Having finished our trip to Turkey, I have a little catching up on other travel to do.
So, meanwhile over in Japan....
As you may recall, I have the opportunity once a year to train in Japan in Iaijutsu, the Japanese sword art that I have studied and practiced since 2009. I have gone from 2018-2020, then (sigh) The Plague, and restarted again in 2024. Our training sessions are such that we perhaps have half a day to "sight see" (which is often taken up by going to Asakusa in Tokyo to the sword shop as well as shopping for supplies like tabi, setta, obi - things that we can get in the U.S. but are less expensive there).
Still, I try to chronicle what I can.
This is flying into Haneda airport, the first time we have done so (for those that may not know, Haneda is the older of the two airports that serve Tokyo. The newer one, Narita, is approximately 1.5 hours by train from the center of Tokyo; Haneda is located on the edge of Tokyo Bay, about 20 minutes by train from the hotel we use when we stay in Tokyo.
Fuji-san was very co-operative for photos; not so much the plane window.
One of the pleasures of Japan (at least for me) are the outputs of their delightful vending machines. Items cost between 150 and 250 Yen (about 1-2 USD when we went). It is the only way to get coffee before our early morning training, but they also have a selection of other things served hot and cold from the same machine including tea, milk tea, fruit juice, sports drinks, and other wonders.
Including, as I found when hitting the wrong buttons, corn soup. Served hot, of course. Not what I was expecting at all.
Coffee can come cold or hot, with milk or without milk. Interestingly, most of it is sweetened.
A vending machine. Red indicates hot drinks, blue indicates cold drinks. Some play happy music when you make your purchase.
A different brand of coffee. "Platinum", in case you were wondering, is probably not what platinum tastes like in reality - no metal taste evident.
This was a hot lemon drink. Quite delightful.
An ice cream vending machine outside. Even though it was cold, I had to try one.
"Sai-da" is the katakana. "Soda"?
It turned out to be an flavored ice sort of squeeze pop. Kind of like cotton candy flavour. I was disappointed; I really should have just gone with the ice cream.
This is a map in our hotel in Shinagawa, Tokyo.
That is our hotel! (Based on the size, you can place it on the map above.)
And this is the Nippon Budokan, where we performed our demonstration.
No pictures of vending machine drink outputs would be complete without a mug of Japanese Beer (Kirin, in this case).
Interesting. Based on pictures, the portions look somewhat small. (Maybe that's because everything in the US seems to be "super-sized.")
ReplyDeleteLeigh, your eyes do not deceive you: they are generally much smaller, around 190 ml/6.4 U.S. Fluid Ounces. There are also larger bottles, which are more in the 12 U.S. fluid ounces side.
DeleteThe standard U.S. soda can size is rare, at least in my experience - although beer, interestingly enough, comes in the "standard" size...
Most interesting TB san............:)
ReplyDeleteNylon12, for some reason this is one of the most interesting cultural aspects of Japan to me.
DeleteThe other interesting aspect: This technology is available. Why can we not get it here?
Although I've flown through Japan's airports many times over the years, I've never experienced the much heralded vending machine experience. One of these days, I'm going to stop and spend some time there.
ReplyDeleteEd, highly recommended (I am sure you expected nothing less from me).
DeleteAlthough to be fair, it has been almost 30 years since I have solely as a tourist - so I, too, would like to go and spend some time there seeing things.
I spent two weeks in Tokyo when my Coast Guard ship was invited to be the grand marshal of the 50-year anniversary of their coast guard (they called it the Maritime Safety Agency at the time). We were treated VERY, VERY well by everyone from our government hosts to the passerby on the streets. It was BY FAR the CLEANEST city I'd EVER SEEN. MILLIONS of people but NO trash and NO graffiti! I rode around on an ancient Raleigh folding bike. At one point I was accosted by a group of small uniformed schoolchildren who took turns edging up to me, touching my arm, and scooting back to their group. I don't know who had more fun; me or them! Some posed with me for pictures. Others pointed in amazement at the Raleigh folder, it being pretty much the ONLY bike in Tokyo that wasn't black and whose fenders were chrome.
ReplyDelete...And those vending machines... You could buy pretty much ANYTHING from those vending machines... Even Kirin beer mini-kegs, which is, I guess, pretty much "standard size" for a sailor...
Tokyo's a pretty amazing place. If you have the opportunity to visit, do it.
Pete, that sounds wonderful. Thank you for sharing!
DeleteI have been able to go to Tokyo a few times. Once in 1978 (when I was a pre-teen) and once in 1997 with The Ravishing Mrs. TB as tourists. We had an amazing time.
With my sword martial art, I have been able to go to Japan again, 2018-2020 and then 2024-2025. With these trips, we really only land in Tokyo and then go to the training facility. If we are lucky, we get a half day or two that we can do a bit of tourism, which often involves going to the Asakusa district as they have a sword store there and we can buy training supplies.
I really want to go back in the not too distant future as a tourist again.
Katakana "saida" （さいだー）means "cider." It's supposedly a lemon flavor and has been popular for decades.
ReplyDelete