Detours of a south east asian prairie girl

This is interesting. A new CD in Japan often cost about $30 Canadian. A used one costs anywhere from $12 to $20. Pretty expensive, even for the locals.

However, in the same shops that sell new CDs, there are also rentals! You can get a daily rental for about $2.50. They also sell CD-R’s.

You know what that means!

On another note, M wanted me to write that she is such a nice girl and a fantastic friend and an even better tour guide. Okay, now, let go of my arm!

Tokyo is -6 degrees Celsius, not including wind chill. Oh my. We bought a scarf and another jacket to add to our two fleece jackets from Canada, two tailored jackets and one windbreaker from Vietnam. I have a toque. We were frozen all day and now, midnight in our hostel, we are still frozen to the bone.

Nevertheless, today was a great day. A walking tour of Harajuku with a volunteer guide was awesome. Mako-san was funny and knowledgeable, and she even gave us a great tip to visit the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office 45 storey towers. Free admission and you get to see the whole of Tokyo.

We went to Pierre Herme’s pastry shop, bought a beautiful dessert with rose water mousse, raspberry sauce, and lychee gelee. We then brought it all the way from Shibuya to Shinjuku, went to the towers, and gleefully ate it on top of Tokyo. Delicious. The nice thing about this particular dessert is that it is contained in a glass, so there is no gelatin there for support. The soft layers melt in your mouth right away.

Nightcap was a couple of cocktails at Kinswoman, a very cosy and friendly lesbian bar in the Shinjuki-nichome neighborhood. Turns out there was another women-only event in town where the foreign women go, so many of the local gals, not speaking English, were at our bar instead. Nice! We communicated with a ton of gestures and body movements, drawings, and a handy English-Japanese electronic dictionary. Lots of fun.

Tomorrow, off to Osaka, where I will spend my birthday at an onsen, a traditional hotsprings and ryokan resort. We are also by told my friend there that there will be a crab dinner in Kyoto, shabu-shabu at her place, sushi at her favourite restaurant, and lots of takoyaki and okonomiyaki. The plum blossoms are in season too. Sightseeing? Hmm, I don’t know if we have time.

Last night was rockin’. My friend Sumiko came two hours from Yamanashi to meet us. She’s so sweet! We immediately went to an izakaya (like a pub in England, where colleagues go for a drink and meal after work) and proceeded to down huge mugs of Asahi beer and chow. Hmmm.

Okay – I did say in a recent post that I likely won’t eat fish for breakfast again soon. Wrong! This morning, we trudged off to Tsukiji Fish Market. This is where over 90% of fish from Japan starts after being caught in the ocean. From here, the fish and other ocean creatures are sold off to the rest of Japan and other countries. The yellowtail tuna that you eat for lunch in a good restaurant in Vancouver most likely came from Tsukiji.

Giant 500 pound tuna are auctioned off, professionals come, and cash flow exceedingly fast. Speedy mini delivery “trucks” scoot around and there is a fair amount of muck, but it does not smell at all and is a very pleasant place to be.

The market actually has several parts: the wholesale section, the auction floor, the professional shopping area, the consumer fresh market and the main market, which has a collection of wonderful kitchen and food shop alleys. You want the biggest flakes of shaved bonito? No problem, it is here. Dried mushrooms and scallops and perhaps a special utensil or two? No worries, it is all here. Fresh herbs and unique vegetables from Kyoto? Yeap, here.

Amongst the food alleys are very small sushi shops, usually with a short L-shaped counter, where the morning workers come to eat after their work is done. Reputably, this is where you go for the freshest and most variety of fish (afterall, everything comes from this market).

Well, we got drawn into one of these sushi places by a very charismatic Richard-Simmons-like character. Before you can say Takoyaki, he’s got us ordering an assorted tuna sashimi set and a chicken yakitori set. E was nauseous this morning, probably got a bug from something, so all she could muster was some of the terrific yakitori and rice and miso soup. I, on the other hand, went to town.

The assorted sashimi contained yellowtail and black tuna (black tuna being very expensive and served usually only in fancy hotels and restaurants) from different cuts of fish and super flavorful red toro (tuna belly). It’s very interesting as Tsukiji Richard Simmons pointed out the various cuts; the color, shape, texture, and flavour varied so much between the cuts! I had no idea!

My tastebuds were singing by the first bite of red toro. The rice and miso soup that came with each set were tremendous, the perfect tenderness and stickiness of the rice and fresh vegetables in the white miso. It is true, man does not live by bread alone, and this is the best sashimi I have ever had, hands down.

The price for everything was only 2600 Yen (that’s about $26 CAD). It’s cheap by Tokyo standards, especially considering the quantity, quailty and variety that we got, but it took us a minute to fathom that a breakfast in Tokyo is our entire budget for a day in South East Asia. Whew!

Well, back to the hostel now, with a hot Georgia Cafe Au Lait by my side. I am addicted to hot coffees from the vending machine. The first time you get it, it’s a shock. A very hot can from the vending machine! But it is sooooooo goooooood.

I wasn’t able to describe Angkor, but check out my friend Jannah’s blog. She’s got some nice stories and pictures to tell from there – Trips and Thoughts

Just as the sun rose, our very comfortable Boeing 777 Vietnam Airlines flight landed, on time, at Narita Airport. I have to say, being fed braised mackerel in miso sauce at what was then 3 am Vietnam time, is not something that I neccessarily want to repeat, good as the meal was.

Getting around Narita is super easy. I would start with “Sumimashe” and go on to ask any question and it’s no problem at all. I then reply with “Hai, hai, hai” and bow a lot. It’s fun! The express train from Narita to Tokyo is very easy as well. Take the Keisei Ltd Express to Aoto, then change for Asakusa station, then walk across the bridge following exact directions from our hostel, every landmark hit just right. Wow, this is not like travelling in South East Asia at all.

Asakusa, where we are staying for 3 nights, is the oldest part of Tokyo. Accomodation here is the cheapest you can find and the shrines here are pretty. With the subway and train lines, you can get anywhere so fast. It’s so clean! No sludge! No garbage! No litter! No one yelling at you! Or at each other! No touts! The cars are so quiet! Do they run on electric? They are much quieter than the cars in North America, or maybe we just came from noisy Hanoi? The bathrooms are topnotch! There’s toilet paper! The toilet cleans, airs, and massages you! Don’t ask. But there are some complicated instructions to get the most out of your bathroom experience.

And for a change, cars yields to me! No one tries to run me down or run over my foot! No motor vehicles on the sidewalk! Everyone stops at a red light! People queue up properly! Mother, I can live to see another day!!

Hallejujah! An antidote from the noisy big city we needed, and it came, in the sleepy life and scenery of little Ninh Binh town. Surrounded by limestone karst formations and brimming with friendly people, it surprised us with the quintessential ending to Vietnam. Paddy after paddy of green rice fields were covered with transplanted young shoots and bubbling streams. Children held our hands and we cycled together on little paths. We got lost a lot and didn’t mind one bit. Everyone said hello. We said hello and happy new year back, it was as when we first entered Vietnam through the Mekong Delta in the South. It’s an astounding ending that we couldn’t have foreseen 3 days ago.

Not 24 hours from now, we will arrive at Narita Airport and take the famous bullet trains in Japan. But I am not ready to leave South East Asia. Not at all. No, not ever.

It’s desert ice outside and this diner has thawed my ears,
hot coffee in a clean white mug and a smile as the waitress hears
that I was born in North Carolina, not an hour from her hometown,
and we used to play the same pizza parlour pinball.

- Home, Vienna Teng

I really want an IPod. Travelling light is great; we get to run after buses and flights, squeeze in between crowds, hike for blocks to find a decent guesthouse, all without worry of our luggage sagging us down. We can walk for hours, pack in minutes, and not fear losing anything valuable. But. I. Want. An. IPod. I miss music of my own. And sometimes, I just want to be alone.

Hard to believe, in less than 4 days, we will be in Japan. First Tokyo, then Osaka and Kyoto. Many meals planned by my good friend there, many exciting things to come.

Meanwhile, we are taking a break from the big city that is Hanoi. The nonstop honking and aggressive traffic has finally broken us. It is very hard to move around and discover the hidden places when you are agonizing over your life in every step that you take. Hard to meander, explore, and get lost. It is even crazier when you can’t reasonably haggle with the cyclo or taxi drivers.

So, we are going to take a little detour. We will make our way by public bus to a little town called Ninh Binh. Our hope is to visit the Cuc Phuong National Park and see the Endangered Primate Rescue Centre that is there. No one knows whether the place will be opened (due to the Tet Holidays), so we will just have to see once we arrive in Ninh Binh. No matter what, it will be our little attempt at giving ourselves one last fling with the charm and uncertainty of South East Asian travel before heading home. Really hard to believe that it’s almost at an end.

A roaring new year it was at midnight February 16th. The Vietnamese celebrate their Tet Festival one day earlier than the Chinese (Chinese New Year is February 18th). Hundreds and hundreds of thousands gathered at Hoan Kiem Lake in the Old Quarter of Hanoi to catch the various stage shows and fireworks. We promptly joined in. The countdown was in Vietnamese (very cool!) and the fireworks were amazing, about 20 minutes long.

On the first morning of Tet, no one is out on the streets. The Vietnamese believe that the first person they meet sets their luck for the rest of the year, and they are very careful when they first come out of the house. So the first morning, they spend with their families indoors. There are no scooters, pedestrians, buses, nothing is open and nothing is running. Hanoi is welcomingly quiet.

On the second day of Tet, people visit their relatives. On the third day, they visit their friends. Most Vietnamese have at least 5 days off. We do not know what kind of food we will eat today because most restaurants and all stores are closed.

To all my friends and family who celebrate this Lunar new year of the Pig, I wish all of you Chúc mừng năm mới and Kung Si Fat Chai. Eat well and may you have a healthy and prosperous new year!

Hanoi is alive when it comes to food. First day – breakfast in the same cafe where Catherine Deneuve had her coffee while filming IndoChine. It’s an unassuming little place, but Catherine’s aura is definitely present.

Later – found one of the best bowls of noodles from a lady selling it on the street. Your choice of noodles (we picked glass noodles) with the nicest Vietnamese sausage, tofu puffs, herbs and greens, and something sweet, something spicy, something sour, something salty. Sour from the tamarind paste, a bit of warmth from the red chillies, crunch from the greens and roasted peanuts. All served with a little bit of broth, not soup. I found paradise, and not by the dashboard lights, heh.

Then, an ice-cream place tucked inside an alley garage. Scooters go right in, and we were the only foreigners in a sea of locals savouring the fruity creamy treats. Oh, and according to E, a hot and very hip AD* checked me up and down. Hmm, good to see I still have some appeal with the younger set. Who knew.

* AD = Asian Dyke, usually from the cool set. Very fashion-concious and definitely styled. Circa Jenny Shimizu, 1990’s. Can usually be found with motorbikes and suave sunglasses.