Day 5

Friday April 4 2014     

It's my brother's birthday today - happy birthday Al!

Today has been an odd day. We had such a full on day yesterday with the super early start and some sake or five that I really didn't want to get up this morning. Mind you, the tatami mats that we are sleeping on aren't exactly comfort central.

After the Tsukiji fish market tour we came home and slept for 5 hours (well I did) before attempting the second half of the day. We had a yummy lunch next door at the Sobateria. I had the spring special of cold soba, tempura vegetables (not all of which I recognise) with a dipping sauce. Afterwards hot soba water is brought out to mix with the dipping sauce which then becomes a light soup. This was very much the experience of soba I had been seeking. In my mind, it is traditional and I felt vindicated by the four older, immaculately attired japanese women sitting at the table next to us who all ordered the same dish as I. Steve had soba in a hot broth (possibly dashi) with crispy fried chicken. He was satiated also.

After lunch we wandered around some more exploring different parts of Asakusa. The sake bar, which is also a liscened bottle shop,  was our first stop in the evening. Hoppy St, also locally known as 'stew st' was our final dining destination. Wow- what a place!

It was one of the few areas where I'd seen restaurants tout for your business. The restaurants are tiny places that extend directly onto the street and when it rains, as it did last night, heavy plastic curtains are lowered and secured with any weighty object to hand.

So there we were under some type of ad hoc cover on a table next to 2 very rambunctious fellows having a great time. Offal soup, horse sashimi, grilled chicken gizzard and pigs feet terrine - OMG! I felt very Anthony Bourdain. And in true Anthony Bourdain style things did go downhill....in a good way. Some more beer and sake and shochu and sleep came very easily.

Unsurprisingly, today was much more low-key. We started slowly with some tea and coffee at a cafe/gallery a few streets away. Tea here is served cold and black or hot, milky and sweet - I chose the latter. Gallery ef is situated in a building that was built in 1868 and has survived fires, earthquakes and war. It's very serene, dark, shoes off, minimalist, calm, shiny lacquered floors kind of place. It was a very moving experience.

One thing that I've learnt is that I should have brought more business cards with me. Good thing to know for next time. After the gallery visit, we strolled down to an incredible stationery store. Again, it was a sanctuary. The Japanese people as a culture value stationery, ceramics and fabrics far more so than western societies. It's delightful. I share these passions also.
Luckily Steve is happy to indulge this apart of me. I've learnt a lot about being with Steve this trip. He's very good for me. He understands the many sides of me and sometimes knows what I need even if I have yet to perceive it myself.

Upon leaving the stationery store - Kakimori - we had a trashy lunch of snacks from Lawson (the convenience store with more) whilst sitting overlooking the Sumida river. some major queuing was then necessary to purchase tickets for a cruise down said river to Hama Rikyu gardens which is just past Tsukiji fish market by the top of the Tokyo bay. after a brief walk around the muddy paths viewing the 300 year old pine tree we cruised back to Asakusa just in time for a freak, short but sharp hail storm to dampen our clothes but not our spirits.

A wander around the Sakura beer garden (after hours in an amusement park) was essentially  waste of effort but you don't know til you go. It could have been a really cool, hip place to eat and drink but the lack of patronage made it all appear just a little sad and dull.

Oops - I forgot our trip to a bizarre store called Don Quijote. Think cheap nasty meets nice department store - food hall included. We bought a range of things - trashy snack foods including shelf stable' camembert' cheese, multi pack of groovy socks for Steve, USB connection heated pillows, Hello Kitty pez for the girls. Odd and lots of fun. Our dinner by comparison  was pretty low key. Kamamishi - rice and other bits cooked in a pot served with a strong miso. Again, just what I needed.

Day 4 Tsukiji fish market

Thursday April 3rd

It's just after 6.30am and we are sitting at Tsukiji station after our tour of the wholesale/retail Tsukiji Fish Market. Breakfast was at Daiwa Zushi which was 12 piece sushi set menu breakfast. Naturally we accompanied that with hot sake - our chefs highly approved of that. They line you up like cattle at the doors on one side (a restaurant wrangler does thew work herding you in the correct manner) only to be efficiently guided out afterwards on the opposite side.

We were to meet our guide at 3am outside a Lawson store {convenience 24 hr store selling everything from hot fried chicken, pantyhose, frozen portioned vegetables to sake}. We had 2 young girls from Singapore on our tour also - Iris and Jasmine. Naoto-san was very efficient, affable with great English language skills. He previously had worked at the market for one of the five auction houses so he knew his way around. The government does not sanction tours of any kind and employ security guards who apparently done like Naoto-san. I promised him a private tour of Melbourne's Queen Vic Market if he ever visits our fair city of Melbourne

So we've now been up for 4 hours and I reckon we are doing really well considering we probably only had 4 hours sleep on a tatami mat. It's fortunate that it's prior to peak hour so the train ride home is simple and sans train passenger wrangler.
Our taxi driver at 2.30am was old school. No English (which matches our fluency in Japanese) and lots of bowing. Taxis here are delightfully so clean and well presented. Clearly the taxi drivers take great pride in their vehicle In fact, Tokyo as a whole we are finding very clean, though there  is a dearth of rubbish bins...

Our plan is to have a few hours rest/nap before attempting the remainder of the day. Clearly some sake won't hurt in this aim.

I found the market workers pretty much the same as most genuine market people around the world - concerned with their own business. By that i mean, they aren't exactly rude but do like to get on with what they should be doing so please don't get in their way. Fast and furious mototrised transporters zoom in and out the tiny alleyways.

It was dark and rainy and a bit chilly - in other words perfect weather to visit a fish market. Water cascaded everywhere, in and out of buckets, along gutters in the stone work upon which clever merchants had lain wooden squares to raise their wares up out of the constant water flow. Yes, everyone wears gumboots. I'm so glad that I wore my leather boots over woolen socks with jeans tucked in, leather jacket, scarf and new knitted peaked hat = kept me mostly dry and warm.

12 noon

Just woke up from a 5 hour nap and I'm feeling good. Mostly rested and we can attack the day again. I think we are going to try and track down a tea or coffee first (it's a massive assumption that you'll be able to get both in the same establishment) then find a soba restaurant. Soba is a buckwheat noodle often served cooled but also served hot in a broth.

We are staying very near a shrine that has a lot of cherry blossom (sakura) trees surrounding it. Most locals we come into contact with tell us how lucky we are to be here in the very short sakura season. The blossom only lasts a week or so apparently and that's exactly how long we are here for.
Today it seems to be drizzling almost constantly. Not that it made a difference at the market this morning as although we were essentially always undercover, there was water everywhere anyway. Ain't no water restrictions due to drought here. 

We got quite wet on our first day in Tokyo and kept juggling with the idea of buying an umbrella (a clear one so we could see what/who was weaving their way through the throng) but also as a defense against other umbrella wielding pedestrians. We didn't and we survived and I'm guessing we won't today either.

The plan is to caffinate first, then soba, then hang out in a  sake bar to learn more about sake for the afternoon - purely for educational reasons you understand. Of course honesty dictates that I admit that we had our first sake at 5.50am with our sushi breakfast - purely to warm our bones, you understand.

Day 3 Tokyo journey

Monday 31st March 2014

Today was lovely and sunny - much better than yesterday's constant drizzle. After a light breakfast, as opposed to the pig-out of the previous day, we wandered down towards the station. We printed out the journey planner information ticket (please note this very handy function Melbourne public transport people). We spent the next 10 minutes walking to try and find the correct platform for our train that was departing in 9 minutes....

Coming across an information desk a lovely young lady {immaculately attired as usual} pointed us in the correct direction. The underground metro system is quite warm so with all that walking we were positively glowing - read sweating whilst the locals looked cool as daikons. I'm thinking us Westerners sweat a lot more than the Japanese.

I was breaking in my new shoes today and I reckon I did alright. No blisters per say; more a warming of a tender heel. 

Tonight we have a private walking tour of the Shinjuku area known as the Golden Gai. Dinner is at a restaurant where we apparently catch your own fish. I say apparently as I'm not sure Steve nor I are natural fisherpeople.

Last night, we walked down to an area colloquially known as "Piss Alley". Starting with a drink or three at the Albatross Bar, we then had chicken bits (liver/mince balls, ribs, cartilage and connective tissue) all grilled on sticks and a bowl of pork stomach bits in a cloudy broth = YUM! SUPER YUM! Dessert was gleaned from the plethora of vending machines found along every street and in our hotel lobby even.

After dinner we walked home through the girly bar area of Kabuchiko. We only got hassled by Nigerian touts once. Steve takes me to all the classy spots.

Day 2 Harajuku

Sunday March 30^th 2014 1.15pm

We are in the Harajuku area and I’m having a strong hot sweet oolong tea with a little snack – crustless white bread sandwiches filled with mock cream and fruit (strawberries or kiwi). Perfectly restorative after a rainy morning walking.

There was a huge winding queue of maybe 200 people waiting patiently in the steady rain for “Chicago caramel popcorn” – yeah,nah I’m not that desperate to try it. The smell was quite mesmerizing though and I do understand that the Tokyo-ites love a new bright shiny thing.

We are wandering around a really groovy little area of alleyways crammed with hipster (japster?), American vintage, sparse designer, cutesy ‘little girl’ look, groovy shoe stores. Really cool place and luckily…we fit right in!

Steve saw some cool union jack Dr. Martens shoes that he’s still deciding whether or not to buy. I like ‘em and am going to offer to buy then for his birthday for him {they ended up not having his ‘massive’ gaijin size}. I bought a cream based floral lace up pair. Comfy, dry and a cross between hipster and Japanese = japster!

We’ve been really lucky with meeting English speakers everywhere we’ve been. It’s actually driven it home to us how egocentric we are. We’ve vowed to learn more phrases when we travel to a non-English speaking country. 

First leg of the journey

Saturday March 29 2014

Current location: Kuala Lumpur – Low Cost Carrier Terminal

We flew from Melbourne at 1.30am landing 8 or so hours later at 6.30am in Malaysia. Originally we were only transiting through (with a layover of 7 hours) but since we wanted to use the lounge with showers, food etc. we had to enter the country to get landside to use the lounge. Ah, well.

It’s now 5 hours later and it was definitely worth the extra queuing. Far more to see and do over this side. Premium Plaza Lounge is very comfortable and worth the entry price.

Actually we are both very happy with Air Asia X so far – very clean, newish fit out of the plane. Our first point of contact being the check-in staff at Melbourne was very positive. She checked our baggage all the way through to Tokyo, got us the row to ourselves and added to that she was cheerful and pleasant throughout.

I’m very happy with such an easy start to the journey. Steve is wary as we’ve still another leg of our journey to go. I guess I’m just grateful for how it’s proceeding so far. I believe we are due to arrive at Haneda airport at 11pm Tokyo time so we should sleep well by the time we’ve taxied to our hotel.

A few weeks ago a Malaysian Airlines plane (MH370) went missing without a trace. Obviously there was much wild conjecture about what transpired. There’s an American program on the TV here in the lounge about the missing flight but nobody really seems to be watching it. Interestingly we are travelling with Malaysian Airlines low cost sibling Air Asia X.

We humans seem to lose interest in things very quickly. Clearly this is partly an innate quality and the fast pace of media I our modern world capitalises and possibly extends this attribute.

There’s food on offer here in the lounge and it’s most very edible. There’s simple rice congee, fried rice, thin spicy vegetarian noodles (my pick of the bunch) scrambled eggs, baked beans, toast, cereal and some apples/oranges. For gratis, I’m mostly satisfied. Tea, coffee, soft drink, juice and local Tiger beer round it all out quite nicely.

I’ve got my feet up; I’m cleanly showered and I’m relaxing just nicely.

6pm

We are about halfway through our flight to Tokyo. There’s a young child screaming their lungs out – poor thing (and parent/s). Both flights have actually been relatively peaceful {we did upgrade to Air Asia X’s ‘quiet zone’}

I commented to Steve whilst we were browsing a bookshop in KL airport that I felt certain assumptions could be made regarding local culture seeing as a large percentage of shelf space was given over to business management texts. Certainly, this was not something I had noticed in Australia or America for that point.

My rules for making art

1/ Just do it!  That could be a good tagline for an ad...anyhoo...for me it means, just apply pigment, just pick up the pencil, just start - in some way

2/ Ignore rule #1  pre-thought is actually part of the process.

3/ Enjoy life in all its colours and textures. Richness of experiences can only help to cultivate your internal life which in turn seeps into your art.

4/ Don't overthink

5/ Do what makes me happy. 

6/ Try new things - new media, new styles, new subjects

7/ Cultivate your own space for art. Make it a place you want to spend time in.

8/ oops - looks like I only have 7 rules..

Opportunity doesn't exactly knock...

Opportunity doesn’t knock exactly but it can completely depend upon saying yes instead of automatically saying no. Sometimes I’m too tired to say yes; sometimes it’s simply easier to say no; sometimes it’s like I’m on automatic pilot and haven’t actually thought about the proposition.

If you’re someone I said no to when I haven’t actually thought about then I apologise but of course, I may have actually said no because I mean no. In fact, I know that it is vital that everybody learns to say no without feeling bad or guilty. It’s really important that we can put our boundaries in place. This is an important lesson that we need to allow our children to learn as well and we can help this by respecting them when they do express it.

That said – I mean something else with this post. I mean that sometimes saying yes can lead to new and exciting possibilities. Having a coffee with someone can lead to offers of new places to explore whether it’s work, travel or whatever.

I’ve recently signed on to the #100 happy days challenge which essentially is a project that encourages the individual to mindful of their daily  lives and express the happy moments they find in each day, It’s not anything more complicated than that. Now, I already consider myself to be quite aware of this but I’ve signed on to reinforce this and also hopefully create awareness of this in others.

Feel free to follow me on Instagram (amandakennedy4) to see this project.