Japan - Ginza and Ameyoko

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Breakfast in Ameyoko

Sandra

The Ameyoko Market

This is a huge open air market located a few blocks from our hotel. The guide book lists it as "one of the great bazaars of Asia". After WWII, black market goods were sold there. Now you can get almost anything. Show up on a weekend and the crush of humanity, all there hunting for bargains, can be a little overwhelming. You can also get lost there because it seems to go on indefinitely.We decide this would be a good place to look for a restaurant serving breakfast: maybe not the best idea.


Charles

There is a theme running through our lives here:

. . . We are illiterate,
. . . and we can't hear (except in English),
. . . and we can't speak (except in occasional stilted phrases, badly).

I awoke this morning from a dream in which I was lost, and didn't know how I became lost. I could read the addresses around me -- 341 First Avenue -- but I had no idea where "First Avenue" was! My mental map of the world had disappeared.

Dreams represent life, eh?

We decided to get breakfast out in Ameyoko, rather than eat in the hotel. Most restaurants in the Ameyoko district we were walking through were closed. The ones that were open were beer parlors that open at 9am.

We ended up in a "vending machine" restaurant. Put money in a slot, pick your dish (pictures, all descriptions in Japanese), and receive a ticket. The door to the restaurant opens -- walk in. The chef takes the ticket, prepares your food (in about a minute), and gives it to you.

We each got a bowl of soba (buckwheat noodles), with a deep-fried pancake of egg-coated bits of seafood, and some dipping sauce (around $5). I snuffled mine up -- it was simple, but not bad. Sandra can't tolerate a lot of fried food, and wasn't so happy.

The Ameyoko district is also an entertainment district -- pachinko parlors, "love hotels" (2 hours / $50), bars and restaurants. It also has a big stall-based market which reminded us of Mexico (but clean and well-organized).

We returned Saturday afternoon, and the place was hopping. Crowded, narrow streets, noise, mostly young people out having fun.

Negotiating "foreign food" as an Illiterate

The hotel desk sent me to the nearest supermarket ("supa" in Japanese). I was freaked by the crowding. No shopping carts, just hand baskets. Aisles were narrow, just wide enough for two people to pass. Shelves were packed with bags and boxes of food -- no English. No fresh vegetables (I was in the wrong building! The supermarket was a block long with several different stores and several sections], but there was some bread, yogurt, and pre-cooked omelette (which is very good). This is not going to be easy.

Sandra

This is not Safeway. The checkouts were scattered with some even located outside on the street. The produce dept was located in a building around the corner. Given the size of the store I was amazed to see the size of the produce section -- about as big as my living room. Not much variety but what was there was delicious. Kind of the opposite of North America, big in size but it tastes like cardboard.

The Tokyo Subway

The only thing I can compare the Tokyo subway to is the one in New York. Huge stations with many interconnecting lines and many exits. It is the kind of system that one absorbs through osmosis after spending countless hours on it commuting to and from work everyday. Trying to negotiate it on the run, and trying to figure out coin machines written in Japanese with a line of commuters behind you waiting to buy tickets, is an experience.

I spent lots of time in NY trying to figure out just where on the platform the door of the train would open. I wanted to be first in so I could get a seat. In Tokyo that is not a problem. The door openings are marked on the platform and that's where you line up.- Brilliant .- Also, the exits are numbered, with the names of the streets they go to and what is located on that street.- Again, brilliant.-

Unlike NY, there are overhead luggage racks in each car. People leave their hand bags and brief cases there and then read or fall asleep. I don't see that working in NY.

Charles

The first time is the hardest. The ticket price depends on where you're going. The map that has the prices is (of course) labelled in Japanese, if it's labelled at all. Every resident of Tokyo has the subway map engraved in his memory; we do not. A fellow tourist gave us a hand, and the ticket vending machine knows English! There's a "ticket adjustment" machine at your exit, which will return cash if you've overpaid.

The subway is absolutely clean, and the cars are quiet. Good "moving map" displays of where the train is. Fully labelled exits (in English!). As New Yorkers, we were impressed.

Ginza -- Fifth Avenue, in Japanese

We got out of the subway in the middle of the Ginza district. Big buildings, lots of romaji -- Ricoh, Vuitton, Chanel, Jaeger, LeCoultre -- you get the idea. The kabuki theatre is being rebuilt, and is not accessible.

A stop in the Mitsokoshi department store got us their Visitor's Desk, where we learned about folk craft museums, flea markets, doll exhibits (the Japanese just had their "Doll Festival"), and so on.

The department store is laid out with Japanese taste. Nothing is crowded; each item is displayed carefully, to give its best effect. Lots of Western brand names. Nine restaurants, ranging from expensive to very expensive.

In the basement is a "food floor" that knocked us over. Imagine the nicest "pre-cooked takeout" display counters you've ever seen at Whole Foods or Choices. Now make it prettier, add a lot more color and multiply it by 25 times, and give it more variety.

Mitsokoshi Dept store, which started out as a Kimono Shop, is celebrating a special birthday this year, it's 400th! It will be a while till we see this in North America.

We walked around the Ginza, which we would compare to NY 5th Ave, but it's hard to impress two New Yorkers.

Tokyo International Forum

Two Sundays each month, there's an antiques market in the plaza of the Tokyo International Forum, in the middle of downtown Tokyo.

The Forum is a beautiful structure. High glass walls, a huge glass roof, and steelwork that looks like the framing of a wooden boat. It's big -- many exhibition halls, restaurants, public spaces. The photos don't do it justice.

In the courtyard, over 200 vendors have set up tables. This isn't a "flea market" -- sword hilts, kimonos, nice old watches, ceramics are all on display. I passed up a used shakuhachi (possible damage), but bought an elegant vintage safety razor . Bargaining was simple -- I pointed to the price on the bottom, the vendor keyed in a reduced price on his calculator, I said "Hai!" (Yes!).

Sandra

There was something I noticed in the Forum that got my attention, and that is the Japanese way of doing business.

There were two trade shows going on in halls that were side by side. One was for jewelery and one was for pottery. They were plainly visible once you got off the escalator as they were not more than 5 yards away. And yet, there was someone stationed at the foot of the escalator, a meeter and greeter, whose only job was to bow and point you in the right direction. This seems to be part of their culture, from Japan Air on down. I can't help thinking that if you fired these people the unemployment rate might just rise a percent.

Charles

We walked to the Imperial Palace and its gardens. The Palace is closed to visitors. The "gardens" are open spaces, with some trees -- not the "planted flowers" we expected. Tokyo is _crowded_, and any open space is a luxury. The cherry blossoms aren't out yet, but the plum blossoms are, and photographers were busy snapping pictures. Us, too.

Sandra

Tokyo is a city that is immense and densely packed. Ueno is a neighborhood where tree stands out as a novelty. People decorate the front of their homes with potted plants with varying success.

I think of the pride people take in their gardens in Vancouver and am not surprised how crazy they get over cherry blossoms or any green space. They are starting to bloom here and the cameras are out in force.

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