Tokyo: Beer Museum

Mike's friend Keeble was in Japan visiting, and that was really all the reason we needed to do some fun stuff. Last weekend we all headed to Tokyo to see what sort of unexpected things we might be able to make happen.

The thing about Tokyo is that it's huge, and without a perfect grasp of the language it can be a bit of a challenge to properly cover as a sightseer. So even after going to Tokyo several times, there are still a very large amount of experiences waiting to be had. Luckily we had a half-plan ahead of time, rather than just show up and wandering around in circles like we usually do. One thing that I had been wanting to check off of my wish list was a visit to the Beer Museum Yebisu in the Ebisu district of Tokyo. Yebisu is a brand produced by one of the big three beer makers in Japan, Sapporo Breweries Limited.

The museum was located in Yebisu Garden Place, a little collection of restaurants and stores. From what I've seen of the rest of Ebisu, this museum complex seems to be the only thing going on and, having covered the museum, I can't imagine returning back there anytime soon.

The museum's lobby was dominated by a large copper beer tank polished to a shine.

We may have gotten a bit overemotional with all the excitement.


"There's good times ahead".

I enjoyed a gallery that was devoted to the brand's marketing posters, some from as far back as the 1950's. It was interesting to see how the products seemed to be aimed at different groups over the years. Some of the older posters seem to show a fairly upper class crowd, while the contemporary pieces had a more accessible feel to them.

1963: This guy seems to be pretty spellbound.

1968


2008


Tung and Clarence critiquing.

The highlight of the museum was the Magic Vision Theater:

Here, a wondrous 3D "Magic Vision" cut will tell of the mysteries of the good taste of beer in an interesting manner. In this allegorical fantasy, Gambrinus, the king of beer, engages in a desperate contest of wits over the good taste of beer with The Evil One of the forest. To the victor goes the heart of the beautiful Beer Fairy.

Rather than try and describe in print how wondrous the magic was, I decided to let my trusty camera do the work for me. Take a look.





Other than the few highlights, my inability to read much made the historical and beer making facts from the rest of the museum little more than a picture book quickly flipped through. At the end of the museum was an unsurprising opportunity to sample all the wonderful products we had learned so much about. Unfortunately said products were not free.

Clarence glances at a case of glasses full of fake plastic beer. He then proceeded to buy a beer token from the vending machine and hand it to the bartender.

Learning is fun!

The gift shop was amusing. Out-of-the-ordinary offerings included beer soap and beer jell-o, both of which I purchased. I also picked up a few nice copies of vintage beer posters, including a trio of geisha loving some classy beer.

I waved a tearful goodbye to the beer museum, and then it was gone. We next headed to Akihabara, the geek capital of the world.

The good people at HotelTravel.com were nice enough to add this blog entry to their website describing the wonders of Japan. They linked to me here, about midway down the page under "Dining&Shopping". I do believe that means I'm famous.

John Milito: Geisha Hunter

We spent January 3rd through the 5th in Kyoto, and then Angelica caught her flight from Tokyo on the 6th. I'll try to cover everything. Here goes.

The first place I'll mention is Nijo Castle. I feel like the name is a bit misleading, as it doesn't resemble a castle as one would usually imagine it. It is more of a fancy palace with moats and a wall surrounding it. In a small stroke of bad luck, the fancy Ninomaru palace was closed for something involving the new year that I didn't quite grasp. As I said, the whole castle complex is mainly comprised of moat, wall, and palace, and I could see the first two from the outside. I was a bit perturbed as I felt like I was misled into buying a ticket that didn't have much worth. But anyway, besides all the gaudy gold artwork, the main attraction for me in the palace are the "nightingale floors". The floorboards inside are specially rigged so that the slightest movement of the floor makes a chirping sound. This was designed to make it impossible for some sneaky ninja to try to creep in and kill the shogun without being discovered.





The tail end of a children's taiko performance in front of Ninomaru. A small consolation prize to make up for the closed palace, I imagine.

I haven't a clue what these things were by the water. They seemed to be bales of straw somehow stacked to look like a coral. For what purpose I couldn't say.

At some point during our travels we happened upon a shrine with a bit of oddness to it. Everything was covered in pigs. Pig statues were plentiful, and at one side of the grounds a long glass case was filled with all kinds of piggy knickknacks. Quite strange.

Here you can wash your hands in the water pouring from this boar's mouth. So fresh, so clean.


It got even better. Here, inside the shrine walls, are two pigs in a cage. There was a time table posted, and the was a pile of various toys: included a soccer ball and goal, leading me to believe that these pigs would be performing in some way. Doesn't seem very religious to me, but whatever.


Here's an interesting shot. Note the piggies framing the action. This is the year of the rat according to all that Chinese astrology stuff. It just so happens that I was born in the year of the rat! Woohoo. In Japanese I would say that I am toshiotoko(literally year-man). Angelica and I spotted a huge rat in Tokyo, and I took this as a very auspicious sign. Booyah.


How many ways can you possibly eat mashed up soy beans? More than you care to discover, friend.

While riding the bus on our way to see yet another shrine, we spotted some festival-looking activity and promptly jumped off to check it out. Sure glad we did.

I discovered a new form of deliciousness. So a candy apple is just an apple on a stick dipped in red candy, right? Well, I found a peeled mandarin orange on a stick dipped into ORANGE candy. I know. It seems so obvious now that its here, but the best inventions always do.


Here we've walked past the party and are entering Solemntown.

Then it happened. A bit of added commotion drew my attention. A small crowd of Japanese with huge cameras were following around a line of four geisha, all hurrying towards somewhere out of our sight. I lived in Kyoto for a combined 6ish months, and I saw geisha maybe two times, so it was extremely lucky that Angelica could see them.




This seems like an excellent time to talk a bit about Geisha. First of all, they aren't prostitutes. I'll go ahead and get that common misconception out of the way. Second, I've been trying to educate myself about this but I'm still a bit confused. I think that the ladies in this picture are Maiko, which is an apprentice Geisha. My understanding is that they dress up more strikingly that a full Geisha, in part because their stunning beauty is meant to compensate for their lack of mastered skills. Those skills include the use of various classical Japanese instruments as well as poetry, tea ceremony, and traditional song.

The Maiko in their natural habitat.


The last big thing we did on our trip was visit Kinkaku-ji. Kinkaku-ji is probably the most popular spot in Kyoto. It is a small temple set out into a lake. Oh yeah, and its just about completely covered in gold.

Near Kinkaku-ji, donation turned game of skill. I really wanted to get a yen to land in that cup.


Another nice looking spot near the Kinkaku.

We spent a spot of time near Kyoto Station on our last night.

Interior of Kyoto Station

One of the weirdest sculptures I've met, located in Kyoto station.

We spent some time playing around in a nearby gift shop dedicated to Astro Boy merchandise.

Do you have your ticket to the robotic gun show?


Angelica and a host of bewildering characters.


Here are some other unrelated yet noteworthy little things.

Oh, but I have a big friend who could stomp a robotic child any day.

Angelica at the Imperial Gardens. Everything imperial was closed up behind a high wall. Needless to say, it was a short trip.

We tried some butaman from a street vendor. It's steamed dough with a meat mixture inside, pork in this instance.

After riding so many super packed trains, Angelica was excited when we got on this completely empty one.

Angelica did her best to load her luggage with the heaviest things she could find, and it was my job to drag it through all the trains stations. The bag was so heavy that the handle broke off.

Angelica's time in Japan ended on a pretty good note. Back in Tokyo with a few hours to kill before her flight, we went back to kaminarimon in Asakusa. If you recall,(here's the post if you don't) this was one of the first places we visited while in Tokyo the inital time. Then, though, it was dark and deserted. Now it was a bustling marketplace. Its hard to imagine that the two places are the same.

As people crowded and pushed to get a picture under the famous big lantern, I was happy that we got ours when no one was around.

Possibly more little souvenirs than I have ever seen in one place.

2/3/08 Kyoto: Day 2

We arrived at our second hotel a few hours before check-in, and so were unable to really get settled before we started out again. We checked our maps and the closest place that looked interesting was Toji temple.

Toji occupies a fairly large area slightly south-east of Kyoto Station, and it wasn't too much of a problem to walk there. I was initially impressed at the size of the parking lot and the number of tour buses coming and going. This led to me to believe that we had found an important place. The five-storied pagoda in Toji is the tallest wooden structure in Japan, according to Wikitravel.

The outskirts of the temple had a better than average selection of the charms and the other templey things that are always present at religious points of interest.

I recall at some point we were at another nearby temple, but they were so close to each other that I don't think that there was much distinction between the two. Anyway, here are a couple highlight temple shots in no particular order.

Here is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. Angelica against a wall of what I assume to be prayers written on individual pieces of wood.


Here is another good of us with a priest that Angelica corralled into getting a picture with us. The look on the priest's face is memorable.


There was small gathering of people praying pretty intently to a statue of what I think is a monk.


A closer shot of the monk.

When we reached the center of the grounds where the most important buildings were situated, I was pleasantly surprised to see that a small flea market was in progress. I love these little sales, and I think that Angelica enjoys them as well, although we are generally hunting for different kinds of things.

Because the prices there are much more subjective, haggling is an important skill in Colombia, and I enjoy watching Angelica in action. Our bargaining styles are pretty much opposite, as I am a bit more calculating about how much things are worth and should cost, and Angelica is cute enough that the numbers don't really seem to matter. She just jokes around with people and smiles until the price goes down. Fun.

Angelica scored some piggy banks shaped like sumo wrestlers, and some nice wooden (heavy) statues as well. There were lots of cool antiques, but they were mostly too expensive for my tastes, so we stuck to more garage sale-type merchandise.

A bit of commerce taking place in front of a large temple building.

The admission to see the pagoda up-close was a bit expensive and seemed unnecessary.

Next I thought it might be nice for Angelica to see the Gion district of Kyoto, a well known neighborhood famous for geisha and its nice atmosphere. I would say it embodies the image that most people have when they think of Kyoto: plenty of stone-paved streets and traditional buildings. According to Wikipedia, Gion is the setting for much of the novel Memoirs of a Geisha.

Yasaka Shrine in the area had quite a bit of New Years festival going on (despite the fact that it is already two days past), so we stopped in to check things out.

A central stage features plenty of lanterns, each notes a sponsor of the festival.

We had dinner at a pretty fancy place in the area, Angelica had a good size sukiyaki and I had a dinner set with all sorts of interesting things going on. The waitress gave us plenty of help on how to deal with the pot and all the many utensils and condiments. There was never enough room on the table for all the stuff they kept bringing out.

We did a bit more walking in a more modern part of the city before bedtime.

A policeman gives warnings to illegally parked bicycles while standing next to an impressive statue, a woman with a sword in one hand and a fan in the other.

Here's another look at Kyoto Tower, this time from the front.

We eventually made it back to our hotel, which was nice, but not overly so. It did have a couple of technological wonders, though.

Behold! No matter how steamy the bathroom got, there was one spot of the mirror that was always clear. What hath God wrought?

Here is a brief and goofy video I made concerning the toilet. Enjoy.

Notice that the flusher isn't even connected to the toilet. Its on the back wall to the right. Insanity!