Ameyoko-cho

When I lived here in Japan the first time, I worked in a suburb of Tokyo called Akasaka Mitsuke.  A couple of years after I left, the company I worked for went bankrupt (I am sure it had a lot to do with their choice of logo, a pink rabbit with huge ears and a beak-like mouth).  A lot of teachers and students had a lot of problems as a result of this, but luckily I was not around to experience any hardship.  In two visits to Japan since, and after six weeks of living here again, I had not been back to Akasaka Mitsuke.  Last Sunday night, I decided I would stop there on my way home from work (it is on the same train line that I use now) and have a look to see how much had changed.  The first thing I noticed after getting out of the station is the area has a Hooters restaurant now (after I move away from the neighbourhood, they choose to open it!!).  The biggest change was that my old school no longer exists.  The building now has a dental clinic where the school used to be, on the first floor (or second floor for my North American and Japanese readers) and a convenience store on the ground floor (first floor).

I wandered around the neighbourhood for about half an hour and found a few of my favourite restaurants were still there, but a fair bit had changed (the girls who wait at the intersections for men to walk past tempting them with a "sexii massagii were still there).

Here is a shot looking down the street my school was on:

I am glad that I did stop in, and will probably go back again now, it did satisfy any curiosities that I did have.

A few days ago, I double checked on the location of Ameyoko-cho, the place that I wanted to find two weeks ago and discovered that I had gotten off the train at completely the wrong station, so armed with the correct information and a photo of the location from google maps I met up with my friend Daniel again and we set forth again for Ameyoko-cho.  After getting off the train at the right station, we found it very quickly.

A bit of history about Ameyoko-cho as it is quite a historical area.  Ameyoko-cho literally means "candy shop alley "It was one of the few places that survived the Tokyo firebombing at the end of WWII and as a result, pretty much all of the buildings are the ones that were there at the end of the war.  Soon after the war finished the area became home to one of Tokyo's black markets.  American soldiers could be found here selling candy to the locals, and from that came it's name.  Now it is a thriving, bustling lively shopping street with shops and stalls selling everything from clothing and shoes to weird and exciting food from Japan, Korea, and China.  Shop vendors shout to people passing by, letting them know what they are selling, how cheap it is, and how delicious their food is in order to tempt them into buying something.  It really is a vibrant area that was pretty crowded when I was there on Thursday, and is jam packed on the weekend days!

Daniel enjoys playing UFO catcher games and today he won a big Panda bear soft toy.

As we were walking out of the shop, two young girls looked at Daniel with a mix of utter awe and envy as he carried his hard earned prize with him.

After walking around reminiscing enjoying the atmosphere of Ameyoko-cho again, I bought some kim chi (korean spicy pickled vegetables) and Daniel and I made our way out of Ameyoko-cho and across the street to Ueno park.  This time of year is a celebrated time of year as it is Hanami time, cherry blossom time.  The cherry blossom period only lasts for a short time and came a little earlier than usual this year because of the warm weather that arrived early.  There are many famous places to view the cherry blossoms, and a lot of people have Hanami parties under the cherry blossom trees with friends or co-workers.

There is a lake near the park with a temple nearby so we wandered over there to have a look and a bite to eat.

You probably noticed the sign in the lake there, and wondered as I did what it says.

It had a very stern looking seagull sitting on it, so I took a photo so I could ask a Japanese friend what it said.  I was told it says "No fishing".  I assume the seagull was there enforcing the rule.

A few photos of the temple.  Another one of those "lucky" incense smoking things that helps you to not lose your hair......

We sat  down to have a bite to eat and we were talking and I noticed a Japanese couple (probably in their late 30's) walking toward us.  About 2 metres away from us, the lady stopped and was staring at Daniel's panda that he had won playing the UFO catcher.  She said "sugoi, kawaii!" (great, cute!) and I gave her a smile as she and her husband walked on.  Daniel hadn't noticed this so I told him what had happened and he told me I should have said something because he didn't really want it and would have given it to her.  So we chased them down and Daniel (whose Japanese is pretty good) explained to her what I had told him, and he then gave her the Panda.  You should have seen the look on her face, she was so happy!  She then did something completely unexpected.  Public displays of affection are not common at all in Japan, and just don't exist between people who don't know each other, especially toward a foreigner.  She stepped up and gave Daniel a huge hug, in the middle of the Park!!  Daniel and I are big believers in a concept called "ichi-go ichi-e" which literally means "one time, one meeting" a really great concept in Japan that says you may only meet a person once in your lifetime, so you should make a good impression of yourself so they remember you.  This happened to me at the airport when I arrived (you may remember me writing about it) when the Japanese guy helped me with my luggage to the next terminal where I was to pick up the sim card for my phone.  Daniel had just performed ichi-go ichi-e!

We then headed off home and I stopped to have a beer with another friend Charlie to finish off another great day in Tokyo.

That's it for this week, see you again next week for another update.

P.S. I might not be able to take any video footage for a little while.  I think i have left my video camera charger in Australia and the battery is flat!  

Catching Up & Time at the Seaside! - Odaiba

Recently I had the opportunity to catch up with some old friends here, some of my former students.  We organised to meet at the nearest train station to where I work and went to a nearby Izakaya.  It was so good to see them again, as they all were such an important part of why I enjoyed my time here the first time, and that in itself was a motivating factor for me to come back again.  We shared some laughs, caught up with what has been happening over the last 8 and a half years, what is happening now, and shared a lot more laughs.  We enjoyed ourselves so much that we decided it would be a monthly happening now, the next one scheduled for the end of this month, a Hanami (cherry blossom) party!  Looking forward to that, but I managed to get one of the waitresses to take a photo of us:

Yesterday I also caught up with another couple of friends and former students.  One was so nervous about meeting me as she had stopped studying English and was worried that she wouldn't remember how to speak, but as I said to them, I am grateful that they speak anything to me in English as my Japanese is nowhere near good enough to have a conversation!  I told her not to worry as I could understand her perfectly.  She then noted that "My English is like a quiz!".  I don't know, but anyone who can say that has a pretty good grasp of English!!

Unfortunately we forgot to have a photo taken of us, but after catching up for lunch (which was just as much fun as the previous one!) we headed toward the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building as they have an observatory up pretty high.  We were a little unlucky with the view as the prevailing winds at the moment are blowing a heap of sand from the Chinese deserts and smog form their cities across the sea and over Japan.  It is a phenomenon that happens at this time each year, but I took some photos so you could get a bit of an idea of what downtown Tokyo looks like.

And in the middle of downtown Tokyo:

a massive park!

That interesting looking building in the left hand side background is the Tokyo School of Design which is why it looks a bit artistic I guess.

So today I had another day off and decided to head to a place in Tokyo called Odaiba.  Odaiba is an artificial island in Tokyo Bay.  It was built in 1853 as one of six defensive posts to defend Tokyo (or Edo as it was called then) from attack by sea.  The biggest concern at the time was from an American called Admiral Matthew Perry who had landed at nearby Yokohama the same year demanded that Japan start trading with the US.  In 1990 the then Governor of Tokyo decided to develop the island into a showcase for futuristic living and they planned for the area to eventually house over 100,000 people.  Development kind of ground to a halt in about 1996 as the full affects of the Japanese economy bubble bursting took hold and a lot of the companies involved in the development went bankrupt.  In the late 1990's action re-commenced and it is now a bustling hive of offices, large shopping malls, apartment blocks and varied attractions that encourages a lot of Tokyo residents to cross the Bay on their days off and enjoy themselves.

One of the first places I went to was a man-made beach, complete with beautiful white sand,

and a windsurfer (if you can see him in the picture...

That bridge there is called the Rainbow Bridge and is what is used to get from the Tokyo across the bay to Odaiba.  There is an interesting story about that bridge that I will remember to tell you a bit later.

Anyway, it was a warm day, the sand felt great beneath my feet and I was just about to strip off and go for a swim when I see this:

Now just in case you want to ignore the warning about swimming, they have a warning about not having open flames anywhere near the water!!  If that isn't enough to stop anyone from swimming there, then they deserve whatever exotic rashes they get!

A little bit later on I see a sight that most people would think you would only see in New York:

Yes, Tokyo has it's own replica of the Statue of Liberty.  Just in case any of you thought that I was just making up all of this blog and hadn't really left Australia and I was finding these pictures on the net......

Yep, it is me!

There are a few uniquely designed building at Odaiba, none of which is more unique than this one:

This building is the head office of one of the TV stations here.  I don't know why the ball is there or what purpose it serves. I tried to find out, but even Wikipedia couldn't give me the answer.

I moved on from here and went to one of the many large shopping malls.  I was getting a bit hungry at this time so I hunted down a food court.

I went to the one right over in the back, with gold letters on black background.  The lady who served me was lovely and I uttered one word of Japanese to her and she immediately complimented me on my great Japanese and asked where I was from and what I was doing in Tokyo.  I was able to get out a few more words of Japanese (I don't know if my further attempts to speak in Japanese changed her mind at all) and then went and sat down with my steaming bowl of soup noodles and ate a thoroughly delicious meal!

I don't know if you can make out the writing on the sheet of seaweed at the back of the bowl, but it says "thank you" in about five or six different languages.

Nearby, Toyota has a showroom and I wandered in to take a look.  It was mostly just cars but they did have a couple of cool things.  The first one was a car simulator based on the Gran Turismo 5 game.  I burned my way around the track and was complimented on my driving abilities even though if it was a real car I had been driving, I would have been extricating myself from a smoking pile of scrap metal!  I moved on to the next interesting exhibit:

It was a driving simulator that utilises Toyota's new crash avoidance systems.  In a nutshell, it gives an audible warning when danger is approaching (ice on the road, a stationary vehicle or an oncoming vehicle if you happen to be driving on the wrong side of the road like I was.....  If there is no reaction from the driver, the brakes will start being applied automatically and the seat belt will tighten in anticipation of a collision, and to try and minimalise the damage to both car and driver.  At the end of my drive, the driver was relatively unscathed, but the same could not be said for my vehicle......  I walked away with more compliments about my great driving.

I made my way out of the Toyota showroom and into another shopping mall.  The interior of this one was very classic Italian in it's look.

Fascinating place this one, the architecture was great!  I left this place and went for a bit more of a walk and saw a large group of people milling around and headed over to find out what the attraction was.

At first I thought it was Optimus Prime, or another of the Transformers but it is actually from a Japanese animation series.  I didn't want to get too close, it looked serious!

I headed back over toward the beach area and got a better photo of the Rainbow Bridge.

So the story about the Rainbow Bridge.  A number of years ago, before I lived here previously, a man hijacked a Boeing 747 that had just taken off from nearby Haneda airport, swung the plane around and started lining it up for an attempt to fly under the bridge!!  Luckily for all concerned, as he was focused on his task, the flight crew were able to overpower him and regain control of the plane before any damage was done.  Now, a highly trained pilot could probably squeeze a Jumbo jet under the plane, but a random crazy man?  Definitely not!

It was getting close to 8pm by this time, so I went looking for a place to have dinner then walked outside to see the city of Tokyo lit up and did a quick swing around with the video camera so you could get an idea of what the city looks like at night.  Here is the link to the video on youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KnrmfxK_W0&feature=youtu.be 

Thanks again for having a read.

See you next week with another update!  Bye.

Revisiting places - Asakusa

I had a day off today so decided to head to a part of Tokyo that has more of a traditional feel to it with a friend Daniel.  We went looking for an area called Ameyoko but I think we came out of the station at the wrong exit and couldn't see it but had a look around where we were anyway.  We were right next to one of Tokyo's most famous temples, Sensoji Temple.

When I was living here before, one of my students was a tv director and she asked me if I wanted to be in one of her tv shows.  The show was about what kind of Japanese souvenirs foreign tourists buy when they visit Japan.  Sensoji Temple has a pathway about 100m long leading up to the Temple and the path is lined on both sides with dozens and dozens of souvenir shops.  Basically they just wanted us to go from shop to shop and pick up anything interesting we saw and comment on it, why it was interesting, why we would or wouldn't buy it etc.  At the end of the program the tv crew gave me about $200 and told me to go back and buy anything that I wanted and then they would finish the filming with me explaining why I bought what I did.  I bought a mens yukata (kind of like a dressing gown) and a nice picture of Mt Fuji. So today I returned to the scene of my one and only tv appearance (and, no, I didn't get recognised.....) as Daniel had not been there before.  It is an incredible place, if you can block out all of the commercialism and just concentrate on the architecture, and what the place stands for.

Before we got to the temple we saw this guy.  It looks like he was trying to tell us not to do something, but I couldn't understand what, so I probably ended up doing it anyway!

At the start, they have a big gate.  This place is always packed with people taking photos of the gate (yes, just like I did!):

Through the gate is where the souvenir shops start, way off in the distance you might just be able to make out the temple!  All of the shop staff are very friendly and always greet you with a smile.

I am sure you have all seen the little statues of cats with their hands raised in Asian shops and restaurants.  Sometimes you see them with their left paw raised (brings customers to a shop) or their right paw raised (brings the owner good luck).  I once heard a story about the origins of the good luck cat.  Way back in the old days of Japan a feudal lord was resting himself and his horse under a tree when he saw a temple nearby.  Outside the temple was a cat and it appeared to be beckoning him.  He got on his horse and rode over to the cat to get a better look.  Suddenly the tree under which he and his horse had been resting was struck by lightning and thus the cat had brought him good luck.  The feudal lord became close friends with the temple priest and the temple became very prosperous.  A nice story I think.  This next shop must be both really lucky and really rich!

I remember when we were filming the tv program, I spied a shop that grabbed my attention straight away!

That one right at the top, it's price is about AUD$2,900!

They even have Excalibur!!

Here are a few pictures of inside the grounds of the temple.  The detail in the architecture is incredible.  I could have wandered around admiring it for a long time!

In this next photo you can see a big metal cauldron with smoke coming out.  It is a kind of incense that is burning, and if you waft the smoke over yourself it is supposed to bring you good luck.  It is also said that if a man wafts the smoke over his head, he will not lose his hair.  I tried that once, and it clearly did not work....

While inside the inner grounds I took a short video.  I tried to upload it here, but kept getting an error so here is the link to it on Youtube: 

http://youtu.be/D2CyBT4is0M

It might give a better idea of what it is like in the grounds, and yes that was me saying that I didn't know how to use the camera just as it started recording!

Anyway, it was a good day, and I'll try and get to Ameyoko on one of my days of next week.

Unitl then, Bye.