|
|
TUE 20 APR 99
Ramblings and Roses (Stinking) in the Big Udon
My favorite (and only) morning paper, the Mainichi News, presents motivational anecdotes along with my morning fruit:
Dipping hippo evades French authorities
CORBEIL-ESSONNE, France (AFP-Jiji) – Bouglie Dum-bo, 6 years old and 1 ton in weight, evaded divers, the fire brigade and trainers for a couple of hours on Saturday when she went for an unscheduled swim in a nearby river just before her circus performance was due to begin. The hippopotamus, star of the Willie Zavatta Circus, had been allowed to roam at liberty inside the circus encampment when the nearby Essonnne River, in this country town south of Paris, attracted her attention. Hundreds of spectators watched form a bridge as the emer-gency services and her trainer coaxed the circus star back out of the water and into a cage mounted aboard a truck.
Elderly thief blames life of crime on wallets
A 79-year-old habitual pickpocket arrested on Saturday in the western Tokyo suburb of Chofu for stealing has told police that she feels a sense of calling from wallets, police said on Monday. Police said they caught Kikui Tomoe on Saturday morning in the act of stealing a wallet containing 8,000 yen in cash from a 52-year-old woman at a flea market in Chofu. Tomoe allegedly told police, “When I see wallets in a crowd, I feel as if they are calling out to me to take them,” police said. She has also asked police not to treat her as an elderly person, they said. Tomoe, who lives on her own in an apartment with a monthly rent of 50,000 yen, reportedly told police that she planned to use the cash she stole to cover living expenses.
The orange rind is still firm, but the orange itself is mildly sweet.
Sahoko is on the train where I get in. We get to talking about work. I mention about having worked at Disney earlier. She tries to understand my relationship with Universal. Am I under direct contract? (No) Then am I an independent consultant with my own business? (No) Then doesn’t that mean that I can be fired or laid off at any time? (Yep) Doesn’t that feel insecure? (Get used to it) Of course, I can quit at any time too. I fail to mention that even with most contracts, you can still be fired or quit at any time.
Spend the day reviewing T2 [Terminator 2 3-D The Ride] 100% CDs [Construction Drawings]. I think that we owe them more than they owe us.
Lunch is a limp croissant with a prepackaged pat of creamed butter. Lunch is also a salad with some kind of sprouts and some kind of chewy stringy dark green pickled stuff. The pickles get picked and sent packing. The piece de resistance is candied potato—and I mean like candied with a hard sugar coating. Good, but not so good for you, but then this reward does not go to one’s head—it goes to other parts of the anatomy.
I take my tray and walk to the far end of the cafeteria, where I have never seen anyone sit before. Of the three rearmost tables, the center one has a potted tree between it and the rest of the room. Greg, with reservations, joins me. We lurk there like Arte Johnson from Laugh-In doing his secretive SS shtick. Within a few minutes, the adjacent table fills up with Bob, Vernon, Gary, and a gentleman I do not know. I invite Greg and myself over to discuss Lombards [Restaurant].
Back to checking T2.
Fergus strolls in. I feel better already—the cynics are back in the groove.
On the way home, share ride with Vasili, Mike Hopewell, and an art director with a British accent. Get off at Fukushima station, which is slightly closer to the Ritz, and a good way to go on a decent day. Otherwise, go underground to Umeda. I head west a block or two along a small shopping street from the north side of the station. I turn south where the street frames a distant view of a massive new building nearing completion with exposed bracing. I head towards it, going under the tracks I was recently on, then jogging to the west when the street ends in a T. Soon I turn south again and pass Shimofukushima (Susan’s favorite word) Park, partly filled with the blue plastic and cardboard telltales of homelessness.
I cross the Dojimabashi Bridge to Nakanoshima—the isle in the middle of the Ajikawa River. That is, the north side of the river is Dojimagawa, the south is the Tosaborigawa, the upstream section is the Okawa, which in turn is the confluence of the Yodogawa, the Neyagawa and the Hiranogawa. It seems that the location is more important than the content. When dealing with features on a geographical scale, that is probably true.
However, if we’re talking big intestine, little intestine, it’s the contents that we want to watch out for.
The new international convention center seems to deal with exhibition space by stacking it vertically in column-free floors. Next door is the Rhiga Royal Hotel. It looks like there are three restaurant floors at the top, so I decide to explore. On the ground there are a couple of places like a bar and an Italian café. There is an enormously spacious lobby lounge with intensely elaborate but modernistic chandeliers hovering hugely below an eight meter ceiling. The wide end of the room is floor-to-ceiling glass with a view of the bamboo forest and torrential waterfall in the garden outside.
Elevators go up to the 28th floor for a great view, and an escalator continues up to the 29th to a French restaurant at the north end of the floor. The balance of the two floors is actually meeting rooms, and not restaurants as I previously thought. A great place to come with a telephoto lens for a shot of the Sky-Umeda building whose arch is right on axis with the view. Another set of escalators connect the 28th floor to the Sky Lounge on the 30th. The trip up the escalator is almost worth it—they’ve done some interesting effects with acrylic rods and lighting, and a simulated fiber-optics ceiling with perf metal panels. Even though the panels are custom made, it still has to be cheaper than fiber optics.
I walk back north across the Tamaebashi Bridge and back up to the Fukushima JR station. On the southeast corner is a development which just opened a week ago—the Laxal Plaza which contains retail, dining, offices the new location of the Hanshin Hotel. (The Hanshin Line runs directly under the street in front of it.) There is the usual assortment of Japanese restaurants in the basement as well as what appears to be a pretty decent Italian (menu in both Japanese and Italian) and a new branch of the Entec Group’s Garlic Pierrot restaurants.
On the street, Ross greets me as he is coming back from the office and having stopped off at Makadoneru for some comfort food. He wishes me well in the hunt for the evening’s meal.
I head back to the hotel to take my medicine and to “freshen up,” then continue down to Namba on the Yotsubashi line. It still amazes me—the chandeliers that have been created in this station using scores of bare bulb 2m fluorescents. It’s the only place where I have seen fluorescents used with theatrical effect.
At Shinsaibashi, I follow the Namba Walk east and surface on Midusuji Avenue and head north to just over the bridge over the Dotonborigawa. Here I turn east and continue a block and a half past the Kirin building with its four square paneled towers of light. On the north side on the 6th floor is Garlic & Garlic (06) 6212-5770. Judging from their matchbooks, they’re affiliated with the Hollywood Star Karaoke and Party Room (which may be what was on the third floor). However, it is not in evidence in the restaurant.
It’s a casual place with nothing but Beatles albums in the CD changer. Both the beverage and food menus are bilingual except for the main headings. But when all of the dishes in a group include chicken, you can pretty well guess that the heading is chicken.
I order a 97 German Gewurtztramminer whose slight sweetness should offset the oily intensity of the garlic—if done right. I actually get a metal bucket with ice for the bottle—a good sign. The garlic croquettes are battered cloves of garlic, deep fried until they turn soft inside and golden crispy outside. They come with ample dipping sauce—a cool soothing aioli to offset the heat and crunch of the croquettes. There is also a scoop of a potato salad with a few bits of ham in it, a leaf of lettuce, and some ziti in a light tomato sauce. It all goes together nicely, and has a subtlety that reinforces rather than overpowers the flavor (not to be confused with the pungency) of the garlic.
The eggplant with garlic and miso is the best variation of oriental eggplant with minced pork I have ever had. The miso and garlic substitute for the minced pork, and the eggplant is cooked almost to the state of total comfort. The dark glistening colors on the light creamy plate reach out to me.
Then finally there is the simple dish of garlic spaghetti. It comes with a small pile of thin little fried garlic chips while the pasta still simmers al dente in a broth visibly flecked with garlic.
Where have I been all this time? I feel like my time in Osaka has been wasted while this Mecca of malodorousness has been denied to its foremost worshipper. Ah well, even one taste of heaven is better than never having known it at all.
On my circuitous way back, I encounter a Thai restaurant, also in the Shinsibashi area. It is about a block and a half west of Sakai Suji Avenue, which is the next major street east of Midosuji Avenue, and one block north of Soemon Cho, which is the street with Garlic & Garlic. There, on the fourth floor on the north side of the street, is a building with a mix of uses—private clubs, love hotel, dining and God knows what else, is Indra (06) 214-1536. I take the elevator up, turn right from the elevator and right again, and there, next to the draft beer sign on the floor is the entrance to a small establishment. The first to greet me is girl of about 2 years. Her mother is working in the open kitchen right next to the Maître de/Cashier’s stand—if they had a Maître de or a Cashier. Her husband greets me, and with very little gesticulation, he hands me a card and nicely asks that I please come back soon. I said I would. Interestingly enough, the card says that they are “Open every night 07:30 PM ~ 07:00 AM. All I can say is, everybody’s gotta eat sometime.
It can most readily be reached by the Yotsubashi line south to Namba and changing for the eastbound Senichimae line for one stop to Nippombasi. Walk north over the Dotonborigawa on Sakai Suji Avenue, turn left on the second street after the bridge, and look for the signs with Indra Thai Restaurant. They seemed like decent people that could use some extra patronage. |