Sushi & Sashimi

Dinner at a traditional sushi restaurant in Tama City, my host city. Tama is about an hour west of Tokyo and is a very modern suburb that was built in the 1960's and 70's. Outside of our hotel there are 2 Wendy's, a MacDonald's, a Mister Donut, a Subway and a Starbucks. We had to ask some Japanese high school kids to direct us to something that was Japanese! They escorted us to this restaurant where we had to follow the traditional custom of taking off our shoes before entering the dining area. We had a low table and mats to sit on and were in a closed room with sliding walls. 

The Giant Buddha

The Giant Buddha of Kamakura is made of bronze and is over 700 years old. It was cast in 1252 and was originally housed inside a large temple hall. A tsunami washed away the temple buildings at the end of the 15th century and since then the Buddha has stood in the open air. Kamakura is a seaside village about an hour outside Tokyo. The Buddha is just over 13 meters tall and is truly awesome. This is a popular destination for Japanese tourists--the trains to get there were absolutely packed. They had train workers pushing people into the train so the doors would close...

Classical Japanese Theater

We attended two lectures about classical Japanese theater. We saw a kyogen (comic play) peformance; kyogen involves stylized song and dance and is about universal, everyday subjects. It is lighthearted and there are never any characters who are really bad. Rather, the characters are supposed to represent simply the best and worst aspects of human nature. The play we saw was a 600 year old play called "The Inherited Cramp" and it was about a servant who tries to get out of doing work for his master by pretending he had a leg cramp he inherited from his parents. In the picture of the man with the fan, he is performing a lyrical, stylized kind of dance that is typical of kyogen.

We also saw a kabuki (live theater) performance. Kabuki involves song, dance and acting and is traditionally performed only by men. Despite this tradition, in this video clip, a woman is performing a kabuki dance.

Fish Market

I went to Tsukiji Market, Tokyo's world famous fish market at 5:00 one morning. Most of Tokyo's seafood transits through this market full of hardworking people. It is a crazy hustle and bustle of men running around everywhere pushing carts and driving flatbed trucks with fish on them. (One worker gave us a ride on his cart when we arrived at the market.) Everyone is wearing galoshes and shouting and smoking cigarettes. There are big insulated styrofoam boxes everywhere and it is chaotic and loud. Potential buyers are checking out the fish laid out on pallets and we saw an auctioneer start a tuna auction. (See video below--it's not great, but you'll get the idea.) The tuna were enormous. Every kind of seafood you can imagine was available. 

Earthquake

On Saturday, June 14 there was a strong earthquake in Japan at about 8:45 in the morning. It was in Iwate prefecture, which is about 200 miles north of Tokyo. I was in Tokyo in my hotel room on the 14th floor of our 40 floor hotel when it happened. The whole hotel was swaying and creaking from the earthquake. The hotel is built on rollers so it can absorb some of the shock and shift with the movement. It was very scary, and despite having just been told that Japan is the most seismically active country in the world, it was confusing and hard to figure out what was going on--particularly since all the Japanese people around carried on like nothing was happening. Only the Americans were freaking out! 10 people are confirmed dead and more than a dozen people are still missing. This photo is of The Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka where I was when it happened. 

Baseball--Japanese Style!

About half of our group went to the Seibu Dome to see the Seibu Lions play the Nashin Tigers. The Lions won. Instead of the 7th inning stretch, fans all get these long balloons that are the colors of their team and they blow them up. When their team gets the last out, the fans all slowly let the air out at the same time so it makes this hissing sound. Then when the air is nearly out of the balloons, all the fans let them go so the balloons are all hissing and wriggling around in the air at once and everyone cheers and goes nuts. In the picture you can see all the yellow and white balloons, the colors of the Tigers.

ADVENTURES IN FOOD!

Ice cream choices at a street stall included bean curd, unpolished rice and sweet potato, plus more typical flavors. I got rose flavored ice cream which was pink and tasted exactly like a rose smells. We had a traditional lunch of tempura (deep fried veggies and seafood) at a restaurant yesterday (see picture), and at last night's official welcome reception I tried eel (cooked) and squid (raw.) I also had green tea cake. Although those weren't my favorites, there was plenty of other delicious food, including kobe beef, chili shrimp, sushi, and noodle dishes. Apparently the price tag for each participant, paid for by the Japanese government, is $20,000. With meals like this I can see why! We are all feeling very grateful...