Japan: Mike eats fish

On my second morning in Tokyo I went to the Tsukiji Fish Market. There's a wholesale market that restaurants buy from but tourists generally aren't allowed in until 10 am and by then the vendors were packing up.

There's also a nice street market, shown here. It mostly sells seafood.







I went to Yamazaki in the 'inner market' of Tsukiji to have a sushi breakfast. I chose it because there was a line but not a ridiculous line. It still took about thirty minutes to get in as there are only about twelve seats inside.

This picture is of my meal. Two pieces of tuna and a piece of uni came out after I was finished the stuff shown.

It was tasty but I regret picking a set meal. One American couple picked from the daily specials list and were getting some awesome things, including seared fatty tuna (which I would have gone for) and live prawn (no thank you).

In Japan, people bury the dead in special parks and mark the burial spots with stone blocks. They call these 'cemeteries'. This picture is from Yanaka Cemetery. It was part of a nice walk that my guidebook suggested.

The walk continued past a train station where I saw a bevy of unlocked bicycles. That's right, a bevy. I saw this a lot in Japan. Invoking International Rule 513.4 (Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers), I spent the remainder of my vacation collecting and reselling bicycles.

Actually I just continued on my walk.

I was feeling a bit peckish again by this point, but not enough to eat at this Live Dog restaurant.

Not far from that restaurant, on the pleasant Yanaka Ginza shopping street, was an escapee. I didn't rat on him. I crouched down to pet him and when I came back up, an old Japanese man gave me the largest, warmest smile.

"You are a good person," his smiling eyes seemed to say. I responded with my own smiling eyes: "I really am good, aren't I? What a fine person I am!"

Buoyed by these compliments, I set off for Shinjuku, which is similar to the area I was staying and its tall buildings, crowds, lights, etc.

I wanted to try some more ramen so I went to Ichiran, a popular chain restaurant in which you eat in little solo booths. There is a partition on the left side as well, not shown in the photo.

The partition in the front lifts up so that they can deliver the food.

With food in my belly, I was ready to hit up Harajuku, a fashion district that I knew about from old Gwen Stefani songs.

My favourite part of this area was Takeshita-dōri, a busy and narrow shopping street that Lonely Planet says is "a pilgrimage site for teens from all over Japan." You can see a picture of it on the right.

Here are more photos from this day: https://photos.app.goo.gl/RfZkEJwXv7Gandre2

Japan: Mike explores Tokyo

Being in a foreign country when you can't speak the language is tricky. You can see a storefront and not have a clue what it even is. For example, what is this place trying to sell?

I only started taking pictures later in the day, so unfortunately I can't show you my breakfast at the cheap chain restaurant Sukiya. Please imagine this: white rice, miso soup, pickled vegetables, and natto (fermented soybeans). Here is what natto looks like:

from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Natto_on_rice.jpg

I didn't mind the taste but the stringiness was off-putting because the strands are really hard to break. I felt like they ended up on my chin on every bite, so I kept wiping my face with a napkin.

I was told you can get anything in a vending machine in Japan. I was disappointed to discover that this wasn't true. To me it seems like 97% of the machines are for drinks, 2% are for cigarettes, and 1% are for ice cream treats.

But: they are everywhere. The picture to the left is just some side street and there are four machines there. That's in Akihabara, the neighbourhood for people who like video games, comics and electronics.

As the day went on, I found myself getting used to Japanese writing. I can actually make out a couple of the characters in this sign!

For lunch I went to the mall at Tokyo Station because there are several high quality ramen places there. I didn't feel like waiting in a long line for the most popular one so I just picked one at random.

While eating, I had a nice chat with a young Japanese woman from Osaka. She asked me if I had ever used chopsticks before. This is after she saw me using them. So either I am not as good at chopsticks as I think I am, or she was hoping she had discovered a chopsticks prodigy. She likely wanted to train me up to be a Grandmaster and make a comfortable living as my agent or manager. She was disappointed to learn that I had been using chopsticks for years.

Later in the afternoon I walked through Ueno Park. It's a large park with beautiful trees and this wooden structure which looks nice when it's lit up. A lot of Japan looked nicer in the dark. They've got the night time thing down pat.

The park also has a zoo and the National Museum but I didn't go to either.

If there's one thing a beautiful park needs, it's a large Starbucks. There's a line out the door!

Tokyo must have a fancy coffee scene developing as there are several Californian shops there. The Verve Coffee location list is: Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Tokyo. It's odd seeing it there.

A lot of casual restaurants, especially ramen places, have this system where you pay for your meal at a machine and then hand the ticket over to someone. It's convenient.

Eating in Japan was easy as a solo traveller. A ton of restaurants have bar seating so that you don't have to feel bad about taking up a table in a small place.

This is a temple entrance at night, lit only by the vending machine in the courtyard.

I had a lot of fun on my first day in Tokyo. There are more photos here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/CUlXxhXo22WepcLj1

Japan: Mike watches a movie

Hello. I went to Japan! Or, as they like to call it, 日本国.

On the airplane to 日本国, I was excited about experiencing the off-the-wall aspects of the culture. So when I saw that the (hit?) Japanese movie Let Me Eat Your Pancreas was available, I jumped on the opportunity to watch it. It turned out to be a touching drama about a schoolgirl with a terminal illness who teaches her friends to embrace life. I enjoyed it.












When I arrived at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, I hopped on the subway (which I was also excited about) and got off at the station closest to my Airbnb in Shibuya. This was my first glimpse of Tokyo and it was awesome:

This is Shibuya Crossing, supposedly the busiest intersection in Japan and maybe the world.

I was pretty tired so I found my Airbnb, had a surprisingly good microwave dinner from 7-Eleven, and went to bed.  More photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/B5HiFPBceCTHvCTt2

Comic 3 Sneak Peek

If you're like me, you've been checking the Baby Wants A Bottle web comic daily for a while now and are disappointed that the third comic is taking so long to arrive.  You are feeling discouraged. You know that a sneak peek of the new comic would do wonders for your morale.  Well boy howdy! I have one for you!  Here it is:

Where is this gentleman going and why is he so happy about it?

You are now feeling better but also a little peckish.  You head to the kitchen for a healthy snack.

Comic #2 is up!

View a comic about cancer and consumerism!  Please!  I made it just for you.

Vegan Week Report

It would be literally remiss of me not to share how my vegan week went.  It went well!  Sure there was a horrible gas problem and yes I ate out too often, but overall a good time was had by me.  I felt light and clean in a way that's hard to explain except to say that it's the exact opposite of how one feels after eating too much pepperoni pizza.  Also I learned to enjoy coffee without milk or cream, which is a good skill to have.

Now, you may have noticed that there's a drawing of a cat to the left.  If you haven't, please look there now.  That cat may be a part of panel number two of the comic I'm working on this year!  I thought you deserved a treat and evidence that the comic really is progressing.  Check back daily!

Vegan Week #2

Hello and welcome to Vegan Week #2!  Starting today at lunch, I commenced a week of veganism.  That's right: if all goes according to plan, I will be a little bit better than you until next Sunday.  If I get bored of it in the next day or two, I'll simply delete this post and pretend this whole thing never happened.

My brother and I did one of these back in July 2012 and it was a lot of fun.  I don't think we did it right, though, and I'm not sure I can do it right this time either.  A Google image search of 'vegan recipes' brings up some delectable and nutritious dishes that I would kill* to eat, vegan week or not. To get an idea of what my brother and I were eating you'd search on 'peanut butter and toast' or 'Subway Veggie Delite with no cheese'.

I kicked things off in style with the acai bowl on the left from Basik Cafe.  For dinner I had quinoa, brown rice, and a variety of vegetables from the Whole Foods salad bar.  This is all great, but hopefully there will be more home preparation coming soon.

* Not animals, though.  It's vegan week!