Tuesday, March 20, 2007
The Latest in Parking
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Sign of the week: Watch your butt!
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Edifice of the Week: Gonpachi (Nichi Azabu)
I have heard conflicting stories about the original building that was on this site. One is that it was formerly a castle, another that it was a treasure house. Maybe it was both. It is probably most famous in recent years as the site of a 2002 lunch featuring President Bush and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
You have to duck (actually, C. J. and I do--Cindy doesn't) to get inside Gonpachi. Once you enter, you are met by a hostess, who calls out a greeting, which is echoed by a welcoming shout from all the staff.
There are two main floors, but the bottom one is divided into two levels. On the lowest is an open kitchen, with a large grill, that sends a mouth-watering aroma (and smoke) into the air. Surrounding the kitchen on three sides is a bar where you can sit, and tables on the floor beyond that.
Some of the tables on the bottom floor have a latticework of bamboo overhead. The upper part of the first floor is a row of booths along the eastern wall, elevated a few feet above the lower part.
The upper floor is open in the middle, and consists of rows of booths or rooms along each wall. The booths are like those on the first floor; the rooms are fancier. While still partly open to the balcony-like hall on one side, they are more private, and are treated like separate chambers. You have to remove your shoes and don slippers to eat in one of them.
Beautiful wood is everywhere inside. The tables on the first floor, and the extensive bar, are solid. The booths feature heavy benches. Any seat in the house allows a view of the enormous beams across the ceiling. And above the upper booths are screens of bamboo.
The verdict from our family--C. J. included--is that the food here is delicious. It's very Japanese--yakitori (skeweres of charcoal-grilled chicken) is the specialty, but they make great tempura as well. You can get a really good lunch special, featuring a little bit of everything,
for 2,000 yen (under $20). But this post is really about the building--we'll talk about food another time.
Vehicle of the Week: Lamborghini Murcielago LP640
Friday, March 9, 2007
Up it goes...
Saturday, March 3, 2007
A Day in Odaiba
Over the years, the island forts were neglegted and deteriorated. One was made into a park in the 1920s, but it wasn't until the success of Expo '85 World's Fair in Tsukuba that things began to change in a big way.
Big Sight also contains restaurants; we ate lunch at a cafeteria (we had A Especially Nice Taste).
We stopped at Toyota MegaWeb, next to Venus Fort shopping mall. MegaWeb is like nothing we'd seen before. It's a big, multi-story complex that combines self-serve showroom (you can explore all the new model Toyotas and Lexuses with no salespeople "helping"), concept cars, car museum, and even an experimental track with cars (tiny Toyota E-Coms) that drive themselves, using sensors build into the road. We took a "drive"--twice around the track with the car operating itself.
Sign of the Week: Be a Fireman! Impress Girls!
P.S. If any of you single guys are heading for the phone, the country code for Japan is +81
Friday, March 2, 2007
Vehicle of the Week: Toyota PM
The Toyota website has this to say about the PM:
"The PM is a personal mobility vehicle that 'fits like a glove' to create a feeling of unity between the driver and the vehicle. Cutting-edge vehicle-to-vehicle communications technologies are employed under the concept of "meeting, linking and hanging out together".
I'm sorry I can't provide a better look at the interior, but we were not aloud in the vehicle.
The wheel concept is very different--as you can see, there are no axles.
You have to wonder how practical it would be to own one of these. Still, you have to admit, it looks very cool. And the Toyota emblem on front, it seems somehow legitimate. Who knows? Maybe someday...