teamEggers

Ebisu / Yebisu & Odaiba Island

Ebisu: ‘hood in Tokyo. Stop on the yamanote line. One of the 7 lucky gods (he’s the god of good fortune, fishing & merchants)

Yebisu: Beer. Specifically, one of Tokyo’s oldest breweries. It started in 1890 and is now owned by Sapporo. It tastes… much like all japanese beers. You’ve had kirin/sapporo/asahi right? Like that.

After ramen, Will, Dave, Jon & I took to exploring the city. I’m not sure if we had a plan or if we just happened to be in Ebisu, but somehow we find ourselves at the Yebisu brewery/tasting room/museum.

Hey, have you met Dave? Dave works with jon/will. He’s a nice chap. Very pleasant, easy to hang out with. Generally goes along with everything. Has a white DSLR. yeah. it’s weird. So is ordering everything from vending machines. Even my beer? Come on.

Anyhow, after hanging out for a bit in Ebisu, we mill.

Dave had recently discovered the island of Odaiba. Discovered. Planted a flag on that shit. Please excuse my poor word choices – Dave knew about this place, it was a beautiful day, and our band of four was looking for adventure…

Who knew there were beaches, boardwalks, and palm trees in the center of Tokyo? This city’s got it all!

What the heck is that? Will decides that we have to go into the ball. I’m skeptical. Why am I always skeptical? Can someone teach me how to be less uptight? I’m serious.

Walking down the boardwalk, we’re chilled by the wind but determined to find the ball.

Getting closer, but what is it? Can we go in!?

Hoo wee, what a view. Tokyo Tower (on the right) looks like a rocketship.

We make it up and find a viewing deck inside. If you don’t want to pay and go into the main viewing area, there’s still a killer view. We didn’t know it then, but the building we were in was the Fuji TV headquarters – known for its unusual architecture:

photo c/o Wikipedia

We stayed up until the sun set over the city, and then headed back into the technicolor wind.

A History Lesson

Once upon a time, a girl took a misguided turn in life and moved to Denver. While it might not have been the wisest choice (for several reasons), it did set in motion a spiral of events that potentially changed history. It’s hard to say.

The girl and her boyfriend set off in search of lunch, and eventually settled upon a lovely little french restaurant just down the street. It’s a sunny day, they’re sitting oat the corner table on the patio, and the girl is filled with an unusual bout of optimism. Out of the corner of her eye, she could have sworn she saw an old coworker of hers, delivering food across the room. Despite the insistence of their waitress, who insisted in a fake french accent that she had no idea what I was talking about, the girl walked through the restaurant and poked her head into the kitchen.

“um. Is… Isaiah here?”

Le Central, photo c/o megafaunic

I sometimes wonder how fate works. Had jon and I not happened in on Le Central when we did, had Isaiah not gotten a job there and insisted that I apply as well… would things have turned out the same way, regardless? Would Isaiah and I have been in each other’s weddings, years later? Would I have found a different French restaurant to inspire such a love of food and wine? What if I had found a great Thai restaurant? Would my world view be different? Would I rant and rave about the virtues of fish sauce and pad thai instead of goat cheese and pinot noir?

Or maybe life is just a sequence of coincidences. I did meet my Maid of Honour years earlier, as a waitress at the Outback. And I didn’t come away from that experience with a great love of steak or purple aprons.

So. Where is this going? I wanted to tell you about dinner, of course. And particularly why this dinner was the best valentine’s day present ever. But this post is crazy long, and I want you to actually read it, so I’ll break here. More tomorrow, kiddos.

A Tokyo Art Adventure

Jon, as usual, is right.  I need to get out and explore today. Afterall, we’ll only be here for one more month.   He suggested the Yokohama Art Museum, which, despite being about 3 blocks away from, I’ve yet to make it to.  I decided to one-up that, and head into Tokyo.

My plans: The giant Tokyo Art Fair (near Tokyo Station),  then walk to Ginza, where I catch this year’s Typography Awards, then walk to Shinbashi to visit the Ad Gallery and see the winners of the Student Advertising Awards.  Hopefully some / all of these places will let me take pictures!

I thought I could end up at the Pink Cow, which is an art cafe in Shibuya. The only thing that would make this plan more fail-proof is my iPhone. Oh, how i miss having the internet in my pocket. Either today will be a train wreck, or it’ll be an adventure in letting go of the details. Wish me luck.

Nikko, day 1

teamEggers, meet teamNikko.

These 2.5 hour train rides out of Tokyo and into the mountains are becoming Old Hat. I positive that jon and I take more weekend trips than anyone else I know, and definitely more trips into the Japanese Alps than any of our Japanese friends! I would kill for a train system like this going through the Willamette Valley, I tell you what.

Our first look, outside of the station:

I was a poorly behaved traveller and didn’t pack any snacks for my train ride.  When we got off, we were famished and we stopped at the first ramen restaurant we found.  Thanks to Will’s great literacy skills, he can recognize the word!

Honestly, I had high hopes.  Too high.  Too easy to be let down, I suppose.  I love wontons in my soup. I love egg in my soup.  So why was my garlic-soy sauce ramen so disappointing?  Well, check out the layer of garlic chunks and fat floating on top.  Meh.

But onward and upward, shall we?  We’ve got temples to see! Hotels to check into! This may be vacation, but jon’s a wicked slave driver when it comes to getting places on time.  Go, go go!

First stop in Tour de Nikko was the famous bridge. It’s supposed to be one of the most unique bridges in all of Japan. There’s lore associated with it, a tour, you have to pay to walk on it, etc.  Needless to say, I was expecting more than this:

I mean, it’s pretty. Don’t get me wrong but….

…And we’re on with our adventure.  What is that adventure, you ask?  Glad you did.  It’s the World Heritage Tour! Part of me loves it when things are easy.  It makes it more vacationy.  Adventure is for the rest of your life?

Luckily (for the length of this post) things seemed to close up very early ’round these parts, and we were only able to take in one temple today.

It was a compound though!  This place has mucho historical cred – built in 1602 (even though the history of the temple goes back to the year 766!) and somehow managed to avoid the laws saying that there needs to be separation between temples and shrines (buddhists and shinto). Because this was so uncommon, it’s especially neat to see imagery from the two co-mingled.

Now would be a good time to show you an example of that, but I don’t have any pictures handy.  What I do have is this lovely one of jon and I.  Look moms, here we are!

I leave you with a teaser.  Because there’s much more dragon in our adventure, yet to come.

Train Station Roulette

I’m thinking about starting a new game that I’m calling Train Station Roulette. It’s easy to play, but challenging to win. Challenging for me, at least. I’m sure jon will be great at it.

Here’s how you play: Ride the Yamanote line and get off at a random stop. Find at least one great thing about that part of town. It could be a really cool photograph, a bar, a ramen shop… you get the idea. The game’s over when you’ve made it to all the stops around the loop.

You’re disqualified by: throwing tantrums because you’re lost, or generally irritating your travel partners because you’re cranky & tired. Because remember; if you pizza when you should have french-fried, you’re gonna have a bad time.

What makes this game a challenge (for me) is that it will require patience, spontaneity, and dedication to the cause. Like I said, I think jon will be a shoe-in.