a whale of a time

we started in kappabashi today. this area is known as the restaurant business center. we intended to search for the plastic food company which was supposedly located in the niimi building, known for a 39 foot chef head atop the building. but on the way we saw more. much more. many buildings had giant strange sculptures on top. from weird birds and foxes to little girls and giant cockroaches. there was definitely a trend in large animals and food related building top sculptures. but the best one of all was a building where all 5 floor's porches were giant coffee cups in different colors. this area is where restaurant owners shop for goods for their businesses, everything from pots big enough to cook people in, to antique signs, and of course, the plastic food, which, by the way, we never located. even though we did find the 39 foot chef head. so we went across the river and saw the magnificent golden flame building, or better known by locals as the turd building. it's a strangely shaped building topped with a huge golden flame that is supposed to be the head on top of a freshly poured beer, but does actually look kind of like a gold turd. giant robotic crabs on buildings as well. then wandering into asakusa, my second time here, and glad to have more time to spend walking through the time warped streets of old edo. we found the comedy area with the vintage movie theatre showing japanese movies from the early 60s through the 70s. jeff was almost crying. and the horse betting areas and gamblers, the old winos, stuck in time, drinking outside falling down drunk, girlie movies with naked posters prominently displayed next to the old movie posters of japanese lesbians in action, old men just dazed at this. jeff laughing. me a bit creeped out by now. and we found a very original store, one i have never seen before in my life, a whale store combo restaurant. they had cans of different grades of whale and pull top sardine cans as well as fresh meat packaged beautifully, dried whale, whale blubber, oil, etc. interesting. of course jeff got a high grade can for home and a pull tab square can for now, which i will photograph as soon as he opens it, as i have never seen whale meat before.

i also found the hot tempura coated sweet beans i had been thinking about since i tried them with mindy 3 months ago, which there is only one stall in all of tokyo, selling one thing, same, for god knows how many years. so delicious. and jeff tried street food- osakan okonomiyaki, which is basically cabbage and noodles topped with fatty bacon slabs, bean sprouts, scrambled eggs, several types of dried fish, smothered in a sweet brown gravy topped with tons of mayonnaise. i just had to watch him eat, as i was stuffed from the bun and the purple sweet potato stuffed with cream cheese i had eaten earlier. and then we had some grilled mochi balls, which i thought were hazelnuts, but alas more dough.

these areas of tokyo are a treasure. you feel like you have stopped time, the buildings are all old and washed out looking, there is a calm and seedy air to it all, the people are very anti-fashion, which is refreshing after being in shibuya so long. a good way to cap off a very interesting trip.