Let’s enjoy jogging and walking

The temperature is getting colder and colder recently.
I think winter is the best season to jog and walk.
We have a lot of rivers, parks in Koto ward. Especially for rivers, we have around 20 rivers and canals.
In Edo era, many canals were constructed to convey various goods from eastern Tokyo to Edo area.They also took a role to drain the water from the wetland around there.
So, we can enjoy jogging or walking in many parks and riverside road in Koto ward.
I enjoy jogging in many courses almost every day.
One day I jog around Kiba Park. Another day I go jogging along Sumida river riverside road.
Koto ward is a wonderful place for joggers like me.
My favorite jog place is Kiba Park. There is a long jogging course. (3,500m long)

In spring we can enjoy seeing 200 cherry blossom trees.
In autumn we can enjoy tree leaves such as Maidenhair tree.
The colors of leaves are so beautiful.
   

There are so many trees, plants and flowers. We can see beautiful flowers and trees of each season.
In spring we can enjoy seeing 200 cherry blossom trees.
In autumn we can enjoy tree leaves such as Maidenhair tree.
The colors of leaves are so beautiful.

Early in the morning, a lot of people enjoy walking or jogging or doing radio exercises in Kiba Park．
If you have any chance to walk or jog in Koto ward, please try such courses around the parks and the rivers and canals.

By S.N.

Related link

http://www.sports-tokyo.info/tokyoCourse/koto.html

Fukagawa winery

 “Fukagawa winery” is a very small shop which shutter is always closed. 

However, there is a wine factory behind this shutter.

 As I was making a reservation, a clerk came out and opened the shutter, and said, "to keep the room temperature stable, come in soon".

 The room was small, but surprisingly, there was a complete set of equipment to make wine.

  

First, crush grapes. This machine can remove the stems from grapes and crush the fruit of the grapes. You can see a handle. Yes, it is not electric.

 When making red wine, they put yeast in this orange big bucket and leave them for 2 weeks for the primary fermentation.

 Second, press these fruits juice. (This machine was behind these big buckets.)

 Finally, send squeezed juice into the stainless steel tanks to ferment.

 There are 5 big steel tanks, capacity of 1 tank equals to 1000 bottles of wine.

 After 2 weeks fermentation in the tank, some of wines are filtered by the filter-machine before bottling. (You can see 10 white filters there.)

 But most of wines are not filtered in this shop. You can know the reason at the end of the tour.

 There are 5 garbage bags near the inside of shutter. These are stems and pomace.

 The clerk said, "2t of grapes are delivered at one time in the morning. 3 or 4 members deal with 2t of grapes all day long."

 2t of grapes make not only 5000 bottles of wine but also 5 garbage bags.

  

 At the end of the tour, you can enjoy wine tasting and find the reason why this shop doesn’t filter most of their wine.

www.facebook.com/Fukagawawinery

                                                                                                                                 by M.K.

Sunamachi Ginza and Yakitori

Let me introduce you my favorite place in Koto-ward, it is Sunamachi-Ginza, where is located in Kita-Suna in Koto-ward.Sunamachi-Ginza is a very popular commercial avenue, it was awarded Best 3 popular avenue in 2005 in Japan. The street contains totally 180 shops including various kinds of grocery stores, restaurants as well as a public bath. Actually, the name of Sunamachi-Ginza is like a nick name, not real street name.  As you know, Ginza which is the most famous shopping place in Tokyo, we call Ginza as a synonyms use for popular shopping places.
Sunamachi-Ginza is like a big kitchen for a local residence in this area, it offers various foods with a reasonable prices.

 

  

In the street, there are five Yakitori shops. As you know Yakitori is a very popular food in Japan, a grilled chicken meat on a stick. They are made from a bite sized pieces of meat from all different part of the Chicken, such as breasts, thighs, skin, liver and other innards.   I recommend a shop named Tori-Mitsu, which has 50 years long history. The chicken meats of Tori-Mitsu comes from Red Feather Chicken which meat is much softer and tasty comparing with Broiler Chicken. 

Let me introduce you some kinds of Yakitori : 

*Negima(ねぎま) consists of pieces of chicken, usually thigh meat with piece of leek in between.

*Kawa（かわ） or Torikawa（とりかわ） are strips of fatty chicken skin, which have been grilled until crispy.                                      
*Tukune （つくね）are meat balls made of minced chicken, egg and vegetables.
                                           

*Nankotsu （なんこつ）is the cartilage taken from the keel bone between the chicken breast.
*Bonjiri （ぼんじり）is a chicken tail, it is very juicy and tasty, my favorite one.
*shiro (しろ), chicken small intestines
*nankotsu (なんこつ), chicken cartilage
*hāto / hatsu (はと /はつ) or kokoro (こころ), chicken heart
*sunagimo (すなぎも) or zuri (ずり), chicken gizzard*rebā (レバー), chicken liver
                                                       

Let’s walk around Sunamachi-Ginza and try good Yakitori with us!!

(by Y.T.)                                                                         

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Weekly Flea Market at Tomioka Hachiman Shrine

If you have an interest in Japanese traditional crafts, the museum is not the only place

you should go. Check out Tomioka Hachiman Shrine’s weekly flea market. It is open every first, second and fourth Sunday of the month.(Please note that it doesn’t open in November and early January .)　

 

Tough it is a local event, visitors from all over can enjoy browsing the many stalls selling a wide variety of uniquely Japanese items, such as Kimonos, pottery and ceramics, traditional house hold items, and even swords.

 

It does not take long to walk around and browse the stalls, you can almost get the feeling of traveling back in time. Tomioka Hachiman Shrine is also famous for the gorgeous MIkoshi, Portable Shrine and the birthplace of the Sumo Wrestling. There are many things to worth seeing. While you are there, don’t forget to pray to shrine’s deity for happiness and fortune. And if you are lucky, you may catch a glimpse of a beautiful

bride in a Kimono having her wedding ceremony.  Hope you visit. Thank you.

By T.S.

Access 

3 minutes walk from Monzennakacho Station, Exit1 (Tozai-line)

A Sketch of Riding SKY DUCK!!

Let me introduce the Tokyo Splash Tour by SKY DUCK. 

It’s a sightseeing tour in Sumida & Koto-Ku of Tokyo by amphibious bus. It means a bus cruises on a river as well as runs on road. 

I took the Tokyo Splash Tour on one summer day.

【Departure】

The tour starts from Tokyo Sky Tree and ends at the same place.  It’s a 100min. tour.  Before the departure every guest receives a Sky Duck fan. Isn’t it a nice present?

【Tour Route】

Sky Tree ⇒　Kameido-Tenjin Shrine ⇒ Kameido station ⇒　Old Nakagawa River  ⇒  (Cruise in the river and 15min. break) 　⇒　Nishi Ojima 　⇒　Kameido 　⇒　Tokyo Sky Tree

【During the tour】

A tour guide is on board and gives us some Information about the amphibious bus and Sumida & Koto-ku while touring, and entertain us by giving quizzes.

During the tour, guests just enjoy the scenery on board. We didn’t get off the bus for visiting sightseeing spots.

【River cruise】

After about 30min. driving, we reached Old-Nakagawa

River and our bus went into the river with a big splash!!

Wow!! This is the main attraction of the tour.

The SKY DUCK cruised about 30min. on the river. We found some black birds, great cormorants on riverside.

The speed of SKY DUCK is about 7 knots at most (12~13km/h) which is as fast as bicycle.

【Canoeing】

It’s so nice to see some people canoeing on the river. I know some junior & senior high schools in Edogawa & Koto-Ku have a canoe club. They are skilled enough to compete in national level sports meetings. School kids come to this river for training.  There are canoe clubs for citizens in Koto-ku which provide classes to learn canoeing.

【About Ms.Monica SERYU】     

An athlete of canoeing for the Rio de Janeiro Paralympics representing Japan, Ms.Monika SERYU sometimes practices canoeing on this river. She is a citizen of Koto-ku and has been drawing people’s attention because she is a good athlete to strive for a medal.

Let us keep watching her and cheer her up in Paralympics.

【About Old Nakagawa River】

This river is diverted from ARAKAWA River and enters

again the same river after 6.68km of flow. The river flow is controlled by the watergates

at both edns of the river, so that it’s ideal place for canoeing as there is no moving stream of water.      

We took 15 min. break at the service area on riverside after

landing again on the ground.

【Onagigawa River】

Onagigawa River starts from this point and runs toward the west. The river is flanked on either side by housing complexes.

 【On the way back】

I got some trivia on this area from the tour guide.

Have you heard of these?

1.  Nishi-Ojima is a competitive area for Japanese fried chicken (KARAAGE).  It is true that I found some fried chicken shops on both sides of the street.  It’s exciting to find different flavors of KARAAGE such as Curry Cheese, Tartar sauce, Spicy sauce beside regular soy sauce taste.

2. Kameido Pedestrian Bridge over the big intersection  of  KEIYO Highway.

The bridge was designed after the hexagonal pattern of tortoise’s shell, because tortoise is the symbol of the town Kameido. You wouldn’t be able to see this tortoise shape when you cross the bridge. You have to see it from the air or below the bridge, but actually it is shaped octagonal because the bridge had to form a corridor connecting 4 corners of intersection with stairways to climb up for people.   

3. Pavement of Kameido is composed of hexagonal blocks linked together which is also the shape of tortoise shell.

【Amphibious Vehicle】

The tour ended at the same point where we departed from near Tokyo Sky Tree.  I took a photo of the propeller and rudder under the bus body.  The bus is equipped with a big propeller, rudder and huge tires.

【Conclusion】

It was very enjoyable tour, particularly on hot summer day. However guiding is given only in Japanese. 

by HY