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Friday, March 27, 2015

Dragons, Ramen and Swallows

I have been a bit negligent these last days, but as far as excuses go, I have quite a lot! The most important probably being my Japanese lessons having started and turning out to be surprisingly demanding!
Anyways, let's not get ahead of ourselves and start where we left off. I went back to Asakusa to see a golden dragon dance and to visit the adjacent garden, which both turned out to be unusual sights since the dragon dance doesn't take place that often, and the garden isn't always open. That same day I ate my first japanese curry, which tasted... Alright. I mean it was good, but not that good! Indian and especially thaicurry remain until now my favorites. I would never have thought, I could actually spend half a day at Asakusa, but with a little local guidance, it turns out to be a very nice place, apart from the touristic, souvenirshop and Yukata wearing gaijin infested marketstreet leading to the temple.



Later that day I went to Musashikoyama, a really really nice place at night to go out for F&B! i have never seen so many little bars and restaurants right next to each other, with so many different things to eat. Famished I ended up in a ramen restaurant, suggested by some yakitori chefs. They indeed didn't promise too much! The yakitori I ate while they were explaining was fresh, hot and delicious, and the ramen was the best ramen I had so far! In fact it was so good, that I forgot to take a picture!

I tried out the Tokyo nightlife again, going to Bonobo (http://bonobo.jp/) close to Harajuku. The bar reminded me a lot of Bohnengold in Berlin, but again, looking for electro... In vain. The bar in itself is really nice and laid back, just my style of bar, with a dancing room on the first floor, and a big chillout area on top.

I also did a lot of research concerning dojos, the results will in time be posted in a seperate section of this blog. Suffice it to say here, that it is quite a pain to find them if you are not fluent in Japanese. Most of the web pages are out of date, so that I ended up at the wrong adress more than once.
On another notice, the Baseball season started yesterday!!! But here again, not as easy as one would expect in order to watch a game. Apparently there are no sportsbars, where you can watch a game, have a beer and snacks while studying for your Japanese classes. Go figure! People either watch it at home or in the stadium. So right now I'm at home, a little sad because there is just sweet sunny springtime weather outside and I want to see the games on my small home tv and can't find the Tokyo Swallows game on any channel. On the other hand stadium tickets are only around 1800 yen! So, again, more about this in die time!

Monday, March 9, 2015

Shibuya

Yesterday was my first night out in Tokyo! And it was a blast! I met with a friend I met in Berlin last year and her (now) husband at the Hachiko statue in Shibuya and went to the ruby room (http://rubyroomtokyo.com/). Since I heard nice electrobeats while coming in, I felt like at home right away, since in Berlin I usually go out on electro parties. The clubs music was alterning between Jrock, singer/songwriter and something really beautiful I have never heard before and no clue of what name ist bares (see video at the end). Between the different artists the DJs always played electro for a while. Besides the room being a little to small for the sound it is a very nice place to go for music lovers (as it says in the door).
As we met there with one of the artists (Tonbo) which is a friend of the newly wed couple and sit at a table with him, 2 gaijins come in who apparently know Tonbo and start talking with him right away in Japanese. Turns out that they are from Berlin as well and, although I actually don't want to mingle too much with gaijins, we start sympathizing right away. Later that night we talk and it turns out we have a common Japanese friend in Berlin. Talk about coincidence huh?!


If anyone knows who and what it is, please tell me!

Kairakuen


It's spring in Tokyo as well, even if the temperatures don't show it, the plum blossom definitely does. So my landlady offers me to come with her and her friends to watch the plum blossom at Kairakuen, which also includes a kodokan (http://www.koen.pref.ibaraki.jp/foreign_language/en/index.html). Since I have nothing else do to and it's for free, I decide to join and discover Japan. Afterall that's what I'm here for. Little did I know, that this day was going to be the best day in Japan yet.


After a pretty long but not uncomfortable drive from Meguro to Ibaraki, during which I got to see a lot of the countryside around Tokyo we arrived at the park, where unfortunately the trees weren't all in blossom. As compensation, we had some really nice sweet and free finger food which was really delicious and nice hot green tea.


After a stroll trough the park we came to this house, which has been rebuilt in a traditional way due to repeated destruction. The view from the top was splendid and reached over the whole valley.










On our way out, we came by the souvenir shops, which essentially consist of edible souvenirs, irresistible to ladies. Ok I tried some too and they are quite good! ... Mostly! Because when I was offered some undefinable substance on a toothpick, the girl handing it to me, laught, apparently because of the face I did. Umeboshi is the name of that substance, and it's really sour!
On our way back, we stopp by the beach which is empty except for a lonely fisherman and the moon.

That's the moon, not the sun!

Tired and hungry I am invited to dinner. We are served some tiny squid with vegetables and a very tasty vinaigrette, different kinds of sashimi and a nabe with vegetables, mushrooms, tofu and ankou (frogfish) and a really nice sake.
Needless to say, that the drive home was very quiet except for some "よかった"s and some "おなかがいっぱい"s and sleepy!