April 22: Tokyo

April 22: Tokyo

An island song
Like a floating river
Rain Rain Fall Fall

Toriyoshi ni ikatai n desu gu

I want to go to Toriyoshi

It is raining and cold today, quite a change from yesterday’s sun and warmth.

Three more phone calls on our mobile, we have dropped below $10 a call!

For the second time, we get a gallery map that you have to hold upside down to see the list of works and right side up to orient yourself to the reception desk. Hmmmmmmm….

Today we visit a renowned Japanese basket collector, S-san. Keiko comes along to provide translation. It takes over 2 hours by car to reach his house in the countryside (longer coming back, we hit traffic approaching downtown). The toll for the ride comes to $25 (each way), the car is outfitted with the equivalent of Fasttrak, there is no toll taker when we exit.

S-san lives in an old barn (behind where his parents live now) that had been used for curing tobacco that he and a carpenter have fixed up, over a long year. It is a revelation, all dark wood, one large room surrounded by other smaller rooms; a dining room table he built himself out of leather and old wood set on stone slabs, an attic we can only glimpse that is below a thatched roof, small cutouts for wood burning in the middle of rooms, and a modern bathroom. Even more amazing, he rents! He has a 20 year lease, so must have figured it was worth fixing up. The landlord must realize how lucky she is!


We bring a bottle of Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir as a gift, explain it is from area between LA and SF. S-san has cooked us lunch: tasty pork spare ribs (more meat on the bones than we would have in US, we get to eat with our hands!), rice with various roots mixed in, three or four veggies in vinegar, strawberries topped with caramelized sugar and whipped cream mixed with yogurt (spoon supplied for this course), cava sparkling wine. All excellent, the ribs cooked in a wood burning oven. A home-cooked meal is a real treat, and in a restored country-style house a bonus!

Then he brings out various baskets from his collection, he is one of two major collectors of 20th century Japanese baskets (the other is an American living in Japan), and it is clear how passionate he is and how delighted he is with this passion. He is coming to our area in May for an auction and gala to help raise funds for a museum in Hanford (San Joaquin Valley), and we offer to reciprocate with a home cooked meal if he has any free time. He loves Acme bread (as do we!).

After the long ride back to Tokyo we stop at a gallery that represents an artist we liked in a museum in Kirashiki. They bring out many pieces of her work, we agree to mull it over. The gallery owner is a long-time friend of David Hockney and has one of Hockney’s polaroid pieces, from 1983, for sale, only $80,000. It’s a great piece, just out of our price range!

Keiko gives us a tip for dinner, a yakitori spot that grills small skewers. The cabbie drops us off and points. We cannot find the restaurant. The people near the restaurant have no clue. We get some bad directions and stumble past the place. We find another restaurant willing to call the place we want, and they give us directions back to near where we started. We ask again…finally, we open the door of a spot and we are in Toriyoshi. The finding of the place after the cab dropped us off takes longer than the cab ride. There is no name in English. We are the only non-natives there, a long u-shaped counter with two grillers and two sous chefs.

We order a bottle of Chilean Chardonnay (thought we were getting a glass) and a draft beer, and start ordering skewers. The food is very fresh tasting, little seasoning or spices. Among our skewers are: quail, soft bone (gristle), duck, chicken breast, chicken livers, livers with egg (eaten whole and like a soft boiled yolk), green onions, two types of mushrooms, grilled eggplant and some only in spring green bok choy stem (maybe the best of all we ordered). We eat and drink way too much, enjoy it all, We share the wine with the threesome sitting to our right, they help us a bit with the ordering. Total $130 (most people must eat for less than half of this). Another great tip from Keiko.

April 21: Tokyo

April 21: Tokyo

Through the fingerprints
on my window -
cloudless blue sky.

Nihon-ryoori ga dai-suki desu
I love Japanese food

Pics: Giant cuckoo clock outside our hotel (goes "off" five times a day), sake kegs at Shinto Shrine (sake maker is a sponsor!), Keiko and THB outside specialty bakery, one of the special buns, one of the (1964?) summer Olympics venues.

It is warm and sunny, reaching the low 70s, by far the warmest day of the trip. We don’t have sweaters or jackets with us today, a first.

A rather hectic day, here are the highlights:
• Workout in the second basement fitness center
• Breakfast buffet, same-same except they have a great make-it-yourself coffee machine
• Meet our local guide, Keiko, who did her post-graduate work and a few years of work in NYC
• Visit a Shinto shrine and have a ceremony where we are called out by name (we’re the only ones there, so it had to be us) where we have asked for victory (old joke: the head guy said it doesn’t work if we’re talking about the Cubs). They give us complimentary sake along with Victory write-up
• Start touring Tokyo, visiting galleries, design stores, pastry shops (DUH!), food halls, and looking at some unusual architecture
• At one pastry place, they also run a small ceramics gallery and we meet two of the ceramicists in the show, one is from Iran. Nice work!
• Lunch at nice spot, where DB has bonito sashimi as main course, I have veg curry, and Keiko has chicken and pork cutlet, along with several all-you-can-eat sides, total for three is $36.
• More galleries and street walking, pick up some wine for house visits coming up (Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir, $40/bottle)
• At one of the galleries, we meet the owner, he was at Collect, a big show in London and DB remembers his booth because all the work was sold by the beginning of the first public viewing. He speaks English very well (and un poquito Spanish), sells art jewelry along with other objects. He has a few beautiful ceramic pieces in the back room we like a lot.
• Finally make it back to room to rest up, then Keiko’s recommendation of dinner at Ginza Seamon for sushi. And, we’ve hit the jackpot, this is as good as you get anywhere in the US, the top of the line. DB starts wearing out, I’m all for helping her. Total including 4 Seamon draft beers (excellent), $220 and well worth it.

One comment about getting around town: we take a mix of subway and taxis, and in all cases we have no clue where we are, in some cases the cabbies don’t know. Keiko, who lives here, says she never pays attention to the addresses, they are meaningless. Cross streets don’t have names. To find the restaurant, we have a fax from the restaurant to show the cab driver. When we get there, we have gone less than 1.5 kilometers, it has taken 15 minutes, we take no wrong turns, and the cabbie looks at the map (and his GPS) no less than 10 times.

Without a local map or some prior visit, you can’t figure it out. And by local map, I mean it has the names of significant buildings located on the proper blocks. So, tonight, our map included the Chanel store and several other names. Our restaurant was on the 6th floor of the Sagamuchi building, a very non-descript spot in the middle of the block. And, we didn’t know the name of the restaurant because basically it doesn’t have a sign out front, or a name that means much; the key notation was that it was on the 6th floor.

Welcome to Tokyo. We walked back to hotel, 10 minutes or so…

April 20: Tokomachi to Tokyo

April 20: Tokomachi to Tokyo

Night; and once again,
the while I wait for you, cold wind
turns into air

Pics are from the various Tokomachi art triennial installations, one of the guy that opened up the Last Classroom installation (pretty spooky), one of our driver and THB enjoying Suntory Time, and THB reclining again. These are repeats, THB was a bit groggy when he posted earlier (or was it later) yesterday (or was it this morning)

The answer to the question, did we sleep with the roof open: No and Yes.

We decide to close the roof, it seems pretty cool, though our comforter covers are great, as we near bed time. Then at some point in the middle of the night, I have a very vivid dream: A large truck is backing up, I can hear the beep…beep…beep…beep, and it is very dark out. It is backing up, backing up, I can’t move, I am stuck in my sleeping bag. BEEP…BEEP…BEEP!

DB has gotten up (she said later around 1am) and decided to open the roof so we can get the full effect when the lights start up around 3:40am, prior to sunrise. The roof beeps when it is in motion, something she forgot. Back to sleep.

At around 3:45 I awake (sort of) to the sound of something whirring and the led lights have come on. DB is taking a picture of the sky scape. Very dark out, we are about to get the reverse of the sunset effect, moving from dark to light blue. Very pretty, especially at the end with the turquoise blue against the ecru ceiling. Then back to sleep.

I get up, look over at the clock and see it is near 7am; good, I have slept in and maybe got my normal sleep. Go downstairs, do that sitting shower thing, and climb in the hot bath. Ahhhhhhhh….then shave, head back upstairs. DB wants to know what I am doing up and dressed before 6am. Ooops, bad eyes have got me again. She gets up at 6:30.

Take a short walk and find one of those fancy vending machines that serves hot and cold drinks. It is out of order, which is almost as shocking as seeing graffiti or trash on the streets.

Breakfast delivered, another many course cold meal. We opt for our strawberries, orange, and chocolate bread. We cannot figure out how to make tea or coffee (even if supplies are here). Babes in the frozen north, we are…we walk around the area and find a few other art installations from various triennial art events in and around Tokamachi.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon we are touring more installations with a private driver based on an itinerary worked out by our travel agency ahead of time. This takes us hither and yon, including having one installation opened up just for us (very worthwhile, $30 for the visit) and lunch in a converted Noh Theater (or something like that, hard to tell, it seemed 100% art stuff to us).

Lunch is also at the theater, all veggie, and very good, $24. We have covered quite a distance, probably close to 150 kilometers (driving at Japanese speeds, through longgggggg tunnels through the mountains).

We train into Tokyo, just making our connection at the transfer spot because the first train ran a few minutes late (shocka!!). Ohhhhhhh, Toto, we aren’t in Kansas any more (a bit of a pun, all the toilets and urinals are made by Toto). When we get off the train, we struggle to find the right exit to catch a cab. It isn’t often we can’t find our way out! There are thousands of people pouring through this station. It is making Mumbai look tame.

We check into our hotel and proceed to the first order of business: buying tickets to a Tokyo Giants game for Friday night. No problema: go one stop on the subway, exit, look for a building across the street and then go to the Ticket Bureau. We can’t find the subway entrance, even though our building exits into the underground mall that subway branches out of! After winning that battle, we now have to find the right platform. An Asian guy offers to help, speaks English, has just been to a conference in Long Beach, ate at the Stinking Rose in SF, and gets us to the right platform. All in about 2 minutes. The subway is making the train station look like a Bart station at around 3pm. There are 10s of thousands of people coursing through this station (maybe a major hub, we sure don’t know).

We finally find the right exit out and then the Ticket Bureau is right across the street. Buy tickets and then try and find an ATM. That is through the station, through the building across the street, then in Tokia Building, basement level 1 in the 7/11, Ah, success.

Now feeling low blood sugar, and walk into sushi place on B1 across from the 7/11 ATM. Awesome! And sushi chefs (it isn’t too busy) look up English names for the fish. Eat about same as we would in US, two beers, $50, so this is cheap and better than we get at home.

Reverse steps and actually find our hotel entrance off Shimbasi station. Back to hotel for a celebratory nightcap, we can see why they say not to try and navigate Tokyo while suffering from jet lag!

April 19-20 House of Light pictures

Most of these are taken facing up at the sky scape. The really dark unintelligible one is THB in the bath. THB reclining with his eyes closed is a more accurate view of what retirement like is really like in our household.

April 19: Garuku River Retreat (Sasuzu) to The House of Light (Tokomachi)

April 19: Garuku River Retreat (Sasuzu) to The House of Light (Tokomachi)

In all this cool
is the moon also sleeping?
There, in the pool?

A mountain village
under the pilled-up snow
the sound of water.

How many times must a man (or woman)
Look up before he (or she)
Can see the sky?

Kyoo no tenki wa doo desu ka?

What’s the weather today?

Department of clarification: As part of our lunch yesterday, we did stop for dessert in the basement of the department store across the street from the open market. Department stores are very big on food in the basements, tons of prepared food, spots to eat, and usually a full-service market. We decide to stroll the hall before going to the train, and manage to stop in the “western” bakery, and select two of the big, flat, thin French pastry-dough sugar cookies. They did not survive the walk to the station, $2.50.

This morning we get up and take a soak in the hot springs, eat one of those many-courses Japanese breakfasts (complete with the cold overcooked grilled fish) that includes purple (yes, purple) tofu in broth that gets heated at the table (mini-shabu-shabu). Best part of the meal: we ask for coffee when we sit down, they are a bit surprised because it usually is served last. It is one of the better espresso style coffees we’ve had anywhere, so of course we have another after the meal too!

When we check out we find out that the train station pick-up in Toyama was $20, a bargain considering they had to send a car for us and a taxi would’ve been closer to $50.

We get taken to the station we should have arrived at yesterday, it is 5 minutes walk from the hotel, 1 minute drive (even by slow standards here)l! The train is a true local, two cars and the heat turned up so high we think they must be doubling as a sauna. Easily between 75 and 80 degrees.

We catch our transfer, and fortunately it is on the same platform where the local has deposited us. There are only a few minutes between trains, which here is plenty. Two hours later we are in Tokamachi, a ski resort. (Aside: two stops before we get off, almost the entire train departs, in a town we can’t find on the map. Maybe 3-400 people, all old, with at least one of those leaders carrying a flag. Of course, we have no clue as to what they are heading towards.) There is a ton of snow in the mountains and big drifts on the side of some of the streets and in some of the rice paddies. The good news: it is warm out! Very warm…DAMN! This is good news because we are sleeping with the roof open tonight.

Lunch of soba and tempura, $30. Tokamachi is dead, most of stores are closed, either because if it Monday or out of season. Stocking up on snacks (baum kurchen, strawberries, chocolate bread (see pic of bakery), dried bread squares), $12. Cab ride to House of Lights, $30.

We are the only two spending the night at the Turrell House. With dinner and breakfast, private hot bath (only the two of us, so it is co-ed tonight), sleeping in the room with the movable roof (now open), light shows at sunset and sunrise, $350 cash. Reason for cash: they don’t know how much it will cost because the rate per person goes down the more people who stay here, up to a max of 7 (and for some reason they don’t take credit cards, shades of Denmark). Cosmic question: after we booked, did they tell any other interested parties there would be foreigners in the group? Or, are we the only ones foolish enough to spend the night with a roof open and snow covering the mountain?

Maybe so, unless you are a Turrell fan and interested in staring at the sky at sunset and prior to sunrise for over an hour. This evening, the changes of the colors are not as pronounced as at Chichu Museum (maybe the way the led’s are set), yet just as encaptivating.

Dinner is delivered, another 9 course cold to barely lukewarm meal with fried chicken (a first), cold tempura, maybe fatty short ribs (without bones) and a bunch of fish. We are supposed to clean-up our own plates, we decide that is the case if you are cooking in, and we have ordered in, not same-same, same-same but different.

Down to soak in the hot tub/bath…very hot, dark, and very subtly and coolly lit (small light bars hidden in the walls and lights underwater). Are we sleeping with the roof open?