TOKYO: NIGHT OUT WITH THE CATSUOMATIC DEATH

08.14.2009

Shinjuku night out with Acekay and Yuka-Ryder. Acekay is the lead singer and Yuka-Ryder plays the drums for Catsuomatic Death. They took us on a wonderfully fun night out roaming around the Shinjuku Redlight District: walking past Love Hotels, Visual-Kei band looking escort services, gay bars, carnival games and Japanese 100 Yen stores.

Billboard advertising male escorts

Boys, boys, boys for your choice

Tiny 3 person bar

Shooting Carnival Range

Wall of Champions

Johnny aiming for the prize

Yuka, the expert markman, wins a prize!

A sushi diner snack. Dishes of fresh sushi made to order. Unfortunately, no sushi for the preggers. However, in Japan, the doctors actually prescribe more sushi eating during pregnancy. This anti-sushi thing sounds like an insult to the Japanese. I'll have to do more research on this while I'm here. Johnny thought the giant clam and squid were best.

We entered into a "Jungle-Style" 100 Yen Japanese Store. This place was packed to the ceiling, not only with strange knick-knacks, but with people.

Punk Hello Kitty

Ah so, this is were you go to buy your cos play costumes.

Real masks

Kurt Cobain immortalized in Japanese Yen Store

Vendor making fresh octopus cakes in the back of her van.

Last stop at 1 AM - a cafe, Lotus, owned by one of Acekay's friends.

Treats of Choux Creme and Rose and Hibiscus Tea

Yuka and Acekay

Prada building by Herzog & DeMueron

TOKYO: DAY WITH THE POLAROID (iPHONE)

08.15.2009 Acekay and Yuka picked us up in their band's van and showed us Old Tokyo - Ueno, Asakusa and Ginza. Today marked the 64th anniversary of Japan's surrender in WWII. There was a lot of activity around Yasukuni Shrine. The Uyoku dantai - Japanese nationalist right-wing groups- flooded the streets in their black propaganda vans, which are fitted with loudspeakers and decorated with the flag of Japan and Japanese military flag. So, instead of visiting Yasukuni Shrine, we headed to Uneo Hill, where we spent most of the day. The park has a number of museums, galleries and a zoo.

TOKYO: A WALK FROM NIPPORI TO NISHI-NIPPORI

08.16.2009 Japanese cute (kawaii) product of the day: Panda Cakes from the Ueno Zoo. These panda shaped cakes are stuffed with sweet red bean.

This morning we headed towards the Nippori area. This was a pleasant and peaceful walk, starting from Nippori Station and ending at Nishi-Nippori Station on the JR Yamamote Line. Spared from the bombings during WWII, this neighborhood is quiet and quaint, dotted with small temples, shrines and old cemeteries. Unfortunately, many of the shops and museums were closed for Oban. We started out at the Yanaka Cemetery and made our way through various small temples and shrines.

On the way back to Shibuya, we stopped in Ikebukuro, to visit the Japanese Traditional Craft Centre. It's a shop in Metropolitan Plaza Mall, but it's set up more like a museum with displays of lacquerware, ceramics, knives, basket weaving and many types of other crafts from around Japan.

Breakfast was hard to find this morning. Not many options in the early morning. Coffee&Donut And On And opened at 8am.

We were pleasantly surprised. This is crack cocaine in donut form. These are soft, tasty, airy, sugar coated joys. I could have easily ate a dozen. Blueberry cheese with morsels of dried blueberries. Black soybean with brown sugar. Lemon tea. Cassis orange. Maple Almond. Caramel Almond Chocolate. How does it compare to Krispy Kreme? Far more satisfying.

KYOTO: WE HAVE ARRIVED!

KYOTO:

08.17.2009 Johnny and I arrived in Kyoto in the mid afternoon. We stayed in Southern Higashiyama, at the base of the Higashiyama Mountains, which is thick with temples and shrines, traditional neighborhoods and shops. After checking into the hotel, we took a stroll to see Yasaka-Jinja and grab some lunch.

Yasaka-Jinja is a colorful orange hued Shinto shrine at the base of Maruyama-koen park. It's the guardian shrine of the Gion district. It is host to one of the most renowned Japanese festivals during mid-July, called Gion Matsuri. The festival started in AD 869 - during a plague that ravished the city- and was offered as a prayer of relief to the god Susano-no-Mikoto (son of the gods who gave birth to Japan).

We came here also to try to eat at Nakamuro-Ro, known for its tofu dengaku and its traditional cuisine known as Kaiseki. It's a restaurant inside Yasaka-Jinja that is said to be the oldest surviving restaurant in Japan, about 400 years old. Unfortunately it was closed this day.

Night walk through the floating world. At night, Johnny and I walked through Pontocho. It was once the city's red light district, between Kamogama and Kiyamachi-dori Streets. Beautiful narrow walkways lit by lanterns and lined with traditional wooden exteriors. You can still spot Geishas and Maikos wandering these streets, though the ones we saw were being chased by groups tourists and their cameras.

grilled sticky rice balls

Kyoto taxi cabs

Dinner at Issen Yoshoku. We followed the smells of something savory to a griddle on the street-- the entrance to this Okonomiyaki restaurant. A Japanese savory crepe filled with a variety of ingredients: meats, eggs, pickles, fish flakes, seaweed, heaped with red ginger and scallions and not sure what else, topped with a sauce that tasted like Worcestshire.