Robot Claw

Yesterday we went shopping and bought many things, but the story of this post is what we did at the end of the day!

That’s the main building at Senso-Ji temple in Asakusa, which is Tokyo’s biggest temple. Much like Times Square or Sydney, this is a place to go to welcome the new year, and since it’s only a half hours walk from our hotel we went!

There were loads of people of course, and the crowds were apparently larger this year since two of Tokyo’s other popular new years spots had canceled (due to coronavirus). The temple complex was surrounded by colorful and delicious-smelling food vendors, and we spent a happy hour exploring them until the stroke of midnight.

Meat and chicken skewers were popular, as were dango, fried chicken and various forms of pancake. We saw non-alcoholic sake being served out of massive cauldrons, strange sugary (?) fruit dishes prepared in bowls made of ice and even French fries sold in assorted commemorative bags.

We think the above was an okonomiyaki-seller, which is a type of pancake full of vegetables. It was fascinating watching him make them so quickly.

These were small fish cooked on skewers. It wasn’t clear where or how they were actually cooked: could it be the sand they were stuck into was heated from below? If I hadn’t already eaten I may have tried one of these.

What really caught our eye were the sugared fruits – what we Australians call ‘toffee apples’. In addition to the apples they sugared grapes, pineapple, strawberries, mikan oranges and kiwifruit. Naturally we had to try these, and bought two apples, some grapes and a pineapple.

The apple was magnificent! The grapes were sublime (they exploded with juice when you broke the sugar coating)! The pineapple was… disgusting (it used a dried pineapple and was insanely sweet)! Overall though, absolutely worth the try.

Just before midnight the crowds coalesced around the main temple building and did a ten-second countdown to welcome 2023. It was raucous and fun, and I’m glad we went. Right after midnight Skytree (the giant tower in the above pic) even had a ‘Happy New Year’ message rotating around for people to see miles around.

Happy 2023 to everyone! Let’s hope it’s a great year 🙂

Gashapon, or ‘capsule machines’ are vending machines that dispense prizes in little plastic balls. I’ve always covered them during my Japan trip blogs, and it is interesting to see how more popular they are every time I visit.

That’s a photo taken outside an electronics store in Ikebukuro, showing the machines out on the street. Costing ¥300 to ¥500 a go (about $2-4) they offer a mind-boggling array of choices. Whereas 20 years ago these were almost always anime-related objects, now the machines can dispense almost anything.

Fancy a bike lock? A miniature champagne fountain? Tiny replica shoes? There’s a gatcha for you! But remember the prizes are random, and it may take a few goes to get the exact one you want.

Yesterday we visited a Gashapon ‘department store’ in Ikebukuro. And not just any store: the world largest, with an incredible three thousand machines. It was amazing, and very popular.

From Lipton tea keychains, to replica designer chairs, to Warhammer characters, the variety was awesome. Apparently the gashapon industry is thriving, and sales have increased every year with 2021 setting new records. The machines are everywhere and ‘played’ by people of all ages. Kristin and I weren’t even close to the oldest patrons of the shop we went to yesterday.

Ultraman rubber toys? Scale models of gas tanks or old Sega arcades? Go and find a gatcha!

A steampunk monocle? Tiny plastic donuts? What about a miniature model of a squid drying rack? All these can be yours for only a few hundred yen!

The store has a mini museum, showing the original gatcha (which contained Ultraman toys!) which looks almost exactly the same as the sort of vending machines we still have in the USA. Gatcha’s are expanding into other markets slowly, but currently remain a mostly Japanese obsession.

Here’s some of the premium machines, which offer larger and more detailed prizes for a premium price (¥1500). The selection in these isn’t quite as wide, but the quality is high. I think before we leave we may try one.

Miniature bento boxes? Australian animals? Clothing sets from a hit anime? I could showcase the options all day long and not run out, and I’m not even showing the large amount of anime and game-themed machines here. ¥100 yen coins in hand we walked around this place for an hour or so buying gatchas, and emerged with all this:

What’s in all the bubbles? We hardly remember, and as with previous trips we will likely keep these sealed until we return home. But you can bet it’s a lab eclectic mix of weird and wonderful.

There’s a lot more to see in Ikebukuro and yesterday we did. But once again I’ll leave this post focused and end with a shot of last nights dinner:

Today we visited Yokohama to see the Cup Noodle Museum!

This is a museum dedicated to Cup Noodles, the original instant noodle. It’s also dedicated to the memory of their inventor, Momofuku Ando, who invented instant ramen in 1958 and cup ramen in 1971. He was said to eat an instant chicken ramen every day after inventing until his death at aged 96 in 2007.

The museum is small but full of charm, and we both loved the room showcasing Nissin ramen products over the last 50+ years.

That’s less than a third of what was on display! It was fun seeing all the flavors and packaging, and hunting for the unique ones such as the first licensed one (Doraemon, in 1976), a version in a transparent cup, or even one that came with a mini Gundam kit!

But the highlight surely was making our own cup noodle! For a measly ¥500 each, we first got to decorate our cups:

Then we got to turn a crank to add noodles:

Then an attendant added flavour and four toppings of our choice. KLS picked cheese, kimchi, onions and corn on chili flavour, and I went with shrimp, onions, egg and little chicken naruto on ‘original’ flavour (there was no chicken option):

They were then sealed and shrinkwrapped:

And lastly we got to package them into bubble pouches for a safe trip home. Here they are in our hotel room:

It was a load of fun for a piddly price. Will we ever eat them? Who knows? 🙂

We saw a lot more in Yokohama today including a ropeway, an observatory and some amazing shops. But I’m too tired to write any more right now so I’ll dedicate this one just to the noodle museum. It was great 🙂

We’re back in Japan, for a winter trip! It’s my 10th (or 11th?) time here and Kristin’s 8th (9th), and we’ve been looking forward to this trip for a long time.

The flight was hellish – it’s almost impossible to get comfortable for long periods even in the ‘Premium Select’ class – but uneventful. Unfortunately one of our bags didn’t it: we could tell from the Apple tag we hid inside that it was still in Atlanta when we got to Japan! Delta will deliver it to our hotel once they get it here, which is hopefully soon. Luckily most of the important stuff (warm coats, toiletries, medicine) is in the suitcase that made it so it could have been worse.

Our first hotel room is large and comfy and very well-located and after check-in we spent a couple of hours exploring the Ameya-Yokocho and (of course) buying stuff like this guy:

That’s Ultraman 80 by the way, one of my favourite Ultras. He’s only the first of what I expect to be a lot of Ultra-purchases this trip. We also saw gachas, and played UFO machines and bought delicious snacks before crashing in the hotel. After about 30 hours with no sleep we better get a good rest tonight since tomorrow has a full schedule!

I plan on doing my best to blog daily, so stay tuned to see what adventures we get up to these next two weeks!