Posted by Jay
28 January 2011

Since we have had a pretty boring week I thought I would write about a type of restaurant/bar that we enjoy going to here called an izakaya.  We have actually been to a few different izakayas here in Tokyo and I just went to one on Wednesday with my stay at home dads group.

Izakayas are drinking establishments with a more substantial food menu than a normal bar.  Generally it is a place where you would go after work for drinks and food to share.  We generally go for dinner and drinks with friends.  Many izakayas have all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink menus where you can stay for 2-3 hours for one price.  The ones we go to do not follow this format.

As opposed to some other eating establishments, dishes are generally shared by your whole party, but like everywhere else large amounts of beer and sake are served and drank.  No matter how much you eat or drink it is pretty common practice to split the bill evenly between all the members of your party.

On Wednesday I went to a izakaya called Teyandei which was located in a converted two-story house.  It was perfect for us Westerners as instead of sitting on the tatami mat floors there were actually wells under the table for your legs, which is much more comfortable for a three hour dinner.  The menu was also in English which was very helpful.  We had our own little room with a big table and our own heater (which was promptly turned off  as it was 90-some degrees in there).

We started our meal with a little vegetable appetizer and pitchers of beer.  To follow we had sashimi, smoked salmon, bite-sized chicken and veggies on a hot plate, breaded tofu, and some other items that I can't remember or didn't know what they were, but ate anyways.  Sometime in the middle of the meal we switched to sake which was very good (and plentiful).  We ended the meal with a bowl of the best miso soup I have had since arriving in Tokyo.

Overall this is my favorite type of place to go as you can get a variety of food and it is a very relaxed atmosphere and generally not outrageously expensive.

Here are some of the pictures from my night out.



Kanpai!

Jay

Posted by Jay
24 January 2011

After our very long night (well felt really long as we were not sleeping) we headed over to the Seaworld park itself.  It turned out to be a very beautiful day to be by the ocean as we only needed sweatshirts until the wind picked up in the afternoon.  As is common in all of Japan space is used to a maximum throughout the whole park.  We were pretty shocked at how many animals they had in each tank, but the Japanese perspective of space is very different than ours.  I am not saying the animals seemed sick or in distress, just that there were many animals in every tank.

The park was not very busy in the morning so we were able to freely observe the animals and head to a bunch of shows.  It was really easy to see all the animals and even Ella could see over the railings on most of the exhibits.  In the morning we saw the dolphin and orca shows and walked through the majority of the park seeing everything from penguins to turtles to fish of all kinds.  Abby and Ella were on the run from one tank to the next in a race to see who could see the most. 

Amazing timing by photographer Jess

This guy was huge! His tusks were like 4ft long!

We had fun figuring out what to have for lunch as none of the food signs were in English (while all the exhibits were) and ended up getting hot dogs wrapped up like a taquito, french fries, corn on the cob, juice boxes and a beer for me.  We also got some dessert while Abby took a nap. Ella and Jess got ice cream and I had manju which is a Japanese steamed cake filled with sweet bean paste (azuki).  Ella also used the shore binoculars to get some views of the ocean.

Awesome picture by Ella

Manju!

Once Abby woke up we went to the beluga whale show which would have been really interesting if we spoke Japanese, but alas we don't. Abby and I exited the show early due to technical difficulties (Abby wanted nothing to do with the stroller) and we headed to get a churro for after the beluga show.

The last show of the day was the sea lion performance.  Both Abby and Ella were very interested in watching this show and laughed and clapped along. Thankfully we had a train to catch as Jess and I were beat.  We headed back to the hotel to catch a shuttle to the train station and had a very relaxing train ride back to Tokyo (we were the only people in the reserved car).

"Mom, you know I hate these guys, right?"

Japanese Spider Crab- size of a German Shepard

"Dad there are fish up there!"

Pelicans going for a walk

Kanpai!

Jay

Posted by Jess
23 January 2011


This weekend we took a little mini-trip to Kamogawa, which is a small ocean side town about two hours east of Tokyo.  Kamogawa is home to Japan's Seaworld Park, but the park itself will be on the next post.  We booked a room at the Kamogawa Seaworld Hotel, which is attached to the park.  After arriving at Awa-Kamogawa station on the express train from Tokyo Station, we took the hotel shuttle to the hotel.  The hotel is Japanese Ryokan style, which means room is like a house you see on TV when you see Japan.  Its just one room with a kotatsu table in the middle where you sit on the floor to eat and tatami mats on the floor.   And no beds!  Our room was about 300 square feet in total when you include the bathroom.

As you enter the room, the first thing you find is the slipper rack.  There are slippers there for all sizes (well, maybe not quite OUR sizes!) for you to wear in the room and around the hotel.  In Japan, you always take off your shoes when you enter a home, so its the same thing here.



Immediately to the left is the very small bathroom area.





Then you enter in to the main room.


If you look at the picture directly above, on the table in the red wood container is a set of tea cups and glasses.  Straight ahead is the closet where the bedding is kept and to the right is the coat/clothing closet (above the safe).  When you slide open the bedding closet doors you find the mattresses and the blankets.


Around 7:30, two women came in to our room and made our beds.  They pushed the table out of the way and put out the mattresses.


You can see in this picture that the mattresses are not very thick (about 2 inches, maybe?) and not very soft either!  The pillows are made up of the same material as the futon mattress so they are hard as rocks.  The blankets however, were nice and cushy!

In the coat closet were our Yukatas (Japanese robes).  At a ryokan hotel, you wear these in your room and anywhere around the hotel and only have their underwear on underneath.  While Jason and Ella wore theirs (with their clothes on underneath), I didn't try mine on.   Ella and Jason wore theirs to dinner in the hotel restaurant.







Dinner was a buffet of Japanese and Western foods, but of course no English signs so we had a little bit of fun trying to figure out what everything was.  The girls had chicken strips and french fries for dinner and I had some noodles, salad, rice and took what I thought was chicken, but was clearly fish when I turned it over!  Jason had crab legs, noodles, rice, fish dumplings, sushi, sashimi and tried a few other things.  Dessert was some small cakes and creme puffs - like the kind we buy from Sam's Club at home!  The restaurant was very kid friendly with every table having a baby chair (highchair) and a kids area to play in.

It was already pretty late so after dinner we headed back upstairs and worked on getting the girls to bed.  At 10pm, this was pretty much a disaster waiting to happen.  The girls were so tired and in a completely new place, plus there was no way to keep them from getting up and wandering around (Abby really needs a crib to keep her in one place at night!).  Abby had a really tough time falling asleep and was mad when we tried to rock her.  Jason had to take her to the lobby to avoid bothering other guests and getting kicked out the hotel!  Good thing that it was a kid-friendly hotel so all the rooms were filled with parents.  Maybe we even got a little sympathy.  Maybe.

After Jason brought Abby back up (finally asleep), I stayed with the girls and he headed down to the onsen.  Onsens are the Japanese hot springs and are public bathing areas.  This is a concept that as an American I shudder at - I don't want to wear a swimsuit in public, not sure why I would want to sit around naked in a hot tub with strangers!  But Jason is a brave soul and we were going for a Japanese experience.   Knowing that the hotel was quite empty and he wouldn't have much company, he headed down.  The hotel had an indoor onsen - one for women and one for men.  If you are curious what this area looks like, here is a picture from the hotel website.  Jason didn't take the camera with him.  Ha!



Jason went to the mens one and used the showering area to soap up and rinse off.  It is bad form to get in an onsen unbathed.  He used a small hand towel to cover himself while walking into the onsen and then put it on his head as he sat in the onsen.  Since these are made from volcanic activity, there is sulfur in the hot springs which is said to be a natural muscle tension-reliever and after the fight we had with Abby to get her to sleep, I'm sure he needed it!  While sitting in the onsen, he put the towel on his head (to keep the towel from getting wet).  There were just a few other people coming in and out.  Jason said 4 people in total, so it was a good time to try it.  He stayed for about 10 minutes and then came out, put on his yukata and came upstairs to crawl into our 'beds'.   

Abby woke up around 3am and was up and off of course (again we could have used some way to contain her in a bed!) so we were both up - and Ella too - trying to get her back to sleep.  Let's just say 7am came way too early and with some sore backs and hips, but at least we had a beautiful view from our window.



Breakfast was also included with our stay down at the buffet so we went down and had some eggs, rice, fruit, toast, bacon, and sausage links.  They also had traditional Japanese breakfast items like fermented soybeans and miso soup, but we stuck to the more western side of things.  After breakfast we packed up and checked out and walked the short path to Kamogawa Sea World for the day. 

We were glad to be able to experience a ryokan style hotel, even though it wasn't quite the bed and breakfast experience of the traditional Japanese ryokan.  It was nice to try it and get a flavor of it while knowing it was family friendly, we had our own bathroom, and had solid walls (instead of rice paper walls) for when the girls were loud! 

Kanpai!
Jess

Posted by Jay
11 January 2011

I had the amazing opportunity to attend the opening day of the January Grand Sumo Tournament on Sunday with some friends.  I have to say that going in I had no idea what to expect and practically knew nothing about the history, rules or the ceremony involved.  I could spend hours detailing all of the specifics of Sumo, but decided it would be more beneficial to point you to an amazing official website that is in English (www.sumo.or.jp/eng/)

 Six Grand Tournaments are held throughout the year, three in Tokyo and one each in Osaka, Nagoya and Kyushu.  Each tournament lasts 15 days and each Rikishi (sumo) wrestles a different opponent each day.  The winner isdecided by the best record over the 15 days.  An actual sumo match at most lasts a minute or two, most ending in a few seconds after the start, much shorter than the ceremony leading up to each match. 

When I first found out that I would be going to the tournament I expected to attend all the matches all day long, what I didn't know was that each tournament day has two divisions competing.  Earlier in the day the juryo division competes (essentially the JV wrestlers), and in the afternoon the maku-ichi division competes (Varsity).  My more-experienced sumo friends said that you really only need to go to the maku-ichi round as these are the marquee Rikishi and the best sumo to see.

When we arrived at the Kokugikan (sumo stadium) we found our seats were near the top of the stadium, but we still could see the Dohyo (ring) very well.  I was informed that the Emperor was attending the matches as his special seats were present to the side of the ring.  The Emperor and Empress only attend one day of one Grand Tournament each year and I was lucky enough to see them there!

Sumo is heavily grounded in formalized ritual and traditional etiquette.  There are numerous displays of ritual before, during and after each bout.  Before a Rikishi enters the ring they toss salt into the ring to ward of evil spirits and wipe away the bad luck of the previous loser.  The Rikishi then face off and "stare" down, slap themselves, and lift their legs and stamp down in an attempt to intimidate their opponent, leaving the ring multiple times and reentering.  Now, I think that in the past the Rikishi might have actually attempted to intimidate their opponent, but nowadays they know their opponents very well and have studied their techniques so it is more ritual in nature than intimidation. 

Once the bout starts the Rikishi use many different techniques to attempt to remove their opponent from the ring or make them touch the ground with any part of the body besides the bottom of their feet.  There are names for all these different techniques, and most are well known by sumo fans.  As I really did not know any of the Rikishi in advance I was grateful to have knowledgeable companions and an English guide.  We made the matches more interesting by placing a wager on who could pick the most bouts correctly, I sadly took 2nd place and lost my 500Yen.  We also enjoyed a few cans of Kirin and some chips.

Overall it was a really neat experience and I am totally hooked.  They show the maku-ichi matches on cable here with an English commentator and I have really enjoyed reading about the history and the Rikishi.  I don't think Ella really enjoys watching the matches and she can't understand why they don't where any clothes.

Interesting side notes: 

Women are never for any reason allowed on the Dohyo.  This presented an interesting problem as traditionally the mayor of the city gives the trophy at the end of the Grand Tournament on the Dohyo.  For the first time ever the mayor of Osaka was a woman and had to present the trophy to the side of the Dohyo to preserve the tradition as it would have been very bad luck to allow her on the ring.

High ranking Rikishi are viewed as national heroes and hold very high regard within Japan.  Last year a huge baseball gambling scandal and links to the Japanese mob was revealed tainting the sport and causing one of the two Yokozuna (highest rank in sumo) to leave sumo.

Mural inside

All the Rikishi are introduced

Yokozuna Hakuho performs dohyo-iri "entering the ring" ceremony

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko

Yumitori-shiki "Bow dance" closing day of matches

Kokugikan

Kanpai!
Jay

Posted by Jess
9 January 2011

But don't worry, I didn't cry!  I just could have if I wanted to.  For my birthday we asked my coworkers and their significant others to join us for dinner.  I'm not sure if I've mentioned it, but I work on a small team of mostly non-Japanese people.  Two Japanese women, two American men, 1 Brit, and 1 Irishman.  When the babysitter arrived, we were a little early so Jason and I headed towards dinner and stopped at Zest Cantina for a pre-party beverage.


We headed out to Gonpachi Restaurant in Nishi-Azabu.  Jason had been there before with the stay at home dad's group (see post here: October 2010 Gonpachi Post) but I hadn't been there and it's a pretty big restaurant as far as Japan goes so we thought it would be a good place for a group of us to go.  I took a few pictures from the restaurant's website to show you, but Jason's post has pictures too.




We had 8 of us for dinner and had fun trying the sashimi, tempura, gyouza, skewered meats and veggies (bacon wrapped asparagus, yummy!!) and of course the beer, all served to us by Keanu Reeves (At least that's who we thought he looked like).  This waiter was American all the way, but seemed to at least speak the Japanese that was on the menu.  Someone told them it was my birthday so we got a plate of desserts with sparklers in them for our table and the one next to ours.  They turned off the lights in the restaurant and everyone in the place sang Happy Birthday.  On the plate was written "Happy Birthday Jessica" in chocolate sauce.  There was a little bit of ice cream, some fruit and some green tea flavored chocolate cake.


After dinner we met up with a few more friends and headed to Karaoke in nearby Roppongi.  (You can read more about how karaoke works in Japan from one of our previous posts here:  October 2010 Karaoke with Kiki)  Our room fit 13 of us comfortably and we bought the "all you can drink" package for two hours.  I always have a really hard time picking out what to sing, but with 13 of us in a room, you only got to sing once or twice in the 2 hours anyway!  Jason sang Sweet Child O' Mine and I Want You To Want Me, plus was the Snoop Dogg when I did California Gurls.  Lady Gaga, REO Speedwagon, Ricky Martin, Madonna and John Denver were among the others that made appearances by the group that night.  Our room had a little stage in it with neon lights in the corner which was fun, but the microphones didn't work too well while you were up there so we didn't use it much!




The group was very generous to me and I came home with flowers, chocolates, bath soap, socks and mobile phone jewelry (which is a very Japanese thing to do).  I've put a few photos below of the night.  I was so lucky to have such a great group to celebrate with.  We had a lot of fun and were pooped when we arrived back home at 2am!   Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes!  It was one to remember, that's
for sure.



Kanpai!
Jess