Japan in America

About 3 months or so ago, I was surfing on the website "Yelp", when I came across a sushi restaurant in my home town that I had never heard of before.  I was shocked to see that it was rated extremely high.  How could this place be here without me knowing about it??  My old Japanese friends who have visited here have tasted some of the other popular sushi restaurants near my house that are quite good.  This one though was different.  It is really good, and it combines traditional Japanese sushi with some nouvelle French style cuisine.  The result is very impressive.

From the outside, it is nothing special.  It sits in the corner of a small shopping area and if you didn't know it was there you might drive right on by it.  However once you walk in the door, it reminds me instantly of being in Japan.  It is a relatively small shop (like Japan), with a counter that seats around 12, and tables that seat maybe 3 times that much.

The owner is a nice man named Hideki-san.  He and his wife run this place.  His wife's sister actually works for the same company that I do in Tokyo, so we exchanged some stories.  This restaurant is less than two years old and I am very hopeful that they make it.  It is not easy in this business where I live as there is a lot of competition.

The quality of fish here and the preparation is extremely high.  I am looking forward to taking some of my Japanese friends here to see if they agree.  Oh, and the name of this place?  It is called "Bistro Anju".  I highly recommend it (and so does my wife)!!!

Great Dinners in Japan: Torizen

So I got to thinking, if there are people out there who are actually reading this blog, they may think all I do in Japan is go out to dinner.  Well with more than 30 trips to the Land of the Rising Sun under my belt, which average 5 nights a pop, that comes to over 150 dinners.  So yes, I have had a LOT of dinners in Japan!!  :-)

There are a few though that stick out above the others (quite a few actually, heck maybe even most!!!) and one of these was a special night in Tagajo in October of 2008.  After a meeting at our facility, a group of coworkers and I went out to Torizen, a great restaurant just around the corner from our plant.  It has kind of a unique facade, as there is a waterwheel in the lovely garden in front, and the building itself almost looks more like a house than a restaurant.

Inside, there are different sections in the restaurant, with different table set ups.  Some have their own cooktops I think, and then there are private rooms that can accommodate groups of say 8 or more.  They have FANTASTIC fresh fish among other things.  This was one of the few restaurants where I have actually eaten uni out of it's own shell.

Anyway on this particular night my friends had booked a private room, and we enjoyed a wonderful meal.  It was a really relaxing evening, with great food and great conversation.  At the end, we took the following picture.

Now in searching through my photo archives, I realized I didn't have any good shots of the front of Torizen.  As you can probably guess, Torizen was quite severely impacted by the Tsunami.  However, I believe I have heard that they have reopened.  I will try to get some confirmation on this.  I was sent the following picture of the front of Torizen taken just days after the Tsunami.  Quite a mess unfortunately.

I do hope to return to this fantastic restaurant once again, and share another meal with friends.

Japan Trip - Mako Playing Blues Alley Again

I am making a much anticipated trip to Japan next month.  It is my first trip since the Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami on March 11th  It will surely be a very memorable trip, and I look forward to it very much.

I also wanted to let everyone know Mako-san has another show coming up at Blue's Alley in Tokyo.  She will be singing there on Sunday, November 20th.  She will also be selling her first single there I believe.  A very special time for her!  Regrettably, I will miss her show by just a few days.
http://www.bluesalley.co.jp/schedule/live.html

When the starter gets tired, it's time to go to the bullpen - Osamu's Place

Here in the U.S., it is baseball season playoffs time, and I thought I would use that theme to describe this post.  One night not too long ago in Kita-Shinagawa, I had the pleasure to go out in Japan with my old friend Tom and his beautiful wife Mimi.  We had a nice dinner, and then decided to have a short Karaoke practice session at my favorite spot Tampopo.  On this particular night the Master and Mama-san seemed a bit tired and closed early (probably right on schedule that particular night, but it seemed early to us!).  We did not feel we were "done" with our session, so we seeked out another place that might be open down the "Tokaido Road".

It was actually a bit late (just after 11:00 maybe), when we stumbled up some stairs, down a hall, to a closed door with the faint sound of music inside.  We opened the door, and voila!  Inside was a smallish karaoke shop that was oriented to western (American) music.  It was called "Osamu's Place" (I think.  I took a business card but at the moment cannot find it!).

This place has only a few tables, and there was another small group of people in there when we entered.  They left after a short time, and then another group came in and took their place.

In this fuzzy picture is the Master "Osamu" (I hope I am getting his name right!!!).  He was a very nice guy, and was happy we came in.  Well the second group that came in was a few guys along with a couple of ladies.  It was also a niji-kai for them.  After a number of songs, one of the guys gets up and sings "Desperado" by the Eagles (quite well I might add).  When I acknowledged his song by calling out the name and artist at the beginning, we started socializing a bit with this group.  I then sang "Take It Easy" by the Eagles on my next turn.  We had fun with this group, although they did not speak English (Tom and Mimi handled the translations).

The picture above is of Tom, himself a very accomplished karaoke singer.  I have found so many of my Japanese co-workers to be amazing singers.  This has really impressed me.  Pictured below is Mimi (sorry again for the blurry picture).  She is also a very good singer!!!

We ended up having a really good session with this group of people who came in.  The one guy (who sang the Eagles song) worked for Fujitsu in sales and he gave me his card.  I think we finished at around 1:00 a.m. or so.  You never really know what is going to happen when you venture out in Tokyo.  This was a perfect example of the beauty that can await.

The Leader of the Ichi Ryu Yatai Mura

My favorite Tokyo restaurant, the Ichi-Ryu Yatai-Mura in Kita-Shinagawa, is very capably run by Mutsumi F.  Mutsumi-san has always been so kind to me, ever since the very beginning of my visits to this wonderful place.  In return for this kindness, as well as always good food and drink, I have given this place my loyalty.  I have always wanted to take one of their boat cruises (they have one boat that is anchored off the deck in the back).  Their boat is appropriately named the "Mutsumi Maru".  One of these days, I will make it (I heard they have Karaoke available on the boat at nights - this also draws me to it!!!).

One of my favorite stories about Mutsumi-san is that one night I was having dinner in there with two friends, one of whom was Japanese.  At a table close by, a group of Japanese construction workers (complete with their fashionable baggy pants and special footware) were having a hard core drinking party.  We were later to find out they were celebrating the completion of one of those new Shinagawa Station area skyscrapers I talked about in a previous post.  There was probably eight of them, and they had a large water pitcher that they filled up with Shochu.  They would pass around the pitcher, and when it was your turn, you would stand up and chug that Shochu while the other clapped and said some kind of Japanese cheer.  It was heavy, heavy drinking, and these guys were getting very intoxicated.  Well after a little while, one of them comes over to our table and invites us to join them.  He was speaking in Japanese to our one local guy.  I thought hey this could be a very fun experience!!!  Drink with these local Japanese guys.  What a party!  Then what flashed through my mind though was how I knew my head would feel the following morning, and I did have business meetings the next day.

Just as all of these thoughts were swirling through my mind, Mutsumi-san, who was watching this whole exchange, quickly came over to our table and admonished the construction worker and told him to leave us alone.  She motioned him to go back to his table, which of course he did.  Mutsumi-san was looking after her loyal customer, and probably knew if we had entered into that madness it was not going to be a pretty sight.

Thank you Mutsumi-san for watching out for us, and for always being so nice each time I stop in for a meal.

Nov. 2010 Japan Trip - Post #9: Dinner in Tagajo

After visiting the Chuson-ji Temple (which has now received the coveted UNESCO World Heritage Site designation), we drove back down south to Tagajo to meet up with some additional friends for a group dinner.  Before we hit the round though, we stopped in one of the only open places outside of the Temple for some refreshments.  The walk around the grounds had built up a thirst in all of us!

I am not sure of the name of the restaurant in Tagajo, but it was a nice, modern style Izakaya type place.  Upon arrival Mary and I had a chance to meet my good friend Sam's wife and son which was very cool.  The decor of the restaurant was quite nice, and the company was of course fantastic.  Having two of my previous co-workers there (Henry and Miyazaki-san) along with my other close friends was quite special.  That they had all given up their Sunday nights to do this with Mary and me made it even more so.

We enjoyed many nice dishes, and everyone made us feel so welcome and happy.  At the end, one of these friends (and I am so embarrassed to say I forgot who - was it Tak, or Henry, or Tom?) brought in a nice cake for dessert that we all shared.

This was a great way to spend our first night in Miyagi.  When dinner was over, we took the following group picture outside.  Then, after transferring our luggage over to Tom's car he gave us a ride to our hotel in Matsushima where we checked in.  Thanks again to everyone who joined us at this wonderful dinner.

As a final note, can any of my friends tell me the fate of this restaurant after the March 11th earthquake and tsunami?  I hope they came out ok.

I'm Back! (again)

It has been a while since the last post, and I am sorry for the interruption. No excuses, just have been busy with other stuff. Anyway, I have a number of new posts in the queue that I hope to get out soon. So stay tuned! Thanks for your continued interest.

Phase Bar - Aoyama

One night after a nearby dinner just off the Omotesando in Aoyama, I was walking through the neighborhoods in search of some cool places to go when I stumbled upon the Phase Restaurant/Bar.  I was drawn in by it's modernistic, bunker style cement block architecture, and segmented business structure.  On the first floor (Phase) there was a clean and stylistic bar.  On the second Phase was a relatively small restaurant.  On the third Phase there was a small room that served as either a place to consume your bar drinks, or your restaurant fare.  We had a drink or two on the top floor, which has an open skylight ceiling that I imagined in the summer time might be quite fantastic.  I vowed to come back, the next time with a larger party.  I fulfilled my promise.  While I did not get any good outside daytime pictures of this place, thanks to the beauty of Google Maps, here it is!  Technically speaking it is in Kita-Aoyama.

We had a couple of nice party's on their third floor space.  In fact, we took it over one night and had it all to ourselves.  It was a wonderful time.  I cannot seem to find any mention of this place on the internet, and wonder if it is still in business.  It is another place that I would really like to return to one of these days.  For now though, it is just a great memory, and a reminder that there are thousands of cool places like this that are hidden all over Tokyo.

The party that this picture is from took place in 2005.  I love it when everyone is seen laughing.  A very good time that night indeed.  Do you remember it?

Spending a fun Friday night in Tokyo with good friends at cool places in one of my favorite things to do.

Location, Location, Location!!!

In the real estate business, they say there are only three things that matter.  Location, location, location.  I thought it might be convenient for anyone looking to go to any of the places written about in this Blog if they had an interactive map.  So here you go!  If you click on the map to activate it, you should be able to press the zoom in/out and directional buttons on the top left to manipulate the map.  You can also click and hold on the map and drag it to whatever side you want.  If you click on one of the balloons, it will tell you what is there.  Google technology at it's finest.

View Tokyo Sites from What a Wonderful World in a larger map

I will put another map together soon of the Tohoku region along with the visited spots up there.  Maybe south of Tokyo as well.  For now though, take a tour through one of the greatest cities in the world - Tokyo!!!

Great Dinners in Japan: Conne

Recently I came across my old camera, a serviceable yet now obsolete device that I last used probably 4 years ago.  In it, there were four Memory Sticks which contained a number of pictures that I had neglected to transfer over to my home PC.  It was great reviewing those old photos which brought back many wonderful memories.  A number of them were from a great dinner I took part in at Conne, an Izakaya in Oimachi that I would like to share with you.

It was in December of 2006, and a number of co-workers assembled in Tokyo for some meetings.  I ended up recommending that our group head over to Conne, where Kenji-san and Mako-san would take good care of us.  Here is a picture of these two doing their thing on that very night.

The small shop was quite crowded that night, and I was happy for Kenji as he had relatively just started running this restaurant.  We ate well, and had our expected good service.

Not too long after this meal I had heard that Mako-san left Conne.  This was disappointing to me, and I am sad to say I have not been back to the shop.  As I have stated before in this Blog, I do know that Conne is still operating which is very good news.

I hope to return to Conne again on my next visit if there is time.  It has been 5 years now that Kenji-san has been running this restaurant.  In the hyper-competitive world of Tokyo Izakaya's, I think this says something good about Kenji and his cuisine.

Shinagawa Grows Up

As I was going through some of my older pictures from Japan, I came across some simple shots that I took around Shinagawa Station, some of them from my hotel room.  In each was a reminder that not too long ago, the area around the Shinagawa train station had a completely different look.  In the between the years 2000 and 2005, there have been a number of huge skyscrapers that have gone up.  The areas look has changed.  I remember how dismayed I was to see this construction, which blocked the views of Tokyo Bay from my hotel room (if I was lucky enough to get one facing east).

These pictures were all taken from December of 2001.  Initially, most of the established high rise buildings at the time were the hotels on the inland side of the station.  Then a building explosion happened quite suddenly on the eastern side of the tracks.

I guess this should be considered progress, as I am sure it added a lot of jobs to the area, which in turn helped a lot of the local merchants.  Here is a shot of the NTT Docomo building getting close to completion.

There has been a huge increase in the number of new restaurants in the area around Shinagawa Station as a result of all of this construction.  However it has also brought an increase in traffic and people.  Note in this photo the new Shinkansen Station (along with all of it's accompanying cool shops) is just starting to be built.

Now fast forward to 2005, and you can see the finished buildings in these photos.  Notice the finished new Shinkansen Station at the bottom right side of this photo as well as the completed DoCoMo building..

Here are some of the completed skyscrapers in 2005 a little bit to the south of the station.

I do miss the "old Shinagawa".

Nov. 2010 Japan Trip - Post #8: Chuson-ji Temple

After taking a brief stop for lunch, Tak, Henry, Mary and I got back into Tak's car for the remainder of our drive further north into the Tohoku towards our destination near the town of Hiraizumi.  Our end target was the Chuson-ji Temple, a famous 12th century facility built by the Fujiwara family who ruled the area at the time.  The walk up to the Temple grounds shows that we were visiting at a perfect time as the maple trees were showing off their true beauty.

The grounds of this place are quite extensive, and include a large Main Hall (Hondo), a Museum (Sankozo) which unfortunately did not allow any photography, and the highlight of the entire site, a Golden Hall (Konjikido).  The Golden Hall is considered a National Treasure in Japan, and is a small building originally completed in 1124.  It is incredibly ornate, and is completely covered in gold leaf.  Inside of it lies the remains of four generations of Fujiwara lords.  The building is considered so fragile and special that it is actually housed within a modern, air conditioned building to keep it safe and secure from the elements.  Here is what it looks like up close.

The grounds of this place are quite special.  They are very quiet, and are surrounded by huge, towering redwood trees.  Interspersed amongst these redwoods are fantastic maples of varying colors.

There are various other smaller buildings which comprise the rest of the grounds.  The Golden Hall is the only original surviving building from the Fujiwara era.

This is an incredibly peaceful place.  This is quite fitting considering the original Fujiwara lords were involved in two incredibly bitter wars during the later half of the 11th century.  These wars claimed the lives of the first Fujiwara lords father, wife and children.  This resulted in this lord whose name was Kiyohira, dedicating the rest of his life to peace.  I would like to add that I just found out that the Hiraizumi area has recently (late June) been given a special UNESCO World Heritage site designation.  This is a huge accomplishment for the area, as well as the Chuson-ji Temple.  It is also an indication of it's significance in Japanese history.

Thank you very much Tak and Henry for taking Mary and me to this special place.  I recommend a visit to Chuson-ji.  Come to seek peace, and you shall find it.

I Like "Iron Chef"!

As you may know, I do enjoy cooking when I find the time and desire to do it.  I learned to cook years ago due to a combination of 1) my wife Mary who is an excellent cook 2) watching cooking shows on T.V. and 3) reading and trying out various cookbooks.  One of my very favorite cooking T.V. shows to watch was none other than "Iron Chef".  I am talking about the Fuji T.V. Japanese version of this classic show, and not the American copy which in my opinion ended up being a disaster.  Are you familiar with the Japanese "Iron Chef"?  My understanding is it went off the air many years ago in Japan.  What a group of characters.  Chairman Kaga, Rokusaburo Michiba, who was later replaced by Masaharu Morimoto (Japanese cuisine), Chen Kenichi (Chinese cuisine), Hiroyuki Sakai (French cuisine), and of course Masahiko Kobe (Italian cuisine).

Just watching the following trailer gives me goosebumps on my arms!!!  What fantastic television.  What great music.  It does not get any better!

So you can imagine my great thrill when I had a chance to visit Iron Chef Italian Masahiko Kobe's restaurant in Japan for dinner.  His place is called Massa and is located in the Ebisu area of Tokyo.  When I visited I asked the people there (through a tranlator of course) if Kobe-san was going to be at the restaurant that night.  He was they said, and not only that, he was going to cook our dinner!!!

So then I asked if it would be possible to meet him, and they said certainly, but only after the meal was over and most of the customers have left.  What followed was a classic multi course Italian dinner.  There was an appetizer, pasta, fish, and beef followed by dessert.  A wonderful meal, and of Iron Chef quality!  This post certainly could have been included in my "Great Dinners in Japan" series.  Afterwards, Kobe-san did indeed come out, and the following picture is certainly to be considered one of my favorites.

To me, Kobe-san is like a food version of a rock star.  However in person he was very humble and quite surprised by my strong interest in the show.  After all, it had been off the air in Japan for quite a number of years.  However, in America, it was at the peak of it's popularity!!!  Does Chairman Kaga really swallow the yellow pepper?  Who cares!!!  Thank you Kobe-san!!!!  Allez-cuisine!!!!

My "Go To" Karaoke Song

I can't imagine going to Japan and not taking part on occasion in a Karaoke session of some kind.  I can vividly remember my very first, in the basement of the Shinagawa Prince hotel in 1999.  To be honest, I was a bit nervous about doing it (that is an understatement actually).  I had never sang in front of anyone before, but I will admit I do like to sing on occassion to music when I am driving in my car (alone!).  And living in L.A., I do get to drive a car - A LOT!!!!

While not being at first an admitted lover of Karaoke, through the years and many trips to Japan I have grown quite fond of it.  I have learned how it can be a great time for a group of people.  It certainly doesn't hurt to lubricate your vocal chords either, as you will likely end up straining them if you stay long enough.  I have found that typically each person has one or two "go to" Karaoke songs that they will invariably sing at any session they go to.  It helps if you have one or two songs that you can sing halfway decent.  My favorite "go to" song is "Betterman" by Pearl Jam.  I have sang it quite a bit in Japan, and I never get tired of it.  Here is Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam singing it live in concert.  Judging from the audience participation, I am not the only one who likes to sing it!

That is such a great song!!!  So you must have your own personal favorite too?  Please tell me what it is.  I will punch it into the machine for you.

 

What is your "go to" Karaoke song???  Go ahead, sing it for me!!!

Nov. 2010 Japan Trip - Post #7: North to the Tohoku

Sunday morning of our November Japan trip was moving day. Specifically that means we were leaving Tokyo and heading north to the Tohoku region. We caught a morning Hayate Shinkansen from Tokyo Station and exactly 1 hour and 41 minutes later we pulled into the Sendai Station.

Meeting my wife and I at Sendai Station were two very good friends, Henry and Tak.  I had not seen Henry in quite some time.  He had retired from our company a few years back.  It was great to see him, and he looked very relaxed and fit.  We took our bags and loaded them into Tak's car.  They had planned a special sightseeing trip this Sunday afternoon and we needed to drive about one hour north to reach our destination.  We headed out onto the highway, which in Japan means a toll road.  Interestingly Tak said it was the first time he had driven out on the toll road all year (he typically would stick to the local roads).  What a difference I thought between living in L.A. and living in Sendai!!!  Before we reached our target, we stopped in a large roadside restaurant/convenience store to grab a quick bite to eat.  There were also street vendors selling their specialties out front.  One of the items we bought I had always marveled at on Japan trips for years.  It was a sausage on a bone.  What a great idea to stick a bone into a sausage I thought, especially when you eat with chopsticks!!!

How nice it was to see these two great old friends and to enjoy that simple meal on the side of the road.  I will never forget it!

A Most Interesting Man - Robert Singer

On most of my flights to Japan, I have a routine to keep me busy.  I listen to music, watch a movie or two, eat, and do my best to try and get a few hours of sleep.  Typically this itinerary does not include much socialization with my fellow passengers.  However, on one flight over to Japan a couple of years ago, there was an exception.

Sitting in the comfort of my beautiful upgraded United Airlines business class seat (8J), I thought I would have no one next to me.  At the last minute, just as they closed the doors, a man comes in and takes 8H.  Rats I thought!!!  He was a well dressed American man (suit and tie) in his mid 50's I would guess.  We exchanged pleasantries, and I put my headphones on to begin my usual routine.  Just before we departed LA, a Japanese United Airlines in flight representative came up to talk to both of us as she was walking around exchanging greetings with all of the United high mileage passengers.  After saying hello to her and answering a couple of questions, she turned to my seat mate and he started speaking to her in fluent Japanese. I sat stunned as I listened to them talking, and he had her laughing quite severely with whatever it was he was saying.  I  wondered what does this man do that would allow him to be fluent in Japanese (I was jealous of course!)?

Well long story short, this man, whose name is Robert Singer is the Curator of the Japanese Pavilion at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  He has an extensive history of working and traveling in Japan, and he even lived in Kyoto for a number of years.  We exchanged many of our favorite "Japan stories" as we found out we have many things in common, most obvious being that we both love Japan.  At the end of our long discussion which included much laughter, Mr. Singer invited me to visit the LA County Museum whenever I could and he would show me around the Japanese Pavilion.  A month of two after this business trip, I took him up on his offer.

The Japanese Pavilion at the LACMA is an incredible structure.  Fascinating architecture is a prelude to the wonderful inventory of pieces they have on display inside.  I took my niece along for this visit, as she is a current student at nearby UCLA and shares a love of Japanese culture.  Here are the three of us outside of the Pavilion.

Mr. Singer's tour was fascinating, as he showed the group many of the great pieces that were on display.

In the first and second floor of the Pavilion there were beautiful screens, wood block prints and ceramic pieces.

After we finished with the upper floors, we headed into the basement.  This is where his office is.  Once there, we took a close look at another amazing screen.

Then he showed our group one of LACMA's newest additions.  It was a 6th century terre cotta "Haniwa Horse".  You can read more about this special piece by clicking here.

We then went into his office where he brought out some other wonderful pieces, including some special lacquered vases.

It was really a wonderful afternoon learning about Japanese art.  Mr. Singer told me that I should visit the Hara Museum someday in Gotenyama Hills (I told him my second home was in Shinagawa-ku!).  He is friends with that museums owner (of course!).

Mr. Singer is a most interesting man.  You never know who you may meet on a long airplane flight.  Perhaps I should considering changing my inflight strategy???  :-)

A Very Cool Video of Japan

Hit play on this cool video and then full screen it.  A very relaxing tour around Japan.  Well done!!!  By "Hiokinskywalker".