And So It Goes

Gridskipper: Under Tokyo

Oh, this one I know:

Under Tokyo

I'm sure the last thing you'll want to see during your travels is a city's sewer system -- in fact, the less we know about what happens in the dark and wet, the better. But browsing through the this gallery of shots from Tokyo's underground, I think you'll agree there's something pretty interesting going on down there. Looking like a cross between Japanese anime and one of Ken Adam's classic set pieces for the James Bond films, I'm surprised they don't offer tours. Then again, since photos don't transmit smell, maybe there is a reason.

UPDATE: Actually, they do offer tours.

The correspondent gets a big part of it wrong: it's NOT a sewer, it's a flood-control project, with the unlikely English-language monicker of "G-Cans Project". As such, the only smell on offer, I'm sure, is possibly that of cold damp concrete.

It's even been featured in a Land Rover TV commercial (requires Flash: click on "Range Rover Sport" when the page loads to see the Tokyo section) and print ad. And despite what's shown in the commercial, it's actually way up in the northern outskirts of Tokyo (actually, in Saitama prefecture), and nowhere near Shinjuku (where the commercial begins) or Yokohama (where it ends).

Tours are possible, it appears, but since they're conducted only in Japanese, they require you to bring someone to act as a translator (my guess is that they're worried about foreign visitors not understanding the safety rules). If you speak Japanese or know someone who does, call them at 048-747-0281 to make arrangements, which is something I ought to be doing myself someday.

Access from Tokyo:

The nearest train station seems to be Minami-Sakurai station on the Tobu Noda line, and there are a variety of ways to get there:

Method 1: From Tokyo Station, go to platform 3 and catch the Keihin-Tohoku line north to Omiya (25 minutes away). Transfer to the Tobu Noda line eastbound towards Kasukabe, Kashiwa, or Funabashi, and get off at Minami-Sakurai station (11 stations, 28 minutes away). Don't know what the bus lines are, so it's probably simplest to take a taxi from the station rather than walk for 2 kilometers.

Method 2: From Tokyo Station, go to platform 3 or 4 and catch either the Keihin-Tohoku or Yamanote line north to Akihabara (2 stops, 3 minutes). Exit and transfer to the Hibiya subway line going towards Kita-Senju station (6 stations, 12 minutes). Depending on the train you're on, either transfer at Kita-Senju station (if the train terminates there) or simply stay on it (if it continues) to the Tōbu Isesaki Line to Kasukabe (6-19 stations, depending on whether it's a local or express, about 28 minutes). Transfer at Kasukabe to the Tobu Noda line eastbound towards Kashiwa or Funabashi, and get off at Minami-Sakurai station (2 stops, 7 minutes away). Take a taxi.

Method 3: Use this website to figure whichever route works for you to reach Minami-Sakurai station. There, take a taxi.

Map Legend:

南桜井 = Minami-Sakurai station
春日部市= Kasukabe, the name of the city
首都圏外郭放水路 = Official Japanese name for the project

Annotating Gridskipper

Gridskipper.com looks like a very interesting travel site, one which stresses style, design, and good food , but in an accessible, non-snobby way. Its postings includes handy embedded Google Maps, allowing you to see exactly where the places it talks about are.

Well, not exactly.

For its Tokyo entries -- a city where most of the streets don't have names and business cards often include maps -- Gridskipper falls down completely, as those entries have no maps.

In Japan, maps are practically mandatory, since the street address system is more of a co-ordinate system, and giving the English names isn't much help when the local street maps are written in kanji. A determined person can eventually ferret out where places are -- phone numbers, being the same in English or Japanese, are a great help -- put someone there needs to get on the ball there.

So hence this experiment. I'm going to try to make some maps myself. The one on the right is for a recent item:

Coffee Saloon Kimoto

This morning I went to quite possibly the smallest cafe I've ever seen. Coffee Saloon Kimoto (1-5-1 Yakumo, 03-3717-5687 -- it's just a few minutes walk from Toritsu Daigaku station on the Toyoko line) takes its tiny triangle shape from the its allotted land plot, which was quite literally crammed between two neighboring buildings.

Featured in Japanese architectural firm Atelier Bow-Wow's book it's a perfect example of urban development contributing to the creation of unusual spaces. Coffee Saloon Kimoto is even more than just an instance of innovative architecture, it's a cozy little cafe. And I mean really small -- barely larger than the typical American bathroom -- but it will put a smile on your face as you walk in and are greeted by the owner, Mr. Kimoto, and his wife, and take one of the seven available seats.

Map Legend

都立大学 = Toritsudaigaku station
八雲１丁目５−１= 1-5-1 Yakumo, the address
東急東横線 = Toyoko Line, from Shibuya (渋谷), six stops out and between Gakugeidaigaku and Jiyūgaoka stations.

Vincent Schiavelli

ROME -- Vincent Schiavelli, the droopy-eyed character actor who appeared in scores of movies, including "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Ghost," died Monday at his home in Sicily. He was 57.

He died of lung cancer, said Salvatore Glorioso, mayor of Polizzi Generosa, the Sicilian village where Schiavelli resided.
        - Associate Press obituary by Marta Falconi, from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Well, this is bad news. I've admired his work in countless movies (I remember Buckaroo Banzai in particular, and the "Humbug" episode of The X Files).  But it's also slightly weird, in that I was just discovering another side to the guy.

If you're reading this within a few days of my posting it, you should see to your left, in my list of books I'm reading, Vincent Schiavelli's book Many Beautiful Things: Stories and Recipes from Polizzi Generosa. I've put it aside for the moment -- actually, I left it by the bed and keep forgetting to put it in my bag when I leave for work each day -- but it's a lovely -- and hunger-inducing -- book about Schiavelli's encounter with his Sicilian roots in Polizzi Generosa, the town in Sicily where, according the obituary, he died. Which seems fitting, since his love for the town shines through in the book.

It's a pity, because Schiavelli's book made me want to visit Sicily and Polizzi Generosa, meet the people, maybe get a shave and a haircut (one of his cousins is a barber in town), visit one of the town's bakeries and try the pastries, and hey, maybe run into Vincent hanging around at the local cafe and have un caffè with him as we watch the world go by.

Sorry, Vincent.

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Weekend in New York and other places

I decided to go on a little trip this weekend, and after a restful night at my hotel (THAT is worth a story in itself), found myself this morning -- uneasily -- standing at the foot of New York's World Trade Center, looking up.  While there gaping at the sight, I took that picture you see there on the right. 

Yes, the date above is correct.  No, I don't own a time machine, nor have I gone insane.  What I did, was travel by train an hour north out of Tokyo to Tochigi Prefecture, and visit what, on the surface, is an extremely cheesy and overpriced tourist attraction that I nevertheless found strangely compelling. 

Where I went, on the Kinugawa Line off from the main line to Nikko, at a place halfway betwwen Kosagoe and Kinugawa-Onsen stations, was a sort of miniature architectural theme park built and owned by the Tobu Corporation. Well, back in the late 1980s, the Tobu Company, which owns the Tobu Railway Company that runs trains up to Nikko, was hoping to increase tourism to the area.  You remember the miniature buildings from the Godzilla movies, the intricately detailed buildings of Tokyo which were smashed flat by the big guy in a rubber suit? Someone at the Tobu company had a bright idea of hiring these guys to build an entire park full of miniature representations of famous world buildings.

So in 1993, Tobu World Square opened, with about 100 meticulously detailed structures, all constructed the same scale, 1:25, the same as those Revell model car kits I used to see as a kid (do they still make those?), and lumped together in a few acres of land, grouped loosely by region, including a Europe Zone, Asia Zone, Japan Zone, Egypt Zone -- and an America Zone, of course.

The centerpiece of the America Zone, of course, is a miniature chunk of New York City, featuring the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, the Statue of Liberty --- and, of course, the World Trade Center. 

Do the math: even as miniatures at the 25 to 1 scale used, the models of the 1,362 ft (415 m)-tall World Trade Center towers are rendered as 54½ feet (16.6 meters) tall, so they're still pretty damned tall -- and when I was standing at the foot of this detailed model, it was disturbingly like my first trip to New York City in the early 1980s, when I stood in the plaza of the World Trade Center looked up at the towers from there.  It was spooky in ways I have difficulty describing.

There it was, a typical hot summer day, this families with kids and pushing baby carriages or wandering around admiring all the miniature buildings, and here I am, having my weird nostalgic American patriotism moment, something I sure was completely unnoticed by everyone around me. 

The first time I went to New York City, I flew by budget airline on an afternoon flight to Newark. arriving around 9:00 in the evening, and from Newark Airport the first thing you could see across the bay was the lit-up towers of the World Trade Center at the foot of Manhattan.  The glowing towers were my first sight of New York, and I'll always remember that sight. 

I circled that building, staring upward, remembering the original.  I came around to the side where the plaza was, and was startled to recognize in the center in miniature representation of the sculpture (Fritz Koenig's "Sphere") that once stood at the center of the plaza -- the ruins of which I had seen standing in Battery Park in New York City just a few months ago, where it had been moved as a sort of memorial.  Around this miniature but intact sculpture,  miniature people walked in the plaza and sat at the benches enjoying the sunshine, much like the real, much-larger people in Tobu World Square were doing.

On the left: the miniature WTC Plaza at Tobu World Square. On the right: The ruins of Fritz Koenig's 'Sphere' standing in New York's Battery Park

There is a certain thrill to seeing miniature representation of the familiar: anyone anyone who's admire a model railroad lay out understands this.  I had the same feeling when walking through the Japan Zone, on the way to this spot, admiring the miniature reconstructions of Tokyo Station, the Tokyo Tower, and even Terminal 2 at Narita International Airport (complete with miniature 747s taxiing up and down the tarmac -- why somebody thought this was worth building I don't know).  But seeing this familar echo of the now-gone was disturbing in ways -- well, if I were Susan Sontag or Calvin Trillin or Jon Carroll I might be able to put it into words, but I don't think I have the tools for the job.

Lest you think I spent the entire day moping, that's not true: it was a bright sunny day (albeit hot), and I shook off my feelings of unease and continued my tour, enjoying myself far more than I thought I would. At the buildings that I had been to, I envisioned myself back there again (for example, in effect walking through Beijing's Forbidden City again, being able to follow my exact path through the central area represented) or imagining myself visiting the places I haven't been to yet (St. Peter's Basilica and Square is a lot bigger than I'd first imagined). I bent down and squinted, trying to place myself at the proper level I would be, and admired the level of detail and odd touches -- the New York area has one street dug up for a sewer replacement project, an alley in the Harlem area looks like it has a few dancers from West Side Story kicking up their heels, and on the Great Wall of China can be seen the characters from Journey to the West (the Buddhist monk Xuanzang and his three guardians, including the Monkey King). Naturally, I took a few hundred photos while I was at it.

One thing struck me: given that all of the famous buildings depicted here are tourist attractions in their own right, the designers have, of course, populated their settings with plenty of miniature tourists. So we have the spectacle of crowds of real tourists looking at crowds of fake tourists.

All in all, I spent at least 4 hours walking around the relatively compact space, losing myself in a little virtual tourism before heading back to Tokyo by the evening. My forearms, it wound up, were badly sunburned, but thanks to the big floppy Tilley Endurable I wore, mostly on a whim -- I haven't worn it in years, not since my Peru trip -- my face was completely protected.

April in Paris -- Almost

It was a pretty low-energy day for me; I didn't stir from home until about 3 o'clock, and only because I was out of coffee, and if I weren't to rely upon supermarket coffee (not if I could possibly help it) I'd have go out to Kaldi Coffee Farm, their Italian Roast coffee being the closest thing to Peet's dark roasted coffee I've found around here -- and cheaper than Starbuck's, to boot.

While I was out, stopped by Shinjuku and the basements of some the department stores down there (Isetan and Mitsukoshi). Mitsukoshi, in particular, has completely revamped the area to creat a shopping space aimed at young women, a place they call "Alcott" (I'm assuming after the author of Little Women), among other things replacing the Cinnabon with a branch of New York's Doughnut Plant -- more upscale, don't you know.

What I found particularly striking while wanderng the aisles was how many French gourmat brands I saw represented there with kiosks/stores: Fauchon and Hediard, the competing Parisian gourmet groceries have areas to flog their tea, duck terrine, and truffles (real, hideously expensive truffles, not the chocolate kind). Marie-Ann Cantin, the famous cheese shop which I made a point of visiting while in Paris, has a stand in the basement of Isetan. Today, Istopped by for a little cheese and a taste of Paris.

If it's French and gourmet, you can get it Tokyo.

Photos of the Forbidden City

I'm back in Tokyo, and at my own computer, so it's time to post some photos of my trip. You can find the first batch of photos (of Beijing's Forbidden City) at http://calton.fotopages.com/?entry=313183.

It Really *IS* Fun to Stay at the YMCA

It's 7:30 pm, and I'm at the Salisbury Road YMCA in Hong Kong, where I checked in this afternoon.

THIS IS A YMCA?!!? My god, it's probably the most luxurious place I've stayed in during my entire trip.

I'm checked into 15th floor room facing Victoria Harbour -- yes, I paid extra for the harbour view, just because -- and I'm heading out at oh-dark-thirty tomorrow morning to catch my 0850 NW flight outta here. I'm about to dash out to catch a ferry cross-harbour and maybe get a glimpse of Hong Kong Island before I turn in for the night.

See you in Tokyo.

UPDATE: This was the view out of my window when I checked in that afternoon.

Nearing the End of My China Jaunt

Checking in from Guilin, about which I'll have plenty more to report when I collect my notes. But I'm leaving China in just a few days.

I went to the Guilin train station this morning and tried to buy a ticket on the K38, which my train guide had as the only train to Guangzhou. No dice. Instead, the woman at the window sold me a soft-berth ticket on the L108, which leaves tomorrow night at 8 and gets in the next day at 8:50.

The problem is, I can't find any such train in my rail guide -- or even any that starts with "L". A Google search turns up one English-language mention, in a tour company's itinerary for a guided tour of the region -- the only reason I don't pull the plug on this and see about getting a flight direct to Hong Kong.

Wish me luck, because I HAVE to be in Hong Kong by oh-dark-thirty Thursday at the latest to make my morning flight. But best case, I'll have only half-a-day in Hong Kong anyways.

Another Photo

Another photo to tide you over: early morning on the Yangtze, entering the last of the Three Gorges.

Recovering from a Cold

I'm checked into another luxury hotel, this time in Changsha, a Singapore-managed place called the Royal Seal Hotel. I realize that this is the off-season, but man, it's Amateur Night In Dixie when it comes to service around here. Okay, I'm acting spoiled, but I have a full-blown cold, and I'm not in a very forgiving mood right now. My body aches, I have cold shivers in the night, and my head is killing me. Tomorrow, we push on for Guilin, but today, I will spend in bed.