The Tokyo Traveler

This past weekend I accidentally attended the grand opening of Eataly, a great to place to taste and shop for Italian wines, cheese, breads, pastries and almost everything else that you can imagine in Tokyo’s Daikanyama neighborhood.  And what a great accident it was! 

Surrounding a stone paved courtyard with relaxing patio seating, near Daikanyama’s landmark green flower, Eataly is the largest Italian food & wine center in Japan.   The store is a bakery, deli and wine store all rolled into one great location and also offers prepared food that you can take home and a variety of dine-in offerings. 

La Pasta offers fresh pasta with a choice of three different sauces each day, I Salumi E I Formaggi offers sample plates of proscuitto and cheeses straight from Italy, authentic Neapolitan Pizza comes straight out of the wood burning at La Pizza E La Foccacia, and Le Verdue offers vegetarian cuisine.  If you have room left for dessert, Il Gelato serves artisanal gelato alongside a very tempting pastry bar.

At Eataly “you can follow taste itineraries or wander through themed educational areas, attend courses in food education or take part in cooking classes held by renowned chefs. The calendar of events is packed with tastings, drinks with producers and various events dedicated to local products, and there’s a specialized library available for consultation. Scattered throughout are mini-restaurants where you can sample delicious dishes or take away prepared foods for later.”

My lunch companion Honor, webmistress of Tokyotopia, ordered the vegetarian Lasagna and I had a scrumptious dish that combined a generous serving of a fresh plum tomato sauce served with a dollop of ricotta cheese and lightly toasted bread.  Great Italian bread along with olive oil and vinegar were complimentary as was bottled Italian water. 

Both our dishes were excellent but the service was not as attentive as we had hoped, probably due to the fact that we were one of the first diners on their first day open to the public.  However, we dined at the counter and the chefs, who spoke English, were very helpful and friendly with an obvious passion for the food they were preparing. 

I will definitely will visit Eataly again as it is not often that you find a store where you can buy, eat and learn about great Italian cuisine under one roof in Japan!  (Eataly store diagram)

Eataly is located a two minute walk from Daikanyama Station and is open daily from 10AM to 10PM (Eataly Tokyo Access Map)

Image Credit:  Personal Collection

Combine some bourbon, amaretto and a little cranberry juice and you have the award winning Red Carpet Cocktail created by Takahiro Watanabe of the Keio Plaza Hotel’s Polestar Skybar.  Sounds like a tasty drink to sip while overlooking the Tokyo skyline from the hotels’ 45th floor in Shinkjuku, and it’s only one of the award winning drinks created by Watanabe over the years!

In honor of the award, the staff of the Polestar Skybar have teamed up with the Liquid Culture team at The Japan Times to offer an afternoon workshop in the art of the cocktail.

Reserve your Red Carpet Treatment quickly as there are only 20 places and they will be allocated on a first come first serve basis.

Details

Date: Saturday Oct. 18
Time: 1PM -3:30PM
Place: Polestar bar, 45F Keio Plaza Hotel, Shinjuku (Keio Plaza Access Map)
Price: ¥5,000 (includes workshop, cocktails and hors d’oeuvres)
Contact: Email coldicott [AT] japantimes [DOT] co [DOT] jp for more information or to apply.

Image Credit:  Flickr, Wink

As seen on CNN!  Check out this weeks Offbeat iReport images to see one of my shots from the Tokyo Cow Parade 2008.

What worries the Japanese?  Earthquakes and global warming top the list of worries.

Your favorite English language magazine in Tokyo may be hard to find due to the bankruptcy of a major distributor.

Baseball legend Sadaharu Oh has announced that her will retire at the end of the season.  Did you take advantage of the opportunity to see him manage a baseball game in Tokyo this summer?

Maison de la Bourgogne offers French food and fine wine in Kagurazaka.

A kamikaze pilot volunteer turns to the tea ceremony in New York.

In other cultures there are jug-bands but in Japan they have a man who plays a spade that sounds remarkably like the shamisen, an ancient Japanese stringed instrument.  A spade is not always a spade!

Image Credit:  Wikimedia Commons, Shamisen

School is back in session, improv school that is!  Have you always been fascinated with improv theater and thought that maybe someday you’d like to give it a try?  Now you can!

All native-level English speakers are welcome to attend a weekly two hour improv workshop hosted by Chris Wells, director of the Tokyo Comedy Store  for the past 13 years and an improv performer himself.  Workshops are held every Tuesday night, from 7 to 9PM, in Azabu-juban and are reasonably priced at 2,100 Yen.   Each workshop starts with exercises based around a theme for the evening which are followed by scene work in the latter half of the class. Reserve your spot for the Tokyo Comedy Store Improv Workshop online as class size is limited. Budding comics, actors and actresses are not the only ones who can benefit from an improv workshop.  Chris says that “anyone interested in unleashing their creativity or getting over a fear of public speaking” will benefit by learning some of the skills utilized by improv performers.  He suggests attending a Tokyo Comedy Store show before signing up for a workshop so you can familiarize yourself with improv and put some of the exercises and activities done at the workshops into perspective.

The Tokyo Comedy Store offers two different performances in English.  The TCS Crocodile Show is a two hour show, held on the fourth Friday of each month, featuring stand-up comedy in the first act and improv theater in the second.  The Tokyo Cynics perform one hour stand-up shows on various dates throughout the city.  Reservations for the The Crocodile Show can be made online while Tokyo Cynics performances are first come first serve with a schedule of upcoming shows available online.

The performers at the Tokyo Comedy Store have been making Tokyo laugh for over 13 years.  Why not catch a show and then sign up for am improv workshop - your funny bone will thank you for it!

Image Credit: Used with permission from Chris Wells.

Summer is almost a memory and fall is fast approaching in Tokyo.  The Japanese are well known for being proud of their four seasons and autumn is no exception. In Japan the changing of the seasons are celebrated throughout the country with festivals, seasonal foods and special events.

In the fall, the harvest of new rice is celebrated at temples and shrines and moon viewing, tsukimi, is all the rage.  Residents and visitors alike head out for walks in the parks of Tokyo to take in the colorful fall foliage with almost as much delight as when they head off to picnic under the cherry blossoms each spring. The changing colors of fall foliage is a beautiful sight no matter where you are and Japan is no exception.  The leaves of Japanese Maple trees make a gradual change from pale green to a fiery red each autumn and the Ginko leaves turn a lovely shade of yellow.  Consider a cruise down the Sumida River to Hamarikyu Detached Palace Garden or a visit to Rikugien Garden to take in the stunning colors of fall in Tokyo.

Moon viewing is a traditional Japanese autumn event that coincides with the full moons in September and October each year. Japanese silver grass, dumplings called tsukimi dango and sake are usually displayed as offerings during tsukimi which will occur on September 14th and October 11th this year.  The Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel in Shibuya has put together a tsukimi accommodation package that includes a bottle of sake and seasonal foods meant to be enjoyed while you gaze out at the moon from your room on the upper floors of the hotel.  The package also includes a twin or king room and breakfast for ¥48,000 and is available through November 14th.

The city’s restaurants and home chefs take full advantage of seasonal foods and fall favorites such as pine mushrooms (matsutake), gingko nuts (ginnan) and mackerel (saba) will start to appear on menus and in the supermarkets along with new rice (shin-mai) which is harvested in September and October.

While summer in Tokyo is the peak of festival season in the city, there are many fun fall festivals and events on the calendar.  The Japan Times Festival Listings offer a good overview of events in the city each month and is a great resource to find the fall festival that fits into your schedule.

So get out there, sample some seasonal food, attend a fall festival and be sure to ponder the moon this Autumn in Tokyo!

Image Credit: Flickr, Happiness Found in Ueno Park & Full Moon

Upon approaching the main building of a shrine in Tokyo you may notice a number of wooden plaques tied to a simple structure or tree.  These are ema and visitors purchase them from a stall on the shrine premises, write a prayer on the back, and then leave them behind in the hope that their prayer might be answered.  People employ ema to pray for good health, bountiful harvests, prosperity in business, success on exams, overall happiness and just about anything else you can imagine.

The literal translation of ema is “horse picture” and it is a tradition that dates back to feudal Japan when it was common for wealthy people to donate a horse to a shrine when making a prayer request.  Eventually the image of a horse on a wooden plaque became a symbolic representation of this ancient practice.

Today, you will find many different images on the ema at Tokyo area shrines and throughout Japan.  The image of the ema above was taken at Meiji Jingu Shrine and is indicative of how the ema are left at many shrines in the city.

I love the graphic shape of the ema and the scenes depicted can be quite colorful and fun.  Here are some examples that I found recently at Chiba Shrine.

Different ema are appropriate for different prayers.  Anyone can purchase an ema and many of the larger shrines in Tokyo have bilingual signs explaining the meaning behind each ema or have staff that can help you select one that is appropriate for your prayer.

The shrines in Tokyo are beautiful and they are open to everyone, regardless of faith.  If you are unsure of the proper etiquette when visiting take some time learn how to pay your respects at a shrine.

Image Credit:  Personal Collection

Bunkyo Ward is located in the center of Tokyo and is home to many of the city’s colleges and universities along with over 190 thousand residents in a 11.3 square kilometer area.  It sits alongside Arakawa Ward and is the fourth smallest ward in terms of area and fifth in terms of population.  Despite it’s small size there is a lot for the visitor to do and see in Bunkyo Ward.

A Brief History

Bunkyo-ku, translated as “culture ward”, was established in 1947 and is a combination of Hongo Ward, which dates back to the Edo period, and Koishikawa. The ward has been home to many famous Japanese artists, writers and politicians throughout it’s history it and was once the outermost boundary of urban Edo.

Events

In February and March take in the Ume (Japanese apricot blossom) Matsuri at Yushima Tenjine (Shrine).  The shrine’s grand festival is held in May and the Kiku Matsuri (chrysanthemum festival) is held in November.

Catch a baseball game at Tokyo Dome (April - October) or visit the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum any time of the year.

Visit the annual Azalea (satsuki) Festival at Rikugien Gardens from late May to early June.

Dine by the light of fireflies in June or pursue the gardens of Chinzan-so year round.

The Sights

Yushima Tenjine (Shrine) enshrines the spirits of  Michizane Sugawara (845-901), a politician and a scholar during the Heian era and who was deified upon his death as Tenjin, the God of scholarship and literature.  Many students visit this shrine before school entrance examinations and pray to Tenjin for success.

Continue reading Wednesday’s Ward - Bunkyo

If you have a love of ramen then you will adore Ramen Tokyo, a site that offers reviews of ramen shops throughout the Tokyo Metropolitan area and was recently featured by The Washington Post. The man behind Ramen Tokyo prefers to remain anonymous but he kindly granted me an interview via email so that I could share his love of this great Japanese food with you!

The story behind Ramen Tokyo goes like this, several years ago an IT guy from New Jersey moved to Tokyo for work and discovered a love of ramen.  He says that he always liked noodles as a kid but that “the taste, the smell, the variety, and the funky ambiance” of the ramen shops in Tokyo hooked him when he got to Japan.  In fact he became a little bit obsessed with finding the best bowl of ramen in the city and decided that he would check out as many ramen shops as he could.

The result is Ramen Tokyo, a blog that he started in July 2006, which provides reviews of over 160 ramen shops.  He updates the site every three weeks or so and says that he has only scratched the surface of what he estimates are over 5,000 ramen shops in the Tokyo Area.

Ramen styles are primarily defined by the type of broth and Ramen Tokyo offers detailed information and a glossary of ramen terms to help readers navigate the various styles.  Anyone who loves ramen will tell you that personal tastes differ significantly but the man behind Ramen Tokyo describes his favorite as follows:

Continue reading The Man Behind Ramen Tokyo

When you think of Sega you think of video games!  Sega is a household name when it comes to video games and they are the makers of classic arcade games such as Sega Rally, Virtua Fighter and House of the Dead.  They are also well known for games such as Mario and Sonic at the Olympics, Super Monkey Ball and NiGHTS Journey of Dream on the Nintendo Wii, as well as Viking: Battle for Asgard, Sega Rally Revo, Virtua Fighter 5 and Virtua Tennis 3 for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

In addition to creating some of the best video games out there, the company also operates Sega Joypolis, a modern take on the amusement park, where video games, virtual reality and high tech rides are the featured attractions.

If your are a gamer or you are traveling with one you will definitely want to put Sega Joypolis is on your itinerary.  Located in the modern Odaiba area of Tokyo in the DECKS shopping complex, the facility spans three floors and is home to some fun and unique attractions.

On the ground floor you will find Halfpipe Canyon, a two person snowboarding ride where teams compete to make the most 360 degree turns at each end of a curved track that brings the riders parallel to the ground at it’s highest point.  Spin bullet is a small roller coaster that will spin you out to a view of Tokyo Bay or could opt for a virtual sky cruise.

On the next level, test out your driving skills in Outbound 2 Special Tours SDX which will put you behind the wheel of a real Japanese sports car and allows you to choose from a selection of virtual courses.  You will want to wear your seatbelt on this one as the car responds realistically to each move the driver makes.  If auto racing isn’t your thing then you might enjoy bobsledding or shooting at zombies in The House of the Dead.

On the uppermost level you will find additional virtual reality rides where you can hang glide or try your hand at rapid river rafting.  Also on this level is a cafe overlooking Tokyo bay when you can pause to catch your breath and take in some refreshment.

While the rides are a lot of fun and shouldn’t be missed, true gamers will want to spend time exploring the various video games that are available on each level of Sega Joypolis.   Kids of all ages will enjoy a visit to this amazing indoor amusement park - I know I sure did!

Details:

Hours: 10AM - 11PM (Last Entry 10:15PM)
Location: Odaiba, Decks Tokyo Beach, 3rd Floor.  A 3 minute walk from Odaiba Kaihin Koen Station or a 5 minute walk from Tokyo Teleport. (Sega Tokyo Joypolis access information)
Admission:  Three options are available (Sega Tokyo Joypolis pricing).  A Passport offers holders unlimited access to rides and attractions and costs Y3,500 for Adults and Y3,100 for children 7-14.  The Night Passport offers the same benefits but is only available after 5PM at a cost of Y2,500 for Adults and Y2,100 for children 7-14.  Admission is Y500 for Adults and Y300 for children 7-14; the cost each attraction is paid separately.  The cost to play any of the stand alone games is additional regardless of the admission option chosen above.

Many thanks go out to Graham from b5’s own Sega Nerds for helping this non-gamer not make a fool of herself!  If you love Sega, then be sure to check out Sega Nerds to get all your Sega news, reviews, previews and more!

Image Credit: Personal Collection

Manma, or food, is the first words spoken by many Japanese babies according to The Mainichi Daily News.  Mama came in a distant 4th on the list of 50 words!

How Japan’s antiquated baseball system is being challenged, again…this time by a semi-pro player.

Have you heard of Metabolic Syndrome?  It’s commonly spoken about in Japan and the government has mandated employers to counsel workers suffering from the syndrome.  Metabolic Syndrome is a cluster of the most dangerous risk factors for a heart attack and one of the tell-tale signs is a bulging waistline.

Shochu, a Japanese alcoholic beverage, has made its way to Chicago in a restaurant and bar of the same name.

Mark at Let’s Japan has come up with 10 reasons to visit Japan based on the plots of movies set here.

Check out Off the Books in Tokyo for a list of things to see and do that may not be in your guidebook.

Image Credit:  Personal Collection