Last weekend, while in Tokyo, Tomo and I went to 月島 (Tsukishima, another reference here) in Tokyo to meet up with a couple of his high school classmates for some ã‚‚ã‚“ã˜ã‚ƒç„¼ (monjayaki). That had not been our plan at all. As a matter of fact, I was hoping to go to Gonpachi, where the big restaurant brawl from “Kill Bill” was shot. OK, touristy, but still I have wanted to see it. As we were heading to the subway, Tomo got a text saying, “Where are you?†Oops. So we had a decision to make – go with our plan or take the same subway line a different direction. Since Tomo recalled that he had made the tentative plan he decided we would redirect to monja.
Tsukishima is famous for monja. If you’ve never had monja, imagine someone puking on a teppan and then scooping it up with a little spatula and eating it. That’s the visual. Sound appetizing? It actually is really, really good. And like most Japanese food, it is very social and very interactive.
You basically have different ingredients, usually including some cheese, cabbage, veggies, and meats, all in a brothy bowl. You put the hard stuff on the teppan and start grilling it. After it is sufficiently grilled, you make a ring out of it and then pour the broth in the middle. The broth bubbles and congeals a little bit, and then you mix in the previously grilled stuff. It is sort of runny, sort of not runny, and you use a little spatula to scoop it up and then pop it in your mouth. Of course, none of this could be accomplished without the help of draft beer.
The ring with the broth bubbling in the middle.
Monja getting mixed and almost ready to eat.
One bowl prepared, and another one sitting in the queue
Tomo prepares dessert. Somehow he poured the batter and spread it like a crepe. His friends were impressed. The filling is sweet red bean paste, a favorite Japanese dessert ingredient. To finish the dessert you flop the side over, roll it up and then slice it. Very good.
You leave the restaurant feeling very good, step outside, and realize, “Oh my God! My clothes and my hair have absorbed every smell in that restaurant.†Tomo and I went to an onsen afterwards and got the smell off our bodies. A very Japanese evening.
I almost had an “After Hours” kind of Friday night. Well, maybe not as crazy, but it could have headed somewhere. Had I been 10 years younger, not so tired from the work week, and a little more adventurous, maybe it would have happened. Instead, I just had a good night.
Friday I got to see the Basement Jaxx at a smallish venue in Shin-Kiba (Tokyo), Japan. Basement Jaxx are basically made up of two guys, Simon and Felix, and a lot of guests. They are primarily electronic, but their live shows are far more. I’ve seen Fatboy Slim, Daft Punk, and Paul Oakenfold among others “in concert†before and found their shows really boring. Are you supposed to dance or look at the stage? I prefer to keep the DJs hidden and not the center of attention. Let the music speak for itself and let the audience concentrate on the important thing – dancing like mad and losing yourself to your friends, your significant other, and / or those you are trying to hook up with. I don’t need Mr. Oakenfold pointing at his greatness (himself) as he gets ready to twist another knob. Hey, I really respect what DJs do, but watching them manipulate consoles isn’t really a performance worthy of watching.
But, oh my, the Basement Jaxx are different. They had two percussionists, a trumpet player, three female vocalists (and one was a dancer too), a male vocalists, and a rapper. I small little entourage. They rocked the house, that’s for sure. Tomo didn’t have to be on the front row either (Yay!!!!) so we got to bop to the music without making new friends all around us. He wanted to see the full show, since he had seen them up close the night before.
We watched the show from our elevated position and bounced the whole night long. Last year, Tomo worked with the Basement Jaxx for a few days in Tokyo and had become friends with the tour manager. So, that meant special invitations to the after party as well!
Yippee!
Tomo brought them 3 bottles of Moet & Chandon because it was the final night of the tour that had been going on for the last year and a half. Wow, that’s one way to keep up a friendship. The tour manager brought us one of the bottles, and in the meantime Tomo’s friend (and my acquaintance) Taka and his friend Okinawa-jin (I forgot his name), and another guy tagged Yama-chan joined us. This is where the After Hours-ness of it kind of started. Yama-chan was rather harmless, but somehow got back to the party even though he wasn’t with our group yet knew Okinawa-jin so I think there might have been some pass passages. Yama-chan had an interesting pompadour, and reminded me a little of El Vez, or John Leguizamo in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. He had one of those unfortunate mustaches that try too hard but would be better shaved off. Hey, he’s Japanese.
Yama-chan was immediately recognized by some of the performers because there wasn’t anyone else like him in the audience. In typical Japanese venue fashion, there was a strict curfew so it was announced that the after party was moving to a club in Shibuya. And the After Hours adventure began. We managed to down a bottle of champagne, and Okinawa-jin pocketed a couple of gratis Red Bulls. Yama-chan had his plastic cup with beer in hand and we noisily made our way to the subway to meet up with the Jaxx party at the club. We must have been a motley looking crew, one guy in his suit after work, two normally dressed concert-goers, Elvez, and the white guy.
We thought we might actually beat the Jaxx crew because we were going by subway and that’s usually pretty efficient. The party was at Seco and apparently Simon and Felix were going to DJ for a while. When we got there, it was very confusing. There was already a party going on, and apparently it was some school reunion. Except these folks didn’t look old enough to be out of school. Maybe a junior high school reunion for college kids? Not sure. There were some young hipsters there so maybe it was some fashion school reunion. We sat there for a little bit and I felt really old and out of place and then Yama-chan started working the crowd. We were all getting hungry so we decided to go get some food and give the Jaxx some time to show up.
Of course, it was raining off and on, and now it was about 11:00 pm in Shibuya trying to find an open restaurant that wasn’t too crowded. Our first stop was a ramen place, but it was too busy. We went up one floor to another ramen place, but apparently they specialize in the stinkiest ramen imaginable and we couldn’t even make it to the top of the floor before being driven away by the smell. Oh, and by this time, another one of Taka’s friends, Onna-san (a woman who’s name I have forgotten), joined us. Now we were six.
We were able to find a place to eat and after waiting a while, ate and then went back to the club. We went back to the club, but it was still only the kids. We got the scoop that yes, indeed, the Basement Jaxx after party was supposed to be here but the other party won’t leave. And then two boys started DJing at the club! Oh my.
We went outside and noticed some others that we had seen at the original venue afterparty next door in a restaurant. I pulled the, “I’m a gaijin like you so I can appeal to you like a fish out of water†camaraderie with the foreigner at the table and he simply said, “They are eating upstairs.†Oh, OK, so the party was upstairs. At this point, a friend of Yama-chan had met up with us. I’ll call him Staring-chan (for reasons to come later). And now we were seven!
The club is part of a kind of group of businesses in the building called Shibuya Universal Society and they were in the RESPEKT restaurant. So up we went and it was clear that everyone was starting to chill and just hang out on the last night of their tour. And now the seven of us were just kind of hanging out on the fringes. We said, “Hello†to the tour manager and then grabbed some tables. Of course, I think we all felt obliged to order something, so the money continued to fly out of our wallets. We just kind of sat on the outside looking in, and Staring-chan just kept staring at me. Why? Hmmm, it must be my dashing good looks. Or maybe he was thinking, “What is that gaijin doing with this group?†Who knows.
The party was starting to break up, so we decided to go. But Tomo, sensing the time, managed to get Simon to sign his Basement Jaxx CD that he had brought along. Felix was on his way out. Tomo followed after him but found out that indeed he WAS going downstairs finally to the after party. Of course, many of the folks were very tired because of the tour, so a lot were going back to the hotel. We said our goodbyes to the tour manager and headed BACK down for the party.
We we got there, the party was raging on, with the two boys still spinning the tunes. So here was a pretty darn good famous DJ act in a club with some Japanese students controlling the house. I’m sure the kids had NO idea who these guys were. But my favorite part was when Tomo went up to Felix, and Felix was just boppin’ his head, really enjoying the music, not saying anything like, “What is this crap?†He looked to be having a good time. As we both noted today, he just loves music. Tomo got him to sign the CD cover and then we decided to leave.
Tomo has a professional relationship with these guys, and I think he wanted to get out of there before the growing entourage got too sloppy. He warned Taka and Okinawa-jin to watch Yama-chan and then we headed out. Of course, we missed the last train so we had to take a taxi back. Another 30 bucks gone.
Apparently Taka also posted on mixi (a Japanese Facebook-like service) at 1:47 am that the Basement Jaxx were playing a gig at the club. I wonder if any more folks came because of that?
The night had a bit of a, â€Where’s Fluffy?†feel as well from “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist“. Maybe love blossomed along the way for some folks, maybe it didn’t. I wasn’t there to witness that. But I had a good time and was still able to get some sleep.
Today has been a strange day. I was in Tokyo, and today started out by a look outside this morning to see rain mixed with snow. What? It is almost March, and it hasn’t been that cold, so it was really odd to see that it was actually kind of snowing. Not much of course, and mostly rain, but clearly there were snow flakes in the mix.
Tsunami
We learned of the earthquake in Chile yesterday, and at this point when I am writing this I doubt anyone really understands the extend of damage or loss of life. I’m actually sitting on the shinkansen for the first draft of this as well, so I’m not particularly wired except through my iPhone.
Last night, I checked the Japan Meteorological Association webpage to look for any tsunami warnings. With such a big earthquake, it was clear to me that there would be some sort of tsunami. The reports were saying that warnings were issued for the whole Pacific region, yet nothing was showing up on the Japanese sites.
When I woke up this morning, the situation had changed. As a resident of the Eastern Pacific and Western Pacific, with domiciles in both locations, I have a bit of a reason to care. My condo in LA is far closer to the beach than my apartment in Nagoya, but the tsunami would have to rise over a REALLY big hill before it found my house. In Nagoya, I am a long way away from water. So I personally do not expect to be impacted but I still care. As a matter of fact, a friend of my was in Thailand for the Boxing Day tsunami as I think I’ve mentioned before. Also, a colleague of mine quit work and she and her husband and children are sailing around Mexico and I worried about her as well. She’s OK, but they definitely went out to sea to ride out the waves and their marina was impacted.
Tomo flipped on the TV to watch the Olympics and saw that there was a tsunami warning. I then went to the JMA website and saw the same.
The Japanese television coverage is interesting, and I took a few snaps of the TV screen. Of course, they had the roving reporters at various sea side locations to do on the scene reporting. The tsunami was hours away from hitting, so the reporting was mostly looking at preparation. It is not unlike hurricane or snow storm reporting in the US, where there is as much anticipation of the event as there is the event itself.
I was too slow on the draw with my camera as my small digital camera was buried away in my bag and my iPhone camera menu selections were to deep to catch the picture of the reporter in his hard hat reporting on the preparation. Hard hats are extremely popular as safety devices here. We have hard hats at work in case of earthquakes and other falling objects. So when you see the B and C movies from Japan with everyone running around with their hardhats on it is real folks.
The anchors don’t have to wear hard hats, but their treatment of the ensuing tsunami is very serious. And of course, they’ve got the typical graphics overlay showing the warning area.
Interestingly, as I was heading back to Nagoya, there was an alert on the Yamanote Line that train service on one line had been suspended due to “waves.†Once in Tokyo Station, there was a sign describing the closure and station personnel ready to assist travelers trying to reach their destination.
… it is now several hours since I started writing the blog on the train. It seems that we are still under a warning, and there actually has been some damage by a 1.20 meter tsunami. Let’s hope the worst is over.
Marathon
While we were out about town, we discovered the Tokyo Marathon was crossing our path. Literally. I snapped a few iPhone pictures as we also discovered we were at halfway!
The course was splitting Ginza into different areas. There was a particularly difficult scene as Ginza 4-Chome as runners make a turn towards Asakusa and other runners are returning from Asakusa and sort of in the last bits at about 34 km. Now, I’m sure the “last bits†is a bit of an overstatement for one who has never run a marathon, but definitely at the intersection it was especially difficult to watch. Those just making the turn were really struggling, and the pack was thin. This was about the 22 km mark. Those returning actually looked a lot fresher, had a good pace, and were moving along.
Abercrombie
As we were walking away from the marathon we stumbled across the new Abercrombie & Fitch in Ginza. This was quite the anticipated opening in Japan. A&F is popular here. We had some Japanese greeters at the door, decked out in a little winter gear. They utter English phrases at you when you go in, but that’s about it. I don’t think that the management staff will be too pleased with the picture I happened to snap. Talk about the imperfect moment? Which makes it perfect for me. I just wish I had gotten the store name in the frame. It sure looked that way on my phone!
We walked in and there was the typical bare-chested model in the entryway. I am always embarrassed for them. It was a little cold, so he had a jacket on. The inside was SO dark, and the cologne SO strong. We started stumbling up the stairs, got to the first floor, decided it was too stinky, too dark, and too loud and promptly left the building. I fear I am showing my age by whining about A&F. But Tomo didn’t like it either and he is still part of their demographic.
I watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics today. I missed the procession of the athletes because I was a lazy bum and slept really, really, really late. I needed to, as I didn’t get much rest during the week. Of course, I think the world is saddened by the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili. I have refused to watch any footage of his crash, but it seems all outlets are quite keen to show it. Source: Associated Press
I joined when Ryan Adams Bryan Adams cut me like a knife. I was happy that the sound was messed up for his performance. Not because I wish him anything thing bad, I just don’t really like his songs. As soon as any English commentary would start, it would immediately be covered by simultaneous translation in Japanese. Luckily I discovered espn.com was doing a running chat commentary so in between their snarky comments, I was able to get an idea of what was going on.
In general, I found the opening ceremonies a little boring. I was fascinated by the lighting though, and how they were able to accomplish the effects on the floor of the stadium. That was most impressive.
I found it intriguing that Donald Sutherland, Bobby Orr, Anne Murray, and Jacques Villenueve were part of the ceremony, carrying the Olympic flag with an astronaut, an 81 year old former gold medalist, Terry Fox’s mother, and a military guy. The highlights for me were the performances of the opera singer Measha Brueggergosman and k.d. lang. Wow, that was a fantastic performance of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.†I’ve already purchased it on iTunes. It brought tears to my eyes. Kudos to the organizing committee, in a show featuring diversity of the country, to put a suit-wearing rather butch out lesbian in such a spotlight! Apparently she gets more grief for being a vegetarian.
Photo credit: Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times
I could not find any pictures of the Celtic group that fiddled and tap-danced their squishy tattooed bodies for what seemed like 30 minutes. That was probably the low point of the ceremony for me.
So now it is time for the Japanese coverage of the Olympic games. This is the third Olympics for me in Japan. I was here in 2004 and 2008 for the Summer Games. We get the “up close and personal†approach as well, with basically the hopes of the entire country on the shoulders of just a few people. I think that is one reason why you see so many emotional Japanese athletes. While American athletes represent their country, I’ve got to think they are really doing what they are doing for their own glory. But Japanese athletes must really feel the pressure of the whole country on them. During the summer games, Kitajima was a big focus. I’m glad he won the gold.
This year, there is the 15 year old women’s speed skater, Miho Takagi, the women’s mogul skier, Aiko Uemura, the men’s figure skater Daisuke Takahashi, and women’s figure skaters Mao Asada and Miki Ando that I know about already. I’m sure there are more. So we’ll get focused coverage on those events and spotty coverage of others. And even though snowboarder Kazuhiro Kokubo may challenge for a medal, it seems he’s taking full snowboarder attitude lessons from the Americans. Dude.
‘‘I don’t feel any different. For me the Olympics is just another snowboarding event. It’s no big deal,’’ Kokubo said.
‘‘I am concerned with my own my performance and nothing else,’’ said Kokubo.
And, importantly, this year’s Japanese NHK Olympic song is sung by L’arc En Ciel. In 2004 it was Yuzu. I think it might have been Mr. Children for 2008.
Source: Associated Press
Photo credit: Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times