Zoom, Zoom, Suzuka!

SMS and I decided that we wanted to see a Formula 1 race last New Year's Eve when we thought it would be really cool to see the race on the streets of Singapore.  While that would have been awesome, a September trip did not work out due to my interview travel so instead, we decided to check out the F1 race at Suzuka.  The track is known for being technically demanding.  We thought it would be fun to check out a big international sporting event in Japan so we definitely didn't feel like we were settling when we decided on this race.

One nice thing in Japan is that, among our friends, everyone always seems to be traveling and doing exciting things.  At some point, we mentioned the trip to our friends Carl and Liz and they decided they would like to come too!  Hooray!  I booked a pretty inexpensive ryokan, which was hard since many of the hotels were booked in Suzuka and Nagoya.  The ryokan was in Nagoya which added to the drive but apart from a $300/night/couple hotel, that was the only option.  Plus, even on the F1 discussion websites, it talks about how most fans stay in Nagoya for the night.

On Saturday morning, I went to base to pick up the rental car.  The rental price paid for itself in the form of complimentary toll tickets that come with the rental.   Tolls in Japan are quite high; for example, this trip was about 250 miles and the tolls were just over $100 each way.  I picked up Carl, Liz and gluten biscuits (pastries from the bakery downstairs from their place), then swung by our place to pick up SMS who had gotten a little extra sleep since he is not a morning person.

The drive took about 5.5 hours.  It felt longer since the speed limits on the highways are so slow, 80-100 km/hr.  There is a lot of speeding since the roads are well-designed and people are in fast cars, but I'm always a little nervous since our license plates make it really obvious that we're not exactly from around here.  We went straight to the track (no traffic!), parked and went inside.  Unfortunately, we missed the qualifying race but we saw another race with speedy Porsches so that was cool.  We walked around the Circuit and took in the scene at the main entrance.  The afternoon and evening were gorgeous- it was hard to believe a typhoon was on its way.

After we sat in the grand stands to see the rich people's view, we went to the local mall and had dinner at a delicious sushi go-round.  We also bought a terrible DJ pop remix CD for the car since there was no adapter jack in the car stereo.  There was a Tower Records in the mall and we were thrown back to the mid-90s with the CD listening stations, large earmuffs and CDs everywhere!

The next day, we got up and went out to breakfast at a really cute place, Bluebirds.  SMS spotted it and decided that was the place.  Good call!  It felt very Hiyama-ish inside.  It had a beach-y feel and was right next to a bike repair and rental shop.  There were delicious egg plates with eggs, sausage, biscuits and hash browns; yummy looking omelets; breakfast tacos; and breakfast sandwiches on biscuits.  I had the egg, bacon, tomato biscuit with white gravy and it was delicious!

Then it was off to the races in our best hats (just kidding, it wasn't a Derby!).  On Sunday, the typhoon was definitely moving in.  We got rained on several times, occasionally quite heavily but we had a great time.  It is breath-taking how fast the cars go.  From our seats, we could see them zip out from the end of the straightway before slowing for the first curve.  Then, the cars would speed up before slowing again in the three curves in quick succession.  The rest of the course we could see on the Jumbotron, but usually when something exciting was happening like an amazing passing maneuver or a hydroplane skid-out.

The race went for 46/53 laps.  40 were needed for full points to be awarded.  The safety car was out for about 10 of those laps, but otherwise, the race was on.  Hamilton, currently number one and a known performer in the rain, won.  The race was called after a double crash into a sidewall- first, one guy crashed and then during the yellow flag, another guy skidded out at the same curve but unfortunately, hit one of the large pieces of recovery equipment and he left the track straight to the hospital.

After the race, we piled back into the car and headed out.  There was only a small amount of traffic but we made it home in about 6 hours.  It was a lot of driving for what felt like a relatively short race but it was really fun to go to a F1 race and learn about a new sport.  Travelling with friends was also a lot of fun, especially since we got along so well and travelled really well together.

Miraikan and the Poop Exhibit!

Over the Summer, I had heard about a museum exhibit with a toilet-shaped slide that kids could slide down wearing little feces hats on their heads.  This sounded awesome!  I feel like it would be one of those "Only in Japan" type of places and I wanted to be a part of it.  I didn't know if it was a Toilet Museum, an exhibit, or what.  So, I looked into it and realized that it was a temporary exhibit at Miraikan, a science museum in Odaiba.  Further, it was closing this past Sunday and we were going to be out of town for the weekend.  Oh no!  Must move fast!  I decided to play hooky from work Friday afternoon since my work was done and I only had a morning clinic scheduled. While I wasn't being too sneaky about it (I told my corpsmen and the other ENT I was leaving), I definitely got busted on the higher level since there were a few update meetings that afternoon about the forecasted typhoon.  Ooops, don't care!

Anyway, SMS and I left Yokosuka around 1230 and, apart from a brief stop in Kamiooka for film shopping and onigiri, we made it to Odaiba around 2:45.  I was excited to go to Odaiba since I've wanted to go for awhile.  It's a manmade island with several large malls/entertainment buildings.  It sounded really cool and a fun place to visit but I never had a specific reason to go…until now!

Our heroes!

SMS and I headed over to Miraikan, National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation.  The exhibit was called "Toilet!?- Human Waste and the Earth's Future."  The exhibit started with a anime projection onto a toilet where our hero, Toile-no-Suke, is upset that humans do not appreciate him and his fellow toilets enough.  So, he goes on strike.  It is up to us, human toilet users, to gain a greater understanding of human waste and toilet function in the world!

So, away we went.  First, we looked at displays of different animals and their feces.  I think it would really hurt to be a Great Panda since their poop is essentially highly-textured hay bullets.  Ouch!  Then, we went to the human poop area where the Bristol Poop Scale was displayed via plastic models and there was a superhero, Superrunchi.  Next, there was an area where a person could mold their own feces and leave it in a little model squatty-potty for the next person to see.  Awesome sharing, guys!

Finally, it was the moment I had been waiting for- the toilet slide with feces hats and everyone, not just kids, could go on it!  YAY!!!!  SMS and I put on our little plush hats that looked like yellow-brown soft serve ice cream, got our picture taken and then headed up the ladder to the slide. We slid down the slide into the toilet- straight down, no swirling slide.  Then, we were in a tunnel with projections on the wall of enlarged microorganisms that were helping to break us down to be safe for discharge into the sea.  Thanks guys!

The rest of the exhibit was a blur since I was still so excited about the toilet slide.  I confess, I was trying to figure out how to double back and go again!  The exhibit ended with Toile-no-Suke feeling appreciated and he, along with several other toilets, sang a song about how great toilets are.  It was a feel-good ending for all!

We looked around the rest of the museum.  I would recommend it for families visiting Tokyo.  The exhibits are in Japanese and English.  There are a lot of interactive exhibits and even a children's play area. We went into a deep sea submersible, looked at rocket engines and looked at the giant LED globe suspended from the ceiling.

Afterwards, we headed over towards Diver City Mall.  We had dinner at the Odaiba Oktoberfest followed by some window shopping in the mall.  We also saw a Statue of Liberty in Japan!  We headed home, a little on the tired side but happy we made it to such a funny, unique museum exhibition.

Wonderful Wednesday!

After derby practice, SMS and I were nearly faint from hunger.  When this happens, SMS gets cranky but in a really cute way since he's not normally like that.  In addition, poor decisions are made like going to restaurants that are closed (although in fairness, that is difficult to know beforehand) or ultimately, going to an expensive restaurant for an inadvertently decadent weekday dinner while in post-workout clothes.

BUT.  I have no regrets because we had one of the best meals I've had in awhile.  We went to a really cute restaurant in Hiyama called Pescaria.  It's a cute place with light wooden beams and an open kitchen, which gives it a simultaneously airy and cozy feel.  We sat at one of the back tables and looked at the English and Japanese menus.  The English menu was pretty good, especially with the pasta dishes.  The fish dishes change by the day but the preparations are listed on the English menu- la mere, grilled and baked. 

What really made the menu experience is that one of the cooks knew a fair bit of food English, so he was able to go into more detail about the specials.  We ended up getting a perfectly dressed green salad with thin slices of Parmesan and grilled squid & artichoke appetizer.  The greens were pretty hearty but not tough.  The grilled squid & artichoke was delicious.  The oil that was left on the plate was perfect with the complimentary focaccia!

Next, we split a chestnut & squash risotto.  It was creamy and perfectly cooked.  I think I prefer the more classic risotto (which was an option but I went with the special), but it was nice to eat such an Autumn-y dish.  

Our second course was a whole red snapper cooked with tomatoes, clams, capers, kalamata olives and lemon.  It was, like everything else, cooked to perfection, fresh and so tasty!

Finally, we had dessert.  I ordered the special, brown sugar pudding which was good but not what I anticipated.  SMS ordered the best dessert I've had in awhile- a mascarpone ice cream with pistachio, honey and marzipan.  It was unbelievable.  I want it again and soon!  I had a yummy espresso macchiato and SMS had a nocino digestif, which he has rarely seen on any menus.  The last time he saw it, he was in Switzerland!

So, the bill was more than we usually spend on a normal Wednesday but it was so worth it!  I love the serendipitous find and the wonderful experience with my love!

New Things

Yeah, so this is happening…

SMS and I have decided to join the roller derby team!  We're in trial status now as we learn to skate and get familiar with the organization but we're already having a really fun time.  We went to practice on Friday and we're slowly getting better.  The team has loaner gear that we borrow although SMS has already ordered beginner kits for us from online.  I'm looking forward to that since borrowing pads used by multiple sweaty people is almost as gross as using community wetsuits that everyone's peed in.  Oh come on, don't pretend you don't pee in your wetsuit!

On Saturday, we were pretty mellow and hung around Yokosuka.  In the evening, we went for a run along the seawall before meeting two of our friends at the yakinikuya that is a short walk from our house.  Yakiniku is a Japanese cuisine where slightly-larger-than-bite-sized pieces of meat and veggies are grilled at the table.  We ordered two meat and vegetable sets to cook on the little center table charcoal grill.  It was so tasty!  We also brainstormed for our team name (mildly successful) and costumes (more successful) for our Amazing Race team.  Yes, Yokosuka is having an Amazing Race and we're super excited.  We headed over to Don Quixote and bought team costumes.  While there were several more "interesting" costume available (metallic unitards, anyone?), we went with monster costumes that have a hat/arm paws/leg warmers.   Our name?  Monster Mash.  Eh, I know.  It works but isn't super awesome.  But if we waited for super-awesome then we wouldn't have gotten a spot in the Amazing Race!

It was a gorgeous day!

I met up with a friend early on Sunday morning and headed out for a 10 mile long run.  Yeah!  I'm so glad I ran with her because it probably wouldn't have happened otherwise.  We met up on the early side because SMS and I were heading up to Yokohama to see the Baystars game!  It was the second to last of the season and we met up with Jenn and Dave.

So many Giants fans :o(

At first, I thought we had standing-only tickets because we were in the outfield but we ended up with our (very) close and narrow seats.  So it was nice to be able to sit.  Unfortunately, our seats were in the Giants' fan section.  Boo!  I was scared to bring out my Yokohama Baystar noisemaker bats so my cheering was more muted than I was anticipating.  It was still a lot of fun since the singing and cheering when the favored team is at bat is unlike anything I've seen at an American sporting event.

The crowd goes crazy after  a home run!

7th Inning Stretch

Out on a School Night

Last night, SMS and I went out on a mid-week field trip.  Even several years after school has wrapped up, I still love the slightly verboten feel of doing something fun on a "school night."  Of course, when we were heading home around 10 and I saw a group of seemingly high school age kids, I was pearl-clutchingly outraged that they were out so late.  Don't they have homework?!  Don't they need to sleep!?!  Of course, they were probably college-aged kids and really, their night was just beginning.  As I get farther away from high school and college, it's borderline shocking to me how young they look.  Did I look that young?!? [Yes, even though I felt oh-so-mature and worldly.]

Flamingos don't care about a little rain!

So, I wanted to go to the Yokohama BayStars game last night.  Rain was set at 75% chance for game time, but that means it's 25% not going to rain, right?  While my grasp of percentages may be irrefutable, rain will have its way and it was raining pretty hard when we arrived.  We didn't have our best rain gear and we didn't want to pay to sit through intermittent sprinkles so we decided to take a rain check (Ha, ha!  I slay myself sometimes!).

The rain did pass over, which we thought it would since the clouds were moving in a Yokosuka to Yokohama direction and things had cleared when we left home.  We walked around Yokohama for a bit before deciding to head to Landmark Tower for dinner.  We had seen a cute yakiniku place over the Winter that I've really wanted to go back to so off we went!

Landmark Tower dominates the skyline of Yokohama.  It's the tallest building and looks vaguely ominous, like a bad-guy Transformer or the building in Ghost Busters.  Please note that architecturally, it looks nothing like the building in Ghost Busters but it feels like something bad is going on.  Someday, I'd like to take the elevator to the top but last night was about the food.  We walked over to the Dockside Garden elevators, which are accessible on level 1F of the main tower.  We took the elevator down to B2F and went to Yakitori Aburi Sumiyaki Odori.

Chicken meatballs!

There are several cute tables with orange stovepipe vents above them but since there were none available, we sat at the counter.  We ordered lotus chips, a delicious lettuce wrap with perfectly seasoned chicken, a grilled rice ball (yakionigiri), grilled chicken strips, grilled eggplant and an order of chicken meatballs (tsukume).  The chicken meatballs were awesome because those were cooked on our own little hibachi grill.  They were delicious and I'm glad we ordered one thing we got to cook ourselves!

Our cute "toppings" plate.  It was cuter before we started decimating it!

The lotus chips were delicious although slightly over salted for SMS' taste.  The grilled chicken strips were something I was initially leery of since the photograph featured a lot of chicken skin on the strips, but it did look pretty delicious so SMS ordered it.  He was right!  The grilled eggplant was sliced length-wise and had a surprise meat patty placed in the middle.  I didn't mind (because it was delicious!) but it would be hard to be vegetarian in Japan.  Several dishes seem to follow the "Use meat as a seasoning" guideline that I've heard in America when people are advocating for reduced meat consumption.  I've seen tofu dishes with ground beef in addition to last night so be careful, all you vegetarians out there!

View from the 'Gicho!

After dinner, we headed towards Sakuragicho which wasn't the most direct route home, but it feels very vibrant and it was something different to see so we took the moving walkways over to the station.  Ok, ok, we took that route because of the moving walkways.  So lazy!  So lazy, in fact, that we decided to fortify ourselves with the driest chocolate cake at a small cafe before heading on the train.  It's all about conserving strength!

My Dogs Are Barking!

A robot walking down the hall in 3331 Chiyoda Arts because, of course!

I've always thought, "My dogs are barking" to be a really weird expression. I guess it's Southern and it means your feet hurt. Well, my feet are really sore after a day of walking around Tokyo with my Sweetie!

Akihabra Electric Town

We went to Akihabra to see Akihabra Electric Town. The main street was closed to vehicular traffic so we walked down the road and headed to Ueno. 

In 3331 Chiyoda Arts

We had an interim stop though. We went to 3331 Chiyoda Arts, a mixed use building in a former junior high. The building had a few shops, gallery spaces, workshops and a Lomography photo store where SMS dropped off a film roll he shot last week. We paid the entrance fee for the modern artist exhibit. My favorite was the installation with several instruments, a wind chime and two feather dusters connected to a main circuit run by a huge cylinder dictating the action similar to the tune played in an old-fashioned music box. We also hung out in the little park outside which was quite enjoyable since it was a gorgeous day!

My favorite installation, made even better by +SMS

We walked around the park and saw the outside of the Tokyo National Museum and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art, which I want to go back to since there's an upcoming visiting exhibit from the Uffizi Gallery. 

SMS is blending in!

Next, we went back to Akihabra and took the train to Tokyo station. We walked around some more and got photo ideas for SMS before heading to Ramen Alley for dinner. We went to a new place (#3 of the 9 listed). It wasn't bad but we liked the one we went to last time better (Honda). 

The rest of the weekend was fun too. On Friday night, the wardroom/spouses' club had a joint fundraiser rug auction. I was overdressed but didn't care :) while SMS acted as the official photographer. I think that was his plan so we didn't buy a rug since we try to make it a rule to discuss potential purchase items when they're more than $250. And these rugs were a lot more than $250!

Saturday was a mellow brunch day at our friend's house in Ikego. Adam made stellar creeps, channeling his previous professional crepe maker's skills. 

It was a great weekend and SMS and I had so much fun. We also have lots of potential trips planned so this blog should stay interesting for awhile!

What I've been reading...

Compared to my pleasure reading amount over the past few years, I have been binge reading lately and loving it.  Of course, if my Dad reads this post, he'll say, "But where are the classics?!?!?"  Right here, Dad, right here.  Well, maybe not but I've enjoyed (mostly) all of them and here's my little synopsis.

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn: Ok, let's get this one out of the way first.  I read this book based on the Powell's Bookstore list of 25 Books to Read Before You Die and based on this one, I'm going to say nope, nope, nope.  The book is set in the present, but mainly focuses on the Binewski family carnival in the form of flashback.  The story is told by Oly, one of the daughters.   She is the most ordinary of the five children and she is a albino hunch-backed dwarf.  Her parents, you see, conceived all of their children with the purposeful intent of creating little freaks, which mainly meant that the Mom took lots and lots of drugs.  The story has several strands but unifies around the main story of Oly's relationship with her brother Arty, a megalomaniacal, narcissistic boy with flippers for arms and legs.  He is truly one of the most loathsome characters I've ever read in fiction and was just a huge "ick" factor through the whole book.  It kept getting worse too…he's truly a character to revile.  I didn't like this book but it was like a train wreck I couldn't look away from so I finished it.  Also, the part of the story set in the present…meh.  It,too, was purposefully weird, but it wasn't too hard to see intention of drawing parallels between Mary Lick and Arty but it still didn't make me care about either of those two characters.
Recommendation: Be careful of Powell Bookstore recommendations.

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell: This young adult book about two kids who don't fit in at school in his/her own special way find each other and fall in love.  The book is fine and a sweet testament to the validity of first loves and high school loves, which may be trivialized as we reach our "wiser" adulthoods.  The most standout portion of the book to me was where she cuts off contact to Park for a certain period of time and reminded me of the main character in Americannah not writing to her love after an incident America.  In both cases, I wanted to tell the characters, "No, it's ok!  Don't wall yourself off!"  But it's a book and books do what's been foretold.
Recommendation: Good, but it's definitely a Young Adults book which I didn't realize when I read it.

The Circle by Dave Eggers: An insecure woman goes to work for a Facebook/Google megalith company and manages to find insane success within her workplace but only at the expense of everything's that's real- family, friends, privacy.  The book is a dystopian novel focusing on the incredible, insidious pervasiveness of social media in our lives.  The worst part of it is that we willingly acquiesce to our loss of privacy and real connections, except for some true stand-up individuals.  Who die.  This book kept me off Facebook for a few days but then like a little addicted lemming, I'm using it again but conscientiously!
Recommendation: It's not anything you couldn't read in editorial form in a newspaper nostalgically bemoaning the way it was.

Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman:  This book was good but the TV show is so great that it was hard to compare.  I thought her discussion of the current imprisonment statistics and minimum sentencing requirements was interesting but I would get more out of it in a more academic book rather than a memoir trying to add gravitas and relevance.
Recommendation: Watch the series!

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami: I loved this book.  I loved what he said about exercise, running, habits and life.  The organization is the beautiful series of narratives that are like an interlocking chain, lazily progressing to the narrative finish line, which is the writer's run in the NYC marathon and his final recollections after that race.
Recommendation: High

Wildwood by Colin Merlot: Written by the lead singer of The Decembrists, this book focuses on Prue, a young girl who lives in St John's, Portland and must venture into the fantastical Wildwood to save her brother, who's been carried off by the crows at the behest of the Dowager Countess.  This book is a pleasant read but not enough that I feel the need to read the sequel.
Recommendation: Sure, why not?

Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt: If I haven't put myself in permanent timeout with my book club because of recommending Geek Love, I'm going to recommend this book.  The book is told through June Elbus, a 14 year old girl who is grappling with the recent death of her beloved uncle from AIDS in the late 1980s, when fear and misunderstanding about the disease was still rampant.  While there are other books who have dealt with teen's grief better (that was the biggest strength of The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt), I was most captivated by the relationship between June and her older sister.  They had once been the best of friends but through misunderstandings, jealousy and the insecurities of being a teenager, they drifted apart into a dysfunctional dynamic that they seem powerless to stop, despite both of the wishing it were different.  Brunt does an excellent job of tapping into the complexities of being a young adult and while I identified with June in my own recollections of high school, her sister Greta was also a sympathetic character.  It's one of those relationships where I wished everyone could just get together, have a sit-down and get it all out.  But life doesn't work that way and relationships have to evolve and progress in fits and starts.
Recommendation: High, but it's not the most intellectual book in the world

Whew and that's it!  So, as you can see, I haven't been overwhelmed by my recent reads but I also have to stop getting young adult recommendations from blogs!  Blog rec lists tend to focus on lighter reads, especially in the Summer when people are looking for beach reads.  Maybe I should listen to Dad and read! all! the! classics!

[BTW, I will definitely write a separate entry for Americanah by Chimamanda Nogozi Adichie.  That book was incredible!!!  I also enjoyed the non-fiction Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo.]