update on the tandori chips

no picture on this one but they were not all that bad. kind of sweet for tandori chicken but a mix between bbq and hickory chips. not as weird as you would think.

players house

who's a playa?

Biking up to Shibuya and we went to some back streets where there was all this 'urban' wear (translation hip hop/rap culture) Never been back there but it was pretty interesting with the beats blaring from the shopfronts. a lot of music and clothing stores but this one sign caught my eye... I didn't go inside but I wonder what they sell...

cherries way up here

elevator police

went biking out to Shibuya and biking up one of the main Tokyo arteries we biked by a police car with it's cherries flashing BUT! Tokyo police cars have this cool contraption where the lights are on a sort of elevator device where it elevates the lights another 50cm or so above the car roof. I don't understand why this car was using it as it was parked in an uphill spot so anyone coming from behind can quite clearly see but I guess normally it is for better visibility.

shotengai!

the shopping street shotengai

Tokyo is all about the shopping arcades right outside the train stations. each one has it's own local flavor and my local one is no different. it's actually one of the longest ones in Tokyo and it's called the 'PALM' shotengai. I have no idea where they came up with the name but it's pretty funny. It probably goes on for over 400M and stretches out on some side streets as well with well over 100 stores. The nice thing is that the entire street is covered so it is not as cold in the winter, cooler in the summer and doesn't matter if it rains. Not a sexy area but can get all your day to day things!

all aboard!

train train

Walking around Tokyo you sometimes see some funky architechture but this was a first... someone has brought an old train car into their yard and attached it to their house. yes, nestled away in the middle of a quiet residential neighbourhood of Tokyo is a train car... I think the person must be some kind of train maniac because they have some other container shipping cars in their yard as well. strange strange strange...

parking elevator

parking elevator garage

lack of space in Tokyo has created some inventive solutions, like the elevator garage! you push a button and the contraption brings your car down to ground level. craaaazy!

Napule!

napule!

went out last night for some good eats. a couple of weeks ago, actually in February, walked by this joint and it looked mighty good. they have a big stone oven in which they were baking pizza's so I decided to ask for a business card. the guy at the front gave me one and told me there is usually a two week wait for tables. how crazy is that? so I made a reservation for a Friday night and that was yesterday.

is a nice little Italian pizzeria restaurant tucked down a sidestreet in a trendy area of Tokyo , Aoyama. the first floor is just kitchen and the big brick oven and on the second story is about 15 tables. a very cozy restaurant with a great ambiance. nothing romantic but just a lively boisterous atmosphere. the service was friendly and not pretentious, the patrons not hoity toity and the food was great! a little on the expensive side but overall would make the recommendation to anyone looking for some good eats and a great atmosphere but at a price... keke.

as you can see from the picture, the building itself is a little bit unique. I told my friend I was going who had been there before, asking her if the food was good and she mentioned that the building would probably fall down in an earthquake. OK, so the building is a little 'rustic' but I think that was all a part of the charm. some of the servers were Italian (I think... they seemed to be speaking in some foreign tongue not Japanese and not English) and the interior definately did have character. A lot of these kinds of small restuarants tucked away in a corner in Tokyo, which is one thing I love.

On a side note, didn't end up going to the bar to watch the Japan vs Iran game but instead fumed at home as the boys in blue put on a pathetic effort against the Iranians. If you are Iranian it was a great game to be at, 120,000 fans packing the stadium in Tehran and seeing Iran beat one of the top teams in Asia en route to the 2006 World Cup. Bummer to be a Japan fan like me though... those Japanese boys are too pampered...

engrish 102

engrish 102

ok, this is again from that same store in Yokohama. yes ladies and gentlemen, you read correctly! this is a SIRINDER LED clock!!

good thing they didn't misplace the L in clock with an R!

If you click on the picture in the blog, you can open the original picture (I think...) take into account that all the pictures on this blog are taken with my cell phone camera of 1.3megapixels (sorry folks, Japan only Sony Ericson 3G model...) so they are not of the highest quality but you can see that there is also a SIRINDER Digital Clock above the SIRINDER LED Clock. hillarious.

oh yeah, there are still more to come from this one store. I had a field day!

the latest engrish craze

advertising in Japan

OK, more engrish from Japan. the recent trend is to create new letters by reversing of creating combinations of letters which don't exist in the normal English language.

Case and point: PE backwards N CK is read???

this is an ad for a designer cell phone which takes after the apple iPod look, completely encased in silver and pretty cool looking but sure to be passe in about oh, a month. this ad is actually on the side of Shibuya station, each of those squares is a regular window to give you an idea on the size of the entire ad. the ad is lit up by floodlights and must be a good five stories high. coooool.

weirdest potato chip flavour of the month

weirdest potato chip flavour of the month

striving for the newest and funkiest new product can be challenging. people like new bold flavours. for all those people, ta dah!! tandori chicken flavoured potato chips!! yes! that's right!

now don't get me wrong, I have developped a flavour for Indian cuisine here in Tokyo (yes, very tasty and authentic!) but this took the cake. I had to buy it... I have not yet tried it though as I have been getting home late and trying to eat healthy but I will come home sooner rather than later one of these days after some pints and I am sure I will crack it open and go to bed with the nastiest tandori chicken breath this side of the planet.

engrish 101

engrish 1

ahhhh... engrish in Japan. Often times they just fail to spell words correctly or they spell them phonetically Japanese style. it is quite amusing though to see such miscues on such a large scale. sometimes you do a double take and wonder which is the correct spelling.

This was taken at a store in Yokohama. More to follow from the same store. I wonder why they don't just put it in Japanese?

comme ca?

all in line!

went out to the 'Grandberry Mall' outlet today. It is only about 35 minutes on the train from Shibuya so easy to get to. Really liked the layout since it was allself contained with walkways rather than parking lots in between. It is quite a compact outlet and feels more upscale but the selection wasn't the greatest.

One of the stores in Japan is called 'Comme Ca' and they have various spins on that. I think the mens is called 'Comme ca Mens' --- yes original! and the one in the outlet was 'Comme Ca Ism' which is not a typo... I have no idea what it means other than the 'Comme ca' part. The chain always has some funky mannequins in the show window. At this particular store they had an in store display which was ... unique?

view from hotel...

view from the hotel

another day in Osaka, this time got hooked up in the Nikko hotel. It is a nice hotel, ended up with a twin room instead of a single which was nice but to be honest since I am staying by myself and spend almost no time there, anything would do... The hotel is uniquely shaped, you can check out the link I have attached as well. it was about a 10-15 minute walk to my office which was ideal because when the weather is nice it is a pleasant walk.

I was put up on the 11th floor of 32 I think and this is the view from the window. Nothing much to see but the interesting thing is the statue of liberty which I suspect is either a love hotel or a pachinko parlour. Osaka seems to have a lot less tall buildings than Tokyo and the people are much more approachable. Definately a different feel.

kero kero!

kero kero!

Another Osaka business trip...

Was in Osaka coming out of Honmachi station when I saw this giant frog... it's actually a giant recycling item collection box in the station. Since there are a lot of people who read newspapers/magazines on the train and subway while commuting, they put this handy dandy frog to collect the items. It is actually a play on words because the word frog in Japanese 'kaeru' can also mean 'to return'

Japanese fruit stands

fruit stand

This is a fruit stand right outside the station closest to my house. It is one of the typical mom and pop shops where they sell fruit. It is a nice little stand but the curious way in which Japanese fruit is arranged and sold is pretty cool. As you can see everything is presented meticulously and of course the prices also correspond... the strawberries are all arranged individually and they are of similar sizing, colour, quality etc... I have to say though that the fruit here in Japan is unmatched in both their taste and price! My cousin told me that it is because the way in which they eat fruit is more for dessert or as a treat than as a snack item. People cut the fruit up in smaller pieces and serve it to guests and not like me, bite into a whole apple and eat it like that. Makes sense since fruit is also a very common gift when you go over to someones house or just because as a thoughtful gesture. I have to say that yes, I have paid 5dollars for about 20 strawberries but they are guaranteed to taste good and not have any bad ones and I don't think twice about it now.

wasabi?

wasabi?

just a random store near Komazawa-dori... Art Furniture and Curio? What is 'curio'? and why Wasabi???

bikkuri!

bikuri!

Cycled out to Denenchofu where my friend used to live to eat ramen. We both wanted to bike somewhere not too far just to get out and were hungry so the trek out there. It is only about 5-6km so a quick little jaunt.

Normally we would be all over ramen after drinking or as a closer but this time we wanted to eat it for lunch. On the way we say this 'Bikkuri Ramen' store... 180yen a bowl!!

Of course we were psyched for the other ramen shop (which I can't remember the name for the life of me now...) but this place was also interesting...

as a sidenote, it took forever to take this shot due to the heavy traffic. I have two or three shots of some big trucks if anyone wants them *grin*

more snow~

more snow...

Must say that it is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas・・・ this weather is craziness! it snowed more this time in Tokyo and I think this is the most snow that I have seen here in my entire time. There was actually slush on the ground and it wrecked havoc on the trains and transport here as people are just not equipped for snow.

Ended up waiting 15~20 minutes in a crowded train car doing nothing, thank god for the iPod and the tunes else I may have gone postal on someone. heh heh.

It was originally a warm winter until the end of December and since I think they have been saying record snowfalls... what's going on! at least the ski slopes are happy but unfortunately have only been able to go once this season.

pokah night~!

pokah night!

a little addicted to poker lately... the second time in a week which I have played and tonite it was at one of the bigwigs in my company. He has a pimping pad and this is the entrance way. yes, that is a waterfall and those are the boys carrying the snacks into the apartment.

tonite didn&t prove as fruitful as the last time but ended up in the black by about 20 bucks due to some well timed wins of a game similar to midnight baseball which we coined *midnight roppongi* which anyone who has visited Tokyo may be able to relate to. the good thing was that the guy who ended up the big winner lived in my neighbourhood so it was a free ride home. heh heh.