Vietnam Day 2 - Hanoi

After another hearty breakfast (where Neil found out that it was his lucky day due to a double yolk fried egg!) we headed off to the Museum of Ethnology. It included a fab collection of Vietnamese crafts and clothing, but also had an impressive garden filled with examples of  real Vietnamese houses, intricately reproduced using the traditional methods. It was intriguing to see how people live.

 We stopped in at the museum cafe for lunch and a coffee. Vietnamese coffee is very strong and you get your own individual filter that sits on top of the cup while the coffee filters through. If you want your coffee white, condensed milk is added so it is very sweet. I loved it!

A failed attempt to go to the army museum meant that we did get to see the statue of Lenin in Lenin park, and then we meandered through the back steets of Hanoi soaking up more of the atmosphere (and fumes.....). Hanoi is a great place to discover things on foot, but after a while we needed a cup of tea and a rest in the hotel.

We had dinner in the French Quarter at a lovely Vietnamese restaurant where we sat next to a nice Japanese family! We then wandered back to out hotel, past Hoan Kiem lake that was all lit up.

Vietnam Day 1 - Hanoi

After a lovely christmas day in Tokyo, we headed off the next morning to Vietnam for a week long trip. 

We had a long flight and a very late arrival in Hanoi, and when we woke up in our hotel room the next morning, we wondered why it was still dark at 8am. We soon realised that the window behind the closed curtains was actually blocked up! Anyway, the hotel room was v nice and we had a hearty breakfast that morning before heading out into the mad steets of Hanoi. It was surprisingly cool there, and quite atmospherically misty too. The morning was spent walking round the lake and taking in the sights and sounds of the Old Quarter, an amazing mix of crumbling buildings, shops selling everything you can think of, and endless motorbikes and noise. There is so much to take in, but you have to constantly have your wits about you. Even crossing the road takes concentration.

The afternoon was spent in the calm haven of the Temple of  Literature which contains a series of courtyards and temples that were once used for a university. We then had dinner at a lovely restaurant called 69 Bar-Restaurant in the Old Quarter. It occupies an old house and has old wooden beams and subtle lighting - the food was delicious!

The red Huc bridge leads over the lake to the Ngoc Son Temple

In the Old Quarter, women carry fresh fruit for sale.

Brightly coloured silk lanterns done in the traditional Vietnamese style

People carry all sorts on the back of their bikes. This man had a fully grown garden!

Fresh meat for sale on the street....

The items tot he right look like straw but are actually dried noodles.

There are hundreds of stalls selling street food. Everyone sits on tiny plastic stools to eat.

 The temple of literature was a calm haven in the middle of the mayhem.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all! We have enjoyed opening our lovely presents. Bob and Tom were excited about their new gifts and have been playing with them all morning. We are now off to go for a walk in the park followed by a good old xmas tradition - seeing a James Bond movie! Christmas dinner will be eaten this evening with our good friend Tatsuya who will be introduced to the joys of brussels sprouts and stuffing, followed by christmas pudding.

We are off to Vietnam tomorrow for a week - woo hoo! I will be writing about it all when we get back.

Love to all. x

The quest for brussels sprouts

Our quest for brussels sprouts has been successful - albeit frozen ones. It looks like Christmas day is on its way to being a success!

Happy Birthday Mr Akihoto

The Emperor's birthday is on 23rd December and every year it is celebrated with a public ceremony at the Imperial Palace where the gates are opened to the public. The Emperor and other members of the family appear on a palace balcony where the birthday boy gives a speech and everyone waves their flags! We decided to trot along and experience it all. Although there were a lot of people, it was very organised and we got to wave our flags and see the Imperial family.

Everyone was given a paper flag to wave.

Neil looking slightly incongruous as the English 'gent' with his Japanese flags.

As the Imperial family came out onto the balcony, everyone waved their flags in a civilised manner.

The Emperor kept his speech short and sweet.

Back in Tokyo

I arrived back in Tokyo yesterday morning, feeling a bit worse-for-wear and with a stinking cold. It was great to be back though, and the first thing I did after a cup of tea, was to get the xmas tree out. We decided to get a fake one this year and embraced the fakeness by getting a shiny white and silver one from Don Quixote. I decorated it in silver baubles, but when we woke up this morning, all the baubles were off the tree and had become new toys for Bob and Tom......

By the way.....

.....I am currently in the UK, hence the lack of posts! I will be returning to Tokyo on 20th December, where the shenanigans will begin again. Looking forward to seeing my hubby and cats, and eating a full English xmas dinner in Tokyo!

A sinister manner poster

Each month I usually mention the manner posters that adorn the subway walls around Tokyo. But this month I'm so unimpressed, I'm going to mention another, much more sinister-looking one that I saw the other day. I would NOT like to come across this red-eyed devil any time soon!

Hiking at Mount Mitake

On Saturday we ventured out to Mount Mitake for some fresh air and a hike. I have to say the idea of leaving the house at 7.30am and then battling with all the other hikers to get a seat on the express train, did not appeal too much, but once we were out in the clean mountain air, it was perfect! We took a packed lunch and had the now-essential jet boil which brews up hot water in seconds. This meant we were still able to have our English Breakfast tea and hot noodles while taking in the stunning views at the top.

Some of the foliage had turned a beautiful shade of red and orange.

 Lunch at the top - everyone had their camping stoves out, cooking up warming noodles and soup.

 The cedar trees that lined the majority of our route.

Tempura dinner

On Saturday evening our friend Tatsuya took us for a tempura meal at a very old tempura establishment in North East Tokyo. It is in a lovely old wooden house that has been there for over a hundred years and they serve hearty tempura on bowls of rice. Washed down with beer, it was the best apres-hiking food you could think of!

We then sauntered over to Asakusa, through Sensoji Temple, which was beautiful at night time (and no crowds!), and on to one of the oldest Western-style bars in Tokyo where we sampled massive glasses of beer and the local spirit - Denki Bran. Not for the faint-hearted.

Not a great shot of the outside of the tempura restaurant.

Sensoji temple at night.

Beer.

Calabash

It's been a bit of an African-inspired week this week with a fab Lagos band on tuesday night and then a fab African meal on thursday night at a lovely little restaurant called Calabash. We ate samosas, patties, and lamb stew with couscous all washed down with a choice of African beers and spirits. We were serenaded by an African musician called Mamadou Doumbia who played a beautiful instrument called the "kora". It's definitely worth checking out.

Fellows Burger Stand

I have always rated Golden Brown as being the best burger place in Tokyo, but on wednesday evening I may have met a strong contender! It was at Fellows burger stand in Omotesando. The burgers are big and juicy with wonderful toppings - I had blue cheese and glorious bacon - finished off with onion rings that are to-die-for. I strongly recommend that burger-lovers make a pilgrimage there.

Seun Kuti & Egypt 80

I went to a great concert last night - an African band called Egypt 80, led by singer Seun Kuti.  I knew nothing about them and wasn't sure what to expect but it was fab! After fueling up with a big bowl of ramen noodles at a very local, low key ramen shop, we trotted down to the venue which was at Club Quattro in Shibuya. It was very small and hot and there was a great atmosphere, with about 15 musicians on a tiny stage - three trumpeters, two sax players, several drummers, keyboard etc. It was great for the soul.

Shichi-go-san festival

 After the downpour of saturday afternoon, sunday was beautifully sunny and dry with bright blue skies so we decided to make a trip to the Meiji Jingu shrine. The 7,5,3 festival was going on, where 3 and 7 year old girls and 3 and 5 year old boys dress up in kimonos/hakamas and go to the shrine to have their photo taken.

In the past, this was celebrated as a rite of passage into middle childhood. The samurai class who required children up to the age of three, to have shaven heads, then used this festival as a celebration of being allowed to grow out their hair. Boys of age five could then wear hakama for the first time, and girls of age seven replaced the cords they used to tie their kimono with the obi. The ritual of visiting a shrine is to drive out evil spirits and wish for a long healthy life.

Needless to say, there were some beautiful kimonos and the bright sun meant that I got some gorgeous photos. We also saw a few shinto weddings, which I always find moving. We were lucky enough to get up close to one of the brides, wearing her white 'hood'. I was intrigued to watch her getting into her specially designed car that had a flip top roof to allow for height!

Aida Makoto

Saturday was a pretty horrendous day weather-wise and it poured with rain solidly all day. I had arranged to meet up with my gallery group to go and see an Aida Makoto exhibition at the Mori Tower, a perfect thing to do on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

I had never heard of Aida Makoto before, but he is apparently one of the most noted contemporary artists in Japan today. It is not normally an exhibition I would gravitate towards as his pieces can be extreme, with the use of young girls and erotica as subjects of his work, many of them verging on the grotesque. He uses an interesting combination of political and historical issues, but uses traditional artworks and techniques to express himself. Even though many of the images were obscene, his technical ability, especially when depicting the human form and using traditional nihonga-style painting, were beautiful.