Friday 29 February 2008

Sento 銭湯

Last Sunday, after a bit of climbing, I went off in search of a local sento [銭湯], a Japanese public bath, similar to an Onsen [温泉] but with out the water being heated geothermally... it's just heated tap water. They tend to be a lot cheaper than onsen [温泉], mainly due to subsidy from the local ward office ('ku', く, 区). Ones in our ward (Bunkyo-ku [文京区]) are set to be 430yen for adults...

So, with my muscles in need of relaxing, I toddled on the bike to the nearest one. The entrance to the sento was just like the photos, with the coloured curtains draped over the entrance...I took off my shoes at the entrance and popped them into the nearby lockers (taking out a very strange wooden key) Then went over to the front desk, where the guy asked for only 100yen (I don't know why....it may be a discount for residents of the ward...and I assume not many people come to sento from outside the ward at 1030pm).

After entering the Ladies door, I find another locker...but this time for my clothes (and yes you have to do some public-ish nudity) time for a shower. It's probably useful to note, that unlike onsen, you are expected to bring your own soaps and conditioners...I saw most of the ladies with plastic baskets of their washing paraphanalia, and they don't provide hairdryers either. Like the onsen, you also have to bring your own towel...

Anyway, there were even showers there, and there were 3 tubs: one with no thermometer and a place to sit where you will have your back, calves and feet massaged by jets of hot water (this was VERY relaxing - once I managed to ease my self into the hot water...) and this was the coolest tub.

Next to that there was a Jacuzzi-like tub with constant bubbles all over, and a thermometer reading a minimum temp of 40deg celcius, and the tub next to that was lit with a red light and a thermometer reading 45degrees and a warning that it was very hot. (I didn't go near it - mainly because I wanted to leave with all my skin intact)

and the link to the sentos Bunkyo-ku is HERE

Saturday 16 February 2008

Stand-up comedy in Tokyo, The Punchline

It's Friday night and we headed off to Harajuku (原宿) to get our first taste of stand-up comedy in Tokyo.

First we rushed a bit of dinner at the sushi bar (回転寿司) on Omotesando (表参道) then hobbled down to Pizza Express where Punchline; a standup comedy event, held about once a month, which drags comedians to asia. Last night there were 3 comedians, 2 from the UK and one from Canada at some point but who currently lives in the UK.

Basically, A guy managed to organise taking over a restaurant for one evening a month to host a small stand-up thing. The place was packed with foreigners, I guess the thing was aimed at ex-pats missing a taste of home...I have to say that it was the most amount of white people I had been in the same room in with for a long time. The stand up itself wasn't too bad, there were some hilarious bits, but mainly all three comedians focussed their acts on sex which made it a bit crude and tedious at times... so the hilarity wore a bit thin. To be honest, for the princely sum of 6500yen (and that was just for the show) it was a bit much... I don't think I'd really want to go again in Tokyo...I'd rather wait 'til I'm home.

Wednesday 13 February 2008

Cat cafes... have a coffee, pet a cat.

I've been informed that places exist in Tokyo for you to have a coffee with a cat...

For those unable to keep their own pets and don't carry around silvervine (またたび - I'm trying to find out where i can buy my own little plant of this stuff...) with them all the time to attract the strays... There are places where you can go have coffee with cats or kittens lounging all over the place. Generally called 'Cat cafes' [カフェ] or[猫喫茶 (ねこきっさ)], there are several in and around Tokyo (click the name of the cafe to link to the site):

Calico (きゃりこ)
東京都武蔵野市吉祥寺南町1-5-7 雪ビル4F
Tel: 0422-29-8353
Open ALL WEEK 10am to 10pm (last entry 930pm)
Entrance Fee:
1hr - 800yen
30mins - 600yen
for every extra 10mins - 120yen

Rien cat cafe and cattery
東京都世田谷区等々力7-10-17
Tel:03-6712-0982
Open:
Wednesday to Friday 2pm to 9pm
Saturdays and Holidays (inc. Sundays) 11am to 7pm
Entrance Fee:
upto 30mins- 1000yen,
for every extra 10mins - 200yen
(probably expensive due to the fluffiness and cuteness of the Norwegian Forest cats they have here)

Cats shop (ねこのみせ)
東京都町田市原町田1丁目2-9小林ビル202号室
Tel:
042-722-0544
Weekdays and Saturdays: 12noon to 10pm
Sundays and Holidays: 12noon to 8pm
Closed every Tuesday and Friday
Price:
150yen for every 10mins

Nennekoya (ねんねこ家)
東京都台東区谷中2-1-4
Tel:03-3828-9779
Open: Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Holidays 11:30am to 6pm
Price: They just ask that you buy at least one drink per person, drink and cake sets range from 600 to 1000yen

ねこ・JaLaLa
東京都千代田区外神田3-5-5-1F
Tel:03-3258-2525
Open:11am to 7pm
Entrance Fee:
upto 30mins - 500yen
for every extra 10mins - 150yen

'curl-up cafe' カールアップカフェ
東京都目黒区原町1丁目7-4
東急目黒線「西小山」駅より徒歩1分
03-5755-5393

Weekdays: 12noon to 8pm
Weekends and holidays: 11pm to 8pm
Closed on Mondays (Tuesday, if a National Holiday falls on Monday)
Entrance Fee:
upto 1hr - 1200yen
upto 30mins 900yen
upto 1hr + tea set - 2000yen

for every extra 1hr - 800yen
for every extra 30mins - 500yen

(there's a nice list on this site - some in oosaka as well)

Thursday 7 February 2008

Chinese New Year 2008 (year of the rat)

In order to avoid going to university for another lonely Chinese New Years in Tokyo, Amy came over to our flat, and we spent the whole day cooking a feast for dinner. I spent the morning shopping for ingredients (as well as some of the night before, where I headed to Ikebukuro (池袋) to buy chinese stuff, like pancakes for peking duck, man tou (馒头), hoisin sauce (海鲜酱), oyster sauce...and most importantly Chinese Five Spice powder (五香粉)...So, after all the food shopping, I started on the prep. Cut up loads of veges; for the Peking duck, and for stir-frying later, and also cut up lots of ginger and garlic for most of the dishes. Amy managed to arrive while I had just finished the first round of cooking the duck (we were actually doing twice cooked duck, following my dads delicious recipe), and I was just starting to steam the first batch of Chinese New Year cake.

We wrapped jiao zi (饺子), Amy made Bahgudeh, we gutted and scaled a fish, steamed the fish, made some soup...

People started arriving at around 730...and so we started off with the duck...we boiled the jiao zi, had bahgudeh with rice and man tou, had steamed veges, had stir fried veges, and a steamed fish (It was a bit of a mission to find a suitable whole fish for the dinner....but after trawling through about 4 shops, including one fish mongers, I finally found one!)

Anyway, it all seemed to go down well...



Amy, looking very full (...a split second before I took this photo, Greg and Fumie were seemingly deep in conversation, but some 6th sense seemed to know that I was poised to take a photo and some instinctive reaction in both of them made them pose at just the right moment; it was amazing)