I had done my research. My chance to become a sushi snob was at stake, and so I had to find out the de facto sushi joint to visit at Tsukiji Fish Market. It appeared that people would go bright and early to see the tuna auctions, but that is now closed off to the public. Then people would stumble upon the area with the sushi restaurants, and inevitably hit up Dai Wa for sushi. There are stories of seemingly infintely long lineups that created a maze of people outside the door. So fine, it was decided. Dai Wa was officially on my list.

I actually made two visits to Tsukiji Fish Market. The first attempt was to find Dai Wa, but it was extremely difficult to navigate through the massive grid system of fish selling stalls. When I did walk upon the sushi joints, I couldn’t find Dai Wa. I got impatient and ate at Bentumo Sushi. It looked clean, and was empty. At this point I didn’t want to wait in a line, and was frustrated. I just wanted to eat.

The sign showed a decent set meal at Y3600, and some little old lady kept shouting at us to come inside and we obliged. Dai Wa would have to wait.

I had my giant backpack with me, and knew it was going to be trouble once we walked inside. The sushi joints typically just have a bar setup, with stools and a table that surrounds the sushi chefs. I looked like a fool attempting to sit down at a stool with the bag beside me. Finally I was told to put it near the entrance, so people could actually walk down the extremely narrow space between the wall and customers. I also put my messenger bag on the shelf area above us. Then the chef shouted at me! I didn’t know what he said, and he looked pissed. He made a gesture to fix the dangling strap of my bag, and I quickly did that. So terrifying!

So as we were waiting for the set sushi meal, the chef gets more cheerful as he prepares the sushi. He suddenly yells at us, “I LOVE YOU!” It was so unexpected and hilarious. The wait was not long, and it helped to be able to watch the chefs prepare the sushi right in front of us. They used a blow torch on the unagi pieces. Sushi heaven were mere minutes away. They finally started placing some pieces on our wooden plate thing, and I began to salivate.

Yup. It was pretty damn good. The fish roe were bigger than I had ever eaten. Everything was great. Nothing was over salted with soy sauce. The fish was damn fresh. I didn’t recognize some sushi pieces. I guess there isn’t much variety in Calgary. That probably puts the sushi snob status thing in jeopardy. Oh well.

So on the return leg of the trip, I made the second trip to Tsukiji and this time successfully found Dai Wa. It was easily spotted this time as I had arrived a bit late, and saw the massive lineup. I was fortunate to be on my own this time, as when a single seat freed up, I got to jump ahead of a lot of people. It was packed inside, unlike Bentumo. I ordered the set meal again, as I believed it would be a fair basis to compare the two, an see if Dai Wa was really what people say it is. The set meal was slightly cheaper at Y3000, but with less pieces.

The chefs were just as cheerful, but a little less in character. Probably because they were too busy trying to get things done, and keep the lineup moving. But the service was excellent. It was just as exciting to anticipate the meal. I mean after all, this is the place to eat sushi, right? Well, I was disappointed. For everything that I had read about, and eating at Bentumo a few days ago, it was just a bit underwhelming. This is something that often comes along with hype. Anyway, the sushi pieces seemed to have a lot of soy sauce added to make them more flavorful but at the expense of over salting them. The ingredients and everything were super fresh. But that was the only annoyance. It was still better than a lot of sushi I’ve had. I even got an extra piece of unagi. I had to, it’s my favorite. For the hype it was given, I thought it wasn’t as good as Bentumo. Bentumo, the place with barely anyone inside, and no lineup, and the lady trying eagerly to get us to eat there.

With that said, Tsukiji itself was a crazy and cool experience. The motor trolleys that are constantly zipping around, make for a Frogger like experience everywhere you walk. I love the atmosphere of the place, and it was cool to see all the seafood. Take the Tokyo Metro to Ginza, Higahiginza, or Tsukiji station, it is not far from either of these stations. Tsukiji fish market is totally worth checking out if you are a sushi lover like me!

I began backtracking and returned to the one restaurant that caught my eye. I caught a glimpse of the automated ordering machines, and had wanted to try one, but also assumed that somehow ordering food with a machine, resulted in poor food quality.

Nothing else really stood out to me, or looked to be in my price range, so I returned to the machine order place. I probably looked like a fool not being able to choose my meal for about a minute.

First, you must insert your cash. As your balance increases, the meals that meet the balance will have their indicator light up on the respective button. I preceded to order what I believed was a bowl of noodles. The tiny picture above each button didn’t help, and of course I couldn’t read the Japanese accompanying each picture.

After you choose your meal, the machine spits out a ticket, and you can go sit down at a seat. Promptly, a waitress will come, and give you a cup of water, and then she will go take your order to the kitchen.

When my meal arrived, it turned out to be katsudon (fried pork cutlets on rice) and miso soup.

The quality of the food was excellent, and it was one of the more standout items on the list so far. The tonkatsu is topped off with a fried egg and there is a great mixture to the egg yolk and pork grease, that gives the rice some added flavor. Each customer also gets a bottomless bowl of rice. There is a giant container of rice where anyone can go and refill their bowl. This gives your meal a good value, even though it’s already one of the cheaper meals you can find. I only paid 630¥ for mine.

The restaurant had a very sleek and modern look. And there was an awesome selection of jazz flavored music playing. Most of them with some relaxing piano tunes to them. It was perfect for trying to get settled down, after the frantic pace of the day which involved going to the Tsukiji fish market in Ginza at 6:30am, then rushing over to Tokyo station to catch the Shikansen all while hauling around my massive backpack, that was literally crushing my shoulders.

I have found the quality of service in Japan to be stellar at all times. Staff will try their hardest to help you order even when you don’t know a word of Japanese. And with the machine taking out any interaction with the staff in this case, I think it is a testament to the mindset of efficiency that I have seen echoed in pretty much all aspects of the culture in Japan.

If you get a chance in Kyoto, you should check out this place!

The Look

The original project page was not serving justice to the greatness that is Python Twitter Tools. Lately I’ve noticed that branding is very much tied to the typeface that is chosen to represent it. I knew that for something like a suite of developer tools, that a rugged looking slab serif font would fit in nicely. So the logo and other prominent branding elements would take this style. Archer in particular caught my eye. It also looked good in its slimmer form, and so that was used for the catchphrase, a perfect way to provoke a sense of cool and sleekness. Now, it is common to see slab serifs used in headlines, and this sort of reminded me of big and bold letterpress printed posters often seen on concert flyers and posters. These commonly revolve around a few tones of colors. For some reason I thought of a cream color, and dark blues. I wanted to show the connectedness that Twitter offers, and thought a cool map graphic would work, I also saw on the Hoefler & Frere-Jones site, a similar map graphic that worked well with the Archer font. And so I attempted one. The asterisks are used to denote each person in the network and represent the text-based entry at the command-line client, one of the Twitter tools included in PTT.

The Layout

I wanted the layout to be familiar to Twitter users. If you look at twitter.com when logged in, you’ll notice that the focal point of the web interface is a column of recent tweets. It’s narrow relative to the total width, and I think it reinforces the clean, simple, and light feel which is really symbolic of Twitter. So that influenced the narrow look with the PTT redesign. I decided to keep the content oriented in sections as it was before. The purpose of the site is to explain what PTT is, and provide relevant documentation on installation and usage among other things. This sort of organization is common for documentation so users feel familiar and will not struggle to find information. A common problem exists with long pages that supply large amounts of content. When the page becomes too long, the user can’t quickly get a big picture for all the relevant sections/content that they may need. To solve this, navigation links were added in the header, that jump to their associated section on the page.

The Catchphrase

I love catchphrases. But you have to err on the side of caution. I hate gimmicky lines that have no real meaning to the underlying context and don’t truly represent the product in question. So I thought about what PTT had to offer, and what made it different. What would entice Twitterers to check it out? The following are the main ideas and train of thought that got me to the well-purposed, “Lean. Sweet. Tweet.”.

You have to understand that the command-line Twitter client is as simple as it gets. You’re sitting at a blinking cursor, and you can do what any Twitterer needs. It’s small, simple, and basic, all in a good way. It’s lean.

But hey, there’s also a kick ass minimalist Twitter API, that let’s you grab all of your friend’s tweets, or your own and perhaps use them in some very social way on the intertubes. Heck, both the IRC bot and Twitter command-line client are using the API, so just think of what other neat stuff you can do. Really?! It’s all written in Python? Sweet!

Ok, so you know with all these cool tools you can do some pretty neat stuff. But you know, what will draw other Twitter enthusiasts and developers to PTT at the end of the day, is the fact that we all just want a cool new way to Tweet!

About Python Twitter Tools

Mike Verdone is the mastermind behind the minimalist Twitter API and it is just one of the cool things you’ll find in Python Twitter Tools. Also included is a command-line Twitter client, and a Twitter IRC bot! I recently played around with what Python Twitter Tools had to offer, and what stood out to me was the simplicity of this suite of tools. The command-line is typically hallowed ground for hackery, but with Python Twitter Tools, sitting at the command-line has never been so cool.

Both Kintaro and Motomachi Shokudo are owned by the same owner. Kintaro being Tokyo-native Daiji Matsubara’s first attempt at the ramen scene in Vancouver proved to become very popular. I decided to try Kintaro first. I ordered the miso ramen with fatty pork. It came in a nice big bowl with green onions, corn, and bean sprouts to top it off. The noodles were impressive as they were chewy, a little bit too much to my liking but still good. The slice of pork was quite tasty as well and some of the fat gave the miso soup some added flavour.

The next day I marched right back down Robson and this time went further down the block to Motomachi Shokudo. After Kintaro made its mark, Chef Matsubara opened Motomachi Shokudo with intentions of creating healthier bowls of ramen. Traditionally, with the use of pork-based broths ramen is not considered a very healthy meal. Instead, at Motomachi Shokudo, they use chicken-based broths which make for a slightly lighter taste. I noticed this quite quickly in my shio ramen. The use of organic ingredients from the egg, to the slice of chicken, and the vegetables also makes the meal more pleasing to the body. I noticed that the noodles at Motomachi Shokudo were a bit more al dente, and made for less chewing which was nice. Simply put, Motomachi Shokudo is very well done, and worth the few extra bucks.

As the late afternoon arrived, my hunger was raging again. The prices looked good too. A standard regular fish and chips went for $5.99. But I wanted to go for a personal favorite, scallops ($6.99).

Jack’s has a fresh fish stand as well, so in that respect I can assure you that the scallops were very tender. The fish and chips are then fried to order, and come out piping hot. They are served with some tartar sauce and ketchup. The size of the order is more than enough as I struggled to finish the final bits of fries. They do not skimp when it comes to the amount of fish in an order. If you are in the Seattle downtown area, and have a craving for some fresh seafood, definitely check out Jack’s.

The novelty with Salt, is that you create a tasting plate from a selection of cheeses, cured meat and condiments.

My tasting plate consisted of two meats (Pancetta and Tartufo Salami) and one cheese ( Farmhouse Brie). The Farmhouse Brie was my favorite. The outside was chewy while the innards were soft and silky with a slight creamy taste to it. The three condiments that I ordered were the piparres peppers, cipollini onions, and Guiness Mustard. My favorite of the three that I favored the most in the end was the Guiness mustard. All three gave the meat and cheese a good kick with their tangy and sweet flavors.

To wash it all down, I also got a Liberty Ale imported from San Franciso. It was smooth and left no weird aftertaste which helped to ensure that you could taste each bite of the tasting plate. It was kind of pricy, but definitely worth it.

My friend had a life to live, this meant that I’d be on my own for pretty much most of the week. It was undoubtedly satisfying to know that once she had left for work, I’d be able to frolic around Vancouver to begin my eating adventures. To kick things off, I’d take her word on a place called, Cafe Crepe on Granville Street. (2861 Granville Street, Vancouver)

I took the Translink bus down Granville, and quite enjoyed the high frenquency at which buses arrived. Got off at Broadway and walked south a few blocks. Finally found the place and decided I’d just keep it light as I’d be walking a lot for the rest of the day, and wanted to leave space for more eating.

I entered Cafe Crepe, and there was a guy in one of those white chef attire, and he was making a crepe right in front of me. I stood there awkwardly, as he looked at me, and asked if I was taking an order to go, or waiting for a table. There were not a lot of people around at the time, so I was quickly seated. It looked sort of like those old diners in the movies and stuff, with a checkerboard sort of floor, leather seats, with a lot of chrome going on. I ordered the apple and banana crepe and a cappuccino.

Not before long, I was slicing away at the crepe. I haven’t really eaten these before, and quite enjoyed it. The crepe itself is all light, moist and fluffy, and doesn’t have much taste to it. I guess that’s why my friend suggested the Nutella crepe. The apples and bananas didn’t help to give it more flavor. At least the cappuccino was delicious, and gave me a good kick start for, what would turn out to be an exhausting day of eating delicious foods. Oh how difficult. Poor me.

It was not too pricey either, only costing me around $7 for a decent-sized crepe. If you like eating breakfasty foods, or just like crepes in general and are in Vancouver, make sure you stop by at one of their several locations.

• Guy holding up a cutout mask of Stephen Harper
• Two guys in bloody business suits with large “DOW JONES” and “TSX” signs.
• John McCain
• Asian group of M&M’s with a sign, “MELAMINE FREE”
• Lady on stilts dressed up as a black widow.
• Cowboy Lego-man

A look down Commercial Drive.

There are probably many more that I cannot recall, and sadly I left my camera behind before leaving for this spectacle. I also caught a bit of the fire performance, but it looked pretty crazy. I was struck in awe by the sheer number of people walking around in the streets and celebrating. This is in stark contrast to what you would typically see on a Saturday night in Calgary.

Some crazy usage of glowsticks... Skeletons!

The problem with the GeoMashup plugin is that it embeds a Google Map in an iframe. That should strike fear in your eyes. This restricts any sort of DOM binding to anything outside of the frame. This meant I would not be able to create a filter system to hide a set of markers on the map. So to get around the iframe issue, I had to first parse out the source URL for the iframe, and make an AJAX request to this URL. The plugin would then return the embedded HTML containing the map. What I needed was the JavaScript function call that creates the map. But I found a major obstacle in the limited string parsing that jQuery offered. Parsing for the map creation function call was too difficult, so I created a function in the portion of the plugin that renders the map to return a JSON string of the various options and parameters the create map function required. I threw the JSON string between HTML comment tags for the sanity of parsing with jQuery. With that done, I could finally evaluate the JSON string and encode it into a JavaScript object and pass it into the create map function upon page load, and all was well again in the universe.

My only problem now is to get down to implementing a filter feature for the map.

But this is something I’m truly happy to have gotten out of the way. I look forward to posting about the various food I will taste, sights to be seen, and other random thoughts of the places I will soon be setting foot on. I can’t imagine how cool it’ll be to look back at this one day when I’ve traveled a bit more, and share it with friends and family.