One of the unique features of Hong Kong – and Kowloon (where we stayed) in particular – are the street signs. They’re ubiquitous and they hang over the streets, offering each store’s wares.
You can almost think of them as parasites that anchor on the sides of buildings and try to drown out the sky from locals underneath.
The fact that they’re in an inscrutable language makes them enjoyable; I’m sure if I could read them (Restaurant! Cheap clothes!), the allure would be lost.
Japan is sensory overload. It’s people and colour and sound everywhere. Sometimes the only way Wen and I could handle it was to try and take it out of focus:
One of the things I love about traveling is the opportunity to sample great food. We’ve been having some great experiences in Japan.
Soba
The Koru-mon Noodle House is a tiny little shack in Shinjuku. They specialize in soba noodles; try the “machine gun” for a slightly spicier dipping sauce:
Monjayaki
Monjayaki is a variation on a Japanese pancake. The ingredients are brought to you and then cooked (by your waitress or you) on a hotplate built into the table:
It’s great fun to watch. The waitress organizes all the ingredients into a pile on the hot plate. A lot of chopping ensues. The chopped ingredients are then formed into a ring around the hot plate.
The waitress then pours half the batter (it’s in the bowl, below the ingredients) into the center. Much mixing and folding occurs.
The rest of the batter is mixed in and you let it cook for a few minutes. After that, you simply scrape off the piece you want to eat:
We had our monjayaki in Tsukuda. If you go down Nishinaki Dori (the main street), you’ll find tonnes of great places. (You should also visit the nearby Sumiyoshi Shrine).
Okonomiyaki
The sister of monjayaki is okonomiyaki. If monjayaki is a pancake, okonomiyaki is a pizza. Except that it’s made of egg, not dough, fried and topped with barbecue sauce and mayonnaise.
To get there, you walk through the chaos of Shinjuku, dodge the touts of Kabuki Cho’s red light district, walk up a cedar lined alley and then climb the steep narrow stairs into a poorly marked upstairs restaurant. Here’s Wendy trying to leave:
The place seats 8, all at a bar. The chef is on the other side and boxed in all night. If you know what you’re ordering you buy a ticket from the vending machine and place it on the counter (don’t worry, if you’re clueless like us you just need to say “pork” or “fish”).
After a couple of minutes, a heap of steaming noodles topped with a few slices of pork appear. As you wait, you can contemplate what else you would order if you spoke any Japanese:
Diner Food
If you’ve ever lived in Toronto and worked in an office tower or visited a mall, you’ve probably seen an Edo Japan restaurant offering teriyaki. New Yorkers may have been to the lonely states-side outpost of Japan’s Yoshinoya; it’s in Times Square (and the only one on the East Coast).
What I didn’t realize until visiting here, is that these are the Japanese equivalent of a diner.
We went to one in Kyoto and after ordering you sat at stools, just like in a North American diner. It felt quite like a diner, except for the ordering – you did that from a machine (a la ramen above) and then brought your ticket to a stool to get your meal made. The nice thing here is that you could see the picture of what you were buying before you purchased it:
The actual meal was delicious. Miso soup instead of chicken noodle. A variation on the garden salad. An terikyaki with an egg instead of a club sandwich.
Contemporary
In Tokyo we ate at a nice little place in Harajuku called Mother Kurkku. It was the least Japanese restaurant Japanese restaurant we’ve been to yet. The (smoke free!) second floor dining room had a double height ceiling (I think it’s a converted loft) and glass walls.
Plus, the wait and kitchen staff were all female.
The menu is very simple; there are only a few things available (pork, fish and spaghetti – there’s an Italian food fad going on right now [seriously]). I picked the pork, which was described as “pork boiled in broth”. Here’s what it looked like:
Maybe you can tell from the picture – that’s basically bacon. This is bacon boiled in stock. And it tasted great. I would never think to cook it this way; now I may have to add it to the repertoire.
Cheap
Japan is not on the backpacker circuit as it’s not known for its low prices. However, you can eat surprisingly cheaply here if you want.
Every city has a set of cafeteria-style noodle houses. You grab a tray, pick which broth you want with your udon noodle and then maybe grab a piece of tempura (friend chicken sounds so much fancier when you call it tempura).
However, these are not crappy udon noodles. For instance, the place that I ate at had it’s own noodle machine in the front. It was only a matter of minutes between when the noodles were made and when they were served to you:
Octopus Balls
The Japanese love their octopus balls. They’re served as a meal by themselves or sometimes as an amuse bouche. They’re also surprisingly tasty – and this from someone who hates most seafood; they’re a nice mix of crunchy and rubbery – great texture.
But don’t take my word for it; check out how much Wendy loves ‘em:
Japan is really proud of it’s industrial heritage and engineering skills. It’s on display everywhere.
You can’t go through any town without seeing a warren of bridges and canals and elevated highways:
Construction sites also have to happen on a massive scale and surround themselves with a bit of mystique:
There are even ads for robotics and machine tooling companies:
But nowhere is it more obvious of how big their engineering culture is than when you ride the Shinkanzen bullet train. We took it between Kyoto and Tokyo, where the N700 rips along at over a kilometer every fifteen seconds.
At that speed you only have a few seconds to take anything in; many things pass by too fast for your eyes to focus on or for your visual cortex to comprehend. You literally can watch clouds change perspective as you whiz by.
But don’t take my word for it; here’s a video of our trip. I particularly like how the rice paddies come in and out of perspective:
As you whip through the Japanese countryside, you also see strange industrial installations. There’s a Fujitsu elevator factor in the middle of nowhere; it has a giant, many hundred foot tower that is presumably for testing the elevators before they ship. You fly by the huge Sanyo Sun Ark, an interestingly shaped solar lab.
Japan’s countryside is also about man triumphing over nature. Power lines come down from the lush, cloud-swept mountains and gingerly step their way across terraced rice paddies.
A great journey and a fitting representation of the country.
This country never ceases to fascinate. I’ve noticed many things on this trip; many too short to blog, so instead, here’s a stream of consciousness.
1.
This country is obsessed with order, ritual and precision. Everyone wears a uniform. Security guards and cleaning staff are decked out head-to-toe in custom uniforms. The salarymen all wear variations on the same suit. Even the teenagers here all seem to collapse into the same look.
This also manifests itself in odd ways. For instance, the construction sites here are the cleanest things you have ever seen. Note the equally spaced barriers ringing the sites:
Similarly, I watched a security guard at another construction site walking around picking up individual cigarette butts with tongs; no broom for him.
Equally baffling is the habit of staff on trains to bow as they enter and exit each car. The process of selling you coffee or checking your tickets involves endless rounds of bowing.
2.
This country is incredibly safe and crime free.
You see almost no graffiti. There are no guards in the museums (versus one per room in most North American museums). There are fire extinguishers everywhere on the smaller streets (would have been stolen ages ago in Canada). They even print your room number on the key to your hotel room:
3.
When it rains in Shinjuku at night you are forgiven for thinking that, just for one second, you might actually be in Blade Runner .
4.
The toilets here are out of control. Not only do they have bidets and a spray built in, some also make a flushing sound on demand, enabling you to avoid some of the less delicate human noises. Many have warming seats.
Also, one toilet I used actually robotically controlled its lid. I flushed it (lid up) and it closed the lid and then raised it again before flushing it. I’ve no idea why, but, I for one, will work with our future robot toilet overlords.
5.
The Tokyo metro is an experience in and of itself.
No one talks and it is almost preternaturally quiet. People may be listening to music on their headphones, but they keep the volume so low that you can’t hear.
Many people sleep. Others read. Sometimes they read manga porn. That’s okay and no one judges (or, if they do, they’re doing it in their own silent Japanese way). Here’s a photo of a guy reading his manga porn next to a sleeping woman:
The service is also impeccable. We were in the train when a guard ran on and picked someone’s suit jacket off the rack above the seats (yes, they have racks). He asked anyone if it was theirs; upon hearing ‘no’, he ran off the train and began speaking frantically into his walkie talkie.
Seemed like someone had mentioned that they’d forgot their jacket on the train and mere minutes later it was being picked up for them. MTA, you’ve got a long way to go.
6.
There are no garbage cans anywhere. You’re supposed to bring your own trash home – even if you’re at the park. You can find some garbage cans next to vending machines or in convenience stores, but that’s it.
7.
You can eat at any restaurant in Japan and you know the food will be clean. A chef would be permanently dishonoured if one of his guests got sick from his food.
Despite that, just about every restaurant we’ve eaten at would fail a health inspection in North America.
The kitchens are crowded nasty affairs. In a noodle bar, raw food sits in bowls astride the patrons waiting to be cooked. Cigarette smoke ventilates into the kitchen. There’s only one sink in the kitchen and it’s used for everything. And none of that matters.
8.
The alien nature of Japan is hammered home to you most notably when you experience something Western that’s been redone through a Japanese lens. I went into Fedex Kinko’s to print some paper and all was normal until they handed me my printed documents.
In an envelope that was sealed with a special Kinko’s sticker:
I had a similar moment when I saw an ad for Coke Zero:
I’m pretty sure that you will never see Coke Zero positioned as “wild health” in North America (or that anyone would want to see that).
9.
There is more unnecessary packaging here than anywhere else I have ever been. Everything is double wrapped in plastic.
10.
We went in to a supermarket. In an effort to sell different foods, they were sampling salad. Nobody here eats Western food.
11.
People in Tokyo are immaculately put together. There is nary a loose end or a frayed cuff in sight. Even their jeans are perfect: I didn’t see one single rear pant leg that had ever come into contact with pavement.
12.
There is an obsession with labour-saving devices here. If you lived on a tiny island with an aging population, you’d probably think that same way too. The most bizarre example of this so far is a machine that automatically puts plastic sheets over your wet umbrella. I didn’t even know I needed it (see unnecessary packaging above).
13.
We were walking through Ginza (Tokyo’s fashionable shopping district) and drifted past an Abercrombie & Fitch store. For those who haven’t seen one, they represent the pinnacle of confused adolescent hormones run mad.
When we were in NYC, the Fifth Avenue flagship shop had a queue outside and inside it was all black with pounding music – meant to mimic a nightclub. The entrance was framed by a huge shirtless black & white photo of a perfect American youth with chiseled abs. Guarding the entrance were two equally good looking all-Americans wearing A&F’s traditional jeans-and-plaid outfits.
They’ve got exactly the same setup in Tokyo. Same queue. Same poorly lit shop with bad music. Same photo of American Boy ™. Even the clothes on the ‘bouncers’ are the same.
Except they’re Japanese and waif thing, making the whole thing even more ridiculous.
14.
Napkins are the garbage cans of restaurants; they are nowhere to be seen. In fact, I have yet to see a Japanese person spill anything while eating. It’s no that they’re perfect at eating, it’s that if you held your bowl to your face and slurped noodles from an inch away you’d be hard pressed to spill too.
15.
There are maps all around Tokyo. North is usually down. It’s hard enough to find your way around Tokyo (what with the medieval layout and non-Latin script), but holding your map upside down to orient yourself with the “you are here” pin on the sign is just punishing (and probably quite amusing for the locals).
16.
Many utility trucks (e.g., the phone company’s service trucks) drive around and broadcast messages continuously from a speaker mounted on the truck. I have no idea what they’re saying, but I’d like to imagine that it’s something like “Remember that the Emperor’s greatest virtue is his filial piety. All Japanese youth should…”
17.
Many Japanese restaurants display plastic replicas of their meals outside their doors:
And it’s not just the main course; dessert too:
I want to bring this tradition to my apartment in North America. When I have guests over for a dinner party, I will prepare a tray of plastic dishes. I’ll walk from guest to guest, showing them the tray and bowing in front of them as they acknowledge the presence of the plastic trinkets.
18.
We went out for dinner at a traditional izakaya (think Japanese pub; lots of wood and sake bottles everywhere). It could have been a scene from 500 years ago, until a couple sat down next to us and whipped out their iPad and cellphone. He placed the iPad in front of him and surfed the web for the entire meal. She did the same on her cellphone.
I think they exchanged maybe thirty words, and even then it was only to show each other stupid things they’d found on the Internet.
Oh to be young and in love in Japan…
19.
This country loves manga. We went to the manga museum (more a library than a museum…) and learned a bit more about it.
Did you know that in 2008, the Japanese spent roughly as much on manga as fast food? That’s a serious commitment to Shonen Jump.
The museum inadvertently betrayed a bit about Japanese culture:
A section describes the varying thickness of mangas in different areas of Japan. They state “the thickness of the books is not unrelated to the reading speeds of readers from each national region“. It’s very competitive here.
There’s a section on fanzines (fans creating their own manga based on popular characters) and the section on fanzines aimed at adults is basically porn. However, the museum shows one group aimed at men (two girls on the cover) and one aimed at women (two guys holding each other on the cover). Come on Japan, I’m pretty sure that women do not want to read about guys making out. It’s for gay people. You should feel comfortable saying that (which, the Japanese are not – I haven’t seen one openly gay person yet).
Another great point learned: manga is not all about samurai, spies or intergalactic travel. Most in painstakingly mundane stuff like tennis or seeing a girl on the subway.
20.
When you arrive in Japan nothing makes sense. When you leave, it all retrospectively makes total sense. It’s because Japan is a cultural and technological Galapagos. They’ve literally created everything themselves and it’s totally obvious to them how it works and they can’t understand why anyone would (or would want to do anything differently).
For example, consider the machine below:
It’s the ticket machine for the subway. It looks bafflingly complex – and it is the first time you use it.
The trick is that you need to put your money in first before it will do anything. This is the complete opposite of how it works everywhere else in the world, so non-Japanese spend most of their time quivering in front of the machine.
Once you put your money in, the black buttons light up to show you which fairs you can choose based on the money inserted. Want more than one ticket? Select the number at the upper right and the black buttons refresh to show you any changes as to what you can pick.
All completely unintelligible to a non-Japanese but retrospectively makes a lot of sense.
21.
Male vanity is everywhere in this country. In Harujuku you’ll see lots of guys lined up for store sales. On the train we saw a guy putting on makeup. In fact, there was even a line of makeup aimed at men. It’s hilarious to see; what would the shogun of yore think!
22.
How much of a premium is space in this super-dense country? Check out these seats at the Mickey D’s in the Kyoto train station:
23.
This country has a real sweet tooth and some of the absolute best candies. I recommend any of the following:
Crunky: think puffed rice in chocolate, not southern hip hop
Lotte Chocolat (sic) Dessert: science has managed to recreate the taste and texture of a chocolate banana crepe inside a tiny marble-sized ball of chocolate
Plus Mint Chocolate: heavy chocolate wrapped in a minty shell
Muji Yogurt-Covered Cherries: simple compared to these other foods, but they do the trick
When I was a management consultant we would read briefs written from other teams around the world. The Japanese teams were always raving about both the convenience stores and vending machines in Japan as world leaders in retailing.
Given that your average bodega in North America contains questionable food of uncertain age and most vending machines are variations on Coca Cola, I’ve always been a bit skeptical. However, being here has made me a convert.
Kings of Convenience
Your typical Japanese city is dotted with 7-Elevens (do not confuse it with the North American version), Family Marts and Lawson Stations (in Tokyo you also get the more upscale “Natural” Lawson).
In addition to drinks, snacks, etc., these stores sell a lot of fresh food. The triangles below are seaweed-wrapped rice with a vegetable/meat/fish core. Needless to say, you have to turn over your inventory pretty quickly to stock that:
Same for the fresh croissants, noodles, fried chicken, etc. that can be found in most of these stores.
There are also ingenious heated racks for serving you hot beverages:
I highly recommend the Boss coffee in a can.
However, the kicker for me was that you can buy Muji in Family Mart stores:
New Yorkers and Londoners are crazy for Muji and it routinely sells there for outrageous prices across a very limited line of goods. In a convenience store – a convenience store! – in Tokyo you can buy more of their products than you can in NYC. Those are shirts in the lower left; underwear above them. Stationery in the middle. On the right are snacks (delicious cheese pretzels; yogurt-covered cherries) with noodles and sauces below them.
NYC and LDN: eat your heart out.
Cointastic
Because Japan’s so safe, they have vending machines for everything. There are your traditional drinks (and yes, that is Tommy Lee Jones for Suntory; Lost in Translation was not a joke):
There are also cigarettes:
And my personal favourite, booze:
The fact that a beer/liquor vending machine does not:
a) Get broken into all the time
b) Lead to drunken youths lounging in the streets
tells you something about the national psyche here.
One other cool thing about some of the vending machines here is that you can pay with your cellphone. (Yet another potential line of business overlooked by North American cellphone companies).
The vending machines here are also not limited to chilled drink cans. This one will make you a hot coffee or a milk shake:
Here’s a shot of showing just how many different drinks you get in each of these vending machines. Compare that to your typical 8 flavours (two of which are usually the most popular one) back home:
Characters (line drawings, not humans) are everywhere in Japan. They’ve been around for a long time – artists like Kuniyoshi used to put crazy animals in his drawings to get around censors:
More recently, they’ve been redone to be more kawaii , a term that loosely translates as ‘cute’.
Needless to say, the Japanese never use a picture or words where a cute character could be placed instead.
Here are a couple of government posters:
This also goes for products as well:
There are also many products that are sold on the basis of an anthropomorphized character. This one’s roach-be-gone:
Orange juice:
While we’re at it, why not make construction site pylons into cute characters too?
Every single instructional sign should include at least one cute character if at all possible:
This one’s just baffling:
Cops have pretty characters for their dogs:
And even your local bus has a character:
Hell, you want some pork for dinner? How about this cute and tasty little guy?
In fact, tonight when I sleep I think I’ll be dreaming of characters. Maybe one of the ones from this crazy wall outside the Takadanobaba subway station:
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