You're Eating in a Church

Alas! There has been an upset. The Wizard Themed Restaurant, appropriately named "Wizardz" (notice the cool "z" at the end) has been shut down sometime in the last few months to a year, and no longer exists. But I have loyal voters to please! What was I to do?
 Go with second best, of course. And in this case, second best is...Jesus restaurant. So here we go.

 Upon stepping inside the lobby of the building in Shinjuku that houses Christon Cafe, which is situated on the 8th floor, one is greeted with this sight.
Oh my. What had I gotten myself into.

The elevator opens on the 8th level, and huzzah, we are in a Church of Jesus Christ Themed Restaurant. And holy crap was the place huge. The high ceiling, complete with a mural, plus the dim lighting, really does give the place a church-like ambiance. There's even a sermon stage - but lo and behold! It is decked with high-grade speakers! AND WHAT'S MORE? The music is blaring some kind of techno-synth! And the waitresses are hot young girls wearing crosses and chains!
Ah! But I see there has been yet another upset! This place cannot possibly be run by true Christians. It truly is a theme.

And so I relax a little more. Ken, (who, as usual, was willing to accompany me into yet another crazy food place) and I open our EPICUREAN BIBLES and we select something to order. The food is pretty high-class, but the drinks and deserts have this gothic-church-style twist to them.
The cocktails all have these crazy names like "Kissing Lilith" or "Deathscythe" or even "Gabriel's Stiletto." They looked nice, and had some pretty cool descriptions of the flavors included (rose petals and blueberry? Neat!
But yikes, look at those prices though. No thank you. I'll have...juice instead.
I ordered a zesty pasta with pieces of shredded ham and high-grade bacon in it, and some Italian name, while Ken ordered something with blue cheese in it (well la-dee-da! Pretty fancy, huh?)
The real highlight to the food aspect of the restaurant was when we ordered desert. Being a cheesecake freak, I couldn't help but going for the "Cross-Branded Cheesecake of God". The description on the menu says that it is "made with the recipe of the Lord," (whereas Ken's "Dark Chocolate Temptation" is said to be made in the recipe of the devil. Hahah.) But It can't really be branded, can it?

Oh yes they did.

YET HARK! BRANDED IT IS! They branded my fucking cheese cake with the logo of the restaurant.

And it actually tasted quite nice, too, like the rest of the food before it. All fingers point to the restaurant being fairly high-end, but the clientele seems relatively young. I can think of one person from Montreal who would have enjoyed the place. (My finger's pointed at you, Natasza.)

This photo was taken by TOKYOTELEPHONE.com,
since my camera doesn't do so well in dim light.

All in all, Christon Cafe was quite...special, I think. It's fancy enough that I would bring a date here on a very special occasion, if she had some kind of sense of humor. A very intense Christian would definitely find this place kind of blasphemous, to say the least, what with the Devil-themed cocktails and so and so. But I guess I can be happy that the waitresses were pretty goth girls instead of old nuns or something like that.

I therefore give Christon Cafe FOUR HOLY ROSARIES OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST OUT OF FIVE.

That being done, I will announce the next poll as soon as I think of something that fits my budget!

The Best Bar in the World

At first, we didn't really know what to think.

It really is, and by far. Upon entry, Kagaya seems like a typical Japanese izekaya style bar; all customers remove their shoes and sit on a cushion on the ground, and have a low table. The air smells slightly of cigarette. The interior feels home-like. As Ken and I walk into Kagaya, following a brief research I had done on the internet, we are greeted by a room-full of Japanese people and the waiter and bar owner, whose name is that of the bar itself - Mr Kagaya, wearing a shabby-looking apron. The people seem to be usual customers. They smile as our eyes meet, and Ken makes easy conversation with them. So far, there's nothing unusual.

From here on, Kagaya is an incredibly steep descent into madness. Shortly after we are seated, Mr Kagaya, whom everyone in the bar refers to as "Master", brings us two menus; one for drinks, and one for food. We soon realize these "menus" are in fact children's books, with the items written inside, presumably by Kagaya, in crayon. Furthermore, the food menu doesn't even state what food items are available, instead only having pages with text such as the one on this picture, and a price.

Additionally, one can also pick in what "style" you want the food served to you - choices being American, Brazilian, French, etc. We picked French. Ready to place order, we call Master Kagaya.

"We would like this," says Ken.

"Oh? Then read what's on the page."

Ken does so, very easily. Much too easily for Master Kagaya's liking.
"Ah, but you see, this is a little bit of a musical place. So you will have to sing to me what's written," he says, looking at me. So I sang. All of sudden, Kagaya starts shrieking and screaming and dancing! The patrons applaud us, and Kagaya, satisfied, though only displaying it in the slightest smile, takes the menus and nods, telling us he will only be a moment.

Not a bad likeness, I might add.

Ten minutes pass, and suddenly, from the back of a room we frequently see Master Kagaya walk in and out of, a music drifts into the bar. It is "Les Feuilles Mortes" by Yves Montand. The bar goes silent, and, on cue, Kagaya pokes his head out of his backroom, wearing a beret, and gives me and Ken an intense look. He walks out of the room, carrying an easel, props it on the floor, and begins to draw me! The patrons go wild with laughter, and I strike a pose.

 He finishes the drawing, hands it to me, and then proceeds to get our order. The food was quite satisfying, and very humble, made by an older woman in the kitchen, who I presumed was Master Kagaya's mother.

The man himself.

All throughout the night, the madness continued. I can hardly remember all of the hilarious antics Master Kagaya pulled off that night, but to enumerate a few, my mug of coke was rigged to shake uncontrollably when I lifted it, there was a puppet show with an American frog named Jack, whom Kagaya also dressed up as, I was given a fortune reading saying that I have a penis, and I had to pull my receipt out of the cleavage of a Barbie Doll. With my mouth.

The hour and a half I spent in the bar was truly memorable, the patrons were talkative and friendly, and the service was unbelievable.
 I'll definitely be coming back to Kagaya.

Kagaya is located in Shinbashi. You can visit the webpage here.

The Daily Grind

Since Mum asked, and I thought I'd share with the rest of you, too, this is what my daily routine consists of on a day when I'm working.

Jumping on Julian's bed while
taking pictures of him if he's half asleep.

7:15 - Wake up. Jump on Julian's bed a little bit, if he's already awake or half-awake.


7:45 - Leave for work. From home to work, it costs 700¥. That's roughly 8,50$. Yikes. Luckily, the company pays this as part of my salary. I have to transfer lines twice, and that sucks.


9:15 - Arrive at work. Go to the employee's lounge. Nap or study the ingredients for that day's class.


9:50 - Start work.

A picture of Ueno district, the area where
I currently live. Taken by Devin while he
was visiting Japan.

12:45-1:45 - Lunch time. I have a choice between McDonald's, Subway's, or a microwave meal from the corner store. Generally, I spend around 800¥ on lunch, or 9,75$.


6:10 - Finish work, head home. Sleep on train.


7:40 - Arrive home.


8:00 - Have dinner. I spend around 600¥ on dinner, or 7,25$. There's a number of decent food places around here, since I live right smack in the middle of downtown Ueno district. Sometimes I'll meet up and grab a bite with Ken, as he passes through the area after finishing work.


12:00 - I usually sleep at this time.


That's about it. Nothing too special, I think. My daily spending is around 40$, or 23$ if I don't include the transportation fee which is paid to me at the end of the month. Tokyo's kind of expensive.

Interesting Tidbits: Work Ethics & Community

This pose was unrequited.

The other day I was invited to my first work-colleagues' outing. Despite my company having many foreigners and half-breeds like myself, it's still run by Japanese, and therefore a rigid Japanese work ethic applies. For instance, any amount of lateness is completely intolerable, and three unjustified late arrivals within the space of two months would result in my possible termination.

 However, most Japanese work communities are tightly knit. And in my case, I don't just mean my fellow fitness teachers and I, but also the PR department, the receptionists and the top brass.
From what I hear, it's quite typical of whole companies in Japan to go out together and enjoy themselves.

 That being said, we all (those of us who could make it) went to Kart-ing together (as in, go karts) last Thursday evening, and that was quite fun. I won't go too in depth about the activity itself since it's not something at all unique to Japan, but I will say that I kind of suck at it. But all in all, it was really fun to get together with the company and do this kind of thing. I wouldn't have imagined myself racing my boss on karts before going and doing just that.

Left to right,  Nobu, Carlos, (bottom) me, Kota, Kenzo,
(squatting) Yuka, Nana, Kyoko, (top) Imre, (bottom) Kaoru, Villy, Rafai.
Notice I'm the only one doing something retarded.

Succesfully, this time

The last time I tried to meet Etsumi at Shibuya we didn't really succeed. This time we did.
 Etsumi "It's Me" Sugeno is a hip-hop dancing girl who keeps fit through an active sports life and a healthy diet. She's a strong, independent soul and she'll probably turn up a few more times on the blog.

Yokohama's Chinatown

I bet some of you bastards thought Tokyo
looked like this everywhere.

I think it's actually quite worthy of its name. That is, town. Admittedly, the one back home is more like Chinastreet or Chinablock. Yokohama's Chinatown, is, like, pretty big, from what I've seen, courtesy of Lisa taking me out to show me.
It's everything you'd expect, really. Huge, colorful gates and murals left and right line the streets in a combination of modern light-show and traditional (stereotypical?) Chinese architecture. Come to think of it, I don't know if Chinese towns actually look anything like this, but it sure puts you in the setting.

A quick tour of one of the more traditional organic medicine shops yielded quite a few interesting things too. Dried lizards and snakes and placentas (packaged in a box!) They got me wondering if I'd eat 'em if they would cure, like, a flu if I got one.
 And plus, you guys know what's coming. I always half-joked about finding dried seahorse in Chinatown back home. Well I motherfuckin' found it. Dried seahorse. When I get my own place, maybe I'll buy like ten of these and stick 'em on the walls or something. I'd be like the king of the god damn ocean.

When I eat spicy, I look like a tomato.
 Lisa can hold her shit just fine.

Fantasies aside, we also had a chance to enjoy some Chinese-influenced Japanese food, and that was quite nice. Unfortunately, the Japanese don't tend to enjoy intense spicy flavors so much, so it's quite hard to find something that fits the bill. I promptly picked one of the spicier things on the menu. My noodles looked like they were swimming in magma, but they turned out quite flavorful!
Chinatown, yay!

PS: The Wizard themed restaurant won the poll. I'll be going there as soon as I get my pay.

I'm Still Meeting People

I think it was two weeks ago I met Lisa, who works as a translation manager. She's a nice, good humored girl who also happens to be able to perform a Tottori Raindance and fold balloon animals. That raindance sounds nice. Maybe I'll try to learn that someday.

Also, this photo was taken at a panda themed store. In case you couldn't tell.

Pullquote: Whitney Houston

I don't want to give this too much attention for the wrong reason, but yesterday just after finishing a class, a parent put his hand on my shoulder and said to me, "Whitney Houston just died!"
 After he walked away, I let slip an "Oh, wow."
 One of my coworkers heard this and said, "I know, shocking, right?"
 To which I replied, "Yeah, that people here actually have heard of Whitney Houston."

Sunshine City: Observatory, Cat Lounge

If you get off at Ikebukuro metro station, you're bound to stumble upon a sign like this.
Sunshine City is an enormous complex containing a Planetarium, an Aquarium, and the enormous Sunshine 60 skyscraper. It's a popular destination for young girls and couples.
 Being that I am part of neither of those categories, I only gave Sunshine City a quick tour, not really going into the bigger attractions of the area. Still, what little I saw was worth sharing, I think. Without further a due, let us proceed onward.


The enormous Sunshine 60 (the number a reference to the number of floors) houses an observatory at the top, allowing one to take in a 360 degree panoramic view of Tokyo as seen from the top of Sunshine City. It's almost surreal. The elevator travels the 60 floors in just a little over 15 seconds. It's fast as hell. My ears popped. But here's what you get once you're at the top!


 You can click on any of the pictures to make them bigger. Clockwise, starting from the left of this text, is East, South, North and West. The weather condition wasn't the best, but you do get a sense of the size of the city. There's no end in sight!

 On the East picture you can see the Sky Tree! It's the world's current tallest tower. To the South is Shinjuku, that small amassing of gigantic skyscrapers near the center of the pic. To the North, just barely visible, is the Nikko Mountain Range.

So that was quite nice. But my visiting of Sunshine City didn't end here. On my way out of the complex, something caught my eye. It was an ad for a "Cat Lounge" called Nekobukuro. I just had to visit.
 As the name "Cat Lounge" would imply, it was basically a place where you could just sit down or stand around while surrounded by something like 25 cats going in and out of the various rooms. There was a system of catwalks and ramps and bridges and holes in the walls that allowed the felines to flow from one place to another. So I basically paid 6$ to go in and pat twenty cats in twenty minutes.

Technically, there's no limit as to how long you can stay inside (their advertising even mentions this) so you really can just sit down and stay there for hours, if you so choose. As a matter of fact, I did stumble upon a few people sleeping on the chairs. The cats themselves are extremely chilled out, and I'm pretty sure they handpicked the most relaxed and non-aggressive cats they could find.
All in all, Sunshine City was pretty cool even though my visit was brief. I'll probably come back when I'm done being single or whatever.

Brief Note: Promotion!

+1.25 an hour. Woo!
On a side note, as you have probably noticed, I added a poll to the blog layout. Check it out and vote!

The (Not So) Local Flavor

It has a whole 3 calories!

 When Ken asked me what constituted Canadian food, the only thing I could think of to say was "poutine." That is pretty much it, right?
 Having been reminded of the (in)famous mass of cheese and lard piled upon french fries greasier than Danny DeVito, I wondered to myself if it would be possible to indulge in it while I was in Japan. And it turned out it is! There's a chain of restaurant/cafes called "Becker's" here, where they actually do sell poutine and call it poutine! And so, Ken and I had decided to give it a try.

 Eh, my review is mixed. As much as it reminded me of the homely Quebec poutine, it just wasn't the same. Just look at those thin, nicely cut fries and that anemic amount of gravy. Not to mention the oh-too-fine layer of pizza-ish cheese. It just doesn't compare! How am I supposed to get a heart stroke from something so delicate and easy to stomach? My fries should've been thick and dark and fuckin' swimming in gravy, with huge disgusting chunks of cheese so chemical they would kill lab mice. What a pity. To think I miss it so.