Holga - Okubo Tokyo Japan- Interesting Mistakes?

Just returned from a trip to Japan. I took many pictures with my Holga camera and had an interesting effect happen with one of the rolls of film. The film 'fell off the track' when being developed and my trusty photo person turned off the lights, pulled the shades and covered himself in black and rescued the film. The prints looked like negatives so I asked a film friend to 'print 'them as if they were actual photographs. Both 'prints' look like something from eons ago.

Sunday morning stroll in Okubo, Tokyo.


My actual printed photograph of a stroll down the main drag by Okubo Train Station.


Sunday morning taxi in Okubo,


My print of the taxi.


Women strolling down the street on a Sunday morning in Okubo.




My print of the stolling women in Okubo.

Eating in the Dotomburi area of Osaka

Another trip to Japan. This time in addition to Tokyo we visited Kyoto, Ohara, Nara and Osaka. When I asked a friend who lives in Japan about Osaka she said, "Eat, Osaka's food is the best!" So we did. We walked along the streets in the Dotomburi area and looked and ate. We wanted to eat two famous Osaka dishes, takoyaki and okonomiyaki. As seen in the below photos we had an interesting evening strolling and eating and then eating a little more.


The colorful lights along the Dotomburi Canal added to the evening's atmosphere.


Fugu (blowfish) restaurants are one speciality in this area.


An okonomiyaki stand looked so good. We didn't stop as we wanted to eat the dish as a meal not a snack.


We did stop and eat yummy takoyaki (octopus balls) a famous Osaka snack food. So very delicious! The best ones we've eaten.


It was fun to walk along Dotomburi Dori and look at the very colorful restaurants.


It seemed everyone stopped and had their picture taken here. A friend said a famous TV comedian dresses like this.


I didn't know the fellow in the previous photo but I did recognize the man who is probably Osaka's most famous comedian who then became an internationally famous director and actor. Know as Takashi Kitano when directing movies and Beat Takashi in his roles as actor, comedian, poet and painter this multi talented man's poster was very prominent in the Osaka train station.


Yes, we did have room for a last snack. The green tea creme was very tasty .

Pinot On The Brain

It has been a good week of tasting with several winemakers stopping by our new digs.  I was honored to have my dear friend Catherine Faller from the great Domaine Weinbach stop in for a tasting of their 2005 lineup.  The wines are as remarkably charming as the three wonderful women behind them.  I am planning a tasting of these wines soon so we will keep you posted.  As Friday approached my corkscrew hand was getting twitchy because our friend Terry David Mulligan was in town and planning to visit for a tasting before his acting gig later Friday night. I love tasting with Terry because he shares my affliction for wine and is always game to taste.  As my partner Chris went to retrieve Terry I scrambled to set up our first Blind Canadian Taste Off :EAST vs WEST  “Niagara vs Okanagan”.  The true litmus test for any wine is in the taste...let’s get it on.



Flight #1 Blind “Canada: Niagara vs Okanagan”

1. 2006 Quails’ Gate Stewart Family Reserve Pinot Noir Okanagan BC $45.75
2. 2004 Le Clos Jordanne Le Clos Jordanne Vineyard Pinot Noir Niagara Ontario $49.50

The wines were brown bagged and then pre-poured twenty minutes before Chris and Terry arrived.  I hassled the guys to saddle up to the tasting bar as soon as they arrived.  Terry is immediately shouting out countries and vintages and I don’t think he has even touched his glass yet.  My goal in this tasting is a simple one: To determine which wine is “best”.  Not best in some numerical system or sense of rarity but simply which is more complex, more exciting, a better wine in the glass. I think sometimes people forget wines are meant to be drank. 

So our tasters take to tasting.  Five minutes later I re-ask the question: "Which wine do you prefer?"  With no hestitation both answer number 2.  I pull off the paper bag and reveal  the 2004 Le Clos Jordanne ‘Le Clos Jordanne Vineyard’ Pinot Noir Niagara Ontario.  Terry is frantically pulling money from his pocket to ensure that this news doesn’t get out to his BC homeys as I am sure he would like to return to his home in the Okanagan without being lynched.  We are just getting started.




Flight #2   Blind  “Canada vs France”

3. 2005 Vincent Girardin Bourgogne Cuvee Saint Vincent France $28.50
4. 2004 Michel Gros Nuits St. George 1er Cru Burgundy France $90.00
5. 2004 Le Clos Jordanne Jordanne Vineyard Pinot Noir Niagara Ontario $49.50
6. 2004 Le Clos Jordanne  Le Grande Clos Niagara Ontario $81.50

Now that we are tasting and talking Canadian Pinot Noir we can’t stop there. Our tasters don’t know it but they but they are off to France.

I pour the guys the 2005 Vincent Girardin Burgundy which is a great value and a good benchmark example to use as a reference point for this next flight.  I have placed the winner from round one into the mix.

Again I ask the question of which do they prefer?  

Terry is torn between between #4 and #6.  Chris immediately identifies Michel Gros’s wine, and notices the earthy mushroom character of the Ontario Pinots. There is no clear winner but the Clos Jordanne Grand Clos holds it own.  This flight is intended to be what I call “a fair fight”.  I have selected the wines to demonstrate that the Canadian wines can hold there own with very good Burgundy examples.  I have done this in France repeatedly and the French believe it, or they would not invest in a Pinot project here.  I had a local sommelier recently say he has never had a good Canadian red I guess he doesn’t taste much.    




Flight #3  “French Connection”

Now that we have pitted two acclaimed Canadian Pinot Noirs together in the first flight, then pitted Canada verses France in round #2 , I wanted to present a great bottle of Burgundy with a Canada- France spin.  The wine is the 2002 Domaine de la Vougeriae Gevrey Chambertin Bel Air Premier Cru.  This was made by our good friend and fellow Canuck Pascal Marchand in France at the Boisset families’ top estate.  The Boisset family coincidentally are the French side of the partnership behind the Le Clos Jordanne wines.  

Everyone is enraptured as the wine is warming in our glasses as I just pulled it from the cellar.  Terry can’t keep it in and shouts “I love it”.  

Nicely said.  The aromas are delicate mix of violets and exotic spices... charmingly beautiful.  Another good day at the office.



David

A little taste of Italy.

Producer:  Fratelli Urciuolo

Wine:  Greco di Tufo

Region:  Campania, Italy

It is 12:15 Tuesday following the long weekend.  The three of us here at 100, huddled over the keyboards knocking off the e-mails like some sick computer batting practice that never ends.  Wine makes things better... especially computer things.  I reach into the sub-zero arsenal below me and wait to be moved.  I see the a familiar yellow label.  It has been a little while since I tasted this and I have been meaning to revisit it once the dust settled in the store.  The wine is imported by one of the most gentle and charming people you could imagine, her name is Marina Di Napoli.  It is actually a wine from her cousin’s family estate in Campania Italy, (think the shin of the boot).  The grape is Greco di Tufo. 

The wine hits the glass with a brilliant, limpid, gold hue.  I can smell it’s floral pungent, lilac aromas as it hits the glass. It is like a botanical garden in the glass.  Computer work has just gotten better.  This little gem is pleasantly dry with flavors of buckwheat honey, yellow apples and quince.  This is why we shouldn’t just rely on the common pronounceable varieties like sauvignon blanc and chardonnay. Not only is this Greco di Tufo delicious it is a history lesson of sorts.  Traditional grapes grown by a family that cares as much about every grape  as they do every family member.  You will taste their passion the moment you pull the cork.

Glimpses of Tokyo and Environs

A late November afternoon. The five story Pagoda at the Buddhist Senso-ji in Asakusa looks dramatic as the sun sets.


People shopping on Nakamise-dori on the way to Senso-ji. The small shops sell traditional craft items, crackers and souvenirs.


Jizo-dori in Sugamo is a shopping street in an area famous for catering to older people. However as seen in the above photo there were middle-aged and younger women shopping too.


An ikebana exhibit held in a side building at the Shinsho-ji temple in Sugamo.


There were many people in room but everyone was very courteous and we took turns taking pictures of the lovely traditional exhibit.


Further along Jizo-dori in Sugamo women were washing a statue of Migawan Kannon in a corner of the temple grounds. The Kogan-ji temple is dedicated to "thorn removal". Women pour water over the statue then wipe the part of the statue's anatomy that corresponds to their aliment. The ailments are transferred to Kannon. I noticed mostly younger women at this temple in an area know for it's elderly.


The famous Daibutsu at Kamakura is every bit as spectacular as its pictures. I call this photo 'Daibutsu without Umbrella' as everyone except the Buddha had one.




Back in Tokyo we enjoyed watching traffic from a pedestrian bridge in the Meguro area.


The ducks blend in with the fall vegetation at Shinobazu Pond in Ueno area of Tokyo.


From the traditional to the modern Tokyo has it all.