Pure Chaos: Delhi

It was a clear, cold and quiet morning in the Tokyo area. As we rode the train to Narita International Airport, we could see Mt. Fuji in the distance. Our flight to Delhi was 10 hours, but the Boeing 787 Dreamliner was like flying in a hotel… a couple meals, a couple movies (including a charming Bollywood flick) and wide, comfy seats. Easy.

Those would be the last moments of calm for awhile.

Flying over Mt. Fuji on our way to Delhi

We arrived at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport after sunset on a warm February evening, the modern Terminal 3 offered no clues to what was waiting outside. When we stepped through the doors, we were met by chaos. Dozens of taxi drivers hovered outside the terminal approaching aggressively while repeating “Where you going? Where are you staying? You need a hotel? You need a tour?” Fortunately we’d read that there’s one government-run taxi stand where you pre-purchase your fare so as to not be cheated by the driver en route to your destination.

We drove toward our hotel, the lanes painted on the highways serving no purpose other than decoration. Vehicles weaved in and out, announcing their presence with a series of honks. Pedestrians waited for an opportunity to cross the eight-lane highway, edging through traffic like a real-life game of Frogger. A man led his two camels alongside the busy road, likely to the nearest river to graze.

Our hotel was in central Delhi. The hotel porter immediately wanted to set us up with a tuk-tuk (auto-rickshaw) tour of the surrounding area, but we opted for sleep instead.

In the morning, we walked for a bit, trying to find one of Delhi’s many outdoor markets. Shopkeepers do their best to keep the sidewalks and gutters clean, but trash still piles up in the streets. Cows, considered sacred in Hindu culture, wander the streets as freely as people and do their business wherever they see fit.

A school marching band walking down Patel Rd. in Central Delhi.

Soon, Delhi began to wake. A marching band walked by—young musicians on their way to school. The temples began to buzz as people headed to morning worship sessions. One by one, the doors on the shops opened up.

A vendor selling traditional Indian sweets in a street stall

Lacking a good breakfast option, we bought a box of Indian sweets called barfi from a vendor near our hotel—the beginnings of “a banner day for nutrition” says my wonderfully witty wife.

These boys asked us to take their photo as they walked to school

While we waited for our barfi, a group of boys headed to school stopped to say hello. “Will you take our picture?” one of them asked. This was the first of many such requests. Not “Will you take a picture with us?” or “Can we take your picture?” but to specifically photograph them and show them the picture.

Experience the tuk-tuk ride for yourself!

We returned to our hotel and, in short order, we were approached by the local tuk-tuk magnate. His fleet of auto rickshaws were waiting around the corner and for just 200 rupees (about $3.20), he’d take us on a tour of the local markets. We jumped in the back and began weaving through the streets of Delhi.

Feeding day-old Indian bread to the rhesus monkeys

Along the way, he stopped in a park where rhesus monkeys sat along the wall. A nearby vendor sold bananas you could feed to the monkeys, but our driver pulled out some day-old chapati instead. The monkeys were clearly accustomed to being fed by humans as they reached down from the wall and took the pieces of bread from our hands.

Those 200 rupees were really a down payment for a lesson in Indian economics. The “tour” took us to three shops where, if I had to guess, the driver had a deal with the shopkeepers—”I’ll bring you tourists, you give me a cut of the sales.” But, he also gave us a nickel tour of Central Delhi and took our picture “driving” his tuk-tuk (see top photo).

The Shops of Delhi (from left): Viktoria’s new salwar kameez; magic carpets; local artwork

The shops are elaborate labyrinths with only one way in and one way out. To reach the exit, you must navigate through scarves, clothing, knickknacks and carpets.

Each shop offers a riff on a theme. The scarf salesmen pull threads from the weave and burn them at the edges to prove they’re really cashmere/pashmina/silk (because they’re animal hair, the fabric singes where artificial fabrics burn like plastic). The carpet salesmen explain thread counts and show how the colors change depending on which direction you look at them. Elephants tchotchkes are carved from teak wood or camel bone and the symbolism is described by the shopkeeper in depth.

A vegetarian meal at a Delhi McDonald’s #JunkFoodVegetarian

The driver took us from one shop to another before we finally cried “Uncle.”  We sheepishly asked him to take us to the McDonald’s restaurant we’d see on Google Maps nearish our hotel. He scoffed and rolled his eyes at the Americans traveling all the way to India to eat fast food, so I felt the need to explain. McDonald’s doesn’t typically offer vegetarian options (even the fries contain beef tallow), but since 40 percent of India’s population is vegetarian, the global chain offers up alternatives to meet the demand.

After lunch, we returned to our hotel to rest up before meeting our tour group for the first time. Our tour company’s promise of small groups was a big draw for us. We started as a group of six—joined by two teachers working in China, an American from the NYC area and an Australian from the Melbourne area. Four others would join us later, having toured Delhi as part of another tour.

Our tour guide was fantastic. A native Indian from nearby Jaipur (about 170 miles southwest of Delhi), he knew the history of the areas we visited and was willing to answer all of the questions we threw his way. After taking care of a couple paperwork things, we loaded into tuk-tuks and headed for Old Delhi.

Walking through the alleys of Old Delhi

Established in the 1600s, the area is considered the heart of Delhi. We wandered through the narrow alleys, past food stalls and more scarf shops, eventually exiting near the steps of Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India.

Note: Generic photos ahead. We tried our best to photograph the religious locations without capturing the people in the middle of their worship. 

The main facade of Jama Masjid mosque (Photo by Muhammad Mahdi Karim, Wikipedia)

Although nearly 80 percent of the population identifies as Hindu, Islam is still a prominent religion in India. When India gained independence from Britain in 1947, it also lost a large portion of its land and Islamic population as Muslims moved west, creating Pakistan. The mosque still makes daily calls for prayer and closes to tourists during prayer hours.

Standing atop Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib, the primary house of worship for the Sikh religion in Delhi

From the mosque, we made the short walk to Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib, Delhi’s primary house of worship for the Sikh religion. When you see the stereotypical depiction of an Indian man, he’s usually wearing a turban, one of the Five Ks of Sikhism.

Sikhism is unique among Indian religions for many reasons, but its treatment of women stood out to me. While women are treated as subordinates in Hindu and Islam, the scriptures of Sikhism demand that women and men are treated as equals.

We were given scarves to put on our heads prior to entering the worship area. The ornate, gold-laden prayer room had a scattering of midday worshippers with traditional music played live in the background. Sikhs don’t have ordained priests, so nearly any Sikh can lead the congregation as long as they meet some minimum qualifications.

Women making chapati (Indian bread) at Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib

The charity of the temple is on display in a large dining room alongside the main prayer hall. Anyone can join in the preparation and consumption of the meal. While men typically don’t participate in meal preparations in India, they were working alongside the women to prepare the large quantities of food for the congregation.

After a long afternoon of sightseeing, we had a group dinner back at the hotel and headed to bed. We’d be on an early morning train to Agra the next day to see what we all came to see: Taj Mahal.

“Isn’t Japan Expensive?”

A few weeks back, I asked for your burning questions to be answered in future posts. Here’s a question from Cascadian Deni:

We’re really enjoying your blog. You asked for questions a few postings ago. Here’s mine: We understand that Japan is very expensive vis-a-vis food. lodging, etc. Are you finding it so?

We’d heard the same thing before coming to Japan. After nearly nine months on the ground, my answer is “It depends.”

Food

Standard grocery items are similar in price. Here’s prices from last week in Tillamook, OR (thanks Mom!) for some staple items compared with current prices in Kawagoe (converted to USD and comparable measurements).

Item	U.S.	Japan
Eggs	$2.19/12 pk	$1.75/10 pk
Bread (premium)	$2.19/18 slices	$1.92/8 slices
Bread (store)	$1.67/20 slices	$0.82/8 slices
Milk	$0.99/pint (473 ml)	$0.88/500 ml
Apples	$0.88/lb	$0.95/lb
Bananas	$0.79/lb	$1.60/lb
Red bell pepper	$1.79/ea	$1.08/ea
Potatoes	$0.59/lb	$0.64/lb
Yogurt	$0.59/cup	$0.71/cup

*Prices compared on 12/12/2014 (exchange rate $1 = ¥119.03)

Pretty comparable. One thing that’s a little unique is that many items are sold in packs. For example, you can’t buy a single banana in our local grocery stores. They’re pre-wrapped at a standard weight (usually four or five to a pack). Because apples are in season, we can currently buy them individually, but they’re still priced per apple, not by weight.

Buying bread is probably the trickiest thing. The loaves are packaged in five, six or eight slices with different thicknesses. The most common is called shokupan—a soft, white, chewy milk bread. The thicker slices are kind of like “Texas Toast” while the thin slices are more like Wonder Bread. As with most things, the preference for slice thickness differs by region. We occasionally find whole-wheat bread but usually buy sesame bread (goma no pan/胡麻のパン) or brown rice bread (genmai pan/玄米パン) from the local bakery.

There are some exceptions on both sides. Some fruit—especially melons—is much more expensive in Japan. During the past summer, a whole cantaloupe cost around 1,000 yen ($8.42 USD). One with Hello Kitty’s face carved in the rind went for 5,000 yen (about $42).

Eating out seems to be similar to the U.S…. some places are more expensive than others. When we eat out in Tokyo, we’re usually picking cafe-style vegetarian restaurants where we pay about 1,000 yen for an entree. Japanese fast-food restaurants offer the lunch crowds big bowls of udon or soba for under 500 yen ($4.21 USD). In my opinion, Tokyo is no more expensive than any other large city in the world when it comes to dining out. In fact, I thought prices in Melbourne and Sydney were far higher than anything we’ve experienced in Tokyo.

The one area I’ll concede is more expensive on average is Tokyo’s craft beer bars. It’s common to pay 900-1200 yen ($7.58-10.11) for a pint of craft beer. Even the big brewery beers are 500 yen for a large glass.

Shelter and Transportation

Living expenses are where “it depends” really comes into my answer. Our lifestyle in Japan is significantly different than it was in the U.S.

Our two-bedroom apartment in Japan is about 1,400 square feet smaller than our house in Oregon. Our rent is much less than our mortgage and it’s less expensive to heat. The garbage bill is covered by the rental company. However, we pay less for rent than I paid in Salem, OR in 2005 for a place roughly the same size.

Utilities are reasonable as well. Our fiber-based internet is fast and less than we paid for Comcast high-speed service. Electricity and gas is also less, which only seems fair with the difference in home size.

Japan also suffered a housing bubble burst in 2008-09 as the U.S., but the market in the metropolitan areas has rebounded in recent years. New construction in our area also seems to be booming. Since we arrived in March 2014, four very large homes have been built on our street. Watching them being built from the ground up, I’d guess they’re about 2,200 square feet, which probably puts them in the $300,000 price range.

As I mentioned before, our lifestyle here is significantly different than it was in the U.S., which makes comparing some things difficult. We chose not to have cell phones while in Japan, which average more than $100 a month in the U.S.

We used to commute 45 minutes each way and, even with our gas-friendly Toyota Prius, we were still paying $40 a week for gas. Viktoria commutes to work through the courtesy of her own two feet, so we’re not paying for gas, vehicle maintenance or insurance. We regularly use trains and local buses, which can be as much as 1,500 yen each if we’re gallivanting around Tokyo, but usually 1,000 yen will last a couple weeks for trips around Kawagoe.

We have three large grocery stores, a giant home goods store and a 100 yen shop (like a Dollar Store in the U.S., although with the current exchange rate, it’s more like the 84 Cent Store) within a few blocks of our apartment, so we’re not paying jacked-up prices as a result of shopping local.

Health

Fortunately, we haven’t had to exercise our Japanese national health care plan yet. Upon becoming residents in Japan, we received our national health care cards. I’d rather not have to write the experiential post about how the health care system works. I’ve heard second-hand stories about how it seems more inconvenient than U.S. health care (requiring doctor visits for every prescription refill, preventative dental care isn’t as common), but I can’t validate those myself.

In the U.S., we were both public employees and had access to affordable, quality health care through our employers. In the last couple years, we had to start making small monthly pre-tax contributions, but it was still far better than what most private-sector employees contribute.

Travel

Traveling in country can be expensive, but it all depends on your lodging and transportation choices. For example, we found an excellent deal (less than $100/night) at the Hilton overlooking Hakata Bay and Fukuoka Tower when we went to Fukuoka in June. We used Airbnb (affiliate link) to find apartments on our recent trip to Osaka and Kyoto. We loved Airbnb when we traveled at home and usually found it to be far more affordable, convenient and comfortable than staying in hotels.

Transportation is usually the most expensive part of any trip and that’s no different in Japan. We flew from Tokyo to Fukuoka (548 miles) for about the same price as a flight from Portland to San Francisco (536 miles). The Shinkansen (bullet train) to Osaka was about 300 miles and was more expensive than flying, but that’s without considering the cost of the Shinkansen from Tokyo to the airport and back again. In the end, it was probably still more expensive to take the train, but also much more comfortable.

“Isn’t Japan Expensive?”

In our experience, I’d say the answer is “For some things, yes, but generally it’s no worse than the U.S.” Our personal cost of living is much less in Japan than in the U.S. For tourists, I don’t think it’d be much worse than our experiences in San Francisco, Chicago or Washington D.C. as far as dining out or lodging goes.

Thanks to Deni for the great question!

Melbourne

The second half of our Australian adventure kicked off in Melbourne, the capital of Victoria and regular ranked as one of the world’s most livable cities. While Cairns and Adelaide were a more of a “doing” vacation, Melbourne was more about “seeing.”

The first thing we did in Melbourne was go shopping, but not because of the great shopping in The City. It was 33°C/91°F when we left Tokyo and it cooled to 23°C/73°F in Cairns, but Melbourne was in the middle of winter. We were greeted by nighttime temperatures nearing freezing. We knew it’d be cold, but when you leave the middle of a Japanese summer, it’s hard to imagine needing to bundle up.

Queen Victoria Market has served Melbourne since the 1800s.

Fortunately, the daytime weather was sunny and comfortable. We took advantage of the sun on our first full day to explore Queen Victoria Market. The public market covers a few city blocks and features row after row of goods, food, produce and cafes.

Vegetables at Queen Victoria Market

The market was like heaven with its copious varieties of fruits and vegetables, cheeses and olives and sweet desserts. We bought fresh-baked bread, local cheese, marinated olives and eggplant, fresh vegetables and a bottle of Hungarian (?!) wine which we dined on for a couple days.

The famous “American Doughnuts” truck serving up hot, fresh jam doughnuts

The longest line of the day (and if we’ve learned anything from Japan, it’s if you see a long line, get in it!) was for “American Doughnuts.” This van has been serving up hot, fresh jam doughnuts since 1950 and it was worth the wait. As for “American,” I guess it’s like an American jelly doughnut, but a little less sweet. Super tasty!

The modern architecture of Melbourne

The next day, we did a loop around the city center. The juxtaposition between old and new is always interesting to me. Despite its status as Australia’s second-largest city, Melbourne is still a city on the rise. Half-built skyscrapers can be found all over the city. The buildings that have been completed recently are architecturally and visually striking. One of those half-finished buildings looks like a hastily-stacked pile of books in a library basement. Others blend colors or other visual elements to create illusions that trick the eye at a distance.

St Paul’s Cathedral in downtown Melbourne

But Melbourne is a city originally established in the early 1800s, so alongside those modern marvels sit glorious architecture more than 150 years old. St. Paul’s Cathedral rises from the heart of downtown at the intersection of Swanston and Flinders streets, just a couple blocks from the ultra-modern Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) building.

The City Circle Tram surrounds the heart of downtown Melbourne making it easy to get around town

The simple and convenient transit system is part of the reason Melbourne gets those high livability grades. The free City Circle Tram runs around the outside of the downtown area, stopping at all of the tourist locations, including the Victoria Harbor waterfront.

Tranquil Victoria Harbor anchors a new shopping district

The Docklands area around Victoria Harbor is known for shopping and Etihad Stadium, home to five of Melbourne’s Australian Football League teams. While we poked around some of the shops (and stopped into Costco for kicks), the panoramic views of downtown beyond the harbor were the main attraction.

A mural painted on the stairs of Southern Cross Station

Art and culture are as much a part of the city’s landscape as the architecture. A giant mural painted on the stairs of Southern Cross Station. The “Cow Up a Tree” statue in the Docklands. And these guys…

These guys were filming a man in a gorilla suit chasing a man in a banana suit all over town

On multiple occasions, we saw a man in a gorilla suit chasing a man in a banana suit. Through Queen Victoria Market. Around Federation Square. They were being filmed, so it was a little less odd, but still…

Indigenous art, human forms made from string, hair and other materials, at NGV Australia

Speaking of Federation Square, it’s home to ACMI, which highlights Australian film and television as well as the impact of the moving image on popular culture. It also houses the Ian Potter Centre: National Gallery of Victoria. We didn’t spring for the paid exhibitions, but the free exhibits were more than enough. A decent-sized collection of Indigenous art is available on the main floor.

A snippet of the “If I Was White” exhibition at the NGV Australia

One of the more impressive exhibits was the “If I Was White” collection. The work is meant to highlight the ongoing struggle of Australia’s indigenous (or Aboriginal) population since they were displaced by early European settlers. While their fate is not unlike the plight of Native Americans in the U.S., it’s seemed more apparent during our Australian travels and you can tell Australians might struggle with it more than Americans do. It’s certainly more than a blog post can cover.

Utilizing Melbourne’s great bike share system

On our last day in Melbourne, we wanted to take the train to the beach in St. Kilda for the craft market, but the investment in the train card for a single day didn’t make a lot of sense. The downtown tourism kiosk suggested we rent bikes from the bike share for the day and ride to St. Kilda. The system works pretty well. You’re charged a flat fee and then an additional fee every 30 minutes, but if you dock your bike in one of the many bike parks, the time is reset.

Rod Laver Arena, home to tennis’ first major of the season, the Australian Open

The ride was great, but we didn’t make it all the way to the beach. We started to head south out of downtown. I really wanted to see Rod Laver Arena, home to the Australian Open, one of professional tennis’ four major championships. While centre court wasn’t accessible, we could see some of the practice courts, laid out in the famous blue hard court.

The Shrine of Remembrance was originally built as a memorial to Victorians who served in World War I, but is now a memorial for all Australian war veterans.

We got a little lost, but thanks to the great Western invention of the street grid (sorry, Japan!), we quickly found our way again. After ditching our bikes for good, we headed back toward downtown past the magnificent Shrine of Rememberance and Australia’s version of the Eternal Flame.

Cupcakes from the Sunday Market. We only wanted four, but six were just two dollars more!

Our Melbourne adventure was coming to an end, but not before we stumbled on a Sunday Market with a booth selling artisan cupcakes. I’m not ashamed to admit that these were purchased (and possibly consumed) before a proper lunch was eaten.

The miles and miles of running/bike paths, public markets, great restaurants and shopping without the overwhelming “city feeling” were reminiscent of Portland. The sightseeing in Melbourne was great, but I can see how a person would really enjoy living there.

On to Sydney…!

“Where ARE We?”

There are a lot of “can you believe we’re here” moments in Japan. We’ve seen some cool places and have had some amazing experiences. But yesterday’s trip to Tokyo’s Odaiba district was one part “can you believe it” mixed with two parts “what the heck?”

Odaiba is an artificial island built in the 1850s to protect Tokyo from the U.S. Navy and Commodore Matthew Perry’s Pacific fleet. In the 1990s, it was redeveloped as a “city of the future.” That plan never fully materialized before developers starting building shopping malls and hotels. As a result, there’s an interesting mix of architecture on the island, but mostly just a lot of commerce.

The commercial part of the island is easily walkable and we had a few sights in mind. Along the way, we found a lot of unexpected sights as well.

And this, in a nutshell, is Odaiba

Several tents were set up in the area between DiverCity shopping mall and the West Promenade park. Completely random things were everywhere, like this superhero cutout over a tent with a Viking toddler riding a large, white octopus. Or the man on stilts high-fiving everyone who walked by as he passed a tent selling Under Armour sports gear. I wonder if he can find workout pants that fit?

A man on stilts is a man who has a hard time buying pants

I actually found comfort in seeing some normal Japanese weirdness, such as the Funassyi shop. Everyone loves Funassyi! In case you’re wondering, Funassyi is a pear. Funassyi’s parents were pears and Funassyi is the fourth of 274 children. We must refer to Funassyi by name because Funassyi is neither male or female and, therefore, is immune to pronouns. And this is what I consider normal on this day in Odaiba.

Funassyi is a pear, in case you’re wondering.

We looped back around to our first planned destination. A 60-foot tall Gundam robot statue looms in front of the DiverCity Tokyo Plaza shopping center. Technically, this is a suit worn by Amuro Ray on the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam, one of the most popular anime series to make its way past the shores of Japan.

Don’t even THINK about shoplifting from DiverCity!

A short walk from DiverCity is Toyota’s MegaWeb complex. The first building is part of the Venus Fort mall, which is modeled after Venice, Italy and is a pretty blatant rip-off of the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The museum itself featured several restored cars, both made in Japan as well as cars imported into Japan. The displays were broken into pre- and post-World War II sections, showing the foreign influence on the country in the years following 1945.

The Mazda Carol, one of several cars with Western-style names built in post-war Japan

The Western influence on post-war Japan showed in cars like the 1962 Mazda Carol and imports from automakers including Ford, Chevrolet and Fiat. Pre-war cars included a 1937 Datsun Model 16 sedan and an American-imported 1936 Cord 810. All of the vehicles have been painstakingly restored to original condition by Toyota’s restoration experts. It’s a nice tribute to Japan’s long automotive history while weaving in the story of the country’s evolution during the 20th century.

Toyota’s Hydrogen car, the FCV, is scheduled to be available for sale in 2015

Perhaps even more impressive was the MegaWeb’s Toyota City Showcase, which featured several of Toyota’s concept cars. As tree-hugging Cascadians, we left our Toyota Prius in good hands back in the states, but we were drooling over potential future purchases as we walked through the showroom. The revamped hybrids with futuristic dashboards and single-seat three-wheel cars were great, but we were super-impressed by the FCV hydrogen fuel cell car, scheduled for a 2015 release. It’s an attractive car powered by renewable energy and only emits water vapor as byproduct. Sign me up!

Playing the Hydrogen Trivia game at Toyota MegaWeb. The game wand is a replica hydrogen fuel pump.

So, we’ve seen the future of automobiles. What’s next? How about swinging by the Statue of Liberty. Yes, that’s right… Odaiba has one of those too.

The Statue of Liberty stands proudly in front of the Rainbow Bridge over Tokyo Bay

Apparently, the French version of the Statue of Liberty was in Odaiba for “The French Year in Japan” back in the late 1990s. It was so popular, a permanent version was built in 2000. Hundreds of these things have been erected around the world, including three more in Japan. The statue in Miyagi Prefecture was damaged by the 2011 tsunami.

Since we’d clearly jumped the shark in Odaiba with the whole Statue of Liberty thing, we headed back to the mainland for dinner and our final stop of the day.

ゴジラ! A replica of Godzilla has been placed in the Tokyo Midtown Gardens in the Roppongi district

Despite decades of wreaking havoc on their beloved country, Japanese people still love the monster known as Gojira! In celebration/marketing of the newest Godzilla movie, which opened in Japan over the weekend, a replica of the monster has been built in the Tokyo Midtown Gardens park. A tame light and smoke show runs every evening while the exhibit is open. Kids screamed playfully, more interested in running under Godzilla’s wavy tail than away from his sharp teeth.

This, I believe, is the beauty of Japan. Tokyo is an amazing city and from one train station to the next, you can enter a completely different world than the last. This was a playful day and tomorrow might be a nature day or a traditional day. Tokyo offers all of that and more.

Staycation

Japan has a lot to offer in terms of sightseeing. With Tokyo nearby, we’ve overlooked some of the local sights. We found ourselves with a couple free afternoons last week, so we took advantage to explore Kawagoe and the area surrounding our neighborhood a little more.

Neighboring Tsurugashima is a couple miles from our apartment. It’s a scenic walk when we cut through Oisezuka Park.

Lotus flowers grow from the pond near Oisezuka Park.

The lotus flowers are starting to bloom. They grow out of the shallow ponds around the park. There’s a walking path with benches around this pond, which makes it a great place for a relaxing walk or to sit and listen to a local plucking away on her shamisen.

This woman was playing the shamisen, a three-stringed instrument similar to a guitar.

This side of the Iruma River (入間川) is home for many local farmers. The rice paddy fields stretch the length of the river. It’s also home to a lot of wildlife, including a family of ducks who worked their way up and down the rows.

This mama had three little ducklings following her through the rice paddy field.

We originally headed for Wood Bakers Pizza in Tsurugashima, but the restaurant was closed unexpectedly. We found some really great Indian food nearby with naan larger than my head.

Head-sized naan at New Darjeeling Indian Restaurant

A few days later we headed into central Kawagoe and the Koedo (or “Little Edo”) area. Edo was the name of Tokyo until the mid-1800s. This is the historic part of Kawagoe. But, first… pizza! The pizza shop in Tsurugashima also has a location in Koedo and it was open!

Margherita pizza and a Shikkoku from Kawagoe’s own Coedo Brewery

It was a little after lunch, so we were the only customers in the place. The pizza is cooked in a pellet-fired oven using Traeger pellets from Mt. Angel, OR and Strawberry Mountain pellets from John Day, OR. They framed the bags and hung them on the wall as decor.

The Traeger grill and pellet bag at Wood Bakers Pizza in Koedo.

The staff was laughing a bit when I started snapping pictures of the pellet bags on the wall, but when I explained Watashi wa Oregon kara desu or I’m from Oregon! they got pretty excited. They pulled pellets out of the bag for me to smell and showed me their Traeger grill in the shop. We sounded out Ponderosa Pine together. Great pizza and more new friends!

Stomachs full, we headed for Kita-in, a Buddhist temple originally founded in 830. The temple burnt down in 1202 and again in 1638. Because of the site’s importance to the Tokugawa shogunate, following the 1638 fire, several structures from Edo Castle were transferred here. Since Edo Castle was destroyed by fire in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, the structures at Kita-in are the only remaining structures from the original Edo Castle.

Gohyaku Rakan, or 500 disciples of Buddha.

One of the highlights of Kita-in is the Gohyaku Rakan, or the 500 disciples of Buddha. There are 540 hand-carved statues that are so unique in design that no two are alike. The local legend says that if you feel each of the statues in the dead of night, one will feel warm to you. When you return during daylight, you’ll find that the statue resembles you. Since the statues were gated off during the middle of the day, I’ll have to assume the legend is accurate.

Closeup of a few of the Rakan at Kita-in

Along the way, we passed Naritasankawagoebetsuin Hongyoin Buddhist temple. We were drawn in by the rhythmic pounding of Taiko drums and haunting Buddhist chants. In addition to the shrines, there were also great statues, including the gate protector who didn’t look like someone you’d want to run into in a dark alley.

The guardian at Naritasankawagoebetsuin Hongyoin Buddhist temple.

Kawagoe has several more sights to see, but since they’re spread across town and we were racing the rain, we decided to save them for another day.

Tongue Tied

I went to the grocery store today. This isn’t unusual. I shop for groceries every couple of days. We eat a lot of veggies and have limited storage.

The script is usually the same. The cashier greets you, asks if you have a store card and rings up the order. There’s a handy bag-tag if you have your own reusable bag, so usually that’s not even part of the conversation.

The beautiful produce section at a local Belc store and the “I don’t need a bag” tag from Inegeya.

Something funny happened today though. I walk up to the register and the clerk, probably in her mid-20s, says the Japanese equivalent of “You don’t have a card.” I laughed out loud… one look at the American and she knew my story. She kept talking to me, which was both great and frustrating.

I’m reaching the point in my Japanese language adventure of understanding in context. I’m pretty good at the grocery stores or restaurants now as long as the speaker doesn’t deviate from the standard spiel too much. But I’m also still a little behind in comprehension and response. That two-second delay is just enough for the speaker to move on or just give up altogether.

I read something recently about learning a language. I’m still in the “translate this to English in my head” phase of learning Japanese. When you actually learn the language, you understand the Japanese itself and are no longer translating to the English equivalent.

Today I understood everything the clerk said, which was exciting. I asked her to leave my rice ball out so I could eat it now and she responded oishii desu ne! or “It’s good, isn’t it?! She asked if it was hot out since I was wearing short sleeves and said it was too cold in the store.

The frustrating part is, in that two second delay, all I can muster is Hai or “Yes.” I know the response is Atsui desu ne! or “It IS hot!” but the words don’t come to mind until the conversation has moved on.

I’ve written before about my frustration in not being able to communicate. But I run across enough people like the clerk that are patient and, frankly, don’t seem to care that I can’t keep up my end of the conversation.

I was riding the train the other day after a four-mile run that ended up at Starbucks, ultimately resulting in a Dark Mocha Chip Frappuccino. The guys across from me on the train were snickering a bit. I heard “Starbucks” at one point and their dodging eyes told me I was probably the butt of a harmless joke, but they seemed nice about it, so I engaged them.

Oishii desu. I said, letting them know this Frappuccino was a tasty, tasty treat. He asked me if I spoke Japanese and I replied with my new standby: Nihongo ga chotto wakarimasu… demo ganbarimasu! or “I only understand a little Japanese, but I try my best.”

For some reason, this is killing people! Both men laughed big, belly laughs. I’ve asked a couple people who actually DO speak the language and they think it’s just a level of appreciation that I’m trying, but I’m seriously considering taking this act on the road!

Things We Eat: Dining Out Edition

We had a couple breakthroughs in our eating out adventures in the last couple weeks. I’ve mentioned before that it’s tough to find a vegetarian meal in Japan without going to a speciality shop, which are also few and far between. The awesome website vegi-navi.jp is starting to change that. Sites like Happy Cow are great, but they tend to focus on vegetarian/vegan-only places. Vegi-Navi adds in the local places that might have only a single veg meal on the menu, which is all you need sometimes.

The sign under this Thai boxer says they have “World-Famous Thai Food.” I’m not gonna argue…

We were in Tokyo last week and ended up getting a couple good meals out. First stop was Tinun, a Thai place in Omotesando across from the Toyko Metro station. The lunch menu was NOT vegetarian-friendly, but the waiter was very helpful. We explained our eating preference and together we came up with a couple dishes that could be modified. We ended up with Pad Thai with tofu and a Thai Fried Rice. Both were really good.

This Taiwanese place was a hole-in-the-wall down a side street. Always the best!

We were back in Ikebukuro around dinner time, so we headed toward one of the places we’d pre-mapped. We came out the wrong station exit, but fortunately I recognized the landmarks for another place we’d pre-mapped! According to vegi-navi, it’s called SENJOUTEUCHIGYOUZATEN. The poster inside the three-table restaurant said “Sen Jou Dumplings,” which is both accurate and easier to say.

The owner, I’m quite certain, sold us the veggie gyoza at the Taiwan Festival we attended in our first week in Japan. Her first question was “Are you vegetarian?” which was a good sign. She had a nice mix of veggie and meat options, but two complete vegetarian set options. We ordered one of each and got a table-load of food. Multi-colored gyoza, rice, veggies, soup and a mock-meat stir fry.

As we left, she introduced us to the cook—who also happened to be her mother. I told her we were already contemplating what we’d order next time.

Vegetable tempura set from Tempura Tendon Tenya.

The best find, purely for convenience purposes, might have been Tempura Tendon Tenya. Located in Crea Mall, the open-air shopping hub in the heart of central Kawagoe, they have a full English menu (!!) and several set options. The rice set comes with all-you-can-eat rice and noodle sets are also available with soba or udon. The only “oops” in the meal was some dried fish shavings (katsuobushi) on the spinach, but it was easily brushed aside.

Last weekend, we headed west (without our camera) on the JR Kawagoe train for the first time, pointed toward Alishan Organic Cafe in Hidaka City. Only three stops and a bus ride from our station, this will be a return destination. The cafe menu is 100% vegetarian and mixes a standard menu with seasonal specialties. We ordered a donburi bowl (rice bowl) with mock-meat and veggies and a teriyaki veggie burger. Both came with a salad and fried panko-crusted potato ball. Excellent, clean-tasting food. They also have a small store with hard-to-find organic and vegetarian products.

I really enjoy cooking at home, but it’s also nice to find some places for those days where cooking just isn’t in the cards.

Twinbird Vacuum

We’re wrapping up our 12th week in Japan and are starting to discover things we love about this country… and things we maybe don’t like so much. For me, cleaning house is pretty low on my list of favorite things. (As an aside, I like to treat my “Robert’s Least Favorite Things List” like an episode of “Oprah’s Favorite Things“… “You get a dirty house! You get a dirty house! Everybody gets a dirty house!”)

Which is why I’m pretty stoked about our new vacuum cleaner! I know… seems a sad thing to be excited about. But, between the construction across the street and the industrial-sized wind maker known as the Pacific Ocean, it’d be minutes after I’d finish a dry-sweep of the floors before a tumblin’ tumbleweed of a dust bunny would form and roll across my path. And forget about the tatami rooms. Seems like I’d just sweep the dust deeper into the mats.

But no more! Now I have a Twinbird Cyclone. It’s basically a dustbuster on a stick, but it does exactly what a vacuum is supposed to do… it sucks! Plus, in attachment mode, it kinda looks like the laser sword from the Thundercats.

Twinbird is on the loose! Apologies for the bad Photoshop job…

Really, I figured this post might help other gaijins or anyone with a small space and an electrical outlet (dorm, RV…). With the main attachment, it cleans all the way to the edges, so it’s great for getting corners and edges. It’s lightweight and pivots a full 90 degrees, so you can get under low tables without having to move them. The main attachment pops off easily and the nozzle can be put in it’s place to do tighter areas. You can leave the long handle to reduce bending over, or take it off and have a handheld vacuum for cleaning the car, etc.

Best of all, it was only 3,027 yen ($29.68 USD) with free overnight shipping because I signed up for a free Amazon Prime trial.

I’d swept the floors two days before and was amazed by the “yuck” that the new vac picked up.

The dust pile from the first pass of the new Twinbird.

I can’t say I’m excited about cleaning the floors just yet, but I can at least take it off my list of least-favorite things.

Plum Rain

Monsoon season is officially upon us. There’s been a glorious break in the rain this morning after four straight days of downpour. The rainy season is called tsuyu, or “plum rain” as it coincides with the plums beginning to ripen. Apparently we can expect this ark-worthy rain until mid-July.

On Saturday, we braved the elements and headed to Shibuya in search of Kuumba du Falafel. A wrong turn out of the train station sent us in the opposite direction, so no falafels for us, but we’ll try again someday. Apparently the owner of the restaurant begrudgingly serves some of the best falafels in Tokyo. An interview quoted him as saying “If there was somewhere else that sold [good falafel], I’d close this immediately and go and eat there every day instead.” Reviews say the service is rough and the owner closes the shop at random, but it’s all worth it for the food. We’ll see!

Luckily, in a bit of serendipity, we ended up near another restaurant we’d been wanting to try, but was closed on our first attempt. Nagi Shokudo vegan restaurant is buried under the sidewalk on a back street in Shibuya. It’s a tough find, but having stumbled upon it once before, we were able to find it pretty easily this time.

The lunch set at Nagi Shokudo in Shibuya. A tofu curry, falafel and deep-fried soy meat with chili sauce.

The food was fantastic. We ordered the “A” set and the choose-your-own set. Both came with a cup of miso soup and bowl of brown rice. The “A” set was a deep-fried soy meat sautéed in a dark soy sauce with green onions alongside a green salad and a relish plate. There were several options for the choose-your-own set. We had tofu curry, deep-fried soy meat in chili sauce and falafel.

I get the sense it’s popular with vegan/vegetarian tourists as another group of Americans came in after us, but there were also a few Japanese people having lunch. We’re learning more and more that vegetarianism is not a popular or even well-known diet in Japan, despite the country’s Buddhist history and the Buddhist’s traditional vegan diet (shōjin ryōri). It’s certainly not experiencing the trend-bump that the diet has seen in the U.S. in recent years.

After lunch, we did what one does in Shibuya and hit the shops. I gather it’ll be a popular rain-dodging activity in the next few weeks. The best stop was on the food level of the Shin-Q Department Store across from Shibuya Station. An excellent wine shop sampled some New Zealand wines, a couple of which we brought back with us. We completed a very French dinner menu with a loaf of rustic bread from one of the bakeries and a wedge of stinky brie from a cheese vendor.

All in all a successful rainy day in Tokyo. Hopefully we’ll have a few more dry days mixed in before cabin fever sets in.

Costco

Bulk purchasing isn’t really part of our day-to-day life in Japan. Our 550 square foot apartment, which actually has quite a bit of storage, doesn’t really necessitate things like the Gorilla Metropolis Playset, a swingset that is almost twice the size of our apartment. Or even two-dozen rolls of toilet paper for that matter.

Still, visiting a Japanese Costco was on our list of things to do. In the U.S., a trip to Costco every couple weeks was part of our shopping routine. A case of black beans here, a giant bag of tortilla chips there… things that would keep for awhile. Of course, we had a big pantry and a garage to keep all these things in.

The closest Costco in Iruma was actually not the most convenient, requiring two train transfers and a bus ride, so we chose the other Saitama location in Shinmisato.

The shopping mecca known as LaLaport

The train let us off right outside LaLaport, an expansive indoor/outdoor shopping mall with Forever 21, H&M, Columbia, Adidas; the best fashion stores America Japan has to offer. Ikea anchors the mall on one end and Costco holds down the other.

That little girl’s about to start a riot for a Costco dog!

As we approached Costco, it wasn’t any different from the ones we frequented at home. People packed the outdoor seating, attacking their ¼ pound all-beef sausage with all the toppings.

I can only assume that guy is finishing up something from the Fresh Food Hot Items menu

Just outside the main door, the giant Costco weekly deals billboard greeted us with similar bargains as we’d find in the U.S. Frying pans, reading glasses, tires and tents alongside party-sized platters of sweet rolls and sushi.

Carrot cake cupcakes and Very Berry Mousse Cake

Inside, it was bumper to bumper. The bakery section had giant carrot cake cupcakes and “Very Berry Mousse Cake” that seemed to be popular. The specialty cake section was there too, although with a more Japanese-friendly whipped cream frosting option. It was starting to feel like the end of Wizard of Oz… “And you were there…”

Enough sake to fill a swimming pool, which you can buy on aisle 10

If sweet treats aren’t your thing, maybe the giant liquor section is? I’m sure it’s not that much of a novelty outside of Oregon where liquor sales are tightly controlled, but it was odd to us to see sake, tequila and whiskey for sale alongside the beer and wine.

Our cart. I will gladly ride the train for two hours for Kettle Chips and Tillamook Cheese

All of the product signs were in both Japanese and English, so we were able to put names to items we’d seen other places, but couldn’t identify. In the end, our cart ended up very similar to what we’d buy at home. Sea Salt Kettle Chips (from Salem, OR), Tillamook Pepper Jack Cheese (from Tillamook, OR), strawberry jam, bread, pickled Jalapenos, baby kale and a bottle of Kirkland-brand Malbec. We did buy one distinctly-Japanese item: edamame tofu. The little squares had whole edamame beans (soybeans) inside.

A little taste of home and a little taste of Hokkaido

Epilogue

No trip to Costco is complete without swinging through the snack bar. The famous ¼-pound hot dog—which has a better ring to it than the “0.11339809 kilogram hot dog”, even in metric system Japan—was a crowd favorite. Pizza, coffee, churros and ice cream were paired with some new-to-us items, including clam chowder, pineapple smoothie and bulgogi (Korean barbequed meat) bake.

We ordered a slice of cheese pizza and a Hokkaido soft-cream sundae with raspberries and chocolate and sat down amongst the masses, relishing our first Japanese Costco experience.