Ever since I visited Japan two years ago I’ve wanted to go back and see more of the country. I especially wanted to be able to share this strange amazing place with my kids. Well this spring I got the opportunity to do both. Sarah and Daniel met Lee and I for a week in Japan. We visited Kyoto as well as Tokyo and had a great time! The following is a record of our journey.
Saturday, March 22nd – Lee and I flew into Narita. We landed 30 minutes before the kids, found their baggage claim and their bags, and them too. We took the train into Tokyo. I’d forgotten what a big-ass city this is. We found our cute little service apartments out in Roppongi, which is Lee's area of Tokyo. We went to his favorite noodle shop for dinner, and walked around just a little to give the kids their first taste of Japan.
Sunday, March 23rd - In the morning we walked over to the New Otani Hotel and walked through their garden. The cherry blossoms were just barely beginning to bloom. We walked around the Prince's palace reveling in the bright blue sunshine. We had bento boxes and sushi for lunch, and then walked around Akasaka until it was time to meet Hector and Beth, our 3M friends that live in Tokyo. We saw a dog-grooming shop to end all shops, families, kids, Tokyo neighborhoodedness everywhere. Hector and Beth took us on the train to a village outside of Tokyo and this restaurant that consisted of private guest houses. The name of the restaurant was Takao Ukai-Toriyama, and they have a website: http://www.ukai.co.jp/toriyama/, but I don’t know if it would be useful to anyone if they didn’t speak Japanese. It was just absolutely beautiful, with mountains, exquisite food consisting of course after course of perfect Japanese dishes, saki, and wine. We were seated at one of those low tables, but with the floor sunken beneath the table so you don't have to sit on your legs. We are so lucky to have friends in this city because we would have never been able to find this place by ourselves!
Monday, March 24th – It was rainy and miserable today; what a contrast with yesterday! We were up at 4:30 am to go to the Tsukiji Fish Market and see the tuna auction. It was worth every minute of missed sleep! I put a video of the Japanese auctioneers on Youtube (link coming soon here). We saw huge slabs of frozen tuna at the auction. Then out we went to the little sushi shops nearby for breakfast. We found Sushi Dori, and stood in line for an hour for the freshest sushi ever - heavenly tuna, a salty, wasabi-tasting piece of mackerel, miso with fish, melt in your mouth eel (unagi), and squid. We staggered out and went back to our rooms to rest. We all at least dozed, but were ready to venture out again around 11:30 am, this time to Ginza for shopping. It sort of reminded me of Chicago's Million dollar Mile - broad streets, American brands such as Gap and Banana Republic which are not to be seen in Hong Kong. But also little quirky stores courtesy of the Lux Guide - a paper store, the design centre on the 7th floor of Matasuka Dept Store, a kimono store, Uniqlo (Jap Gap), a chopstick store, a sake store. We ended our shopping expedition at the Sony store - 4 stories of Japanese electronics. We picked up some Belgian waffles in assorted flavors (maple, chocolate, cream, green) to take back to the room for a snack. Dinner was at a simple teppanyaki restaurant (grilled skewers of chicken and veggies); we were still too full from breakfast to tackle shabu-shabu that night.
Tuesday, March 25th - Daniel fell ill last night, his stomach was upset. Something he ate disagreed with him. He slowly improved throughout the day. We went to Tokyo train station and bought our tickets to Kyoto. It was a 3 hour train ride, on the Shinkasen bullet train. The train went maybe 200kph; not as fast as the maglev in Shanghai, but longer than the 8 minutes the maglev takes! Japanese countryside is as organized as the cities. We saw an unending parade of mountains, flat plains, and little towns. In my head I compared it to other Asian countries. Not a poverty-stricken eastern nation, but not western either. It’s just intensely Japanese, clean, organized and prosperous
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The Ryokan, thank God, was used to westerners. They even had a little card showing how to put on our robes (yukata) and take a bath. We walked around Gion, the Geisha area of Kyoto, before dinner,. There were little streets, huge temples, paper lanterns, and the beginnings of cherry blossoms. We saw Geishas in a rickshaw, or maybe just Japanese ladies dressed up as Geishas, who knows. Then it was back to the ryokan for a bath and dinner.
The Japanese bath was intensely warm but after easing myself into it carefully it was heavenly, very relaxing. I stayed in it as long as I could stand it, and then changed into my yukata for dinner. As the instructions demanded I folded the left side over the right, or they might mistake you for a dead person. Girls have a flowered tie (obi), boys have stripes. In the picture we had our waitress take of all 4 of us at dinner I think we look like we're in some prison uniform!
Dinner was a traditional kaiseki meal - 7 small beautifully presented courses. Veggies, sashimi, egg soup, grilled shrimp, little noodley-looking fishes, seaweed and bamboo (I tried but still can't stand seaweed), a delicious soup with round balls and rice dumplings that tasted like matzo balls, and of course tea, Japanese tea. Finally a mandarin orange sorbet. Yum.
After dinner we hung out in the upstairs room (we had two rooms) while Sarah and Daniel's futons were laid out. I really liked the firm beds in Japanese hotels, and I didn’t mind the futons on the floor at the ryokan either.
Wednesday, March 26th – We checked out of the ryokan and into The Court, a typical businessman's hotel. The ryokan was prohibitively expensive, so it was only a one night affair. We went walking around Kyoto in the morning. We saw the largest wooden building in the world, ate soba noodles for lunch, went up the Kyoto Tower to take in the views, and walked through the Nishiki food market, which was a hoot. Miles of fish snacks, scary candy, pickles, seaweed, and bean paste. We ended up in a shopping arcade filled with weird Japanese t-shirt shops, although the highlight was a KFC with a statue of Colonel Sanders outside wearing a shrimp head.
We had Shabu-shabu for dinner. This is the Japanese version of Hotpot or fondue. It was yummy, but I just felt SO stuffed afterwards, fat with sore feet from all the walking. Afterwards we went to a French bistro bar just to keep Sarah up a little while longer. It’s cold in Kyoto and drizzly. I think I’ve forgotten what really chilly weather is like. Early spring though in Japan is nice, with the cherry blossoms slowly blooming. Kyoto is more city-like than I expected - I had a fantasy that it would be all temples and parks but it’s a regular big city.
Thursday March 27th - Today we rented bikes - electric bikes! They were so cool, easy to ride, powerful, with long-lasting batteries. In a city like Austin with gigantic hills and lots of back streets they would be great. They were made by Panasonic and I’m now having fantasies of owning one someday. We headed toward the outskirts of town, took in temples and shrines, wandered through little neighborhoods and wooded parks. We ended up on a path along a canal called the Philosopher's Walk. The cherry blossoms are just beginning here, but the day, although chilly, was sunny and bright. It was all just very quant and beautiful. I had a simple bowl of rice with tempura for lunch, Lee had Japanese curry and Sarah and Daniel had ice cream. A little sick of Japanese food ha, although to be fair Dan still hasn't shaken whatever bug he caught which is too bad since he's missed out on both teppanaki and shabu-shabu. Tourestas in Japan who would have thunk it?
Sarah actually had to try twice to get ice cream, since her 1st purchase turned out to be black bean instead of chocolate. Lesson: a long line of Japanese in front of an ice cream shop may NOT produce the results you are expecting.
After the Philosopher's Walk we rode back to Gion, parked our bikes and walked around. It reminded me of a Japanese Branson, very touristy, shop after shop of pottery, fans, weird candy etc. Sarah tried some of the dough-like treats we keep seeing and said yep they tasted just like raw pie dough. We saw a lady walking her pet rabbit on a leash. Don't know if this is something distinctly Japanese or universally odd.
Friday March 28th - On the train back to Tokyo we could see snow-covered Mount Fuji very clearly. I was excited which Daniel and Sarah found just a perfect opportunity for sarcasm. I accused them of being jaded, but Sarah insisted they were born that way.
I'm watching everyone, ticket collectors, conductors, the cart girls, bow as they exit the train car. In the waiting room at the train station the newscaster bowed at the end of his broadcast, which made me burst into laughter. Saw a bit of Japanese baseball on TV too - there's another thing I'd like to do in Japan someday - go to a Japanese baseball game.
Once we checked into our hotel in Tokyo we decided to go over to Harajuku even though it wasn't Sunday. There still were Goths, Japanese MaryKatienAshleyes and some Elvises about since its spring break for Japanese kids, but nothing like the hordes I've heard described. The boutiques were something of a bust - we just don't like Japanese fashion all that much. But the park surrounding the Meiji shrine was so peaceful, right beside the craziness of Takeshita St. We then went next "door" to Yoyogi park and there we found a cherry blossom celebration in full swing. There were young people and businessmen on plastic tarps under beautiful pink blossomed trees, drinking, singing, laughing and playing silly games. We saw a group of girls, probably office workers, playing games that would have been entertaining to 7 year olds in the US. They were trying to balance batons the 1st time we walked past them, and later they were twirling around in circles to make themselves dizzy and then attempting to catch a ball. They were laughing hysterically as was everyone that was watching them. Tomorrow is Saturday and we'll probably get additional chances to watch this strange way of greeting spring.
Saturday, March 29th – Our last day in Tokyo was classic. We went to Ueno Park for the cherry blossom festival and it was great. The blossom appreciators were out in full force. We saw hordes of people all smiling and taking pictures of the blossoms, of each other, of other people taking pictures. There was all kinds of street food from grilled squid to corn on a stick. We heard a girl polka band (youtube link to be included here soon). There were thousands of people but no litter and all very orderly although the scene probably became more and more inebriated as the day wore on.
From there we headed to the kitchenware street for inexpensive teapots, chopstick holders, huge woks and of course plastic food. I really wanted some plastic food but it was very disappointing because it was so expensive.
That evening we went to a tiny Robatayaki restaurant. The interior looked like a country inn, and indeed, apparently that's what this place once was. The owners packed it up and moved the entire restaurant from somewhere out in the country to the neon heart of Shinjuku. We sat on low benches around a charcoal fire and cooked (with assistance from our adorable little waitress) fish, chicken, mushrooms, veggies, shrimp and other delectables. From there we staggered out into the Shinjuku bar scene where we were greatly outnumbered by hordes of young Japanese. We decided to try a bar featured in one of our guidebooks, called Christon, which featured a Christian motif. To say it was bizarre is being kind. Since few Japanese are Christians and they probably know as much about Christianity as we know about Shintoism, I don't think it even occurred to them that someone might find this theme just a teeny bit offensive.
The bar was decorated to look like a cathedral, and it was very well done. The featured drink? A Bloody Mary of course, bur we opted for White Russians, except for Sarah, who more in keeping with the atmosphere had a glass of wine.
So this was the end of our Japan trip. I still have so many things I’d like to see there. Lee wants to go to Hokkaido and go skiing. I want to stay out in the country, go on a walking tour, see the autumn leaves, go to Hiroshima. Japan just fascinates me, although I have to admit it was nice to come back to Hong Kong and have a simple salad and some pasta for dinner!
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