July 9, 2005 – The best food show ever
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on July 9, 2015
Today I watched the greatest Japanese TV show ever since Iron Chef, and possibly the best food show ever: Debuya.
Every since TV was invented, there have been shows about food. Most of the shows involve cooking, but not many involve people eating. Debuya features two large Japanese men traveling around the country eating local delicacies. The best part is that they absolutely love EVERYTHING. The show reminds me of when Homer Simpson became a food critic on the Simpsons (before he intentionally started writing bad reviews). Debuya needs to be translated and sent overseas immediately; it will become a huge hit.
Other than watching people eat, I went out and bought the new Queens of the Stone Age Album: Lullabies to Paralyze. Like other QOTSA, this one is also amazing!
Buying CDs in Japan is usually more expensive than buying them back home, but there are often extras for the Japan release. For example, my CD had three bonus tracks for Japan, a book of Japanese translations of the lyrics, and a bonus DVD. How cool is that?
(2015 Update) I don’t think Debuya ever made it to North America, but there have been a lot more shows about people eating since I wrote this post in 2005. What does a person need to do in order to get a job traveling and eating? That sounds fantastic!
July 8, 2005 – Rainy day in Odaiba
Posted by Barniferous in Greater Tokyo Area, The Penpal, Tokyo on July 8, 2015
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
In the continuing adventures of my week off, I met up with The Penpal today and we went to Odaiba in Tokyo. It was a rainy day, which is unusual because for the first year or so that we knew each other, it never EVER rained when we were together. We walked around some of the same places that I went with my crazy friends when they came to visit last summer.
In the evening we had dinner in Yokohama. It was fun to get to spend a whole day out of the city with my wonderful girlfriend.
July 7, 2005 – Eastside Hockey Manager
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on July 7, 2015
After a few days of traveling and lots of walking, I spent the entire day at home playing an incredibly addictive game called Eastside Hockey Manager 2005.
EHM is a hockey business simulation, where you take the role of general manager of a hockey team. It has thousands of real players from over 20 different hockey leagues around the world. I spent my day drafting, trading, and scouting players while trying to win the Stanley Cup. This is simply a fantastic business simulation game.
Since my computer is a bit underpowered, it took some time for the days to advance in my game. While the computer was thinking, I read The Stand by Stephen King.
Video games and a good book = great use of a vacation day!
(2015 Update) Eastside Hockey Manager got an update in 2007, but due to rampant piracy the series was discontinued. While looking for a screenshot of the game, I was shocked to learn that Eastside Hockey Manager came back suddenly, with a new version hitting the net late March 2015!! There goes the rest of my free time! Check it out here at http://eastsidehockey.com/
July 6, 2005 pt2 – Too much walking!
Posted by Barniferous in Western Japan on July 6, 2015
Okonomiyaki being mixed at my table
After thoroughly enjoying my visit to Osaka aquarium, I walked into a nearby shopping area to get some food. As luck would have it, I wandered into Naniwa Kishinbo Yokocho, which was designed to look like 1970s era Osaka. Walking around was a lot of fun, but I was focused on my goal of finding one of Osaka’s two famous foods: takoyaki (fried octopus balls) and okonomiyaki (like an omelette pancake). Both Hiroshima and Osaka have claims on okonomiyaki, the difference being that Hiroshima’s version has fried noodles inside.
After walking around for a while, I ended up walking into the nearby Tempozan Harbor Village where I followed my nose to a delicious smelling okonomiyaki restaurant called “Tsuruhashi Fugetsu“. I was shown to a table with a large grill in the middle. After looking at the Japanese only menu, I ordered pork okonomiyaki both because it sounded delicious, and because it was one of the few items I could read from the menu.
Usually when I am eating alone in a restaurant I am always reading a book. In this case I had to be careful not to let my book get too close to the grill. Fortunately I had no issues and enjoyed reading while eating the fantastic okomoniyaki that the server cooked at my table.
After eating, I got up to continue my exploration of Osaka. While I was in the aquarium, my knee had started to hurt a little. I injured my knee in University due to some grain alcohol fueled misadventures and it has never really been the same since. Usually it doesn’t bother me, but due to the amount of walking I have done in the past few days, it was becoming very uncomfortable. After lunch I was really starting to notice the pain.
To give my knee a rest, I went to a nearby IMAX theatre (Osaka Port has everything), and watched a cool 3D movie about New York City. After the movie my knee was hurting more, and I was starting to limp. I really wanted to get to Osaka castle, but reluctantly made the decision to end my trip short.
I went back to Osaka station, and did a little shopping in an import food store to kill some time while waiting for the shinkansen. I could have used at least another day in Osaka, but I don’t think that my knee would cooperate. I will have to go back another time! I really did enjoy my short time in Osaka and wish I could have stayed longer.
(2015 Update) I realized much later that one of the big differences between traveling by myself and traveling with someone else is that I am much less likely to stop and take breaks when I am on my own. When I started to think about the insane amount of walking I did in my two day trip to Himeji and Osaka and the short amount of time I spent sitting, it’s no wonder that my knee was hurting.
If you are sightseeing in Japan, be prepared for lots of walking. And if you are traveling by yourself, take breaks! It’s important!
July 6, 2005 pt1 – Osaka Aquarium
Posted by Barniferous in Western Japan on July 5, 2015
Osaka Aquarium
Despite a very long day of walking yesterday, I woke up refreshed after a good night’s sleep in my hotel bed. I have been sleeping on a futon so long, that I forgot how amazing it is to sleep in a bed.
I ate breakfast and checked out of the hotel, then walked to the subway station. My destination was Osakako station. In this case the “ko” means port. The Osaka port area has several attractions, the biggest and most impressive being Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan. The aquarium is one of the largest in the world.
Visitors enter at at ground level, then take an elevator to the top of the structure. There are tanks featuring aqua life of all kinds from different regions of the world, all in separate tanks. The tanks are arranged around the outside of the building, allowing visitors to spiral downward to see the same areas at lower and lower depths. In the center of the structure is a huge tank featuring a 12 meter long whale shark. The lowest levels of the aquarium feature special tanks that include giant crabs and jellyfish.
Osaka aquarium is a world class facility that should be on everyone’s must do in Osaka list. Aside from the wide array of aquatic life from around the world, the most interesting part of the experience was the people. Most of the gaijins in the building (no, I wasn’t the only one), were busy taking pictures of the fish and reading the information. The Japanese people, especially the children, were making several comments that everything looked delicious. Note to entrepreneurs: open a sushi restaurant right outside the exit of Osaka Aquarium. It’s guaranteed to succeed.
Jellyfish seen at Osaka Aquarium
July 5, 2005 pt3 – How to eat an egg
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, Western Japan on July 4, 2015
After a long day of sightseeing in Himeji and Osaka, I decided that I should get some food before crashing for the night. By this time it was about 10:00pm, and I was hungry. My hotel is in an area filled with office buildings, so there wasn’t a large variety of restaurants available. I was about to settle for convenience store food, but decided instead to try out Sukiya, a gyudon chain restaurant.
I had never been to Sukiya before. Going into a new restaurant solo when you aren’t confident in your language ability can be a bit intimidating. I walked in and noticed counter seats around the cooking area, as well as a few tables. There was no ticket machine in the entrance. Usually this indicates that you should sit at the counter and order from there.
I took a seat at the far end of the counter, and started browsing the menu in front of me. There were various different styles of gyudon, which is delicious grilled beef and onions served on rice. I decided to order the kimchi gyudon set, which included a drink and miso soup.
A few minutes later I was presented with a big bowl of gyudon, a small bowl of miso soup, a glass of water, and a small bowl with an egg still in its shell, and a small empty bowl. I knew what to do with the gyudon, soup, and water, but had never been served an egg like this before. I had no idea what to do with the egg.
When confronted with new restaurant experiences, I like to try to figure things out myself. My main technique is to casually look around the restaurant to see what other people are doing and copy that. I started eating my gyudon while looking around at the few other diners in the restaurant. Since it was after 10 pm, there weren’t a lot of people eating, and many of them were already in the middle of their meals. Looking around provided no help at all.
I continued eating my delicious gyudon, stopping to gently spin the egg in the bowl. I remembered a science book from when I was younger telling me that I could tell the difference between a raw egg and a hard boiled egg by spinning them. A hard boiled egg spins longer and more smoothly than a raw egg. This comparison works a lot better when you have one of each so you can see the difference. Spinning my one egg in it’s small bowl provided some small amount of entertainment, but no insight into what I was supposed to do.
At this point, I was about half way through my gyudon. I decided that I would have to test my Japanese language abilities and actually ask someone for help. My mind went back to my Japanese courses in university to assemble a “how do I” sentence. Normally this wouldn’t be terribly difficult, but after a full day of travel and sightseeing, it took some time. I practiced the sentence in my head a few times to make sure I knew what I wanted to say, and that it would make sense to the server.
There weren’t a lot of staff working, so by the time I caught the server’s attention, I had eaten almost all of my gyudon. I called the server over with a polite “sumimasen” (excuse me). I followed that with “kono tamago, doo yatte tabemasu ka?” which means “this egg, how eat?”. In Japanese the verb usually goes at the end of the sentence, making direct word for word translations sound like Yoda speak.
The server gave me a bit of a confused look. I was worried that he didn’t understand my question, but then he started explaining that I should crack the egg into the empty bowl, mix it up, and then pour it over the gyudon. I thanked him for his help, and he walked away.
- When you pour a raw egg over a full steaming hot bowl of gyudon and mix it up, the egg cooks while coating the rice. This is very delicious.
- When you pour a raw egg over a room temperature, mostly empty bowl of gyudon, the raw egg simply sits there, making the remaining rice slippery and nearly impossible to pick up with chopsticks. This is not delicious.
After making a few unsuccessful attempts to finish my slippery gyudon with chopsticks, I decided to use the spoon from my miso soup to help me out. I was rewarded with a mouthful of raw egg and slimy rice. At that point I decided to give up.
The lesson to my story is when presented with an unfamiliar food, it’s better to ask a silly question than to end up with a bowl full of raw egg.
July 5, 2005 pt2 – Missing hotels and glass escalators
Posted by Barniferous in Western Japan on July 3, 2015
After spending the afternoon exploring Himeji castle, I returned to the station to catch a train to Osaka. The station area is an interesting contrast to the massive 400 year old castle that dominates the view. All of the buildings are big and blocky. There is an interesting mix of office buildings, fast food restaurants, hostess bars and kimono shops.
I was happy to get back on the train and off my feet for a while. I took a Tokaido line rapid train to Osaka, which took about an hour. I could have also taken the shinkansen, but I would have spent more and only saved about 15 minutes.
Osaka station is HUGE. The station area combines both Osaka station and Umeda station. It serves over 2 million passengers each day, and is one of the top 5 busiest train stations in the world. I managed to navigate my way through Osaka station into the connected Umeda subway station to catch a train towards my hotel.
I had made an online reservation at Park Hotel Rinkai, an inexpensive business hotel in central Osaka. The online reservation explained that the hotel was close to two different subway stations. This statement was true, however the subway stations themselves were connected together in a sprawling underground maze. Navigating a confusing subway station after a full day of exploring a castle is difficult. I went to street level and found that all of the buildings looked very similar. This combined with no street names made locating the hotel an exercise in frustration. After about 30 minutes and several creative uses of four letter words, I finally found it thanks to street maps and some luck.
I booked the hotel both for the location and the cost. My single room was only 5800 yen (about $58) per night. This seemed like a good deal for being centrally located in Japan’s second largest city. I checked in using Japanese (the staff didn’t speak English at all), and went to my room. At this point I realized why the room only cost 5800 yen – it was TINY. The room was about the same size as my single dorm room at the University of Manitoba. There was a single bed, a desk, and a tiny bathroom that somehow jammed a toilet, sink, and deep bathtub / shower into a space better suited as a closet.
Despite being small, the room was clean, fairly quiet, and well equipped. Also, it really was close to the train station if you knew the correct exit number. The TV had regular local channels, but for 1000 yen I could buy a “movie card” at a vending machine near the elevator that would allow free unlimited access to all the movies for 24 hours. And when I say all the movies, I mean ALL the movies. There were brochures that gave hints to the different options available. Watching them all in 24 hours would have been impossible.
On a likely unrelated note, there was a sign on the TV indicating that I could order an in room massage by calling the front desk. I looked at the English translation of the hotel guide for details (always read the hotel guide to find where the nearest fire exit is), and the guide explained that yes, a masseuse could be ordered. I am going to assume it was a real massage, and not a “massage”. The bigger question is how could anyone get a massage in a hotel room that tiny.
By this point it was still before 8:00pm. I changed clothes and headed back out to the subway station to seek out an attraction from my guidebook – The Umeda Sky Building. The building is famous for its design: it looks like a table on top of two glass towers. There is a glass elevator from ground level to the 35th floor, and a glass walled escalator takes you up to the 39th floor. A glass walled escalator is an interesting experience, especially at night when the city it lit up. Not recommended for those afraid of heights.
The escalator lets you off at the 39th floor, which offers amazing 360 degree views of Osaka. It’s also possible to go up to the rooftop “floating garden” for an open air view of the city. Unfortunately it was raining at the time, so I didn’t spent much time on the rooftop. If you like unique buildings or tall places with a good city view, Umeda Sky building is a cool place for both in Osaka.
I spent a long time looking out the windows at Osaka before finally deciding to call it a night and head back towards my hotel, and towards a long overdue dinner.
(2015 Note) Unfortunately Park Hotel Rinkai has closed permanently. It was a good, inexpensive place to stay in Osaka. I ended up staying there 2 more times before moving back to Canada.
July 5, 2005 pt1 – Himeji Castle
Posted by Barniferous in Western Japan on July 2, 2015
A front view of Himeji Castle from inside the castle grounds
This morning I woke up early and headed west towads Himeji to see the famous castle. Himeji is about 500km west of Numazu, so I took the shinkansen (bullet train) instead of regular trains. The closest shinkansen station is in Mishima, which is convenient because I could use my regular work commuter pass to get there. At Mishima I bought an unreserved ticket to Himeji. Each shinkansen has several cars with unreserved seats.
The Tokaido shinkansen has three options: Kodama, Hikari, and Nozomi. The Kodama stops at all shinkansen stations, but has the most unreserved cars. The Nozomi only stops at major stations and has the fewest unreserved cars. I struck a balance and took the Hikari. Three hours later I arrived at Himeji station.
Upon exiting Himeji station, you can instantly see the famous Himeji castle. It looks close but only because the castle and grounds are HUGE. It’s actually a solid 1.7km walk (thanks Google). The castle is one of Japan’s many UNESCO world heritage sites. It was built in the late 1500s, and unlike many castles in Japan, is still the original building. Somehow the castle survived 400 years of wars, earthquakes, typhoons, people, and a modern city springing up around it.
Himeji castle is probably the best thing I have seen in my almost 2 years in Japan so far. I could literally write about it for hours, describing in detail the different buildings, the steep stone base, the arrow ports, the crests built into the roof, and other awesome details. Words really don’t do Himeji castle justice – it’s something that needs to really be experienced in person. My favourite part was when I finally got to the top of the castle and looked out the window. I could see the castle grounds below and the city all around while feeling a nice cool breeze. I would have been happy to stay there until they asked me to leave.
A view from the top floor of Himeji castle
If you are lucky enough to visit Himeji castle, I have one word of advice: wear comfortable shoes. The only way to get around the sizable castle grounds is on foot. I won’t soon forget the fashionably dressed woman sitting on the ground complaining to her boyfriend about how her feet hurt. Seriously, who wears heels to a 400 year old castle? Wear comfortable shoes with good support, you’re going to need them.
Not only is Himeji Castle an impressive structure, but all of the displays and information are available in both Japanese and English. Most famous tourist spots in Japan have good information available, but Himeji truly raises the bar. Himeji is truly a must see place in Japan.
July 4, 2005 – VACATION BEGINS!
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on July 1, 2015
VACATION YAY!
Today was the first day of my week off. Unlike last year where I used my vacation time to host visitors from back home, I will actually get some time to myself. I am planning on going west to see Himeji Castle and Osaka tomorrow, but I spent my first day off being VERY lazy.
How lazy was I? Well, the only way I could have been more lazy would have involved some planning, which would have required effort, which would have disqualified it from being lazy.
July 1, 2005 – Feeling old on Canada Day
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on June 30, 2015
Happy Canada Day!
I celebrated by going to a farewell party for a student at Mishima NOVA who is moving to Canada to seek her fortune. The party went all night, but I only stayed out until 2:00am. I must be getting old.
(2015 Update) Due to NOVA’s policy prohibiting interaction with students outside of the classroom, my original post 10 years ago mentioned a farewell party for a friend instead of a student. Calling Yuki a friend is not incorrect – I had been out for beer, sushi, and karaoke several times with her, Azeroth, and the regular group of people a few times. I am also still Facebook friends with her to this day.
Drinking in Japan 
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