Nicholas and Nicholas

"a most wonderful day!"

There is an Orthodox Church in Tokyo. Here's a link to some of the history behind the church.
The church's website, refers to the church as the Holy Resurrection Cathedral, or Nicholai-do. Amusingly enough, it actually refers to the church as "Nichorai-do" elsewhere on the page. I decided to visit the church. There is a stop on the JR train called Ochanomizu and this train station felt rather old. Well, not old, as much as small. The steps had a much smaller height than usual, the hand rails were lower to the ground, even some of the arches on the platform were too short for anyone I know to be able to easily pass under. When I stepped outside, a sign in English pointed the way directly to the church. It was not the way I went. After wandering around a bookstore, a guitar store and a McDonald's, I was able to make my way to the church. When I entered the gates, I must say that the din of Tokyo disappeared; all was quiet and peaceful. It always amazes me, when I take the time to absorb it, that churches have the ability to make the outside world seem distant and far away. I went inside the church and passed the sign that said, "No Pictures.' The church was dimly lit, even though it was bright and sunny outside. Four other people were already inside and in the back of the church, but most of the inside was cordoned off with velvet rope. I lit a candle and said a prayer, then sat down. The church looked familiar, from the icons, to the alter, to the far too few chairs, and even to the rugs that were lying on the floor.
While I was sitting in the back of the church, a feeling of loneliness crept over me. I thought of friends and family and being so very far away from them. At that moment, a group of Japanese tourists came into the church! It seemed as though God was filling the church for my benefit; comforting me and saying,"You are not alone. No need to feel alone here." I did not feel lonely and smiled a deep smile. It may seem strange to read these words, but it did happen this way. I watched the crowd and many people bowed towards the alter. One person did make the sign of the cross. Another woman, with white gloves and a matching umbrella, sat down next to me and closed her eyes for a moment.
A tour guide, or, perhaps, a volunteer from the church, pointed out various aspects of the inside architecture as well as the alter. And, while many had cameras, including myself, no one took a picture inside the church. I stepped outside just ahead of everyone else, mostly to watch what everyone would do. Just about everyone took out a camera and took pictures of the church, and of each other.
The visit to the church was peaceful, uplifting and spiritual. I will return to attend a church service.

Later that day, it stated to rain and I decided to go to the movies. I remembered that there was a theatre in Shinagawa, at the hotel where I first stayed. On top of that, Rambo was premiering! How could I resist another Stallone movie? (Gee Pete-san. After writing about church, you are writing about Rambo? Really? Umm, no.) Well, when I arrived, I noticed that Rambo cost 2500 yen! On top of that, the last showing started an hour before I had arrived. There were nine theaters showing movies and it looked like eight of them had already started the last show of he night. Only one showing of "10,000 BC" had yet to start. I went to buy a ticket, and the clerk behind the counter asked me what seat I wanted. She pointed to a seating guide and it was like buying a ticket for a sporting event. Well, it was stadium seating, so I went with H14. I walked down the hallway to the only theater with the doors open. Two couples were already sitting there when the previews started to play. The dialogue for each preview was in Japanese! In fact, the only words I could understand were, "Movie star, Nichoras Cagey!" and it sounded exactly as I spelled it. It turns out that Nichoras, err, Nicholas was starring in "Next" - an appropriately titled movie, because that is what was showing next! Not 10,00 BC, but Next. It turned out to be a clever movie. I enjoyed it immensely and it was shown in English (with Japanese subtitles).

After the movie, I hopped on the train and headed for home, thinking of my day with Nicholas an Nicholas.

Big Echo

it wouldn't be prudent at this juncture...

It seems that at every above ground train stop, there is a tall building with the word, 'Big Echo' on them. Upon closer inspection, it turns out these building house several floors worth of... karaoke!
Must. Resist. Urge. to. Karaoke.

Pizza Day

nice n fresh!

It is Thursday evening, I'm with Bradd, and we're walking home. I make a comment about how Tokyoians seem to be obsessed with anything related to New York. As an example, I point to this restaurant:

Luckily, one of us can actually read the word, pizza, on the sign. Well, actually we both can read it, but only one of us can read a couple of things on the menu. As a side note, most restaurants have images or plastic recreations of the menu items for the day. So, even if you are illiterate in the Japanese language, at least you can have a reasonable idea of what you are ordering. It seems that a 'margharita pizza' is on the menu. Being that it is Thursday and all, we decide to take the elevator up to the third floor and enter a "little slice of NY."

We were the first to arrive this evening and the staff spring into action. I'm guessing here, but the staff consisted of Dad in the kitchen, Mom the bartender and salad maker, and Sonny the waiter. The restaurant itself has room for 32 people + 5 more at the bar - I counted the available chairs so you can get an idea of the size.(I go to great lengths for the readers of this blog. All three of you.) Sonny puts a new cd into the stereo, and the song, 'Always and Forever' is playing as we order a Caesar salad, the margharita pizza and some drinks. While we're waiting for the food to arrive, two more groups of people arrive. Even though the restaurant isn't quite crowded, at least we're not the only patrons and I'm feeling more comfortable. The salad was fine and the pizza comes out. Of course, it is nice and fresh. Here it is:

In spite of the size and the matzoh-thin crust, the pizza was quite good. We paid the bill and, it seems, we got the no VAT discount prices of 5200 yen. When I got home, I ate the leftover rice that I had been planning to use for breakfast the next morning.

Cute Bunny and just desserts

yum yum, eat 'em up!

Today I received a small 'package' from a colleague. It looks really nice and cute. It was so cute, that I wanted to wait and share it with all of my readers. Both of you. I don't know if it is referring to Ringo Starr or not, but I like the bandanna. After carefully opening the package, I see what looks like a, well, a bunny! a picture of the package and the bunny is on the left, if you didn't yet notice. Click the picture to better understand the Beatles reference.

There's an added bonus: it looks like the bunny is cowering and waiting for some lurking danger to go away. Well, I just finished dinner and I'm looking for dessert! Checking the wrapper again, I was expecting some sort of apple flavor. Well, it was a sweet desert and it had a wisp of apple flavor, about as much as you would get from eating the wrapper.

Actually I had another dessert too. It came from this bag down below somewhere. I went for dinner last night in Shinagawa and never made it out of the train station. They had a section there called "ecute". Maybe the guy who coined the term 'ebusiness' named this place. Anyway, it was a nice section and you would never believe that you were in a train station. There were several restaurants, a store that reminds me of Lechters and a stationary store that was selling expensive pens for like, 150 US dollars. Add a lot more zeroes if you're paying in Yen. Anyway, it seems the Japanese are really into New York style and flair. Why else would I be able to find a doughnut store (they should have spelled it donut!) that originated from some little corner of Manhattan, near (Delancy Street, not too far from the Williamsburg Bridge) but cannot seem to find Dunkin Donuts or Krispy Kremes anywhere in Japan? They (The Doughnut Plant) have these great big square doughnuts. Here in ecute land, these folks were also selling 4 small doughnuts for 1150 yen. That's right on par with the pens they were selling at the other store. Obviously, I did buy the doughnuts, but I did not buy any pens. All in all, I enjoyed the bunny more than the doughnuts.

Upside down blog

Remember, newest posts appear on top.

After looking at my blog, I realized that the first post is down on the bottom. The newest posts are up on top. I guess that's the way virtually every blog in the blogiverse works, but I kinda sorta like having my older posts up on top. So, read this blog from botttom to top if you're willing to give it more than 30 seconds... Thanks.

Japanese Blowfish

Fugu to you too!

So, Andrew is expecting me to have Fugu (aka Japanese blowfish) while I am out here in Japan. Now I know here's a special technique that must be used to clean these fish, otherwise, the tetrodotoxin in these fish can be, let us say, less than appetizing. So I asked two colleagues about eating it (at separate times) and each one said, "It is perfectly safe. But it is expensive." I'm not sure why, but they each used THE SAME EXACT WORDS. This leads me to believe that eating fugu is not "perfectly safe." One interesting fact (at least I think its a fact. Not that I would do some actual research or something to find out) is that the chefs have to undergo special training to receive certification in Fugu cleaning and cooking. The last step of this certification is that they have to eat fish that they prepare. I can imagine the proud parents showing a picture of their son to neighbors...

Yes, that's my son the Fugu Chef. Shut Up. It is a very demanding profession, if you must know. Not everyone lives through the training process, but the school he went to, well they have a nearly 90% graduation rate! YES, he is still alive. What do you mean, you haven't seen him since he went off to school? Look, let's all go out to eat at his restaurant. I can guarantee that I, umm, I mean we, yes "we" will all enjoy the dinner very much!

As I continued my walk past Tokyo Tower, I spied a Fugu restaurant with a fish tank visible from the sidewalk. I was tempted to walk in, but thoughts of "My son, the Fugu Chef" raced through my head. I shot this picture and moved along ( click the pic for a larger view...).

To Tokyo Tower 2

The sequel!

OK, Here's the last picture of Tokyo Tower, I thought it looked nice. I think you can click on the pic to get a bigger view. Almost like being there. Almost.

To Tokyo Tower

"I'm just following my nose."




So last week I walked out of my apartment not sure of where I was going. I had just recently bought an Olympus camera ("mu" 850 SW) had charged the battery and was anxious to use it. As I was walking, my attention was drawn toward this tall, orange tower. That Eiffel guy would be proud of how the Japanese copied the Eiffel tower and built one in the heart of Tokyo. I figured that it wasn't too far away and I could, at least, figure out where I was headed, so off I went. When I got there, there were some people but not a large crowd. I did count the baseball caps I saw there (1 Yankee, 1 Red Sock, 1 Chicago Cub) but the plethora of people I was expecting to contend with had chosen a different venue on this day. The tower itself looks rather nice; the orange paint was fresh and clean and I found myself enjoying the structure and curves. The weather, which had more than a little to do with the lack of people at the tower was very cloudy. I thought about taking a ride to the top of the tower, but thought better of getting a bird's eye view of clouds. Besides, the view from the ground was just fine.




A fine bit of construction and a tower that, in spite of its color is a splendid attraction to visit!
I'll have more 'adventures' to relate shortly. First I have one more pic of the top of the tower. I can't seem to upload it to this post so I'll have to create a separate post.

Riveting Television

How can this not be on American TV?

While I was sitting down eating tempura, I turned on Japanese television. A half hour episode about some guy teaching a bunch of 8 year olds how to juggle caught my attention. How could such high drama have been kept from viewers for so long? Just about all of the kids were as spastic as you would guess. The 'teacher', who could juggle balls, bowling pins and, probably, machetes too broke down the process and helped the kids get the hang of things. A cartoon seal with a graduation hat and tassells sometimes popped up to offer encouragement. Or maybe to ridicule the kids. I really couldn't be sure. Maybe the cartoon seal just graduated from a cartoon Sea World or something. He really seamed out of place. The highlight of the show was one of the kids finally being able to juggle and they counted... slowly... 68 juggles. A mighty accomplishment for a little kid, especially since I can't do any. But I digress... the show did keep my attention, so I'm not sure if it says more about the wisdom of Japanese programming managers or how much I miss American television. To paraphrase a well known commercial, "I can't believe I watched the whole thing." I've got some highlights of my own from last week's walk around town. Coming up, next.

Hey Mr. Pete!

"Tokyo. Just like I pictured it..."

I've moved out here for a few months and figured that there would be all sorts of observations and witty commentary that a guy from New York can make about daily life in Tokyo. Follow along with me. It's just like being here!