Choreographed chaos at Tsukiji fish market

 

fish market

Tokyo fish market

Tokyo fish market

Letters from the Land of the Rising Sun

Dear Rich,

The smell of sakana (fish) is overpowering in the fish market and everyone seems to know their part in the intricately choreographed chaos.

We can’t enter most of the market because we didn’t get reservations at 4:30 am, but the lines are long at the sushi stands with tourists and locals alike.

#tanakasan

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France: Fighting jet lag and a Meetup for painting in Paris

Louvre in Paris

Louvre in Paris

By Staff Writer Larry Wilson

When I arrived in Paris in the late afternoon one day in early September, we made sure not to let me succumb to jet lag — no naps; get on local time — and walked the streets for a while.

We had an early dinner at the properly famous Brasserie de L’Isle Saint-Louis at the very tip of the isle looking across the channel to Notre Dame. Famous for its view and sidewalk location; the food … well, a cold charcuterie selection with a veal sausage that was more like a hot dog … the wine was good, I’ll say. A Provencal rose. And so to bed.

Then, in another fine anti-jet lag ploy, Phoebe had us up in the morning on France time and off to a regular Sunday drawing group formed through the website Meetup. They were gathering in the gardens of the Rodin Museum, and the medium was watercolors that day, a pastime I had recently taken up in a very small way.

Parisians, a woman from India, some vagabond Americans — it was a great group. And the instructor, Michel, a handsome, Picasso-esque man in his early 70s, as soon as he heard we lived in Pasadena, announced: “Ah! I graduated from Art Center,” which is just up the street we live on. These are the kinds of happy coincidences that happen when you just sign up.

With Web connections, there is no reason to be lonely when far away anymore. We painted through the afternoon and broke for beers and talked in an outdoor cafe looking over the plaza in front of the French Senate in the early evening.

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France: Where the wine is much, much better than in Peru or Bali

The tricolor flies outside the French senate in Paris

The tricolor flies outside the French senate in Paris

By Staff Writer Larry Wilson

France, the country still visited by more travelers than any other, is not exactly an exotic destination.

It was the first country I went to on a five-month backpacking trip after graduating from college at 21, and I had been there many times since. My wife, Phoebe, studied for a year in Paris as an undergraduate.

So when picking a place to go late this summer on our vacation, why France? Why not go somewhere we’d never been? Bali, where I could surf? Or Peru, where I could … surf?

Well, while I hear the surfing is excellent in Biarritz, we went to France for the first two weeks of September anyway, and the only time I took a dip was in the Mediterranean, where there are no waves to speak of.

We went to good old France because we hadn’t been back in a decade; because unlike most other places, we have French friends we wanted to visit there; and because the wine is much, much better than in Bali or Peru.

And if we hadn’t gone, I never would have the profound experience of visiting the Fondation Maeght in the hills above Nice, where we spent an entire afternoon enraptured by one of the greatest art shows I’ve ever experienced, curated not by an art historian but by France’s leading public intellectual, Bernard-Henri Levy, in a country that prides itself on having those.

And I never would have stayed in an obscure 18th century architectural folly in the obscure eastern countryside that was the philosophical inspiration for Jefferson’s masterpiece, the University of Virginia.

I

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Yoshinoya beef bowl tastes just like home in LA

Letters from the Land of the Rising Sun

Dear Rich,

I ventured out of the apartment for my first meal in Tokyo this morning and wandered into a little hole in the wall.

The restaurant only had 14 bar seats, with the servers walking inside the peninsula-shaped counter and all of the menu items were in Japanese with tiny pictures of the food.Adventurous? Maybe, but I have to admit the Yoshinoya beef bowl tasted exactly as it does at home. I promise I’ll try something new for the next meal!

Sincerely,
Tanaka-san

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Teens dance the day away in Yoyogi Park

Teens dance in Tokyo Park

Letters from the Land of the Rising Sun

Dear Rich,

It seems as though Japanese teenagers do nothing but choreographed dancing in their spare time. In my walk through Yoyogi Park today, there were at least four good-sized groups of Japanese youths practicing dances, while countless more rehearsed individually throughout the grounds.

This group in the video actually included double-dutch jump-roping into their routine, which I wish I could have videotaped because the guys looked like they were floating in midair, barely touching the ground as the ropes whipped around them. How fun!

Tanakasan

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France: Go for the wine, stay for the philosophy

By Staff Writer Larry Wilson

France: Go for the wine; stay for the philosophy.
Not that it was all deep thinking. There was plenty of eating and walking around. And there was the wine.

Pulling the cork on a bottle of Macon Villages some months before we left, I realized that while I had been in several parts of France — the Loire, Provence, the Landes, Champagne, and lots and lots of Paris — I had never been to where the greatest wines in the world are made: Burgundy.

So we put that on the itinerary, along with the happily inevitable most beautiful city in the world, Paris; Marseille, where Phoebe has friends; and Nice, where the family of our former French exchange student, Lisa Folacci, lives.

Our Julia had spent the summer after Lisa was with us in Pasadena in Nice with Martine and Jean-Luc Folacci, yet we had never met them. Both, it was plain to see in our Skype conversations with them, are sophisticated and kind physicians, the kind of people you’d like to meet who had taken wonderful care of our daughter, a difficult-to-feed vegetarian at the time who spoke no French.

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Malaysia air delivers on flight from LA to Tokyo for $671

Best airplane food I've had. A mushroom rice with grilled asparagus and bell pepper entree, with side salad, dinner roll and fresh pineapple and grapes.

Best airplane food I’ve had. A mushroom rice with grilled asparagus and bell pepper entree, with side salad, dinner roll and fresh pineapple and grapes.

Boarding Malaysia flight

Letters from the Land of the Rising Sun

When I bought my tickets to Japan, I have to admit, the price seemed
too good to be true. The roundtrip, non-stop flight from LAX to Narita
on Malaysia Airlines was $671, easily half of a normal fare to Tokyo
and at least $200 cheaper than most sale fares I’d seen on other
airlines. I had never traveled — never even heard of — the Kuala
Lumpur-based airline, but they allowed me to pick my seats for both
directions and request a lacto-ovo vegetarian meal.

I arrived at the check-in counter at Tom Bradley International
Terminal about 4.5 hours before the flight on Friday, and when the check-in
counters opened 4 hours before takeoff, the line went quickly.

Boarding, too, was surprisingly swift and while the seats in economy
were relatively tight, it was no different than any other
international flight to Asia. Each seat had a personal video screen
and was provided a pillow, blanket and headphones. By the time we were
in the air, I had scoped out the movie selection, which leaned heavily
toward the action genre.

SkySnax with Japanese crackers, two cookie packets and chocolate-covered peanuts.

SkySnax with Japanese crackers, two cookie
packets and chocolate-covered peanuts.

One of my biggest worries was the food service and that ended up
being, in my opinion, Malaysia Airlines’ best quality. The vegetarian
meals were surprisingly tasty and I heard that the regular menu
options were flavorful as well.

A “light meal” was served about 40 minutes after we reached cruising altitude, consisting of salad, pasta with marinara sauce and grilled squash, a dinner roll and fresh pineapple.

Salad, pasta with marinara sauce and grilled squash, a dinner roll and fresh pineapple

Salad, pasta with marinara sauce and grilled squash, a dinner roll and fresh pineapple

A couple hours later, the flight attendants
passed out a SkySnax box with Japanese crackers, two cookie
packets and chocolate-covered peanuts. Because I had requested the vegetarian meal, I also received a dinner roll with
cream cheese, lettuce, tomato and cucumbers, which came in handy as I
gave away most of my snack box contents.

The dinner, served 2.5 hours before landing, was the best airplane
food I’ve ever had. A mushroom rice with grilled asparagus and bell pepper
entree, with side salad, dinner roll and fresh pineapple and grapes.

The mushroom rice was incredibly flavorful and filling, and
I was very happy that the flight attendants were quick with delivery
and remembered my special request for both meals without prompting.

 My seatmate's dinner, a teriyaki beef with rice, grilled bok choy and carrots.

My seatmate’s dinner, a teriyaki beef with rice, grilled bok choy and carrots.

My
seatmate’s dinner, a teriyaki beef with rice, grilled bok choy and
carrots, was good, but did not receive nearly as many rave
reviews as the mushroom rice.

The flight landed nearly an hour ahead of schedule, which might have
inconvenienced some travelers but overall was good news for many on
the plane. Several passengers were connecting to Kuala Lumpur, but had
to disembark for two hours before returning to continue their journey.

Turbulence was minimal, though the pilot suspended hot-drink service
until dinnertime. As long as my return trip is even half as smooth,
I’ll be a happy traveler and look forward to flying Malaysia Airlines
in the future. The airline, which seems to be struggling and posted a
third-quarter loss, has been offering steeply discounted fares for
most destinations, making travel to and around Asia extremely
affordable.

Tanakasan

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Second trip to Japan brings out reporter’s curiosity

Signs everywhere welcome you to Japan.

Signs everywhere welcome you to Japan.

Letters from the Land of the Rising Sun
Dear Rich,
If the Japanese people are known for anything, it is their incredible manners. Within the first hour of landing, I was welcomed to Japan a half-dozen times in a half-dozen ways.

This is my second time in Japan, although it’s my first time visiting Tokyo and Kyoto.
I earned a scholarship more than a decade ago that would pay for me to travel to the land of my ancestors and stay with a host family in the capital of Wakayama Prefecture, the “state” in which my grandparents were raised.
After that initial trip I was inspired to study Japanese in college and took three semesters of the language. In our daily lessons we met Yamada-san and Tanaka-san.
Where Yamada-san was staid, asking us how to get to the library or the bank, Tanaka-san was adventurous, going to see the country via the shinkansen (bullet train) or going to parties and meeting dates at the nearby kissaten (coffee shops).
Though I remember only a few words and phrases, few of which are useful in my travels, I do remember Tanaka-san’s curiosity and hope to bring you snippets of that while I tour Japan.Sincerely,
Tanaka-san
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