Fantastic Foodie Tour

Yesterday was a food tour in Shibuya. Lauren (an American who has lived in Japan for 20 years) took us to five different small restaurants in the busiest section of Tokyo--Shibuya. It was like being on Michigan Avenue in Chicago at Christmas times 100. Pictures don't do it justice.

Hachi-ko, loyal and faithful dog

Scramble Intersection

Each restaurant specializes in a specific type of Japanese food and offered a selection, rather like Japanese "tapas." At evenings end, we were stuffed. There were six of us on the tour plus Lauren and Tashi, a soon to be guide. A nice sized group for asking questions. We were a father and son from Singapore, a couple from Bristol, England and us.

Loved that Sushi

Osaka and Hiroshima styles

Kobe Beef--oh yeah!

Squid Balls, for me yum, not so much for Cindy

The tour took about three hours and ended in the basement of Tokyu Department store for dessert. What a crowded store!

Kroger would love this crowd!

Red Bean Pastry

Lauren & Dennis

Afterward we walked around a bit by ourselves, got on the subway and headed back to our hotel for a brandy before bed.

Today we had our own tour, one that included shopping (OMB) and sake. We started with lunch at a small restaurant in Asakusa that seated 16. We both had pork but fixed in two different ways and both were fantastic.

Cheers!

Those chopsticks work too well.

Nearby is one of the most famous temples in Tokyo so we wandered over to take a look. It was very crowded. There was incense burning that you could waft on to yourself to cleanse yourself of sin. We wafted quite a bit of smoke.

On the way to the temple we stopped to...

Sensoji Temple

Waft and Cleanse

Cleanse and Waft

Love those Kimonos

Finally we tried to go to the Sake Bar that Cindy had found that had tastings. This was our second attempt. Nope, still not open. She had it in her head that she wanted to try Tedorigawa Yoshida Sake. She saw a documentary on Netflix-- The Birth of Sake. I was there too but I think my snoring might have drowned out the sound so I missed part of it. Yesterday we bought two woodcut prints at a shop nearby. The owner of Mokuhankan was a Canadian. We were right across the street from his shop so she decided it wouldn't hurt to ask him if he knew where we might try some sake. He was still open and had an assistant so he asked her to stay while he took us to a place that specialized in sake! He walked us down the street and around a corner or two, explained in Japanese to the host what we wanted. Refused to accept a drink or gratuity and went back to his shop. That's the Tokyo we've experienced!

A flight of three

Cheers!

Two flights of Sake later, edamame, Japanese fried chicken, and finally a small pitcher of Tedorigawa and we were set!

Tedorigawa!

Luckily I (Dennis) stayed awake all the way home on the subway!

Tomorrow our final excursion takes us back to Narita International Airport for the flight back to Chicago. It's hard to believe our six week adventure is over. In some respects, it seems a long time ago that we arrived in Saigon. In others, we just left Chicago. Our memories of our experiences and the people we've met will last the rest of our lives and through the pictures that Cindy has taken, we can relive them AGAIN. My love and thanks to her for all her planning and patience. Thanks also to you for sharing our journey.

Sayonara

Japan, so much more than we expected

View from our hotel room

What a delightful place! It is so clean you could eat off the street--literally. We're starting with the bathrooms, perhaps an odd way to start but so amazing. The bathrooms in the subway are immaculate. Can you imagine using a bathroom on the Chicago El? I have used one at Union Station and it was clean but not like these. You can use any bathroom anywhere and you'll have paper and the room will be clean and bright and I'm talking even the corners--no build up of crude.

Call for help, paper, Amazing!

The bathroom in our hotel room has a heated seat (how we will miss that in the middle of the night in Indiana) and two types of bidet spray.

We love technology!!

This has got to be the bathroom you'll find in heaven. Of course in heaven you may not have to worry about bodily functions but that's another story. You can drink the water, the beds are comfortable the WiFi works, etc.

Welcome to Tokyo! We've been here for four days now and Tokyo is pretty overwhelming. The population is around 13 million but swells to 39 million with the arrival of those who work here. Most stores don't open until 10:00 AM and trains and subways shut down at midnight so you'd better be home by then or find a place to stay in town.

Mt. Fuji

Our first adventure was Sunday when we had a scheduled tour of Mt. Fuji and the bullet train. We actually got a glimpse of the famous mountain but once close up, she wrapped up in her clouds and refused to come out, very rude and the only rudeness we've encountered.

She is a beauty

Want a snowball fight?

Taking the bullet train back our guide left us in Tokyo station and told us how to get to the Metro Subway station and the station we needed to exit at.

Bullet Train

Up the stairs, easy...

We got up out of the train station and were completely baffled about how to find the Metro. We asked a couple for directions. Not many people here speak English and they didn't except for a few words. They knew what we wanted and turned around and took us there! It was in the complete opposite direction of where they were going, totally out of their way. They could have pretended not to understand instead they showed us exactly where we needed to go.

Very organized subway system

We got off the subway and exited but once on the street had no clue where to go next. We found a large street map and figured out the general direction to go. We found a restaurant, Anchor Point a beer brewery and restaurant which we had seen the night before. Once there I knew where we were. We went in and had a beer and a glass of wine. Someone, (won't say who) was complaining about the cost, were we really going to spend $7.00 for a beer and $9.00 for a glass of wine? The total bill was $43.00 for two glasses of wine, a beer, and a charcuterie plate. This ain't Cambodia! This is New York! However, everything was delicious and the manager or owner came over to talk to us. Takashi Nagaki is wonderful and we'll go back one more time before we leave, even if it's only for a drink. He was really fun to talk too. He had also been to Angkor Wat several times and had never been able to see the sunrise.

Our next adventure took us to a lunch which included a Sumo demonstration. Loved it! Two retired wrestlers (both in their 30's) explained the sport to us through a translator.

Tea, really.

There were about 36 people in attendance. The Sumo did a warm-up demo and a 3 bout match.

Grrr

Not much left to the imagination

Then they opened it up to the audience for challenges. Even with all my cajoling and sweet talk, I couldn't get Cindy to enter the ring. I sincerely thought she'd enjoy, as well as offer some good American competition. (CM says--actually this was the reverse. Can you believe he didn't go for it?) The smaller wrestler weighed about 275 pounds and the larger around 350 pounds. I agreed to forego the challenge so that I could film her cuz that's just the selfless kind of guy I am.

so much fun

Feeling petite

Some of the group did challenge them, including two young girls. It was hilarious. These guys had great senses of humor and were so good-natured. The demonstration was followed by a traditional Japanese Chanko meal which the Sumo traditionally eat.

Chanko Lunch

They came to both ends of the table and answered more questions about training, life style, thier lives and their sport. What a great time!!

A beautiful day in Tokyo!

Gorgeous

Time in Thailand

On to Thailand: we left Siem Reap, Cambodia at 8:00 AM for Bangkok on a bus. Eleven hours later (!) we arrived at our hotel in Bangkok. It was a long haul including two hours to cross the Cambodia/Thai border by foot.

Got money, got across!

We found out later we could have taken a flight of 1 & 1/2 hours for $70.00 but would have missed the "experience" of the bus. Although it was interesting most of us dozed during much of the ride. This was a very pliant group though so there was little, if any, whining. We walked to a restaurant on the river. Hot, very hot and humid. The evening was spent at a farewell dinner to our guide, Sonny and some of our "family" (the tour group). We'd be on our own again.

Riverview Restaurant

Sonny, our kind and patient leader

The following morning, the nine of us who were still in Bangkok boarded a small boat on the Chao Phraya River for a two hour cruise up the canals into the interior of the city. Fascinating! We saw everything from resplendent homes to others that were just a puff away from falling into the water.

Nine tourists traipsing

Beautiful Homes

Fixer upper

The ladies still managed to shop when a woman poled up to our boat with a selection of must have souvenirs made in China!

Floating Shop

After the boat trip (hot, very hot), our next stop was the "Reclining Buddha" at a huge and ornately decorated pagoda. Although it was impressive, I'm about Buddha-ed and pagoda-ed out! I'd compare it to eating too much candy or drinking too much. Well, candy anyway. Very hot, still.

Welcome to Wat Pho

Very BIG Buddha

Sweet face of the reclining Buddha

We walked back to the hotel. Very long. Very very hot. We said our good byes to Gilles who left for Montreal and Crystal who left for a new hotel. We were going to meet Sophie, Andrew, and Stephanie on Khao San Road a street famous for backpackers and hippies (probably also drugs and pornography) and tourists. We arrived by tuk-tuk but we didn't manage to find them. We walked up and down the street and finally hoped they weren't spending too much time looking for us. We sat down on the terrace of a cafe bar and had a bite. We took an exciting fun ride in a tuk-tuk back to our hotel. Very hot. The next day we said our good byes to Sophie.

Tuk-tuk, carnival ride that gets you somewhere

Small bites

Cindy and I took a cooking class in the morning. We met "Carole" and her five year old son, Alfie. He had a ten day holiday from school. She walked us through a local underground market, buying fresh seafood and vegetables to prepare with us. We were her only students for the day. She spoke English very well as did Alfie who is learning a third language, Mandarin Chinese.

Carole & Alfie

The market few tourists see

The class was held in a small storefront and we made four items: soup, green curry, pad Thai, and dessert with sticky rice and mango. We spent about three hours with them and had a great time. Meeting local people has been the high point of this trip. The green curry was the most labor intensive but also the most delicious. Everything was fresh and very good but the flavors in the curry were most wonderful. This we will try at home though many of the items won't be so fresh. It's difficult to get coconuts right off the tree in Indiana.

Dennis paying attention

Making coconut milk

Yum!

The street we took to go back to get a tuk-tuk was lined with silver wholesale shops. They pointed us to a shop that sold retail and Cindy got a charm to remind her of Thailand. At least it's small and we don't have to figure out where to stash it in the luggage.

Bangkok Airport

Back at the hotel we met Stephanie and Andrew on the terrace bar, had a drink with them and said our good-byes. They're on to Phuket and the islands and we leave for Tokyo at 3:30 AM! STILL hot! See you there...