Starry Wisdom

Entropic Words from Neilathotep

Friday, September 28, 2007

Yamamoto Line to Shibuya

I took JR to Ueno to drop my back of the the New Izu hotel. I have to say again, MAN that Kodansha Atlas is TEH BEST! Anyhow, now I am off to shibuya to see Hachiko and such. In the previous station, Hamamatsucho there was a hilarious statue of a guy peeing. I only saw it from behind, but that is why I am writing this entry.

posted by neil at 12:00 pm
under Japan,travel  

Friday, September 28, 2007

Room 4211

I just got back from a 1.5 hour walk around nishiki shinjuku. Shinjuku Central park is nice, I was there when they turned on the waterfalls. But really, I like it better east of the Station than here. It takes about as long to get anywhere from here as from hatagaya!

Last night I was too lazy to write, so I’ll update on that now. I walked to east shinjuku to get dinner at Tsunihachi tempura. The set that I orderd included delicious conger eel, which was alive and wrigling and shown to me before it was dispatched and fired up deliciosly. The prawns were also alive just prior to eating. The tempura was great – light and crunch. And because I was sitting at the bar, I could watch them fry it all up. It was wonderfully paces, so I got 2 items or so at a time, and I would have new fresh food right around when I finished what I had in front of me. At the end I had the obligatory miso and rice. The miso had about two dozen tiny clams in it. I pulled the yummies out of them with my chopsticks, and then it was sort of like japnese clam chowder, and very good. Dinner with beer was cheaper than breakfast by about Y1000. hah.

Afterewards I went to mistukoshi to look for something for a dessert. – Haha MTV Japan is playing HoIoM which Christian Death Metal or something. Anyway, Mitsuokoshi shinjuku has a sad foodcourt. It’s a lot more like a us mall food court than the one at the nihombashi store. But I god an orange passion fruit ice cream mochi, which I ate on my walk back to the hotel. It was pretty tasty.

Back that the hotel I watched No Reservations, then I hit the bar up for a drink. I hung out up there for about an hour, before coming back down to my room and gong to sleep.

I will enjoy the posh room a bit more before I check out. I think I’ll go to Shibuya today, and then the yokohama Ramen Museum for dinner.

Oh, I read “A Wrinkle In Time” cover to cover yesterday. It made me a bit sad, and I don’t know why. It is a lovely book. I was also bummed that I brought “A Swiftly Tiling Planet”, and not “A Wind in the Door”. So I started reading “Winter’s World” today. I want to reread Heinleins “Time for the Stars” and “Anna to the Infinite Power” Hah.

posted by neil at 8:50 am
under Japan,travel  

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Room 4211 Park Hyatt Tokyo (Shinjuku)

The room is pretty nice. I just took a bath in a “normal” soaking tub, while reading and drinking green tea. Before coming here I read in a park and ate a take-away sushi bento from a place next to the market for lunch. I plan to go to tempura for dinner later, but first more tea, relaxation and reading.

I am saddened that it is overcast out, but I have a good view of Yoyogi park, at least.

posted by neil at 2:45 pm
under Japan,travel  

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Cafe Doutour, Tsuskiji

I’m going to kill a couple of hours by slacking in Tsukiji before I go to the park hyatt to slack more. MOstly slack today – my feed need it. Besdies, I am starting to get tuckered out. Hah!

So this morning I woke up around 4:40AM to the alarm. I wonder how late I would have slept on my own. I got dressed and headed outisde. I then *shambled* towards tuskihi market. My legs were being retardo. I had the aspirin in my pack, so i took some. I shambled some more and finally found the inner market. I felt recharged upon finding it. I guess the apsirin was kicking in, but also, it was really freaking neat.

So – 1) Weird trucks. They drive htem crazy all around the market. And I’ve not seen anything like them before. An engine in a barrell that you turn to move the litlte truck. So gnomish looking. But they seem to work out well.

2) The inner market was a trip. Giant tuna carcasses in very states of dissassembly. From the tail lopped off, the head and tail lopped off, to deloined. I watched a large part of the disssasembly of a particlarly huge one I arrived in the middle of the beheading. Next they cut off the finds. And then they began to remove the loins. They used a 6′ knife to remove the loin from the spine. It was fascinating.

I also got to see some smaller live fish being atually dispatched. This really creeped out a woman near me. The sheer variety of seafood there is amazing. The quantity equally so. The japapnese really like their fish, don’t they? After I weaved my way through the whole inner market, I headed out to the outer market to get some fish to eat. 3400Y later I was filled with oisshii sushi. Chutoro, tamago, aji, amaebi, tako and more. I peaked into the big concrete temple on my way back – prayer was in sesion.

I rested and showered and shaved at the hotel before chekcing out. Sadly I had seen a pharmacy the day before that i could not find today. Oh well. Changing geography makes sense in a place like this. I’ll relax more with mu kohi- and an pan before we’ll see. 1.5 more hours to kill without much walking.

posted by neil at 10:10 am
under Japan,travel  

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Ginza Capital Annex, Tsukiji

I am tired an sore. But i had a neat assed morning. Well first the rest of yesterday, as I basically CRASHED at 9:30PM

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I got back to Shinjuku, grabbed my second bag at Tokyo station. It took 15 minutes to find my large suitcase, but that was not so bad. I was in a lot of pain because of the food blisters. I pretty much wussed out on taking the train to my hotel and hired a taxi instead. Hah. So I love how even cabbies can’t find places here. He screwed up a bit, admitted it (calling himself Baka!) and then turned the meter off before driving me to the right place. I really wish I spoke more Japanese, but I communicated OK with him.

This hotel is pretty good. Comfortable bread, good AC, TV with 20 channels (8 of them copies of course) Also, great location. 5 blocks from the central fish market. But I’ll get to that later.

So as soon as I got ot my room I lanced my giant blister on my right pinky toe. It was actually 2 blisters upon closer examination. It helped a lot. And 30 minutes later I headed out to go to Odaiba.

Yurikamome “new transit” is really cool. A driverless train so if you are in a end car, like I was, you have a fantastic view. I rode all the way to the terminal station, then came back. I stopped first at Daiba to check out that area for sunset. It was beautiful but I felt really happy despite my sore, dumb feet. Food choices were odd, so I just got joe random ebi tempura. Then I went to Aomi. Toyotoland is hilarious. Especially the “ride one” road thingy. THe big stack of test drive cars was crazy. I was pretty bushed at this time, and the thought of paying Y500 to get in to an arcade was not high on my agenda, so I ended up skipping Joyopolis. My video game roots feel betrayed. I headed back to the hotel, stopping to buy an aisan pear at a fruit stand and a convini snack. I ate a bit of snacks, took a shower then fell asleep watching Green Wing, some time around 9:30 PM

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To be continued.

posted by neil at 7:30 am
under Japan,travel  

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Inside Shinjuku Gyoen

Well the blister on my little toe is the size of a grape. If I can find a pin and a source of flame I am going to lance it at the hotel tonight.

posted by neil at 9:25 am
under Japan,travel  

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Outside Shinjuku Gyoen

Ok, so the capsule was uhm, an experience. The bed was not uncomfortable. But i woke p to pee and some dude had porno on super loud. Japanese porn actors’ “voice acting” is nutso. I wa asleep at 10:30pm. At 4:56AM I woke up again, to loud snoring, several rows away. So i decided to get up and start my day. The shower was fiiine, and I was on my with to B@gus. I had some tea, checked my email and then out to get a snack (mr donut). So I have to say that Kabuki-cho is hilarious. First I was offered a shoer, bj and sex for Y20,000 by what I hope was ap imp, not a male prostitute. Which I quickly declined. Then 10 minues later I was at a shinto shrine. Har!

Still hungry, and with a sore foot, I stopped at a convini. I got what I thought was plum in syrup. But it turned out to be plum in jello. And it was delicous. And now i am sitting outside the garden waiting for more stuff to open. Perhaps the drug store. Or the park.

posted by neil at 7:50 am
under Japan,travel  

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Cyber Cafe B@gus, Shinjuku

I ended up eating a screwey sandwich with 5x the normal amount of mayonaise from Family Mart. It was not ideal, but it helped me survice. I went to nishiki-dori, which is the big kyoto market. I sampled some delicious pickles, and took some pictures, then I went back to the Sumiya to get my stuff and head to the JR station.

They really are so polite at the ryokan. It’s great. Barley tea while waiting for my taxi, along with some an mochi. 3 people bowed to me on the way out. When I got to the station I had about 10 minutes before the next Hikari, so I investigate food options. I found a bento stand that looked ok. Well it was pretty good – I ate it on the train. The only downside was the weird snail. It was sealed shut, so uhm, I didn’t eat it. I finished Artemis Fowl book 2 today. Started up on Serve it Forth. The train ride was uneventful. But when I got to Tokyo station I took about 15 minutes looking for the big lockers to stash my luggage for the night. I hope I can find it again tomorrow. Anyhow, I stopped here to check my email before checking out the Capsule hotel across the way. Mmmm free calpis. One of the best features of this cyber cafe is the beverage machine!

posted by neil at 8:35 pm
under Japan,travel  

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Chion-in

Man, Chion-in is impresive. I saw this and Nanzen-ji today. Well, the gate at Nanzen-ji is fantastic, but Chion-in is just wonderful.

I had Japanese breakfast this morning, but no natto (turns out it’s a Tokyo/Eastern Japan thing). Well it was good. Miso and grilled fish and rice. I am pretty hungry – I went to a Lawson’s earlier, but I wussed out, and didn’t get anything. I guess I’ll have to try again someplace else later.

I also went to a really small shinto shrine. On my way out an older Japanese woman said Konnichiwa to me. I said Konnichiwa back, and this made me happy.

posted by neil at 1:40 pm
under Japan,travel  

Monday, September 24, 2007

Sumiya Ryokan

Dinner. So, I got what I thought was a human sized glass of water. And then I realized it had a small lip. It was a pitcher. This amused me. Here is what I had for dinner:

  1. Carp Sashimi
  2. Snapper, shrimo, kanpachi and “conga” no clue what that least this is, but it tastes pretty good
  3. Soup with mushroom and conga, along with egg tofu. The latter is for the moon viewing season, which is going on
  4. Unagi
  5. Grilled fish and pickles
  6. Smoke fish and roe
  7. mushroom, dried shrimp, and fish dish, and some melon
  8. more soup with fish
  9. More sashimi, including some sort of liver and flying fish
  10. Miso and rice with ume, and more pickles
  11. Fruit with champagne jello

All of this took about 1.5 hours. It was pretty much all very tasty

posted by neil at 8:15 pm
under Japan,travel  
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