Cultural Experiences

We've been lucky enough to have a handful of visitors while we've been here, and each time I'm prompted to seek out new experiences.

This time, it was kabuki and a public bath.

Kabuki

The Kabuki-za Theater in Ginza has one-act tickets available on a first-come, first-served basis. Each act is about 40 minutes long, and if you aren't in line soon enough, it's standing room only.

The Kabuki-za Theater in Ginza
Photo from here

If you don't speak Japanese, absolutely spend the extra yen and get the headset for translation. The style is so very...well, stylized, that body language and vocal intonation just aren't enough to follow what's happening. In addition, the plots are fairly complex. In one scene, several characters were lined up, staring straight at the audience without moving anything but their mouths. We were far enough away that we couldn't tell who was talking, so we never would have known that Character A was talking to Character B but speaking in such a way that it was really Character C that was being addressed.

Not the show we saw, but a good representation of the style.
Photo from here

So it turns out that it's not my favorite kind of performance, but it sure was pretty. And now that I've seen it and sampled the style, I can really see its influence in art and cinema through present day. For lack of a better analogy, it's like seeing the original music video and suddenly having a better appreciation for what the parody did with it.

Sento

Near the Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa, I found a sento, or public bath, that the Blogger at Onsen Soaker said is OK with tattoos. I was still a little anxious that I might be turned away, or at least get the stink eye from other bathers, but that wasn't the case. We were definitely the topic of some conversation, but we were completely welcomed, and it warms my heart.

It didn't hurt that inside has beautiful mural that spans both the men's and women's sides of the facility.

Photo from here

Two different obasan (older women) helped us get find the stools and wash basins, showed us how to use the faucets (push, not turn), and told us which bottle was body soap and which was shampoo. Then another obasan instructed us to stand in a particular section and push the button for full-body jets. And to hang on to the rails because they're powerful enough to shoot you across the pool.

Of course I raised my fist toward the opposite wall and cried "Chaaaaarge!" when I let go of the rail. It got a laugh, so it's good to know I don't always need to be able to speak the language well for comedy.

I also learned that denkifuro - electric baths - are a thing. A shallow pool with a mild electrical charge being pumped through it. I...don't know how to feel about that. Tingly, but I can't decide if it was pleasant or alarming. I stood in it before I realized what it was, so I only felt it up to my knees, but that was probably enough.

I wouldn't have gone to the public bath on my own, but it was a neat experience, and very communal. I'm not completely comfortable with nudity, like a lot of Westerners, but I'm learning that in the right setting it can be okay. And Japanese baths and hot springs are the right setting.

Sawtooth Mountain

Nokogiri-yama, or Sawtooth Mountain, is across the bay from Tokyo in Chiba. You can't get there by accident, it takes multiple train transfers, a ferry, and a ropeway.

There was nothing interesting enough on the train to take pictures of, but seeing this car in the ferry parking lot just about made the entire trip worth it.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you advertise with a car.

It was a poorly marked 10-minute walk from the ferry to the ropeway station, but all these people apparently found it just fine.

I would have taken some pictures in the cable car, but I was smashed in the middle and I'm trying to cut back on photos of the backs of peoples' heads.

The observatory, though, was quite spacious.

Note the crazy hairpin turn in the road at the bottom right.

We got a map and plotted a strategy. Husband is smart, so we went down most of the stairs instead of up.

So many stairs. The Sawtooth Mountain is hereby renamed the Kingdom of Stairs.

This is just from the observatory to the Hyaku-shaku Kannon.

The Hyakushaku Kannon is a relief carving of the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy and a memorial to those who died in WWII.

Next stop: the cliff above, the Ruriko Observatory.

Several dozen stairs later, we arrived!

This park is thoughtful and provides benches.

But you know what? I don't need to take a photo from that specific bit of rock badly enough to wait in this queue.

Moving on!

The back of the tourist map says all the stone figures were one big art project, created by an artist devoting his life and those of his 27 apprentices to carving.

Also, hilariously, it states this:

"There is another famous collection of 800 Arhats at Dazhong Temple in Huaian, China, and [is] often referred [to] as being incomparable, yet [ours] surpasses it and is renowned even overseas as the world's holiest ground."

You learn something new every day, I guess.

Many statues, the map says, were destroyed by an anti-Buddhist movement in the Meiji era, and restoration efforts only started recently.

This video ends a bit abruptly. I've compressed more than 22 minutes of video into less than 8, and I figured I had made my point (Kingdom of Stairs).

Not documented is this part:

That part of the walk was dull in comparison, but the Daibutsu of Nihon-ji (giant Buddha) is impressive. The pedestal underneath the lotus blossom alone is 2.7 meters (almost 9 ft) tall. The full height is 31 meters (just over 100 ft).

The view isn't bad, either.

Having seen the daibutsu, it was time to work our way out. Rather than go back up all those stairs, we opted for what seemed like the sensible route to a train station, so we could take the train back to the ferry:

We walked along a stone walkway around a lovely pond

The little red building is a gate used at shrines and temples, complete with some rough-looking god statues (to scare evil spirits away).

Evil spirits, BE AFRAID!

As it turns out, that bit on the map from the grounds gate to the train station? Not to scale. Not even a little. It looks like a quick 5-10 minute walk, but it was closer to 30, through neighborhoods and farmland.

We're going the right way, aren't we?

Someone else is walking this way, we must be on track!

We found the station! (Not pictured) And we managed to get on the train in the right direction and got back to the ferry station later than we expected, but otherwise without incident.

From the ferry parking lot, if I zoom in, I can see the ghost of Mt. Fuji through the late afternoon haze.

Adventure complete!

A Day in Roppongi

Once in a while, we go out for a day. In this case, we thought we might go to Roppongi and see the Godzilla sculpture and the new movie. You know, get all our kaiju out of the way at once.

It's been something of a photo attraction.

The detail is phenomenal.

We could get right up to it, and poking a little at the tail we realized it's all foam. Like, the kind that comes in a spray can that expands and then dries. I wonder two things: one, what the heck will they do with it when they take it down? And two, how do I get to be on a team that sculpts and paints things like this?

Walking through the mall to get to the theater, these were on display to showcase an artist's work (and promote a show? I couldn't read the signs).

We also passed this steakhouse. It is the Very Steak, the Big Cut of Steak.

It also has the misfortune to be right next to an Outback Steakhouse.

The Godzilla movie was fun! It was surreal to see an American version of a Japanese movie franchise while being Americans in Tokyo, but I enjoyed it.

And we went back to visit again after the movie (after dark), because we heard there was a light show.

We had to wait about 20 minutes for the next one, but luckily there was a mojito booth nearby.

There's no reason for this video to be 2 minutes long, but I'm both too lazy to crop it down and too amused by the family running away from the statue in the first ten seconds to bother editing it.

Feel free to skip around, the dramatic parts are at 1:15 and 2:00.

Bonus train advertisement for no reason:

You're welcome.

Genki Sushi, the SUSHI OF THE FUTURE

I might be the last person in Tokyo to discover this Genki Sushi, but it's totally futuristic.

The menu is in a pretty obvious place, on the wall directly in front of you, but that's not the best part.

When you are seated by the staff, they give you a miniature clipboard with a bar code and the number of your booth space, and you have your own tablet with multiple language options that allows you to order by touchscreen.

That's cool too, but the best part is how the sushi gets to you.

While I was eating, my tablet challenged me to a game of Rock Paper Scissors.

I can't remember which one I chose, but it didn't win.

When you're ready to leave, you hit the "check out" button on the tablet, it files your total away with the number of your station, and you bring the miniature clipboard to the front where they scan it and take your money.

The Shibuya location is slightly more expensive than the average kaiten-zushi (sushi-go-round) at about ¥120 a plate for most things and a bit more for the fancier options, but the novelty of the experience is completely worth it, and it's likely other sushi restaurants in the area also have slightly elevated prices as well.



And for no good reason, here's a random creepy photo from a hot dog store a few blocks away.

You're welcome.

Sapporo Yukimatsuri

We've been meaning to go to the Yukimatsuri (snow festival) for a couple years, and things finally lined up. It happens in park spaces in downtown Sapporo, on the northern island of Hokkaido. What is Sapporo like? Here's a taste of the streets (not pictured: walking on icy sidewalk, partially blinded by wind and snow), the food, and some of the things we've seen.



We arrived for the very beginning of the festival, so the good part was getting a bunch of photos without having to fight ridiculous crowds of people. The bad part was that not everything was open for business the first night and some of the sculptures were finished after we left. It evens out, I think.

The sculptures were impressive, as you would expect them to be. (To see a larger version, click the gear at the top right and select "view full resolution".)



The larger ones had colored lights, a couple had light shows at night. This one, representing a historic mausoleum in India, took the idea of a light show and ran with it, going full on with projection mapping.


My favorite part of the sculptures may have been seeing the ones that weren't finished yet. Some of the country-representative, car-sized sculptures were finished after we left, but there was an ice sculpting competition down a major road that had a 24-hour deadline, so we could see the Before and After versions.




There was another location of sculptures, sharing grounds with a pavilion of vendor and company-sponsored booths and bouncy castles for kids, plus some outdoor activities.

Sculptures, snow-covered shrubs, and a couple class field trips. Out of sight is the Cup Noodle-sponsored train for kids.

These sculptures are a little rougher, not having the buildings around to shelter them from the elements.

Cheerleader hippos?

The one on the far right is a weeping person wearing a comedy mask. Pretty deep for a snow sculpture.

They had snow tubing! Just like I was a kid, other than the perfectly manicured lanes and 45-minute wait in line.




The other thing we did that I didn't get photos of was riding in an inflatable raft pulled by a snowmobile around a quarter mile loop. It was fun, but pictures would have been mostly white and incredibly blurry.


What else does one do in Sapporo, you might ask? Take a tour of the Ishiya Chocolate Factory! At first glance, it's a little weird. But then you start the tour and it's pretty neat. Then is gets weird again, until the courtyard doesn't seem out of place at all.



That last photo of the Clione (Sea Angels) doesn't quite capture the weirdness in this aquarium. Video does a better job.




And this concludes our tour of the Ishiya Chocolate Factory and this description of our trip to the Sapporo Yukimatsuri.

Shinjuku Robot: Still The Craziest Show I've Ever Seen

Shinjuku Robot is on our Must Do list for people that come to visit. We've been before, but the show changes a lot and has definitely changed since the last time I wrote about it.

Anthony Bourdain saw it, and the video clip on that link does a decent job of summing up the madness (although it may concentrate a little too much on sparkly butts...they're there, but that's not at all what I get out of the show).

This is the place! Can't miss it.
Seriously. You can't miss it.



And now I encourage you to peruse the imgur album I made, the captions have the rest of the commentary. It be more comfortable to see and read if you click the gear at the top right of the gallery below and select "view album on Imgur."



Have I mentioned lately how much I love Tokyo?

Cat Cafe!

We finally went to a cat cafe. I don't know if this is uniquely Japanese, but I haven't seen them anywhere else we've been.

Shoes are put in plastic bags upon entry, and hands are washed before and after petting the cats.

If I hadn't had cats all my life, this would be great. It's a safe, quiet, relaxing place. It's literally warm and fuzzy.

The drinks are free, and all you need to do is push a button and the machine dispenses both the drink and the cup to hold it.

Blue buttons for cold drinks, red for hot.

The main table has photos of the cats under the glass, and the scrapbook has an adorable little bio for each one.

I'm glad we went, but I'm not sure I'd go again. If I had no contact with cats on a regular basis, I think I'd be more excited about it. I'm a fan of cats, sure, but these cats could not possibly care less about getting human affection. No headbutts, no kitty kisses, no purring. They've got it pretty easy, but they probably find people incredibly boring. Maybe it was the time of day, but there was a lot of sleeping.

Anko went and settled down in the middle of the room. She got decorated.

Purin settled in under the carpet, presumably for privacy.

Art in progress.

Okay, not ALL the cats were sleeping. 

The cat under the desk (Sugar) is one of the biggest cats I've ever seen. 22lbs, I think.
The one on top of the desk (Kinako) is as soft as a chinchilla – so soft you almost can't feel her fur.

I feel like this sums up the experience. Adorable, but not the most exciting thing we've ever done.