Food, glorious food....

 

I'm not exactly a foodie, in the sense that when I travel, I don't really pay much attention to food, esp since I'm travelling on budget. Instead of feeding myself and feast on a hearty meal, I would rather feed (and feast with) my eyes.  In fact, deciding what to eat can be a chore, and immensely stressful. It doesn't help that when u r travelling solo and u go to a restaurant during busy meal times, u will invariably be referred to a table facing or next to the toilet. So much for whetting ur appetite! Still waiting for the day when they would invent some food pills that we can just swallow and then be on the go. It will solve all hassle when it comes to eating, in my opinion. But of course, food aficionados out there will curse the day this pill is born.
It's extra stressful ordering food here in Japan because of the language barrier. Half the time I don't even know what I'm ordering, esp when ordering from the vending machine where u insert money first and choose ur dish, then pass the food coupon to the waitress. I just point and hope for the best. It's like playing Russian roulette! It doesn't help that the menu is mostly in hiragana (the Japanese alphabet), otherwise, I may still be able to make out what meat it is based on my near-non-existent grasp of Jap. I'll let the pics do the toking (coupled with my Dark Shadow gourmet ratings):

the first meal (lunch) I had in Tokyo...and it was a gourmet disaster...ordered something
that looks like beef coated with a layer of egg, except that it's not egg but CHEESE!
arrggghhhh......But I swallowed it all nonetheless! Here are the remains of that meal....Verdict: 1 star

this is dinner in Tokyo...notice that when u order a set meal, it comes with a bowl of rice
and a bowl of ramen; enough for two people, if u r not a big eater. Verdict: 3 stars

(above and below) the simple but fabulous home-made breakfast from Guesthouse Tamura;
and only 300 yen(S$3.90)! what a steal! totemo oiishii! Verdict: 4 1/2 stars

 

 

 

tonkatsu (pork cutlet); ended up eating this most of the time. Verdict: 4 stars


 



 

All 3 pics above: the most expensive dish I ate in Japan, lunch right after the onsen experience
at Kurama, Kyoto. The dish is some kind of wild duck cooked in a hot pot of some herbal broth.
But what takes the cake is the juicy chewy octopus tentacles in the last pic. Verdict: 5 stars

delicious chicken cutlet for dinner in a Nara coffee house,
so crispy and tender. oiishii desne! Verdict: 5 stars



last meal in Japan (lunch); not quite sure what I ordered (and ate) but I think there's beef, prawn
and this gooey but oh-so-delicious stuff wrapped in a fried external layer on the extreme right
background of the pic in the black dish. Verdict: 6 stars

DESSERT:




all 3 pics above: vanilla latte and a slice of christmas cake atop the Umeda Sky Building in Osaka;
feasting with both my mouth and eyes. Verdict: 3 stars (for food), 5 stars (for panoramic view)

coffee in the shinkasen (bullet train). Verdict: 2 stars



first dessert tried in Japan, I think in Kyoto. Matcha-flavoured ice-cream.
Dunnoe what all the fuss about matcha is about, but to me, it's just bleh! Verdict: 1 star

A monster of an ice-cream, and it comes not in a mug but a bucket!!!
And No, I didn't order this. Verdict: NA

this is the one I ordered, an old-fashioned strawberry parfait.
not exactly fantastic, but went down well with the dinner I just had.... Verdict: 3 stars



The ubiquitous vending machines throughout Japan....and they actually throw out HOT cans! Wow!
One thing though, it's so difficult to find dustbins in Japan. Half the time when I wanted to dispose of the can after drinking or throw away other rubbish, I could not find any dustbins. Makes you wonder how the Japanese manage to keep their streets so pristine. It's so clean that I would've rolled on the streets! And don't get me started on the cleanliness of their public toilets! I could've slept in it!

Onsen hopping -- and dipping!

One of the must-do things in Japan is onsen hopping, instead of bar hopping. Onsen are the hot springs, natural bath pools created by Mother Nature. The water comes from deep within the earth, and hence is rich in nutrients that are supposedly good for the skin, and for health in general. Naturally, it made it to one of the items in my bucket list. Initially, I was a bit apprehensive, as the onsen etiquette requires one to be in one's birthday suit (and I do not exactly have a flattering figure, what with my back problem) save for a small piece of modesty towel that u use to cover ur 'family jewels'. Well, in this respect, we guys are better off than the girls, who have to decide whether to use their modesty towel to cover their bosom or their 'below'. Truly a dilemma indeed! Someone suggested tongue-in-cheek that maybe they should just cover their face and that will solve all problems!
While in Nara, the kind and affable hostess suggested this onsen with a funny name -- yu-na-na-no-yu! Who could resist such a kawaii name? I'm sold on the spot, and made my way there early the next morning. No photography is allowed in the onsen, for obvious reasons, but here r some pics from a brochure to give u an idea:

pic I took at entrance to onsen

Brochure pics showing interior of onsens in garden setting
 

The onsen above featured a garden setting, and while scenic enough, did not have those outdoor setting that open out to gorgeous mountains vistas reminiscent of those that appeared on Japan Hour.

My onsen appetite not satiated, I eventually checked with a friend from Singapore who recommended another place he had been before some months back. It was all the way in the suburbs of Kyoto, and I had to travel all the way there from Nara. It was lucky that I made the trip as the onsen was exactly the type I had envisioned.

the Kurama onsen, located on top of this building,
nestled in the bosoms of surrounding mountains

As I dipped in the onsen, what greeted my eyes are the coniferous trees on the mountains
opposite, swaying to the rhythm of the breeze

dazzling autumn foliage on the other side of the onsen pool;
the glass panels are the indoor section

rinsing/bathing section before and after stepping into the onsen;
they even provide free shampoo and body wash

My first onsen experience was nearly two decades ago in Hakuba, a skiing resort outside Tokyo. So there was a sense of deja vu this time round. Even then, it takes some getting use to. For one thing, water is very hot, at about 40 degree Celsius, bubbling forth from deep within Mother Nature's belly. It practically fried my balls! But after my body has gotten use to the temperature, it started to feel very therapeutic. The hot water did wonders for the aching muscles of my body, esp after all that non- stop walking. I was lucky in that when I visited this onsen, two guys just left, and I found that I had the whole onsen to myself.....So out came my camera busy snapping away.....Spent about thirty luxurious minutes bouncing around in the water and splashing around, since no one was there! If only I had a cup of hot coffee with me, then it would be truly heaven! -- well, almost.

Shop till I drop -- from walking, not buying!

What is Tokyo without shopping? But for me, it's just window-shopping as I possess neither a fat enough wallet, nor deep enough pockets. But that alone is still enough to make me shop till I drop -- from sheer exhaustion and dizziness from the screaming neon lights.
As it's approaching Winter, the sun sets around 5pm, so I usually reserved night time for shopping since there's not much sightseeing one can do when the sun sets. And the shopping experience can yield quite a few surprises even when I'm not buying much....

Christmas neon lights -- Osaka

Deserving of mention is one of the items from my 'bucket list'. I have to traverse that zebra-crossing in Shibuya, a popular shopping district among Japanese youth, much like our Cineleisure and Scape, except that it's not just one building but an entire district filled with shopping blocks, buzzing with energy and radiating youth. Anyway, back to that zebra-crossing, it is no ordinary zebra crossing. It's a series of zebra crossings in the heart of Shibuya, and they are framed in the shape of a hexagon(?), such that once the lights turn green for the pedestrian, one can move around in any direction within the hexagon framed by the zebra crossings. You really feel like the king of the world as all the traffic comes to a standstill at the beckoning of the traffic lights, and you join the sea of people plunging into the junction. Yes, it's a 'sea' of people once again. According to my travel bible, there's reputedly ten thousand people crossing this junction every hour, making it one of the busiest in the world. It was so exciting that I crossed to and fro in different directions for a few times! Crossing traffic junctions has never been so orgasmic!

The throngs of people waiting for the lights to change at the Shibuya junction.
The sea of people can be quite intimidating. 

The popular starbucks outlet in Shibuya, where people hog the seats at the window on the second
floor so that they can look down at the junction where throngs of people make their crossing.

Dizzying neon lights; makes u feel like u r in some kinda futuristic city.

Here's another epiphany that greeted me when I was sauntering down their version of Orchard Road in one of their famed shopping districts -- a church situated right next to an LV mall!!!!! A place of God and spirituality located right next to an icon for crass materialism/consumerism! It's like they're having a dialogue, or making a statement -- after indulging in the sin of shopping and consumerism, time to repent in the house of God next door! I could virtually hear the believers chanting in remorse,  'Father, forgive me for I have sinned in spending my entire month's wages on an LV bag, and for the harm this act of consumerism has done to Mother Nature.'
Kind of reminds me of a similar scene when I was backpacking in the Europe a few years back -- a Cathedral located just next door to a Prostitution Information Centre (in the midst of Amsterdam's infamous Red Light District)!!!

A real temple of God, right next to a temple of consumerism (on the right which is lit)

THE LV mall. Juxtaposed with the church next door (see above pic),
this comes across as more opulent and lavish! I sure want to go in -- if not for my 'refugee' clothes!

 

 

 

The Cathedral (right) in Amsterdam, situated next to a Prostitution Information Centre,
both located in the heart of the red light district, which is incidentally, a tourist attraction.

 

Another shopping anecdote here is the unfailing politeness of the Japs, esp those in the service industry. The most oft-heard words there were 'arigato gozaimashita' (Thank you) and 'irrashaimase' (Welcome). I have never had so many people thanked me in my entire life, and what's more drama is this -- I've never had so many people bowed to me in one day (or in my entire life for that matter). Even when I was still a teacher in school, I did away with the standing up and bowing at the start and end of each lesson. So it was quite a surreal experience in saunter into a department store here in Japan, and have them bow to you when u walk in and when u leave. It was quite fun, so I deliberately enter the store a few times, using different entrances of course, so that they won't recognise I'm the same person eliciting their bows. A girl at the hostel I was staying at later told me that bowing connotes different meaning, depending on the angle of the bow, much like the way the  Thais do their 'wai' (hands clasped together, like in prayer, when greeting people). There's the 15, 45 and 90 degree bow, according to this receptionist at the hostel who once worked for Daimaru. The 90 degree is reserved for ur superiors. And of course, the most extreme is when they kneel down and kowtow until their head hits the ground! But I don't think you're gonna get that at the department store, unless you buy up the entire store!
About their overflowing politeness when it comes to retail, here's an anecdote to share. I was at this Daiso store and after paying for a packet of shaving blades, the sales girl at the cashier thanked me so profusely and with such genuine earnestness and -- get this! -- gratitude in her eyes, that had u been there to witness the scene, you would have thought that I've just saved her entire clan! Needless to say, I was so embarrassed that I quickly beat a hasty retreat!

One of the trademark department stores in the Ginza district,
where I was treated to not quite a few bows.

Glittering branded malls in Ginza...note how the LV malls are always some opulently constructed.

a close-up of the reptile that adorn the façade of the Bvlgari building

cupid playing peek-a-boo at the corner of a mall

face of cupid --brings to mind the Chinese idol drama
'zhuan jiao jiu shi ai' (turn a corner and there is love)

Located in Ginza (the grandmother of shopping districts in Japan) is also this flagship store of UNIQLO (see pic below), supposedly the largest in Japan (according once again to my travel bible). It offers twelve full storeys of retail orgasm, with different storey catering to different gender. One thing I notice again shopping malls in Japan is that most of the levels are reserved for female wear, and these often occupy the more accessible lower storeys. The male wear, in comparison, are relegated to the topmost storeys, which are very cumbersome to reach as u have to keep taking the escalators or wait for the elevators. Sadly, when it comes to retail therapy, the males are a marginalized lot. Have they forgotten that men are the ones with earning power? Oh, I forget -- man earns, woman spends......the men dun geddit!

One other thing struck me when I was in Japan, esp in Tokyo. I don't normally observe people when I travel , as I'm usually more interested in the scenery and the buildings. Most of my pics don't include people anyway. But while in Japan, a sense of disquiet keep plaguing me that I can't quite articulate. Then suddenly, it blazed into epiphanic clarity: where are all the ugly and old people???!!! Believe u me, Tokyo seems to be peopled with only the drop-dead gorgeous looking kind. It was as if they just walked off the pages of fashion magazines! Try as I might, I could hardly spot any old or ugly people, esp in Tokyo. And when I was in Shibuya, there were NO old people, and everyone looks stunning! Ok, I exaggerate. It was night time, or there was too much light, so dazzlingly and blinding that it interfered with sight at times. But I could safely say that out of every five people I crossed paths with, three belong to the young and beautiful type. In a nutshell, the land of the rising sun is also the land of the beautiful people. And in my head I was thinking, didn't they say Japan is facing an ageing population that is slowing down its economy? But where are these old people? I can only conclude that they are staying at home or residing in the mountains. You will never see an old person serving you in Tokyo. Luckily, normalcy gradually returned when I fanned out of Tokyo into the adjacent cities, esp the cultural ones like Kyoto and Nara.
Back to the beautiful people issue, you will not believe there could be such a high concentration of goodlooking people in one particular spot. And I'm not talking just about the women, it's the men and children too! Even the odd old people I chanced to encounter have this royal bearing about them, as if they are descended from the gods! And if I were a paedophile, Japan would be a paradise! Goodness me, the kodomo (children, not to be confused with komodo dragons) are so kawaii (cute) that u just want to go hug them and pinch their rosy cheeks (facial cheeks, not butt cheeks, mind u!) No wonder they all grow up to be such good looking young people. And unlike their South Korean neighbours, I don't think the plastic surgery culture is that pervasive here. Believe u me, I've yet to see a Jap with acne problems, or any visible blemish on their faces. And yes, I did look at them at close range, esp when squashed in crowded trains. Most of the girls possess porcelain-like complexion, the kind that radiates a glow that will send girls into envy and pubescent guys into throes of heart palpitation.
So what's the secret to their good looks? Is it their climate? diet? fashion sense? dipping in their numerous onsens (hot springs) or just good genes? (recognise that the Japs infamous xenophobia means that they have managed to keep their gene stock 'pure' by not inter-marrying). A safe answer would be that it's probably all of the above. But I'm inclined to think fashion sense plays a large part, esp now that it's approaching winter. Winter fashion tends to exude more aesthetic appeal, and for those who are not-so-thin, they can hide their plus-sized figure under the thick winter coats -- not that the Japs have any rotund figures o hide. Most of those I saw possess model figures, and there are no fat children, unless they're tourists! And the few fat people I encountered are the obasan, but they are seldom seen in Tokyo. Back to fashion, they cannot fail to amaze me with the clothes they don. Everywhere I go, I felt like I was in some fashion show with models sashaying down the catwalk. Even a mother doing something as 'unglam' as pushing a pram did it with such style that I was floored! -- fur-coat, high heeled boots that extend all the way up beyond the knees and white elbow-length gloves! Suddenly, the pram and the baby within have become an accessory! And the men wore such fine winter wear that I felt almost ashamed to be walking in their midst. I was like some refugee while these guys were clad in fine threads and those double breasted winter coats. And they are true metro-sexuals! They can pull off carrying what I thought was a feminine bag (a female friend called it a 'man bag') with style, looking no less manly in the process.  The girls also love to wear amazingly high heels, like they're walking on stilts. See pic below:

how do they walk -- and run! -- in these? It takes a masochist to wear these!

Where I stayed....

First abode was a B&B located in a tranquil part of the city, away from the hustle and bustle. I actually got to see ordinary japs going about their life. There's even a school here, with students cycling or walking to school in their oh-so-chic-designer-look-alike sch uniforms. Tell u ah, if my school uniform were like theirs, I will never skip a day from school! Too bad I don't have a photo to show u, but here's the place I crashed at for my first two days in Japan....very comfy bed....but a tad too pricey, so much so that I migrated to a hostel on my third day.

Along the way, I stayed in hostels throughout. Staying at backpackers' hostels can be a hit or miss thing. Like the one in Tokyo I put up at. Even though I paid a little more to stay in a four-person dorm instead of the 8-person one, I can still hear people snoring in the other room at night. What do you expect, the walls and doors are made of paper, in the traditional Jap style. Worse still, in the middle of the night, someone in the other room -- horrors of horrors -- let out an explosive fart amid the snoring!

The one in Kyoto is a real shit-hole of a place. And it has the audacity to call itself 'Sparkling Dolphins'! Utterly shameless! There's nothing 'sparkling' in this hostel. Twelve people were crammed into 6 double-bunked beds, with hardly any space to manoeuvre and put our stuff. I would've been better off in one of those capsule hotels, where u get to sleep inside a tiny 'coffin'! What's more, Sparkling Dolphins has only one toilet and shower to be shared among all twelve of us! and what gets my goat is the dryer. My wet clothes needed to run through the dryer at least twice before they can be deemed to have attained a decent level of dryness. Luckily, each round on the dryer cost only 100 yen (S$1.30).

The best stay I had was in this tranquil town of Nara, at Guesthouse Tamura. It was recommended by a friend, and it turned out to be everything one could ever asked for. It's clean, cosy and quiet. But what takes the cake is the owner of the house. She's such a good hostess tat she will go the extra mile to get you the info that you want. And she will periodically lapse into her wacky laughter that makes you warm to her.

The last place I stayed at in Japan was this excellent hostel in Tennoji, Osaka. The room was the traditional Jap style where u sleep on a futon upon tatami flooring -- very comfy, esp the pillow, which was filled with beans or rice. And did I tell you the window and door panels are really made of paper!  But alas, on my second day there, I was banished to the mixed dorm (someone else had booked the traditional dorm before me) where there's the usual bunk beds instead of the traditional ones. Mine's the one on the lower bunk, and there was an Aussie couple in the same room. I was a tad concerned that the guy will climb down to join the girl in the middle of the night and create some 'earthquake' of their own. (This actually happened when I was in Europe!) Yup, I may be in Japan, and the building is quake-proof, but I don't need this kind of 'earthquake'! My sleep is more important!

The Train Rides.....

Taking trains has always given me the 'rush'! Nothing beats the feeling of being in a train as it courses at top speed through the landscape, thrusting into the penetrative depths of tunnels, momentarily engulfed in their darkness, only to tear through them and emerge into the light triumphantly at the other end! What an orgasmic journey! (Freudian pun intended!)
Here's the first train I took upon touching down on the land of the rising sun. It's the keisei skyliner that brings u from the narita aiport to the Tokyo central. A passenger sitting next to me on the plane was telling me that it's going to take two hours if I took the regular keisei train, so I decided I'm going to take the skyliner. It zipped through to the city in just 45 min!

and here's the king of them all -- the shinkansen (bullet train), the pride of Japan, and rightly so. See how sleek and sexy the train is....like the snout of a dolphin. I have an urge to rub noses with it. And what's a train ride without coffee? Ah...sipping coffee in the shinkansen as the beautiful scenery swept past me....sufficient to give me a high just thinking about it, even if the coffee contains no caffeine.....

Talking about train rides, one of my 'bucket list' for this trip was to experience the morning rush hour. According to my travelling 'bible' Lonely Planet, this is not for the faint-hearted, and reserved only for those who are masochistic. I believe I fit the category, so there I was, on an early weekday morning, about 8am (I woke up at 7am ok, which was jolly early for one on holiday!), merrily on my way to take the train ride to Shinjuku station, the infamous nexus where all the main train arteries converge. I was full of anticipation over what was lying ahead -- the big squash, or crush! But alas, it was not meant to be....the crowd wasn't as dense as I had expected it to be. Maybe I was on the wrong train, wrong spot, but I did not witness any of those 'pushers' wearing clinical white gloves, where they are supposed to push the crowd all the way into the train so that the train doors can close. And while the train I was in was crowded enough, there wasn't that 'sardine-packed' phenomenon which I had experienced back here in Singapore. I eventually left with that item from my bucket list unticked...sigh! (useful GP example: there are female-only carriages for the trains, usually in the middle)

On the bright side, there were so many people in Shinjuku, literally a sea of people. It's quite a challenge to manoeuvre through the crowd and match the pace of their walking. I felt 'drowned' in the midst of them all.....