Shinjuku. Even though it was 12 degrees celsius and raining, people braved the cold and were lining up for what must be an hour to get into buy the treasured doughnuts. Looking at the quantity they buy, people buy three boxes at a time of maybe 10 doughnuts a box, probably dividing it up among friends and family -- "look I lined up and got these rare doughnuts!" I don't know if we'd be willing to wait in line that long for doughnuts in the US ..?
Monday, December 24, 2007
Krispy Kreme in Shinjuku
There's a branch of Krispy Kreme near the Takashimaya Times Square shopping center in south
Shinjuku. Even though it was 12 degrees celsius and raining, people braved the cold and were lining up for what must be an hour to get into buy the treasured doughnuts. Looking at the quantity they buy, people buy three boxes at a time of maybe 10 doughnuts a box, probably dividing it up among friends and family -- "look I lined up and got these rare doughnuts!" I don't know if we'd be willing to wait in line that long for doughnuts in the US ..?
Shinjuku. Even though it was 12 degrees celsius and raining, people braved the cold and were lining up for what must be an hour to get into buy the treasured doughnuts. Looking at the quantity they buy, people buy three boxes at a time of maybe 10 doughnuts a box, probably dividing it up among friends and family -- "look I lined up and got these rare doughnuts!" I don't know if we'd be willing to wait in line that long for doughnuts in the US ..?
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Fabulous bonenkai in a hotel ballroom!
For me, the bonenkai season has always meant one too many parties in the local restaurants, gathering together people from the volleyball team, the town office, the school I worked for, and so on. But even though I dreaded the financial hit this season would bring to the pocketbook (multiply 5000 yen x 4 parties and you have an idea of what a bummer December can be!) I always liked the camaraderie of these smaller parties, often with only about 10-15 people there, many times fewer than that ...
However, I went to my company's bonenkai and was astounded to find that -- wow, they had commandered a whole ballroom and filled it with people and food. Day to day I see maybe no more than 50 employees, all in my department; but there, assembled, were maybe upwards of 400 or 500 employees, maybe even more. Of course none whose names I knew. This being the financial industry, there were a lot of foreigners there, working in departments far different from my own ....
But wonderful food: off to one side of the ballroom was a buffet service and, for a limited time, sushi and tempura on command. (Freshly fried tempura is SO good; the sushi chef was too surly for my liking. "Sorry, guy, take the three pieces you got and be happy. I don't take requests." How to be content with shrimp, ika (squid), and low-grade maguro, the three cheapest ingredients there?)
In the middle of the buffet area was about nine different Chinese dishes, all of which looked good, but which I took none of. Me, I'm a sashimi fan, and I made for the far end of the buffet, where they had white fish sashimi in a salad marine, and fantastic raw scallops (tender and also marinated). I skipped on the desserts but made sure to get my share of veggies, taking salads, and other vegetables decorating the edges of the plates. Some people insisted on the roast beef, but since I was with my semi-vegetarian co-worker, I abstained -- but then again, after so many years in Japan I find that I don't miss steaks and roast beef that much.
At the open bar they had a selection of really good rice sake, satsuma imo sweet potato shochu (vodka), and the highlight of the evening, a 17-year Nikka whiskey. My other boss and I took seconds of that Nikka; so odd it was to see it there that I looked for it over the weekend, without any luck. Perhaps it's only sold in department stores? Who knows?
We were lucky to have door prizes, too, although I didn't win the prize that they offered last year: round trip tickets to the UK. I got a coupon for four 1kg bags of rice; others got gift certificates for online shopping (none of which interested them).
It was just nice to have an evening of free food and entertainment. Nice to have an organization that takes care of you .... sometimes, in a big way.
However, I went to my company's bonenkai and was astounded to find that -- wow, they had commandered a whole ballroom and filled it with people and food. Day to day I see maybe no more than 50 employees, all in my department; but there, assembled, were maybe upwards of 400 or 500 employees, maybe even more. Of course none whose names I knew. This being the financial industry, there were a lot of foreigners there, working in departments far different from my own ....
But wonderful food: off to one side of the ballroom was a buffet service and, for a limited time, sushi and tempura on command. (Freshly fried tempura is SO good; the sushi chef was too surly for my liking. "Sorry, guy, take the three pieces you got and be happy. I don't take requests." How to be content with shrimp, ika (squid), and low-grade maguro, the three cheapest ingredients there?)
In the middle of the buffet area was about nine different Chinese dishes, all of which looked good, but which I took none of. Me, I'm a sashimi fan, and I made for the far end of the buffet, where they had white fish sashimi in a salad marine, and fantastic raw scallops (tender and also marinated). I skipped on the desserts but made sure to get my share of veggies, taking salads, and other vegetables decorating the edges of the plates. Some people insisted on the roast beef, but since I was with my semi-vegetarian co-worker, I abstained -- but then again, after so many years in Japan I find that I don't miss steaks and roast beef that much.
At the open bar they had a selection of really good rice sake, satsuma imo sweet potato shochu (vodka), and the highlight of the evening, a 17-year Nikka whiskey. My other boss and I took seconds of that Nikka; so odd it was to see it there that I looked for it over the weekend, without any luck. Perhaps it's only sold in department stores? Who knows?
We were lucky to have door prizes, too, although I didn't win the prize that they offered last year: round trip tickets to the UK. I got a coupon for four 1kg bags of rice; others got gift certificates for online shopping (none of which interested them).
It was just nice to have an evening of free food and entertainment. Nice to have an organization that takes care of you .... sometimes, in a big way.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Wine Tasting in Shinagawa - Enoteca Wine Shop
On Wednesday, I finished work a little bit early and hurried over from Akasaka over to Shinagawa. In the Wing Takanawa complex, there is a small branch of a wine shop called Enoteca across from the Anna Miller's coffee shop (as you cross from Shinagawa station you pass McDonald's and take the escalator to the second floor). The shop was featuring a wine tasting of six different wines from the Rothschild stable of wines. Although the Rothschilds have fabulous vineyards in Bordeaux, they have also purchased and developed vineyards in Chile and have tied up with California winemaker Robert Mondavi to make the $300/bottle Opus One, supposedly one of the finest wines in the world.
The wine tasting started with a Chilean white and then a powerful Chilean red, very spicy (probably heavy on the Cabernet Sauvignon), and then a more balanced wine from Languedoc (the area somewhat southeast of Bordeaux). In the latter part of the session there were three wines, all fantastic, one from the Pauillac region (Armailhac 1992), one the legendary Mouton Rothschild (every year they have a different person paint the labels; some collectors buy the wine not only for the extraordinary wine but also frame the labels after finishing the bottle), and one mildly sweet Sauternes dessert wine. All three were fabulous, the Pauillac rich and aromatic, the Mouton silky with aromas of chocolate, and the Sauternes not cloying sweet like typical wines of that region.
Apparently this Mouton Rothschild 2005 (just released, as it takes two years for the wine to be matured and then bottled) was the first to be tasted publicly in the world. Quite an honor to have been able to do so.
Most of the people there were amateur wine drinkers, but one French guy showed up and I talked to him about the wines in French. He also pointed out which ones he would buy as well as others available in the shop, but unfortunately many of them were way out of my budget!
I'd love to go to another wine tasting, and will sign up for the next one that's scheduled.
-----
LINKS
Enoteca English site and Japanese site
Baron Phillippe de Rothschild site
The wine tasting started with a Chilean white and then a powerful Chilean red, very spicy (probably heavy on the Cabernet Sauvignon), and then a more balanced wine from Languedoc (the area somewhat southeast of Bordeaux). In the latter part of the session there were three wines, all fantastic, one from the Pauillac region (Armailhac 1992), one the legendary Mouton Rothschild (every year they have a different person paint the labels; some collectors buy the wine not only for the extraordinary wine but also frame the labels after finishing the bottle), and one mildly sweet Sauternes dessert wine. All three were fabulous, the Pauillac rich and aromatic, the Mouton silky with aromas of chocolate, and the Sauternes not cloying sweet like typical wines of that region.
Apparently this Mouton Rothschild 2005 (just released, as it takes two years for the wine to be matured and then bottled) was the first to be tasted publicly in the world. Quite an honor to have been able to do so.
Most of the people there were amateur wine drinkers, but one French guy showed up and I talked to him about the wines in French. He also pointed out which ones he would buy as well as others available in the shop, but unfortunately many of them were way out of my budget!
I'd love to go to another wine tasting, and will sign up for the next one that's scheduled.
-----
LINKS
Enoteca English site and Japanese site
Baron Phillippe de Rothschild site
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
The Joys of Shinjuku on a Weekday Night
Shinjuku, for those of you who have been there on a weekend, normally teems with people. In fact, when I first arrived in Japan and stayed at the Keio hotel on the west side of JR Shinjuku station, I was so overwhelmed by the crowds that I literally decided to shut myself in my room rather than get lost. Actually I did get out a couple of times, but those first few days, when I knew none of the language, still stick in my mind.
I remember a pedestrian overpass just packed with people -- a place I now identify as the southern exit of the JR station, near the Lumine buildings.
Anyhow: I was in Shinjuku last night, Monday, on a couple of errands. I was able to sneak into Takashimaya department store in "Times Square" to register for Moriizou shochu (the one where you can buy at regular price a shochu (satsuma imo vodka) that retails on the secondary market for 35,000 yen (actual price: about 2800 yen). And I also was able to check out the stollen fruitcakes there which I may end up picking up next weekend. Seeing as I won't be able to make it to Germany this year, I may end up buying myself a taste of Deutschland in the form of a marzipan stollen (a moist fruitcake with powdered sugar on top and marzipan (almond paste) in the middle of it ...)
Takashimaya was just closing when I arrived (I found it easier to access the store from the Shinjuku 3-chome metro stop rather than the JR/Marunocuchi Shinjuku line, which is a maze, believe me, trust me!) and so on my way out the employees bowed at their prescribed 45-degree angle ...
I was in Shinjuku really to buy a heater. I gave up shopping for the heater on Sunday and instead decided to head out after work. That way I would have more time and face thinner crowds, I figured, and I was right: on the sales floor there were more help than customers, which was an encouraging sign. I found what I needed, they plugged in a number of heaters to help me choose one to buy for my room (I found one for about 6000 yen) and I asked them to ship it to my place come this weekend. Seamless service, as always: one of the things I love about Japan.
But after finishing this errand, I was able to linger in the store and look around at the new gizmos that had just come out in the last few weeks. Sony had been touting its new audio/video player as an alternative to the iPod and I wanted to look at it up close in order to try out the buttons and check out the functions. While it was well designed, it seemed a little bit small to carry around (about the size of a matchbook) and watching TV on a screen that large was a big minus. A nearby model by Toshiba, the Gigabeat, featured a wide screen, long playback time and recordability, with also the standard audio/video playback that Apple has designed into its iPod. I didn't end up buying it but having the time to peruse these items was a true luxury.
I may try to stop by Shinjuku once a month in the evenings, just to avoid the crushing crowds that populate these kinds of (electronic) stores on the weekends ... of course I'll have to put up with businessmen on their way out from drinking with colleagues, but that's only a temporary thing, on the street.
I remember a pedestrian overpass just packed with people -- a place I now identify as the southern exit of the JR station, near the Lumine buildings.
Anyhow: I was in Shinjuku last night, Monday, on a couple of errands. I was able to sneak into Takashimaya department store in "Times Square" to register for Moriizou shochu (the one where you can buy at regular price a shochu (satsuma imo vodka) that retails on the secondary market for 35,000 yen (actual price: about 2800 yen). And I also was able to check out the stollen fruitcakes there which I may end up picking up next weekend. Seeing as I won't be able to make it to Germany this year, I may end up buying myself a taste of Deutschland in the form of a marzipan stollen (a moist fruitcake with powdered sugar on top and marzipan (almond paste) in the middle of it ...)
Takashimaya was just closing when I arrived (I found it easier to access the store from the Shinjuku 3-chome metro stop rather than the JR/Marunocuchi Shinjuku line, which is a maze, believe me, trust me!) and so on my way out the employees bowed at their prescribed 45-degree angle ...
I was in Shinjuku really to buy a heater. I gave up shopping for the heater on Sunday and instead decided to head out after work. That way I would have more time and face thinner crowds, I figured, and I was right: on the sales floor there were more help than customers, which was an encouraging sign. I found what I needed, they plugged in a number of heaters to help me choose one to buy for my room (I found one for about 6000 yen) and I asked them to ship it to my place come this weekend. Seamless service, as always: one of the things I love about Japan.
But after finishing this errand, I was able to linger in the store and look around at the new gizmos that had just come out in the last few weeks. Sony had been touting its new audio/video player as an alternative to the iPod and I wanted to look at it up close in order to try out the buttons and check out the functions. While it was well designed, it seemed a little bit small to carry around (about the size of a matchbook) and watching TV on a screen that large was a big minus. A nearby model by Toshiba, the Gigabeat, featured a wide screen, long playback time and recordability, with also the standard audio/video playback that Apple has designed into its iPod. I didn't end up buying it but having the time to peruse these items was a true luxury.
I may try to stop by Shinjuku once a month in the evenings, just to avoid the crushing crowds that populate these kinds of (electronic) stores on the weekends ... of course I'll have to put up with businessmen on their way out from drinking with colleagues, but that's only a temporary thing, on the street.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Pepper Lunch
My family loves the Pepper Lunch chain that sells sizzling platters of beef and rice for about 800 yen a meal. Yesterday as I was buying some things in Ameyoko, near JR Okachimachi station, I found one in the B1F of a building right near one of the JR station exits.
Although there was a sign indicating that the company had been forced to raise the price of its selections due to rising raw materials costs, still, for 780 yen I was able to eat a cube steak platter with an extra large serving of rice. With bean sprouts and some sliced carrots and beans, it makes for a full meal, although it would be nice to have a little bit more meat.
Just a note: yesterday one guy was running the operation all by himself. A vending machine took the orders, but the guy was the greeter, water pourer, rice server, and the hot platter chef. It was just so fun to see how efficiently this young server was working and how cheerful he was in spite of the fact that it must've been exhausting to have maintained that pace for the last hour or so.
======
Pepper Lunch -> find more about the chain here. This is actually for the Singapore affiliate of the chain (wow! they serve fish and lamb there!) but it gives a much better version of the Pepper Lunch thing than the garbled English that appears on the Japanese site (which appears to have been machine-translated ...)
Although there was a sign indicating that the company had been forced to raise the price of its selections due to rising raw materials costs, still, for 780 yen I was able to eat a cube steak platter with an extra large serving of rice. With bean sprouts and some sliced carrots and beans, it makes for a full meal, although it would be nice to have a little bit more meat.
Just a note: yesterday one guy was running the operation all by himself. A vending machine took the orders, but the guy was the greeter, water pourer, rice server, and the hot platter chef. It was just so fun to see how efficiently this young server was working and how cheerful he was in spite of the fact that it must've been exhausting to have maintained that pace for the last hour or so.
======
Pepper Lunch -> find more about the chain here. This is actually for the Singapore affiliate of the chain (wow! they serve fish and lamb there!) but it gives a much better version of the Pepper Lunch thing than the garbled English that appears on the Japanese site (which appears to have been machine-translated ...)
Christmas in Tokyo!
Today I walked past some of the shopowners in the area where I live and some of them were hanging up Christmas lights to light up the shopping arcade where they work.
Later, when I went into Shinjuku, I went near Takashimaya and saw their decorations. Simply incredible, not only in design but in scale. I kid you not, they had two 10 foot tree decorations made out of ... teddy bears. Well, not true plush teddy bears but they were like toy bears wrapped in silver and gold foil. Quite a bizarre site. Cute in some respects, but really odd when you think about it. Look closely and you see the bears staring back at you!
Some of the other boutiques have their Christmas decorations out. Christmas is not celebrated as a religious holiday here, but it happens to coincide with the winter bonuses that regular corporate employees receive at the end of the year. All the shops, whether they be clothing or electronics, are competing for that hard-earned money, and so sometimes the sales are fantastic. Today I walked into a shop to get a new cell phone and they gave back basically 5000+5000yen = 10000yen back in rebates, when the phone itself was only about 20,000 yen after factoring out subsidies and calling charges.
It's a consumer's paradise here in Tokyo. Just be careful not to be trampled by the weekend crowds! Yikes!
Later, when I went into Shinjuku, I went near Takashimaya and saw their decorations. Simply incredible, not only in design but in scale. I kid you not, they had two 10 foot tree decorations made out of ... teddy bears. Well, not true plush teddy bears but they were like toy bears wrapped in silver and gold foil. Quite a bizarre site. Cute in some respects, but really odd when you think about it. Look closely and you see the bears staring back at you!
Some of the other boutiques have their Christmas decorations out. Christmas is not celebrated as a religious holiday here, but it happens to coincide with the winter bonuses that regular corporate employees receive at the end of the year. All the shops, whether they be clothing or electronics, are competing for that hard-earned money, and so sometimes the sales are fantastic. Today I walked into a shop to get a new cell phone and they gave back basically 5000+5000yen = 10000yen back in rebates, when the phone itself was only about 20,000 yen after factoring out subsidies and calling charges.
It's a consumer's paradise here in Tokyo. Just be careful not to be trampled by the weekend crowds! Yikes!
Sorry again for the gap
Sorry for the blank in the blog: over the last two weeks I've kept real busy: seeing a couple of friends whom I met in EM Lyon while they were here; meeting up with a fellow translator here in Japan who graduated from the same school I does and has the same sort of appreciation for the Japanese language that I do; travelled a bit; filled in for my supervisor during his vacation; enjoyed some more French food in Japan; and fit in a screening of the Bourne Ultimatum last Friday. So for the last two weeks I've been running nonstop.
That's funny, because the month of December is sometimes referred to by its old name of 'shiwasu,' the month where even the teachers are running around getting their last minute business done.
For me, the corporate results season was the busiest part, but that was at the beginning of November and everything has tapered off since then. It looks to be a pretty calm December (that's good and bad).
When I was living in Kyushu, I used to always dread the year-end when there would be two or three year-end parties, which took their toll on you financially (each party costing 3000-5000 yen), and in terms of eating and drinking. It's incredible that you have to celebrate and drink and sing karaoke and then go home and be at work at 8AM the next day. Well, things weren't actually that strict where I used to work ...
The funny thing is that since I've come to Tokyo there's never been a time when I've gone out drinking with people here until really late and until someone in the group is so far beyond recovery. In my business things stay pretty sober: not surprising since most of the teams in my office stay there from 8 until late evening or past midnight day after day. What are you to do when you have so much money but no time to spend or enjoy it? (Answer: hoard it, buy a house and a nice car. Just kidding).
That's funny, because the month of December is sometimes referred to by its old name of 'shiwasu,' the month where even the teachers are running around getting their last minute business done.
For me, the corporate results season was the busiest part, but that was at the beginning of November and everything has tapered off since then. It looks to be a pretty calm December (that's good and bad).
When I was living in Kyushu, I used to always dread the year-end when there would be two or three year-end parties, which took their toll on you financially (each party costing 3000-5000 yen), and in terms of eating and drinking. It's incredible that you have to celebrate and drink and sing karaoke and then go home and be at work at 8AM the next day. Well, things weren't actually that strict where I used to work ...
The funny thing is that since I've come to Tokyo there's never been a time when I've gone out drinking with people here until really late and until someone in the group is so far beyond recovery. In my business things stay pretty sober: not surprising since most of the teams in my office stay there from 8 until late evening or past midnight day after day. What are you to do when you have so much money but no time to spend or enjoy it? (Answer: hoard it, buy a house and a nice car. Just kidding).
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