Sapporo TV Tower

Against my better judgment, today I took the elevator to the observation deck of the Sapporo TV Tower.  It's only 90 meters (what's that, like...  half a mile?), but I am not a fan of heights.  Do.  Not.  Like.  However, brave soul that I am, and for the sake of posterity, I steeled my nerves and joined the brave children and school girls on the ride to the top.  I put on the brave face for my fellow cosmonauts, but inside I was thinking "you know, now would be the perfect time for a tremor."  Luckily for all of us, no tremor.

Sapporo is a very well laid out city, bounded by mountains, and with long straight avenues for great sight lines.

For some reason, I was holding the camera at a weird angle.  Whatever.

Surrounded by mountains.

I like how the Odori parkway runs up to the mountains in the distance.

Trying to get a shot of the mountains on the other side of the city. 

Walking back to the hotel, I came across a little demonstration.  This interested me because of the Japanese flags.  The thing is, I haven't seen many (if any) Japanese flags.  Coming from the states, where we've gone flag crazy the last ten years, this is kind of noticeable (every frigging delivery truck or small business vehicle has to loudly proclaim their patriotism.  If you need to yell it out all the time...)

Walking a little closer (I was taking a left on that road), I was wondering if it was a right-wing yakuza (I'm not capitalizing that) demonstration.  Seemed pretty innocuous, though.

Sapporo Beatles

Wandering the mall below Sapporo, I came across a cool little Beatles anniversary exhibit containing these Lego-ish figurines.  Each was about two feet high.  Pretty cool.

Sapporo Guitar Shop

A little posting for the guitar nerds.  Stopped by another guitar shop here in Sapporo.  Not huge, but a decent selection. Several Fenders, which seem the same the world over.  They do seem to have a much cooler selection of Schecter guitars here, and of course ESP is super popular.

This is a Killer guitar.  The only guitarist I know of who plays these is Akira Takasaki (of Loudness).  I wouldn't have something like this as my main guitar, but when I've got a lot more disposable income, I'll definitely have a crazy guitar or two.  Also, I think my nephews Joe and Mike would love this guitar.

This is a Slayer Reign in Blood customer ESP guitar.  There was a "Do Not Touch" sign on the neck, but I touched it.

Japan has a much cooler selection of Schecter guitars (surprising, considering it's an American company). Unlike in the states, where they've got mostly matte finish guitars, here I've seen mostly flame and maple top finishes.  Quite nice, actually.

Here's a pink Ash (I think) Strat.  I've never seen a figured top with quite this finish.  It was actually more vibrant in person.  A little much, but definitely unique.

Tonkatsu Dinner Fail!

Tonight I had a real hankering for some tonkatsu.  Or the chicken version, chicken katsu.  Or menchi katsu.  Basically, some kind of meat, fried.  Sadly, after literally an hour of walking around (in the snow and rain.  Turns out that Sapporo is actually pretty far north.  Anyway, after an hour of walking (miles, I say!) I ended up at the ginormous underground mall by Sapporo Station (itself a 15 or so minute walk from the hotel) eating at a Lotteria.  Yes, I ended up ordering a fried chicken sandwich (which was surprisingly good.  Some kind of spicey sauce).  Not the dinner I had hoped for, but in a pinch it had to do.  I could have sworn that I saw several signs for katsu as I wandered around last night looking for yakitori.  Seems like whatever I don't feel like at the moment is all I see (saw a ton of ramen places today, but just wasn't in the mood).

While it was tastey, this has to be considered a dinner fail.

Hokaido From Above

This is a short one, which I intended to publish first thing yesterday.  I booked a "window" seat on my flight here, but when I arrived at check-in I was told "your window seat you booked isn't actually a window.  It's a wall."  Which, I admit, kind of surprised me, but whatever.  I didn't feel like arguing so I just said it was fine.

Luckily, there was a window just forward of me, and I clicked a shot of Hokaido as we flew over.  A snowy tundra!  Quite a difference from Tokyo and kind of intimidating.  I was thinking we'd go all Alive if the plane went down, but things all turned out ok.  Probably for the best, since I'm not a footballer anyway.

Susukino is Evidently the Red Light District of Sapporo

Yes, I am staying in the red light district of Sapporo, Susukino.  This does explain the many nudey bars scattered around.  And not just discreetly placed on out of the way side streets.  It seems like every block there is at least one nudey bar, as advertised by pictures of the supposed entertainers within.  Some of these adverts are pretty in your face, so... No pictures as this is a family blog.  Plus, I really don't want to be standing on the street taking pics of pics of naked chics.

I do want to note, however, that I came across a quaint looking place (on last night's search for yakitori) with two women dressed in kimonos outside.  Frankly, I kind of thought this might be a house of ill repute, so I didn't linger.  And of course my camera defaults to flash ON, so when I took this picture it wasn't as discreet as I had planned.  They both turned to look at me, and I casually strolled away...  Waiting for some sort of hullabaloo behind.  A few quick turns and I was out of sight!

It's a little dark, sorry.  I guess it would have been better sans flash?  The traffic cone looks cool, though.

To me, "red light" district means seedy, sketchy and dark.  That is *not* the case here.  Wide avenues, bright lights and tons of people.  I guess it's just a mix of entertainment (adult and otherwise), and red light is kind of a catch-all label for that?

A few more shots taken while walking around.

Few streets still have snow banks.  I guess they've got better snow removal than we do.  I only see snow banks in front of vacant lots (not many downtown) or construction sites. This is in front of a construction site.  This is what things SHOULD have looked like back home last month, but luckily we only got like 2 inches of snow!!!

Kind of a typical storefront.  This isn't even on one of the main avenues!

One of the main avenues at a less crazy intersection.  Even though it's huge, this area is actually not always crazy.  Kind of like a bigger Boylston St back home.  But with more adult shops, I guess.

Another intersection, a little later in the evening.  The lights are starting to be noticeable.

I don't know why, but Sapporo also has an Eiffel Tower copy, though much smaller than the one in Tokyo.  Again, I am incapable of taking a good nighttime shot.  I think there's a camera setting for that, which I should explore.  Maybe tonight.  The tower's not exactly in the Susukino area, but I wandered over there so here are some shots.

And the tower turns blue!  Again, sucky shot, but you get the point.

Just outside of the red light district there is the former Hokkaido Government Office building which I ran across.  It's got a cute little pond out front, currently edged in snow and ice.  There was a hardy little duck swimming around, so I thought he deserved to be immortalized in the art that is my photography!  You can kind of see him (or her!) in the top right (ish).

This could really be a pond anywhere!  Very enjoyable to walk around.

Sapporo Dinner

Even though I had a late lunch, I wanted to get some yakitori, which I thought would be a not-too-big dinner.  Turns out it's only a not-too-big dinner if you don't keep ordering more!  They're kind of small, and taste so great, that it's really hard to not order a couple more!!  I did end up ordering two pairs of yakitori (chicken skewers) and a pair of butabara (pork belly skewers, which are AMAZING).  And since I'm in Sapporo, I kind of had to order a biiru.  So order it I did!

I wandered for about an hour, looking for a decent yakitori place.  I eventually came across a tiny place with 3 booths and about 8 chairs at the bar.  Two booths were occupied, and I was directed to a seat at the bar, which was conveniently facing the TV, on which a baseball game was being show.  The Lions vs. the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters!  How frigging amazing is that name?!  Seriously, I will try to find an authorized shirt and frame it when I get home.  They actually have a pretty sharp uniform.

Anyway, the meet was awesome, and the beer surprisingly smooth and easy to drink (as you all know, I really don't drink, so this is saying something).  Of course there were pictures!

A nice, tall, cold Sapporo!

 Yakitori!  Yet again I started eating before remembering to take a pic.


















Butabara (pork belly skewers).  Again, these were SO good.  Isn't pork belly always?

And the obligatory outside shot.  The entrance is just being the white lantern/sign, and the red hanging is covering the (small) front window.  A very awesome place, even though the guys in the corner were smoking.  I may go back one more time before leaving Sapporo.

Sapporo Lunch

After getting settled into the hotel, I decided to go hunt for some lunch.  I ended up in some indoor bazaar (picture a road they've converted into a covered strip mall.  Except with more lights than you would imagine).  I walked around for about half an hour, as most places were serving ramen, which I love, but just wasn't in the mood for.  I ended up at this tiny place that served rice bowls.

With no English menu, I was forced to point and try to guess what the meat was in the picture.  Pretty quickly the friendly owner (I assume) and I found a rice bowl with pork and pickled radish (I think I already mentioned this in the previous post?)  A few minutes later I was happily munching away!  These rice bowls are so simple, but somehow these little shows imbue some magic in there, because they taste so great!

A view of the bazaar.  This goes on for about 4 or 5 (largish) blocks.  The intersecting streets are normal intersections, with lights for the pedestrians hoping to cross.  It's actually much brighter than it looks here.  Kind of like an amusement park.

















This place looks like it serves tasty food.  Yeah, I'm pretty much limited to places with pictures.

















There's some rice under there.  Those are two thin-sliced pieces of pork.  Pickled radish on the right.  So simple, and SO good.

















And next door there was a guitar shop!  I didn't play anything, but I love just looking at guitars.  They're like art to me.  This place carried a lot of Fenders and some local brands, which names I don't remember.  Really small, but still fun to browse.

Kevin in Sapporo

I will be spending this weekend in Sapporo, located on the northern island of Hokaido.  This is evidently Japan's 5th largest city, and you know?  It feels fifth largest city-ish to me.

This weekend will also be exciting as I'm staying in a capsule hotel.  Yup, it looks pretty much like in the pics on that page.  This will be...  interesting.  It's actually pretty cool.  Clean, relatively quiet and well-located.  Will go into detail later!

So, Sapporo.  I only got in around 2pm, but I think I'm going to like this city.  It's still quite large, but it's WAY more organized than Tokyo (or most other cities for that matter).  It was laid out in the late 1800's, with the help of American city planners (USA!  USA!  USA!), and is organized on a grid.  Just line up the letters with the numbers and you know where you are!  Or where you want to go!  It actually has kind of a Denver feel to me, which may say more about me misremembering Denver than it does about the state of the city here.  But whatever.  It seems like a very comfortable, welcoming city.

After taking the commuter rail from the airport (about 35 minutes), I found my hotel and went out to find lunch.  I found a really cute little shop where I got a rice bowl with pork and pickled radish.  Simple, cheap (like 350YEN) and TASTY!  Very happy with that little meal.  The proprietor was very nice, and seemed a little impressed with my Japanese!  It turns out that pork is BUTA.  I, uh, accidentally put a P at the beginning there.  TOTALLY different word.  My bad!  Lesson learned, though.  I also practiced "oishiideshita", which I think means tasted good.  I think.  It's hopefully close enough.  I guess I could have said "kore wa oishiidesu", but I wanted to say it after the fact.

I do have more pictures, but since my stuff is in the locker downstairs (this capsule hotel has a locker room in B1 (basement), capsules on F1 - F6, and Japanese showers on F7 (yup, this is about what it looks like)) I can't post them now.  Hopefully later.

Tonight I'll probably head down to Sapporo Station, which is kind of the center of town.  The weather is amazing here.  Nice and cool (though a bit breezy), with a few inches of snow on the ground!

Shibuya Crossing

I think I've mentioned before that Shibuya is really crowded.  Kind of insanely so.  But that's part of its charm!  It's a really fun place to wander around and people watch, all the while being bombarded by just a silly amount of advertisement.  Bright lights, huge TV screens, speakers blaring every block, either of some new song or a commercial, huge trucks driving by adorned with a huge painting of some pop star.  Just crazy.  And I love it.

Oh, and the only ice cream place that I know about in Tokyo is located here.  It's a Cold Stone Creamery!  Hm, maybe I'll pop in there tonight and treat myself.

Let's go to the tape!  These pics are actually taken from the video I posted earlier, but why not show them one at a time?  It's my blog so that's what I'ma gonna do.

First, a view from about the third floor.  It's not super close, but you can see the size of the crowds.


















The crowds begin to converge.  I REALLY want to get this shot on a Saturday night.  Probably next weekend.

















Peeping through traffic, we see the crowd gathering across the way.

Traffic cleared and it's time for us all to start crossing.

About halfway across.  Somehow, everyone just manages to skim past each other.  It's quite graceful.

In the thick of it.

In the thicker of it.

And The Captain again!  I love this guy.  This picture just screams debonair.

Pugvertisement

This one's for Shuley and Ron!  I saw this advertisement on the Yamanote line this morning.  I really don't know why the pug is wearing a space suit, and sadly, I couldn't get a full shot of the advertisement (damn commuters!  It was like 10am. You should already be at work!)  Also, you can just see the top of a guy's hat.  I don't know if he thought I was taking a closeup of his face, but he didn't seem to react.  Of course, right as I pressed the shutter button, I though "oh man, I really hope the flash isn't on."  It wasn't.  International incident averted!  Sadly, though, it looks like the focus is the strap handle.  Sorry.

Fun Little Sign at the Shiba-Koen Temple

I'll post more pictures later, but visiting the Shiba-Koen temple this morning, I came across this lovely little sign describing the place.

I just love the last two lines.  Services for aborted fetuses, followed by charms and souvenirs!  Awesome!

Katsudon!

This morning I again visited the Roppongi area, visiting Tokyo World Trade Center (where I got off the Metro), Tokyo Tower, and surrounding environs (i.e., I wandered aimlessly).  On my way back to the Metro, I was stopped on a corner waiting for the crosswalk (which almost everyone obeys) when a waitress at a tiny shop on the corner popped out and cried "irasshaimase" (which is the greeting you hear whenever you enter any store or restaurant.)  I glanced at their menu next to the door and sure enough they had katsudon, so in I went.  Looks like your marketing strategy worked this time!

Anyway, this place was even more tiny that the shop last night, consisting of a raised kitchen in the center with a small bar all around.  Sitting at this bar, there was barely enough room for the waitress to flit back and forth.  Luckily, she was pretty tiny, so it all seemed to work out.  I'm pretty sure the guys behind the counter would not be able to make it.

And I did get another chance to practice my Japanese.  Pointing to the menu, I queried "chicken desu ka?"  She replied that it was actually pork.  Which surprised me since she used the English word.  Wanting to show off, I then said "ah, so desu ne.  Buta desu.  Hai."  I'm fitting in already!  I ordered.  Eh, I'm probably just embarrassing myself every time I open my mouth but I'm trying!

This restaurant was definitely a good choice.  The meal was filling, enough to fill me up but not too much (I again avoided the miso soup.  I need to learn how to say "no miso, please".  I can probably get the point across now, I guess.  Will try to remember next time."

Again, I forgot to take a pic before diving in!  I don't know, maybe it doesn't show up in this pic?

 

And here's the outside of the restaurant.  You can see Tokyo Tower in the background.

Harajuku Meiji Shrine

I decided I needed a nice walk in a less congested area, so I headed back to Harajuku (which is pretty much the opposite of less congested) to check out the Meiji Shrine. I think I posted a pic of the entryway's arch the other day, but let's take a stroll through the park. The thing that surprised me the most is just how large this park is. It's in the middle of this ginormous, over crowded city, but there is this vast expanse of calm, peaceful and relaxing woodlands. It actually reminded me a lot of New Hampshire at some points.

Starting at the beginning... This is the entryway arch, just over the bridge at Harajuku station. It goes from insanely crowded to VERY peaceful and relaxing in like 25 yards.




Just inside the entryway arch.



You can make out the railings for a small bridge over a brook running underneath. We'll get there in a minute.



This is looking over the left hand side of that bridge. This is where it really reminds me of NH, particular near The Basin pathway. The blurry line at the bottom is the edge of the railing. Great job, Kev! But you can see the stream meandering down the hill.



About halfway to the shrine, you come across two, uh, shelves? The one on the right contains jars or sake wrapped in straw, because why wouldn't you. And the one on the left containing wine dedicated from France. These are used in some sorts of ceremonies which I am too lazy to look up. But they were interesting.

First, the sake casks, with a close up of the plaque describing them right below (you can see it on the far right). Note that I took this pic from the far end of the path, as the lighting was better. This is actually on the right side of the path as you are approaching the shrine.



And here are those wine casks. No picture of the accompanying plaque because I just didn't care that much.



After about another ten minute down the path, you get to the actual Meiji shrine, which seems to be some kind of fort. Another very tall archway just before arriving at the gates.



And a little closer now. I'm not centered because there was a family of tourists. Pfft, tourists. Always getting underfoot.



I'm working on stitching together a panoramic photo of the inside. For now, just use your imagination.

Anyway, after walking into the shrine, I took the exit to the left, which led to another awesome pathway. This, too, really reminded me of NH. I was amazed at all this empty land in the middle of Tokyo! Note that having Stevie Ray Vaughn's version of Little Wing playing on the iPod really enhanced the experience. Of course, that would enhance any experience (best. guitarist. ever.)



Let's get a little closer to that tree, shall we?



That pathway went on for about 10 minutes or so. At the far end there is the Tokyo Riding Club. And at the club there were two young ladies leading a seemingly docile pony in a ring. Atop that pony was one adorable little girl. She was SO excited. The pony seemed indifferent. For some reason, I had trouble framing this, with those trees in the way. The second one is also a bit blurry. It was actually overcast and dusk was setting in, so the flash wanted to go off. I kind of thought it wouldn't be cool to be taking pictures with a flash in the pony's face, so these are what we get.





So that's about it for the Meiji shrine. A really beautiful walk, and one I will definitely revisit while I'm here.