Namaste, people

I've decided to outsource myself

outra vez

Hey, guess what?!?!?!

pics i meant to upload a long time ago! paper crane chains at a temple, shinkansen speed train, drinking tea in temple garden, peace out with a schoolgirl, postcard shots...

green tea in the garden at the golden temple

rare view of fuji from my hotel room

Kyoto double exposure...

Buh Bye

WEEKEND WRAPUP
Kyoto was awesome
Japanese speed trains (sinkansen?) rock
Cerulean (shibuya) hotel is awesome - you should stay there
The parmesan is delicious
It snowed - big fat beautiful snowflakes falling on big fat beautiful temples
I drank green tea in a beautiful garden under red umbrellas
I am the proud owner of a clear plastic umbrella and striped leggings for under floaty skirts
I woke up this morning to a view of Mt. Fuji out my window (19th floor)
It's gorgeous and sunny for my last day here

I love Tokyo
I love New York

...and I leave Tuesday....
so that is all - signing off!
xoxo

Sayonara, Tokyo!

Signing off from Tokyo ... Headed for the hills tomorrow (Kyoto) and will be back in town on Sunday night.

Dinner tonite is here. Mmmmmmm, cava.

Domo Arigato!

Murray's cheese and chocolate from the 'hood: What more could I ask for??? This will feel just like a New York weekend, except that I'll be on the bullet train to Kyoto savoring my aged parmesan and Li-Lac yummer bars. You da best - so glad this made it through customs. Some Pocky/CapCap coming your way for sure!

Oh. My. God.

What a meal! We ate at Shunju in Tameike-Sanno last night. It is on the 27th floor, and the food was as beautiful as the view.

The amuse bouche consisted of three beautiful sets of baby octopus, spanish mackerel, and a snow pea stuffed with chicken puree, presented on a hand carved, bowed wooden tray. The restaurant design was impressive, even to this jaded New Yorker. There were two open kitchens and a separate cigar bar, and the entire space opened up to 270 degree views of Roppongi, Shinjuku and Shibuya (at least that's what I think we were looking at!).

We also had grilled seasonal vegetables with a miso or anchovy garlic dipping sauce, house made chicken sausage (including raw egg for dipping, one of four that came with our meals), fried tofu, cold udon noodles with various sauces, and amazing duck with mushrooms, radish and greens that we cooked in a pot at our table. It was all perfect and finished off with some buckwheat tea (smells just like kasha!)

This is one of several Shunju restaurants designed by Takashi Sugimoto, who has apparently "revolutionized dining in Japan."

The menu changes seasonally to take advantage of the freshest ingredients, which apparently includes horsemeat tartare. (Yes, that is raw horsemeat. Kate, wanna try?)

The design was beautiful yet functional - the high backed chairs were super comfy and conducive to lingering, the lighting was atmospheric but not too dark (hate when I have to pick up the candle to read the menu!), and the service was totally attentive but not overbearing.

Better review here, cookbook is on Amazon and website is here …. I will definitely be back!

Get Crunked Up

We had such fun in the am/pm convenience store today at lunch. We bought some Men's Pocky, aptly named because it is unsuitable for women due to its dark chocolate nature (which is too strong for the delicate pallets of womenfolk, naturally).

Do you think this "Crunky" stuff would sell in the States? It doesn't taste very good and has a slightly questionable name, but who knows.

Memo to American Apparel: Collarbones Are the New Black

Coming soon to an Odin near you.


My style informant tells me "Helmut Lang and Slimane at Dior are working that look recently."

It does go nicely with the mohawk- sort of a punk pirate thing. Arrrrr.

Tokyo worker bees

How would you eat this?

Today's Challenge:

Your only tool is a pair of crappy wooden chopsticks.
The asparagus weighs about a pound.

Good luck.

The Universal Language of FactSet

I just returned from a demo at an IB client here in Tokyo. It was very interesting to see a FactSet demo for 15 people in Japanese...but I only understood the following four phrases (keep in mind the presentation was over an hour):

• Universal Screening
• Indexed Price
• Comps
• Toyo Keizai

That's all. It was a beautiful board room (with carpet!), and a nice man brought us a tray of icy tea drinks in lovely glasses with straws!!! There was also some profusive bowing around the elevators; it was fun! Made me forget all about the trouble we had VPN'ing (some things don't change!)

I have another meeting on Friday, this time in English, so I am looking forward to contributing more than my smiling/bowing/"arigato."

The coolest thing was that outside the bank, there were racks and racks of Vespas! All different colors! Shiny! Like candy! Mmmmm.

Chingy Attempts to Freestyle

I believe his exact words were:

"JapPAAAN, ya underSTAAAAAAAND?"

What talent! Somebody get this guy a record contract!

Noa Watches MTV Japan (So You Don't Have To)

Once I tired of watching Soledad lament the rising gas prices in the States, I switched from CNNj to MTV Japan.

Boy am I glad I did!

Where else could I see a music video that consists entirely of 2 young men preparing dinners in their separate apartments? More importantly, why does this pass as music video entertainment?

Each guy comes home with a bag of groceries, starts chopping, sautéing and salting/peppering, and then sits down to enjoy their home-cooked meal. I think they are supposed to be star-crossed friends or something, because they live in the same building but don't seem to know each other. It would have made more sense had it been a man and a woman, but since it was 2 guys, it just left me wondering what was going on.

It did make me kinda hungry though - those guys made some tasty looking meals!

Tuesday Dinner - Haiku

i.
After a long day
Of Active Graph questioning
Drinking wine is nice!

ii.
Erawan, so yummmz
Your Thai food is so pretty.
Orchid on my plate!

iii.
The hand dryer was
A V-6 Mitsubishi
Who knew they made those?

Suckers!

Another glorious March day in Tokyo. Don't get too jealous, though - I'm at work!

What kind of Pocky are you?

You can take a quiz here. Pocky = Chocolatey Deliciousness wrapped around mini cookie/breadsticks.

Comes in 2 stay-fresh packs and you even get free stickers. Yummmmz.

The List

What to Wear Shopping: Striped tights with legwarmers and pointy flats
What NOT to Wear: “I LOVE NORTH KOREA” shirt
What to Wear to Work: Skirt and boots; Mask on subway
What to Watch: Liv Tyler in Mt. Ranier coffee commercial
What to Shoe: Knee high boots with short trousers
How to Rebel: Go up the down stairs
What to Accessorize: Camera phone with 12 pounds of charms
Where to Shop: Harajuku and Omotesando
What to Drink: Beer from a vending machine
What to Conspicuously Consume: Louis Vuitton
What to Hair: Mullet (girl), Shag (boy)
What to Celebrate: White Day, March 14th
What to Makeup: Shu Uemura eyelash curler
What to Snack: Green tea KitKat
What to Eat: Sushi for breakfast at Tsujiki
What NOT to Eat: Foot-long sausage for breakfast
What to Read: Murakami with paper book cover
What to Touch: Automatic glass door buttons
What NOT to Touch: Doors on the taxi
What to Graffiti: NECK FACE, apparently
What to Yell: "Banzai!!!!!!"
What NOT to Yell: "There are so many J.A.P.’s in Murray Hill!"
(Editor: We mean Jewish American Princesses, silly!)
Where to go when you feel “Lost”: Barney’s New York in Ginza, for those familiar black bags
(Editor: And familiar prices, sadly)

Monday Dinner - Haikus

i.
O, Fujimama,
Your menu is in english
And that really rocks!

ii.
Your steak and swordfish
Have made our Monday happy
And you take AmEx!

iii.
You're not cheap as chips,
But you're quite reasonable.
Everything yum yum!

Take that, Christo + Jean Claude!!!

Wedding Procession at Meiji Shrine

More Harajuku teenagers

Harajuku Girls

From the Gwen Stefani song:

"I'm fascinated by the Japanese fashion scene. Just an American girl in the Tokyo streets. My boyfriend bought me a Hysteric Glamour shirt. They're hard to find in the states, got me feeling couture. (its really cool) What's that you got on? Is it Comme des Garcons? Vivienne Westwood can't go wrong, mixed up with second hand clothes. (let's not forget about John Galliano) (no) Flipped the landscape when Nigo made A Bathing Ape."

The crazy goth / Nightmare Before Christmas / Little Bo Peep look was out in full force on the bridge by Harajuku station this afternoon. Totally and completely weird, not the mainstream fashion Gwen is pining for. The girls were friendly - before I left I wrote down how to say "May I take your picture?" ("Shasin totte ii desu ka?") but they were quite eager for the camera so I didn't even have to ask.

They even make Harajuku Hello Kitty phone charms - which consists of Hello Kitty dressed up like a gothic sheep tender. Only in Tokyo.

Wedding Photos

This is a shot of one bride and groom being styled by the photographer.

This shot is a little blurry because I didn't want to be obtrusive - I kept my distance and used the powerful zoom on my ancient digital camera (that's my way of apologizing for the blurry pic).

Missy, what do you think James would say if you made him wear a skirt in your wedding? Just curious.

Erica, what do you think of the makeup? I bet you would have done a better job!

Meiji

Wasn't all consumerism today... before I went shopping I hit up the Meiji Shrine in Harajuku. It was a very impressive temple, and I was lucky enough to see two wedding processions! One seemed very very traditional, and the other a bit more modern - it was way cool - One of the older ladies saw me trying to take pictures and invited me over to get a closer look. She was so cute and it was fun to bow to her a few times :-) I think it was her granddaughter getting married and she seemed very proud.

The park was beautiful and and full of evergreens, very different from Central Park this time of year. (Especially now that The Gates are gone!)

How do you say "kickass" in Japanese???

Because there is some kick-ass shopping in Omotesando... Ferreal.

Woke up, plugged into the ipod, and headed over to do some damage on the IN:NYC Amex (this is sad, seeing how i'm in japan, but i can't wait to use my points at sushisamba!)

Selections from today's soundtrack - Charge Me Up (Chris Price) :: Lovely Day (Bill Withers) :: Cannonball (Damien Rice) :: Just Can't Get Enough (Nouvelle Vague) :: Krafty (New Order) :: Kick Out The Chairs (DFA) :: Amazon (M.I.A.) :: Lua (Bright Eyes)

Got a kickass necklace at a store inLaforet - may go back for the matching earrings. Picked up some crazy stuff at Kiddyland, which was a complete scene - the Japanese loooove their cartoon characters. Also got some cell phone accessories - my phone is definitely turning Japanese. . . I think if I put enough Hello Kitty charms on it, maybe I'll get a few bars of service?!?!?!

My shopping vocabulary consists of "hie, hie" "credit-card" and "arigato." Pretty sad.

Roppulsive

Went out for Mexican food in Roppongi on Saturday night (March 5). So many westerners and clubs pumping out Usher and 50-cent, with hustlers outside trying to get you in. It was like a really bad B+T scene, kinda reminded me of w. 3rd and the area around NYU - Nothing Japanese about it.

I was exhausted so I called it a night around midnight (shocker, I know!) but Simon went ahead and met up with Suni for a crazy night of salsa dancing and then they went to a club called News. I was sad to hear I missed out on so much fun, but I took some vitamins, got some much-needed sleep, and I'm feeling much better now!

Matty-san

the pretentious* little one pager from shelovestokyo.com

currently pondering whether urban outfitters should open in laforet at http://www.shelovesny.com/legwarmers.

. . . .
. . . .

MOHAWKS ARE THE NEW FAUXHAWKS, MATTY:
harajuku girls – two rings, this is gwen, leisurely gothic hold, sunday at 1:30
fujimamas – one ring, wasaaaabi? what time would you like (PST)?
a bathing ape – recording: ape shall not reserve for ape. good luck finding us.
milkfed – one ring, this is sofia, anytime is fine - bring a good map and all your yen.
kiddyland – three rings. snoopy will be here all day, come soon for a unmeican.


she loves tokyo, matty-san, now go and show it to her.

Fake Tempura and Sushi

Fake Food

After Asakusa, I went to Kappabashi which is the restaurant supply district. Stacks and stacks of wooden and ceramic tableware, staff uniforms, equipment and even shops that sell the ubiquitious fake food. It's crazy expensive - the things in this pic started at $40 and went up from there. Roreo, I was gonna get you a fake oreo but it was $15.

In any other place it would be beyond tacky to have plastic food samples at a restaurant. Can you imagine Spotted Pig with bowls of plastic sheepsmilk gnudi??? But when you don't speak a word of Japanese, you are willing to overlook certain things. I have a love/hate relationship with this stuff.

Back of Asahi

Horn? Flame? Tadpole?

Asahi Beer Building

As seen from across the Sumida river. This is Philip Starck doing his thing in Asia. The most interesting thing about Tokyo architecture is that they totally disregard the style of the neighboring buildings, so everything looks very haphazard. (I know there is a term for this in architecture, Julie can you ask Ben?!)

The softer side of Senso-ji

Senso-ji temple

Even more Asakusa

More Asakusa

Nevermind the backwards swastika.

Asakusa

Here I am in front of a temple in Asakusa.

There are many small temples here. This one is dedicated to women. Apparently there is a time of year when people stick needles in tofu as an offering to the domestic gods, and this temple gets very crowded (This is what I remember from the translated sign there, who knows!).


This pic was taken by Mac, a Taiwanese businessman who was very very nice. I have his card if anyone is interested in networking, holla. (No, Mom, I didnt give him my card. And I told him my name was Raquel, so stop worrying.)

Also met a fellow New Yorker and even gave directions to some other foreigners - Either 1) I look like I know where I'm going or 2) I look like a friendly American. (Nobody asked me where W. 4th Street was, or how to get to Magnolia Bakery, which was kind of refreshing.)

Shibooooooooya-kasha!

Friday night we went out in Shibuya with Suni, one of the consultants in the office here. She showed us a great time - After grabbing dinner at BOAC we met up with Suni at the Hachiko statue right by the Shibuya station.

We went to a club called Womb, basically like a Twilo or Centro-fly... Apparently it has the largest mirror ball in Asia - it was a cool space, the dance floor was about four stories high and completely open, with VIP looking down from a few floors above. We took the spiral staircase up to the VIP section and were very well taken care of! For some reason I was drinking sea-breezes all night, not sure what inspired that. That is soooooo pre-cosmo/c. 1998.

Other than being the inspiration for Ali-G, Shibuya is known for its Love Hotels... On the way to Womb we passed many of them. Room rates are either for "Stay" (the night) or "Rest" (four hours) but I have a feeling not much "resting" goes on during that time.

Shibooooooya!

More fishies

More scenes from Tsujiki. Arent the tiny squid cute? They were about the size of my thumb.

Wellie capital of the world

This guy is pulling a cart full of fish from the enclosed market to the trucks waiting outside. These people work incredibly hard. If you click on this pic, you'll see a better view of the snow.

I have never seen so many wellies in a single building. These people know their all-weather gear, they don't mess around.

Is that kosher?

Got up early and went to the Tsujiki fish market this morning (Friday, March 4). Incredible.

It was unlike anything I have ever seen in my life. Complete chaos - little carts driving around loaded up with fish, frozen fish being cut up on these massive table saws, buckets full of live fish thrashing around, fish heads all over, tables full of fish blood... Basically it was vegetarian heaven (Mark, you would have loved it!). I managed to get out without any fish blood on my Alvin Valleys - no small feat!

Here are some shrimp:

Almost everything was either alive or frozen (or had its head chopped off). Apparently they freeze the fish right on the boat, so it stays fresh. Everything was so fresh, nothing smelled fishy at all.

The selection was amazing, and the wheeling and dealing was impressive. There are little booths at every stall where ladies sit on the phone (taking orders?) while the men are slicing, weighing, and wrapping all kinds of things. There was octopus, squid, crab, giant angel-wing shell things, scallops, huge unidentifiable fish, sea urchins, lobsters, prawns, seaweed.... and those were just the things I could recognize. The volume is truly amazing - it is so huge and packed with fish that you wonder if there's anything left in the sea.

Unrelated

Sorry, this is completely unrelated to Tokyo, but I saw this: President Bush Makes Surprise Visit to the C.I.A.

And I just have to ask: Shouldn't the C.I.A. have seen this coming? Heaven help us all.

On another unrelated note, I've just found out that Colin Powell is the speaker at our luncheon on the first day of the ADL Conference in April. How cool is that!??!!?

Tokyo Tags

Finally found some graffiti in Omote-sando - Now I feel like I'm home! Blurry, but in the middle is a NYC subway token stencil ("Good For One Fare").

And there was a NECK FACE tag on the bridge over Omote-sando (Omote-sando is the name of the divided road running through this trendy neighbrohood, kind of like if Prince Street looked more like Park Avenue).

Either NECK FACE really gets around, or there is some kind of crazy copycat here.

More Omote-sando

Missoni, Dior, Nurses' Building, Vespa (!), Burberry

Trucker hats are the new mullet

The rest of the hats in this store were cool, i swear. And everyone in there looked like a Japanese Ashton Kutcher circa 2002.

Shopping in Harajuku

If Urban Outfitters made clothes for little ones, they still wouldnt be as cool as this shop in the little alleyway off Omote-sando in Harajuku. Hipness begins at a young age for the Japanese - these clothes were exquisite.

Note to cousins: Maybe Caleb needs some destroyed denim? Or does Jordan need any leg warmers?

Hibiya Line

Another subway shot. . . Wasnt crowded this morning until we got to Ginza, at which point it became a sauna. The windows were fogging up..... but no, there was no groping.

That's not grafitti on the train, it's a cartoon drawing - maybe some kind of advertisement. I havent seen any grafitti anywhere, makes me kind of miss the "i love you..." tags I see all over NYC.

The Tipping Point

In general the Japanese are quite good about following the rules, and the "free-rider" principle doesn't really apply. For example, they line up very orderly when waiting for the train to come, and are generally looking out for the greater good. If someone commits suicide by jumping in front of a subway train, their family is fined because it causes a delay - That's the kind of thing I'm talking about.

So it is surprising when we are leaving the subway and people go "up" the "down" side of the staircase. It's interesting because they don't do it right away, but there is a tipping point where enough people are waiting at the bottom and seem to say "Screw this, I'm going up the down side!!!!" And after that it's fair game.

Note to self: Ask Malcolm Gladwell about this.

Making our way out of the Kamiyacho station this morning:

Can you work it

I know this has been keeping you all up at night, so I will hold you in suspense no longer: Here is how you say FactSet in Japanese!



Work is quite busy actually. We usually work until about 7:30, and try to squeeze in some exploring afterward. Most shops close around 8pm, so I'm looking forward to the weekend so I can do my new-york-style-shopping-marathon, with a tempura lunch thrown in.

More Ginza

More Ginza pics from Tuesday night, including the sign for Noa Cafe! I'm sure it's top notch.

Would you eat this?

Here are some pics of the random foods in the Mitsukoshi department store. These are some of the more tame offerings - they were closing so I only snapped a few quick shots.

They actually sell melons there for about US$100 - they are beautiful but who are they kidding? Apparently they are popular gifts, not because they're so yummy, but because everyone knows they are expensive, so it really looks like you cared. Ahh, materialism.

Ginza

Tuesday was a crazy day at work - We were here till about 7 p.m. and went off to Ginza to explore a bit and find some food.

This is the street outside the Ginza subway, the Sony building is on the right. It was a Tuesday night so things were pretty dead, but it was still cool to see the department stores, where I could only identify about 20% of the food being sold. It was all beautiful, I just have no idea what it was...so we went for tapas instead!

Blurry pic of me in the main intersection of Ginza

FAQs

Here are some questions from friends; figure it's easier to answer here than in 10,000 emails:

1. Does anyone speak English?
No. And I have yet to meet anyone who has seen Lost In Translation.

2. Do you take the subway?
Yes - at rush hour no less. It occurred to me this morning that I really couldn't be any further from home than when I am underground in Tokyo.

They actually have uniformed "Pushers" in the subway, whose job it is to pack people into the trains. They wear snazzy outfits and white gloves, so they maintain some element of civility in an otherwise boorish task.

Imagine the shuttle to Times Square at 6:15 pm, mulitply that by 3, and then cube it. That's the kind of crowd we're talking about.

I wasn't prepared with my camera this morning, but tomorrow I should have some pics of this stuff.

3. What is up with the toilet?
See below.

4. What is your office like?
Everything in Tokyo is so compact and makes quite efficient use of space. Our offices are in two buildings across the street from each other. We are in the main building, where we have the 6th, 7th, and 8th floors. There are about 6 people per floor, and much of the office furniture is the same as our New York office. There is even a fridge full of drinks, including bottled water - The tap water in Tokyo tastes like soap and everyone says not to drink it.

5. Can I call you?
Yes, I actually have a U.S. phone number so if you have a cell phone it's free long distance!
203-810-1713
I am in the office from 9 am to 6 pm Tokyo time, which translates to 7 pm to 4 am EST. Can't talk long usually, but if you miss my sweet voice you can find it there. Melissa, I am looking forward to some drunk dials on Thursday nights/Friday mornings.

6. Do you miss your cell phone?
Don't get me started. I may write an "Ode to SMS," as I am feeling wistful and sad at the loss of txt msging.

.... More FAQs will follow .....

Japan: A Culture of Irony

What is up with Japan? They don't have any heat in the hallways, but you can bet your bottom that their toilet seats are heated. (Which is actually quite nice!)

(Note: Erica, Melissa - can you call William Gottlieb and request they install heated seat asap?)

Apologies for keeping you all in suspense about the mysterious toilet. If any of you can read Japanese and explain what the heck this thing does, please do enlighten me.

I am pretty sure one of these buttons does a bikini wax, but I'm not sure which.


Seriously, it is quite ingenious, and has some features we should have in the States - When you flush the toilet, the clean water that fills the tank runs through the faucet on top, so you can wash your hands without wasting water. And that is good. But it gets to be a bit much when there are multiple LCD display screens on a friggin toilet.

Oscars via IM

Big ups to Kate for IM'ing me the play-by-play to the Oscars. A sample:

Kate: best actor is up
Noa: ooooooo
Noa: go watch
Kate: watching
Kate: cheadle
Kate: depp
Kate: leo
Noa: gisele must be kvelling
Kate: looking very grecian
Kate: clint
Kate: jamie foxx
Kate: (looking really nervous)
Kate: and the oscar goes to . . .
Kate: jamie foxx
Kate: no suprises ever
Kate: gisele loks like jenn aniston in her better days
Noa: well i guess leo's not gettin any tonite
Kate: nope
Kate: none for leo

Also shout outs to Mich for the fashion report. As I always say "Low backs are the new cleavage."

Oh yeah...

...we flew over some major icebergs (up over Canada, over parts of Russia, and finally JP).

Ohayô from Nippon!

After a brief delay, I finally made it to Japan! Our original plane had a leak in business class {wonder if it would have mattered if it were in coach???} so we had to wait 5 hours while another one came from Tokyo.

While I was waiting, I discovered an excellent service - there is this really cool guy who will bring you vegan food from TeaNY if you ask nicely.


I've been in-country for all of 3 hours, but so far these things are cool:

I have a washing machine!
My toilet does tricks! (full report later)
There is a starbucks and they accept my starbucks card! [In this moment I appreciate the awesome, destructive power of globalization.]
I have the Eiffel Tower chair from Design Within Reach. Likely a knockoff, but loving it regardless.
Masato picking me up at the airport in a car (no bus for me!)
Snazzy police uniforms Don't worry, I havent personally met any of them (yet)

Things that are not so cool:
Can't figure out the phone
Can't figure out the television
Can't figure out the internet (on dial up now...)
Can't figure out the alarm clock

Going to sleep (once I figure out the alarm clock!)
....... More later.........

Sayonara, NYC!

I know it's only three weeks, and I probably won't miss the sheepsmilk gnudi at Spotted Pig as much as I expect.... but just in case, I've spent the past week hitting up my favorite spots.

One of my greatest pleasures in life is eating and drinking in NYC (thankfully, Equinox is another great pleasure). I never thought I'd be able to squeeze it all in, but I managed to hit up 'ino, August, Billy's Bakery, Spotted Pig, Otto, Schiller's, Milk + Honey, Magnolia, Cafeteria, Hiro, Ono and Mary's off Jane in less than 5 days.

Notice no sushi in the mix.... plenty of time for that!

Lost?

I hear that "Lost" was the working name for "Lost In Translation." I took a look at the Tokyo subway map, and I can see why!

Get me out of this country!

I will be spending 2 weeks in Tokyo for work beginning at the end of February.

I plan to use this blog as a diary of my travels, including the glamourous work of answering phone calls from NYC bankers at 4 a.m. EST.

How do you say "magnolia cupcake" in Japanese?