A Little of Piece of USA

No, I didn't take a trip to the States recently. This photo was taken with my keitai. This mini-Statue of Liberty sits adjacent to the man-made beach found in Odaiba. I was there this past weekend for a beach volleyball 4's tournament and we managed to completely miss the beach the first time and had to double back. We u-turned at this statue. My team had awesome players, but we didn't win. Maybe next time.

The Beach Volleyball Location misprint

So now that I’m a little better rested, definitely more calm, and not so dehydrated, I am ready to write about the experience of going to the wrong site for the Mermaid Cup tournament yesterday. Above is the actual information for the tournament. Miwa Asao is pictured on the right.

I am an avid reader of the Metropolis, which is Japan’s largest distribution of an English language magazine and it’s free and distributed at various English-loving restaurants, pubs, bookstores, record stores and other places throughout the whole of Japan. I regularly pick up a copy of the magazine on a Friday afternoon when it first comes out at the nearby California restaurant or at Tower Records 7^th floor in Shibuya. I love opening it up and checking out the week’s upcoming events. I read the articles too, but not before I skim through the events and search for the “ad of the week”. I have to admit that reading their pick of the stand out, most memorable classified ad of the week has now become a ritual for me. Reading this new edition’s “ad of the week” was no exception and the laugh I got almost made me want to forgive them their misprint. Keyword here is ALMOST.

For the last 3 or 4 editions now, I’ve noticed that there was a Beach Volleyball tournament at the end of July/ start of August timeframe. Actually, in the Metropolis, there were 2 events listed and both of them were listed as being in “Daiba”. This is another name for “Odaiba” without the honorific “O” in front of the place name. Having done my online search for this sand beach and volleyball spot in Odaiba, I figured out that I had to get to Shimbashi station on JR Yamanote Line, change to the Yurikamome monorail, and get off at Odaiba Kaihin Koen. No problem so far. I did it and got there. The total fare at this point for me was about 480 yen.

Shimbashi station's entrance to Yurikamome Monorail line - The only conductorless train line the world.

Luckily there was a Starbucks to get me going in the morning enroute to the platform.

I should have known that something as up --- the place was virtually deserted.

Time of arrival on the monorail.

Once I arrived at Odaiba Kaihin Koen, I found the map of the vicinity on the wall by the exit. I couldn’t see a “beach” too readily on the map, but looked up to see what attractions or buildings are at each of the exits. I saw it: DECKS Beach in Tokyo. Aha! This has got to be it. I follow those signs and head over to Decks, which is also a shopping mall complex. I get there and ask about the competition. No one knows what I’m talking about and I’m asking in Japanese. When I go around to the back of the mall complex, I see it --- beach front, white sand, white tents. What was disconcerting at this point was the lack of volleyball courts set up, the lack of players and the lack of fans watching. Before I head down onto the beach, I decide to pull the copy of Metropolis with the ticket office phone number and call the number.

The conversation went something like this (but in Japanese):

• - “Moshi moshi,” This is the standard phone greeting in Japan which means “hello”.
• - “Hi, do you speak English?” That’s me asking.
• - “I’m sorry but my English isn’t that great.”
• - “Okay, I’ll speak in Japanese but please be gentle with me.”
• - “About today’s Mastercard Mermaid Cup Beach Volleyball tournament in Odaiba, where exactly is it? Which Stadium or venue?”
• - “Odaiba? The tournament is not in Odaiba. It’s in Fujisawa Shi in Kanagawa Prefecture. It’s in a completely different Prefecture, not in Tokyo at all.”
• - “What? Are you kidding me? What do you mean it’s not in Tokyo? Not in Odaiba? Are you sure? Mastercard Mermaid Cup?” At this point, I’ve reached a high pitch squeal.
• - “Yes, that’s right. Today’s Mermaid Cup tournament is in Fujisawa in Kanagawa Prefecture. Where are you now? Maybe I can direct you to get here.”
• - “I’m in Odaiba at Decks beach.”
• - “Wow, you’re totally in the wrong place.”
• - “You think?”
• - “Why did you think the match was there?”
• - “Because that’s what the Metropolis printed and the only beach volleyball courts in Odaiba are at Odaiba Kaihin Koen eki.”
• - “Yes, well, you are in the wrong spot.” Tell me about it.
• - “Okay, so how do I get to the tournament from here?”

This was followed by a barrage of instructions, which I had to have him repeat twice and then ask him to speak slowly and then ask him to spell out the station names. He gave up after 2 minutes and pulled over a colleague who then gave me more precise directions. I didn’t like the first guy’s ambiguity at the definiteness of his directions, so this 2^nd guy’s instructions were great. Apparently it would take up to 2 hours to get to the tournament.

I feel like this sign was placed there specifically for me. "Hey you turkey's, this place is closed. No tournament here."

Since I had to get back to Shimbashi station, my visit to Odaiba’s beach was shortlived. I phoned my friend who was just on his way out of his house to meet me and stopped him from leaving his home. I made him look up the directions online to verify. He confirmed that all lines and stations mentioned existed. Since he lives near Kawasaki eki on the Tokkaido line already, he decided to just hop on the train that I was on when I got there. He instructed me to only get on compartment 2 and only that one. I called him when I boarded the Tokkaido line train, and like clockwork, I waved at him through the window and he boarded. From Shimbashi to Kugemome Kaigan eki, it cost about 820 yen.

We found no further “gotchas” to get to the match. In total, I travelled for about 3.5 hours and spent about 1600 yen before arriving at the correct beach. Next time, I am calling the event organizers before I set foot out the door. Lesson learned – even the Metropolis magazine is not infallible. On the plus side, my Japanese is improving.

more Kamakura Trip 2: the beach birds

One of the first things you notice when you arrive at the beach is all the birds. There are so many birds, flying so low, and so steady that they almost seem fake. Like kites or mechanical flying toys that people put up there to delight their kids. Initially, we thought that there were 3 such fake birds. Fake, because they flew steady over the same spot, they were so close to each other, and they were so low to the ground.

I took this one flying a few huts from our own patio deck where we were sipping refreshments in the cool breeze. It was hot and humid that day, especially in the city. But in the town of Kamakura, there was a gentle breeze. On the beach front, there was a nice steady breeze. Healthy gusts of wind, circulating the air and acting as a natural fan. It was so much nicer than being in a stuffy city environment. This bird seemed to like being near all the humans. You see birds everywhere in Tokyo. In particular, you see large black crows all the time and they are loud. I think these were crows as well, but they weren't as annoying loud. In fact, in the Kamakura beaches, they seem to belong there as much as the temporary summer beachfront huts that are erected to sell refreshments and thai food. There were a surprisingly large number of Thai huts along the beach. Almost as many as those selling drinks - alcoholic or otherwise.

I was surprised that the birds didn't seem to be bothersome. They didn't hang around people, following them, waiting for food or anything. They were just in the vicinity. It was as if they were waiting for ... something. In my time spent watching them, I never managed to see what it was that they were waiting for. One came down and landed on a roof nearby and one came down and landed right on the beach, a short distance away from some sunbathers. If I had been by myself, I might have stayed longer just to see where they would go or if any kind of dramatic action or fight scene between the large birds might ensue, but I guess that will have to be for another day.

I'm not sure why it is that I am so fascinated by them. And I've never been much of an ornithologist (and I'm sure that most serious ones would spend their time looking at much more exotic and photogenic varieties than the simple, common, and seemingly ubiquitous black crow or whatever this was) ... but I would love to come back to the beach and spend the day just taking lots of photos. Maybe with a better lens. I just have to master using this one first, so it may take a while.

During the week, there are a few people on the beach. It is almost completely empty except about 20 people and the crows and seagulls. There is a nice, cool ocean breeze coming into the crescent shape beach, which I suspect most Japanese people find a little on the too cool side. I loved it. The breeze makes it feel like it's only about 23 degrees out. It was closer to 30 degrees.

I've included a photo of some ambitious swimmers and a crow taking a break on one of the huts which turns into a drink stand at night.

Kamakura Trip 2: Kaiten Sushi

Yesterday, I went to Kamakura for the 2nd time. It was an all girls trip to the beach, some washokuji in the form of conveyor belt style sushi dining, a visit to a temple and a shrine, and a visit to the home of my Japanese friend.

This post is about the Kaiten Sushi place (also known as Owari Sushi), which is a type of restaurant where you can select the sushi plates you want as they whiz by you on the conveyor belt.

After a brief visit to the beach, which is currently one of the few that have officially opened before this Monday's Umi no Hi holiday when almost all beaches in the Kanto region will open until sometime in August, we walked for about 7 minutes to TOTOYA-MICHI for some authentic Kamakura kaiten sushi. The restaurant is on the main road leading up to the torii gates of the famous Hachimangu shrine. This road is one of the oldest in the towns. As you near the shrine, the central dividing island of the road has been preserved as a dirt road lined with cherry blossom trees.

The restaurant itself was quite spacious and were lucky enough to score one of the belt-side tables. All tables at the restaurant had at least two seats right beside the conveyor belt so that at least two people at your table could easily grab the sushi plates as they whizzed by. This was one of the coolest things I've seen yet at a kaiten sushi place. Previously, I had only encountered the style where all seats are on stools right in front of the moving belt and the sushi chefs are all encircled within. This place had stools too, but it was so much cooler to sit at one of the tables.

During the dining experience, the wait staff come around with the fresh fish on platters for all to view. We saw two large, fresh red snapper, on a platter. The waitress kindly told us that we could order these directly by making a request to the chef's within the belt; which really meant just asking them since one was literally about 4 feet away from where I was sitting). That was another great thing about sitting at the tables. They had menus as well, so you could look at the entire menu and have a fresh, made-to-order variety of sushi. Having a native speaker with us made it so much easier to order with confidence. Off conveyor belt, we ordered: a set of California rolls (honestly, truly fresh and so delicious!), the fresh red snapper (they don't get any fresher than this!), some gently seared salmon sushi (it's salmon sushi, but grilled ever so slightly and comes with a wedge of lemon, some slivers of a vegetable that looks like onion but isn't, and some mushed radish --- soooooooo tasty), and a delicate, flat white fish native to Japan (I forget the name but very tasty indeed).

From the conveyor belt, we picked up some ebi (shrimp sushi), something that I thought was clam sushi (but in fact, we suspect it was squid because it was the chewiest sushi I have ever tried to eat; we still don't know what variety it was), some cucumber maki, some tuna, some vinegared mackerel (very nice), some kiraagi chicken (basically seasoned deep fried chicken balls in batter; I'm sure there's more to it than that, but I didn't taste any, so I can't comment), and some salmon with onion and mayonnaise (again, I didn't have any of this one either). There was also an egg sushi plate, where the egg tasted a lot sweeter than any version I've had in Canada or Japan.

Aside from the conveyor belt, the miso shiro soup was a self-serve option, which we opted to try. I liked it. Very salty with chunks of various seafood. My bowl had a shrimp head in it and some very bony fish. I elected not to eat most of the fish due to the sheer number of bones it contained. Hot tea and iced tea were self-serve and compliments of the house as well. I elected for the drink bar option (150 Yen) as I always try to have some beverage with sushi that might kill any bacteria not finished off by the soya vinegar or wasabi. This time, it was Pepsi.

Another first time for me to see was the alternate, non sushi / fish variety of food that came around on the conveyor belt. Most notably, there was the deep friend chicken balls that I had spoken of earlier, a basket of french fries, some sweets, and dessert fruit such as honeydew melon and watermelon. Since my friend had prepared some sweets for us at her place, we had none at the restaurant. Besides, I wasn't too keen on picking up some watermelon after it was sitting beside a cutting board and knife that was near raw fish. Call me paranoid.

Above are photos of the dessert (flan or cheesecake?) complete with whip cream, slice of melon and a cherry, and the watermelon.

The bill is calculated by plate colour. Various sushi, other non-fish dishes, and desserts all come on a certain plate colour and at the end of the meal the waitress tallies up the meal by counting the coloured plates. The watermelon is on a green plate, so that one is 250 yen. The dessert cake with whip cream is on a black plate, so I think that was 350 yen.

It was one of my favourite memories of kaiten sushi. The fish was all truly so fresh and almost all delicious. Truthfully, I could have done without the dish that I thought was clam, but even that was a memorable experience; I can't recall another sushi experience where I had to chew for more than 4.5 minutes before I could get the sushi small and soft enough to swallow.

The restaurant has large 3/4 windows on 3 sides, so there is plenty of sunlight streaming in. The chefs and wait-staff are super friendly, and the tables have a divider between them, so it feels so private.

The next kaigai friend that comes to visit is getting a trip to Kamakura just to check out this kaiten sushi place. Or, I may not wait for any kaigai friends.