Walkin' in Tokyo

Fitting the landscape

2012-01-06T09:39:00.003+09:00

A walk has not shopping as a purpose. The walk is a purpose in itself. You can distinguish Japanese urbanite who walk with shopping in mind, and urbanite walkers who will certainly shop at some point. The later are a rare species and dressed for the trail. The shoes are walking shoes, the trousers sporty. They often adorn a hat which is here a rarity even under the current Winter dry and cold spell. They have a short rucksack, and the whole attire spells that they are urban tourists. They may be Tokyoites too.

I suggest you don't follow that pattern, although you are free to do what you like. I for one like to dress when doing urban walking, with slights distinctions according to the territory. Walking with business attire but walking shoes has been boosted here since March 11 when millions were stranded in the middle of nowhere city, with no train to go back home. Epic stories followed, of people having walked from anything short to 9 hours. We were lucky to spend a maximum of 2:30.

You now find as a consequence well thought walking shoes dressed up as business shoes. They look swell but unfortunately, bigger than the standard sizes are not available. Shoes are a key to confortable walking, even in business attire. But why would you want to cruise in fashion style? For fun and fit in the lanscape. In and around Ginza for instance, walking business like with no business purpose is a delight, the flip-flops simply ridiculous. It doesn't matter that the majority doesn't agree. The point is to fit for augmented pleasure. When I donned tuxedo for a simple aperitif and a short walk one December night, my son joked seeing me getting ready to leave the house with the single interrogation: "Cosplay?" I found it brillant. Yes, cosplay, absolutely. For more on this, query "dandy".

Another tip based on experience is that in Winter or in Summer as well, time management is essential to walk well in good conditions. I set a maximum of 1:30 of walking to take at least 30 minutes of rest in a good place. The body starts sending signals when the limit is closing in, and abiding to the body needs is fundamental.

Speed is constrained by many factors, weather, clothes, walking alone or not. Not walking alone has tremendous impacts on speed and fatigue. Chatting consumes energy and reduces considerably the sense of place. I am aware that this sounds trite, but it has considerable impact seldom discussed. Flâneurs are by definition walking alone. How can you invite others to walk together and still pretend to offer a flâneur like experience? There's a whole discussion missing here.

Oguiss and the sense of place

2012-01-03T11:54:00.004+09:00

The Oguiss paintings exhibition in Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi department store is running until the 16th of this month. If you are a fellow walker and in Tokyo, you won't want to miss it. Oguiss is the painter of the sense of place from a street point of view par excellence. His art blossomed mostly in Paris and Venice so there are no view of Japan. But the topic of sense of place is universal. To nurture the understanding of what makes streets and specific districts clicks while some don't, I have found these two books to be perfect. "City - Rediscovering the Center" by William H. Whyte, and "Great Streets" by Allan B. Jacobs. Japan only appears faintly in both but the considerations apply to all urban landscape. City is more static and expands around observations of walking people's movement. Great Streets focuses on street dynamics more from a moving perspective. They have considerably helped clarify the validity, or lack of it, of some districts I am more concentrated in these days. Nihonbashi is one of it, as well as Ginza in the 7-chome area, closer to Shimbashi. Both were built upon the sea and are totally flat. Ginza wins due to the variety of the side lines and alleys. That is where Nihonbashi is and will continue to be, now under redevelopment, a failure, unless, the side streets are made appealing. Currently, excepted for some nooks on the opposite side of Mitsukoshi, they are bland and even dreadful. Those two books boost the understanding of the value of good streets and make you feel like grabbing your hat and go for a walk right away.

The Tokyo Fruits Tour

2012-01-03T07:35:00.001+09:00

I have been finalizing a Tokyo fruits tour since late Summer. So many things are wrong about the perception of fruits in Japan. Take for instance the standard jaw dropping at melons tagged a hundred or more dollars. Out of context, these prized pieces of fruits can't be understood. Besides, you can find in season melons for a few dollars a piece as well, and chunks of melon year around on wood sticks are a standard offering at the downtown shopping lane of Ameyoko that leads to Ueno station. I used to be under the same impression for so many years, that fruits in Japan are boring, especially when Winter comes and you are forced fed with soft bright and too sweet mandarins. I set apart imported fruits that are now more usual and affordable, also thanks to the high Yen. But what about local fruits?

One rich area from late Autumn until around March is citrus. There are plenty of citrus varieties in Japan, most of which you will not find in your standard supermarket. And even at jewelry like fruits parlors and the exquisite fruits bars in department stores basements, the focus is on perfectly rounded well behaved varieties. There is life beyond the depressing bland and sweet mikan or mandarin, but it requires for convenient ordering of limited and badly distributed crops over the internet, or some strategic and pleasurable touring of Tokyo. Of course, an other option is to tour each producing regions, that is, for citrus at least, to head South. In Tokyo, suffice to say that the largest fruit orchard is around Ginza. Beyond mikan is a slew of lesser known or confidential varieties that can be extraordinarily well balanced between sweetness and acidity, like crystal buntan, or oozing deep Southern sea winds like ôtô mikan and other rather acidic delicacies from Okinawa.

The nice thing about designing a walking tour around fruits is the necessity to stick with seasonality. Many lesser known citrus availability window is quite short, way much shorter than the standardized mandarins. One current offering is Amanatsu, meaning sweet Summer. Citrus are memories for Winter of hotter days that will come again soon.

The Tokyo Fruits Tour is much more than fruits as we cruise very central districts but from a variety of points of view they don't talk about in the guide books.

A happy new year to regular and accidental readers. I have been kept busy with many else blogs but will try to nurture this one with more dedication starting from now.

Der Blaue Engel in Ginza

2011-11-04T08:12:00.001+09:00

In 2006, scholar Katarzyna J. Cwiertka released "Modern Japanese Cuisine: Food, Power and National Identity", a study that put into context what "yôshoku", the local interpretation of "Western food" was based on. Learning that "tonkatsu" - deep fried pork thick schnitzel, and rice curry were basically soldiers' staple was a true discovery. Battered fried meat or shrimps in non-tempura cladding, smooth demi-glacé or chef secret Worcester derived thick sauce are corner stones of yôshoku, which is an essential part of the eating out experience.

By focusing on sushi and pure Japanese minute delicacies cuisine where lightness, bits of vegetables and fish are mainstream, modern travelers fool themselves into believing this to be the real thing. The scope of what is real is larger, and gravy, thick slabs of battered meat with raw finely sliced cabbage, a lump of cooked potatoes, a dollop of raw mustard are historical part of the local diet since East met West. You want to add a beer, a German one if possible in a dreamed Weinstub.

However, the best places to enjoy usually mix food are the somber European interiors where dark wood, chandeliers and discreet stained glass create a mood of colorized Blue Angel movie. These environments perfectly match deep Autumn and Winter texture. Fog, an unseen feature in downtown Tokyo, would make things perfect at night.

One district of Tokyo offering historical yôshoku restaurants is Ginza, and more exactly the Ginza 7 section. At least, one of these featuring a good enough Westernized curry is open round the clock, with classical music in the background and maid clad staff around well before Akihabara turned the uniform into kitch. The Southern side of Ginza being a den of hundreds of clubs and pocket size cabarets, the odds to cross blue angels at night are high.

Tokyo la nuit

2011-08-31T11:06:00.005+09:00

Night walk may be the ultimate transgression in the registry of flânerie, that aimless strolling activity. The French Roland Barthes I heard somewhere was loath at walking "without purpose". Going to buy food, stamps, paper and pencils are adequate purpose. Walking aimlessly doesn't fit says the master.

Don't leave judgement on the art of strolling to the unbeliever. There is no such thing like an aimless walk. Even if vague at the beginning, the aim will get clearer although you may have to wait until the end.

In merchant and consumption life, walking where shops are scarce is a sure way to be mostly alone. In the safest urban landscape in the world that is Tokyo, walking alone, and on top of that, walking at night is a safe activity, at least, physically. I won't take bets for the sanity of the practice in terms of mental state.

There is no picture to offer yet because the technology on hand right now doesn't permit me to make a tour à la Brassaï. Planned walks are OK, but spontaneous, almost anarchistic strolls on a burst are the most appealing to me. In one of his semi-autobiographic novels by the British Lawrence Durrell set in a Greek island sometimes at the end of WWII, there is right from the beginning a mention of a singular character, a military man on a mission, who shows to Durrell an official document, an authorization to move from A to B, with enough space between the lines to insert "via", the via places being locations where that character really wants to go.

There are less sophisticated to proceed. Yesterday, living a little bit earlier a corporate party, I bumped into that soft gluey wall of humidity and sticky drizzle that characterizes the early signs of a typhoon coming in town. Time permitting, I had vaguely considered walking back home, the length, that is a good two hours, or a portion of the trail. The typhoon was seemingly hampering that vague project. To board a taxi, to ride the subway, or to bet on the drizzle not to turn into a torrent in the coming half-hour.

There are topographical signs you tend to forget, like smells. That portion of space somewhere close by the Tokyo City Opera is criss-crossed by suspended motorways and a lurid place to walk especially at night. But suspended motorways didn't belong to the landscape a good 40 years ago.

You have to remember each time this happens that the proximity of such giant man-made structure is very often the surest sign that in the backstreets that didn't get crushed by the infrastructure, there lays a set of forgotten artifacts in the shape of older houses, tiny shrines, slopes of various texture and quality, and the daily routine of evening life in-house (private life is very private here) you can catch the sound of (noises of the bath and kitchen) when houses are not like the sealed submarine they tend to be nowadays.

On top of that is the fact that before the suspended motorways, there were prior butchery of sleepy sub-urban landscape in the shape of the piercing of avenues. You can find for instance black and white pictures of that avenue just after WWII that links Shibuya to Roppongi, but devoid of the suspended motorway that would come later. Here as well as in the outskirts of Shinjuku, you still can find incredible traces of a past that was far away from the hectic life. An interesting query is to look for Tokyo (or New York, or Paris) pictures at night to see that only what is glittering gets clicked and waxed and swooned.

I ended up taking risk because the drizzle was continuous and on the verge of pouring like a catharact. Walking along an avenue with a suspended motorway on top of it, I vaguely figured out where could be the direction of Yoyogi station, a more convenient way to end up boarding a train if too wet. The surprise came when I veered at 90 degrees angle into a straight lane fleeing away from the urban noise and motor infrastructure. After less than 10 meters, a formidable slope going downwards reminded me two things: 1) besides such area like Otemachi or Ginza that were the sea a few centuries from now, Tokyo is a very hilly city, and 2) large avenues in these areas, with a motorway on top or not, are, like in Chicago, built at a higher level than the surrounding districts that survived destruction.

This sleepy dimension of the city that comprises most of the city, those very districts that contradict every pretension of a never sleeping tentacular urban sprawl, which is part of the marketing propaganda to lure you out of the intricacies of the town, of any town. That is why, walking can be subversive.

In a lapse of 30 minutes, I trailed through your sleepy neighborhood dimmed in light, spirited walls that may lock out shrines of older estate homes (there was no time to inspect), and as Yoyogi station, after a few welcome wrong guessing at the proper direction, came into the mind view (the view you have in the mind that makes you sense you are in the right direction while the signs to prove it are still dim, a delicious moment of any stroll), small restaurants and drinks joints started doting the landscape and make feel tremendously at home with everything around and inside.Later on, ended up having a late family dinner where wood and bamboo decorations are perfectly matching the rain that was now pouring.

Breakfast in Tokyo

2011-08-30T09:00:00.008+09:00

The matter of breakfast in Tokyo pops up in many trip related discussion boards. Convenience store and chain food are out of the scope of Walkin' in Tokyo so I won't report on any of these places.

We went to Sapporo the other day and spent nights in two higher end business hotels. The first had a huge breakfast buffet style but unpalatable. The reason why is that there were gathered all the low grade food industrial stuff you can buy in supermarkets as far as spongy bread, leaky eggs, soggy bacon and the likes are concerned. Even the Japanese dishes which are very often the most interesting bites in hotel breakfast were the factory churned basic fare. We skipped breakfast the following day and braced to wait for an improvised brunch from 10 am at an outdoor market inside the beautiful Hokkaido university.

In the second same category hotel 5 minutes walking from the first one, breakfast was thoughtful excepting the bread. What a short distance can make

When you think about breakfast in Tokyo, and in Japan at large, you have to start from the sad recognition that there is no culture of eating breakfast out of home, and I do believe you have to repeat this mantra until it settles down. There is no breakfast culture out of home in Japan. No cornetto and expresso coffee at a standing bar that has been there serving locals for a generation at least. In terms of availability though, the choice is extended but the fare is industrial or weird.

You can have noodles or sushi or curry in the wee hours, but these are not part of people's daily life. Therefore, you have the choice between the non-daily experience, or try and find something that is close enough to many people's home breakfast tradition. As there is no culture of eating out for breakfast, it is no surprise that having a standard Japanese breakfast outside the home is much more difficult than munching on a burger at the wee hour.

Most excellent hotels offer a buffet style breakfast with a choice of Japanese fare besides continental standards, and unsurprisingly, when the fare is good, the Japanese food is superior. Japanese breakfast eaten at home is still very often Japanese, that is basically salty and focused around rice, miso soup, grilled fish and vegetables and many tiny bits of various pickles that give taste to the bland rice mouthfuls. It is not much different than a simple Japanese lunch but noodles, raw fish and curry are not part of the normal show.The only thing that usually is missing though is guidance on the best mix and selection because as with everything, some mixing are better than others, some things don't mix.

Another consideration is the quality of place. The older high end hotels in Tokyo are in that sense the best place to try, but there are hidden spots more affordable too. I will report about such example in the near future post.

(Pictures were taken in Sapporo city)

When in Japan, get a hair cut

2011-08-24T22:32:00.000+09:00

Unless you come from a country where barbers are still in business and offer not only hair trimming but shaving the good old way, when in Japan, do by all means get a hair cut at a local standard barber shop.

Some rules:

- Skip the barnyards like cheap places advertising a quick hair cut for ¥1000. Even if you don't read Japanese, you will easily spot these junk food like joints. Instead, look for a standard place, old if possible.

- Don't worry if the shop is empty and the barber is sitting idle watching TV or listening to AM radio. The cheap chain barbers are simply killing the traditional places.

- A standard full set, hair cut, shampoo and shaving currently costs ¥3600 and is plenty deserved. An elderly barber means experience.

- Just say "katto, shampoo, heegayssoorry". Katto is cut, like cat with a to in the end (o, not u), the last one is shaving, but a gesture will be fine.

- Show how much you want to loose in length, or say for instance "echee centchee" for one centimeter.

- Say yes to any after shave or smelly hair tonic. You will get an insider experience of local Japan.

- There is no tip in Japan, and this includes no tip at the barber.

A long, long time ago, I used to go to the barber, then one day, I was enticed to go to a trendy, cool hair salon that costs double without shaving - they are not allowed to - and lots of useless artifacts and small talk, what with the tepid BGM.

I am back to the barber, one which is far away from home, that I noticed during lunch time walks while at a client's office for a long term contract. The setting as seen from outside was perfect. The old leather chairs, a little short in length if you are past 180, the tired wall decoration and a sense that time had stopped some 30 years ago.

You can bet that the barber was more than surprised to see me step in, but everything went fine, which is no surprise. In manliness experience the Japanese way, this is so far the best you can have besides food and bars.

Silent guiding

2011-08-04T11:12:00.000+09:00

Walking alone is a mostly silent activity. As passersby, we carry our own internal discourse that can be a flutter or turn noisy depending on the encounter, the alchemy that bring landscape to telescope, hopefully in soft fashion with personal circumstances. walking not alone is a different setting, and when you guide someone or more people, discussions among clients but also between clients and the guide have a dynamics of their own. I read somewhere on the web site of a guide in Tokyo that he is an endless and enthusiastic talker about Tokyo. Visiting places with a guide is one rare situation for grown-ups to get inquiring and ask why.

I can be an endless talker to, but I know that endless talking has the opposite effect to be out of the place when what you are looking may be - as I advertize - to try and be to some extent "a part of it", that is first of all in terms of demeanor and "space occupation".

I am advertising silent walks, or rather, word sparing walks where I invite you not to ask too much, and I refrain to try and explain everything. There will be plenty of opportunities in coffee breaks and lunch or diner to discuss what we have seen, where we have walked. I suggest to keep eyes and ears open during such walk, and interactively aware than keeping the discussion a minimum low while walking is part of making the experience enduring.

Walking in Tokyo in Summer

2011-07-27T16:07:00.001+09:00

Summer started here with an unusual hue, that of deep blue sky and sunshine mostly devoid of humidity, under a harsh 35 ºC daily heat but rather cool night. We are now back in standard whitish skies and the humidity that comes with it. If walking is the program of the day in Tokyo, I would suggest to concentrate on shrines and temples to enjoy shade and reduce what exacerbates the sensation of "hot". I suggest a cooling pause at a coffee shop every other hour when walking in urban Tokyo, but visiting shaded spots allows for longer stay outside.

Without sounding patronizing and lacking nor wanting any corporate sponsorship, here are a few gears and facts that do make sense when walking in the heat, based on personal experience. It's an urban setting and you may start cruising temples to end up at a cosy coffee shop in Mitsukoshi department store. Don't wear clothes that fit seaside and the beach. Don't wear jeans, not for manners but for matter of heat management. Japanese jeans maker Edwin has released for this supercool Summer a new cloth that is a mix of synthetic, cotton and linen textile turned into slacks for men. Sorry for the women but I am not qualified. The nice thing about this new material is that it is still agreeable under too hot weather, thin and classy enough that it does fit even for light business gear. And the special fitting gimmick at the waist already available the past Winter is a welcome invention. I wear these both on casual and business urban situations these days.

An alternative if you don't intend to end up visiting the plush shops in Ginza are the texile used for walking gears sold at sports shop. The science of new textiles is a very interesting subject that does not belong to this blog.

Despite you walk preferably on the shady side, wear a hat, even if the large majority of Tokyoites are not doing so.

Prefer long sleeve shirts as the sun is biting quick, even under the grey.

Shoeswise, I leave it to you but you should leave flip flops for both reasons of style and practibility.

It is no secret that convenience stores sell small towels at an honest price, and one at least is mandatory in your bag. I would suggest to enjoy using a Japanese folding fan. Not only is it efficient but many businessmen do use these in Summer. Indulge in offering you first a folding fan and remember it is a consumable and OK if it only last until Autumn.

Your next shady destination is an open issue. I think there is terrific charm with shrines and temples that are located on a hill. For a superb example set in an immediate district not exactly elating, go to Atago shrine through its steep staircase or winding road. Actually, do both because they are totally charming although a little bit steep. The shrine on top of the hill is simple and beautiful, Chinese like, and there is a restaurant as well. Last time I climbed, it was definitely cooler at 26 m above sea than street level.

Bespoke discovery tours in Tokyo

2011-02-14T15:27:00.002+09:00

Bespoke, not the conventional. In the meantime that this blog gets refreshed and the offer explained, look at the pictures on my French blog. Read and watch my new blog on Japanese craft.

Serendipity of the shutter

2010-06-26T17:18:00.002+09:00

A fine encounter with nothing, somewhere behind Yasukuni-dôri, en route toward Ichigaya. WHen time is on your side and you have some sense of direction not the GPS one, you go along the large avenue but at a distance, in parallel streets, possible not the closest but the second parallel street. Why the second? Simply because if you stick to the first, you will sail along the big buildings back, which is usually not a pretty view. From the second parallel street, you run into the odds that something that dooes not belong in time and place as displayed on the boulevard will be yours to discover. Of course, there is not guarantee to find parallel streets. Those are wayward kinds. They tend to circumvent in curbs and escapement. That's where the fun starts, and you inner GPS is pushed to show its real nature.

Back of Yasukuni avenue toward Ichigaya, walking on the right side, is mountainous, literally. It turned a well trodden dull and noisy trail not new to me into a bliss of discovery in wet rainy season streets, but also, that feature that changes everything everywhere under the sun. Or clouds. Stairways. That's where I was staying, at the foot of one the many around there, aiming awkwardly with luggage and an iPhone for unique camera, at that empty, glistening stairway, when I noticed coming along behind, two schoolgirls apparently about to sail away on the parallel street. They did not, they swerved all of sudden and started climbing the stairway, because this was their path. They gave some puzzled look back but not much. I waited all the time after the first and single shot where their silhouette populated a stairway that would otherwise be solitary and forlorn, and a second time when they had climbed part of it.

The ultimate Tokyo walk

2009-11-11T08:24:00.001+09:00

First segment

View Ikebukuro -> Takadanobaba in a larger map

This is an immensely satisfying walk in Tokyo I have done it many times. You can achieve it walking steadily in a little more than an hour, meaning you should at least take an hour and a half or more to enjoy brief stopovers. It is enjoyable because it wraps up in one shot many sights, altitudes and a variety of districts from uptown countryside like residential areas to downtown and seedy Tokyo. It more or less covers the distance between Ikebukuro, following broadly the Yamanote train line segment down to Shinjuku. It goes down to Takadanobaba, then up again to a plateau at the level of Okubo, then flat straight to Shinjuku.

Start at Ikebukuro station West exit and head for the Myonichikan, previously a school for girls built in 1921 on a plan drawn by Franck Llyod Wright. It is a little bit tricky to find the Myonichikan, but a little while before you reach the building, you will have noticed how Ikebukuro noisy, modern area suddenly gives way to that typical urban countryside atmosphee of so many areas in Tokyo. The district that starts from there and stretches down to a short distance before Takadanobaba comprises Mejiro and Shimo-Ochiai. It is a hill, and on top of that hill, you can find many luxury houses adorned with many patches of private green and gardens.

But before that, you may have found the tranquilness of the Myonichikan. It is usually open from Tuesday to Friday, the week-ends being reserved for wedding parties. You can buy a ticket for a simple visit, or pay an extra 200 yens for drink and biscuits.
I could write pages on the pleasures of being at the Myonichikan through the seasons, but the single fact that makes it stand apart from anything else that is not modern in Tokyo is that, this historical place is less a museum than a living building which is also part of the present. The classrooms are not only spaces to visit but can be rented for conferences or workshops. The central hall where you can have a cup of tea is not a holy church but a living space. Same for the refectory. It is also used for restaurant events. The Myonichikan is an historical, though soothing place in action, not a stultified museum.

From the Myonichikan, we head south, crossing the Tobu railway tracks. Further on, we walk along but at a fair distance from the JR train tracks. Later on, when closing on Mejiro station, we will cross the Meijiro boulevard for a oisy break before plunging again in silent Tokyo. On the right hand of Mejiro JR station when you stand in front of the building, you will notice a staircase that leads you down a level to the ground. Walk down through it, and when you emerge, don't follow the straight road parallel to the tracks but enter instead the steep slope that starts cllmbing up the Ochiai hill. From there on, there are many possible paths. The idea is not to veer much on the West side, but stay for a while on top the hill walking on the East side. When the hills starts to lower down, there are several small to medium sizes parks to see and go through. At the bottom of the hill, you will feel that the plushy Ochiai and Mejiro districts are over. You will reach the new Mejiro boulevard, cross it to further walk toward Takadanobaba. Takadanobaba is downtown heavily shaped by the nearby presence of Waseda university. Nearby, there are other hills and different sights of that tranquil Tokyo countryside to be enjoyed, but we will instead follow the trail of the students for a while, and leave them somewhere at the level of Toyama Park

View Takadanobaba-Shinjuku via Okubo et Kabukichô in a larger map

The Cocoon tower of West Shinjuku has been visible in the distance starting from Mejiro station. It is the perfect post sign to keep going without getting much lost. Past the Toyama Park, we approach Okubo and its Korean downtown neighborhood. Once the busy street is crossed, there is another tranquil segment of walk through smaller houses to reach the backdoor of Kabukicho. The red light district Kabukicho gives a totally and immense perspective in daylight, an unsettling view at times as you can embrace the hugeness of some building, the breadth of roads that seem much smaller at night. The end of the trail at Shinjuku East side is a few minutes walk ahead. There are as everywhere many side paths and variations to this walk. It is an endless pleasure of discoveries through a variety of Tokyo layers through all seasons.

Beyond Shibuya

2009-07-27T17:06:00.001+09:00

The lazy provincial Shibuya, with love hotels, drinking bars or not, is to still to be tasted a mere 15 minutes walk from busy Shibuya station. Head for the hilly Maruyama district and Shinsen station to get a different taste of Shibuya.

A few places I want to share with you

2009-07-18T17:06:00.003+09:00

Tennôzu Isle. In winter and early Spring, clear sky and sharp lines can be dramatic. But you won't want to stay long here.

Morning in Kichijoji. Most shops start at 10 am. The district is a different place until then.

Huge villas of Shimo-Ochiai, not far from Ikebukuro.

Again Kichijoji with Inokashira park in Spring.

Iseya for a beer and the yakitori that come with it.

In and around the Myônichikan (spell Franck Llyod Wright).

The Mingei-kan at Komaba.

The real Kôenji temple.

The National Astronomical Observatory campus.

The Zenpukuji park.

The Kyû-Furukawa garden.

The Hara museum of art.

Give me Walk ... in Tokyo

2009-05-25T14:23:00.001+09:00

Just launched, or plucked for the tree. Starting June and for two months only before a world wide concert spree and show in Las Vegas .... Give me Walk ... in Tokyo, project, beta, version 2.0, etc.

Still walking

2009-05-23T05:21:00.002+09:00

I almost forgot that the last post on this blog was stranded in year 2008. Interestingly enough, the subject of that previous post is still valid, the Myonichikan not far from Ikebukuro station is currently a weekly station of relaxing, solitary solace and at times discussion site with friends. Back alley Tokyo is way much larger than the Tokyo you see on TV, the Tokyo that have lured you to come and confirm by being a part of it the tangibility of movies in Youtube. Isn't this an era of confirmation travels?
Some time ago, we made a Japanese trip, that is, a short stay in Taipei. We did not check for pictures, online movies of your last trip there, live webcams. I bought a guide book with pretty bad black and white small pictures. When we got there, everything was in color, a somewhat soothing because what we saw was less sophisticated, and less frigid, than your standard Tokyo touristic place. I am preparing something in terms of a new free experimental service in Tokyo. The idea popped in my head while I was heading for my weekly dose of Myonichikan. It's no longer bliss, the chairs are not comfortable. It's a place to deconnect.

Hidden spot

2008-11-07T17:41:00.003+09:00

Beyond the mirror of Ikebukuro, at about 10 minutes, walking fast from the Tobu exit, one enters the 5th dimension. The transition is sudden, from the busy, raunchy Ikebukuro to leafy, provincial territories leaning not far from Mejiro, and even further down close by to Takadanobaba. Lately, I have been visiting time and again the Myonichikan, a former school built in 1921 and drawn mostly by Franck Lloyd Wright. It is a soothing place, lovely under the sun, thoughtful under grey skies. Closed on Monday, and partially closed on week-ends when they lend the place for wedding ceremonies, get there between 10:30 am and 4 pm. Take the 600 entrance ticket for a light drink and biscuit. Enjoy. Then walk around south and get lost in urban countryside.

Secret destinations in Tokyo

2008-08-21T09:25:00.003+09:00

The thrill of boredom? Where not even the Chinese tourists tread in? The neighborhood. Where people live, small shopping streets, sometimes real small. With the strong tendency to live indoors, small streets in the cities are eery, that is, extremely tranquil, or put into unconventional, repellent jargon: boring. That is, until you stop applying to reality the fancy of your fancies about Japan. Boredom is allover the places, everywhere in Japan or elsewhere. Understanding the dynamics of boredom in thy common neighborhood is a sure fix to that very feeling. I never feel bored in Tokyo, especially where there is nothing to "see" or to "do", in the Lonely Planet meaning of those verbs. A huge majority of the Tokyo area, like any other cities in the world, does not generate any blip on the standard tourist criteria screen.

The other day, we leisurely walked the trail from Edogawabashi via Zoshigaya to noisy Ikebukuro, then moved a little by subway back to noiseless neighborhoods close by Kohinata, around the Tokyo university botanical garden, the lovely Hakusan hill, to end up at (noisy) Ueno. The best kept secrets of Tokyo are the gazillions of sleepy neighborhoods where you have glimpses - faint because again, they don't live outside - of daily life. My walkers customers usually very much enjoy the tours à local supermarkets (in addition to the must see department stores luscious food spaces). With the coming Autumn - wait for another month and a half, or if you can be patient, wait until November - walking in Tokyo will turn more pleasurable that ever, in those neighborhoods garden cities like.

What to do on those gray days

2008-05-26T15:36:00.004+09:00

With the rainy season visiting soon, gray days in Tokyo are getting numerous. What to do and not feel the gloom? Head for neighborhoods with nothing bu mazes of clustered detached houses fit with lumps of green. There are many such neighborhood in Tokyo by the way, so much actually that the choice is infinite. I would add to the requisite some location with declivities, hills that is. Yesterday was such a gray day in Tokyo but I didn't feel the drag I would have if walking in some busy shopping centers. Hilly greenish neighborhoods are soothing the mind because of the profusion of green that adorns tiny garden, and when no garden is available, covers houses thanks to thick layers of potted plants all around. There is a quality of green for all season but in Tokyo at least, May and June is the richest, lushest, ripest time of the year to enjoy. I spent the afternoon on bicycle getting lost with a vengeance, first at the base of the lovely Hakusan hill, then further atop around the proximity of the Tokyo University campus, where a noisy festival was in full spring, but I avoided like a cat.

Zushi off-season

2008-04-06T08:04:00.002+09:00

A quick walk at Zushi en route back to Tokyo. What a lovely city to live in close by the sea. I envy the residents. One hour away from Tokyo station by train, micro climate, a good old shopping street - Zushi Ginza - a scenic bay - the road along it is the bad thing - makes for the perfect sea escape, except in the two Summer months. I made a mental reservation for September, but why not June as well?

Technorati Tags: Japan, Tokyo

Walkin' in Tokyo: Off-the beaten-tracks walks - for leisure and business

2007-10-30T08:53:00.000+09:00

Read about Leisure and Business Walks Services through this link

Promenades sur demande et sur mesure à Tokyo

Technorati Tags: Japan, Tokyo

Provence in Tokyo

2007-10-29T17:26:00.001+09:00

Perfect light around 2:30 pm. Following what should be the last typhon to run close by Tokyo, a warm, Provence light was illuminating this cosy area around the Hakusan hill in Bunkyo-ku ward. Bunkyo-ku ward is my favorite place in Tokyo with a rich topography and various landscapes, nooks, mountains and valleys, parks, shrines and temples, the luscious Tokyo University campus, a treat of Indian summer leaves in Autumn.

Escapation

2007-09-03T09:40:00.001+09:00

It's not about English competence or the lack of it as that Business Week article suggested. It is not about safety and overall helpful locals as suggested in that article's comment. You have to be here and stay a while to understand how safety indeed is a major competitive advantage of Japan. But will a catch phrase like "Tokyo is 10 000 times safer than New York" ever entice tourists to visit? Lack of aggressiveness alone does not make for a tour theme. Even the newest plushiest luxury hotel in Tokyo will not save the day. You may stay in there for a week and feel like a superstar, but you won't stay four days in a row in a high class traditional inn and not feel longing after dat two for something else, including a pool or beach. My friend C who comes in Japan twice a year, exclusively for vacations, is part of a trend that sees Japan, and for good reasons, as a destination for "escapation". She invariably stays in a favorite traditional Kyoto high end inn and marvels each breakfast and dinner at the ravishingly mysterious kaleidoscope of foods. Well, they are mysterious mainly because nobody around can tell her in English what the ingredients are. But as she told me the other day, on the fourth day, you simply can't eat anymore of this superlative cuisine. But you have no choice except eating out. It is high time for her to go back to the dusty trail and move places.

A major reason why Japan can't be a major tourist destination is that tourism infrastructures that are plenty, are designed to meet expectations of most of their major customers, that is Japanese people. Anyone with an experience sharing leisure time with locals will tell you stories that are very similar. They spare a short time into doing a lot of things. Farniente is a sin. An average - read maximum standard - Japanese stay in a single spot is three days. You can spend three days in a natural spa, be delighted the first day, but chances are you won't ask for more after the second and almost feel relieved to move away. Not that what a spa offers is dull, but it is valuable for a very short time, and chances are one start getting bored very quickly. I see myself staying at a sea location for a week and enjoying it inside down. But Japanese bath for 8 days, no way. Pristine beaches with leisure hotels featuring large pools, breath taking sceneries, ample time to decide on ones own when it is time to have breakfast or dinner, veranda and basking under the sunset are things especially younger Japanese will love as anyone else. That's why they go to Hawaii or Thailand. If it were readily available at home, they would stay here. There are such facilities for sure in rare locations here, but something will be missing in the list of requisites, and most probably, flexibility given to the customer will be one of these items. In traditional inns, you wake up at the time fixed by the hosts to have breakfast. Not the time you may may want to have breakfast. Breathtaking sceneries will be another reason to go elsewhere. Japan has some but very few. Overall, concrete and shapeless cities are the main dish more than often, and huge parts of the countryside are simply underdeveloped locations focused on single trades and activities where tourism doesn't fit. I remember still vividly how we rode along the - at times beautiful - coast of Akita up to Aomori, desperately looking to eat fish. They have noodle shops and huge fleets of fish catching boat, but the fish is sent down to Tokyo.

Japan is a place to visit two or three days maximum at the same spot, and very often one will feel it to be enough. It is a place of encounter with spot experiences, not to also enjoy farniente and the dolce vita. The crave for Japan is currently for some people nurtured since the cradle with the land of Japanese anime the ultimate place to be, especially Tokyo. It is, as with my friend C who does not bask in Japanimation, the ultimate destination where to escape from daily routine. As she always say, "only when being here in Japan do I really feel disconnected with the daily grind." It is for some the ultimate escapation place. I sometimes dream of Italy though.

Technorati Tags: Japan, Tokyo

Lost in affabulation

2007-08-26T02:43:00.001+09:00

Business Week has a lame and short article on the flawed Yokoso Japan campaign and the difficulties of the country to bring in more foreign tourists in - read, more Americans. The journalist puts the blame on communication and the language barrier. This is a well entrenched myth, what with the fact that the bulk of foreign tourists are from Asia and do not need English to swim the streets. Part of the poor results are related to the fact that "The language barrier is close to impenetrable, and many streets in Tokyo don't have signs—even in Japanese, let alone English." I could not help laughing at this. Since when language has been a barrier to tourism development? An annoyance? Sure, but a barrier? Come on! With such criteria, how could Paris be the world number one touristic destination? OK, Paris has street names, but who cares about the lack of these with the Lonely Planet in hand? Even if tourism account for 2% of the GDP, touristic infrastructure is very well developed here but it may be that locals idea of enjoying oneself when touring places is way too foreign, and hospitality in your average or even luxury ryôkan where the honorable guest is waked up at around 7 am to have breakfast served until 8 am is not to the taste of what comfort means elsewhere. Besides, the contemporary attraction for Japan has been informed by a deluge of information in English. The backpackers all know in advance where the cheap joints are and blogs keep English speakers, and even French, informed about what's new since 5 minutes ago at Akihabara. For more wealthy grown-ups though, the Japanese version of the dolce vita may wear off quickly once the kaiseki ryôri is gulped down, the ravishly shrines toured and the plushy luxury hotels of foreign extraction in Tokyo enjoyed. That's where Lost in Translation was not wrong.

Technorati Tags: Japan, Japanese language

The lonely gourmet

2007-08-23T03:23:00.001+09:00

We went to Paris and met with Japan. Paris, at least the younger generations, is enamored with Japan, that is, mostly Tokyo. Japanese restaurants are endemic. The purists shun at most of these that are not managed by Japanese nationals but by Chinese. Too many sushi are topped by salmon. But the most striking feature is the volume of manga, and by extension, the astounding space taken in bookshops by manga, comics and everything visual. The next step is for visual to be the primary means of brief communication for the masses, including grown-ups, as it is the case in Japan.

Food is everywhere a daily concern. Japan, like other places I know in Asia, is a country where eating out is daily routine, due to, among many factors, the fact that it can be cheap and satisfying at the same time. One of the successful manga translated in French is the work of Jiro Taniguchi untitled "The lonely Gourmet" (in French, Le gourmet solitaire). It the story of a businessman walking around common places in Japan and having lunch of very common fares with descriptions. For someone having lived or just dropped by in Japan, it is a manga choked full with nostalgia. For a foreign businessman hoping from high end hotels to lavish dinners offered by local customers, it is a manga full of oddities missed in Japan. In "Lonely Gourmet", you first have "lonely", because for lifestyle many reasons, many people, mostly male, do end up having lunch and especially dinner alone in cheap joints all over the places. Japan can be a treat for solitude. As for gourmet, it is very often a matter of discrimination among standards, like gourmets of breakfast parlors with keen taste buds for eggs and bacon. It has nothing to do with haute-cuisine and the obsession, the dream of it like in France. Basic grub in Japan can be tasty and not looking like grub, enough to please the mass for its variety and good looking, and please the purse. Back in Tokyo, we went the other night at a curry rice joint not far from home named Manten, meaning something like "perfect". The menu is a less than 10 items, all curry of the thick, no, extra thick type that is Japanese curry. The curry is a single brownish rare concrete mud like stuff gently boiling in a single pot. What makes the differences are the toppings, or lack of these, and the quantity. There is no beer, no choice of drink, no side dishes. The average patron will stay 10 minutes, no more, and leave immediately after the plate is cleaned. The curry at Manten is comforting. It is comfort food, tasting like mama's curry when the lonely child came back from school at night. It fills the gizzards, plugs the holes. It is spicy but not hot. Once the treat is over, the belly is full, so connoisseurs of the place and of their appetite will order "less filled" plates. The king topping is pork steak battered and deep fried. It cost 550 yens and comes with water as you like and a cup of cold coffee. Kids love it although the majority of eaters are grown-ups working around and a few students. The heaviest topping are Chinese dumplings called Shumai. I must say that the combination of thick curry with shumai that are also very consistent, is overwhelming. But for a student or a white collar on shoestring budget, it is the perfect treat.

Something so obvious I forgot to mention is that Manten curry, the core gravy, is simply delicious. It is the closest experience to daily life one can have when visiting Japan.

Technorati Tags: Food, Japan, Tokyo

Sugamo

2007-05-02T09:19:00.000+09:00

After you have checked that Ginza, Omotesando and the likes have the same boutiques as elsehwere, it may be time to go back to Japan. Ueno is an endless area to discover. Sugamo, on the Yamanote line, is another, more compact, popular place with elderly people.

No Tokyo

2007-05-02T09:10:00.000+09:00

Far away from Tokyo, we headed last month close to the tip of this archipelago, to Taketomi Island in Okinawa. The weather was not tropical except for a single day, but we loved the place anyway. Taketomi is a disappearing opportunity to walk around in a place largely devoid of touristic attractions and the stale architecture that come with these. A 10 minutes boat ride from Ishigaki city port, then a 5 minutes drive ushered us into a lush, calm atmosphere where one of the essential occupation was to listen to the wind. We hired a local guide for a short walk around. She was a local 82 years old lady. She sung songs and showed Ulysse how blow sounds with a local shrub leave. We had not left yet Taketomi that we already wanted to come back.

Zushi

2007-05-02T08:57:00.000+09:00

The other day, we went to Zushi for the sole purpose of gulping down a bowl of rice with a generous topping of nama-shirazu, or fresh whitebait, that is, baby sardines. A seasonal total treat. It is no secret that coming from Tokyo to Zushi, an hour train ride, is much like going to Summer vacations for a few hours. Zushi city is surrounded by gentle hills that create a microclimate one can feel just when landing on the station plateform. The Sun was however no matching to the fierce afternoon wind on the Zushi beach. We retreated back to Tokyo after five minutes.

Too much under the Sun

2007-05-02T06:12:00.000+09:00

Too much under the Sun to catch up since February. The Sanshin Building of early 1930, located in front of the Hibiya Park, will be brought to the knees soon. A tiny, feeble campaign to protect the rare remnant of Tokyo before WWII had no result, as usual. Building conservation is not part of Tokyo blueprint.
The "Beautiful Japan" conceptual slogan of current PM Abe is all in the mind, not in the landscape. Sad as it is, for some at least, a new comer at a stone throw from there is the soon to be open Peninsula Hotel is a distinctive addition to mushrooming Tokyo landscape. Now that Showa era nostalgia is in full bloom, the best way to ponder and remember is to flip the many picture books on the subject. Head to Maruzen huge bookstore on the corner of Tokyo station in the Oazo building.

Ueno on my mind

2007-02-12T11:56:00.000+09:00

Lately, we have been walking in and around Ueno and loving it each time more. There is an incredible arrays of popular sights, the food market, the commercial alleys, small alleys with smelly cosy popular joints for a bite or more. Everything is in Japanese. Unfortunate. But I'll guide you, how fortunate! Red-light districts with what comes with it less the sense of insecurity. After all, this is Japan, and a way much more real chunk of it than the Omotesando and Shibuya of LonelyPlanet fame. I for one like this place way much more. The reason simply put : in Ueno, Japan looks pretty much like Japan.

Walkin' in Tokyo 2007

2007-01-03T14:35:00.000+09:00

So we went just by chance to the Daihiganji shrine somewhere not far from Itsukaichi. Itsukaichi, a shapeless village, is far away on the West outskirts of Tokyo, but still metropolitan Tokyo though. It is one gateway by train to the extreme Western Tokyo district which is as a matter of fact a mountaineous area and a national park for real trekking. The train was basically empty as one expects on a January 2nd, and the air and light were of Spring. Strangely enough, there are plenty of signs that Spring may come early this year. Tiny purple flowers supposed to pop up in Summer can be found in shiny spots to be in almost eery full bloom. Cherry trees buds are already morphing from grey stony like matter to something with a tangible bud shape. When tired with all the ultra-urbanities of Tokyo, it is good to know that countryside and mountains are a matter of 1 hour away from central districts. A Happy New Year walkin' in Tokyo.

Higanbana

2006-09-26T10:24:00.000+09:00

Higanbana is Spider Lily and they are this year all over the places, in parks of the cities as well along the rice paddies in the Western outskirt of Tokyo. Besides the red lovely variety, we spotted pale yellowish ones at the Tokyo University Botanical garden in Bunkyo ward, a place I would rank above the well-trodden huge parks like Yoyogi and Shinjuku-Gyôen.

Hayama

2006-09-26T10:14:00.000+09:00

Could not help but go to the sea again. This time at Hayama, a famous resort past Kamakura, a 15 minutes ride from Zushi station by bus. But the single road along the coast being narrow, that 15 minutes can easily double in heavy traffic. We went to the imperial beach, that is the one laying in front of the so-called "Gôyô-tei", an imperial residence guarded by policemen all over the place. But one should not worry. The policemen are smiling and say "hello" to the visitors. That must be part of a strategy not scare the bathers. Bathers there were only but a very few because bathing season ends on August 31st, so you are not supposed to bath unless you are a sea-kayaker, surfer, or a foreigner. The water was still warm enough and welcome due to a strong and a little bit chilly wind. There is a wonderful promontory with lawn where to have a picnic, granted the wind is not here. Beware of the tombi birds of prey that will fall down like a log from above to snatch your sandwich. Impressive but not that scary.

99%

2006-09-22T13:33:00.000+09:00

MIT senseable city program plots mobile phone and other hand-held devices signals to draw real time maps that tell about human dynamics in the urban landscape. I recently heard in a radio show that foreign visitors in Rome basically follow two major trecks. How to plot foreign visitors? By plotting based on mobile phone country codes. The same conclusion would be drawn out of plotting other touristic movements in any cities for sure. Including Tokyo. 99% of a city is left unvisited, unknown. The 99% left-overs do not all deserve a visit, but a large portion of those do. I do not pretend to show the whole gammut of left-overs, but many places marginal to the must-see locations, where you will acquire a different sense of realities, a little far-away from the myth. Inquire about Walkin' in Tokyo. The house pictured here is located in central Tokyo, among many others, on a noiseless provincial hill, 10 minutes away from a suspended highway and all the bustling scenary you can think about.

Last Summer day

2006-09-12T13:29:00.000+09:00

We met the last day of Summer 2006 at the Zushi beach on Sunday Sept. 10. 33 degrees, dry, blue sky all the way. South wind, nice waves for grown-ups and the kids as well, diner in our secret inn - you can see the delicious lawn here at dusk - and back to Tokyo.

Amamushi

2006-09-11T12:59:00.000+09:00

About two hundred steps to reach Amamushi shrine top. Although I have been going around this part of Tokyo countryside for close to 20 years. I climbed the stairs the other day for the first time. We better know the shrine's remote post, a bare to minimum shrine on the opposite side of the valley, pointing to the main Amamushi shrine. People living on that opposite side can pray and have prayers delivered to the main shrine automatically. No wifi needed.

The art of walking in Tokyo

2006-08-22T05:35:00.000+09:00

Walking the other day through neighborhoods of the Bunkyô ward not far from the university of Tokyo campus (a must see campus for architecture buffs), I came to realize how these urban bouts of trekking have had a tremendous impact on my perception of the city, and have helped me into developing a strategy at discovering the innards of the landscape in ways unknown to me for years on. Not only is there hardly a sense of boredom wherever I walk, but my centers of interest have shifted from the touristic mundane to a captivation for the daily urban tissues of Tokyo that are so different than what you see on TV.

Landing at the station Honkomagome, looking for the possibly vanished remnants of a scientific research center built in the early 1920's, I went to visit for the sake of it being just there the Rikugien garden, a typical touristic and historical garden, Lonely Planet listed for sure, with all the nooks, greenery, crooked trees, calm ponds with turtles and carps, and the occasional wood structure making it a real Japanese garden. I was bored. Japanese gardens in my view are best visited in Autumn and Spring, or in such rare Winter mornings when snow felt during the night. They don't fit Summer. That's my bias. Period.

Blasé is the word, not so much that I am allowed to feel like it toward a place I have been living in for more than 20 years, but blasé because I now consciously know by experience that if one comes here to see gardens for instance, there are lesser known places that fit the bill way much better than the Rikugien, in terms of sheer contemplative mood and the sense of mystery, in terms of belonging deeply to the neighborhood they are located in. Neighborhoods Tokyo is so much interesting that the famous districts that are only anecdotal in terms of dimensions.

I tend to walk with clients who are not on their first visit here. They have seen most of the places a tourist comes to see. Tourists come to see touristic places. It sounds ridiculously obvious but what does it really mean? That tourists come first for confirmation, to see by themselves the spots they have been made into believing to be typical of the land, the city, the place. They come to see the expected. C. with whom I walked last month has come to Japan for more than six times in just about three years. She is addicted to Japan. She is acutely aware that her addiction is fulfilled by intensifying the sense of being there, in the tangible reality of daily life. I learned a lot from her about the perception and expectations of a Japan addict who does not live here. The most impressive remark she told me was about a typical small shopping street of a neighborhood in Yanaka where she always stay. There are lots of such neighborhoods in Tokyo and lots of such streets you don't see in the middle of the storm in Shibuya, Shinjuku and the usual fare. In fact, they are looming not far from these unavoidable spots but chances are high you won't see or notice these, and not know what to see, let alone what to do there. And what does she said about that shopping street with the fishmonger, the tôfu shop, the fruit stands where, despite what you read in the Japan special editions, don't much carry melons at USD 200 (otherwise almost nobody would buy melons!)? That she could sit on a chair right into the street, spend the day watching people passing by and just feel perfectly content.

The expert flâneurs know that flânerie is an art. The flâneur is an epicurian of the eye, as Balzac (was it?) once wrote. And one of the most difficult part of being a consumed flâneur is to know when to stop and stand still, like a humming bird. I could not better agree with her, and what she wanted from me as a guide, not the professional patented guide knowing his or her history of Tokyo in-depth, was not about history but about walking through places that intensify the sense of being there.

I did find my scientific research center of the 20s. I also found way much more, including yet another hidden small cosy upper class neighborhood about 300 meters from the Rikugien, one of those sleepy provincial, almost countryside like streets that are representative of Tokyo, covering most of the city landscape, to be found mostly everywhere, once you start leaving the avenues and the spots you came to see for confirmation that Tokyo is indeed what they show in the evening news. The mix of detached houses with tiny private gardens, all unique and silent was the usual treat. I could go on like that, writing about how I walked the Hakusan street a little further away, a street with nothing special if not for the perspective and dimensions that remind me at least of a Parisian street, until you veer inside each and every tiny lateral lanes for a treat of local Japan, local Tokyo, shrines and temples of pocket size with barely a soul, lazy places along a small cliff, a perspective that makes you all of a sudden feel as if you were in the middle of the countryside. The illusion goes on for 100 meters maybe, but it is a strongly tangible feeling, available virtually everywhere once you know the strategy and art of getting lost in Tokyo, and Japan by extension.

Blue eyed elephant

2006-08-15T10:16:00.000+09:00

After you are over with the fish at Tsukiji, head for Hongan-ji stone shrine that is nothing like any shrine anywhere in Japan. The church like building is a nice place for a break, there are chairs, and messages in English kindly invite you to freely look around. Your mission then is to find the blue eyed elephant and say hello.

Tsukiji is not cheap

2006-08-15T10:11:00.000+09:00

Tsukiji is not cheap. You won't find the bargain sushi here. We know better balanced places in Tokyo for quality and price. Most fishes are frozen so freshness means first the art of cooling down the fish before delivery. The tempting view of people having lunch of fish but also noodles in some covered alleys of Tsukiji, standing in front of improbable tables made out of boxes put on top of each other gives a typical Asian atmosphere to the place. Yet, this reflects by no mean the reality of Tokyo. Eating in the street in full view of anyone on third-world like appliances is nice indeed but not local, although the locals love to do it. You will love it too.

Chikuwa

2006-08-15T10:02:00.000+09:00

Last month, on the way back from Shiraishi island (we are still longing for it!), we bought a set of chikuwa at Kasaoka station in a shop that has been around the corner for a good 100 years. Chikuwa is a cousin of surimi, crushed white fish meat paste, and can be sublime or plain ugly industrial stuff. Of course, these chikuwa were of the superior varieties.

Tokyo sky

2006-08-15T09:55:00.000+09:00

It doesn't happen daily but this one was especially nice, thanks to a typhoon looming somewhere in the distance.

Odaiba and Ariake

2006-08-15T09:43:00.000+09:00

Weirdness is the keyword for Odaïba and Ariake artificial islands in Tokyo bay. Everything is faked, including the artificial beach that reminds - at least that's what they say in the promotional blurb - of a "typical" Californian sea spot. Unless you don't care about food, food is all over bland to bad. After all, especially Odaiba is partially a second class shopping center. When I was working in that district for several years, they would bring groups of tourists from China and Taiwan to buy made in China souvenirs. Yet, from a point of view of architecture and the urban futuristic landscape, Odaïba and Ariake are great places to visit with a purposeful strategy to look for weirdness. The district is progressively expanding to include the Toyosu area. Same blandness, same spookiness depending on seasons and light texture. In Winter time, thanks to clear skies and crisp light, landscapes and lines can be fantastic. Anytime of the year, toward sunset and early night are a must-see. Among the many spots, the sight from the tower at the ship museum (Fune-no-kagakukan) is tantalizing over blue sky. Less known are the banks along the Shiokaze park with the container ships, and the view over the circular pool that is closed 10 months a year. In winter, the loneliness of the place is overwhelming. And contrary to what I read somewhere, there are no such thing as big waves on the Odaiba beach, and only fools and bacteria lovers would dare and swim in Tokyo bay water. The few windsurfers must be vaccinated against any coccus variety you can think about. Having said that, don't miss the visit, then head back to planet Earth some "urban human" places like Tsukiji, or far away in the West district of Tokyo.

Hatonomachi

2006-08-09T10:35:00.000+09:00

Hatonomachi, pigeons' street, is an ex-red light district that closed doors around 1958. The small houses in rather shabby shape were tiny brothels upstairs with a European style café on the ground floor. The remnants make for an interesting time-trip into a rather poor district of Tokyo.

In the alleys

2006-07-11T08:39:00.000+09:00

The backstreets of Tokyo are not anecdotal. They are the most real parts of the city.

Mount Koyama

2006-07-11T08:34:00.000+09:00

Climbing Mount Koyama, 44.6 meters of height, somewhere between Shinjuku and Waseda University, central Tokyo.

Morning-glory

2006-07-09T10:57:00.000+09:00

It was Morning-Glory all over the place at Iriya, north-east of Ueno, for the annual festival of the flower. It's also the time when soba noodles and the mood of it are at their best. We went to the old Matsuya soba restaurant. The sesame sauce cold soba is first class treat.

Woodblock house

2006-06-12T19:26:00.000+09:00

Unexpected discovery in the middle of nowhere, somewhere between Chôfu and Mitaka, western part of Tokyo. So many tiny windows to clean up.

Tokyo 1930

2006-05-29T07:25:00.000+09:00

When the shrine overdose sets in, I shift my concern to mostly two areas of architecture, the contemporary, and the evanescent 30's buildings, like the Kensugakukan, a historical prep school in Nishi-Kanda, or the more crispy brick buildings of the Tokyo University of Fine Arts' campus. More hidden treasures still await for the wanderer to visit.

Tokyo Iceberg

2006-05-11T20:55:00.000+09:00

I bumped into the news about the Iceberg building in Harajuku in the newspaper this morning, just before going and meet C and M from Los Angeles at their hotel. We got there and where stunned by the beauty of work. A new landmark in Tokyo for sure. Could not frame it all in the camera.

Tokyo in May

2006-05-11T08:16:00.000+09:00

Views of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ward, Kasuga and Koishikawa districts. With the visiting rainy season, the green is profuse, overwelming.

Tokyo frontier

2006-05-05T10:07:00.000+09:00

So we went to the far western tip of administrative Tokyo, in the mountains, in the green. Okutama is the final end for a sub-branch of the Chûô railway line that starts from downtown Tokyo station. Buses climb up a little bit further into the mountains then stop at the Okutama dam lake.

Ghosts

2006-05-02T23:01:00.000+09:00

One does not need the cultural background to feel at times, in the many provincial like back alleys of Tokyo, a ghostly atmosphere. Ghosts, globlins and fantastic creatures are crowding the Japanese folklore landscape. What with the many shrines and cemeteries to be found all over the place - that is, off the beaten tracks - holly often comes with the creepy. Yet, there is no risk ... but to start believing. A slideshow of a recent walk around. Take note of the rare two stories wooden building near Tokyo University.

Intercity

2006-04-25T07:41:00.000+09:00

The city of contrast. Have a look at the slender, Star Wars like Intercity tower on the south exit of Shinagawa JR station. Next, go across the north exit, climb past the Prince hotel on the left side of the hill, then get lost in the plush provincial small alleys, aiming at Gotanda station.

Astronomy

2006-04-24T08:30:00.000+09:00

Off-the-beaten track destination? The National Astronomical Observatory, south of Musashi Sakai JR station in the West side of Tokyo, is tucked in lush green and offers three haunting observatory buildings of the 1930's.

Fumiko Hayashi's garden house

2006-04-14T23:21:00.000+09:00

How fresh and powerful is the face of author Fumiko Hayashi I picked on a poster at the entrance of her beautiful garden house built in 1941, now a public space. How fresh is this face captured some 70 years ago. The garden is pure beauty. I skipped the room where artifacts of the author are gathered and stayed instead in the garden for a good 30 minutes, totally alone. Once you cross the the large avenues at Ochiai station, there starts the typical provincial face of Tokyo, with Shinjuku towers at close distance. Pictures of the promenade are to be found here.

No more temples

2006-04-06T09:21:00.000+09:00

The cherry blossoms are snowing down in Tokyo. The new green will be a welcome sight after such a profuse, overwhelming blanket of whitish pink. I swore the other day "no more temples!". That is, until I saw that one, north of Nakano station, one among so many getting unnoticed in the guide books. Kyoto may be the city of thousand temples. Tokyo has even more.

Comfort food

2006-03-04T05:36:00.000+09:00

This is comfort food for a cold rainy day. A thick, real thick, sweet hot red beans soup. Compote may be a better term. It would do marvel on top of pancakes as well. Bits of salted plums are provided to rinse the the buds. It makes marvel.

Business walk: what is it?

2006-03-04T05:30:00.000+09:00

Let say you have a few hours or a day to spend in Tokyo and you want to take this opportunity to research in-situ the convenience stores business, the transportation amenities, the department stores customers' services practices, etc.

A business walk is all about that: planning of your visit, guided tour and interpretation.

Alone in a garden

2006-03-01T05:44:00.000+09:00

I found myself the other day totally and deliciously alone in the Ikedayama garden. It's not located in the countryside but in Tokyo, in one of those unreal, quiet provincial districts hidden behind big avenues.

Spring is coming

2006-02-15T07:41:00.000+09:00

Spring is coming, and it shows at the traditional cakes shops. Sakuramochi is a seasonal treat in pink, a ball of sticky rice wrapped with a year old cherry tree leave preserved in salt. An interesting mix of airy flavors and textures.

Tokyo Station

2006-02-15T06:46:00.000+09:00

The front door of Tokyo Station is getting a major lift with buildings sprouting in the sky, giving the plaza a long needed clear topographical landmarks. Contemporary architecture lovers will relish walking around the station and the plush Marunouchi district.

Yûshima-Seidô

2006-02-13T07:56:00.000+09:00

A favorite, the Yûshima-Seidô black shrine at Ochanomizu district. Dedicated to Confucius, this is a treat of an oasis. Bring a drink, even something to eat, sit and just gaze.

Tuna

2006-01-24T10:29:00.000+09:00

Not Tsukiji fish market but right into the street near Asakusa shrine, a tuna is sliced up in front of a sushi restaurant. The walkers stop, salivate, and get in the shop for a snack. The tuna costs about price of a small car.

This is also Tokyo

2006-01-21T13:10:00.000+09:00

In the Akikawa river valley, a good one hour from central Tokyo. Still Tokyo yet, but already the countryside.

Food for a walk

2006-01-21T12:59:00.000+09:00

Myôga

2005-10-15T09:06:00.000+09:00

Freshly plucked myôga will end up in tempura fritters.

Morning fire

2005-10-15T09:00:00.000+09:00

Early morning zoom on the set of towers of Shinjuku. The sun rays at proper angle for a mere 1 or 2 minutes set fire to the building. Later on the light will turn into th usual Autumn hue: pale yellow straw.

Little house

2005-10-14T09:18:00.000+09:00

Little House in the Tokyo Prairie dwarfed by the Johnson & Johnson tower.

Well

2005-10-14T09:11:00.000+09:00

Well like water container in the back alley of a shrine.

Jimbocho

2005-10-13T09:14:00.000+09:00

A rosy stucco second hand book shop in the Jimbocho area. The first Warhammer shop opened recently close-by. Book shops are an endangered species.

Sepia memories

2005-07-16T09:19:00.000+09:00

Just received this pictures from walking clients (hate this commercial naming) dated last month, but looking like the snapshot was taken 40 years ago. The sushi-bar Tochigiya on top of the Ochanomizu hill is 40 years old. Sepia very much fits the situation.

Casting off moorings

2005-06-21T15:03:00.000+09:00

At the Takeshiba ship terminal. A good opportunity to remind oneself that Tokyo is a seaside city.

The milky blurred like light is for real. I quit the idea to use a filter and fake with a blue sky and emerald sea. It is funny how both a departing ship, just like a construction work site kind of mesmerize spectators, that is, male onlookers. On the landing stage and the nice walking lane made out of plank wood, office workers from the offices neaby, and a few jobless people too, are transfixed by the ship leaving the quay for a travel that may probably be shorter than imagination wants to fancy. The only woman, a young one, I saw was sitting on a bench, her shoes off, transfixed by the screen of her mobile and totally oblivious of the panoramic sight, not a beautiful sight, but a sight that allows the eyes to look very far away. Something that seldom happens for city dwellers. Filtered by the glass panes of a coffee shop close by the Intercontinental Hotel, the view takes an exotic <en>asian</en> slant. Is this the result of such long years spent here? But Japan, or at least Tokyo only very but seldom looks Asian. Talk about instead of the Hong Kong bay!

Some times later, in a huge meeting room at a client's office with a view on the same panorama, I idly listen to a presentation with an eye fixed in the distant bay bridge over which the planes getting ready to land at Haneda airport turn around. The urge to cast off the moorings is deliciously titillating .

From Ostend to Hongo

2005-06-20T00:13:00.000+09:00

This Sunday morning, a totally improvised stroll that starts with a view of a refuse barge 10 minutes away from the house that reminds me of Ostend. I have never been in Ostend though. In order to avoid the eyes sore that is the Kôrakuen district with its attraction park and stadium where I will have to go anyway to buy shirts, I decide to head to that beautiful red house in the middle of the steep Ochanomizu slope and have a slow, serious look around. That is where I will start drifting away and almost get lost - with such relish! - in the small back streets on the Hongo district. After what I ended up buying those shirt. You can see a series of pictures here with the comments - oh la, la! Quelle horreur! - in French only for the time being.

Note: I am no good because not confident at taking pictures of people I don't know. But during the hour I spent drifting in the Hongo district backyard, I may have met no more than five people maybe. Kids almost do not play in the streets. or maybe they are busy watching TV or having club activities at school at that time. As for grown-ups, well, they don't live outside the house. The small private garden are decorative and not spaces to enjoy living in the outside. There is an absolute separation between the public and the private space. The private space is mostly indoor. One issue is that in such village like crooked and clustered areas, people tend to observe each other very closely. It must be more fun in the end that watching the TV. But especially for people renting apartments, this quickly turn to be a major source of stress. But for someone living now in a 25 stories building in Tokyo, this Hongo area that is located a mere 30 minutes away from home is a pleasure to visit.

Aoyama cemetery

2005-06-19T09:02:00.000+09:00

Thanks to the rain somewhat receding, I could further my exploration of that tip of the Aoyama cemetery, and walk through the whole distance of that beautiful green tunnel like brick road that crosses through that vast city of the dead. The Aoyama cemetery is a gem of a place, with staircases, flat or sloped side lanes that vanish in the distance.
The lush of green expertly left to seemingly grow based on its own blueprint is gorgeous and has a reminiscence of England. The palette of greens and browns is eyes soothing. Rusted fences faintly protect rich and huge tomb stones, some located

After a series of tombs with crosses, i discover the foreigners corner of the cemetery. Foreigners always apart even after death. There is a list of this place dwellers. Many anglo-saxons, some French national who passed away mostly in the 19th century. It's a queer vision

Passage d'Autre Fois

2005-06-19T08:47:00.000+09:00

Found the Passage d'Autre Fois, by pure chance and curiosity. Behing the steep Kagurazaka slope, this faked but well, enchanting short crooked alley reminded me at first sight with a well pampered touristic equivalent in a Provencal village, or maybe the old Cannes on the hill looking to the Mediterranean blue. But no, this by all means i s Japan with green moss on fluorescent steroid thanks to the damp of the rainy season and the light saturated grey filter of the sky. Discreet and most probably highly expensive restaurants are clustered here. Further on, a little shabby but much real house has an Italian air, while in the pocket size garden of a tiny dwelling, I find a miniature shrine protecting the people living there.

After dusk, I went with U. for a short stroll impromptu stroll. The official objective was to drop by the bookstore at the station for him to have a look at the manga cards on display he has been dreaming about. In exchange for my patience, I suggested a digression before going back home and turn around the steep passages I saw in daylight alone a few hours ago. U. generally loves to stroll with his papa. He even thought the crooked passages to remind him of a video game. Why not. Cultural references are a personal matter. The moss was largely invisible at night but we bumped nose to nose with lots of lazy stray cats.

Technorati Tags: Japan, Tokyo

Picturing the rain

2005-06-17T09:20:00.000+09:00

The Lotus shoot tea at the TeTes restaurant located on the Nishi-Azabu crossroad was golden, delicate, soothing and lightened up the gray Tokyo sky. A little bit costly this TeTes restaurant, but with a large room and a huge vista to the street that makes the noisy outside almost enjoyable from the inside. After a Vietnamese Thai mixed pretty good lunch, I started walking toward the Aoyama cemetery for the purpose to grasp the overall topography of the place. The rain would bare me to go further into discovery.

Close by a funeral house and a ludicrous trendy café, I found a kind of dead angle safe of urban planning, with a beautiful tunnel like straight road that goes right into the cemetery and seems to vanish in the distance. There is a beautiful old house selling flowers but strangely closed at that time of the day.

I had fancied to take the rain in picture. What a subject for photography! Not banalities like puddles of rain mirroring the dull sky, or drenched people walking despite them carrying umbrella. The urban walker should not shun at walking in the rain, a delicious experience granted one has a large enough umbrella - which I don't - and do not fuss too much about getting ... well, wet. I had some success turning into digital pixels the trajectory of rain drops caught by my shabby cheap camera. Mission accomplished.

Technorati Tags: Japan, Tokyo

Taking the time to watch

2005-06-17T09:05:00.000+09:00

L. had suggested that I go to the back of the insufferable Roppongi avenue with it suspended urban highway, walk past the Lawson convenience store to find in the backstreets of Nishi-Azabu a cluster of good restaurant. I did go up the convenience store but was sucked in by a mysterious alley plastered with luscious plants and trees all over the place and a right angle at the end of it that was certainly hiding some nice surprised. Indeed, at a stone throw distance of the highway, this was the countryside with tiny or sumptuous, and for ridiculously pretentious rich houses. My red Mercedes was waiting for me but my chauffeur being on vacation, I decided to walk further, ending up again in that dreaded avenue.

A week ago, riding a taxi with customers, I took a mental note of that billboard that had a fantastic air under an electric sky before a rain storm. I wanted to go back to the place and look at it at leisure. This is now done. The fair sky has wiped away quite a lot of the mystery but the place has an uncanny charm I decided to try and figure out the reasons why. And I found it. Here are two avenues that spread apart on a 25 to 30 degrees angle to run separately around the huge Aoyama cemetery. The very angle, on the tip of which stands an elegant beige brick building slightly rounded is a rare sight in this city. In fact, despite the monster highway running in the back of the picture, the so called Nishi-Azabu crossroad is way much sleek and visually satisfying than the more sought after Roppongi crossroad a little farther away. Of course, you don't go to Roppongi to enjoy the topography.
La topographie des lieux - un carrefour à 25 degrés avec à sa pointe un immeuble courbe couleur de briques beiges - une perspective pas trop bouchée vers le ciel, des immeubles ecclectiques mais sobres, un vaste restaurant façon chinois aux murs terre de Sienne, bref, des couleurs, des textures et des formes qui participe à un coktail urbain agréable.

Technorati Tags: Japan, Tokyo

Tsukiji Baby

2005-06-17T08:47:00.000+09:00

The other morning, walking to meet a customer at the Westin Hotel in Ebisu district, I passed close by that famous little deluxe restaurant palace. It had been a long time I had not seen that incongruous piece of aristocratic mansion that was supposedly brought piece by piece to Japan. It may not be true. Our friend M. who is a professional French food lover told us of her mixed experience at that restaurant. The food may be pricey but the sight is free and queer. While reaching the hotel behind, I was wondering why such piece of otherwise inconsequent but typical 19th century European rich dwelling looks so outwardly here. Is it the disneyland like nature of it, that is, the fake character oozing all around? It for sure does not belong to the whole modern Ebisu environment that is nothing less or more than a shopping mall. Space unity is a subjective value maybe, an esthetics opinion acquired and nurtured through the environment where one was raised. This melange des genres could indeed hardly happen in Paris.

In the afternoon, somewhat rushing out of a meeting not far from the Tsukiji market area, I noticed an incredibly more-japanese-than-that-you-die view, that is the row of restaurants and shops that make up one side of the market perimeter. The discovery was the result of an unplanned change of perspective where I simply started to walk on the opposite side of the street, to discover that I had never indeed observed that place from this new vista. A mere simple shift of perspective and a new world emerges.

Was it prior to this? Yes. I sort of bumped into this baby held by a lady I want to think of as his grand-mother. I looked at him, he looked back, we looked at each other, you are looking at him, and he is looking at you. Cute, n'est-ce pas?

Akikawa

2005-06-06T19:25:00.000+09:00

(Click here to see the panoramic picture)

Tokyo green. Take the Chuo-sen, the central JR line, and go West. One hour and a few more minutes away, it is still Tokyo, that is administratively, but Tokyo in the countryside. The Akikawa river is dotted by a few vegetables fields and rice paddies. Not far from there, growing vegetables is an intensive activity. For family reasons, we often get there and spend week-ends to resource in greensight. Just about a month ago, the landscape was a desultory yellowish thing with dried out bushes and shabby trees. This is all over. Thanks to Spring and welcome to Summer.

K.'s junior school is still located here in the middle of the fields, just like 30 years ago. On Sundays, boys, as in many Japanese schools, gather to play baseball. Baseball seems to be more of a voice than a muscle activity. The kids encourage each other in not much enthusiastic ritualistic way. It is the coach's voice scolding and shaming that is stands a head and shoulder above the chorus. My sports coach disgust knows no limit. (Click here to walk around in the picture.)

At this time of the year, irrigation channels are gushing with water swarming the paddies. It adorns our usual walk path with refreshing googling notes. Rice shots are brought from elsewhere and plucked in the mud one by one, by hand. Akikawa rice has no brand image and the paddies are small. The growers may be eating it all.

Technorati Tags: Japan, Tokyo

Digression around Ginza

2005-05-17T18:06:00.000+09:00

A short digression on the way back from an errand yesterday. The Sukiyabashi park is located behind the Gap store at the intersection of the Sotobori and Harumi streets. A single sprig of grass qualifying for the Japanese term of park, there are lots of urban parks that simply do not deserve such naming suggesting lawns and flower and dirt paths devoid of cars. Sukiyabashi park is just a small green spot that yet deserves not to be ignored. First because of the Young Clock Tower of the late Okamoto Taro, and the close-by Taimei elementary and kindergarden school.Okamoto Taro clock is fun and peps up the bland surrounding. Children of all ages love Okamoto Taro.

The Taimei school is an incongruous establishment nowadays in a district where residents are apparently an extremely rare species. And the school partly surrounded by the elevated highway is the least clean and silent place where to have ones kids go daily. But it's a charming sight all the same with cement arches.

While the original school was built here some 120 years ago, the wrought iron gate is a rather recent acquisition, seemingly for the South of France. It was once the gate to a rich French dwelling.

This is a convenient map and site on Ginza

Technorati Tags: Japan, Tokyo

Skywalking in Tokyo Panoramic

2005-05-16T08:42:00.000+09:00

Yesterday's brief but strong storm in Tokyo has cleaned up the sky this morning. The air texture is Autumn. An anomaly in May that will be quickly rectified. Panoramic pictures these days are so easy to create, thanks to software, that it is hard to resist.

Click to open in another window, click to enlarge and scroll horizontally to look for the numbers.

1. The Kudanshita crossing. When the black trucks of the extreme right thugs gather here at a short distance of the controversial Yasukuni shrine, the free Japanese media don't even mention the fact. Part of the folklore.

2. This is the new Aozora bank head-office now building. Tokyo is mushrooming. Most of the skyscrapers in the distance facing the sea waterfront were not here 9 years ago when we got to start living in the center part of Tokyo. An non-economist question to ask is how those blood-in-the-red banks can still pour money into building yet new head-offices.

3. Hotel Grand Palace, the starting point of my currently suggested walks in Tokyo, on an iPod near you, or more in details scattered all over the place here.

4. The tiny Tokyo Tower, to be dwarfed by a bigger one in a few years.

5. This bit of copper layered roof is the Budô-kan, a circular hall for music and sports events.

6. The Kitanomaru park, which is part of all the green seen on this side of the picture, which is the huge imperial palace district.

7. The colossal but here tiny top of the Yasukuni shrine portal.

8. This building delivered about 2 years ago near the Indian embassy is one of the most expensive condominium in Japan. It sold out immediately. We walked along it one day and were definitely not impressed.

9. The French lycée.

10. A tower at the Hosei university of Law.

11. Mount Fuji with snow that is clearly melting. Seeing Fuji-san in May from this distance with the sky usually milky whitish and filled with smog is a rare opportunity. It actually looks much bigger with human eyes.

12. The Tokyo government towers in Shinjuku district.

13. The building on top of Iidabashi station. Historically, Iidabashi was the starting point of a major railway track that ran away as far as Kôfu city in Yamanashi prefecture, famous for grapes and fruits. When we moved in, the extreme right of the picture was the second generation remnants of the tracks.

14. Tokyo may be located on the sea front, but mountains are very close by and hard to get unnoticed.

15. This one tower, courtesy of tax payers, is brand new and even still not open. It will be a Tokyo wards council something where civil servants will gather for unending discussions and no actions plans I assume.

Exquisite asphalt

2005-05-13T23:15:00.000+09:00

French poet and master flâneur Jacques Réda published some 20 years ago a book under the title "Le Bitume est exquis" (The Asphalt is exquisite). I now believe I do fully understand - and enjoy - the beauty of this short expression, how it fits indeed the requirements of a qualified urban flâneur. It is not a suggestion to keep ones nose and eyes bent down toward the asphalt while walking - a pretty risky attitude - but acknowledge the grayish surface as a core element of the urban flânerie experience. Do urban surfaces have signatures of their own, cues of a terroir characteristics? The glistening pavement of Brassaï pictures of Paris at night belong without any doubt to Paris. This may be the result of intellectual knowledge, but it is a certitude all the same. There is probably a community of experiences for kids having been raised on asphalt and cobblestone urban areas at times when the season allowing it, the playground was the street outside the house. The community lays in the asphalt, where we usually crouched or sat and played jacks, where knees got bruised so many times following roller skates accidents. Asphalt was sometimes warm and welcoming, sometimes an enemy generating scars. Rare are the cases when I see school children crouching on the asphalt in Tokyo. Grown-ups are quick at frowning at such mean attitude. Crouching on the asphalt is an attitude that belongs to the tramp, the homeless. It calls for despise. Funny when I think about it now how we crouched on the asphalt for Summers after Summers without much reprimand. Urban walking which is urban flânerie is a rare opportunity to regain contact with the child inside. The condition for this to happen is simply a matter of awareness of the common ground of identity of asphalt here and there. When one reaches such awareness, it is not much a pang of sad nostalgia than a wink from some cunning smiling angel that sort of gently strikes from out of the blue, in Paris, in Tokyo or with a Patriot of the Fourteenth Ward, Brooklin. Indeed at such time, the asphalt is exquisite.

Tokyo 16th arrondissement

2005-05-13T00:13:00.000+09:00

If you are lucky enough to stay in the Tokyo Prince hotel or the brand new Prince Tower hotel in the Shiba park area, you have a wealth of walking experiences to enjoy nearby. Besides the famous temples in the area, the lateral street running behind the Hibiya avenue and hidden by a lush cluster of green and shade is reminiscent of a kind of Bois de Boulogne or 16th arrondissement in Paris. Walking along that backstage street, I found the Crescent House restaurant building behind the foliage. I have no clue about the history of that brick state house, but the view from many angles is beautiful and well deserve a slow, very slow approach, with many standstill phases, like a hummingbird flâneur. This way, I could notice on the top of it a sundial.

When in front of the restaurant, you walk along that lane on your right, you will discover after crossing a street a mysterious temple like visibly very old small religious building made of stone that seemingly belongs to a private person and is not mentioned in the many maps to be found around this strangely beautiful area.

China in Tokyo

2005-05-12T21:49:00.000+09:00

I am not actively looking for the weird association of the ancient and the (no so much) modern, but the combination keeps coming in full view these days. Today in Tokyo, in the area of Shiba-Koen, that is, Shiba park, I took a few minutes before a work errand walking inside the Zojoji temple where I had not set foot for years despite brief glimpses from a taxi window many times.

A good in my eyes temple is Buddhist, red and a little bit decrepit. This one, or at least part of it, fairly fits the bill.

A good in my eyes temple is a reminder these days of a film I remember having seen a few times as a child on French TV. A film, possibly American, for kids. where the only thing I can remember is two children, a brother and a sister in pajamas on bed, and the bed for some reasons I forgot ends up in the middle of the open space in front of a Chinese temple, with the kids startled at what is happening. I also remember a monkey like character with a particular habit of spitting balls out of its mouth or ears like a magician.

Among the conventional and usual conversation starters one goes through here is the question about what triggered ones coming in Japan and learning the language. Among the set of possible answers I keep in my mental wallet is a cover page of Air France in-flight magazine about Japan with a doll like Japanese girl picture. Japan is a female that lured me in.

But before Japan clarified in the mind, it was part of an imaginary mic-mac called Asia, where bits of China, Vietnam, and Japan where messily but happily living together. Karate practiced a few years on the trail of the Bruce Lee craze was an early sign of longing to elsewhere. Elsewhere can happen when crossing the street. My elsewhere was Asia with a heavy slant at China.

But when thinking more deeply about all this, it appears that Japan started with China which was all the same, bundled in the same bag of fantastic and mystery. And this film seen on TV is probably the most early visual representation of elsewhere, a film I would love to find a reference about today. China was elsewhere. It turned to be Japan when subjectivity meddled in the picture. For China, that is, the China of red temples with a court where a bed carrying two startled kids clad in pajamas sort of landed is the true real and inaccessible dreamland.

"One never thinks of China, but it is there all the time on the tips of your fingers and it makes your nose itchy; and long afterwards, when you have forgotten almost what a firecracker smells like, you wake up one day with gold leaf choking you and the broken pieces punk waft back their pungent odor and the bright red wrappers give you the nostalgia for a people and a soil you have never known, but which is in your blood, mysteriously there in your blood, like the sense of time and space, a fugitive, constant value to which you turn more and more as you get old, which you try to seize with your mind, but ineffectually, because in everything Chinese there is wisdom and mystery and you can never grasp it with two hands or with your mind but you must let it rub off, let it stick to your fingers, let it slowly infiltrate your veins"." "Tropic of Cancer" (Henry Miller)

Walking with the eyes of the spirit wide open

2005-05-10T08:11:00.000+09:00

Where does this lead to? Enchanting entrance in Hiroo.

"The great thing is to try and travel with the eyes of the spirit wide open, and not too much factual information. To tune in, without reverence, idly - but with real inward attention. It is to be had for the feeling, that mysterious sense of rapport, of identity with the ground. You can extract the essence of a place once you know how. If you just get as still as a needle you'll be there."

From Landscape and Character, in "Spirit of Place: Letters and Essays on Travel" (Lawrence Durrell)

Technorati Tags: Japan, Tokyo

New Walk in Tokyo

2005-05-08T08:41:00.000+09:00

I added a fifth walk PodText guide to the collection of minimalist directions to enjoy walking around in Tokyo. The new one is a night walk that starts again from the Hotel Grand Palace and leads up to Ochanomizu then back. It's a one hour legs stretcher and mind relaxation stint going through a variety of micro areas that are very quiet at night but very busy during week days.

You can see an html version of the document here, or download a PodText version here for your iPod with Notes function integrated.

Technorati Tags: Japan, Tokyo

Exhausting the place

2005-05-01T12:43:00.000+09:00

Almost finished in a rush the other day this small piece of gem by Georges Perec: Tentative d'épuisement d'un lieu Parisien, referred to in this Economist's article as a micro-chronicle of a day in a Paris square. The square is the Place Saint-Sulpice in Paris (web cam here). The time is 1975. The purpose for the author mostly seating in cafés is to record down by writing every little thing, every non-event that his eyes and ears perceive. A flâneur dream! The result is incredibly powerful, all the more if you know the place. And the recipe enticing to be imitated in other places. Of course, Tentative d'épuisement d'un lieu Tokyoîte is itching madly.

Podtext demo

2005-04-25T03:47:00.000+09:00

Now you can look at what Walkin' in Tokyo walk guide Podtext looks like before you download it from this page. Here is an html version to play with, thanks to the great application VoodooPad. Simple isn't it? Minimalist? Yes indeed. You can bet the next step will be an extended Notes version for iPod that allows to link to pictures, snippets of video, and recreate what multimedia was all about 10 years ago when delivered over CD-ROM.

Night walk from Hotel Grand Palace

2005-04-19T03:23:00.000+09:00

A pleasant night walk to stretch the legs for 30 minutes or more according to your pace. It starts from Hotel Grand Palace near Kudanshita crossing in Tokyo. The same walk applies from Hotel Metropolitan Edmont as well.

From Hotel Grand Palace, turn immediately right and walk along the avenue until you reach the Kudanshita large crossing. Turn right again and climb the avenue toward the Yasukuni shrine whose monumental tôrii - portal - should be illuminated. I never walked there too late and check at what time they cut the projectors. You can safely walk along the large alley inside until you bump into a transversal lane. You can see and go up to the shrine gates that are close on the opposite side if you wish and peek inside.

From that transversal lane, turn right, walk along and cross the street to enter a no-car small lane a little bit on your right that goes along quiet at this time schools. The path is winding a little but you basically go straight after the crossing - don't turn right along the steep slope. This residential area is very relaxing with very few cars to mare the silence.

You will walk until you bump into a wall and have no choice but to go right or left. Go left. You may see a policeman in faction there but don't worry. He is not waiting for you. After you turned left and walked for a few meters along a massive stone wall on your left side, turn right at the transversal slope and go down then opposite the street at the end where you will find a few steps to prop up you on this part of the Sotobori green lane. The view is quite nice from there. Turn right when you reach the lane and follow it until the end which is less than 200 meters. You leave the lane but go further on the same direction.

You will see on your left the nice Ushigome bridge that lays above the Sotobori outer moat and the Japan Railways track down under with the Iidbashi station building which is also a nice rare piece of countryside like architecture. The view from the bridge is rewarding. On the opposite side is the Canal Cafe which offers a nice view. The food and drinks are a no comment though so if you decide to relax there, a coffee shall be enough.

We go further round the circle by leaving the bridge from where we treated on it, walk straight until the first crossing, turn left then walk the same lane until we reach the large avenue where the hotel is located. Before that, you will see on the slope the Tokyo Daijinja shrine maybe lighted up but probably close. If you are staying in the Hotel Metropolitan Edmont, turn at the AM/PM convenience store further down the slope on your left and walk down a little bit before you see the hotel tucked in behind the avenue. For Hotel Grand Palace, do not turn but just go straight down the slope, then right along the avenue.

A relaxing walk.

Walking in Tokyo with iPod

2005-04-19T03:20:00.000+09:00

I have uploaded the first Walkin' in Tokyo Project Walk Guide to display on an iPod with Notes function. This document you can download here contains right now only two walk courses indications. The walk starts from Hotel Grand Palace near Kudanshita. If you are staying or living in the area - including Hotel Metropolitan Edmont - and you are an iPod user, I would be delighted if you test the courses that are really nice and send me feedback on the usability of this tiny trial. Also coming with this iPod document is a hand drawn map for the first walk that goes up to the Hotel New Otani via Yasukuni shrine and Sotobori outer moat green walking trail. I will create and add maps for further walks when time allows. Again, feedback is very welcome as usual.

The discipline of Walkin' in Tokyo

2005-04-17T03:12:00.000+09:00

Walking slowing looking after the details is way much more difficult than walking at fast pace to try and not be late at an appointment. I used a watch until last birthday that was naturally ahead of time by 10 minutes, whatever efforts put into stopping it from rushing onward. It was the perfect watch for not being late. Now my new watch is pegged twice a day on the Japanese atomic clock by waves. Time management is an issue. But not when walking on flânerie mode, not when walking the Walkin' in Tokyo fashion way. Although other fast paces activities are inhibiting the project Walkin' in Tokyo to expand, thinking about it, and especially talking about it around me has been thriving lately. Some peopIe are kind and reconforting enough to tell me it is a good idea. It may be.

I take the risk of sounding pedantic and overly intellectual about the mere activity of urban flânerie, but I take that risk anyway. Urban walking as a discipline comes with two purposes: awareness of trying and see, incorporate the outside, the street, as nothing but an extension of one's home: me being here, here and now, and this here being not simply a space of transition between two safer places - home and workplace, but an extension of both where static and movement alternate. Static in the café, or on the terasse (a rare spot in Tokyo), moving along the street, not for window shopping but for trying and acquire everything that make the street being what it is at that moment, acquisition by watching. An activity with no end because embracing everything is impossible and the street is not a still picture. This conscious tentative of incorporation the outside as an extension of the inside has always been the typical purpose of the flâneurs of the 20th century strolling on the boulevards or along the roofed passageways not far from the Opera.

Slow walking is a discipline as well as watching on purpose is another one. Practice the two together and you get overwhelmed. The mind with its unrelenting urge to fill the slowed space with its own never ending inner talking rushes on the front stage of awareness. Taming the inner voice is a challenge. I once laughed reading about the correlation between bicycling and meditation. I don't laugh anymore, especially after having spent more than a year commuting by bicycle in full specialized gear. It is a discipline, just like flânerie with the will to consciously feel the outside as being part of the inner side. Walkin' in Tokyo project is as much about walking along nice trails in Tokyo to see nice spots, as to make these spots along the trail part of your inner experience, even when you are no longer physically here. But from that disciplined approach comes an interesting but not new understanding that when on a slow pace walking and watching intently, lots of tiny things pop up where one is usually blind when rushing around.

On the picture in this post is an owl decorated lightning rod in the background on top of the Athéné Français French language school on the Ochanomizu hill.

Walking in Tokyo: Project revisited

2005-03-16T06:33:00.000+09:00

Walking in Tokyo, the blog, was launched at a time of professional despair - read joblessness - where an idea a day could not keep the gloom away. But ideas there were, and flowing at that, despite the harsh, critical and devastating scorn of close people fingering in disgust at ones late-student-like-dreamer-should-be-ashamed-of-oneself cuckoo. I believe this not to be unique and the repelling reaction of normal people despising your flights of imagination not a Japan specific trait. But it hurts all the same and blogging came almost as a relieve and released the hampered rush inside to write all about it. To write all about it, even cuckoos ideas like this one: Walking in Tokyo. Now that other professional activities are keeping Walking in Tokyo in semi-limbo state - it does not mean that the project is dead. On the blog screen at least - somewhat expanded or hinted at in my walking blog - Walking in Tokyo is alive and well in the realm of imagination. No, it's not only alive, it's thriving. Walking in Tokyo is the way I would like to visit other towns of this planet - a guiding experience where the focus is not on the historical, worn-out touristic spots, but on the daily life enhanced by the view and appreciation of a guide willing to show you his or her own version of what makes - at times - that daily neighborhood a darn good place to be today, now, right now. Walking in Tokyo is the anti official, chartered, licensed, authorized guide scheme; the one that for instance the Japanese authorities are trying and nurture by making the national exam to turn into a professional guide less difficult than getting a doctorate ( pass rate allegedly less than 10%!), or warning than non-official guides could be fined some US$ 3,000 for illegal activities. There are hints that even legal guides don't make a living out of it anyway. Walking in Tokyo project is in another league, a different realm. The lame Yokoso campaign to lure in more foreign tourists here, lame and doomed, despite TV spots (TV spots for Japanese!) showing - oh! so much smiling people like in stock pictures for business ads - will yield nothing, because it is shunning at the very grease needed to make such endeavor kind of work: people. Walking in Tokyo - an expandable concept to other towns, other spots, is exactly about that: people network. More on this soon.

Walking in Tokyo: Project Started

2005-01-01T13:01:00.000+09:00

Welcome to Walking in Tokyo (WIT).

Walking in Tokyo is a walking tour service project in Tokyo offering tourists with legs and curiosity off the beaten track tailor made tours in various urban surroundings of the megapolis. WIT offers opportunities to see and feel the city from an impressionistic point of view mixing encounter with Tokyo daily life, modern and ancient architecture, lunch and dinner in local, non-sophisticated places where only the locals go and more. I invite you to read more details in the accompanying postings.

Also read my other blog Promenade in Chiyoda-ku

2004-11-16T10:15:00.000+09:00

You may wonder why the first entry of this blog is dated in the future. It is the only no-brainer method I found to keep it listed on top of this blog. I invite you to also access and read one of my other blogs named Promenades in Chiyoda-ku. I add more new entries there than to this blog here and you can have a more intimate view of what I would call micro tourism, that is walking around the place where we live here, in Tokyo, Chiyoda ward.

Addendum: when I started this blog in 2004, the only no-brainer method to keep the first entrie on the top position was to set its date in the future 2005. Now that 2005 is no longer the future but the present, the above text is now already "passé", but the rest is still valid.

Walking in Tokyo: The Offer

2004-11-16T09:47:00.000+09:00

I invite you for a walking tour of specific areas in Tokyo off-the-beaten-tracks. If it is your first visit in the capital, you will easily find your way to such places like Omotesando avenue to check that, yes, all the brand names you can think about are spread all along the place shoulder to shoulder. You will miss the backstreet maize which is still an enchanting place.

You will also find your way to the Imperial Palace garden. But you will miss the external gardens which are in my view far more interesting.

You will walk along Ginza avenue which has less to offer than the Ginza back streets.... The list could go on and on.

What I offer is different. Here are the specs:

- Walks are currently offered in and around Chiyoda ward in Tokyo, a highly urbanized place in one of the 23 Tokyo wards. In Chiyoda-ku (ku = ward), you can find the Imperial Palace, Ginza, the electronic mecca Akihabara, the business district Otemachi, the Tokyo central station and some other main spots of the capital. You can find also many backstage places not described in guide books, and hard to walk alone when you don't know the place.

- Walks are personalized. And I would add tailor made. And if I may add yet another characteristics: I walked the walks many time: they are tested.

- Walks start around 10 am and end around 4 pm. That's six hours. But flexibility is available.

- Walks start as a standard feature from your hotel with a minimum or no usage of transportation other than walking. If you stay at one of the many hotels in Chiyoda ward, walks will be in most cases performed from A to Z on foot.

- A standard walk starts with a minimum of two persons and a maximum of five.

- Things that are not included in the fees: lunch, including your guide's lunch, coffee breaks you may want to take along the path and public transportations that may be used for short distances.

- Walks' objective is to show you a slice of Tokyo daily life and hidden paths of the urban lanscape. These walks are for urban landscape lovers with a keen eye for the unexpected, the quaint encounters, the details that make an apparently banal environment all of sudden strike out as outwardly. There are plenty of such places in Tokyo to discover, granted you are guided. I will guide and enjoy the walks with you.

- Lunch is an important part of the discovery and you will be proposed with non-costly experiences in local restaurants you would probably not think about visiting by yourself.

- Walks are for walkers, of course. Which means that at the end of the day, your mind as well as your feet and legs may remember the experience. Your mind will remember it longer though.

- Walks are available upon reservation only with a 1000 yens non-refundable advance payment through PayPal. If the walk is postponed or cancel due to personal circumstances with your guide, that is me, advance payment will be refunded.

- Walk fees minus advance payment is due at the beginning of the walk in cash.

I invite you to read to my other blog about Tokyo walking experience here. And the other entries in this blog as it expands.

Walk Course Example 1

2004-11-15T23:31:00.000+09:00

From Akasaka-Mitsuke to Akihabara

This walk course example supposes that you may be staying in one of the hotels around Akasaka-Mitsuke, like the Akasaka Prince or the New Otani. The walk starts from the New Otani, through the gorgeous hotel's garden and follow a rather hidden track all along the Sotobori garden. We leave the trail sometimes between Ichigaya and Iidabashi stations and sail through to the famous and controversial Yasukuni Shrine, have a look at the main building and garden, and a stop-over for refreshment in an incredibly shabby spot within the shrine that may have not changed for 30 years - except the drinks vending machine. From here, we can gloriously go through the majestic shrine portal down to Kudanshita crossing, or go to more exotic places nearby like the Kitanomaru park, or through the hilly backstage of the shrine that is home of many schools and a few very interesting buildings and very quiet lanes.We may go through the bustling Iidabashi district to reach the slopes of Ochanomizu hill with stone stairs to climb and a few nice vistas on the top. We will see the Nicholai Do byzantine church, two extraordinary contrasting temples, the black Yushima Confucian Shrine and the red Kanda Myojin. From the red one, we will reach via yet another hidden stair the electronic mecca Akihabara, where you will find what you may want to buy, without getting lost. If time and you feet condition allow, we may leave the pretty tiring Akihabara and find our way to the Kanda district from where we will board a train back to Yotsuya station, and a short final walk in the backstage of Sophia university to find back your hotels from an angle you did not expect. The order of this walk can be reshuffled in many variations according to your tastes and expectations that will be discussed prior to the D-day.

Walk Course Example 2

2004-11-14T14:15:00.000+09:00

From Iidabashi-Kudanshita district to Ochanomizu and back. This one course assume that may stay in one the hotels close to Kudanshita or Iidbashi like the Metropolitan Edmont, the Grand Palace, or the Tokyo Dome Hotel. This course goes through the Koishikawa Garden, part of the Sotobori garden along the Kanda river, through the Yasukuni Jinja shrine, the Kitanomaru-koen garden and the hill of Ochanomizu and its surrounding temples. It is a pretty green course with multiple landscapes and vistas.

Walk Course Example 3: Greens and Temples Quest

2004-11-13T09:24:00.000+09:00

This walk will start with a visit to the beautiful Koishikawa-koen Japanese garden close to the Tokyo Dome and the Tokyo Dome Hotel. The contrast with the garden and the the big white egg of the dome in the sky is dramatic, but once you turn your back at that huge eyesore, the garden itself is of absolute beauty. From here, we will head to Tokyo University campus through large avenues and back streets in the charming Hongo district with a keen eye to small hidden temples. We will enter the university campus through the elegant Akamon (red gate) and arrive at the Sanshiro-Ike, a silent and somewhat mysterious pond and garden right inside the campus. We will leave the campus by a the back door and pop right into the large Shinobazu pond of the Ueno Garden. We will have a look at the shrines (not at the Zoo, unless you really want to...) visit the large park and the Tokyo National Museum. We then will leave the park and pass through the bustling Ameyoko market street. We will then leave the Ueno district and walk along steep slopes to reach the Yushima Tenmangu shrine. Our final destination will be the the red Kanda Myojin and the Yushima Confucian Shrine near Ochanomizu. If time and energy allow, we will have a final look at spots on the Ochanomizu hill.

Walk Course Example 4: Edo Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum & Kichijôji

2004-11-12T09:54:00.000+09:00

This is a full one day trip in the Western outskirts of Tokyo.

The Edo Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum is one of those secret places far outside Tokyo center even unknown by long time residents and locals. Located on a 7 hectares land in the middle of a larger park, this open air museum has gathered and preserved since 1993 some 27 houses and homes of various architectural styles from around Japan. It is a real time trip adventure and an opportunity to visit various homes, including farms buildings of many eras. We will board a train on the central Chuo line for a 45 minutes ride - an still be in Tokyo. A short local bus will leave us at the park gate where we will spend a few hours and have lunch as well. We will go back to the train station and stop at Kichijoji after a short 15 minutes ride back in the direction of Tokyo downtown.

I left my heart in Kichijoji, for this is a favorite district of mine that combines a bustling but still human-sized shopping district with a mix of old and perpetual new on one side, with a huge and beautiful park on the other side of the station. We will mix both for intimate walks in small back streets and relax in the park. Dinner in Kichijoji is an interesting option before going back to central Tokyo.

Why you should consider Me as Your Guide in Tokyo

2004-11-08T15:20:00.000+09:00

An English speaking French guide in Tokyo? Come on! This must be a joke!

Frankly speaking, it is not a joke but reality. i have been living in Tokyo for 20 years, walking and cycling a lot, with a taste for the backstage alleys rather than the famous spots (there is much to see in famous spots' backstage too!). I have 15 years of journalism, translation and interpretation, an MBA, ideas in marketing and online business strategy, and a taste for slightly unusual things in the daily life.

What you won't get: a historical description of the places we will go through (well, only some). I am no official tourist guide myself, and I would not use the service of a professional guide either. Not that they are incompetent, far from it, but because I am not looking a for a historical walking conference, but for the historical artifacts mingled in contemporary daily life, glimpses at the unusual buried into the usual, a taste of what the locals eat rather than luxury restaurants (good to from time to time though). I am looking at spots of green in the urban landscape and avant-garde buildings in otherwise boring districts, hidden alleys and anonymous shrines and a Japanese sweets shops doing business for more than 100 years (there are some). You will be offered the opportunity to experience the city from the ground and human level without worrying about where to go from A to B and back. Contentment guaranteed.

What you will get: explanations on things around put into context, no Japanese bashing, but at the same time no blind love for everything Japanese (I am no geisha). You will also get the envy to come back, I am sure of that.

******************************
As I am writing this sales pitch lines, let me tell you what happened this very morning. I had a business appointment with a friend of mine who came at around 10 am at the Kudanshita crossing close to the Yasukuni shrine. He was visibly overworked (on Monday!) and close to exhaustion. We stepped into a Starbuck coffee shop when he told me he already had at least two coffees that morning and would probably throw up on the third. I proposed we leave Starbuck and have our meeting instead in the close-by Kitanomaru garden, in front of a pond, in the cool air, the impressionist foliage and mostly nobody in sight. He visibly enjoyed this escaped in the middle of a hectic business day (me too by the way).