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Here he is. Assembled in all his glory. What this picture doesn't show is that he's got boxing gloves stored under his afro in the back of his head. Why? Your guess is as good as mine.
Tokyo and Kyoto really are bicycle friendly towns, but not in the same way a New York cycling advocate would want it. In New York, riding a bike on the sidewalk will get you a ticket, and these days, it might even get your bike confiscated by the police. Here in Tokyo and Kyoto, riding on the sidewalk is encouraged. In fact, cyclists have their own crosswalk lanes here that lead right to their lane on the sidewalk. The bike lane on the sidewalk is typically on the side closest to the buildings. It's a narrow lane that takes up about a quarter of the sidewalk depending on the size of the block. The other 3 quarters of the sidewalk is for pedestrians.
Where in New York, cyclists and pedestrians often have an adversarial relationship, here in Japan they live and let live. The cyclists are skilled at maneuvering around people and they never seem annoyed at having to do so when people are walk into their lane (which often happens because many of the sidewalks are quite narrow). New Yorkers would never put up with bicycles on the sidewalk. It would be like Deniro in Taxi, with cries of "Hey, I'm walkin' here!" every five minutes. And bicycling advocates wouldn't want to share the sidewalk. They want to share the road. I haven't seen very many bikes in the road, only the hard core cyclists who look like their training for something or bike messengers ride in traffic.
Commuters are on the sidewalk. They've got their babies on the back or their briefcases in the basket out in front. They wear business suits, high-heeled shoes, jeans and skirts. No biker shorts and no jerseys.
Totally messed up and spent all my cash at the restaurant when I should have saved it for drinks. Now we're short $1000 yen which is only about $8.00! How embarrassing — though I don't really feel embarrassed. Maybe it's the shochu. Clay went to the ATM, but I'll bet it doesn't take American cards. I just remembered I stashed $45 in my purse. Wonder if the bartender will take it. Where is Clay?
I'll bet the machine didn't work and he's freaking out. Wonder if he went back to the hotel. Wonder if they have an ATM. I'll bet they'd change US dollars there. Wish I could get in touch with him now. I have to pee.
The bartender is nice and there's another man here — a doctor — he "loves soul music". He just said, "Excuse me, sister..." and asked me if the music playing was soul or the blues. I told him the blues was music about bad things happening to you one after the other. Not only did your woman leave you, but your dog died and your mamma did, too. He said he understands. Where is Clay?
I'll bet it's really only been 5 or 10 minutes. The music is really good here. Guess he'll be here soon. At least I get to talk to the doctor who "loves soul music". He just asked me if "Angel Doll" means something special in english. I told him it doesn't. "Definitely not idiom?" he asked.
Into electronics and old computers? How about manga and anime? Or action figures and robots? Or women who dress up at maids and entertain you for money? You can find all this in Akihabara.
Shane told me I should check it out and mentioned the maid cafes. I thought the idea of girls dressing up as maids so guys can pay to play cards with them was weird and one of those "only in Japan" experiences I should see for myself. I also thought Clay would get a kick out of it.
This was our second day in Tokyo and I was still skeptical about our ability to get around since finding specific addresses here can be a bit tricky. Turns out finding a maid cafe in Akihabara isn't hard at all. When we got out of the train station the "maids" were standing there handing out flyers to attract customers. All the flyers had maps, but unfortunately they were in Japanese. It didn't matter. We ended up finding one simply by walking around the block. The Amusement Cafe had girls in green and white maid outfits. Their hair in braids. Knee socks with ruffles and mary jane shoes were also part of the costume. We were handed a menu that not only included food but "recommended amusements" we could choose. A card game. A drawing by one of the maids on the back of a coaster. A game of pool. Or perhaps a maid could sing us a song. We chose none of the above and opted for something called "burnt curry." The menu said it was their specialty. It did smell good so what the hell.
Turns out "burnt curry" is curry sauce over rice mixed with cheese and topped with a smiley face drawn in ketchup. It looked like something a 6 year old would make on "make your own dinner night". Anyway, we ate it and it wasn't bad. I think it could have done without the ketchup. Clay said the ketchup was a vehicle for the smiley face. He's right, of course.
While we ate, we were entertained with a rendition of a Japanese pop song by one of the maids. Guess someone wanted to be amused. She did a little dance with hand movements and jumping and she smiled the whole time she was up there. Later another maid got up and led the entire restaurant in game of rock/paper/scissors only we didn't understand what was going on for a bit. Really funny once we realized what was going on. The winner of rock/paper/scissors was treated to prize from the "Lucky Box." Yes, the little gold box actually said "Lucky Box" in english. The guy who won was given a coaster drawing.
I noticed Clay looked a bit uncomfortable. Then I noticed what was on the projection screen. Young girls in school uniforms and girls dressed as maids looking innocently seductive. Ok. Time to go. We were rushed out anyway since the place was full and some guys were waiting to get inside to be entertained by the maids.
Everything we'd read about trips to Tokyo said the Tskuiji Fish Market is a must see. In fact about a week before we left for our trip, we saw a Todd English show where he covered the market. After seeing it I decided that it was really worth leaving the hotel at 4am to get there to see the big tuna auctions.
We headed out to the market our first morning in Tokyo. It turns out the market wasn't too far from our hotel. We could have walked if we'd had a good lay of the land, but decided to take a cab. It only cost 8 yen.
The driver let us off near an underpass and we had no clue where to go. We walked around a bit, dodging men in rubber boots riding this little forklifts called "Mighty Cab". There were everywhere and a little too close for comfort. I thought we'd be hit by a Mighty Cab, but these guys were skilled at driving these things, weaving around each other and around styrofoam boxes of the various catches of the day.
Clay said, "I feel like I just walked into somebody's office." I agreed. We weren't really welcome there. These guys are trying to get their work done and here we are, walking around with cameras, taking pictures of squid and octopus for our own amusement.
We never did find the auction since we didn't see the map of the market at the entrance. Our cab had dropped us off right next to the map, but we didn't see it. After walking around for about a half hour we gave up on the auction and turned our attention to some sushi breakfast. We made our way out of the inner market area to the outer market and found some places to eat. A few places had lines of people waiting in front. We picked a place with a line, figuring if these people were waiting here at 5am for food, then it must be good. Two hours later we were sitting in a small sushi restaurant that held about a baker's dozen worth of people. In New York, I'd never wait in a line for 2 hours to get into a restaurant. When I pass the people waiting outside Magnolia Bakery for cupcakes I think their insane. Yeah, the cupcakes are good, but I ain't standing in line for them. But hey, we're on vacation and it's 5am and we're hungry and here so what the hell.
Best sushi I ever had in my life. The staff greeted us with the typical welcome you get when you walk into any restaurant in Tokyo. I love it. It really makes you feel like they're happy to have you. We had eel. We had tuna. We had sea urchin and lots of other fish I can't name. It was all fantastic and I shall be ruined from this day forward for sushi. Any sushi I ever have will pale in comparison to what we got at the Tskuiji Market. I have no idea what the restaurant was called, but I took a picture of the sign. What is the name of this place?
I knew my shopping would get me into trouble one day. We're leaving Kyoto to go back to Tokyo. We got to the station early and had time to kill. Kyoto Station has a shopping center, like most of the train stations here. I'd read on someone's blog that there is a yarn store in the station and decided to find it. It was 11:30. Our train was scheduled to leave at 12:09. Clay told me to go ahead and kill the time finding the yarn store. I almost didn't go, but decided to give it a shot. I was wandering around looking for the yarn store and nearly gave up, when I turned a corner and there it was. I must have smelled the yarn or something because I randomly chose to turn that corner and double back. It was a small shop and I gave myself 5 minutes to pick something out and get the hell out of there. I stuck to my 5 minute limit picking a couple of unusual yarns and some old favorites (Noro). There was a woman ahead of me at the register, but she was taking a long time picking out some thread. Finally another sales person notices me and starts tallying up my purchases. She walked around the store looking at what I bought and writing it all down. Damn, this is gonna take forever. It's 10 minutes to 12. I gotta get outta here. Finally she was done. She rung me up and I ran all the way back to meet Clay. We made the train just in time. Talk about stress!
Of course I had to buy yarn while in Japan. I thought I'd visit Okadaya in Shinjuku, but we never made it there. I left the list I printed out from Pinku's site in the hotel the day we went to Shinjuku.
Fortunately, I found mention of another yarn shop in Kyoto called Avril. They are known as Habu Textiles in New York. I almost didn't go to Avril because I figured I could get the same stuff at the New York store, but since we were in Kyoto and I hadn't seen any yarn and the yarn store was within walking distance of the hotel (which meant I didn't have to drag Clay yarn shopping against his will), I decided to check it out.
I was glad I did. The shop is really beautiful. I forgot to take a picture since I was so overwhelmed by everything. The yarn is sold on cones and by the gram and I had read that Avril allows you to pick up to 3 yarns to be combined to create a unique yarn of your own design. I would have done this, but I have no sense of which yarns work with each other (not to mention, my color sense deficit) so I chose a few yarns I liked on their own. I came out with some bulky yarn (150 grams), a couple of novelty yarns (which I never buy because I never know what to do with them), a couple of yarn kits which have small samples of some of the yarn available in the shop, and a knitting pattern book. The patterns are all in Japanese but I bought it for the pictures. It is really a gorgeous book and not available in English at Habu Textiles. Avril does not sell any commercial yarn. They only sell yarn of their own creation.
The next shop I visited was in Kyoto Station. With about 30 minutes to find the shop in the massive station in time to catch our train back to Tokyo, I somehow found Masuzakiya. At first glance, I wasn't very impressed with the shop. It was small and they didn't have a wide selection. Upon further inspection, I found a few well known Japanese brand yarns as well as yarns from Italy and the UK. I bought some Puppy yarn, some Noro (which I love) and some other Japanese yarns I don't think I'll find in the States.
I am proud of myself for not getting too crazy with yarn as I did in Buenos Aires. I only added a little to the yarn stash this time and they are definitely yarns that I will use.
I didn't make it into the NYC Marathon this year, despite the fact that I ran 9 qualifying races last year. I should have guaranteed entry but since I didn't join the NY Road Runners until Feb. 2006 instead of the required January 2006, I had to take my chances with the lottery. They didn't pick me.
Wait till next year? No way. I will run a marathon this year. I just signed up for the Philadelphia Marathon. It's November 18th. It's a flatter course than NY, but it's still a marathon — 26.2 miles.
If you'll be in Philadelphia that Sunday, be sure to come out and cheer the runners on.
The Front Runner's Gay Pride race was my 9th race of the year which means I now have guaranteed entry in the New York City Marathon next year! Woo hoo!
I really don't have to run any more races this year, but of course I will. I'm already signed up for 2 more NYRR races in July and of course the NYC Half Marathon in August. I may run another race between the half marathon and the Philadelphia Marathon just to see get a clearer idea of what I can expect to do in the marathon.
I really just coasted in the Front Runner's race. I was tired and didn't really feel like kicking my butt. As a matter of fact, if Clay hadn't gotten me out of bed Saturday morning, I may have skipped the race all together. I was so laid back about this race that I left my Garmin home and didn't bother looking at the clocks at the mile markers. I even walked up Cat Hill. I smiled to myself when I guy ran by me chanting "Don't stop. Don't stop. Don't stop." I thought, "Good for him." I just didn't feel like running Cat Hill. My time was better than expected, considering I walked up the hill and stopped at every water station, walking to the last trash can each time. I ran it in 48:55 at an average pace of 9:47. Not great, but not terrible. I'm just glad to have my 9th race done.
... For the next month.
Can I do this? I'm not sure but I'm gonna try. I've gone a little yarn crazy lately. I tried to get Clay to make a bet with me, but he won't. He knows I love to shop for yarn, doesn't think I can do it, but doesn't care to bet. So I will do this for my own amusement. I will not buy any new yarn from now until July 31st (except for the yarn I buy from Betsy for her fund raiser. It's for a good cause, plus I already promised her. She's trying to buy a spindle.) Really, the stash has gotten so large, it's embarrassing. And last night I walked into Downtown Yarns and bought 2 skeins of red yarn by ArtYarns just because it was pretty.
The no yarn shopping rule extends to knitting needles, stitch markers, stitch holders and other notions.
I have plenty of yarn and many projects to finish so this shouldn't be a problem for me. We'll see if I can do it. Most of my yarn buys are impulse buys. I could use the money I save for our trip to Barcelona and get to using up some of the stash. Either way, I win.
I already broke my no yarn shopping rule. I stopped in at String just before they closed Thursday and bought more yarn for the next baby blanket project. I'm going to treat this like my diet and not view this as a failure and give up. I'll just start again today.
Questions:
What is the Green Car on the Shinkensen?
What is the difference between kudasai and onegieshimasu (sp)?
What side of the street should I walk on?
When I ask, "will you take US dollars" and you answer "I don't know today's exchange rate", does that mean "no"?
Am I being rude if I hand a cashier money instead of putting in on the little tray?
Why are some people walking around with surgical masks?
In a city so large with no trash cans on the street, how do they manage to keep it so clean?
This page contains all entries posted to i might be wrong in June 2007. They are listed from oldest to newest.
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