Monday, August 26, 2013

Matsuri

It's matsuri (festival) season! A week ago, I went with some friends to a matsuri about an hour away. Unfortunately, I don't know the name of the matsuri, or even where it was - except that it was somewhere out near the American school - so I'll never be able to find it again. But it was cool!

Basically, it was a parade of lantern-type floats. It started with the taiko drums and flutes.


 They were followed by these guys. I have no idea what they represented.


They were followed by the floats, which were huge and extremely elaborate, with all sorts of drama on one side and then peaceful on the other. They were pushed/pulled down the street and turned in a circle every so often so that everybody could get a good view of all the sides.









Unlike other festivals I've been to, there wasn't a lot of festival food or anything like that, but it was a fun and beautiful neighborhood festival. 

Monday, August 19, 2013

Ninja tea!

I have now been in Japan for a year! Hard to believe how fast time goes by. I still have so many things to see and do that I decided to make a list so that I don't get to the end of my tour and have regrets. As you may remember, one of the items on my list was to go to Ninja, the ninja-themed restaurant here in Tokyo.

This restaurant is sneaky! It hides, with a simple door in a black wall. To get to your table, you have to go through "ninja training", which is basically walking through a dark, low corridor that goes up and down and around, and then you have to call out the secret ninja password to lower a bridge and then go a bit further before entering the seating area, which looks like a Japanese fortress.  

A friend's drink
Cheesecake :)
The menu is on a scroll, and the dessert menu is SECRET - i.e. it's written on a little piece of paper that they burn up after you place your dessert order. Drinks can be fun, and the food was quite good. The whole thing is a bit pricey, but it's a really fun experience.

The waiters are all dressed as ninjas, and they do a little magic show right at your table. Everything is "ninja this" and "ninja that" - including "ninja tea" with my dessert.


And when we left, our ninja waiter jumped out with the following:


All told, a great evening!

View from the Shangri-la
The following weekend, I went out to afternoon tea at the Shangri-la with a group of ladies who are getting ready to leave Tokyo at the end of the month. The Shangri-la's afternoon tea was on a list of the Top 5 afternoon teas in Tokyo. I'd been to two of the five - the Ritz Carlton and the Peninsula hotel - and this was a nice opportunity to go to a third.



The tea was quite nice, with sandwiches made with good breads, scones with clotted cream and lemon curd, and lovely sweets. When you drank all of your tea, you could choose a different tea if you wanted. And it all ended with a little cookie and a chocolate.

After tea, two of us decided on the spur of the moment to try to go see the Tokyo fireworks. Japan loves fireworks. In the U.S., we're very happy with a 20 minute firework show. The Tokyo fireworks are 90 minutes. They set off more than 10,000 fireworks. It's HUGE. Because we decided to go spur of the moment, we had a series of obstructed views, but it was still fun to see!


Saturday, August 3, 2013

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!