Saturday, February 26, 2011

The Wright Imperial

Twenty to twenty-five years ago when I used to come to Tokyo a lot on business I would occasionally stay at the Imperial Hotel across from Hibiya Park in the center of Tokyo. The Imperial is the grand old hotel of Tokyo having been founded in 1888. It is now in its third reincarnation and proof that looks don't always get better with each new birth. Not that today's Imperial is ugly - it's not. But how can one compare it to the absolutely gorgeous second reincarnation overseen by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1923?

The "Wright Imperial" , commissioned in 1916, was designed to symbolize Japan’s relation to the West. Wright designed the building as a hybrid of Japanese and Western architecture. The Wright version of the Imperial Hotel was demolished in 1968. The entrance lobby was saved and reconstructed at the Meiji Mura architecture museum in Nagoya. When I first saw the reconstructed version at the museum some 15 or so years ago I was stunned. I hadn't even known about the previous versions of the Imperial. When I compared the reconstructed lobby with the modern one I was familiar with I felt a deep sense of loss. How I wished I could have stayed in the Wright Imperial. The lobby of today's Imperial has been compared to a train station lobby, a dark one at that.

Today, I wandered back through the Imperial for old times sake and was glad to find an exhibition on the Wright Imperial, including a reconstructed column that gives a hint of the beauty of Wright's vision.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Monday, February 21, 2011

Sunday, February 06, 2011

Casting Beans at Demons

Japan has been rocked in recent months by revelations of illegal gambling and Yakuza ties in the sumo world. Things have gotten so bad that the sumo federation has canceled their spring tournament and gone into full apology mode. In Japan, full apology mode includes not only daily press conferences featuring weepy-eyed giants but bean throwing as well.

My search for the best vegetarian ramen

Last year I watched a Japanese documentary on the history and making of ramen noodles and came away thinking how glad I was that I had never eaten anything but meatless ramen. Just watching them render down the pig parts in that video would have been enough to render me vegetarian. I won't even go into some of the other stuff they put in some of those bowls. Things that were never mentioned in my favorite ramen movie, Tampopo.

Fortunately, Nissin and a few other companies have been making some instant ramen versions without meat or seafood ingedients for years. The Nissin ramen called "Oriental" is the one without animal bits. I just take those, cut the salt in half and add a bunch of crunchy blanched veggies and voila! I have perfect veggie ramen in 15 minutes.

Ramen originated in China but has been a Japanese staple for centuries. It's so popular here that they even have a ramen museum. Tokyo is full of ramen shops but until recently I knew of none that served real vegetarian or vegan ramen. I finally found a shop that does however, and I paid it a visit last weekend. It was very good but to be honest, I like my home-made version better. When I'm in a real hurry I just throw in some frozen veggies as the water boils and by the time the ramen cooks it's all done. And I don't have to spend 30 minutes on the subway to get it.

Saturday, February 05, 2011

Getting in the way of the Paparazzi

Celebrity is such an odd phenomenon. Is it sheer popularity that drives us to call movie stars, musicians, and politicians celebrities? I think so. But that popularity, or notoriety in some cases, doesn't often cross cultural boundaries. Japan's most popular movie star can be in Neiman-Marcus in Dallas and no one, unless they are a Japanese tourist, will take note.

This was brought home to me last week when I was attending a dinner at Tokyo Big Sight. I was seated at a table with seven strangers - all foreigners except for one elderly Japanese artist. We had been assigned our seats by the event organizer - a jewelry association. The other guests at my table were all friendly and interesting people; businessmen, diplomats, and artists. There was a young Japanese lady that joined our table a few minutes late and everyone greeted her politely. We were just asking her what she did when a torrent of press photographers and young people descended on our table - all focused on the young lady. She started posing and bowing demurely as cameras were shoved past my face and motor drives whirred and flashes blinded us all. She started signing autographs.

Seems the young lady is a member of Japan's AKB48, the most popular pop group in the country. I guess it's like having Justin Bieber at your table and not knowing it.