26. Fun in the powder

Well after five days of Niseko powder I understand why people keep coming back for more. It is pretty good stuff and apart from the odd queue, it is pretty open.

There was little reprieve, all you need to do was go out to be covered in snow, that said I do think I took a tumble just before that pic.

Here is an example of what came down daily. The car on the left shows the amount that fell in a day, well over my hand print in the snow. On the right, it's up to my knees.
I was able to do a few runs that were well over 2k's and would be lucky to see my skis once, yep it was that good.
The village isn't too bad apart from a few obnoxious Aussies, plenty of good cheap food too, crab ramen and beer for two is under $40 which is pretty amazing when that amount gets a pie and chips for one on most Australian mountains.

25. The business end

We have arrived at Niseko Hirafu, time to get into the real work of skiing. It is a good sign when you arrive and there is plenty of snow on the roofs and even more snow coming down. Thankfully our hotel car park is heated so it is an easy walk in and out to the main street, after that it gets a bit dicey. The hotel is quite nice and has it's own open air Onsen bath. It is going to be a great week of skiing.

24. The final night in Tokyo

The cruise at the end of Odaiba took us to Asukusa, at the dock is the home of Asahi, amongst other things they make beer (they also run a newspaper, the Asahi Times). The building is literally shaped like a glass of beer with a head on top. Up top you can go for a beer with a view out over Asukusa. There is a pretty cool view of the five-storey pagoda. It also gives you a good view of the sprawl. Oh and the beer wasn't bad either.

To finish the night off, we decided to go local. We had a guide book telling us to go to a place called Kagaya and coincidentally Carolyn's friend Natalie was also advising us to go to Kagaya too. However, they were totally different places! The place we went to is in the alleys of Shimbashi and after going past several hostess bars (Dream Girl and Fantasy Honey come to mind) we arrived at Kagaya which is a tiny bar selling Yakitori. Apart from the waitresses, the room is packed with men, all salarymen and only a few minutes after sitting down, a salaryman comes falling down the stairs. I made the "drinkies drinkies" motion to the owner saying "Too much shochu" and got a laugh. After this he decided to have a bit of a chat with us, well with Carolyn at least, and when we mentioned Natalie, he pulled her card out of his wallet and from there it was the silver service treatment.
The food was quite nice and I decided to try a combination of Hoppy and Shochu. Hoppy is a low alcohol beer mixed with Shochu which is almost a vodka style drink, but is only 26%. Not bad and quite cheap which is probably why it is a popular drink in the post-bubble Japan.

As we got up to go, Kagaya pulled us over to sit down and have a drink with him. He had a sample bottle of shochu for us to try, telling us to drink up, you won't get a hangover. I didn't end up with one, but at the same time, I am sure enough will. After a few drinks and telling him it was our last night he:

1. Bought us food for breakfast
2. Gave us the rest of the Shochu to take
3. Gave us an umbrella to keep (it was raining by then)
4. Gave us dinner for free

I know I mentioned that the Japanese were generous people, but this was exceptional, a great way to finish off the week.

23. Over to Odaiba

Well waking up to a nice clear day, we headed out to Odaiba which is a new business area in Tokyo. It is built on reclaimed land in the middle of the harbour. This is linked to Tokyo by monorail and subway. Since you get a much nicer view from a monorail rather than the subway, we proceeded above ground.

As the pics show, architecturally it is aiming for the future, the one on the right is a convention centre, however, once you get there it is also aiming to emulate the past.


The main things to do in Odaiba are look at the shops, go to the Toyota display building and to Segaworld. Once we got off the monorail we arrived at the dubiously named "Venus Fort" which is modelled on the streets of Venice. Inside the fake skyscape changes colour from sunrise to sunset to night-time all within a two-hour time frame. There are lots of fountains and stuff and the information staff are all dressed up as if they were from 15th century Italy. Cheesy, but not in an American Donald Trump kind of way though.


In the Toyota building they had an F1 simulator which is an empty chassis from the 2003, it was a struggle getting in, but once in it was pretty cool. I just hope Toyota get some success in F1 so they hang around. They also had a huge range of cars, if they brought some of the cars on offer to Australia, they would certainly have a different perception. Oh, and you can pick up a Lexus IS200 over there for about $30kAUD, not bad!

After this it was a walk down to the artificial beach and a cruise to Asakusa. In case you are interested, after a night out having the best meal of my life what do I eat? McDonalds of course, and yes it is as crap in Japan as it is in Australia.

22. Allez Cuisine

If memory serves me right, Iron Chef Hiroyuki Sakai was only challenged by Rokusaburo Michiba when it came to who was the mightiest of the Iron Chefs. Sakai had the most wins and was King of Iron Chefs when the show concluded in 1999. In fact he defeated Alain Passard to earn the title of "World's Best Chef". With a reputation like this I was looking forward to going to Sakai's restaurant La Rochelle in Minami-Aoyama. This is located in an old church that was located in the backstreets, it certainly stood out.

Our waitress was Japanese and spoke some English, along with the sommelier. When I started to talk to the sommelier about Iron Chef and how I was from Australia, he was most impressed. He decided to put me to the test, he asked Sakai's age, I said "62" and he then realised I was a real fan since Sakai is indeed 62. From here the service was top class rivalling Flower Drum for levels of attentiveness even with the language difference.

The restaurant is certainly everything French, menu French, wine French and the Champagne carried Sakai's own name too. Even though I am not great with French, it is certainly a lot better than my Japanese, so the ordering began and the anticipation built.



After selecting and having our red wine decanted, we were presented with an appetizer then entrees. Mine was sautéed fois gras on a cabbage crepe, Carolyn had fois gras pate and fois gras mousse with black truffle sauce. This was simply superb - the presentation was out of this world and everything down to the smallest detail was perfect. The flavour was also brilliant, the fois gras mousse was covered in nuts so it was up to myself to eat it, this had the food density equivalent of lead, it was so rich I struggled to eat it, yet so delicious I was compelled to complete this. Next on the menu was a pumpkin soup, it was so light and fluffy it was appropriate it was served in a cappuccino cup, simple but brilliant.


Poisson, we both had langoustine, which is somewhere between prawn and lobster, this was heaven, notice the carrot was cored and stuffed, even a humble carrot is treated with the same care and attention to turn the simple into the exceptional. It was the favourite dish for both of us.


Meat - I chose duck on basmati rice with a red wine jus and the waitress asked that mine be served with a potato arrangement of a crispy fried potato tube filled with mashed potato and topped with fried root vegetables to resemble feathers. She did this after I pointed to another person's dish asking what was that, very sweet of her!
Carolyn had Kobe beef with the same potato arrangement with two types of sauce, the texture of the meat was melt in your mouth, it was almost like a meat mousse it was so soft. Despite the size it was very rich and filling. Japan definitely values quality over quantity, this is no huge Vlado steak, that is for sure.


Desserts, we were both served a banana mousse, light and delicious, just what you need after the rich mains and before real dessert.


Chocolate nougatine with green tea ice cream and semi dried pomigranate. Strawberry mousse and ice cream. Simply no other dessert I have ever eaten has looked or tasted better.

Finally another light custard and truffle to go with coffee.
In summary, was it cheap, no, but it is no worse than Flower Drum, if you ask me I’ll tell you how much it was. Put simply this was the best meal I've ever had. The only let down perhaps was that Sakai wasn't in the kitchen this night, but I will be back and the sommelier has promised to seat me on a night he is there. An incentive to go back to Japan if ever there was one.
Who would have thought that a trip to Japan would result in clearly the best French food I’ve ever had? It is clear as to why Sakai is the King of Iron Chefs and the Delacroix of Cuisine.

21. Bussing about Tokyo

Another cold day in Tokyo, perfect weather for riding around town in an open bus. The bus goes past most of the landmarks such as the imperial palace and Diet building (Japan's Parliament House).

The bus allows you to see the gardens and older business district which is worth a quick look.

But all this garden requires an army of gardeners as shown. One of the things that impresses me most about Japan is that while countries like Australia are always looking for ways to cut down staff and numbers, Japan still employ a huge number of people to do a lot of things that we would not staff. The other thing is that everyone takes pride in their job, even volunteer charity collectors wear shirts and ties and are very freindly. A bit different to the in-your-face collectors in Australia.

Upon return, another great view out. Smog certainly stops the skyline from becoming too boring.

20. Cruisy night in Ginza

Just a quiet night in Ginza, we caught up with Tricia for some beer and izakaya. It was still quite wet so it made for some good night photos.