Curves in Susono

Yes, there is Curves in Japan. And a very small branch opened up here in Susono about two years ago. Ironically, they opened just after I was officially thrown out of the prestigious gym that I'd become a member of a few kilometres down the road. Some readers may remember my ignominious blackballing from that gym (which was a really really nice gym with a swimming pool, sauna and outdoor bath!!) -
http://japanrider.blogspot.com/2006/06/body-art-or-tattoos.html

Well, after being disgruntled, after avoiding Curves (and any other 'nice' place), I finally bit the bullet and I joined Curves right here in Susono. I had always thought that Curves was kinda lame, but actually, I'm so far really enjoying my time there. The two women who staff the place are really genki (lively), and really encourage chatting with other members. This is likely to improve my Japanese, and maybe some of the ladies will eventually get over their shyness enough to try some English.

I plan to keep a low(ish) profile, keep my tats covered, and workout in harmony with the other folks! Let's hope they don't read blogs:-)

First Ride on the Clockwork

This morning's weather was ideal for a pre-work ride - clear skies and cool air. So for the first time I got to ride my custom 29er - and what a sweet ride it was. It feels very different from the Rig; as one would expect, it fits me much better and I'm sure that it will be more physically comfortable for longer rides. The steel frame, although heavier than my Rig, is simply amazing.

My Custom 29er Singlespeed from Clockwork Bikes

I haven't posted any updates on my frame in at least a month. However, no news was good news. Joel Greenblatt (Clockwork Bikes) finished building, painting and finishing my frame. I was anxiously awaiting delivery when my nephew came for his visit, so when the frame arrived I decided to put it on hold for a while. But today was finally my day to spend time building it up. With (a lot of) help from Brian, I took the parts of my Gary Fisher Rig and used them on my new frame.

History of my bike:

In the beginning - my new frame takes shape in Joel's workshop:



The frame, finished:



Cannibalizing the Rig - here I'm just taking off the pedals. I bought a new set of Deore cranks for my frame:



Building my bike - here we're putting in the headset:



And finally - my very own Clockwork Orange. As I've mentioned, I'm especially short for 29er riding (156 cm), so notice the cute swoop of the top tube:





What a great feeling to start with the bare bones and end with a (beautifully) finished, fine-tuned machine. I sat on the bike (of course!) and it feels great so far; however, the weather today has been unfit to ride in, and since I'll probably have to tweak a few things on the road I decided to postpone the Virgin Ride till a later date. Tomorrow morning hopefully.

End of the Visit - Susono Yakitori

I took Shane back to Narita airport yesterday, and he should be landing in Ottawa in a few hours. The two weeks went by very quickly but we got to do a variety of things and experience the different aspects and flavours of Japan: modern, traditional (I will post photos from Kyoto and Nara shortly), popular, touristy, and local.

For Shane's last night in town we went to very nice but very local yakitori shop (grilled chicken and other goodies on skewers). The place is called Toriichi - this is their lantern:



This place is just a short walk from our apartment and the atmosphere and service can't be beat. We ordered lots of food and had a glass of nihonshu (sake) to commemmorate the visit.

I love the way that the sake just overflows.

So, We Climbed Mt. Fuji...

I could put a lot of narrative into this, but I won't. I could say that it was awesome. I could say that doing it in a season when not a million others were doing it was fantastic. Instead, I'll say only that Shane and I had a great time...That choosing to reserve half a futon at the top was a very a good idea, and that I will likely climb Fuji again...

At the top, Shane is still energetic.




We slept at Fuji-kan (or Fuji-sanchou http://www.fujisanchou.com/)
right at the top of Mt. Fuji. Check- in is from four to six p.m.; they served curry-rice for dinner and pickles and rice for breakfast. It really was manna; we enjoyed it immensely. Oh, and of course there were no 'beds'!! We all slept sardine-style in a big room with futons (sleeping mats) stacked side by side. Still it was a lot of fun, and sleep was much appreciated. Also, I have to say, it was sooooo quiet!


Go-raiko was somewhat less than overwhelming, yet we were still blessed with our good-weather fortune. Here is Shane with the Goraiko (sacred sunrise over Mt. Fuji) behind him:


From the beginning...though we kinda took this photo last. This is where we stared from - 2,400m above sea level!

Two and a Half Days in Tokyo

Tokyo is truly a megalopolis (as I may have mentioned before). You don't just "go to Tokyo"; rather, you choose a district (or a ku - as in, Shibuya-ku), and then perhaps a sub-district that you'd like to hang out in. We couldn't do everything that there is to do in Tokyo and so some things had to be left for a future visit. For example, we did not go to Roppongi, which is a fun night-life area. We did not get to see Roppongi Hills (an impressive shopping center), and we didn't go up Tokyo Tower. However, we did spend time in Shinjuku where we ate lamb kebabs at a little Turkish place we know there. And we went to Harajuku where we got to see some young folks dressed in funny fashions, and Shane bought a neat little protector for his i-Touch and I got some great foot lingerie.

At Meiji Jingu (shrine) near Harajuku station:

Shane liked the TV screens that are in so many places around Tokyo:


Also in Harajuku we went to Fonda de la Madrugada, a really nice Mexican restaurant, for dinner. I know it seems strange to eat Turkish and Mexican food in Japan, but Tokyo has these options and Fonda is one of our favourite places - great atmosphere, excellent food and superb service. Shane also enjoyed having different food. He'd never had kebabs or Mexican food before, so it was still a good experience. He also really liked the live Mariachi band!




That night we stayed at a capsule hotel in Ebisu (part of Shibuya-ku, and very near Harajuku). Capsule hotels are, well, capsules rather than rooms. There are rows of capsules flanking the walls and you get a capsule, not a room. They originally started as cheap places for salary-men (office workers, generally male) to stay when they missed the last train home after being out for the obligatory drinking party; as such, many (most?) capsule hotels are not equipped for women. These days, more casule hotels are providing accomodation to women. However, we stayed at the Siesta, which didn't have capsules for women but did offer small rooms with a shower, so I took a tiny room for myself while Brian and Shane went for the full capsule experience.

They slept in one of these capsules:


Inside the capsule:


The next day after checking out of the hotel we stopped for latte at the ubiquitous Starbuck's before making our way to Akihabara, a.k.a. Akiba, a.k.a. Electric Town. This is the electronics capital of Japan and they have anything you need - from motherboards to lightbulbs to cameras to maid costumes. This is the area that is traditionally the home of the otaku (techie fanatic) who are rather nerdy techies that congregate in that area. We spent our whole day going from shop to shop (I finally bought a small digital camera - a used DMC-LZ10, and so far I've been thrilled with the photos it takes). Of course, no visit to Akihabara would be complete without a visit to a Maid Cafe - small cafes which started out catering to the tastes of the otaku but now are fairly frequented by tourists (who in turn drive out the real otaku). In the maid cafe we were served by cute girls wearing short little black-and-white maid costumes. Overall, it was very tame, but still a fun experience. Surely we could have found stranger had we looked harder.

After shopping in Akihabara we took the train to the area's spiritual opposite - Asakusa. Asakusa is home to Senso-ji, a very large temple, and still has an atmosphere of old Japan, including rickshaws. We passed through the Kaminari-mon (Thunder Gate) and did some window shopping along the Nakamise as we wended our way to the temple.

Pagoda at Senso-ji:


Shane gets an O-mikuji (fortune telling):


Entrance to the temple:


We then checked into our hotel - the very lovely Shigetsu hotel located just a minute or two away from the temple.

I had planned for dinner to be fugu, the poisonous blow-fish. However, Shane seems to prefer food that isn't fish, and fugu, while a true delicacy, would probably have left us still hungry later. So, we opted instead to eat whatever. We walked around until our feet hurt, but Brian finally found a street that was a lot like a yataimura (food stall village). We chose up a seat outside, had a couple of drinks and lots of izakaya style food. I'm very pleased to say that while Shane didn't get to eat poisonous fish, he did eat several pieces of raw horse meat!



Basashi (raw horse):




We even met two foreigners who were quite friendly and fun to talk to (maybe I shouldn't try so hard to avoid foreigners...)

Today we took a boat along the Sumidagawa river to O-Daiba, where we had good old fashioned burgers for lunch. After that, we simply came back home for a night of rest before Shane and I head out to Kyoto tomorrow morning.

River boat from Asakusa to O-Daiba:


Now Shane and I are off to Kyoto for a few days.

Days at the Beach

We spent Shane's first few days here doing normal Japanese things. By this I mean that we went where real Japanese people go for their holidays, and did things that they do: we spent time at a non-resort beach in quiet Shizuoka prefecture. We stayed at the Hamayu minshuku (a simple Japanese style hotel) about a 30 second walk from Shizunami beach. Of course, this is peak season so I'd made the reservations about a month ago, and we didn't exactly have a large room.

(Click on images for a larger view).

This is the room that the three of us shared, sleeping on (real) futons on the floor:



However, the convenience, friendly service, and good breakfast made this a great place to stay.

Breakfast:


Shane, while adventurous, opted to eat only the rice and avoid the fish 'with the head still on':



We spent two full days at Shizunami beach, renting a spot at a little shelter and venturing out for a swim and some sunshine at decent intervals. The weather gods were on our side - we had hot, strong sunshine the whole time.

First day:


Second day:


We even enjoyed some cocktails on the beach on our second afternoon:


Shane's been fairly willing to try various Japanese food, and most of it he declares 'ok', but he really liked the katsu-don that we had for lunch at a "restaurant" at the beach (katsu-don is deep fried pork in a bowl of rice and egg):


He also likes Pocari Sweat, the Japanese version of Gator-Ade, which you see him drinking here as we sit in the umi-no-ie, a beach house/shelter:


For our final (third) day at the beach, we deserted the ever-popular Shizunami swimming beach and made our way to a desolate, un-developed-but-perfectly-swimable beach a few kilometres down the road. Brian was able to drive his Mitsubishi Pajero (an SUV) right onto the beach, and we set ourselves up in the sun.

Shane was hanging in there, but missing the shade!



We also tried to experience different dinner styles for our nights away. Though we could have had a home-cooked dinner served by our minshuku, we opted instead to go out for dinner both nights. On the first night we went to a nice yaki-nikku restaurant. Yaki-nikku is directly translated as "grilled meat", and is more often translated as a Korean BBQ. However, unless you know what a Korean BBQ is, it doesn't mean much. So here are some pics.

We ordered a lot of raw meat from the menu - beef and pork, mostly - then grilled it at our table:


Here's the meat, close up:


For our second night out for dinner we just went to Coco's Curry, a fast-food chain that serves only curry rice. I have no pics, and it's a bit hard to explain, but pretty much everyone loves curry. Shane declared it "edible", but was impressed that we actually sat on chairs at tables rather than on the floor!

We are not the only ones who blog. Brian and I have stayed at the Hamayu several years in a row, and the woman who own the place always takes pictures of her guests for the site's blog. Here is our mention - (best viewed in Internet Explorer) http://www2.gol.com/users/ip0510177859/asunaro/nikki.html . Her comments in Japanese translate as: "I'm pleased that you planned to come back [to my hotel] since July. To your nephew from Canada: How did you like the ocean in Japan, and the summer? Was the food here ok? Though you don't speak Japanese, and I cannot speak English, I think it was very nice meeting each other."

Well, Brian and I will probably be back again next year.

So, tomorrow we are off to spend a couple of nights in Tokyo. We will certainly spend time in Shinjuku, Harajuku, and Akihabara. Possibly also in Asakusa. However, fugu had been on the agenda, but I've been rethinking that plan...More blogging (hopefully) on Saturday night after our return from Tokyo.

The Visit, Day One

Since I am regarding The Landing Day as Day Zero, yesterday (Sunday) was Day One of Shane's visit.

Brian and I woke up early as usual, and left Shane sleeping as we went to a clinic for lots of painkillers and antibiotics for me (see earlier post). After that, we three had a leisurely toast and jam breakfast, puttered around a bit, then went for a drive up to the Hakone Skyline (now known as the Toyo Tire Skyline). Here are two pics of us:



We'd hiked up the mountain a short ways, so you can now see the Skyline (a very fast toll road) behind Shane and Brian:


This was really just a detour as we drove to the Gotemba Kogen Resort, a beer hall/onsen/restaurant/everything kind of place where we frequently go to enjoy a beer on the lawn. Today we went to enjoy the onsen (hot spring) and lunch.

First we walked around the extensive grounds and explored Arigatayama with the many O-Jizo-sama (little Buddha statues):



Jizo-sama:


Then we enjoyed the onsen (hot spring). Taking a public bath was a novelty for Shane, but I think he has already developed an appreciation for it. We all felt so relaxed afterwards that we wanted to fall asleep right there.

We had lunch in the onsen's restaurant, wearing our "lounge wear" provided by the onsen.

(Oh, we also got to practice some Japanese when the table of older ladies across from us struck up a conversation).

After the hot bath and massage chairs, back on the main grounds, Shane wanted to try a kaki-gori (snow cone). This is available only in summer.


Then he decided to shoot some cookie boxes - one of the games set up at the Kogen. He hit everything he aimed for, though the cork (bullet) was not powerful enough to knock anything down. At the end, the attending girl gave him a box of cookies anyway. Really, he was such an impressive shooter that others stopped to watch him shoot. He deserved that box of cookies!


Finally back from the day at the onsen, we relaxed a little before going out for dinner at Ryoba, a local branch of a chain izakaya (Japanese pub).



Shane had his first taste of tuna sashimi (sashimi means raw whatever, whereas sushi is raw whatever on rice. If it's just the fish and no rice, you are eating sashimi!)


Today we are heading out very early to the beach. We'll be staying there (without an Internet connection) for three days. So - no more posts until Wednesday night, I think:-)