{"id":1759,"date":"2011-10-09T21:24:51","date_gmt":"2011-10-10T03:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/studionebula.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/09\/photos-of-tokyo-mostly-posted"},"modified":"2011-10-09T22:00:24","modified_gmt":"2011-10-10T04:00:24","slug":"photos-of-tokyo-mostly-posted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studionebula.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/09\/photos-of-tokyo-mostly-posted","title":{"rendered":"Photos of Tokyo (Mostly) Posted"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve put up the first batch of photos from our recent trip. These were taken during our first full day, when we made a whirlwind trip to Tokyo and back via shinkansen. We saw our friend Rafael, did some shopping, visited our usual haunts in Asakusa, and had lunch at Ippudo, the ramen restaurant with incredible gyoza. The photo set is here<\/a> and there are brief captions, but a couple of things bear special mention. (All of the following photos link to Flickr, so you can click them to see larger versions.)<\/p>\n

First, rennovation of the Senso-ji temple is complete. When we were in Tokyo in 2010, it looked like this:<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4600\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You could still go into it, but it was covered up to protect it from the elements while it was refurbished. Now it’s uncovered and looks quite striking with its new paint job, including some nice details here and there.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_5187\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We also noticed an interesting addition near one corner: a wheelchair lift, so nicely integrated with the existing architecture that it’s hardly noticeable at a distance. Hats off to whatever transpired to make Sensoji more accessible to folks who have difficulty with its front steps.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_5201\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Second, there was this:<\/p>\n

\"IMG_5171\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

Someone who is familar with local delicacies is going to have to remind me what this stuff is called, and what exactly it is. It’s quite good, but it’s unlikely that I’ll be able to describe it in a manner that does it justice, or is even faintly appetizing. The whitish substance in the lower half is small cubes of a gelatinous substance, sort of the texture of firm Jell-o. On top of that is a layer of azuki<\/em>, the ubiquitous red bean that one finds in all manner of contexts in Japanese food. On top of that are some sweetish things that might be derived from either beans or sweet potato, or both. This concoction is served cold, and accompanied by a small vial of sugar syrup. You pour the syrup over it all, stir it a bit, and eat it. As I said, it’s difficult to describe. It was quite refreshing on a hot day, and I’d happily eat more of it next time the opportunity arises. Here’s another version, which simply had large beans on top:<\/p>\n

\"IMG_5172\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Since I’m on the subject of food, I’ll describe this bento box, which I had for breakfast while on the train to Tokyo:<\/p>\n

\"IMG_5056\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Across the bottom we have several rolls of rice with a little seasoning. No, unfortunately I don’t know what makes two of them purple. At the lower right is ume<\/em>, a pickled plum. These I am not fond of. There are some sweet beans above it, and I’ve forgotten what was under the inverted cup at the top. The top left compartment contains a slice of tomato, a wedge of konjac (see Wikipedia<\/a> if you’re not familiar with this, um, delicacy? aberration?), a pickled pepper, and slices of carrot, potato, radish, etc. The item at the top left is something about which Rafael and I turned out to disagree. He says it’s delicious and possibly his favorite common inclusion in bento; I might choose to avoid it in the future. It’s kind of rubbery and kind of chewy, and (for lack of a better way of putting it) becomes kind of slimy after you manage to chew it into submission. Rafael also claims to like natto<\/em>, so I speculate that a gaijin<\/em> can develop a taste for just about any food in Japan if one stays there long enough. On the whole, however, the meal was quite tasty and satifying, and–compared to American fast food–conspicuously devoid of fat and sugar.<\/p>\n

The tea on the right appears to be a new brand, and has become my favorite bottled tea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve put up the first batch of photos from our recent trip. These were taken during our first full day, when we made a whirlwind trip to Tokyo and back via shinkansen. We saw our friend Rafael, did some shopping, visited our usual haunts in Asakusa, and had lunch at Ippudo, the ramen restaurant with… Continue reading Photos of Tokyo (Mostly) Posted<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-japan-2011-2","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionebula.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionebula.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionebula.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionebula.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionebula.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/studionebula.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1760,"href":"https:\/\/studionebula.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759\/revisions\/1760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionebula.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionebula.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionebula.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}