握り寿司 Nigirizushi

Three years after my first trip to Tokyo I had the pleasure and honour to visit "my personal master of sushi ceremonies" (= the best sushi chef I know) in his little restaurant again.

Unfortunately I do not know (= can't read) his name nor the name of his restaurant in Ota-ku, Tokyo-City, not far away from Omori station.

With the support of Sapphire I now know the restaurant's name: SUKEROKU.
Thanks for your help, Sapphire!

Here's the building (called twin building) where the sushi restaurant is situated in the fifth floor.

So end of August 2012 I had the pleasure to taste his great pieces of nigirizushi (which is what the world today knows as "sushi") again.

Certainly my Japanese blog fellows are able to read the menu board. For me it was just an enigma, but fortunately my Japanese colleagues ordered for me.

Did you spot the picture postcard from Rothenburg bottom left!? ;-)

I suppose the name of the sushi restaurant is written on the paper cover of the chopsticks. Can anybody translate it for me??? The shrimps obviously are the distinctive feature of the restaurant!?

Isn't this starter a gastronomical piece of poetry??? 

 

As far as I can remember the pieces of nigirizushi coming next are according the right order of courses.

Unfortunately I'm no expert for Japanese food culture at all. 

So please accept my apologies not knowing the correct names of the pieces of sushi.

But maybe I get support from an expert??? ;-)

Looks like salmon? --> sake (鮭) ???

--> maguro (鮪): tuna !!!

(Thanks, Yoko!)

What I was able to see is that the order of courses changes between a red piece of fish or shells and whitefish.

No idea what type of fishes I got next...

The alignment of the grains of rice is the same like the structure of the fish or shell.

Coincidence or masterpiece!?

The little green dot is Wasabi, isn't it? ;-)

This little masterpiece the sushi chef made especially for me. It was made from a kind of miniature leek, but I'm not absolutely sure about this.

As a present for my host I had some postcards from Rothenburg painted by the Japanese artist Eichii Takeyama.

 

Thank you very much for this great meal and evening,

dear host and dear Japanese colleagues!

Musashi --> 634

Standing underneath Tokyo SkyTree,

standing underneath the new 634.0 meters needle into the Tokyo sky.

The height of 634 m was selected to be easily remembered. The figures 6 (mu), 3 (sa), 4 (shi) stand for "Musashi", an old name of the region where the Tokyo Skytree stands.

Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to climb the observation platform of Tokyo Skytree (minimum four hours of waiting time), but I had the luck to get sight on Tokyo's new landmark from different angle of views.

New and old Tokyo skycrapers.

Sensō-ji, the ancient  Buddhist temple in Asakusa, with its five-story pagoda right of the Skytree in the background.

Tokyo Bay boat tour with a view on Tokyo Skytree to the front...

...and to the back.

High towers triptych...

...with Japanese admirer! ;-)

--> free of charge 360° view from Tokyo Skytree

*** HERE ***

Shibuya fireworks of lights

Probably Japan's most famous street crossing, seen from the 24th floor of my hotel:

Shibuya crossing, Tokyo

 25 September 2012, 6:49 pm

Same place, different perspective,
four days later, 6:27 pm.


Shots like this you find in plenty on the internet,
so I tried to capture a different style of Shibuya crossing lights.

My interpretation of Shibuya crossing in the evening.

Enjoy.
My.
Fireworks.
Of.
Lights.

The end.

Tokyo's toy dogs

A dog has an owner. A cat has staff.

This motto obviously doesn't go for this buggy full of toy poodles I took on Obaida island in front of the Fuji TV building. They seem to have their personal slave and buggy pusher with them...

...and even a warm admirer.

At a first glance this buggy is full up with six toy dogs. 

But looking on the rear side...

...I even found another two Yorkshire Terriers... ;-)

Only several meters away, inside one of the 142 Starbucks Coffeeshops of Tokyo, I saw this puppy inside a girl's handbag.

Another dog buggy pusher in front of Harajuku station.

This seems to be a very popular weekend leisure-time activity in Tokyo.
I never saw something similar at Germany.
Never ever.... :-) 

One of the fastest dog transporters of Tokyo...

Evening stroll through the streets of Yokohama

 

Have you ever been to Yokohama?

 

For me it was the first trip to Japan's second largest city, lying on Tokyo Bay, approx. 30km south of Tokyo.

One of my colleagues took me there on the last evening of my sojourn at Tokyo,
right before my flight back to Germany.

Great to get some additional insights of a city within the world's most populous metropolitan area - the Greater Tokyo Area.

We started with a stroll along the waterside promenade, having a great view on the Yokohama skyline in the evening light as well as on the former Japanese ocean liner Hikawa Maru. She was often referred to as the Queen of the Pacific. Charlie Chaplin and and Kano Jigoro (founder of Judo) were amongst the ship's more notable former passengers.

Our discovery tour along the waterline made us hungry.

So we took the way straight to Yokohama Chinatown, the largest Chinatown in whole Asia.

The grand East Gate - our entrance to the colourful world inside Yokohama Chinatown. 

Japan meets China...

Ni hao or Konnichi-wa?

Who knows??? ;-)

 Hello kitty? - Hello panda!

Chinese lanterns in a backstreet of Chinatown.

We even met Bruce Lee and friends there... ;-)

Colourful highlight in Yokohama Chinatown:

The Ma Zhu Miao Temple

The Ma Zhu Miao Temple is a Chinese temple of Ma Zhu, the Taoist goddess of Sea. Ma Zhu later became the goddess of Journey who protects fishermen and sailors from a sea disaster.