Dining Out: One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Bluefish

Posted on February 10, 2007 by tokyofox

Sometime during the 1990s I watched a dramatic TV show that brought me close to tears as I thought a much loved character was about to be killed off. What is surprising is that that show was the second series of ‘The Simpsons‘ (episode 11 geeks!) and the character was Homer Simpson! The reason I had a tear in my eye was because Homer ate a badly prepared type of fish consisting of some poison and was told that he had only 24 hours to live and so made a list of things he wanted to do on his last day on earth.

Screen Shot 2015-02-10 at 14.29.23 Screen Shot 2015-02-10 at 14.30.07

I had little knowledge back then that the fish with poison was actually real and called fugu (blowfish or pufferfish in English) and that it can only be made and sold by specially licensed sushi chefs. A number of people die every year from eating this fish as they under-estimate the amount of poison in certain parts.

Despite all this, it is considered to be a delicacy in Japan and I finally got round to sampling this dish last Saturday when a 60 year old business student of mine called Masafusa very kindly treated me to a fugu course at a restaurant in Ikebukuro. This included fugu sashimi, fugu tempura, fugu soup, fugu nabe, fugu zousi and so on and very nice it was too but I don’t think my taste buds can really detect much difference between that and other types of sushi which is fortunate for me as I didn’t have to foot any of the bill which was nearly 9000 yen each (about 45 pounds)!

img_0741

However, the story doesn’t end there as when I got home I was actually rolling around in pain as yet again my stomach didn’t agree with what I had eaten or had I met my fate and contracted the highly toxic tetrodotoxin poison? Obviously not the latter as I am here now and luckily I recovered before the idea of making a list of ‘things to do before I die’ had even entered my head!!

Posted in Food & Drink, Japan Life, TV Shows | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Maid In Japan

Posted on February 9, 2007 by tokyofox

Spent last Sunday trudging round the electrical shops of Akihabara with my friend Gideon before visiting a couple of maid cafe’s as we were in need of a refreshment and thought it best not to waste the opportunity!

The first maid cafe we went to seemed a bit dull at first and the so-called ‘large’ beer was far from big. Almost as soon as Gideon commented that the place had no atmosphere things changed a little and some ‘jack in the box’ type game was played where every customer was given a plastic key to put in a number of available slots and if something popped out you won something or another. I didn’t even get the chance to do this as about the second person to try it had the winning key.

Next up was a simple ‘janken’ (“rock, scissors, paper”) game which is often used by Japanese (not just kids) to decide a matter of things but this time it was done with a load of other actions before the ‘jan-ken po’ part which I know so unable to keep up with that I inevitably failed to win the prize of having my photo taken with a maid.

Feeling a little disappointed by that place we tried another one. The popular Maid In Japan Amusement Cafe was a bit more like it in terms of wierdness. Aside from the expensive soft drinks there were many Maids on stage singing and dancing to some of the cheesiest Japanese pop music which I think was selected (at a price) by one of the other geeks in the place. These strange performances dominated the last 45 minutes or so (before the place closed at 9pm) and kept us there much longer than we had intended.

Posted in Hentai, Japan Life | Leave a comment

The Cold Rush For Masks!

Posted on February 4, 2007 by tokyofox

I’ve had a cold for the last week now which I just can’t seem to shake off as easy as normal so I am often clearing my throat (which i do quite regularly anyway) and sniffing which I find very annoying but it’s tolerated in this country. People don’t seem to like blowing their nose in public because of the attention it may attract.

As a result of these colds, many Japanese wear surgical face masks to prevent them from spreading it to others (and probably vice versa too) in a city very tightly packed with people.

Personally, I’m not sure what to make of this mask wearing. Of course its good that the sick wear them to stop further infection but surely once they get moist they are of no real use for stopping germs. Also, if someone is wearing such a thing then surely they would be better off resting at home and not risking spread but I guess thats the dedication (stupid or otherwise) of the businessmen who continue to work (or want to appear to be working). Similarly, I saw a typically cute Japanese girl the other day wearing knee-high boots, a very short skirt and a big thick coat in the bitter cold weather as well as a mask and I hope i’m not sounding too old when I say she only has herself to blame but no doubt her appearance was top priority as tends to be the case in Japan.

However, with my kids often coughing and spluttering their way through lessons I am quite glad that some take the trouble to wear masks though it is a little strange still and maybe staying away would be best for all.

I have only ever seen Asians wearing them and I imagine that if someone wore one in London or wherever people would think that he has some very fatal contagious or infectuous disease and not just a common cold.

Posted in Japan Life | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

P*ssed Off at the Post Off.

Posted on February 4, 2007 by tokyofox

Wrote a postcard to my Auntie on Friday and took it to the Post Office where I was very surprised to find out that I was gonna be charged an extra 30 yen (on top of the regular 80 yen for a postcard) just because a few of my end lines continued across the whole postcard underneath the part where her address was marked. I thought the lady was joking when she put the price up after scrutinizing my card for a moment and told her as much but as i was in a rush I paid up and left very bemused by it all. I wonder if this is a rule elsewhere or just an example of the Japanese having some of the most anal rules ever.

How a postcard can constitute being a letter I don’t know. Surely it doesn’t matter where the hell you put your writing as long as the address is clearly marked and that theres enough room for a stamp. A postcard is a postcard and it weighs the same no matter how its written and I thought that it was this weight and size which dicate the price of something for delivery.

Posted in Japan Life | Leave a comment

Spilling The Beans For Setsubun

Posted on February 3, 2007 by tokyofox

Setsubun (seasonal division) was celebrated today in Japan which is where the Japanese purify their homes by throwing beans away which supposedly drive out evil spirits for the year to come. I’ll probably never see the point of such a ritual as I just don’t have enough faith to believe that scattering beans out of the door or at a family member in a mask will frighten away devils because they fear that a little bean will make them go blind or whatever!

Anyway, despite my scepticism, good fortune is brought into the homes by eating your age in soybeans with maybe an extra one for luck and further celebrations continue at the temples and shrines around Japan. People gather at these places on February 3rd each year to witness priests and celebrities tossing away beans as well as sweets, envelopes of money and other prizes which sounds like a recipe for disaster in my book what with everyone then frantically trying to grab these things.

Posted in Japan Life, Quirky Japan | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Just A Bunch Of Wankas!!

Posted on January 30, 2007 by tokyofox

No thats not a spelling mistake but how Peru’s most popular team in the UK is spelled. I recently ordered a Deportivo Wanka t-shirt which are supposedly cult items among like-minded British football fans. I wanted to buy the actual replica shirt but they had actually sold out and there was a long waiting list so settled for this t-shirt from SportingKicks which has “Arriba el Wanka” on the back translating as “Up the Wanka”.

When the package arrived there was even an information sheet telling me that they are based in a city called Huancayo in the Peruvian Andes and are named after the Wanka people (I kid you not!) who used to live in the area way before the club was founded in 1996. I’m sure Peru’s most famous son Paddington Bear would be proud to see so many British w*nkers wearing the Wanka shirt!

Posted in Sport | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

MekkusaCuppaGreenTeaMiDuck

Posted on January 28, 2007 by tokyofox

Never thought it would happen to me but I’ve started regularly drinking green tea. It started off a while back at the Kaiten-Zushi (conveyor-belt sushi) as something to quench my thirst and has developed from there into buying teabags and drinking it on the cold winters nights. The climate is not too different from the UK but Japanese homes don’t have insulated walls and central heating so a hot cup of green tea certainly helps.

Although I’m from a country where the stereotypical image is of people sitting around having a cuppa and complaining about the weather or whatever I don’t drink normal tea and I have never even tried coffee which is something that amazes my students. I haven’t had tea since I was about four but I stopped drinking it then as my sisters didn’t drink it all and I guess I wanted to copy them which of course sounds very strange now.

By the way ‘Mekkusacuppateamiduck is the Leicester way of speaking. More of that language here
Posted in Food & Drink | 1 Comment

Trooping To The Imperial Palace

Posted on January 25, 2007 by tokyofox

Was mightily surprised recently when I got a fax saying I was going to be working the following day as I’d somehow failed to see my name down on the cover sheet in our schools.

Luckily I hadn’t made any great plans and thankfully it was an easy relaxed day. So quiet in fact that, as can often happen, I had a few hours off in the afternoon. I’ve been in the swing of doing touristy things of late and that was no different recently as I went to the Imperial Palace in central Tokyo.

Among the hustle and bustle of one of the worlds busiest cities I had forgotten how nice this area is and its probably one of the most open and spacious areas in this city. As always though at these tourist traps the serenity of the place is somewhat ruined every now and again as the tourist buses roll into the area and they troop their way to their destination for a quick photo or ten!

imperialpalace 008 imperialpalace 002

This home of the Japans emperor and the imperial family and the view of the palace and with the Nijubashi bridge in the foreground is a very popular picture postcard view. After taking in this scene I had a quick walk around the Imperial Palace East Garden and then headed back along the tree-lined avenue where I could also see Tokyo Tower and the National Diet Building (Japanese Parliament) in the distance.

Posted in Japan Travel | Tagged | 1 Comment

Kasabian Live Concert in Tokyo

Posted on January 23, 2007 by tokyofox

Leicester’s greatest band since, erm Showaddywaddy were in town the other week and I went to see them at Tokyo Kokusai Forum Hall A which has probably one of the most un-rock and roll names, and to be honest it’s probably better suited for classical music.

I feel awkward at the best of times when watching bands in terms of not feeling so comfortable doing anything other than moshing and jumping around, and generally fighting for my life! Even though everyone was stood up, the seats were still kind of in the way which didn’t help me and many others really get into the performance.

The sound felt a little strange in the hall and it did feel like I was watching a band on a plane in terms of my ears popping. Lead singer Tom even commented sarcastically (I think!) that the sound was great in the place and that you could even hear a pin drop which the majority of Japanese fans wouldn’t have understood.

Though they have their moments, the Japanese tend to be quite passive and I felt I could sense Tom getting frustrated by the crowd at times like he did at Summer Sonic 2005…………or so I thought. Some weeks after that, I read in NME that he thought they were great so what do I know?!

Overall the 16-song set was good, though maybe the previous nights birthday celebrations for Tom had taken their toll on some of the band. The track ‘Empire‘ sounded great performed live and Tom was doing his best to get the crowd going by constantly picking out people and gesturing to them to put their hands in the air. I’m sure some of the crowd must have felt like schoolkids again with Tom in the role of the teacher picking on them to ask a question or in this case get their hands up.

As a final thought, hearing arigatou after each song does become a bit tedious after a while so I just wish some of these international bands learned another word or two (like the Magic Numbers did) or kept the Japanese down to the occasional thank you.

Setlist: 1. Stay Away From The Brown Acid (Part 1); 2. Shoot The Runner; 3. Reason Is Treason; 4. Sun/Rise/Light/Flies; 5. Cutt Off; 6. By My Side; 7. Me Plus One; 8. Empire; 9. Seek & Destroy; 10. Processed Beats; 11. Last Trip (In Flight); 12. The Doberman; 13. Apnoea; 14. Club Foot; 15. Stuntman; 16. L.S.F. (Lost Souls Forever)

Posted in Leicester City, Music | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Vietnam: On The Buses in the South

Posted on January 20, 2007 by tokyofox

A whirlwind tour of the south followed on the day after I arrived back in Ho Chi Minh from Cambodia. Having been with mates all the way it was a little strange to get back to being alone again as I set off on the 3rd of January to reach the beach resort of Mui Ne at lunchtime which was four hours away. No point in wasting time reading about places to stay in Vietnam as they always find you and so not wanting to dilly-dally I went with the first tout and splashed out an extravagant $7 for my beach hut before almost instantly taking a moto-tour of the place. This began with fairy spring which was a stream that one could walk through while viewing the interesting rock formations amid the sand dunes.

vietnam&cambodia06-07 352  vietnam&cambodia06-07 359

After a quick stop at the fishing village we continued on to the Red Sand Canyon to explore some more geological wonders and after that was the white sand dunes where I slid down the sand dunes on a plastic sled four times. I would have been happy to do it just the once but there are literally hundreds of kids at these dunes waiting with their sleds to rent out to us tourists for whatever we decide to pay them. It was ok but not anywhere near as exhilarating as doing the same as on snow! Sadly my digital camera also broke here as too much sand entered the lens preventing it from functioning which was annoying but with only a few days left it certainly wasn’t the worst time for such a thing to happen.

Nha Trang was my next port of call the following day where I checked into a $4 room with hot water and satelite TV which was very nice. I never got to really experience the true beauty here though as the weather was cloudy, rainy and windy. I did add another Daibutsu to my list though (this time a white one) and took a mineral-rich mud bath at Thap Ba Hot Spring Center which is supposed to rejuvenate your skin and reduce stress and whatever else.

FH000012  FH000017  FH000020  FH000019  FH000023  FH000014  FH000024  vietnam&cambodia06-07 332

Dalat was my final stop on Saturday the 6th which I arrived in mid afternoon after a very very winding crawl by bus up through the mountains. This hill-station retreat was far cooler than i ever expected and so I was looking even more out of place as an ‘easy-rider’ scooted me round some rural village sites in my shorts and t-shirt while he was in a jumper and thick jacket! Was ok at first but by the time of sunset it was bloody cold. By Sunday evening I was back in HCMC having clocked up three places in five days and having spent about 24 hours on the buses in total.

Posted in Asia Travel | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments