Thursday, December 27, 2012

Illumination, Tokyo Style

The lights of Tokyo always glitter at night, but particularly during the winter months when most of the key sites in town light up withs millions of LED lights. Most of the displays go up in Novembers, with some lasting past Valentine's Day.

Baccarat Eternal Lights, Yebisu Garden Palace
Baccarat Eternal Lights, Yebisu Garden Palace
Baccarat Chandelier, Yebisu Garden Palace
Christmas Tree at Ginza Mitsukoshi
Christmas by Mikimoto
Nakadori, Marunouchi
Nakadori, Marunouchi
Marunouchi
Keyakizaka Street, Roppongi Hills
66 Plaza, Roppongi Hills
Mori Garden, Roppongi Hills
Light Show at Venus Fort, Odaiba
Holiday Dining at Venus Fort

Monday, December 24, 2012

Sushi to Dai for at Tsukiji Market

When I was a little girl, my father would occasionally wake me up around 4am and take me to Tsukiji Fish Market, usually when we had out of town guests.  Today Tsukiji still serves as one of the main tourist attractions in Tokyo, although it is expected to move from it's current location near Ginza to a less central location by 2014.  I was fascinated by the early morning bustle of the market with unusual sea creatures that I have yet to encounter anywhere else in the world.  I never tire of the seemingly secret language of the auctioneers at the Tuna auction.  These days, the market limits the number of observers for the auctions to 120 a day, and you need to register at 5am to get in.  My favorite part of the fish market is the sushi restaurants with the freshest fish you will ever find.  These restaurants originally catered to the Tsukiji market workers and generally open from 5am-2pm. Two of the most famous are Sushi Dai and Daiwa Sushi.  Both have been featured on international travel shows and countless blogs. Sushi Dai is generally known for a friendlier atmosphere and has the longer lines of the two, and happens to be my favorite.  For around 4,000 yen, you can get an Omakase set - it comes with tea, a really rich fish based miso soup, tamago, and 11 pieces of sushi and one roll.  On a recent chilly morning, I arrived at 4:30am and made the first seating.  It is well worth the early wake up, the wait is known to be longer than 3 hours!

The amazing sushi chefs at Sushi Dai
The Tamago is warm and more savory than most
The best O-toro (fatty tuna) I have ever had
Hirame (flounder)
Tai (red snapper)
Aji (mackerel)
Uni (sea urchin)
Buri (yellowtail) 
Akagai (red clam) it was still moving!
Magurozuke (marinated tuna)
Roll, and Shiraebi (baby shrimp)
Anago (sea eel)
The final piece is customer choice.  For me it was O-toro
Don't be fooled, the line continues around the corner (50 deep when we left)

Monday, December 17, 2012

A Tale of Two Churches

In the center of historic Kyiv, there are two beautiful churches that directly face each other battling for attention in an otherwise nondescript area. St. Sophia, named after the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, is Kyiv's oldest standing church and dates back to 1037. St. Sophia currently serves as a museum, and houses an incredible Virgin Mary mosaic icon made of 15,000 eggs by artist Oksana Mas. St. Michaels is the flashier of the two, having been reconstructed in 2000 after the original from 1108 was destroyed by the Soviets. The reconstructed St. Michaels is a working monastery.

St. Sophia
St. Sophia at Sunset
St. Sophia in the Fog 
St. Michael's at Sunrise
View of St. Michael's from the Hyatt Kyiv
St. Michaels at Night