Tigers and Cranes

One place I really wanted to check out in Tokyo is a place called “Ooedo Onsen Monogatari” [大江戸温泉物語](Oedo Hotsprings Story) in Odaiba district. From what I gathered on the web, it looks like my type of place, a literal onsen theme park, with hot springs and shops and restaurants and such.

I’ve always liked hot springs, but mostly they were attached to a hotel or a ryokan, and while it was always relaxing, I really wanted to experience a large, mega onsens. The closest I came to one was in a small town called Mino-o in Hyogo Prefecture, and ostensibly one can hang out with monkeys while bathing. The place I visited had no monkeys, and it was kind of an old place that was pretty difficult to get to, on a mountain. The place, I believe, is called “Mino-o Spa Land”, and the inside of the bathing facility was pretty large, but as far as outdoor bathing (Rotenburo) is concerned, it was disappointingly small.

So I mentioned this to one of my friends in Tokyo, telling him that I was looking forward to visiting Ooedo Onsen Monogatari. He tells me that while he likes the place too, he thinks it will be waay over crowded because of the Golden Week. But, he tells me, he knows even a BETTER place, where it won’t be as crowded, and may even be nicer. And, graciously, he offered to come with me.

Since I had been sightseeing near Shibuya that day(which I assiduously try to avoid, especially during summer and moreover, during Golden Week since the streets are jam packed with people), at the NHK Studios, I took the good ol’ Yamanote to Takanobaba, and from there took the subway all the way out to a small town called “Urayasu” in Chiba. There, I met my friends and we took a 20 minute cab ride to a place called “Yumeguri Mangekyo” [湯巡り万華郷], which opened last year. While Ooedo Onsen Monogatari is pretty well known to most people, it seems that many Tokyo-ites themselves never heard of Yumeguri Mangekyo, it being fairly new. When I told my friends that I visited an onsen in Chiba, most of them looked back at me with a blank stare and said “There’s an onsen like that in Chiba”?

Anyway, after a short cab ride, we entered a rather non-descript, yet imposingly large building. Once inside, I began to realize just how huge this building was. The whole of the building was laid down with tatami mats everywhere, and where there were no tatami, it was hardwood floor. Central area is where family and friends gather to chat, relax and maybe eat an ice cream cone or have a meal at many restaurants inside.

The first order of business was removal of our shoes and stuffing them in a locker. Afterwards, we all receive a bracelet which we are to wear at all times, since the bracelet has a barcode that identifies our party whenever we wanted to purchase anything in the place(hard to carry a wallet when you’re naked in a hot bath), and the bracelet also had a key hanging from it that opened our own lockers.

We then approached the counter where we request our yukata(light summer robes). We even got to choose our own design on the yukata. Women’s yukata were of floral design, quite pretty, and men could choose more somber, manlier patterns. My friend chose a white one with swirly patterns, and I chose a very dignified traditional pattern. Along with yukata, we were also given a bag containing two towels, one to dry oneself off, and the other to actually take into the bath.

At this point, the two ladies accompanying us headed off to the ladies section of the onsen, and my friend and I headed off to men’s section. After getting nekkid with only a small towel to gird my ah, nether region, my friend and I trotted off to the showering area to wash ourselves off sitting on a wooden stool. After a long day of hiking around Shibuya in heat and exceeding humidity, this felt great. There were even toothbrushes and shaving kits for free so you can really get clean.

Having suitably un-grimed ourselves, we then head off into the outdoor bathing area, one of maybe 15 or 20 such bathing spots. Of course, men and women are segregated, but there is also a large, beautiful outdoor bath the size of a huge swimming pool landscaped with trees and rocks and even a waterfall that is co-ed, but you have to wear a swimming suit in this area.

After a good soak in these baths, we decide to sweat it out in a dry sauna. Sitting inside this cedar-lined box of a hot room, I began to pour sweat immediately, even from places I didn’t know I had sweat pores. Looking up at the wall, I see that the room is a toasty 85 degrees…CELSIUS. Damn, doesn’t water boil at 100? Anyway, every bead of sweat from my body actually felt burning hot as it rolled down my face. I knew something so painful just HAD to be good for me. My friend and I glace at each other and say “Okay. No matter what, we’re staying in here for five minutes.” Let me tell you, that had to be the longest 5 minutes of my life. But stepping out of the sauna after five minutes, my body felt so light that I felt like I could fly.

After another vigorous shower and the dryoff, we head into the lounge area for men, which is outfitted with hair dryers, hair mousse, aftershave, lotion, etc., basically everything one needs after a bath. Donning our yukata once again, we meet with the ladies and go out to the deck with cold mugs of Asahis in our hands and cigarettes, everyone practically beaming since we’re so squeaky clean!

And it was time for dinner, and we settle down to a nice meal inside an izakaya in the building. Stretching out on the tatami floor, we drink mugs and mugs of Asahi, all while enjoying unusual yet delicous dishes that the izakaya served. And all it takes is the waiter coming by and scanning our bracelet, the bill to be settled when we are leaving the premise.

After our meal, we rent swimming suits and we head to the common bathing area where both men and women can bathe together. The night was sparklingly refreshing, and bathing under the moon near the waterfall was especially enjoyable.

But, closing time came pretty quickly, as Mangekyo closes its doors at midnight. We return our yukata, settle the bill(actually my friend settled the bill), and pile into a taxi to return home. Since I was staying in Ueno at the time, and it being past midnight, we had no choice but to take the taxi all the way back from Chiba.

The entrance fee is about 2,700 yen, and the place opens around 11 am. The best way to get there is probably taking the Keiyo line to Urayasu station in Chiba, then taking a cab to the place. The Mangekyo boasts 38 different spas, with 10 restaurants, you can literally spend the whole day there.

Highly recommended.

I wrote earlier about my visit to Sapporo beer musuem in the town of Sapporo Hokkaido (another attempt at plugging that post). While they don’t actually brew beer at the museum building, the place is nevertheless a fascinating place to visit to tour the old beer memorabilia as well as probably my primary reason for visiting, beer tasting! Yep, I got good sloshed there, no doubt.

Sapporo beer from the city of Sapporo makes imminent sense, so it should be no surprise that in the neighborhood of Ebisu, one would find, naturally, Yebisu beer.
Where did the “Y” come from in front of “Ebisu”? Is this linguistic equivalent of “Yen”? Both words have “Y” in front of it, yet neither is pronounced that way. Well, I’m sure there’s an explanation, but I’m not going to bother finding out for now.

Yebisu used to be available in the States, but for some reason, they’ve withdrawn this fine product. Even in Japan, Yebisu is considered one of the better beers, but I sure as hell can’t tell the difference.

Sapporo. Now “Bitter and Sharp”. Is that a good thing?

At any rate, Yebisu and Sapporo are two brands of the same company, and Sapporo Brewery headquarter is nestled in this charming neighborhood on the JR Yamanote line. Basically, go around and around on the Yamanote until the British sounding lady on the recording tells you to get off the train at Ebisu. Once there, take the East exit, and go up to the “Skyway”, and ride the moving sidewalk for what seems like an eternity, and you’ll end up on, of all places, a very European looking plaza packed with restaurants, shops, and of course, the Yebisu Beer Garden Place.

It’s an attractive sort of place with red bricked sidewalks, sculptures, and sitting places in a rather large open plaza. On the day that I was there, there weren’t that many people, since seeing as how I got there nearly six p.m., and some place were closing for the evening along with the museum.

This was unfortunate, since I didn’t get to do my favorite activity, i.e., beer drinking, but I did get chance to do a quick look around the joint. I was able to see a large vat or boiler of some sort, as well as large cans of Sapporo and Yebisu… that was about it. On the other hand, the souvenir shop was still very much open, so I picked up some beer-flavored caramel that sort of didn’t taste like beer(which I guess is a good thing), an awesome “automatic bottle opener”, along with other knick-knacks.

Sapporo Beer Caramel. Sorry about that huge space on the right…

I do think this area would be a swell place to just relax and have a leisurely time in, and the atmosphere around the museum is certainly conducive to that. If you have the chance to visit the area, make note of the fact that there are a metric buttload of restaurants and some bars there, so picking a dining place should be a cinch.

As I wandered through the vast city of Seoul, my eyes kept catching glimpses of something called “Hi Seoul Festival”. From what I could glean from hyperkinetic posters on trainstation walls and taxis and generally, well, everywhere, it’s supposed to be about music, food, and fun and such. When was Seoul NOT about these things? Anyway, it seemed like there would be way too many people at these things, so I decided to skip it.

What I ended up doing was visiting the “63 Building” on Yoido, so called that because it has, you know, 63 floors. And it was feautured in Sim City 3000. Really.

By no means a very tall building elsewhere, but regardless, it’s pretty damn tall building in Korea(3rd tallest), and I, lacking much else to do, went to check it out. It being a Saturday, the building was mobbed with crowds everywhere, and lunatic kids running around. But, on the bottom of the building cafe, I got a very decent cup of iced coffee, so there is that.

Now I’ve been on some tall building in my time, such as… uhm… Empire State Building, Eiffel Tower, etc., so the height of the building wasn’t necessarily impressing me, but at the same time, being a total acrophobiac, it did give me a good dose of vertigo regardless.

The observation deck has some pretty spectacular views of the Han River, many bridges, mountains, and many, many stacks of ubiquitous Korean high rise apartments. They sure look drab from the outside, but believe you me… some of them are like palaces inside. The day was a particulary un-hazy day, so it seemed like one could see for miles all around.

It’s said that a woman should not wear a dress or a skirt when she visits the observation deck of this building. Those words mystified me until I was there. I’ll keep the suspense for you readers for you to find out why for yourselves. All I have to say is I wish maybe more women should wear skirts visiting this place. But then, I’m also a pervert.

Leaving the “63 Building”, I headed to the banks of the River Han, to see what the hell all the commotion was, with balloons and and tents and stuff. And Lo! One of my favorite things, a Food Fair! Being Famished, this is like an oasis in a desert. I hurriedly made my way towards the tents that had smoke pouring out of them. And you know, where there’s smoke, there’s grilled meat!

There were maybe 50 stalls stationed along the bank of the river, serving everything from Bulgogi(grilled beef), spicy yakitori, fried chicken, bibimbap, korean seafood pancakes, pigs parts, corn, well, you name it. They even had Bun-deh-gi, the pupa of a moth or something. And yes, I had some.

The food was very delicious and generous in portion. I was happy to find several tents vending ice cold Cass beer, and it seemed like all was right with the world. To top it all off, nearby was a free concert, feauturing neo-classical Korean folk music and Fusion-y Traditional Korean music with some funky World beats.

And I realize that this is one of the “Hi Seoul Festivals” that I thought I’d give a miss. Kind of glad the way it worked out, though.

It is with certainty that I can say that I’ve never once seen a “Mr.Donut” restaurant in America. It purportedly began selling donuts first in Boston, a city I have visited many a times, but not once have I had the pleasure of being in, let alone seeing one there. Dunkin’ Donuts? Yes. Boston’s filthy with them. But Mister Donut? Not so much.

This strikes me as kind of odd, since Mister Donut, AKA “Misdo” is practically everywhere in Japan. I love this place, since this is one place you can get their trademarked, and indeed, their most well known donut, the “Pon-de-Ringu”, roughly translated “Ring of Bubbles”. It’s called that since the donut, which is handmade, has a shape of ring of pons. Bubbles, I mean.

The chewy pastry even has its own mascot, the greedy lion called “Pon-de-Lion”, whose mane is made of, you guessed it, pon de ringus. He’s sort of an auto-cannibal, as the brochure states that whenever he gets hungry, he eats his own pons around his head. I mean, comeon, this has to violate some kind of second law of thermodynamics or something. He eats his own mane?

Whatever, the food there is delicious, and I used to be a regular eater at the joint. Not only are delicious pastries sold, but you could get things like soup and noodles, which to me, is pretty radical. I was once obsessed with getting a “Pingu” plate and bowl set, which had the most kickass penguin imprints on the plate and the bowl, all for you if you collected enough points on your “Misdo card”. Is it weird to be this infatuated with a donutery? Perhaps. But if you were to ever eat in one, you might understand.

Korea has been cruelly deprived of this fine eatery, instead, Seoulites having to make do with previously mentioned “Dunkin’ Donuts”, which, bizarrely enough in Korea, is considered a nice place to take your dates. Kind of different where Dunkin’ is a grumpy taxi driver’s hang out in America.

I did take coffee and donut in Dunkin’ Donut in Myun-Don in Seoul, and smack dab in the middle of crowded streets of Myun-Don, it’s a three floors of donut and coffee extravaganza. My experience was tainted by the fact that in Korea, if you want a bag for your purchases, you have to pay… like a nickel or something. But damn, yo! that stuff adds up!

Anyway, I had my plate of donuts and coffee to eat in, but because I suck at speaking Korean, the mean ol’ counter lady ended up charging me for the packaging, as if my food was to go.

Enough about Dunkin’ Donuts. What you really want to know more about is Misdo, isn’t it? Well, so one day I was strolling through the streets of Myun-Don, I see plastered on a window of a convenience store a sign that reads “Korea’s First Mister Donut! Opening Soon! in Myun-Don!”

Damn, this got me all hot and bothered.

So, on the morning of the grand opening, I waited in line to be one of the first 250 customers to walk through the door, so I could win a prize. I have to say, I hate waiting in lines, and I would never wait in line for say, a concert or PS3 or what have you, but dude! This is Pon-de-Ringu we’re talking about, so I lined up with about 500 other hungry Koreans in the morning before Misdo’s grand opening.

Oh, it was grand.

There were costumed Pon de Lions prowling about, and balloons, and streamers and well, the anticipation was at a fever pitch!

I was maybe first 200 to reach the door, and for my trouble, I could draw for a prize… grand prize being free donuts for a year! In my head, visions of me as a fat pudgy bastard floated around. Eagerly, with the help of ever helpful Pon de Lion, I drew out the prize of…

Pon de Lion Cell phone strap.

Well, it’s not a year’s worth of free donuts, but I’ll take what I can get.

Oh, and the donuts?

Very delicious, chewy, warm, and not too sweet. It’s everything that it should be in a donut, now available in Seoul. So, if you’re ever in the area (Near Saboten Shinjuku Tonkatsu/Omutomato), go in and say “hi” to Pon de Lion.

And eat his mane before the greedy bastard eats his own.