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Night view from our hotel room, overlooking the intense cityscape.

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Pictures from Ben's guided garden tour- a small residential garden, pond near the Imperial Palace, and the "Sky Garden," on top of a freeway interchange, nine stories above ground level.

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Waffle and iced coffee from Blue Bottle at Shinagawa station. In the morning the workers pour out silently like storm troopers off to fight the resistance. At 10:00 at night they are way more relaxed, chatty and laughing as they head back in to catch their trains after a 12 hour work day, some beer or sake and maybe a snack with friends.

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Chiba Marine Fans 7th Inning Stretch

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Beverage service at the game

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Last Day in Tokyo

For Thursday, our last full day in Tokyo, I met Ben around noon after my last keynote ended and we headed out on the train for the afternoon’s adventures. First stop: retrieve our $7 plastic umbrella from our first hotel in Sumida which we had left locked in their umbrella stand. After a quick bento box lunch nearby we got back on the train and headed out towards the Zozo Marines stadium for a baseball game, but first- a side trip to a driving range. We walked about 20 minutes from one of the stations through a residential neighborhood to a sports complex that included tennis courts, batting cages and the driving range. They spoke as much English at this remote driving range as we spoke Japanese so after much pointing and waving and laughing we finally managed to get some clubs and were assigned a stall at the range with a card preloaded with money to get range balls. In Japan I guess they are pretty particular about which stall you were in so that conversation of “which stall do you want?” and then us saying “we don’t care” went back and forth for 10 minutes. Finally set up we spent about an hour hitting balls with lots of other avid golfers - also avid smokers- nearby. They have a cool system where the balls are underground and they are presented to you one at a time from a pop-up tee. When you remove the ball, the tee submerges and then comes back up to the matt with a new ball. We decided to do a little target practice and hit a net basket about 50 yards out. I got the ball in directly on my first try, nothing but net with a 7-iron making me queen of the Nikke Coulton driving range.

We walked 20 minutes to the next train station up the way and got back on the train for the stadium which is about 90 minutes away from the heart of Tokyo. There were tons of food booths set up outside the stadium selling food and beer and they lots of picnic tables set up so people could relax before the game. After some sausages, beer and fries, we headed in to our seats, me with my Dan Wilson Mariners jersey on and Ben with his Seattle Mariners hat. Of course we were watching the Chiba Marines take on the Honshu Tigers but that didn’t stop us. Both teams had huge fan clubs at the game who sing songs for each player the whole time and wave flags, and play drums and horns. There were fireworks for no apparent reason during the 5th inning and in the 7th inning as each team was on their third out the opposite team’s fans would blow up giant balloons and then release them whistling off into the air as they deflated. The most noticeable differences in Japanese baseball and American baseball were as follows: 1)They are super obvious about the bunt and bunt constantly. And 2) beverage service in the stands is handled by what seems like a troupe of Japanese sorority girls, all in their 20′s, with full make-up and hair-dos wearing cute baseball outfits with either short-shorts or mini-skirts and knee socks with knee pads. They come around constantly with their beverage keg packs on their backs, cups in hand, smiles on their faces waving. I think the two guys behind us ordered 20 whisky sodas or beers because those girls came up the stairs for them every 10 minutes. Ben really regretted his decision to purchase two giant beers that we brought with us to our seats, and I didn’t drink much of mine so he didn’t really need to order a drink. Too bad.

After a quicker express train ride back into town we finished our night with a little bottle of bubbly and some fruit and cheese we picked up at our train station at Shinagawa at Dean & Deluca which was still open at 11:00pm and busy!

Off to the airport this morning and will arrive in Seattle many hours before we even departed in Tokyo.

Sayonara, until next time.

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The Jyogasaki coast

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Some of the kaiseki dinner

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Ben's room at Hanafubuki ryokan and the onsen bath and the wash station that is similar at all springs in Japan.

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Solo Adventure in Izu-Kogen

As Becky mentioned, I wanted to spend an extra night in the Japanese countryside before returning to the hustle and bustle of Tokyo, so while she continued onward to start her workweek on Monday, I got off the train at the upscale seaside town of Izu-Kogen to spend a night at a ryokan and hike part of the Jogasaki trail, which hugs the rugged volcanic coast in that area. I felt immediately lonely standing on the platform waving goodbye to Becky as she sped away on the train. I was headed to spend a night on my own in an inn which would be best enjoyed together with her, in a small town where I don’t speak the language or know anybody. But I pulled myself together pretty quick knowing my stay had been pre arranged and that this town would probably be like many of the others we had visited with friendly locals willing to help America-jin tourists. I walked ten minutes to the ryokan where I was told I could not check in for several more hours. I anticipated this since allowing early check-in is rare for Japanese hotels. But the inn was happy to hold onto my suitcase, so I decided to head down to the coast for a walk and picnic lunch with leftover food, which I had packed in my daypack from the night before. I stopped off at a local grocery to buy some sake and headed to the coast to find a good picnic spot. The Jyogasaki trail is a well maintained trail about 10km long, with several access points and connections to other trails. The trail runs along the top of volcanic sea cliffs, around many little pocket coves and valleys. Both the scenery and the flora seemed like a cross between Cape Flattery and Hawaii, with mountains and hanging valleys descending to waves crashing on rocks below, and a very fragrant mix of evergreens and tropical plants. After about 45 minutes, I found a nice spot on a point off the trail for a picnic and decided to strip down to enjoy a clothes-free “airbath,” sitting on the warm rocks above the waves. I spent over an hour there enjoying the view, the sun, and the breeze- perfect conditions! I then hiked about 45 more minutes back to the ryokan and was definitely ready for an onsen bath before dinner. The Hanafubuki ryokan is a higher end traditional inn with seven onsen baths that guests can enjoy privately. My room was a traditional tatami type room with a beautiful view out into the forest. The inn’s manager spoke good English and gave me all the various rules as she walked me to my room. Fortunately Becky and I had stayed in ryokan on our previous trip, so I was already pretty familiar with how it all works. I got settled in and went to the springs. Each spring has its own washing area where you are supposed to do a deep clean scrub before getting into the onsen since there is nothing added to the spring water to keep it clean. Definitely supposed to do a lot more cleaning than the quick rinse that people may or may not do before getting in a hot tub in the US- much cleaner protocol over here (as I previously suggested to Becky’s dad Boyd, he needs to come here if he ever wants to get in another hot tub..). I could barely get in the spring because it was so hot, but they conveniently had a cold water tap to regulate the temperature. It’s great to soak in fresh spring water confident that everyone follows the rules around here and gets totally clean before entering. After the spring I took a nap and then headed for the tradition kaiseki dinner, which was one of the better meals I’ve had in Japan, with many local ingredients prepared and presented in the artful Japanese way. I could write a whole post about the meal, but will just include a few pictures. A particular standout was the mackerel sashimi which was like butter. We often order mackerel when we are out for sushi, and I think this was the best Ive ever had- not sure if it was some different type. I sat on the floor in the traditional style which wasn’t very comfortable after my hike, but I figured I can always sit in a chair at home, so might as well do like the Japanese do. After dinner I returned to my room and immediately fell asleep for the night. Woke up at 5:30 the next morning like I have been since arriving, so had time to do more of the trail. Went for a beautiful 2 hr morning hike/ run, came back for another hot spring soak and breakfast, then caught the train back to Tokyo, which included a segment on the Shinkansen bullet train, which is fantastic. Arrived to Shinagawa station to massive throngs of people and met back up with Becky at her hotel.

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Tempura chef behind the fryer, shrimp heads and eel with the long tempura spine. Crunchy and delicious.

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Enjoying Ekiben on the train from Shimoda featuring the local snapper on a bed of rice and seaweed with marinated mushrooms and pickles. And of course, sake.

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Rush Hour

On Monday morning we woke up early and went for a quick swim at the little beach by the marina below our hotel in Shimoda. After breakfast the hotel owner drove us to the train station where we picked up one of the local “ekiben” which are special bento boxes sold at train stations that feature the local specialties of the region. We got on the train and Ben got off about 40 minutes later at Izu Kogen, for his overnight adventure at a ryokan (traditional inn) in the woods. I stayed on the train into Tokyo and got off at Shinagawa station and walked to my hotel.

This morning, I went to Blue Bottle coffee at the train station and had a blissfully simple breakfast of cold brew iced coffee and a little eggy, crunchy waffle served in a brown paper coffee filter. From the 2nd floor I watched the endless parade of office workers pouring out of the train station on their way to work at about 8:00. I got stuck 3 times trying to get out of there as it’s impossible to cross this traffic horizontally. You actually have to go whatever direction everyone else is doing and do your best to work your way across.

After checking out the conference venue on the opposite side of the train station and working for a few hours there, I went to a tempura restaurant for lunch and sat at the counter where the chef was working the fryer, dipping items in and out with chop sticks. In America you order tempura, they bring it to you and you can consume it however you like. Not so here. I was presented with various condiments like a lemon slice in it’s own squeezer, sea salt in a pot, minced radish, some kind of soy sauce and other items. As they started presenting me with tempura shrimp heads, shrimp, asparagus, etc. I would sprinkle them with salt, or squeeze a bit of lemon on them. The server came over and immediately starting filling all the little empty dishes on my platter with the various condiments, each had it’s designated own dish. The condiments go in the dish before they go on your food. Then the tempura cook, who was frying up my food in front of me started notifying me which condiments I had to eat with which foods. It was delicious but I started feeling like my every move was being watched and I was always doing it wrong :-).

Later in the afternoon, Ben arrived to join me and settled in to our luxe accommodations at the Intercontinental. I have the first day of my conference tomorrow and Ben is off with a tour guide. 

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Ben's picnic dinner: baguette with Camembert and ikura.

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American flags were posted from recent celebration of the Black Ships.

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Town of Shimoda