Senso-ji Temple

The Asakusa district is a piece of traditional Tokyo, since most of the city was destroyed during earthquakes or WWII. The Senso-ji Temple, popularly known as Asakusa Kannon, is Tokyo's most sacred temple and the heart of this neighborhood.

A shrine at this site existed as early as 628, when two fishermen fished out a small gold statue of Kannon (the Buddhist goddess of mercy) from the Sumida River. Their master built a shrine to Kannon, which grew in fame, wealth and size - by 1657 it was at the center of a bustling neighborhood. The temple survived a major earthquake in 1923, but was destroyed during a WWII bombing. These buildings are therefore relatively new, but are faithful to the Edo-era layout.

The Kaminarimon Gate, or Thunder Gate, burned down in 1865 and was rebuilt in 1960. The gate, along with the huge lantern, are a popular image of Tokyo.

When you pass the gate you enter a street 0f traditional wares and souvenirs, leading the way to the main temple. We were there on a Monday and it was super packed, so I can't imagine what it's like on a weekend.

The entire area is full of charming little streets that give the neighborhood and old town feel (something that is rare in Tokyo).
A garden with statues donated by a wealthy Edo merchant. The orange tree is full of fruit, which seems odd in February.
The main hall and Five-Story Pagoda (this replica of the original was built in 1973).
This gold plated main shrine houses the original Kannon image, whatever that means.
In the background you can see the incense burner (joukoro). People are constantly wafting its smoke over them to stay healthy. I didn't know any of this when I was there, so I didn't do any wafting - but I did walk over to it and sniff it, so I hope that counts.
The main hall from the side...

Afterwards we had dinner in this amazing old wooden house.

The interior was also very old and traditional, and we sat on the floor and cooked our own food on a teppan (hotplate) in the middle of our table. "Sitting on the floor and cooking our own food" doesn't sound like such a good deal for a restaurant, but it was a lot of fun and really tasty too.

Nearby Kappabashi street specializes in kitchen utensils and restaurant supplies, with many stores overflowing onto the sidewalks.

You can buy the super realistic plastic versions of typical Japanese foods that are typically displayed outside restaurants instead of a menu. They look even more than delicious than the real thing, but eating one would be a huge mistake since they are plastic (and super expensive too).

Akihabara to you!

Rick decided he wanted to explore Akihabara, the "electric city", on his birthday. Full of neon signs, giant ads, and electronic super-stores, Akihabara looked like what I expected of Tokyo. The neighborhood is also full of game arcades and manga (comic book) stores - some selling such naughty figures of anime characters they would make the Red Light District blush. This one is outside a 7 story sex shop.

This is just a small sample of all the lights around Akihabara.

A large electronics store, with a McDonald's hidden in the bright lights on the ground level.
We wanted to go to a restaurant we found in our guidebook, but quickly realized Akihabara was too huge for us to walk there. Instead we wandered the streets until we ended up at a multistory foodcourt type of place, full of small restaurants. We decided to go to a "kushiage" restaurant, where we sat along a bar and the chef prepared treats on sticks, battered and deep fried. Some of the delicacies included fish, pork, salmon with ginger, asparagus, shrimp (which I even tried, but declined the head even when the chef insisted), and mini octopus (couldn't eat that, it was too cute and sad looking). The chef even told us which sauce to use with each piece. It was a great experience, especially since it took us a long time to find a restaurant. The best part was we didn't have to worry about reading a menu and ordering - the chef just kept handing us food.

Valentine's Day, with Ninjas!

On Valentine's Day we went to an amazing restaurant called Ninja Akasaka. To get to our table we had to go through a narrow maze of tunnels, hidden doors and over a secret draw bridge. Our table was in a small, private concrete room with a single light overhead. It felt like an interrogation room, save for the glow in the dark crickets painted on the walls. Everyone at the restaurant was dressed as a ninja, and we even got an amazing ninja magic show, where we had to use the secret ninja words "nin-nin" to make the magic happen.

The food was the best I had in Japan, and the presentation was phenomenal. My grapefruit snow crab appetizer came on a hollowed out grapefruit with leaves and snow crab on top. The grapefruit arrived at our table with a massive sword through it, and when I pulled it out, smoke started to come out of the cuts. The grapefruit was filled with dry ice (a relatively simple idea), but the effect was amazing.

When we left the restaurant our ninja ran out after us, yelling. When we turned around he unrolled a "come back soon" scroll. He was all dressed in black and it was snowing massive white snowflakes, so it looked really funny. This awesome dining experience happened really early during our stay, and it will definitely be hard to beat.

Ginza, Ginza desu.

Ginza is at the heart of Tokyo, and the city's most exclusive district. Armani, Gucci, Tiffany's and loads of high-end Japanese department stores line the streets. My office is at the corner of Ginza's main intersection, with my window overlooking all the hustle and bustle. You really can't get more central than this. This is also the most expensive real estate in the world; my office pays $35 000 rent each month.

I work on the floor right below the Delta ad.

Same building at night.

Toy Park is an amazing multi-story toy store, with a toy racetrack on the last floor. It's full of random Japanese toys as well as the brands we all know and love.

Rick's super grown up birthday present came from this store.

On weekends, there are so many people that the main street is closed to traffic.

In the background is Bic Camera, a massive electronics store where you can buy anything. This is where I was able to get my cell phone and internet connection in just one stop. It's behind a train station, and you can see these train tracks run all around the city. Under the tracks is my favorite lunch spot (you can see the orange sign).

The famous Sony building where we could play with fancy cameras in their showroom. We took pictures of a Pingu set, which were later printed on paper box cutouts we could take home as souvenirs.

And last but not least, the famous Ginza intersection, with people crossing in all directions.

If you're still reading, it's time for a Japanese lesson:

"Desu" (pronounced "des") means "this is", so "Ginza desu" means "this is Ginza". I hear this every day on the metro during my commute to work. "Desu ka" (pronounced "deska") means "is this?" so "Ginza desu ka?" means "is this Ginza?"

I'm a Monkey (in Japan)

After two weeks in Japan I've found my place in the social order: I am a monkey.

1. At work I'm hidden away in a small room, until I'm brought out to talk to people. Since the Japanese can't hear natural intonation when I speak to them, everything thing I say is very exaggerated and high pitched. They think I sound hilarious, and don't realize that I have to talk like that in order to get them to sound natural when they repeat me - otherwise they speak in a monotone.
2. Occasionally, when students don't understand what I'm saying, I have to jump around and act things out. There is a lot of limb flailing in general.
3. Sometimes I even wave around a book. I can see the delight in their faces when I do it. "Look! It has a book!"
4. I cannot eat with chopsticks, and I frequently eat at a rice bowl kind of place where everyone sits at a long, winding bar facing each other. The end result is I am prominently on display, trying to eat with two sticks, frequently dropping my food. Human's have long been fascinated with the apes ability to use simple tools.
5. Today I visited a tea house in Ginza. It was a small room where everyone sat on a bench against the wall, with marble table tops dividing the bench into sections. The waitress felt she had to tell me not to sit on the table. The tea house was great though; I got two cups of tea, a shot of sake and a piece of cake. Unfortunately the cake was served with one stick to use as a utensil. I used it to slice the cake as elegantly as I could and ate the small pieces with my fingers. The fact that I don't know how it's even possible to eat cake with one stick show's how uncivilized I am. Still, I can see that people find me charming.
6. Looking at me from behind I could pass for Japanese, which is why people who walk past often do a double take. People also like to look at me when I'm on the metro, though they look away when I notice. What would you do if you saw a monkey wandering around the subway?
7. Children on the street stop, point, smile, and wave at me. Luckily I don't get sprayed with water when they get too close.

Drinking With Coworkers

Last night after work, I went out with my coworkers for my welcome party and another colleagues going away. We went to an all-you-can drink restaurant in Shibuya, where for the equivalent of $35, you get a room for 2.5 hours. This includes all you can drink as well as dinner in the form of an eclectic mix of plates: avocado tempura, cheese sticks, spaghetti, hot dogs, and a mixed desert platter. Nothing is stranger than watching people eat spaghetti and hot dogs with chopsticks, but they insist on doing it.

In Asian countries, including Japan, it is common for a boss to invite their minions out to drinks after work. Attendance is mandatory, and everyone heads off to one of these all you can drink places and gets drunk. In the Japanese workplace an employee is never to contradict or disagree with a boss, so these drunken evenings are the one safe time employees can tell their bosses what they really think, and the bosses can get some honest insight. The next day back in the office, everyone can talk about how drunk they were, and all is forgiven.

I was shocked at the range of topics covered over dinner: number of sexual partners, one night stands, some employees even showed pictures of themselves with clearly visible tattoos (all these things are major no-nos in polite Japanese society). I would never talk about these things in a work setting in any country, so I was especially shocked to hear these topics thrown around in Japan. My lack of participation in the discussion and mere enjoyment of the shitshow has earned me the title of the "innocent" one at work - and no one back home believed me when I said I was wholesome.

This whole all you can drink concept would never work in America or Europe because of how much people can drink. But the Japanese are lightweights, so it's not surprising that it's so popular here.