Roppongi Hills: The Mori Art Museum

Hello Ozzies!

I didn't say it in the latest post, but I finally managed to take control over my rebelled mac, and the track pad has been condemned to perpetual ostracism (thank you mommy and daddy, for sending me my wireless mouse!).

So I hope this means I will become a nice Kansas girls and will start pouring info here (I'm starting to repeat myself here, I sound like a politician...).

Last Sunday was cloudy, but I didn't feel like staying home, so I went for some shopping. It's been at least 3 months, and you know I need it! Specially if my brother goes to San Francisco, which means lots of outlets for him, and no clothes for me. Since this is not acceptable, I went to buy,buy,buy,BUY! Well, in fact I didn't buy much, just a jacket and a hat, but it's a start (by the way, have I mentioned that I love my new jacket and my new hat? I love them!). I've also bought a card holder for business reasons (ok, this was a cheap excuse, but I couldn't help it).

So after a tiring shopping afternoon (I will never ever again complain for the amount of people during sales periods in Europe!), I decided to go for this wonderful exposition everybody talks about, located in Roppongi hills. The Mori Art Museum, located in the 54 floor, hosts some nice temporary exhibitions, normally related with art of Oriental manufacture.

Today's exhibition was centered around the work of Ai Wei Wei. Doesn't ring a bell? Neither to me, until I saw one of his most known works: the Bird's Nest building of the Beijing's Olympic Games. A very very nice surprise: I would not call him an artist, for me he is rather a "designer": he conceives most of his works, but the manufacture is performed by someone else.

Ok, it looks stupid, but this is 1ton of tea, in a block of 1 cubic meters. In real, it is impressive, specially with the ilumination and its location. I was very impressed by the mixture of antiquity vs. modernity that is a constant in all of his works.  If we come back to the block of tea, we can see that even though the piece is undoubtedly of modern fabric, the fact that it has been made up with compressed tea (a millenary beverage in China), and its strong link to nature (the tea used in this piece is just that, tea: nothing has been added to it) appeals to the ancient history of his home country.

Enough! Anyone reading this may think I'm getting paid by the museum, or even worse, that I started sniffing yellow brick's powder (Mommy, if you're reading this, I swear you it's not true!).

Most of the photos I took were in black and white: I like the way the light acted with the structures. Plus, it gives them more artistic relief. Anyway, here are some other pieces:

After the exhibition, I headed for the panoramic view of the Museum. It is located in the 54th floor of Roppongi Hills. Thus, the views are breathtaking. It is really THE spot to see Tokyo at night!

But it is possible to go even further up in Roppongi Hills: you can always meet the rooftop (the fancy name for it is the Sky Deck). Here, there's no window panes, no glasses, nothing. You are expected to leave everything in a locker (except for the mobile phone and the camera) before taking the lift to the roof.

And man, when you get there, it just gets better! One has the feeling of owning Tokyo, as in Kingpin's office (the comic reference was somehow "obligé" here). Up above, only sky. And below, the humming of Tokyo...

Enjoy the views Ozzies!

Sadoo: The Japanese Way of tea

Hello Ozzies!

Long time no see! So we're gonna try to update this blog a little bit.

This may surprise a few (or not, it just depend how well you know me...but since everyone thinks I'm a bit of a weirdo, I suppose it won't be a blast): Last Saturday I started my Tea ceremony classes (or Sadoo, as the Japanese call it)!

But what is this funny thing old Willie is popping out of his hat? Well, for those who don't know it, here's a  couple of links with info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_tea_ceremony  (Wikipedia was kind of an obligation...)

http://www.kato3.org/chanoyu/frame.html    (this one is more home-made, but also nice)

As you may see, it is something pretty old, and very attached to the Japanese zen roots. Personally speaking, I find it very interesting, both esthetically and from a philosophical point of view.  Even though its main idea may seem a bit simple (in the simplest version the tea master serves pastries and tea to a number of guests), it conveys many of the most important teachings of the zen buddhism. And since esthetics is a topic very dear to me (philosophically speaking), the Japanese mixing was a must. It may sound weird, but there is a lot of things common to the tea ceremony and Wilde, Nietzsche and Berger. And of course. But I will spare you of all this rhetoric about esthetics (unless someone asks, of course! Dorothy and Toto are very tired of hearing me talking about these things...).

Ok, back to the Tea Ceremony! Our first lesson took place in a real tea room, in a real Japanese house (photos will come as soon as I download them from my camera). This time, we were something like 9 (a lot for a tea ceremony!), and in the following classes we will be around 11. All of us Vulcanus students eager to learn a bit more about Japan and its culture.

We were there for something like 3 hours, and man, it was amazing. Up to some point, it was like coming back to my lessons of Kuk Sool Won, and I really appreciated it: even though the scenario was completely different, the principles at stake were surprinsigly similar. Like coming back home...I'm going to sound very hippie here, but at some points I felt as if the room, the decoration, the ceremony and I were only one. It is also true that the night before I didn't sleep much (partying and zen rime quite well!)...

Enough of the "heartfelt revelations minute"!

See you ozzies (enjoy that hour you just gained, here there's no change of hour...)!

Blowing in the wind

Hello Ozzies!

Just as Bobby said...except that maybe not in the sense he had in mind. The Merlor typhoon has just came to Tokyo. Result: no class for Vulcanus! I really needed my holidays...ok, it's not very "Japanese thinking", but I think they'll understand. And if they not, I don't care! Today, Dorothy and Toto are kite-playing. And me...taking a long, well-deserved nap!

See you Ozzies!

First Gym class or "How the hell can they manage to not to sweat?"

Hello Ozzies!

Since I'm pretty back on the schedule, I've decided to skip the last two weeks and talk about the present. Don't worry, this is only a temporary measure. I will be coming back to my last trips (Hiroshima, Kurashiki, Okayama, Matsue, Izumo, Hagi and Nikko). I know, this is a disaster, and I should go straight to hell for doing this, but I think is the only way to keep my mediocre blog running.

So, what have I done today? Well, I've gone to my first class at the Gym! Of course, in Japanese. Pedro and I have joined a Gym in Machida where there is pretty much everything: swimming pool, sauna, jacuzzi, and a long blablabla. That includes some classes also, like Adidas Style Yoga vs. Martial Arts! Yeah, you read right. I have no idea of what does it mean, even though I have already attended one class!

Before starting, we thought "why don't we do some stretching first by running on the treadmills?" Wonderful idea, that is, if we were to join a European class in a Gym...What we didn't expected was to be the only ones sweating during the whole class. Japanese people don't sweat. At least not while doing sports. It's amazing. Well, I'll go for "rather creepy" instead. But it comes quite handy. Specially if you are to do martial arts barefoot in a very slippery floor. We have been veery close to total disaster. The teacher started opening her legs, performing weird combos with the hands and her legs, and kicking the air. Everything so fast I saw my poor back plummeting more than a couple of times. And we to keep in mind that the lesson was (yes, you got it right) in Japanese. So try following her steps just by looking at her, hearing some funny sounds coming out of her mouth, while you try just too hard not to slip and slam your face against the floor. If there are any kids reading this, please, listen carefully to Aunt Willy: Don't ever do that at home!

Anyway, it was a funny experience. We may be repeating it next week. Meanwhile, I have to figure out how they manage not so sweat. You may think I'm exaggerating, but it's a 100% truth. Nobody was wetting the floor. I think I'm going to call Scully (from X-files), see what she thinks...

Sleep tight ozzies!

In progress

Hello Ozzies!

Sorry for the delay (I think I'm writing that as my epitaph). The reason why is taking me so much time to write a new entrance in the blog is that my computer has declared war to me, and every time I try writing something, the f·$%"&· moves the cursor. I suppose that the trackpad needs some cleaning from the inside, but it kind of gives me the creeps to open my Mac.

Anyway, I'm going to try to have something for tomorrow. I'm bringing the whole Concilium Wizardy if it's necessary.

See you tomorrow Ozzies!

Silver Week: Japanese Kansas is much more interesting, specially with Vulcanus! (Part 1)

Hello Ozzies!

Today's post is going to be the first of a series telling a bit about our trip around the Southern part of Honshu. Each post will talk about a day in this trip. The whole 5-day trip is a tour the main highlights of the area (even though we missed some others, but we didn't have time to cover it all).

Day 1: Departure from Tokyo Station in the Shinkansen, and arrival to Hiroshima. Let's begin!

Here's a picture of the ten of us, just before stepping into adventure!

When we bought our round trip tickets to Hiroshima, we were given the option of choosing reserved seats. A normal European would have thought that this meant that if you did not reserved, seats were for those who arrived the first, and that those who didn't get seats, could not enter the train. Am I right? Well, not in this country! Look what was waiting for us outside the Shinkansen:

And that was only half of the queue!

Non-reserved tickets here means "Wait in a queue for 45 minutes and fight to death with a thousand Japanese for a seat. But don't worry! If you don't get a seat, you can always get inside the train...and do the whole 4-hour trip in the corridor, standing up like an idiot and telling yourself how stupid you are for paying 200€ for something like this" And this is what happened...Some of us were lucky enough to find a seat, but some others...well, at least they got a picture! Smile guys!

We got to Hiroshima station at around midnight. And no trip can begin without a good walk around the bars of the area. With our limited notions of Japanese, we had a hard time finding a pub, but we finally made it! There is more than sake in this country (by the way, sake is also used to design alcohol in general, so nihonshu is a more suitable word to speak about Japanese sake). We tried a liquor called umeshu, which is made from plum. It was quite nice, frankly speaking. If you can order it back home, you won't be disappointed.

Hiroshima at night is quite nice. As you can see, it looks quite bright and shiny = very modern (please, no black humor after reading this!).

But there's also place for the omnipresent kimono women:

This photo was inside the bar where we took the umeshu. And yep, that is Davide (he's really gonna hate me after seeing these pics...).

Small Kit-Kat: this photo has nothing special, but I liked the scene, so I took a photo!

The rooms in this first hostel were tatami rooms. And believe me when I say that I have never seen cleaner rooms. Spotless clean. Amazing. Davide is not going to forgive for this picture, but he'll understand...lol

Here's a photo of the hostel (I'm not receiving any royalties for this, but I think I should)

With the rising sun, the tireless Vulcanus comitte went for their first rally. First stop: Hiroshima's castle, also known as the Carp Castle. As you may have guessed, this is only a reconstruction, so we didn't get inside. But we couldn't help taking a group picture in front of it.

Now, here's an interesting photo. You may ask why, and the reason is not obvious: after the bombing, pretty much everything was destroyed in an area of several kilometers. And that includes fauna and flora...except for this tree! Ok, there's also another one next to it, also alive. But you get the point. Everybody thought that the bombing had cursed the land, making impossible agriculture or anything that involved making plants grow. And all of a sudden, "plop!", this tree starts to grow leaves. I can't imagine how happy they were when they saw it.

Next to the castle there was a shrine, and Jorge asked for this picture, so...

Finally, the main "attraction" of this city. It is sad that a place becomes famous for disasters like these... This is the A dome. It was called like this after the bombing. One of the only buildings that "resisted" the impact of the nuclear bomb. The reason for this is that the bomb was detonated almost above the dome, so the structure was not hit horizontally, and most of it managed to stand still.

This is the exact place where the bomb was dropped. It was detonated some hundred meters above this spot. Right in the middle of the city. The Americans needed to test it in a city spared by the bombings, with a nice population on which they could measure the effects of the nukes. So nice...

After a short walk around the Peace memorial park, we headed for a building called Okonomi-mura, which hosts over 20 different restaurants of okonomiyaki.

I took this picture and this was the best I could get. We have to teach Paul how to open the eyes while saying "Cheese!".

Guess whose hands appear...

The Hiroshima version of this is called "Hiroshimayaki", which has more vegetables. You can see a picture below:

They were really delicious. And very, very cheap! The chef had some nice signs saying "Welcome to my house", in different languages:

He was so nice, we couldn't help taking out a picture with him and his attendants!

As this post has become rather long (and I havent' finished with Hiroshima yet!), I think I will do a second post telling what we did after lunch.

Heading to the Children's Memorial Museum, we encountered some children playing. I don't know what they were saying (and I find the game quite weird: do we have something like that in Europe?), but the contrast between this and the Museum made quite an impact on me. The Children's Peace Memorial was inspired on the story of Sadako Sasaki. She was a 10-year old girl with leukemia, who decided to fold 1000 paper cranes - a Japanese custom through which in theory one's dreams come true. She died before finishing, and so his friends folded the remaining paper cranes for her.

Will we ever learn the lesson? I hope I have...

Sleep tight, Ozzies!

Big breasts, big asses, long hair...and no, it's not this month's Playboy

Hello Ozzies!

Back in track, with a new episode of my personal wacky wheels adventure in Japan. As usual, late. But I'm not hunting Alice's white rabbit, so I'm afraid you'll have to read old crappy entries until I catch up. I hope you'll enjoy it, at least as much as I do!

Today I'm going to talk our lovely visit to Edo-Tokyo museum...but don't worry, pain will not last for long. Ok, let's get serious!

So back to last last Wednesday. Vulcanus organization had prepared for us a tight schedule: morning at the Edo-Tokyo Museum, then tasting the omnipresent diet of anyone who calls himself a real sumo. And last, but not least...rumble, rumble, rumble (this onomatopeyic words are supposed to represent the sound of a drum before the great the great revelation) ...WATCH A SUMO TOURNAMENT, ON LIVE! Really, really good stuff. As Auntie says, "kick them with your best shot, so hard they don't know where they are" (well, maybe that sounded more like a Rocky Balboa's sentence…).

But I'm getting myself lost again. The Tokyo-Edo museum tells the story of Tokyo (the former Edo) since it became the political capital of Japan during the Edo Period (the emperor moved relatively recently here, since originally its residence was set in Kyoto). Beautiful paintings, carvings, manuscripts and objects of that time, plus some amazing reconstructions of some buildings of the Edo period and the Meiji restoration. It is definitely a good spot to introduce oneself to the city of , since much of the original stuff was destroyed during the Allied bombings in WWII. Of course, going there is quite useless if you don't have a guide explaining the basic historic line of Tokyo. For those who don't, no worries! The museum also offers free tour guides (in English) with Japanese guides. I don't know if they have to be booked in advanced. The thing is, they were waiting for us when we arrived.

This is a photo of a reproduction of a Kabuki theater (a typical type of Japanese theater). And here's myself, trying to test a sedan chair (this is the Word Reference translation for palanquin!):

Somebody should put a sign saying "Mind the roof"...

Edo-Tokyo Museum was nice, but Ryogoku is best known for this...

...this...

... (of course, I'm not talking about the guy with the suit!) and this:

You guessed right: Sumo! Ryogaku is where the Sumo Arena of Tokyo is situated. There are 6 Sumo tournaments during the year, and 3 of them take place in here. Do you know how they manage to be sooooo fat? They eat twice a day a super proteinic, hyper caloric meal called Chanko nabe (nabe is a generic term used for all the dishes cooked in a special pot called nabe). They also sleep something like 12 hours a day, just to make sure that all those meals become fat. I cannot tell you how it tastes, but I can say that is really good. The normal Chanko nabe has meat, eggs, fish and vegetables, all in the same dish. Some Vulcanus are "semi vegetarians" (which means they don't eat meat), so our chanko nabe didn't have meat. But it was delicious, that's for sure! Here are some pics:

This is the entrance of the restaurant (don't tell me how to go here, I'm afraid I wasn't paying much attention when they guided us here).

When we arrived, the food was already awaiting for us. Ñami! All the hours of museum left us with a big empty in the stomach. Just take a look at Stefano and Davide (the two Italians who will be going with me to Schlumberger).

And the round dish is the chanko nabe! Here's another pic, with all the Vulcanus sitting in my table:

The Japanese lady is Sato-san: she's our "mother" here in Japan, and keeps an eye on all of us.


Now that our stomach is full, the show begins: Next stop, the Sumo Arena of Tokyo!

Before the fights begin, the flag of each sumo is hanged outside the arena. You can smell tradition from a hundred yards:

And here's me and Laura, with the tickets and the fan gently provided by the guys at the entrance:

The long sheet contains the order of the fights: we got inside just in time to see the two most important categories of sumos: the Oozekis (the 1st category) and the Sekiwakes (2nd best). These are the only two categories in which sumos get paid for fighting. There is another title above the Oozekis, reserved for the "living gods of Sumo". They are called the Yokozunas. Once a sumo has been awarded with this title, he owns it for life. Now there are only two and, you know what? none of them is Japanese! They are Hakuho and Asashoryu. And both were fighting this day! Lucky me!

Ok, this was a stupid picture, Pepe and I were kind of forced to do it...


Bong!


The battle begins!

The origins of sumo fight are very much related with shintoism, so there's a ritual which takes place avery time there's a fight. For example, they raise the hands in the air in order to show the opponent they are not carrying weapons. They also spread salt in the arena to attract good luck for them during the battle.

One by one, all the sumos climb to the arena, and make a tour around it. The exception are the Yokozunas, whose status of "sumo gods" means that they came one by one after, and they perform a ceremony. Here are some pics!

See you in the next post Ozzies!

Toto vs. Moby Dick's family

Hello Ozzies!

The Wizard of Oz is forcing me into some extra hours in order to keep the blog updated. And it's woking, since now I'm really getting near to today. There are so many things going on, that I should write at least 2 hours a day to keep a record of all the things going around.

Today I'll talk about last Tuesday's afternoon. What seemed like another normal day turned out to be a quite interesting journey into Tokyo's life.

It all started in after our weekly lecture. This one was about "Cross cultural difference"...Hmmm, I don't want to be rude, but to be honest, I have better things to do than listening to a woman wearing a kimono and saying superficial stuff about Japan. It felt like listening to a flamenco dancer trying to sell the uniqueness of Spain by telling some funny facts about its people and its history. No in-depth analysis, no serious description, nothing but some nice "bar anecdotes" if you get what I mean.

So after 2 hours of that, we decided to go for a walk to Omotesando. Is one of the posh streets in Tokyo, where all the haute couture from here and overseas have a nice shop. Very beautiful buildings, that I will surely come to visit again. Just to give you a small taste of the place here are some pics:

This one is the Tod's building...

...this one is Burberry's (how could I miss the best brand ever!)...

...and to finish, our international ambassador, Zara (here it is veeeeery expensive. When you see the prices, you understand why the come to Spain).

By the way, here a very funny job they have in here. Japanese version of "one person, one job" means two people with funny swords regulating traffic at the exit of a parking. It's not just here in Omotesando: they're everywhere. (Last-minute modification: Apparently I didn't film that, and the one I uploaded was not good...Sorry!)

Since Jorge had to verify his mobile contrat (after our million ¥ comrade, you never know!). We stopped at the Softbank of Omotesando, and then headed on to Yoyogi's Park (Yoyogi Koen). By the time we arrived, it was already dark, so we couldn't see much. We made a short tour, took some pictures and went to have some beers at Shibuya.

The four musqueteers: David, Jorge, Guillermo and Jose, just next to Meiji shrine!

David's back, inside the park...

Now, how do you make Guillermo stay until late, when he doesn't want to go out a Tuesday night? Easy: you take him to a whale restaurant! Ganso Kujiraya, in Shibuya, is the only restaurant in Tokyo which only serves whale. I'm not going to discuss about the ethics of eating whale, it would take hours. The only thing that I can say, is that the owner has been stocking for many years now all the whale meat he receives from the government after the "scientific researches" have been performed, and then puts it in a freezer.

Young waitress, caught by surprise while I was taking a picture of the restaurant!

I very much enjoy the experience, I have to say. Whale meat is really different from other kinds of meat: something like a horse, but with a sea scent that makes it very pleasant to the mouth. But eating whale wasn't enough. In order to bribe Guillermo, you have to set the stakes high up: we ordered whale meat, but also whale skin, whale's smoked bacon, and whale's tongue. The whale skin was quite tasteless, but the other two were really fine. Specially the whale's tongue. Eating that, you can really appreciate the sea taste of this animal. A bit greasy, but very good whatsoever. Here is a photo of the dish:

And two of myself: one before eating it...

...the other after having eaten it. The funny face was because I didn't expect the whale's tongue to have that flavour!

All in all, it wasn't very expensive. We didn't eat much, but we paid around 1400¥ and were quite satisfied by the results.

That was a video of a typical Tuesday night at Shibuya...Seems nobody wants to go to bed in this city!

And here, a pic of the Disney store at Shibuya:

Now, what's next? Beers! We have found a nice spot in Shibuya (I won't tell the name, even though every single tourist knows it, since it's packed up with Westeners), where beer is cheap, and the folks are nice (and also a bit weird, which makes it funnier). A Japanese friend of Juanma (one of the Spanish Vulcanus) showed it to us last Saturday. By the way, I should also do a post about last Saturday! Well, I think it will have to come later...

The thing is, every time we go into this bar, we meet funny people. Funny, meaning a bit weird. But nice people! This time, it was a Japanese guy in his 50s who spoke English, French and Spanish. And very well! The first Japanese who speaks so many languages. Really impressive. Here's a photo of the mate.

We also got the chance to meet one of the guys working at the bar. A Japanese philosophy student called Kyu Oh who is planning to go for two weeks to Spain in October. This is good, since I think it's going to become our favorite spot from now on...

The exotic touch was put by two guys from Peru, pretty much in the Dark-emo fashion, who were having a beer next to us. I have to ask Jorge for the picture, it would be nice to post them here in the blog. Also very nice people: they had been living in Tokyo for the last 15 years, and they recommended us some good clubs to go. Good, nice electro for my Tokyo nights...

Sleep tight Ozzies!