Lesser Known Tokyo

@Tokyo
6-13 feb

Now that I have been here for a while, the feeling of having to rush to be able see as much as possible in the shortest amount of time (a feeling that I often get when visiting a country as a tourist) is subceding. Also, Having seen many of the more obvious spots of Tokyo, lately I have spent some more time in more 'local' areas of the city. And still, in these local areas, there is so much to see! Tokyo seems to be getting bigger each day and more and more interesting neighbourhoods keep popping up.

Also, many of the neighbourhoods have some kind of theme, such as: Kanda, the 'book'-neighbourhoud, with the newest books on design, but also obscure anitique bookstores full of English literature of current topics such as the 12-band Great Sovjet Republic Encyclopaedia, collecting dust in a corner near old scrolls and maps of old Edo-Tokyo. Walking past literary cafe's and dusty books, the scenery suddenly changes sports: a whole neighbourhood solely filled with big stores selling snowboards, tennis rackets and sweaters.Then, turning the corner, I end up and Ochanomizu, a university area. Here the theme was: Rock. They dedicated the whole neighbourhood to the selling of used guitars and rare vinyl rock albums. Tokyo is big enough to dedicate a whole neighbourhood to a 'niche'.Feeling completely lost, I followed the river and after passing an Orthodox Russian Church (why shouldn't there be one?) I stood on the bridge and had no idea where I was. The streets were empty an as the sun set I took some pictures of the river. Then I a saw some lights around the corner. I suddenly realised it was the shop where I bought my mobile a few weeks ago. I turned the corner and was teleported to crazy, nerdy, crowded Akihabara 'electric city', full of streets where they sell anything that has a power plug.

Kagurazaka was also great. It's the old geisha quarter of tokyo and its tree-lined streets have a characteristic feel to it. Several minutes after arriving at Kagurazaka I discovered a small gallery, so I decided to go inside. I was welcomed by a lady in her sixties who was having tea with her friends in her own gallery. After having seen the paintings, she invited me to come sit down an have some tea, and of course, piles of questions came from the woman and her friends. She immeadeatly grabbed the chance to photograph this foreigner that had entered. After she discovered I was from Holland she showed me her Holland photo album and said she went there last year to paint. I asked her if she visits europe, on which she responded 'no, not very often. Just once a year or so.' Seemed like a good life she was leading, travelling around and painting.
A few days later she e-mailed me if I would like to join some of her friends for a home cooked meal. Unfortunately it was on wednesday during noon break, so I was at Ginza for my Japanese lessons. Nevertheless, until now, the Japanese people that I have talked to are very friendly and If we exchange mails, big chance that you are invited for some event or other.

In the same week we had an excursion to Taisei, where we were educated on what measures can be taken to prevent a building from being damaged during one of Japan's earthquakes. We were also given a virtual reality tour of several buildings with their new VR technology. Several days later we went underground, to visit an immense pipe where drainage water is collected during periods of high raiunfall to prevent Tokyo flooding. It was an amazing experience which the average person living in Tokyo would not have the chance to see.

Thus, again a week full of adventures. Now, the time of full studying at JNI is coming to an end and we're off to Kansai soon. But first, this week my friend from Holland is coming so it's gonna be even less sleep and more sightseeing this week. Looking forward to it.

On the Japanese version of 'Albert Cuyp'

Temple near Kagurazaka, Tokyo's old geisha quarters

Industrial urban hipness between Ochanomizu and Akihabara

Me and Uotani-san at her gallery

One of the many rock shops at Ochanomizu

Meanwhile, 60 meters below Tokyo...

Tuna Eyes

Saturday, Febrary 2nd, 2008

Although, the topic of this post might be interpreted as being poetic, in reality it is, well, not so much, as you will discover.

Had some coffee with Kaoru, who I randomly met in a Persian restaurant during lunch in a neighbourhood called yanaka (谷中）. She, her friend, three of my classmates and I met up at to have some coffee. We had a great time and moreover it was culturally and linguistically correct as we spoke (or attempted to speak) japanese constantly. It was a lot of fun and although our conversations were limited by the language, it was nice to meet up with some of Tokyo's locals. As it was saturday, all the coffee shops were extremely crowded, even in the low-key neighbourhood where Kaoru took us. We finally managed to get a table in the open-air, which in spring is nice but in winter maybe a bit too adventurous.

Around 5pm we said goodbye to Kaoru and her friend and went on to have a very interesting meal. You see, after our early morning adventure at tsukiji during this week, Suzuki-san invited the whole group to come to his sushi restaurant near Tameikesanoo station to have a good meal. He made a special deal with us that he would make some of his specialties for a fixed, student friendly price.
What unfolded upon the table was above anyone's expectations, in a (mostly) positive way (this addition of 'mostly' will become clear soon).
First, to ease us into the meal, Suzuki-san served French cheese, carpaccio to start out with. But then a genuine fash carnaval began, and it started with a bang: the first specialty that arrived was braised tuna head.
And thus; one whole tuna head lay on the table. Suzuki-san told us this was a very expensive special dish that was hard to come by. The flavour was very good but there was one catch: aside from some nice tender 'foreigner-friendly' tuna meat, we all got a large portion of braised tuna-eye. Yes, tuna eye stew. You can imagine that getting accostumed to the feeling and texture of eating a cornea or optic nerve is somewhat challenging. Oh well, another meal to put on the list of guess-what-I-ate. Finally, everyone stood tall and ate their portion, so our culture-barbarian-gauge has dropped somewhat and for that I am happy.
And from then onwards, it was sushi paradise once again, It's unbelievable how Suzuki-san went out of his way to make this amazing meal, and such an amazing amount that he must have spent the whole day for us.

Afterwards he let a few of us 'wield' the sword he uses to prepare his maguro (see photo). And then, after our last tea, we gave suzuki-san a self made present containing a photo of suzuki-san and us, and some stroop-waffles, and some drop (licorice). I guess drop to him might be close to what tuna eye is to us ^_^. Thank you Suzuki-san!

It's a bird, It's a plane, no....it's the head of a tuna

Samurai Sjors-san

Tsukiji! (築地）

Friday, February 1st, 2008

This first day of the month was started early today. I was woken by the nice automatic-voice lady wake up call at 4 o'clock in the morning. I wondered why on earth was this brute disturbance of my peaceful sleep necessary? Then I remebered. The answer was cold and fishy. Today was Tsukiji Fish Market day and all the action happens around 6 am and somehow the Japanese fisherman refuse to hold it a bit later so that I could sleep a bit later. But they are forgiven.

So me and 3 classmated waited for the first metro to come at 5:08 and as you can see in the photo below, they were pretty much in the same state as I was. But it was going to be a great morning, as we were going to be accompanied by one of Tokyo's fine sushi-chefs, for whom the market was basically his home away from home.

I have never seen so much fish and tuna in one place (which is not very shocking as it is the world biggest fish market and my fish experience is limited to the sort that has vegetables and potatoes next to it). Before the auction started, Suzuki-san, our suchi-chef explained what you should look at when buying a tuna, while pointing at tunas more international than the United Nations, one coming from Spain, New York, South-Africa and Australia.

As the auction started, the buyer started raising hands and we had to stay on the side for a while with several other tourists. As I tried to make an overview picture of the auction, I acidentally raised my hand holding my camera. That almost cost me a whole tuna (around 10.000 euro) but luckily the auctioneer wasn't paying attention to me.

Afterwards we had to run some errands in the fish market because Suzuki-san had to get some ingredients for his shop. He was a steady customer and we were treated to coffee, tea and fish by his suppliers to keep us warm. The atmosphere was not unlike the collegues on the markets where my mom sells her clothing. Just a bit more fish on this market, though.

Afterwards we naturally ate some sushi nearby whiich Suzuki-san helped us order. Vast amounts of raw fish were eaten by us at around for breakfast around 07.30. I wouldn't trade my cereals for it every day, but I think it was one of the best sushi meals I ever ate. I will never be able to eat sushi in Amsterdam again, I think.

Asahi Shimbun (朝日新聞）

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

An educative trip was planned for our group today. Asahi Shimbun, one of Japans largest Newspapers, opened up its doors. We were given badges and were escorted into a large office space where journalists were busy writing their new scoop of the day. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take foto's in the office; seen as a leftist paper, the office has been the target of several assassination attacks of right-wing groups and Asahi Shimbun therefore does not appreciate their staff being photographed. So I refrained from shooting them as well (with my Sony).
Next, two giant presses were shown in the basement, which can spit out an average of 60.000 editions per hour. There we were given a preview of this evening's edition which was not yet available on the street. The next room showed the packing and handling of the papers. We were allowed to shoot there, so at least we have evidence of having been there...