Skip to main content

Markets and spectacles

We looked outside our window this morning to see warm blue skies and a market set up underneath the railway tracks. While shopping for groceries at the supermarket the previous night had been a painful ordeal, the opportunity to mingle with the locals at the stall selling fresh produce, breads, meats, seafood and miscellaneous items was not to be missed.

There were sea urchins and snails, bbq chickens and ducks, an amazing variety of apples and the nicest looking tomatoes that you've ever seen. Tiny strawberries and clementines with the leaves left attractively on top. We stopped at this stall and that, filling up our pantry though we only have a couple of days to eat it all. And it was only a few metres away from the apartment.
Our menus du jour at the Bistrot Pierrot across the street were so much better than the day before's and we felt a little Parisian taking our time to savour them and watch the world unfold outside the window. Until Alex dropped his glass of water on the floor during dessert. Oh well.

Every trip has a shopping day for B and this was the day. The area around us has lots of chain stores like H&M, Gap and Pimkie right next door to us. But, possibly due to this being a long weekend, they were all closed. The Champs Elysee was sure to be open, so we caught the overhead metro across the river Seine, past the Eiffel Tower, to the Arc d'Triomphe. Though we didn't climb up this time, at least Alex will be able to recognise this monument in his books.

The Champs Elysee was throbbing with shoppers, many tourists, and a group of red cloaked Christians, and most definitely open for business. B finally found her perfect spectacles, which meant that we had to hang around for a few hours while they were prepared. Alex fell asleep in my arms, but was awake for our entrance into the Men's Hell that is Sephora. He, of course, wanted to do face painting, while B squeezed through the throngs to purchase the cheap, but high quality makeup.


Everything done we caught a train along the same line, stopping at Bir-Hakeim and walking to the dramatically lit Eiffel Tower. The waiting times were too long to catch a ride to the top - maybe tomorrow. We hung around long enough to enjoy the strobe light show on the hour, before walking the now cold streets back to the apartment and a dinner from the morning's market.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Kamioka mines: from silver to supernovas

Part of the Kamioka zinc mining and smelter complex Just after posting about the Kamioka Railway another photo from that 2006 set piqued my interest. Up there in the mountains the landscape looked blasted not just by winter but by something more. It was the kind of lonely place where you would not expect to find major industry, so this sight was quite surprising. Even more surprising is the history associated with this photo. According to some sources mining and refining of ores in Kamioka dates back to 710 AD  and only closed in 2001. Undoubtedly the mine was a major reason for the existence of the Kamioka Railway. Refining of zinc still continues to this day under the parent Mitsui Kenzoku zaibatsu . Gold, silver, copper, zinc and lead were all dug out of the rock here. Unfortunately, the process released cadmium into the river, which, when taken up by the rice that was grown in the river, caused the terrible itai-itai disease  - meaning "It hurts! It hurts". Cadm...

Down the Oito Line

Riding the length of the Oito Line from Itoigawa to Shinjuku (well, Matsumoto, really, but you might as well go the whole way) has long been a dream of mine. It suddenly gained urgency when I read that the last length of it between Itoigawa to Minami-Otari would be closed once the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Kanazawa and Toyama opens by next year. Now, as mentioned last time, B and Alex are among those that would much rather catch the very fast Shinkansen, but in the end she decided to follow me, despite the very early morning. We rode the Hokuetsu Express from Toyama to Itoigawa, completing a little more of that West Coast for me. Though the coastal stretch was short there were some nice views at times. I should like to see more of Itoigawa one day, explore its geology. But now we had to quickly cross over the platform bridge to catch our train to Minami-Otari. To my great delight it was a KiHa 120 railcar, my favourite. I felt a degree of sadness standing up at the front...

Asagaya and heading home

How can I be happy? I am about to return to a country where the toilets have at most two buttons and no seat warmers. But the tickets are booked and there are no cyclones, typhoons or other disasters standing in our way. It's almost time to go back to my first home. First B wants to do some "local shopping". So we catch the Chuo Line up a few stations to Asagaya, a residential area with a number of Shotengai, covered and uncovered arcades leading away from the station and narrow alleys lined with bars. It is an interesting area for a wander around. We are mainly looking, do some shopping for toothbrushes and sweets from Seiyu, a Wal-Mart owned supermarket/minor department store. We skipped breakfast and lunch is ramen and gyoza at a small restaurant near the entrance to the Pearl Centre shotengai. With the help of a staff member, I manage to purchase tickets at a branch of Lawson to the Ghibli Museum for a friend travelling to Japan in May. There are some...