Late July Fun

In the latter half of July, I went to two fun events.  

The first was Brazil Day at Yoyogi Park.  We went fairly early in the day and enjoyed seeing all sorts of food that I haven't seen in a while: "spitinhos" of beef, a maracuja caipirinha, graviola juice...   

There was a stage with performances all day - and true to the Brazilian experience, it was running significantly behind schedule. There were also people performing capoeira, which was a lot of fun to watch.

What I can not figure out is why there were sombreros with "Brazil" written on them.  

This was my first time to Yoyogi Park, and I discovered that no park is complete without a mural of a giant whale flying over a city.

At the end of the month, I went to Tokyo City Keiba racetrack for the Twinkle (i.e. nighttime) races. That particular night was the Santa Anita Trophy Races, which include the (U.S.) Ambassador's Cup race. (I may be mixed up on the "trophy" and "cup" thing, but you get the point.) 

About 100 Embassy personnel and their families were invited to spend the evening in one of the fancy boxes (big room plus balcony with food and drinks and comfortable seating) and watch the races. 

Possibly my favorite moment of the night was when I watched a race, and as the horses passed the finish line in front of me, I noticed that the second place horse had no jockey. Apparently, the jockey fell off at the very beginning of the race. Bummer for him, but the horse was very happy to run the entire race without the extra weight. Too bad he was disqualified. Hope they gave him a treat with his dinner that night.

Later, our DCM presented the award to the winner of the Ambassador's Cup race.

A lot of people placed bets on the races, but I didn't. I figured I'd just lose if I did, and I would be much happier just cheering on the pretty horses. So I had a great time!

Birthday Week o' Fun

My birthday was a few weeks ago, and partly through design and partly through happenstance, I had a very fun week.  

The final of four sets of desserts

It started two days before my birthday with a last minute invite to the Artistic Sweets Collection 2013, for which our Trade Office had received a couple tickets. Hhhhmmm, let me think... Okay! So one of my Japanese colleagues and I went to Midtown and got to drink a glass of champagne and eat four (4!) courses of fancy desserts.

Meanwhile, 5 chefs put together beautiful creations for presenting these desserts on the theme of various international cities - Tokyo, New York, Vienna, Barcelona, and Paris - with commentary by a French chef. It was in French and Japanese, and the website is in Japanese, so I'm afraid I can't explain all of the details/roles of the chefs. But it was very fun!

The designs reflected in the window, with the Tokyo skyline

On my birthday - Friday - some friends took me out for a drink after work in honor of my birthday. Then three of us went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner (I had a craving for a bloomin' onion), where half the restaurant sang "Happy Birthday" to me. This was followed by my first karaoke experience, which was tons of fun! I decided I like singing the songs that have the "vocal guide", so you're basically singing along - as opposed to having to know the song well enough to find the right key all on your own. The cherry on top of the night - we left the karaoke place in an elevator full of drunk Japanese singing "We are the world" at the top of their lungs. Again, so much FUN.

Saturday was the wonderful promotion ceremony of an Air Force friend, followed by a pool party at their place, where I got to catch up with a number of friends and make some new ones. I also discovered that one of the people at the pool party had been sitting at the table right next to me at Outback the night before. Even in a huge city like Tokyo, it's a small world!


Sunday was afternoon tea at the Ritz with another group of friends. I love the afternoon tea there. I love that it's on the 45th floor, so you have a great view of the city, and I love that they bring a box full of loose tea so that you can choose which tea you want. The food was excellent - including a cold asparagus soup that was just lovely. And of course the company was the best!

In the process of arranging the tea, I also discovered that there are a number of ladies at the Embassy who enjoy afternoon tea, so we are considering putting together a tea group and trying different tea places around town.




The following Thursday was July 4 and the Independence Day celebration at the Ambassador's residence. This was a work event - the one for contacts of the Embassy - but it was great. I was a roaming photographer, which is a ton of fun in Japan where people like photography.



The theme of the party was "America, the Beautiful." There were tons of food vendors to serve the 2,500ish guests, plus four featured chefs.  There were special foods and drinks for the American NE, the South, the Heartland and the West.  You could have your picture taken with a cardboard cutout of President Obama in front of a green screen or go to another room and have your picture taken with Mickey and Minnie - live and in person!   

the sushi truck

And then there was the entertainment, which included an Air Force jazz band, Take 6 and the Japanese pop star Ai.

Take 6! 

Ai!

All told, it was a great week!

Kawaii!

Japan is known for a lot of things, but I think one of the most fun revolves around Japan's love of all things kawaii - i.e. cute. You can find sparkly, girlie things everywhere. There are probably millions of cute little things you can hang from your cell phone, not the least of which are Hello Kitty dressed in all sorts of different outfits. I finally figured out that those cell phone hangy things could double as Christmas tree ornaments, and so I bought my first one in Okinawa - a Hello Kitty dressed in traditional Okinawan garb. Of course, the love of cute things also extends to interesting themed restaurants and "cafes."  

In June, I went with a friend to my first themed restaurant. It's in the heart of Ginza, down the main street known for Chanel, Cartier, Bulgari, two Tiffany's stores, a tiara store... You get the idea.

 So past all of these tres chic places and up an elevator, you arrive at Alice, the Alice in Wonderland themed restaurant. The first hall is decorated to look like you're walking through a giant book. We sat in a booth that was decorated black and red with spades and hearts. Larger groups might end up sitting in the giant tea cup. The waitress, who is dressed up like Alice, brings a box, which opens up into this diorama. The top and side is the menu, full of Alice in Wonderland-themed food items.

Inside was the drinks menu - all non-alcoholic - with Alice in Wonderland-themed drinks described on miniature playing cards scattered around a top hat. I got a drink with a name based on the rabbit, but with the straw, I think it looked more like a cat. 

Then there was the bread that had spreadable cheese in a tea cup and a little "Eat Me" sign. For my meal, I got a steak with a side of gnocchi, which came in a little heart-shaped dish, and a tomato carved up like a rose. And dessert was chocolate cake cut into heart shapes.  

On a side note, just down the street from Alice is a toy store with a floor dedicated to stuffed animals.  Among the bunnies wearing tiaras, the cats and bears and cute little seals, you find this... 

I think only in Japan would an ugly deep sea fish be considered a model for a stuffed animal!

I decided to follow up that fun trip with a visit to a cafe. In Harajuku, which is probably ground zero for all things kawaii, you can find brightly colored little restaurants and shops, typically full of really girlie things.

Of course, this is Japan, so you can also get octopus!

And just around the corner is a bunny cafe!

It's a small room with three tiny tables. You have to have reservations, which I didn't know when we went, so we got to spend a little time walking around Harajuku before going in. They have a bunch of rabbits in cages, and they rotate which ones spend time hopping around the guests - two bunnies per hour. So you pay for a period of time, have a cup of tea, and enjoy the presence of bunnies.  For 100 yen (about a dollar), you can buy a little cup of carrots, celery, apple and lettuce to feed the bunnies. The two bunnies that were out and about during our hour were huge fans of the apple and lettuce...

...to the point that they would try to steal it from each other.

Carrots were also quite nice, but celery was only accepted once they had hopped all over and determined that nobody in the room had anything better. Even then, they might decide it's not worth it.

How can you resist such an adorable face!

If you wanted to top off your cute and cuddly fix by holding a bunny, the staff would sit you on a bench with a big diaper on your lap (to protect your clothes) and bring a bunny for you to hold and pet.

I think next on my list will be the ninja-themed restaurant and one of the cat cafes. The falconry cafe is a bit far, and I have no desire to visit the reptiles. But ninjas and cats would be fun. Even better would be ninja cats! If ever there was a market for such a thing, it would be here.

Okinawa

A couple months ago, I realized that I hadn’t had a vacation since arriving in Japan, and I was in need of one. So over Memorial Day weekend, I went to Okinawa and stayed at a hotel on the beach about a half hour north of Naha. What I envisioned was sun, ocean and a little touring. Something relaxing. But when we arrived, the weather was like this:

So instead of sun, ocean and a little touring, we got clouds/rain, ocean and a lot of touring. Still good! Of course, the day we left, it looked like this:

[Sigh.] I clearly need to go back. And now that I’ve done so much touristy stuff, I can focus the next trip on more nature stuff. Maybe try snorkeling!

The hotel was right next to the American Village, which was a nice little area – designed in the manner of an eastern U.S. boardwalk - full of a variety of restaurants and cute shops. 

On Friday, we went to the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Park. The Park is beautifully situated right on the water and contains a large number of memorials to various groups of people. There were several school groups there when we went, and at one point, we got chased down by a couple teenage boys who wanted a picture taken with us. That was… unusual.  

In the park, there is a Peace Plaza with a Flame of Peace and 4 sections of marble inscribed with the names of those who died in the Battle of Okinawa – 2 sections of Okinawans, 1 section of Japanese from other prefectures, and 1 small section of foreigners (U.S., U.K., Taiwan and the Koreas). I discovered that an Autry died there, which I hadn’t known. The park also has an interesting museum that basically goes from before WWII to the present and is generally focused on the impact of war on the local population.   

During our visit to Okinawa, we also visited three of the nine “Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryuku” that were declared to be UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Sefa Utaki

On Friday, we visited Sefa Utaki, a sacred site where the Ryukyu’s highest-ranking priestesses were inaugurated and conducted special deifying rituals. It’s all built into the hillside, with the occasional view of the ocean, ruins of altars, and a couple stalactites that drop water into pots. The water was considered to be holy and was used to tell the fortunes of the priestess and the King’s Son. 

On Saturday, we went to Shurijo Castle, which has been renovated since it was destroyed during the war. It’s quite beautiful, with Chinese and Japanese influences in the architecture.

This is a panorama of where the Queen and the women of the court would spend time. Not a bad place to conduct business.

The last World Heritage site we went to was the ruins of Nakagusuku Castle. The ruins are quite lovely, with a view of both the Pacific Ocean on one side and the East China Sea on the other.

For nature, we drove on the sea road to a couple other islands one afternoon. It was rainy and windy, but it was still pretty.

On Sunday, we went to Cape Zanpa. It’s a beautiful spot. Some blog posts I saw indicated that you could climb to the top of the lighthouse for a great view, but it appeared to be closed when we were there. Sadly, Cape Zanpa is also known to be where, during the final days of the Battle of Okinawa, Japanese soldiers forced Okinawans to jump off the cliffs to their deaths in order to avoid capture by the American soldiers. There’s a small memorial and a little shrine, but not much else for remembrance. 

From Cape Zanpa, we continued up the coast to Ocean Expo Park, where we visited the Native Okinawan Village and the excellent Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. The aquarium is known for its large tank containing whale sharks and manta rays and other fish. We arrived right at feeding time, which was very interesting. The sharks go almost vertical and suck in tons of water, just like whales. 

  

We also got to see the dolphin show, which was a lot of fun. As we were leaving the dolphin show, I saw this tsunami sign, which was a first for me. 

Two other items of interest while we were there… The first - food. Apparently, they love Spam. I chose not to eat anything containing Spam during my stay.

However, I did eat some sea grapes, which are salty and quite good, and a number of other local items. Of course, my favorite was the sugar cane ice cream. So yummy!

Sea grapes

And last, but certainly not least – the shisa! They’re kind of lion dogs that are seen everywhere in Okinawa as a symbol to ward off evil. They are almost always in pairs, either flanking doors or on roofs. One (the male) typically has its mouth open to ward off evil spirits, and the other (the female) has its mouth closed to keep good spirits in. They are EVERYWHERE. 

So after 4 1/2 fun days, I came home. Which was a funny feeling, because it was the first time that I returned to Tokyo and felt like I had returned "home". Of course, the U.S. still feels like HOME, but I took it as a good sign, because it shows I've at least partially settled in and created a home for myself here.

Now to plan my next vacation!