Whenever we return to Japan from an overseas trip, I am always struck by just how many old people there are in Japan. It is easy to say, “There are a lot of old people in Japan” but if you look at the statistics it is pretty startling. A few years ago a full 20% of the population was aged 65 and older, and in 30-40 years they expect that it will be more than 40% of the population over age 65.  

When you think about lots of old people living in a country, it is easy to imagine some of the effects. High governmental spending for medical care. A crunch on the national pension system. Lots of slower people walking around town.  

However, there are some even deeper effects that I have started to notice the longer that I live in Japan.  

The trains are filled with travel advertisements for domestic trips in Japan. They show older people walking around empty villages, smiling and remembering their youth. TV advertisements focus on sore muscles, aching backs, green tea supplements, insurance, insurance, and more insurance.  

Shops and restaurants serve foods that are popular with older people. Most menus seldom stray from the dishes that are traditional and popular, and coffee shops that cater to old people with lots of time on their hands during the day are especially popular.  

Politicians know where the voting power is in the country, and so they push forward legislation designed to pad the nest of the older today, borrowing from the uncertain future of the fewer and fewer younger Japanese.   

Then there are the things that are even harder to see – that lie just below the surface of daily life in Japan. Each home belongs to a neighborhood (or apartment building) association. Each association collects dues and manages a budget, elects members and adds a level of bureaucracy. These are managed by the people with the time to do it – older people that are automatically respected in their communities based on their age.

New ideas, fresh approaches to problems, doing away with inefficient and outdated systems – these are jobs for the young. Unfortunately there aren’t many young people these days in Japan, and so things move along as they have always been.  

It may sounds like I’m complaining about it, but that’s not the case at all. As a foreign person living in another country I keep my eyes open, observe how things happen, and comment when I feel like it. I’m perfectly happy to float along this river wherever it leads, and take notes as I go. It is not my job to change anything, and as a foreign person it would be next to impossible anyway. Best just to go with the flow and enjoy the experience.

One of our recent activities is to visit some of the old places in Japan – places that are mainly frequented by old people and feel like they haven’t changed much since the 1960’s. There are a lot of these kinds of areas in Japan – whole neighborhoods that are a living snapshot of another time. The bars, restaurants, coffee shops, and shops are a little darker, a little worn, but filled with older people who like things just the way they have been for the past 50 years.  

It is easy for us to step backward in time by shifting away from the nightlife areas of Kobe and Osaka, and we’ve been digging into neighborhoods like old Akashi, Shinseikai, Tsuruhashi, and Nagata. It is the part of Japan that is harder for foreigners to experience, because it takes sort of a sixth sense to figure out what areas to visit and you certainly need to be fluent in Japanese to navigate the menus and conversation. We feel like explorers from another world – there is usually a 20-30 year age gap between us and any other customer. They don’t seem to mind us – we are almost invisible – and we can sip our sake and laugh and enjoy an afternoon of time travel.

Today is Monday and I’m back at work getting ready for the week’s classes. We spent a pretty relaxing weekend, and I’m eager to start work with my students again this week.

Last Friday I was able to join the VP, his support staff (Ms. Yamada) and a general affairs worker (Ms. Harada) in attending a wine tasting event at Fuji Industries in Kobe. Fuji Industries has some relationships with Kawasaki, not the least of which is that one of the executives there went to elementary school with Kawasaki’s VP. We met him at the tasting, and he was really a nice guy. The tasting was held in one of the conference rooms in their office, and they brought in some good food to go along with it (mini-quiches, foie gras rolls, cheese and bread, etc).  

The wine selection was fairly good – mainly French burgundies and almost the complete lineup from Cuvaison in Napa. There was quite a big group attending, everyone wearing suits and looking good for the occasion. It was quite a networking event – and I was glad I happened to have some business cards in my wallet.  

We stayed for about an hour and the time flew by. We walked from there to the restaurant that Ms. Yamada reserved, and ended up arriving at exactly the same time as Kuniko. Everyone was keen to meet her, and we had a good time eating and drinking sake while talking. Kuniko really got along well with everyone (surprise, surprise) and they had lots of questions about her job, and our what our relationship was like. Interesting night.

On the way back to the station, the VP had us stop in at a sushi place. He had wanted to take us there for dinner, but they were fully booked, so we ended up somewhere else. The reason we stopped in on the way home was because he wanted to buy us each a sushi roll to take home with us. Later we ate the sushi and it was really tasty – grilled eel and konbu.  

Finally we split up at the station and headed home. It was a rare chance to spend time with some nice people – I’m lucky to be able to work with them. This week I have two classes with the VP, so he won’t be able to get rid of me.

Today Kuniko is taking students to Universal Studios Japan for a school trip. It may be fun, or it may be a pain, I’m not sure which, but either way she’ll be home late tonight. That’ll give me plenty of time to ride the exercise back and try to burn off some of those calories from the weekend.

Here we are and it is Friday again. It really does seem like time is speeding up around here – and for some reason I am acutely aware of it. I don’t mind, I guess, but before I know it I’ll be fifty years old and wondering where all the time went!

As I mentioned in the previous post, I was casually invited to join the VP in attending a wine tasting event this evening. I was curious to see if the casual invitation would actually turn into a real invitation, and in fact it did. He also invited Kuniko to come along, but because she can’t get off of work in time she’ll only be attending the after-tasting dinner.  

In a series of “small world” revelations, we discovered that Kuniko has actually met and had dinner with the president of the affiliated company that is hosting the wine tasting event. In addition, one of the people that the VP invited to join the party may actually be dating one of my ex-students (I have to pretend I don’t know tonight) and she has also been to Benziger Winery on my recommendation. Finally, the restaurant that the VP selected is just the next floor up from the “D Wine Bar” that we used to frequent before he jacked up his prices. I guess Kobe is smaller than I thought.

I don’t usually spend much time going out with company VIPs, so this has been an interesting week. In the background of all this is the fact that I haven’t yet heard if my contract will be renewed, so it is possible that all these parties could end up being farewell parties as well. Maybe I should be scouting this wine company tonight for job opportunities…

I’m back in the swing of things here at work after a nice relaxing weekend. We enjoyed a sushi night out on Friday, and then Saturday and Sunday I was mainly on my own during the day to clean the house, read books, do laundry, and shop for dinners.  

Last night after work I attended a nice dinner organized by the company VP. He wanted to thank me for helping him with lessons during the past year, and also for translating his annual greeting speech to the company into English. He invited a couple other people from different departments that I know, and we went out for some delicious Chinese food at Evolve in Sannomiya. Evolve is kind of an upscale Chinese restaurant, with a slightly different take on the traditional favorites, and we had a good time talking and eating. We ordered a bottle of Ravenswood Old Vine Zinfandel, which I didn’t expect to find on a wine list in a Chinese restaurant. I drank a bit more than I usually do on a Monday night, but I was in good company and it was a surprisingly relaxed time considering I sat next to a company executive the whole time.  

During all the conversation and alcohol the VP mentioned that he may go to some kind of reception this Friday at an affiliated company – big companies in Japan tend to form long term relationships with other companies in different industries – and this company is an importer of wine and other foreign foods. Previously he gifted me a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau from the company, and it was quite good. The VP kind of invited me to join him in attending the event, and even mentioned that I might want to bring along my wife as well. He didn’t seem concerned that I wasn’t actually invited by the affiliate company.  

The thing about these kind of spur of the moment invitations is that they may or may not pan out and after further investigation it may actually be difficult to do (“difficult” means impossible in Japanese). We’ll see what happens, but just in case I’m keeping my Friday night schedule open.  

Now to get back to my regular work schedule. It should be a pretty standard week at work, but these days you never know!

After a three week wait, I received my new passport in the mail. The US embassy in Osaka offers the mail renewal service, so I didn’t even have to go into the embassy to get it taken care of. Very convenient, considering how important a document the passport is to people living overseas.

I was immensely relieved to get the passport – I kind of felt naked without it. Here in Japan I carry around an alien registration card, and that ensures that I would have no problem with Japanese authorities. However, I was pretty much stuck here without being able to leave (not that I have plans in the near future).

I’m sorry to have to retire my old passport. Now I have two old passports, each representing ten years of my life. You can really see by looking at the stamps when my life became a little more interesting! When we travel overseas one of the things I like to do while waiting in airport lines is to leaf through the passport and look at the stamps, visas, and scribbles from airport officials all over the place. Each stamp brings back some good memories. Now I’ll just be carrying around a vanilla passport – a blank slate!

The good news is that we’re now officially set for our trip to Singapore (second attempt) at the end of March, and so their stamp will grace page one of my new passport. Just a few months before we can eat, drink, and swim in warm temperatures. Can’t wait!

This week has just been flying by. With my students busy handling some customers visiting the factory, I was juggling classes because of all the time switches and student swaps. The way I’ve designed the lessons for most of my students allows a lot of flexibility, however, and it doesn’t affect my day to day plans that much.

Yesterday a former student asked for my advice. She has the opportunity to move to the USA with her boyfriend for five years. Her boyfriend is being assigned to a branch office (in California) of a Japanese company, and my ex-student was trying to figure out what she should do. She could quit her job and live with her boyfriend (who she had planned on marrying in Japan this year), or she could stay with her current job and continue her career. Changing jobs is still not common in Japan, so it is tough to leave a lifetime contract on the table and become dependent on someone else for your income (for the rest of your life). This situation suddenly came up and took them both by surprise, and my ex-student needs to figure out what to do with the rest of her life within the next month or so. Crazy!

She came to me because I am from California and she was hoping for some insight into life there, and so I gave her the best information I had about it, and listened to her description of her quandary. She will consider the matter for now, and hopefully she’ll be happy with whichever decision she made.  

As for me, it is not often that people come to me for this kind of advice – so it was nice to give my opinion. I wonder if the California I left has changed so much that I wouldn’t recognize it – short visits every 2-3 years aren’t really enough to know what things are like to live there now. My ex-student is pretty clever and she understands the power of independence, so I’m sure she’ll be fine.  
This weekend Kuniko will be at work both days, so we decided to go catch some sushi on Friday night. I’ve been craving crab and this sushi place really has some great presentation and delicious fish. After eating and drinking we have to walk by a large import food store (danger!) and then walk by a huge liquor shop (double danger!) to get to the train station. I hope I don’t spend too much money on the way home…

Yesterday our factory had a VIP visitor in the morning. Caroline Kennedy, the American ambassador to Japan, came by for a quick visit and tour of our factory. Since our company makes train and subway cars for both New York city and Washington DC subway systems, it was natural that she was interested.  

Because this VIP was from America, I started getting questions from the executives of the company a while back, and the past week or so I have been busy doing interesting projects. I was online researching the proper titles to use when addressing the ambassador of another nation, finding background information that our executives could use in conversation, and also one top executive asked me to watch his presentation, pretend I was the ambassador, and give comments afterwards. I was sworn to secrecy on the visitor’s identity, but the day of the visit I think everyone in the factory knew. That kind of work was very interesting and personally rewarding – I hope I have the opportunity to do it again sometimes. 

As you might expect, the company cleaned up, made a really nice presentation, and showed the best possible side to make a good impression on the ambassador. I was thinking that probably everywhere that an ambassador (or president, prime minister, or movie star) makes an official visit, they must think that everything is going perfectly well. Nobody ever states the challenges facing the company – they talk about the wins and not the losses. I wonder if that might influence the visitor’s point of view – everywhere they go there is no bad news. Luckily our company had plenty of recent good news to brag about, so it wasn’t hard to present ourselves in a good light. And one look firsthand at a bullet train being built – that would impress anyone.

Tonight after work I’m going into Kobe to meet Antoine. It has been a very long time since we’ve gotten together, and I’m sure he’ll have plenty of interesting stories to tell about raising his son and working on his projects online. We’re going to go try a “taco stand” restaurant – let’s hope it knocks our socks off!

This week has been a busy and stressful one for my students, which strangely makes it an easier week for me. At the end of this week we’re hosting some important customers, as well as a VIP (more on that later), so my students are concentrating on finishing up documents and paperwork and they are pretty tired by the time they arrive at my classroom.

Tomorrow I’ll meet up with Antoine for the first time in a long time, and we’re planning to continue the quest for good Mexican food in Kobe. I’ve just about given it up for dead, but Antoine says that he heard about a good Mexican place that he wants to try. My expectations will be high, especially after just coming back from California (and Mexico) so I hope it is a hit.

Kuniko is stuck working Saturday and Sunday, but she’ll have Monday off to relax and catch up. It is a strange schedule, but I think it is definitely better than the brutal and largely unpaid schedule that she had at her previous school.  

The days are getting really cold, and each morning the walk to work is the coldest part of my day. Yesterday I walked to work in falling snow, so I guess winter is finally here. 

Having returned to Japan for the start of 2016 I spent some time reviewing my personal goals from last year, and making some updated goals for this year.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with the results from last year.  I hope this year is equally as productive.

At the end of last year I was pretty caught up in my work schedule.  Unfortunately that meant that the amount of time I had for my own reading throughout the day was pretty limited.  This year I made some adjustments so that I have between an hour and an hour and a half of reading time each weekday.  Nice!  I would be happy to read eight hours a day – but I haven’t yet found a job that’ll let me do that.

I’m pretty much in charge of dinners during the week, and in winter that means nabe.  I make a simple nabe four days of the work week, and then something different once a week to liven things up.  The nabe is great – easy to prepare, cheap, healthy (no meat, almost no fat), hot and filling.  The best part is that there are usually leftovers that we can take for lunch the next day.  I change the type of soup that we use for the nabe each day – sometimes spicy, sometimes simple – and then I can avoid buying the prepackaged soups that are delicious but slightly less healthy and cost-effective.

So the new routine is nice – eating healthy during the week (not so much on the weekends but you’ve gotta live a little) and lots more reading time, too.  I’ll stick with this routine a while and see how it works.

We’re coasting into the weekend, and Kuniko and I will have two days off together.  Her work schedule will get hectic after this, with some classes scheduled on Saturday and Sunday the next couple of weeks.  We’ll try to enjoy this weekend by cooking a nice meal together on Saturday, going out to lunch on Sunday in Kobe, and just doing things we enjoy.

One big event at the end of trip to California was a house full of sick people.  Charlie and Maya both were in bad shape – Maya had scarlet fever and Charlie had strep throat – and both my parents were fighting bad colds.  Somehow we managed to avoid getting sick while we were there, but I started to notice a little tickle in the back of my throat on the flight back.  Once we settled in it seemed like I managed to avoid the brunt of the cold but Kuniko got hit in full force.  For the last few days she lost her voice, and she’s coughing, hacking, and taking antibiotics to try to get over it.  A lovely souvenir from our trip.

Despite the yucky feeling we had made plans to go see one of Kuniko’s students in concert on Sunday.  She is in an idol group that performs weekly in Shinseikai, the very old and traditional “center” of Osaka.  The neighborhoods are far past their prime but have entered a state of sort of retro coolness (at least in my opinion).  Japan is a country full of old people with long memories, and it appears that this area holds a special place in local culture.

As it happens we were there during the Ebisu festival, the annual festival to celebrate the god of commerce and business, and the Osaka area people take it seriously.  We walked through the food stalls and did a lot of people watching as we waited for the concert to start.  In the deep southern part of Shinseikai we found a Korean restaurant and sat down for beer and chijimi to kill time.  The other customers were curious and struck up a conversation with me (since Kuniko couldn’t talk) and we left right when things were starting to go to the next level.  It was hard to believe it was only 2 pm and they were drinking and eating in a big way.

We debated walking through the prostitution area nearby – I had heard about it in a blog post and it sounded extremely weird, which is always a good sign.  Kuniko offered to guide us there as it was nearby, but she said that as a woman she might be yelled at or chased off by the old ladies that serve as pimps in that area.  So, we decided to skip it and instead head to the theater nearby and get some seats.

The theater was weird.  Old and weird.  The neighborhood around it dealt in strange goods – costume shops, maid cafes, “subculture” books, but then equally there were many restaurants that had long lines of people waiting to get in – mainly the Osaka specialty kushikatsu.  It seemed like the main attraction was food, but also lots of weird stuff, too.

We entered the theater, bought our discount tickets that Kuniko’s student had set aside for us, and sat down.

The show started and it was like a trip back in time.  They had about four performers before the idol group came on, and they were all older females wearing kimono and singing enka (traditional Japanese) tunes.  Each lady was introduced as being a recording artist with some major Japanese label, which apparently was a badge of authenticity.  The type of music is really popular with older people, and often you can hear people crooning enka songs from old karaoke bars in nightlife districts.

The crowd was mainly older people and they were eating it up.  They clapped and cheered their favorite performers, they walked up between songs or sometimes in the middle of the song and handed envelopes of cash to the singers.  One really old lady actually stuffed money right in the kimono of a surprised performer in kind of a sanitized stripper move.  The really telling point was that the older folks all used old flip phones to take pictures. Flip phones have stop being manufactured in Japan and now everyone seems to have a smartphone, but the older folks are still using them.  Many of the audience seemed to know each other and greet others as they left to use the toilet (and as we sat near the door to the restrooms there were a lot of toilet runs while we were there).  It became clear that these people had established a sort of social event out of visiting, and it was an important part of their social lives.

Finally, after sitting through some pretty traditional performers, the four-member idol group came up.  Kuniko’s student seemed to be the best of the bunch, and they twirled and danced to a pop music tune and sang like crazy.  It was a completely different style from the previous acts, and I noticed that nobody took any envelopes of money up to give them.  It was an interesting act, and I could see they really enjoyed themselves.  Kuniko’s student’s parents were there cheering her on, and I’m sure they have high hopes for her future in the entertainment business.

After their performance we headed for the doors, and the various performers were out there waiting to say goodbye.  I think they were hoping to get one more envelope out of their fans, but we had only thank-you’s as we left.

For dinner Kuniko wanted to take us out to Tsuruhasi – the Korean Town in Osaka.  We’ve been there before, but I wanted to see something a little different.  Using the internet we went off the beaten track a little and found a restaurant built inside a tent next to a house, and it had the feel of a temporary structure that ended up being permanent.  It was busy and we were lucky to get a table.  It seemed like only one member of the staff was fluent in Japanese, and she was hurried and busy.  The other staff spoke a little Japanese but they were clearly more comfortable with Korean.

We ordered a variety of different things and drank beer while we watched the controlled chaos of the busy restaurant.  We had deji kalbi – pork rib meat fried up on a hot plate in spicy sauce, and then wrapped with miso and kimchi in a green lettuce leaf.  We also had a stir fried chicken in spicy sauce, bibimba, and sides of various kinds of kimchi.  We ate and drank and ate some more and really enjoyed the meal.  For some reason I was a person of interest there, and one slightly drunk customer shook my hand as he was leaving, and the Korean guy delivering our dishes asked me where I was from in English.  When I told him I was from California he shouted across to the cooks across the room some information in Korean and everyone seemed happy.  As we finished up the meal and left the Korean staff said “I love California!” and did kind of an air guitar move, but backed right into his boss and almost caused a big accident.  It was an interesting night.  The whole meal was only 4000 yen including all the beer we drank, so it was an affordable dinner, too!

Our final stop was the stands of Korean food for sale near the station.  There were still a few open and we did some picking of choosing of foods to bring back home with us.  We got some Korean norimaki, three kinds of kimchi (crab, cucumber and nori), and also some chapuche.   At one stand they had some pork ribs braising in soup and it looked so good we went inside and ate that with some beers – kind of a second dinner.  I knew the Korean for “It is delicious” but every time I used it the staff would respond in Korean and then I had nothing left to say!

People were really friendly at all the places we visited that night, and I really had a great time.  It is not a place we will visit often, but sometimes the weird and the old and the delicious combine and make for a unique experience.  Yesterday, that experience was Shinseikai.

Apologies for the long delay in posting!  We had an unusually busy December wrapping up our Christmas shopping and social obligations before we flew to California for the holidays.  It was nice to get back out to Kansai airport in Osaka for an easy trip.  They still have daily non-stop flights to San Francisco.  We were able to stop at the restaurant after we passed through security to have a celebratory cocktail.  One thing we noticed after traveling through several airports this trip is that Kansai airport doesn’t really have a good airport bar.  They have restaurants that serve drinks, but no place to belly up and enjoy a cocktail.  In other airports (especially international ones) there is at least one bar open 24 hours, but for some reason Kansai airport didn’t get the memo.  Get on it KIX!

The flight was smooth and we rode on a new 787, so there were some pretty modern amenities and technology.  We sat in the middle and aisle seat, blocking in a mother who was traveling with her three teenagers.  They sat ahead of us, and she kept them informed of travel info that she felt was important.  During the 8 1/2 hour flight she never once got up to use the rest room, even after two waters and two beers.  Whoah.

As for our stay in California, it was everything that we’d hoped it would be.  We spent a lot of time with family, and I was especially happy to finally meet my niece Maya, and also spend lots of time with Charlie.  They are good kids, and they were pretty active most of the time.  They had lots of down time with their digital devices, so I think that gave everyone a break from entertaining them now and then.

My folks had a rough year last year, but they were in great form and did a nice job hosting everyone.  We tried to keep our visit (and our visitors) as light as possible to minimize the stress on everyone, and I think it worked out.  My Dad even cooked a lemon meringue pie for us – one of my requests.  It was just as delicious as I remembered, and I ended up having three pieces in two days.  Yum!

Christmas morning was little kids tearing apart presents, and it had been a long time since I had experienced that – the last time I was the little kid tearing them open.

A couple of days after Christmas we drove up to Sacramento airport and took a flight down to San Diego to spend a couple of days with Nancy, Lynn and Kinsey.  As it turned out, they had some guests already – Roger, Mark and their friend Thomas were staying for a few days.  Thomas works at Mark’s company, and he is a German guy living in Switzerland and he’s in the process of taking a six month holiday to travel around the world – literally.  His stop in San Diego was just before the next leg to Hawaii, New Zealand, and Australia.  We might have a chance to host him when he gets to Japan near the end of February.  He was a great guy, with a unique sense of humor.

In San Diego we packed in a lot of activities – a dinner party with some friends from long ago, trips to two breweries (Bolt and the Belching Beaver), a day in Tecate Mexico eating delicious food and shopping in Mexican supermarkets, and even a dinner at Hodad’s which really brought back memories for me and for Kuniko.  It was tough to say goodbye to Nancy, Lynn and Kinsey at the end of the short stay, but great to see them happy and healthy in San Diego.

On the flight back to Sacramento I was really struck by the security level in the United States airports.  It was much tighter than Russian airport security, and for the first time in years we had to take off our shoes going through the gates.  And this was on a domestic flight… wow!  I’m sure they have prevented lots of attacks but it seemed a little on the extreme side for me.

We enjoyed a quiet New Year’s party, solved a diabolical jigsaw puzzle, enjoyed great food prepared by both Mark and Susan as well as my parents, and even had a chance to take my folks out to dinner at the Swiss Hotel.  Mission accomplished!

It sounds like my folks will be traveling to Japan at the end of April/beginning of May this year, so it won’t be long before we see them again.  It was a great holiday visit, and now it is back to our routine in Japan!

Last weekend we took an extra day off of work and went into Tokyo to catch Clean Bandit in concert.  They were only playing in Tokyo – no Osaka show, so we had no choice but to go! It was also a great chance to get out to Tokyo together and enjoy some of what the city has to offer.

Sunday morning we got a slow start, sleeping in as much as possible and doing a light pack for just one night.  Then we were off to the local bullet train station in Nishi Akashi.  We bought some beer and snacks for the three hour trip, and then settled in for the ride.  Along the way we kept out eyes open for Mt. Fuji, but unfortunately it was a little cloudy and hidden away.

Once we arrived in Tokyo station we decided to check out the route from the concert venue back to the bullet train station.  We were a little worried because the time window was a bit narrow between the end of the concert and the last bullet train to get back home.  Walking the route before hand gave us a chance to get our bearings, and it paid off later.

The concert venue was in Akasaka, so it was a pretty quick trip to get there.  They had set up a skating rink right in front, so it was hard to miss.  After looking around a little we walked out to where our hotel was, and checked in.  It was a small business hotel and there was a creepy guy checking in next to us who was taking every opportunity to chat up the poor receptionist lady, who had nowhere to hide.  Luckily he wasn’t on our floor.

For dinner we went to a French restaurant that was a little more casual than the restaurants that we usually visit in Kobe and Osaka.  They had a good menu – we ate an avocado and crab tart, ratatouille with a soft boiled egg on top, a chicken terrine chock full of liver, and a roasted deer steak for the main course.  Everything was very good, and we really liked the atmosphere of the place.  The only complaint we had was the music – 80’s American pop music seemed to drag down the vibe a little bit.  Still we enjoyed wine by the glass and I could try lots of different wines that I normally wouldn’t try because we usually buy a bottle for dinner.

After dinner we took a train to see Tokyo Tower.  It was a major Tokyo landmark (or it used to be) until the building of the Tokyo Sky Tree farther to the north.  Tokyo Tower was still quite nice, kind of like a mini-Eiffel Tower.   Kuniko had found a top floor bar in a nearby hotel and so we were able to get some really good seats to sip cocktails and watch the view of the tower and the surrounding city.  We just walked into the place, but they gave us VIP seats for some reason.  Thanks to the staff of the Tokyo Prince Hotel!  The cocktails were also remarkably good – I’ve had mixed results in other parts of Asia but the cocktails in upscale places in Japan are top notch (and priced like it).

While we watched the tower, they did a little mini-light show, and after watching the light show in Paris it really didn’t compare.  ‘A’ for effort, though.

Next we headed back towards the area near our hotel, looking out for somewhere to have just one more little bite to eat.  We stumbled on a big imported food supermarket full of rare things like bread imported from California, Fat Tire Ale in cans, and plenty of wines from all over the world.  This store would be the end of me, and luckily it is three hours away from where I live.  We did buy a can of Fat Tire for the walk, though.  How often do you see that in Japan?  I remember when you couldn’t get it in California.

Near our hotel we chose a restaurant almost at random and had some monja-yaki.  Supposedly it is Tokyo’s signature dish, but for a dish based in the capital city, it is surprisingly nasty to look at.  Honestly and without exaggeration it looks like somebody puked on the hot plate in front of you and then served it up.  The owner of the restaurant came over with each ingredient and then put everything together at our table and cooked it in front of us.  I think if we didn’t see each ingredient being combined we wouldn’t have had the courage to eat it.  But it tastes much better than it looks.  We had the “BIG BANG”-yaki which just meant that they put a lot of Korean ingredients like kimchee and nori.  Delicious, really. As an appetizer she served us some mackerel wrapped in tin foil and we roasted that up while we waited.  I usually don’t like mackerel but this was pretty good – maybe it was just heavy on the cooking oil.

Finally after all that we went back to our hotel.  We were pretty tired out – we walked all over and that was just one corner of Tokyo.

The next morning we slept in again, this time for more practicial reasons.  We were going to be up late catching a long bullet train ride back home after the concert, so we wanted to get every bit of energy we could while we had the chance.  Eventually we got our act together, checked out of the hotel, and grabbed a coffee at a nearby cafe called Oslo Coffee.  I don’t know what coffee tastes like in Oslo, but this was pretty good.  Then we walked across town to get an early lunch.

The place we were looking for was located in Kasumigaseki, where the ministry offices for the national government are located.  Huge ministry and office buildings loomed everywhere, and situated in the middle of those was a tiny French bistro.  I had heard about it online, and made a reservation to check it out.  The place looked authentic enough – the red awnings, a salon imported from France, and staff that spoke French, English and Japanese.  We grabbed a table outside despite the slightly cold temperatures, and perused the menu.  We ended up ordering a bacon and onion tart and a braised chicken fricassee with mushrooms.  They were both exactly what I’d expect at a bistro – affordable, delicious and they went well with two glasses of wine.  We ordered a glass of red and white from the Languedoc region.

The owner of the place was a French guy who took pity on the two souls sitting outside in the cold weather and turned on a heater for us.  We talked with him a bit and he was very nice to chat with us even during the lunchtime rush.  The place was as authentic French as you could get in Tokyo – delicious.  La Petit Tonneau Toronomon – highly recommended.

After our lunch we caught a train to head quite a ways from the center of Tokyo to see Tokyo Sky Tree.  This is the new landmark of Tokyo that is being promoted, and it is clear that they are ready to capitalize on the promotion.  Big parking lots are set up to receive the bus tours, and shops surround the tower to sell souvenirs to groups tours that come in.  I’m sure they will make a lot of money.  We stood underneath the tower and looked almost straight up.  It was an impressive sight to be sure, but maybe we just a little too close to appreciate the size of the thing.  We decided not to go to the top – there was cloudy weather and we figured it wasn’t worth the 2000 yen fee for the elevator ride.

Back on the train and back to the center of town, where we stopped in Shibuya.  The neighborhood is pretty busy – we crossed the famous Shibuya scramble intersection, we took pictures of the Hachiko statue, and hit all the touristy stuff.  Nearby we waited in line for some meat pies from a shop that Kuniko wanted to try.  It was started by an Australian, and the pies were quite good.  Their selling point was a cute face decorated on top (perfect for Japan) and we took a few to go for the next day’s lunch.  Yum!

After Shibuya we decided to walk all the way to Akasaka, near where the concert venue was.  It was a long walk there, but we figured it was a good way to burn calories and get ready for dinner.  We arrived around four pm and Yona Yona Beer Works for dinner.

Yona Yona is brewery that started up around the same time as I came to Japan, and they faced an uphill battle against the four big (entrenched) Japanese brewers (Suntory, Asahi, Kirin and Sapporo).  The big four had worked with their friends in the government to make it really hard to get into the brewing business and made lots of obstacles for small companies to get bigger and compete.  As a matter of fact, to this day it is illegal in Japan to brew your own alcohol.  Yona Yona and others were able to fight through these obstacles and get a foothold in the market, and they succeeded enough that Kirin bought a stake in them to prevent any further threat to their business.  I’ve always liked Yona Yona because the style in more American – ales and beers with intensity and hops – and very different from the Japanese lagers that make up most of the market here.

The brewhouse in Akasaka was impressive, and testament to what they could do with a big investment from a company like Kirin.  The decor and atmosphere were perfect for drinking beer, and they even featured private rooms for small groups with a dedicated tap in the room so they could keep themselves refreshed.  We ordered seafood skewers, gyoza with a forest of cilantro on top, and a couple of ham steaks to go with our beers.  They served the usual beers but also some I have never tried, so it was a unique experience.  Thanks to Kuniko who thought up the idea – what a great place to have dinner before the show.

After dinner we walked about 15 minutes through the nightlife of the area to get to Akasaka Blitz where Clean Bandit was playing.  There were already big crowds waiting to get in, but luckily our tickets had a low lottery number on them and we got in early.  We staked out a position in the middle of the floor, and drank our one drink minimums.  Around 7 pm Clean Bandit came on stage and started the show.  They whipped through their set like they had an appointment afterwards, with just a heartbeat between songs.  We loved it.

Although most of the regulars were there, one member didn’t join them on the tour, and Kuniko was a little disappointed.  On their album they have a different singer for almost every song, so it was interesting to see how they handled it on tour.  They did a good job by splitting up the singing duties, and every song they played sounded great.  We were cheering and dancing throughout the show, and by the time they finished the last song of the encore it was about 90 minutes after they started.  This was good news for us – as soon as they wrapped up the last song we made a beeline for the doors and we beat everyone to the train station and caught the first train out of there.  From there it was an easy trip to the Tokyo bullet train station, and we were even able to catch an earlier bullet train and gain about 30 minutes  of sleep later on.

It was a really great evening, and I was glad that we went ahead and took the day off to attend.  It is events like this that help you stay young, I think, and getting another taste of Tokyo was totally worth it.  I’m hoping that we have a chance to do something like this again, even if there isn’t a concert to use as an excuse.  Good times!

It is the end of another week!  Although Kuniko has to work tomorrow, we are still planning a trip to Tokyo to see Clean Bandit in a small club, and eat at some interesting looking restaurants.  We got tickets on the bullet train and we’re ready to go.  It is a little rare for us to be tourists in Japan – it’ll nice to be traveling without having to worry about the language, internet connectivity, or reading the signs.  

Last night after work I went to my final dentist appointment.  I now have three crowns – two metal ceramic ones in my lower mouth, and one silver one in the very back of the top of my mouth.  I checked the records and I’ve been going to the dentist almost weekly since May of this year.  I’m looking forward to a long break from visiting the dentist office.  The dentist asked me to come in next week just to see how things are going, but I told him that I was busy and said maybe next month.  But I doubt I’ll go in.  I’ll start regular dental cleaning and checkups with a new dentist, maybe starting in March.  He was recommended by the president of my company so hopefully he is better than the last guy.  I’ll keep the old dentist’s number, just in case any emergencies come up.  This was a long process and I had no idea it would last as long as it did.  It’s good to be free – maybe I’ll celebrate with some jawbreakers at Christmas.

Last weekend was an action-packed one.  Friday night we went to see the latest James Bond movie, Saturday night was another wild party with the neighbors, and then Sunday we walked all the way to Akashi and had a great experience in a tiny Japanese restaurant.

I shouldn’t be surprised that our party with the neighbors got a little out of hand. We always seem to let loose with the Yamaji’s and Fukumi’s.  We drank plenty of wine, Mr. Yamaji finished half a bottle of bourbon on his own, and there were some really interesting conversations.  We all exchanged Christmas presents, and that has become kind of a tradition among us.   It was great fun, and I wasn’t feeling too bad the next day.  The food seemed to be a hit, and now we have a lot of extra Tabasco sauce that we’ll need to use up.

Sunday we walked to Akashi for a couple of purposes – shopping for Christmas, mailing a package, and having lunch.  After mailing the package we walked around the station area to look for a place to eat.  Since there is a lot of construction going on in front of Akashi station, the restaurant that were displaced have a temporary building set up where they can continue business.  We walked into a place that was really traditional Japanese.  The counter was filled with older guys drinking sake and talking in loud voices, there was a lot of seafood on the menu as well as kushi-katsu and yakitori.  A real blue-collar type place.

We ordered a mix a different items and some beers, and just soaked in the atmosphere.  We noticed that the people next to us had ordered a big plate of fish, and it looked really good.  We found it on the menu and Kuniko ordered kamayaki.  ‘Kama’ means the neck of the fish, a bony area just below the mouth.  We chose yellowtail for our fish, and the cook picked up a big chunk of raw fish meat and took it over to the grill.  He salted it up and cooked it while we waited in anticipation.  There is a lot of oil in the skin and around the edges of the cut of fish, and it all turned nice and brown and crispy.  I was impressed when it arrived – it looked great!  We tore it apart with our chopsticks, and it was so delicious.  It felt like we’ve been missing out all this time, since we don’t usually order fish like this.  Lesson learned!

After lunch while still buzzing from the lunch beers we faced Toys R Us and the crowds of kids and families shopping there for the holidays.  It was pretty packed but we had an unusually fun time looking through the toys.  We picked out a few things that might be good for family when we head to my hometown for Christmas.  Hopefully the language barrier won’t be a problem.

In the evening after returning home we worked on planning for our trip at the end of March to Singapore – we’ll see if we can actually get to our intended destination this time!

Last night after work I took the train past my regular station and went on to Tsuchiyama, to attend a party with all of the friends from Denya yakitori.  It was the first time in a long time that I could meet up with these guys, and it was a lot of fun.  

The usual suspects were all there, and I really enjoyed catching up with everyone.  Some people looked exactly the same, others looked completely different.  The master of Denya brought his new wife (at least, she was new to me) and I met his son for the first time.  The little guy was crawling around the room playing with the other kids.  Some of the babies that I held ten years ago were elementary school students now, and it was an interesting feeling – like stepping into a time machine.   Some things never change, however – the gossip, the dirty jokes, and most of all the laughter. Everyone there has been friends for most of their lives, and I counted myself lucky to be part of their group.

The party was held at a yakiniku restaurant near Tsuchiyama station.  Actually, Kuniko and I drive past it every time we come home from visiting Kuniko’s parents, and I often look in the shop as we drive by.  Oddly, they have a cotton candy machine on the first floor, and we often see kids coming out of there after their meal with sticks of cotton candy.  It was fitting that after our dinner last night the owner of the place started spinning up some cotton candy for the kids, and he passed one to me as well.  The restaurant was quite large, actually – three stories of yakiniku tables, and I think they specialize in families and large parties.  Everyone was really nice to us, and I liked the quirky atmosphere.  I’m not sure when/if I’ll be back, but it was a fun location for our get-together.