Gurutto Walk

Way back on November 22nd I joined the Kokyo Gurutto Walk, an annual 11km walk around the city. Don't ask me what the walk is for (I thought it must be charity related at first but it turns out its not) but I do know it's free, has a route that changes yearly but always includes interesting and seldom-visited neighborhoods, and is undertaken by 8000 people each year, who receive a handful of little prizes when they finish.

I also know that it's planned by really boring people: participants are assigned starting times from between 9 and 11 in the morning, and are required to cross the finish line between 11:30 and 2:00, which means that participants are meant to finish the walk in 2 1/2 to 4 hours, passing through all those neat neighborhoods without stopping to look around, take pictures, shop, or eat lunch.

Luckily I did it with my husband, sister-in-law, and her family, who are total rebels. We knew from the beginning we didn't want their lame trinkets (past prizes have been cell phone straps, bath salts, energy drinks and the like) so we took our sweet time. Especially my niece Marya, who has only just ditched her beloved stroller and moves at the pace you'd expect a recently de-strollered 3 year old to move.

The route began (and ended) in Hibiya Koen, and went through Ginza, past Tsukiji Market, over the Kachidokibashi Bridge and on to Tsukishima, over the Sumidagawa, by Suitengu Shrine, over the Nihonbashi Bridge, past the Bank of Japan building, around the Imperial Palace, and back to Hibiya Koen. Quite a route, full of places I've never been to or haven't been to in ages, and I venture to say that was true of most of the other participants. We all had maps, plus every major intersection along the way was staffed with volunteers to show us the way--a nice touch, and perhaps a reason why the walk is so short (I imagine not many volunteers would be keen about standing on a street corner all day long).

Hibiya Koen was lovely, with most of the trees in autumn foliage mode. These ginkgoes, unfortunately, were barely yellow, but still managed to look lovely against the perfect blue sky.

In Ginza we walked over some of the most expensive real estate in the world, built up with an interesting mix of traditional Japanese shops and modern fancy designer shops. In the picture above is the Kabuki-za theatre, where Kabuki plays are held. None of us had ever seen Kabuki and we all agreed that it would be nice to go someday, but we'd never actually buy a ticket ourselves. Funny, I feel the same way about pretty much every traditional performing art/sport/cultural event in Japan (except sumo, which you couldn't even pay me to see).

One thing that we all really do like is pottery, and we spent some time poking through a lovely Japanese pottery shop. The only reason we didn't stay all day was that Marya kept insisting on picking up each and every dish she fancied and giving it to one of us, and that got old pretty fast. She does have good taste though.

We managed to pass by Tsukiji, the largest fish market in the world, without stopping for a bite to eat (we were saving ourselves for lunch), but couldn't resist the smell of freshly roasting coffee beans coming out of one shop so we stopped for a coffee break. Tsukiji is known for its fish but actually handles food products of all kinds, and plenty of non-edibles like knives and such. I would have liked to have spent more time here, but we needed to stay on track at least until lunch.

Next we crossed the Sumidagawa River on the Kachidokibashi Bridge. It's easy to forget that Tokyo was built on rivers and these bridges (or their wooden predecessors) once were vitally important to the city.

The river is still well-used, especially this section (it meets the ocean not too far away). We saw a wide mix of vessels including garbage boats, fishing vessels and pleasure craft.

That's Tsukiji market above, and those docks were once extremely busy, with all of the market's fish arriving by sea. These days the vast majority of it comes from land (much of it trucked in from across Japan and around the world via Haneda and Narita airports), but those two yellow fishing boats show some fish is still delivered the old-fashioned way.

And then were on Monja Street in Tsukishima. The street is lined with some 75 restaurants serving monjayaki, a Tokyo delicacy that was to be our lunch. Monjayaki is Tokyo's answer to okonomiyaki: both are pancake-like savory snacks based on a simple flour batter and sliced cabbage and cooked on a teppan (iron grill) by diners themselves, which is fun and usually involves alcohol.

But the similarities go no further: monjayaki has a very thin, watery batter, more finely chopped ingredients, and is eaten with a tiny spatula instead of chopsticks. It is also about a thousand times less visually appealing than okonomiyaki, perhaps being the nastiest-looking Japanese food there is (and that's quite an achievement, as at least in the eyes of a westerner there are a lot of nasty looking Japanese foods). It is most commonly compared to freshly spewed vomit, and I'm not going to expand on that (partly because I don't want to gross you out too much, but mostly because that's such an apt description that there's no more to say).

The monjayaki shops were all striking examples of traditional Japanese aesthetics. This is a fine example: note the subtle elegance of the clean lines and the refined simplicity of decoration.

This appears to be an old-fashioned koban (police "box"), although the blue light is a bit strange (they usually have red lights, used to indicate whether or not they are manned).

There is apparently an art to finding a good monjayaki shop. You're supposed to be leery of shops that appear too new, too clean or too attractive; windows plastered with autographed photos of celebrities who've eaten there and framed copies of mentions in magazines are a very auspicious sign; and the best shops of all are said to be off the main street entirely, hidden in alleys like the one above.

We were tempted by several restaurants but none seemed to be quite good enough. And then we came upon this sign for a shop called Monja Fukuchan, decorated with colourful packets of cheap children's snacks (Baby Star Ramen and other salty snacks are are often added to monjayaki). The sign led us down an alley to a dirty, cramped old little shop, and although it lacked the celebrity photos it more than fulfilled the other criteria, so we crammed in. All five of us were seated around a little table fitted with a teppan that back home would have been considered a two-seater, but that crowded cozy atmosphere is (supposedly) part of the charm of a good monjayaki joint.

Monja has its roots in a humble children's snack originally called monjiyaki (literally letter-grill, as it was poured in the shape of Japanese kanji characters) but now comes in endless variations, with some pretty wild combinations. The basic recipe is flour, water, cabbage, tenkasu (balls of tempura batter) and Worchestershire Sauce; frequent additions are sakura-ebi (tiny dried shrimp), kiri-ika (thin strips of dried squid), katsuobushi (flakes of dried bonito), Baby Star Ramen (a dried ramen noodle snack), pork, and benishouga (pickled ginger), and from there you can add pretty much anything you can think of. Our first order was the classic combination of mentaiko-cheese-mochi (spicy polluck roe, rice cake and cheese), ingredients shown above.

Next we had buta-kimuchi (pork and kimchi) and then corn beef curry, shown above. The ingredients are brought to the table stacked into a single bowl (always way too small). The special toppings are on top, the flour and water batter is at the bottom, and everything else is in between.

A whole slew of condiments are offered, from oil to grease the griddle with to aonori seaweed flakes to use as a topping. Monjayaki is usually quite strongly flavoured and salty, which makes it perfect to drink with: beer would be the standard choice but sweet drinks are also popular: there's my nama grape sawa (grapefruit sour), freshly squeezed by me in the true spirit of do-it-yourself dining and Hideaki's umeshu soda (ume liqueur with club soda).

The server will offer to do the cooking, at least for the first batch, and many tourists take up that offer. Luckily we had seasoned monjayaki cooks among us who knew just what to do. The first step is to pour everything out of the bowl, except for the batter, and let it cook for a few minutes using metal spatulas.

When the ingredients are well-cooked they are carefully formed into a ring. It's important that the ring is evenly shaped with no gaps, and the above ring is an almost perfect example. (These pictures are all mixed up from different batches, by the way: the picture above and two below are of the corn beef version, the others are the mentaiko batch.)

Now the liquid batter is slowly poured into the ring, with care taken not to overflow the ring.

It is left to cook for several more minutes while being carefully watched: any leaks need to be fixed and overflowed batter gently pushed back in.

Finally it's all mixed up and formed into a rough circle. It is now ready to eat.

A tiny spatula is used to scrape off part of the monja. It can then be either shoved straight into your mouth, as above, or pressed into the grill for a moment for further cooking, as below.

The latter is preferable as it causes the underside to burn slightly, which is completely delicious (especially if cheese is used). The bit above is perfect.

We also made yakisoba (fried noodles) for Marya, who fell asleep as soon as they were finished. Oh well, all the more for us. It was all totally delicious (way better than it looks) and it turns out Monja Fukuchan is a great place. Those celebrities don't know what they're missing.

It was mid-afternoon by the time we left, completely stuffed and smelling a bit smoky. The walk had long ended and we had no hope of getting our finishing prizes but we continued on, following the map for a little while longer.

We crossed another section of the Sumidagawa and entered the Monzen Nakacho area.

Along the way we saw some nice fall colours, like these pretty ginkgoes. In the distance we had spotted the masts of a large sailing ship and were eager to see what it was doing in the area.

It turned out to be landlocked and behind heavy iron gates, but I did read the name of the boat: the Meiji Maru. A little research has shown that it's a historically important ship, once host to the Meiji Emperor on some voyage or another and now housed on the campus of Tokyo Kaiyodai (Tokyo University of Mercantile Marine). Apparently it's open to the public every year on Marine Day (the holiday commemorating the Emperor's voyage).

We went a little further, but eventually gave up around Nihonbashi and after a quick break at Mister Donut we parted ways and went home. I would like to walk the full route someday on my own, and do more walking around Tokyo in general: getting around on foot shows a different side of Tokyo than you get from using the trains and subways. Hopefully I won't wait until next year's Gurutto Walk to do it.

JapanSoc it!

Comments

[kat]

what a great way to see Tokyo!

[Lisa]

Sounds like a great day out!

I do recommend you go to Kabuki soon, though. There are rumours the Kabuki-za is being pulled down in 2010, and that lovely old building is part of the experience.

You can go and see one act quite cheaply - it's up in the gods but you can actually see quite well. The English earphone guides are essential and very good.

http://www.shochiku.co.jp/play/kabukiza/theater/single-show.html

(I've not been since they have changed the system though)

[zee]

Hi.. Those are great pictures. I've always been fascinated by your photos (I'm an avid fan of your blog but never give a comment until now). And those monjayaki.. mmm.. I wish someday I'll be able to try some of them myself, in Tokyo.. If I ever get a chance..

[Al]

The kabuki building is being destroyed soon. Go, not so much to see a performance, as to see the interior before it is gone forever.

You should also see sumo, even if you aren't into the sport. Sumo is one of my fondest memories of Japan...

[Noemie]

I love your posts! I am always excited when I see a new post from your blog...I have never been to Japan but I would love to one day because I find it fascinating. Thanks for sharing your experiences and don't hesitate to post more often :-)

[David]

You know, that's not a bad thing to do in Tokyo. I think I might do the same when I am there next, but it won't be part of the official Garutto Walk. I've been past that kabuki theatre in Ginza, on my first trip to Tokyo. My father-in-law asked me if I wanted to see a show, but I said no because we had other plans and there was already quite a crowd waiting to go inside. I did have to stop and take a good look at the building though. It's quite wide for Ginza buildings.
I think I've also been to that area that is famous for selling knives. Now that you mention it, I also remember the smell of roasting coffee beans. I went there on my last trip to Tokyo. I think it's near the Kappabashi bridge, but every shop we passed in one street had steel knives on offer. We ended up going to some hokey museum about the history of Tokyo, which turned out to be not bad.
Monjayaki is pretty good. I had it on the last day of my first trip to Japan, in Ibaraki. The table was much like the one you sat at, and I thought somebody was going to get burned. No pictures of celebrities, not too old of a building and no Baby Star. I don't remember which type of monja we had, I mostly remember the conversation with my father-in-law when he told me that being his son-in-law was not going to be easy.

[Sherry]

Lovely photos.

You know, I have been here 15 and I still can't bring myself to eat monjayaki simply because of the way it looks. I can barely stand to be at the table when other people are eating it. I have given in and tried almost everything else that looked awful, but I just can't make myself try it.

[Makiki]

Great post. I don't think that I have ever posted before but I thought I would take the time to let you know that I enjoy your blog and the snippets of life in Japan that you provide.

Whether it is a short one about last nights dinner or longer ones such as this all are enjoyed equally.

Aloha
Alan from Makiki

[Mari L'Esperance]

I love Tsukishima, but not for the monja-yaki (which I found to be just so-so) -- it's really an interesting, up-and-coming neighborhood. There's a good Spanish restaurant called Spain Club, which is located in a converted warehouse. A good friend lives in one of those high-rise buildings that are sprouting up everywhere along the river there; her building was featured in the film "Babel".

There is also an incredible Kyoto-style fish restaurant in Monzen Nakacho called Kintame. The food is exquisite and the interior is authentic Japanese with a contemporary feel. I love to eat lunch there whenever I'm in Tokyo, which isn't often enough!

Thanks, as always, for your beautiful blog.

[Shane]

Lovely photos - it looks like you had a great time and saw some interesting parts of the city. Rules are meant to be broken and the time constraints should have been a little looser in order to really enjoy the day so good on you for taking your time!

[Jason]

This is one of my favorite areas of Tokyo. I have often cycled down this stretch of road on my way to Odaiba.

So that very cool building is the famous kabuki theater? I always thought it was one of the coolest buildings in the city, but had no idea what it was. It would be a crime against good taste to tear it down.

Nice photo walk shots.