Jan-Ken-Pon (じゃんけんぽん or Rock Paper Scissors) on Odaiba (お台場)
You can do more on Odaiba than check out the night views. You can also play じゃんけんぽん on the beach as Ryan and Ellie demonstrate in today’s photo.
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Posts tagged ryan
Shinjuku bus stop
I mentioned a while ago that we caught a bus from Shinjuku in the morning to get to Hakuba. Today’s photo is of my kids just before getting on the bus outside of the west exit of Shinjuku Station. You can see the famous Yodobashi Camera (ヨドバシカメラ) and electronics store behind them. It hadn’t opened yet.
Even though this picture isn’t much more than a year old Ellie and Ryan have really changed. They barely look like these little kids any more.
On the floor and on the screen at Seibu Dome (西武ドーム)
After watching a Seibu Lions game last year we were able to go down on the field with many other fans. Not only were we on the field but we were on the big screen as well. Ryan was rather excited (can you spot him?). Ellie, on the other hand, had been on big screens so many times (thanks to her blonde hair) by this point in Japan that I think she was doing more to get off the screen than remain in the public eye.
Suica Smart Card
I took photos of my kids’ Suica passes because I knew they would lose them and was hoping the picture would get me a replacement. Amazingly enough, they never lost them, although they did leave them at home and had to purchase train tickets once they got to the station on several occasions.
This pass allowed them to go from Takadanobaba to Tamachi and back as many times as they wanted. They could also get off or on at any station between those two stations on the west side of the Yamanote Line (including Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku, Meguro, Shinagawa, etc.)
This pass was Ryan’s. If you can read Japanese, you can see his name and age personalized on the bottom in the middle. The cost was about $400 for six months, which was the regular price for an adult. For kids 12 and under and those going to “qualified schools” (TIS wasn’t one of them) the price is much less.
You can also use a Suica card in many stores and vending machines if you put some extra yen on it.
Edo period female sneaks into my photo
The best part of this photo is not that my son and I were able to time travel back to get an authentic photo in the Edo (Tokugawa) Period of Japan’s history. No, it’s the fact that if you look really closely you’ll see how friendly the ladies were back before the Meiji Restoration.
Actually, I think it was the female in the orange and white outfit’s friend who was taking our picture. This was taken at Edo Wonderland in Nikko, Japan on one of the funnest days I’ve ever experienced. The peace-sign flashing photo sneaker was a pleasant surprise when I downloaded the pictures off my SD card later.
Ramen Ichiran – Part 2
We first visited Ramen Ichiran on our trip to Japan in March of 2007. After a walk around Ueno Park, we stumbled upon the place on a cool day. Ichiran was almost empty, even though it typically has a line out the door. I suppose it doesn’t usually have a line out the door since it is open 24 hours a day, but it frequently does when it is normal ramen eating time.
The top picture features Ryan, back at the same place three years and several months later, much taller and hungrier this go around.
Most ramen places in Japan have seating only at a counter with enough chairs for four to ten people. Some of the larger establishments may have a few tables in addition to the counter seats. Ramen Ichiran in Ueno is the largest ramen shop I have been to with seating for a whopping 37 people.
After paying at the machine for your ramen, you queue up for a seat to open. A seat, on the above chart, can be red, yellow, green, or blue. When you sit down the seat turns green. When you order it turns yellow, when your ramen arrives it turns red, and when you leave it turns blue for the next customer.
You don’t get to see your server or cook. This is the only place I can think of in Japan where this happens. You fill out a form stating how spicy you want your ramen, how cooked you want the noodles, etc. Next, you push a button and a hand mysteriously appears, grabs your ramen ticket and order details you have written, and disappears once again. Finally, a ramen bowl appears in front of you just as ordered. You see no faces of the employees. You are in a cubicle of sorts so you won’t see your fellow customers either (unless you fold back half the wall between you and the person you came with).
This is the moment you’ve been waiting for. いただきます。