S.Q. Eries's Blog, page 62

A Tour of Japanese Pop Culture, Part 11: The Atami Guide Club

So the Atami Guide Club was a part of our trip that we kind of stumbled upon. Being onsen (thermal hot spring) fans, we wanted to visit a seaside hot spring after our guided tour concluded, and our group tour guide recommended a ryokan onsen in Ajiro, a small fishing village in the Atami area, two hours by train from Tokyo. Since my husband and I would be sans guide and helpful friends for this part of our vacation, we did a little pre-trip research on local attractions, and the Atami Guide Club popped up on a Google search.

We weren’t quite sure what to make of the club at first. Their website at the time wasn’t the sleekest and didn’t indicate affiliations with any tourist organizations. Still, their English-language blog had a relatively recent post, and we had nothing to lose by contacting them. A short e-mail interchange ensued, and we wound up booking a half-day tour of Atami with an English-speaking guide and his assistant for ¥1000.

Yep, ¥1000. Less than $15 for a private tour!

I must confess, the super low price (and lack of affiliates on their website) had me a little concerned. Part of me wondered if it was a yakuza scam to kidnap foolish tourists and sell off their organs. But Japan is a relatively safe country, and we’d chosen the Atami train station, a crowded public area, as our meeting spot, so off we went.

As it turned out, we had nothing to worry about. Our meeting time was 9:30 AM, but we arrived at Atami Station at 9:15 AM to find two seniors in “Atami Guide Club” windbreakers already at the turnstile, holding a sign with our names. That was how we met our guides, Henry-san and Kazu-san.

Both are retired professionals. Henry-san lived several years in Britain and has a daughter that lives in the States. Kazu-san worked for the Japanese Embassy and was once stationed in Europe. They spoke English quite well and were wonderful hosts.

That particular morning a typhoon was moving into the area. So after providing us with Atami brochures and information (if the local Atami Tourist Division doesn’t have a link promoting the Atami Guide Club, they really ought to) and showing off the Atami Station hot spring and geyser, Henry-san proposed using his car for the rest of the tour so we wouldn’t get stuck if it rained.

After days of touring Tokyo by train and foot, we were floored by the offer.

Henry-san and Kazu-san demonstrating how to cook eggs at Kosawa Hot Spring.

So the four of us hopped into Henry-san’s little Toyota sedan, which took us up and down Atami to see the sights. They included the 2000-year-old camphor tree at Kinomiya Shrine; the Kosawa Hot Spring, which has a little steamer basket that you can use to cook eggs; and the Oh-Yu Geyser, the third largest geyser in the world (though all of us agreed Oh-Yu was nothing compared to Old Faithful).

2000-Year-Old Camphor

As we toured about, Henry-san, who was the lead guide, gave explanations of the cultural and historical significance of the sites we visited. As he delivered his mini lectures, he rather reminded me of my dad in that he was a bit pedantic in his explanations. Kazu-san, on the other hand, was more laid back as we chatted about everything from seasonal flowers to grocery stores. It was actually a pretty good combination for a tour team.

By the time we finished admiring the 2000-year-old camphor tree, the wind was starting to pick up. Our guides had intended to take to the seashore, but with rain imminent, they suggested we go instead to Kiunkaku, a villa built by a shipping magnate in 1919. That turned out to be a good move because it started raining once we arrived.

It was also nice because I enjoy old and interesting architecture, and Kiunkaku boasts a gorgeous garden and buildings constructed in classical Japanese as well as blended Oriental-Western styles. A couple rooms reminded me of Hearst Castle, actually.

The grounds also include a music hall and a multipurpose room, which are available for rent. The day we visited, a society of retired principals was holding a convention in the musical hall, but Kazu-san told us she frequently attend concerts at Kiunkaku and most recently went to a Latin music recital there.

Pressed Flower Craftswomen

As for the multipurpose room, we found a handful of women at work on pressed floral crafts inside. Thanks to Kazu-san, they let us come over to watch them, see their raw materials, and look at their finished crafts. It’s painstaking work from the looks of it, and the results can be quite extraordinary.

We left Kiunkaku at 1 PM, and our tour concluded with them dropping us off at Jonathan’s Family Restaurant so my husband and I could have lunch there. I think they were probably amused that we chose to eat at a chain restaurant when we were in a town known for its seafood, but they simply smiled and told us that they often held their guide club meetings at Jonathan’s.

All in all, our guides were a fun pair. I never did ask them the particulars of their club, but I get the feeling that they’re all volunteers with a desire to turn Atami into a popular tourist destination. They certainly take their job seriously. In addition to English, Atami guide club also offers tours in Korean and Chinese. (Henry-san told us that he once helped guide a group of a dozen Chinese tourists and tried to get a dozen eggs into the Kosawa steamer basket, which typically cooks four at a time.) And though there are 40 members in the club, only a quarter of them make the grade for lead guide. So if you wind up in the economy area, look them up. They’ll take great care of you.

A Tour of Japanese Pop Culture, Part 10: Toilets and Restrooms

When traveling, there are certain places you can avoid going, but the restroom is not one of them. In Japan, facilities range from basic to ridiculously high-tech. The thing most Western travelers have to be prepared for is the squat toilet. No seat, just a ceramic trough set in the floor that you straddle-squat over to do your business. Some versions have a horizontal bar on the wall for you to hang onto.

These are the toilets you’ll likely encounter in older areas. Many Japanese consider this more hygienic than Western toilets because you don’t come into contact with any surfaces. I don’t find the squatting aspect difficult per se, but I am always fearful of my clothes falling into that trough. (Not sure how ladies with really long skirts manage it.)

If you’re visiting a new or remodeled area, both squat and Western toilets will generally be available. Some Western-style toilets I encountered were exactly like those in the United States. Others had slight modifications, like this one with a tank top sink as a space- and water-saving feature. But the vast majority were on a completely different level, featuring a variety of seat settings and bidet functions.

When I first went to use the bathroom in our Kawasaki hotel, I literally jumped off the toilet seat. The hotel staff had left the seat heater on, and I was not expecting a hot seat in the bathroom. I got surprised again at our Ajiro ryokan (traditional Japanese inn). The moment I stepped into the bathroom, the toilet lit up and flipped its lid! It startled me so badly I fell on the floor. Apparently, this model has a motion sensor and automatically opens to welcome its next user.

All our hotels had toilets with bidet capabilities, even the century-old ryokan in Ikaho. I was too leery to try the function. I’m not too keen on using a sprayer in a toilet that I haven’t cleaned myself. My husband though had always wanted to try and got completely hooked. If we remodel our bathroom, we’re definitely getting one of these fancy toilets. (Fortunately for him, similar Korean-made bidet-toilets are sold in LA Koreatown.)

The really interesting thing was that these bidet-toilets weren’t just in hotels and private residences. We found them in supermarkets, train stations, and shopping malls as well. They’re sometimes called “shower toilets,” a term which brings up a completely bizarre image in my head. At any rate, these can be more sophisticated than the home versions. Some have a babbling brook soundtrack to drown out the various noises one makes in a restroom. At one supermarket restroom, it literally took me a minute to figure out which button flushed the toilet.

Stall with baby basket on the left

The Japanese put careful consideration into other aspects of restrooms as well, especially those in shopping centers, amusement parks, and other places frequented by moms and kids. In the States, the most a parent can expect is a changing table. In Japan, you can find those and also baby basket seats inside stalls (no need to bring the whole stroller in with you). One facility I saw had a family stall, an extra large stall with a regular and a child-sized toilet. Women’s restrooms sometimes have urinals for little boys to use. One of the Canadians in my tour group had never seen a urinal before, and was actually trying to figure how she was supposed to use it.

While we were at the top of the Ikaho Ropeway, we found one restroom that pulled out all the stops. Designed to accommodate families with small children and the disabled, this thing was bigger than my kitchen.

Still, there are certain things we take for granted that aren’t provided in Japanese public restrooms, namely soap and paper towels. Sometimes you’ll find restrooms with soap and electric hand dryers, but the vast majority only have a sink with cold water, and people generally carry a handkerchief or hand towel for drying purposes. Most of the people on our tour also kept Purell or handiwipes on hand to make up for the lack of soap.

And then there was this super bizarre thing we found in the restroom of an extremely high class restaurant. Doesn’t look too bad at first glance, but take a closer look.

Yup, the toilet seat has a fuzzy cover. And that’s a STAIN on it. I don’t know about you, but I like my toilet seat covers disposable, thank you very much.

A Tour of Japanese Pop Culture, Part 9: The all-you-can-eat cake buffet!

A major con of traveling in Japan, and Tokyo in particular, is that food is  expensive. A single apple can cost ¥200 (over two dollars). Still, you can find reasonably priced meals if you know where to look. Our tour guide took us to a number of affordable restaurants, all in the city. Another option is preprepared food at supermarkets. My husband and I just happened to be in the Mitsukoshi Department Store basement (where their supermarket is located) right when the prepackaged sushi got slashed from 50% off to 75% off. My husband wound up with 24 pieces of sushi for less than ¥1000! (And it was good, too!)

And as surprising as it may sound, all-you-can-eat establishments do exist in Japan, although the Japanese have their own twist on the concept.

I first heard of all-you-can-eat cake parlors in shojo manga. Actually, I thought they were a joke, a figment of a sugar-obsessed mangaka’s imagination. But then I overheard our tour guides talking about the all-you-can-eat cake buffet they visited. My husband and I were instantly intrigued, and a few nights later, we were in Sweets Paradise.

Sweets Paradise is a restaurant chain with several locations. The one we went to was on the fourth floor of the Marui City Mall near Shibuya Station. By the way, if you head to that particular location, the mall sign reads “Oi City.” (“Maru” means round in Japanese. Ergo “O”i City = “Maru”i City.)

Here’s how it works. At the restaurant entrance is a machine where you purchase a meal ticket (1480 yen for adults and 840 yen for kids). You then hand it over to the hostess, and once she seats you, you have 90 minutes to eat as much as you like. You can order tea from the wait staff, get coffee and soda from self-serve dispensers, and help yourself to the buffet line goodies. The selection includes a few veggies, soup, curry, rice, and four different pastas. When the chef puts out a freshly cooked batch of pasta, she shouts to let the patrons know.

And of course there are the sweets! More than half the buffet line was taken up by the dessert display which included cheesecake, roll cakes, mousse cake, cream pastries, pudding, and even shaved ice, sweet red bean, and jelly cubes. Please note that though the cakes look very Western, they are geared toward a Japanese palate. Green tea flavored several desserts, one cake was made with sweet potato, and another was topped with a sesame seed sauce. I thought it was great, and my husband sampled every dessert on display.

I should mention that the clientele was almost entirely female. Most looked like groups of girlfriends who’d been shopping together. The only exceptions were my husband and – you guessed it – another guy with his date. I don’t know why, but sweets are viewed as girly stuff  in Japan, ergo, these establishments cater to women.

My husband didn’t care about that at all. For ¥1480, he’d run back to Sweets Paradise for another round even without me.

A Tour of Japanese Pop Culture, Part 8: Traveling on Tokyo’s Trains

I’ve mentioned trains and train stations number of times so I should probably give a little more information about them. Japan has an extensive, efficient public transportation system. For most areas in the country, taking the train is the most economical way to go. It can be a little overwhelming though.

This is the Tokyo subway, which is actually a combination of railways run by several different companies. I first traveled it was 1995 when I was an undergrad traveling with several other American and Japanese college students. I saw the map and thought it was a piece of artwork. No joke.

Even having grown up traveling San Francisco Muni, I found Tokyo’s subway incredibly intimidating. So I stuck to my Japanese friends like Velcro, terrified of getting lost alone. Almost 20 years later, I had to navigate these rails again, this time with only my husband, whose Tokyo train experience was as limited as mine. Fortunately, English-speaking travelers now have tools to make the trains much less bewildering, and chief among them are: Hyperdia, Suica and PASMO.

Hyperdia: this website provides transit information in English, Japanese, and Chinese. You simply enter your location and desired destination, the time of departure/arrival, and Hyperdia will tell you which trains you need to take, and the transfer points and times. An app is available so if you have a smartphone, you can recalculate your route if you get lost or miss a train. No need to bother with maps or train schedules!

Suica/PASMO: If you’re going to take the subway only once or twice, then purchase a ticket at the ticket counter or ticket machine (most have a button that says “English” that will give you instructions in English). But if you’re going to be on the train multiple times over several days, it will behoove you to get a PASMO or Suica card.

These are transit debit cards. Suica is distributed by JR (Japan Railways) and PASMO by Tokyo Metro, but really both cards are interchangeable and will work with practically all the local train lines in the greater Tokyo area.

You simply purchase a card for ¥500 and then load it with credit (in increments of ¥1000). To use it, you scan the card when you enter a station and when you exit at your destination. Whenever you scan your card, the turnstile screen will show how much credit you have remaining.

The card saves you the hassle of constantly purchasing tickets (and carrying coins and figuring out which ticket to buy and transfers from one rail company to another, etc.). And if your card comes up short at your destination, you simply take it to an “add fare” machine, which will calculate the necessary credit for you to complete your trip.

They’re similar to the TAP (Transit Access Pass) cards being implemented in the LA area but better. Suica/PASMO also works at participating vending machines, restaurants, and stores. So if you’ve got no change on hand for a snack (or if you loaded way more credit than you’ll need for travel onto your card), you can use your Suica/PASMO credit to get a beverage or meal.

Once you’re done traveling, you can get a refund for your remaining balance and deposit by turning your Suica in at a JR station ticketing office. PASMO cards can also be refunded, but I’m not exactly sure where.

These tools definitely made things easier traveling in Tokyo this time around.

Another thing that helps make the subway navigable is that station and train signs are in kanji and Roman letters so you can at least read the station names. Electronic signs, like the ones indicating track numbers at JR stations, will usually flash between English and Japanese. And these signs are everywhere. Even if you’re at a monster station like Shibuya, as long as you know what train you want and you’re at the right station, it won’t be very long before you find a sign pointing you toward the right track.

And DO check signs before you enter a turnstile. As mentioned before, multiple companies run Tokyo’s trains, and a single train station may have several sets of turnstiles leading to different tracks. For instance, the Asakusa and Mita lines both go through Mita Station, but there are separate turnstiles for each line.

A few last things of note:

Trains do get crazy crowded at peak times. So if you’re carrying a lot of bags during rush hour, you’re in for a world of hurt.
When you’re packed that tight and someone coughs, there’s no escape. So you might consider wearing disposable face masks as the locals do. No one will think it’s weird. We bought a box of masks at a pharmacy for 600 yen and wore them the entire time we were traveling.
Trains end service around midnight. If you miss the last train, you can hang out at an all-night restaurant or manga cafe until they resume service in the wee hours of the morning.

Writing Contest Alert: Pitch Wars!

If you’ve got a finished manuscript that you’re trying to polish nice and pretty for querying, Brenda Drake’s got a contest you’ll want to check out! Pitch Wars is an event where agented authors, industry interns, and editors team up with aspiring writers to shine up their manuscripts and pitches to present to some awesome agents!

They’re taking applications from aspiring writers in MG, YA, NA, and adult from now till December 5, 8PM EST.

For more details about the contest and coaches, go to Ms. Drake’s website!

A Tour of Japanese Pop Culture, Part 7: Hello Kitty and Sanrio’s Puroland

If the Ghibli Museum is on one end of the themed attraction spectrum then Puroland is definitely on the other. Sanrio’s theme park features bright colors, dazzling lights, costumed characters, Chinese acrobats, lively music, and you can take all the pictures and video you want!

Just so you know, this sojourn to Hello Kitty’s home turf was on account of my husband, not me. Despite his indifference to real cats (he’s allergic to them), he’s a tremendous fan of fictional kitties with no mouths. So when he saw the advertisement for Puroland, he was determined to pay homage to Japan’s feline ambassador!

It was pure Sanrio sensory overload. Hello Kitty and her friends aren’t just posing for photographs with kids. We arrived as their main show “Believe” was taking place at the Wisdom Tree Stage in the center of Puroland. Just about every Sanrio character imaginable was singing and dancing accompanied by dozens of fantastically dressed performers and even several Chinese acrobats! Hello Kitty’s and Dear Daniel’s costumes were glittery with LEDs, and there were laser lights and other special effects to dazzle the crowd. I could only pick up a little of the dialogue (entirely in Japanese, no subtitles), but it was a mesmerizing start to a Wonderland-esque day.

What to expect at Puroland

Puroland is an indoor theme park, which means you don’t have to worry about snow or heatstroke. It consists of four levels: ground, top, and two lower levels.

Ground level (3F)

This is where visitors first step into Puroland. Beyond the ticketing booths is an expansive foyer with an information table. There are a couple signs in English here, but beyond the entry, signs are generally Japanese only. Puroland does provide pamphlets in various languages though.

You can also find storage lockers and a stroller parking lot (Puroland has no elevators so parents have to check in their strollers here). Puroland’s main store is also by the entrance. Other shops and merchandise booths are located throughout Puroland, but this is the biggest one, offering DVDs, clothes, plushies, and confections shaped like your favorite characters.

Top level (4F)

Go up the grand staircase from the entry, and you’ll find Cinnamon Dream Café, Food Machine Restaurant, and Restaurant Yakata. Yakata, which serves lunch and dinner, is an all-you-can-eat buffet and therefore pricier so we opted to eat at the Food Machine Restaurant. Food Machine is cafeteria-style, offering Western and Japanese fare and nikuman stamped with Hello Kitty’s face. The decor is very steampunk with whirly-gigs decorating the food line. It is also very family-friendly. Every table has a Hello Kitty highchair already in place.

Also on this level is a Vivitix boutique, where we finally found a Hello Kitty necktie for my husband. Seriously, we’ve been trying to find one for two years. (Apparently they’re only sold in Japan.) Now we’ve finally got one, though he decided to pass on the boxer shorts.

Lower level 2F

If you take the escalator down from the Puroland main entrance, you wind up on this level. The main attraction here is the Sanrio Character Boat Ride. Yes, it’s total ripoff of the “It’s a Small World” ride. But we still like it better because it didn’t have the annoying song and it’s all Sanrio characters. There’s a story and dialogue to go the ride, but it’s all in Japanese. From what I could piece together, it’s about Hello Kitty inviting all her Sanrio friends to a big shindig and them coming from around the world to join the party.

Bottom Level (1F)

If you take the grand staircase down from the boat ride, you wind up on the bottom floor, and this is where most of the action is. In addition to their main “Believe” production, the Wisdom Tree Stage presents smaller scale performances throughout the day, and additional shows take place in Puroland’s other three theaters.

The glitziest of these is the Marchen Theater where we saw Sanrio’s rendition of the Wizard of Oz. It’s a fun, slightly wacky musical with Hello Kitty in glitter sneakers, a Wicked Witch of the West who’s a junkfood junkie, and a Las Vegas style finale. Given all the running around, I’m extremely impressed by Puroland’s performers. It can’t be easy doing dance numbers in a costume with a giant cat head on. This was the one show that had the dialogue translated into Chinese and English on a side screen.

My Melody’s Legend of Flowers and Stars was the musical playing at the Fairyland Theater. The production was not as grand as the Wizard Of Oz, but it was my favorite of the shows we saw. While Wizard of Oz is family fare, Legend is geared more toward a tween/teen audience. Despite My Melody’s name in the title, the rabbit’s really just a narrator. It’s a romance about two fairy lovers played by performers who look like B-List Japanese idols. And it had two super awesome Chinese acrobats as part of the act.

By the way, the Fairyland  Theater is located in the Fairyland wing, and Sanrio went overboard in giving it an enchanted forest atmosphere. It’s kind of cool that the interior of the theater, from the stage to the audience seats and tables, makes you feel like you’re sitting amidst trees, but it’s a little odd in the bathroom. The toilet flush handle in the women’s room was shaped like a tree branch, and my husband said the urinals were shaped like trees. (Ummm… yeah, he peed into a tree at Puroland.)

In addition to the different stages and little workshop displays, this floor also features Hello Kitty’s house. Enter, and you can sit in her dining room, check out her bookshelf (apparently, she’s into Western literature), climb into her tub, and tap at her computer. And make sure you exit at the end of the house. There, you can get a picture with Hello Kitty herself before you leave her abode. Puroland staff will take one photo (and only one) with your personal camera and another on theirs (which you can buy for a fee).

I alluded to it before but just to emphasize, Puroland is extremely family-friendly. Most of the entertainment on the center stage is designed for kids, and there are changing facilities for babies. We visited on a Japanese holiday, and the majority of patrons were families with kids ranging from babies to middle school-age sons and daughters. Also in the mix were teenage girls in small groups and a few young couples. And then there were us.

What can I say? Hello Kitty attracts all sorts.

Between the shows, Hello Kitty’s house and all of Puroland’s other exhibits and entertainment, my husband was in Hello Kitty heaven. We explored most of it over the span of the day, but if we return to Japan, we will probably be making another trip to Puroland.

Going to Puroland

Getting to Hello Kitty’s house is pretty straightforward. If you’re coming straight from the airport, you can take a limousine bus. (They call it a limousine bus, but it’s really just a tour group sized bus. It is comfortable though.) Otherwise, take the train to Tama Center Station, which is what we did.

Adjacent the train station exit is a huge outdoor mall where Puroland is located. Puroland is clearly indicated on the mall map.

No reservations are necessary! Just go and buy your tickets. You’ll need to decide which type of tickets though. The cheaper option only gives access to the center stage shows. If you want access to the other theaters or attractions such as the Boat Ride and Kitty’s house, you’ll need the more expensive ticket.

If you’re visiting from abroad, I say get the more expensive ticket. You certainly won’t have the option to experience that much Sanrio goodness when you get home.

A Tour of Japanese Pop Culture, Part 6: The Ghibli Museum

Studio Ghibli is among the greats in the world of anime so part of our guided tour included a visit to the Ghibli Museum. Like Maidreamin and Swallowtail, it has a strict “no-photo” policy, the only exceptions being the rooftop garden and Totoro’s Reception Area at the entrance. But hopefully, these few shots will convey the flavor of the museum.

Totoro’s Reception Area

I think they categorized this place as a museum because A) it’s not an amusement park (no rides) and B) it does have art exhibits. When we visited, it had a special exhibit on European fairytales (I think). But it’s so engaging and entertaining it goes beyond what most people think of as a museum.

The building itself was like something out of a pastoral Ghibli film. Located in Mitaka Inokashira Park, which itself is a beautiful place, the museum exudes a nostalgic kind of elegance through an interesting combination of polished wood architecture and Art Deco/steampunk touches. No bright lights or gaudy decor here. Yet it bears the Ghibli stamp everywhere you look. From the Totoros in the stained-glass windows to the Jiji cat faucet handles by the Straw Hat Café to the tiles in the bathroom. One of the Canadians in our group declared that she wanted to move right in!

The museum is definitely kid-friendly. For instance, the film we saw it at the museum (an original short that can only be seen there) was approximately ten minutes, perfect for a kid’s attention span. It also had no dialogue. (No need to worry about vocabulary and hey, that’s great for foreign visitors, too!). Plus, the theater benches were child-sized so all of us adults were sitting with our knees up to our chests. The spiral staircase in the main atrium is sized for kids, the Cat Bus play room on the third floor is limited to small children only, and the animation exhibits on the first floor are designed such that the best view is at kid height.

Still, it was plenty interesting for us adults (although we did have to bend over and kneel to take in some exhibits). Rooms on the second floor provide more grown up fare with an exploration of Hayao Miyazaki’s creative process. It takes you from a mockup of his drawing board and reference materials to exhibits that demonstrate the nuts and bolts of creating an animated film. Unfortunately, all the signs were in Japanese, but it was still cool to see preliminary sketches for classics such as Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Princess Mononoke.

Yes, there is a gift shop (MAMMA AIUTO!). Yes, the goods there are really cool. No, we didn’t buy anything because everything was crazy expensive. We drooled at the Ghibli necktie, but we couldn’t justify paying $90 for it.

Visiting the museum

If you’re an anime fan visiting Japan, I highly encourage you to visit the museum. Our guide gave us about two hours there. I’d recommend allotting a half day if you want a leisurely visit, and tack on additional time if you want lunch at the museum cafe. By the way,  despite Mitaka being some distance from the middle of Tokyo, a significant number of foreigners live there, and you can find a decent variety of international food in the area.

Tickets must be purchased IN ADVANCE (see their website for details). I REPEAT , you must make a museum reservation AHEAD OF TIME. (This doesn’t mean the museum won’t be crowded though. Three separate school field trips were crawling around the place while we were there).

There’s no visitor parking at the museum so your best bet is to take the train to Mitaka Station. A bus runs between the station and the museum, but you can also walk (approximately 15 min.) to get there.

By the way, if you walk, you get a little bonus. Signs along the route point the way to the museum, and they are, of course, done in Ghibli style.

A Tour of Japanese Pop Culture, Part 5: Maneuvering without Street Signs

As mentioned in my last post, we had a difficult time locating Swallowtail, but the butler café was not the only place we had trouble finding. Much of our problems stemmed from the fact that the vast majority of Japanese streets are not marked and buildings have no address numbers. (Makes me wonder how postal workers and cabdrivers get the job done.) Complicating matters is that what looks like a street on a map might actually be a pedestrian-only footpath. So the only things I really had to navigate with were major landmarks (like train stations) and geometry, which can be pretty daunting in a landscape like Tokyo.

Because my husband rented a mobile modem for his iPhone, we attempted using the GPS features of Google and Yahoo maps, but that was a FAIL in the most epic sense of the word. Instead of getting us to our State Department friends’ townhouse, it sent us a mile in the wrong direction, smack into Roppongi’s nightclub district. So our first taste of Tokyo was being hopelessly lost at 8 AM, watching hungover salary men and office ladies bid farewell to their nighttime companions while middle schoolers passed on their way to Saturday morning classes (yes, there’s a middle school located in the middle of the Roppongi nightclubs).

GPS failed again when we were trying to locate our hotel in Kawasaki. It literally sent us in circles, the dot representing the hotel’s supposed location constantly shifting on the iPhone screen. Finally, I used the iPhone to access the hotel website, found a picture of the hotel building, and began looking around the area for a matching building (THAT worked).

Suffice to say, for those of us who depend on street signs and building numbers getting from place to place in Japan can be challenging. One way around it is to take a taxi everywhere, but that can get expensive. So here’s a couple things we learned that might help you find your Japanese destination.

1. Get a picture of the location. Even if there’s no exterior photo available, just knowing what the logo of a store or restaurant looks like might help you pinpoint it quicker.

2. Find out what floor your destination is on. Tokyo’s full of high-rises, and many buildings house multiple businesses. Knowing that your restaurant is two levels underground or on the 15th floor will help a lot.

Handy subway exit sign

3. If the place is near a train station, find out what the nearest subway exit is. Subway stations often extend several hundred meters underground, and, interestingly, their exits are numbered and well-labeled in contrast to the streets above. Some subway exits even have signs indicating major buildings and attractions in their vicinity. So if you know that your destination is near Mita Station Exit A10, you will be that much closer to your goal.

4. Landmarks. In lieu of signs, street level landmarks are your best guide. That was what our State Department friends used to guide us to their house (“Make a right at the Golf Partner store, pass two Mexican restaurants, make a left at the diva Buddha statute…)

5. And if all else fails… ask for directions. The Japanese are by and large a congenial people. Even if they can’t understand a word you’re saying, they’ll do their best to help, or at least point you in a direction where they think you can get help.

Next up, the Ghibli Museum!

A Tour of Japanese Pop Culture, Part 4: Swallowtail Butler Café (and How to Get There)

Two days after our high energy maid café visit, we had a completely different experience at Otome Road’s Swallowtail Butler Café!

Otome Road is a street in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro (anime fans will recognize the district as the setting for Durara!) with businesses targeted toward female anime/manga enthusiasts. Specifically yaoi/BL fangirls and fujoshi. (If you’re unfamiliar with the terms yaoi, BL, and fujoshi, erm… go to Wikipedia.)

But there’s more to Otome Road than dojinshi. It also caters to anime cosplayers and Lolita fashion enthusiasts with shops such as K-Books Cosplay-kan. But once a girl’s dressed in high style, she needs a place to strut her stuff. And where better to live out princess fantasies than at Swallowtail, Japan’s legendary butler café!

The Swallowtail Experience

Seriously, Swallowtail looks like a place you could take the Queen. It resembles a Victorian-era tearoom and offers an array of fine teas, scones and pastries, and light entrées. It has a strict no photography policy (NO pictures. AT ALL.) so I can’t show any of the interior, but take my word, it’s an absolute delight. The furnishings and chandeliers sparkle, the china is exquisite, the drapes are elegant, and there’s a wealth of nice touches from the teapot cozies to the embroidered swallowtail butterflies on the butlers’ livery. As for the patrons, they looked like they’d just come from William and Kate’s wedding. Hats, frills, gloves, matching purses – our fellow café guests were as much a part of the Swallowtail aura as the butlers.

Suffice to say, my husband and I and the two Minnesotan sisters from our group who also got 4:55 pm reservations felt woefully underdressed. The only information we had prior to showing up was that Swallowtail was Tokyo’s best butler café and that we needed reservations. We hadn’t realized it would be so highbrow. T-shirts and jeans were fine for the maid café, but our casual garb pretty much screamed foreign tourist at Swallowtail.

Still, the staff was extremely gracious. I don’t know how the regulars felt about us intruding on their velvet and gilt turf, but the butlers did not hesitate to give us the royal treatment. That, though, took some getting used to. Swallowtail doesn’t offer dancing maids or karaoke songs, but it does provide a refined air and attention. Lots of it.

Each party gets its own butler, and you ring a bell at your table to summon him. Almost everyone orders tea, and your butler will pair your drink with a cup from Swallowtail’s china collection. As he serves, he will explain the cup’s history and origins and the reason he selected it. My husband got a Japanese cup to go with his Japanese tea, and I got one with painted flowers to match the floral fragrance of mine. When you need a refill, you’re to ring the bell and the nearest butler will pour for you. We didn’t realize that at first, and the sisters’ butler got really embarrassed and flustered when one of them began pouring her own tea!

Yes, they ARE determined to wait on you hand and foot. If you go to the restroom, they escort you there (and back!) and carry your purse for you. And whenever they take their leave, they formally excuse themselves and bow (LOTS and LOTS of bowing).

Our tour’s pamphlet described Swallowtail as “pretty boys doting on your every need,” but that’s not quite accurate. They DO dote on your every need, but with the exception of one young butler who looked like a glam rock musician in tails, the age of the staff ranged from mid-20s to late 30s. Our butler seemed to be around 30, and the head butler appeared to be in his 50s. They are good-looking though and make a distinguished group in their ties and tails.

As for the clientele, the only male patrons were my husband and one other fellow on a date. He was also a first-timer, his date seemed like a regular. Everyone else was female, alone or in small groups, in their 20s or 30s, and the majority dressed in Lolita outfits. At least, that was the Friday evening crowd. Three Canadians from our group had a reservation later that night and told us the place was filled with intimidating older ladies (late 30s to 50s?) dressed to the teeth. Apparently, wanting to be treated like royalty isn’t limited to the younger set.

Important information for visiting swallowtail

So if you’ve decided you must experience Otome Road’s classiest establishment for yourself, here are some key things to keep in mind.

1. You MUST have a reservation. Reservations can be made on their website. Because it is in Japanese, you may have to enlist the help of someone who knows the language.

Another way to make a reservation is in person. While online reservations have to be made a couple days in advance, Swallowtail does have limited “drop-in” reservations (that’s how the Minnesota sisters, my husband and I got in). You simply drop by the cafe and ask the host on duty if there are reservations remaining for the day. We handled this by bringing a sheet that said, “Do you have reservations available?”in Japanese to show to the host. He responded by writing down the available times for us.

2. Parties are limited to small groups. Our tour guide told us three was the max, but I did see a party of four at one table. At any rate, Swallowtail definitely could not have accommodated the 15+ party that we had at Maidreamin.

Stairs to Swallowtail

3. Allot ample time to find the café BECAUSE IT’S EASY TO MISS! Swallowtail is located BELOW ground level and has a very subdued exterior. Of the four parties from our tour group that wanted to go, ALL had difficulty locating it, and one group even missed their appointment because they couldn’t find it in time. (The butlers did send them off with scones though.) My husband and I actually circled the block twice, bought a drink at the Family Mart on the ground level, and went upstairs to the K-Books store above the café before we finally noticed the stairs leading to the basement level. While the Swallowtail placard is refined and elegant, it gets completely obscured by the brightly lit Family Mart and K-Books signs.

Swallowtail’s Location.
You can barely make out its sign where the blue Christmas lights are.

So if you’re headed to Swallowtail, what you really want to keep an eye out for is this corner where K-Books and a Family Mart are located. Find this building and then look for the stairs leading down.

Reservation Slots

4. Appointments are for a SET timeframe. As mentioned above, if you’re overly late, you lose your appointment. But there’s no dawdling either. Once your hour and twenty minutes are up, it’s time to go. And if you’re slow about it, the butlers will very politely but very firmly usher you out. This is Japan, after all, and they’re all about punctuality.

5. And of course, go in your best clothes. (So you don’t end up like us!)

Keep these things in mind, and you’ll have an unforgettable time at Japan’s premier butler café!

A Tour of Japanese Pop Culture, Part 3: the Akihabara Maid Café!

The tour group we joined was comprised of anime, manga, and gamer otaku so of course one of our stops was Tokyo’s electric town, Akihabara. In addition to electronics, anime goods, and gaining centers, Akihabara also features maid cafés! A visit to Maidreamin was listed as an optional tour activity, but when the guide asked who was interested, more than half the group raised their hands.

These establishments are, as my husband likes to describe them, a kind of modern-day geisha house. Just like geisha, these women entertain their guests with song, food, and drink. But instead of kimono, they wear ruffled and ribboned maid costumes, and their songs are belted karaoke style instead of sung with traditional Japanese instruments.

When these cafés first appeared, their clientele was solidly male. Now couples frequent them as well. For those who are curious, the gender ratio of our group was about 50-50.

The experience was by far the most rollicking part of the tour. Maidreamin is located on the sixth floor of a small building, and when we emerged from the cramped elevator, we were greeted with cheers, applause, and high-fives. I thought at first that it was part of the café “service,” but it turned out to be other patrons! Another group’s party was in full swing, and they totally wanted us to join. The salarymen were so friendly and enthusiastic we had to join in, especially when they ordered up a song, broke out the glow sticks (yes, maid cafés turn into mini-rock concerts), and began showing us the accompanying dance moves. It wasn’t long before we were all laughing and calling to one another in broken English and mangled Japanese.

While I can’t guarantee all café patrons will be so exuberant, you can count on the maids to be. Their job is to be super perky and super friendly and create a fun atmosphere for everyone. The staff had little knowledge of English, but they were no less attentive for it. When one of our guys hung back during the karaoke portion, a maid came right beside him to encourage him to clap along. They’re determined to make sure all patrons have a good time.

I must emphasize that this is all good, clean fun. These establishments do serve alcoholic drinks, but they also have rules. Standard ones are: no touching, no asking for personal information, no touching, no pictures (except for those taken by the café staff for a fee), no touching, and did I mention, NO TOUCHING.

They will, however, sing requested songs on their mini-karaoke stage with energy and verve, and at other cafés, maids will play games like Connect Four with patrons. And depending on what you get from the menu, you could get a little chant or poem to go with your order. Another tour participant and I ordered omrice (omelette-rice: fried rice wrapped in an omelette and topped with ketchup). Most maid cafés serve this dish with a heart or “LOVE” rendered in ketchup. Our maid actually took requests. So I picked Hello Kitty (“Kitty-san!”) and the other guy, a tremendous Naruto fan, chose Naruto. Our omrice art were an exception to the photo rule, and I’m glad we got a shot before they got gobbled up.

Naruto in ketchup

Hello Kitty in ketchup
(she does look like she’s having a nosebleed though…)

Oh, and I should mention that in addition to food, drink, glow sticks, songs and photographs, maid cafés will charge an hourly sitting fee (ours was 500 yen per hour). So keep that in mind should you choose to party all night long at a maid café.

We spent an hour at Maidreamin and left at about 5 PM to explore more of Akihabara (yup, Japanese salarymen were partying on out at the maid café in the late afternoon). At about 7:30 PM, we headed for the subway and happened to run into some of our fellow café patrons. Suffice to say, the greetings exchanged were loud, somewhat tipsy, and entirely good-natured.

So much fun, Akihabara.

Next up, Butler Cafe Swallowtail!