off to late start.
We had originally planned to visit the Yokota Museum but it would have needed us to leave Tokyo by 9am to have done it justice.
At 9am we were too tired and it was too damned cold to even contemplate getting out of bed.
11am turned out to be a very reasonable time to head out and face the crisp spring air with our new plans.
We have purchased a JR Pass to get around and it requires us to take the order to one of a short list of nominated stations.
Tokyo Station is one that is reasonably close and was also on the way to the Edo Museum and the Ryogoku Kokugikan sumo school.
We eventually found the correct counter at the Tokyo Station and for this we had to stop at a few places that initially seemed like the right place, but weren't.
As helpful as they try to be with their maps they are difficult to use, mainly due to lack of scale but also because of lack of relevant info and many assumptions.
It all gets done because everyone you ask for help from go way beyond anything you would ever experience anywhere else in the world.
If anyone sees that you might be struggling with directions, or anything in general, they will offer their assistance.
So, JR Pass(es) out of the way we decided to take a walk to the Edo Museum.
It took about 40 minutes in glorious spring weather and we go there just around lunch time.
As we approached the museum entrance we noticed that we were in front of the Ryogoku Kokugike restaurant. Yes, as one would expect, the sumo ring for the school has a traditional eatery attached to it.
For us it was perfect timing and perfect place.
When the food arrived I thought "We've really overdone it this time!" but then I noticed a table of four elderly local ladies, that reminded me of four petite Mrs. Marples eating the same as us but also chugging down pints of beer like it was water.
In fact I've noticed that many Japanese women do a mighty fine job of drinking large amounts of beer with their meals. Admirable, but I can't figure out how they do it, considering their smallish size.
Tiz - the closet Sumo groupie
Tiz waiting patiently for her chanko nabe, with a beer-ru and a nihonshu
After tucking away a meal that even a sumo wrestler would be satisfied with and way too much alcohol for that time of day we waddled around the corner to the Edo Museum.
They were offering a joint ticket (........ no .......) for two exhibitions for a great price.
The first one was the standard one that shows loads of stuff about the area of Edo, now know as Tokyo. We lucked onto a volunteer english speaking guide by the name of Seiichi Inoue.
Here is his site. It is very informative and has better pictures than I could ever take.
If you go through his whole site you will have done the entire tour of the museum, without shelling out for the airfare or the lack of sleep!
We then went down to the special exhibition, which was about the unification of Japan and great battles fought by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Much of the exhibition was about the painted cloth panels that show the many battles that are now legendary.
There were also lots of the swords and pole blades from the great warriors, along with their armour.
I know that most of us have seen these warriors all dressed up for battle in movies but to see their gear up close makes you realise that even though they may have been small, as the average height in those days was less than 150cm, or less than 5 foot, they were fierce.
All in all, an absolutely fascinating day that was made even more enjoyable because our wonderful guide, Seiichi Inuoe.
Here are some shots from our visit.
Taking Tiz for a ride 1940 Tokyo style
Riding this trike like I stole it!
This is a katana I will not be buying for Tiz's nephew.
Sushi the way it was in the 1500's
No rice and 2 to 3 times the size it is today.
Tiz, eyeing off an early version of "We come to you!" fish shop
We wandered home via a series of comical misadventures whilst trying to understand the rail system and the exiting of the various stations.
It took us a lot longer than it should have but it helped in building up an appetite ...... because we're the sort of folk that need help in this sort of thing!
Tiz had a desire to eat yakitori, as we Melburnians know it. We referred to Naoki, who explained that "yakitori" is skewered meat usually served as bar food and not an actual meal.
Okay then, geijins learn yet another lesson.
He suggested heading back over the Sumida River, to Tsukishima, with an area that has about 100 small but varied eateries all in one street.
It was a brisk 20 minute walk and what met us was a surprise.
A narrow street flanked with food shops on both sides. These shops sat from as little as six people through to about 20.
Many of the obviously most popular ones had people sitting on little stools outside with blankets over there laps whilst they waited for a free table inside.
We wandered up and down the whole strip and finally came across one that had two spare tables in it. One was going to be ours.
The place is Monjya Okame and it is a teppenyaki restaurant. At this point I will remind people that are not familiar with Japan that terms we use in the western world are not entirely correct or applied in the correct Japanese sense. Teppenyaki is one of many.
Inside we went to the sound of many calling "Irashaimase".
Yes, were once again the sole "round eyes" in a place full of office workers stopping off for a feed and way too many beers before heading home. This is good.
We ordered three dishes, which we cooked at the table on the hotplate between us.
One would have sufficed, two would have fed us very well and three was just what you do when you have no idea that the serves are gargantuan.
A "bucket" of the finest Suntory lager was ordered, for me, and Tiz, who seems to have taken a liking to sake (the term used for all Japanese alcohol similar to what we call 'sake') ordered herself shoshu.
Shoshu is sweet potato spirit, and in this case, with a salted and spiced plum in it.
The other patrons knew how to cook their food with some style whereas we novices had the staff pop past quite regularly and adjust the heat and location of the food on the hotplate.
It all worked out well and with Tiz's Japanese language skills the whole night ended up a lot of fun.
Once again Tiz had to cook dinner
... but then this young fellow came along to help .....
..... and we ended up with this.
It was nearly as good as Tiz's.
This is the shop to look for if you're in Tsukishima
Something happened that makes me want to provide a list of things that the Japanese DO NOT have. Some are good some are not so good.
The vey first thing on the list shocked me because they seem so progressive and yet ...
- No smoking laws in restaurants. Just across the aisle a table of three youngish women ate their teppenyaki whilst puffing on cigarettes between mouthfuls. YUUUUCK
- Rubbish on the streets, or anywhere else that have seen so far.
- Hand dryers or towels, of any sort, in their Rest Rooms / Lavatories / Toilets.
- Public rubbish bins. Where do they put their rubbish when they're out and about?
- Beef that isn't marbled. Is all meat in Japan wagyu beef? We went through two huge department stores and looked at a lot of produce, including hundreds of kilos of raw beef prepared in every way imaginable. Every piece was very well marbled to some extent or other. Mind you, at the prices they pay it would want to be simply the best.
- Cheap (meaning not extraordinarily exorbitant) cheese. Shropshire Blue sells for between $110.00 and $200.00 per kilo!!! All the other cheeses are not that much cheaper.
- Dirty cars. Nope, no dirty cars. I didn't see any car washes anywhere so that's a bit of mystery, so far.
- Bad dress sense. You may not like the style(s) you com across but the dress sense is always there. School kids have dress sense, office workers have it, b-boys have it, road workers have it and we need way more of it.
- Lack of care for others. I won't go any further on this point.
We got home at ~ 10:30 exhausted and collapsed into a deep sleep.
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