Living La Vida Loca

With our incessant wanderlust and a lot of family logistics since our trip, I am miserably late in posting about our wonderful trip to Japan. We went on our own and I take some pride in having planned our itinerary myself (with the kind help of other travelers who’d gone before and my now-trusty assistant, ChatGPT). We really wanted to experience a variety of facets of Japan – not just the famous big cities – and it was important to us that we get a sense of what it’s like to live there, work there, and understand the differences in culture from other places we’ve visited. I think we accomplished the lion’s share of this “agenda” but clearly we need more than a few weeks of immersion to fully understand it all. Even our three-year hiatus in Barcelona didn’t completely get us out of a tourist profile but it came much closer. So, three weeks had to suffice and I’ll try to describe the highlights of this adventure.

Seeing Mt Fuji as we approached to land in Tokyo was a real treat. We hadn’t planned on a side trip to that part of the country, so this felt like a nice hello from afar.

TOKYO

There was no way we could go to Japan and at least see what Tokyo was about. Neither Andrew nor I have great love for massive cities when we travel but Tokyo ranks up there with London, New York, Barcelona – not to miss. We were lucky to be booked into a lovely, modern boutique hotel just a few blocks from the Tokyo train station (Hotel Ryumeikan) which made getting around very easy. The area near the massive station is mostly a business district but it was a good jumping off point for getting to different neighborhoods via trains. There we had our first close encounter with the ever-present Japanese space age toilets…

Seriously, we needed one of the front desk attendants to come up to our room to help us figure out how to even flush the toilet. Along the way, we found that nearly all bathrooms (short of in very remote areas) were equipped with Japanese-made wonder machines…they have warmed seats, a bidet for women, another water feature to clean other nether parts, and some even provide mood or ‘noise coverage’ music for those moments when you’d rather not have people close by hear you. The example below actually had some English explanation – the first one in the hotel didn’t!

Our next revelation that started in Tokyo and held true throughout our trip was that everything is spotless. I mean everything. Culture dictates that cleanliness is next to godliness and even in the most rural train stations, trains, restaurants, public areas, it was free from trash and meticulously cared for. Truly, there are NO trashcans in public areas at all…why? Individuals are fully responsible for their own trash – take it with you and dispose of it as needed.

AUTHOR NOTE: A kind reader (Thanks Connie!) brought to my attention that the lack of public trash receptacles started as a result of the Sarin scare years ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_subway_sarin_attack Public trash cans were seen as a possible target for placing toxic materials. The precaution continues today.

The Tokyo train station makes the London tube pale by comparision – in size, in ambiance, in navigability despite its size, and the true underground community feel it has. Despite the fact the more than two million people pass through this station every day, it is spotless and the only noise you hear even at a busy juncture is the sound of feet as people pass quietly, occasionally a store barker encouraging taste testing a food product, and trains whooshing by on the platforms – always on time. There is no pushing and shoving, attendants plentiful to help if you get lost, and honestly if you go step by step using online directions by line color or number it’s pretty hard to get totally lost. On the major lines in all the cities we were in the train announcement were in Japanese and English – apparently a new evolution since the Olympics in Tokyo.

One other new experience we had early on was automated ordering of food at casual sit-down restaurants – mostly the plethora of small udon shops. You walk in, review a screen full of pictures of menu items and choose what you want from the screen, pay at the screen, take your receipt and sit down at an empty table. Like magic, your food appears! No interaction with a server or cashier is needed – someone just brings the food and takes your receipt. Easy peasy.

We could not leave central Tokyo without experiencing the famous Shibuya Scramble Crossing. We wanted to at least see what one of the most touristic areas of the city was like so we both walked and observed from a building top Starbucks the orderly pandemonium…

Kichijoji

One of our favorite things to do when we travel to new foreign cities is to take a culinary tour of “street food”. It’s fine to try upscale restaurants at some point, but the guided tours with a local, taking us to some of the less tourist-laden spots to try local delicacies and more common items that define the region. We personally have had great experiences in multiple countries with Culinary Backstreets and they didn’t disappoint in Japan. We took a train to the Kichijoji neighborhood known for diverse eateries and along with a local guide and one other couple got to taste bao, shumai, and decadent creme puffs; yummy sushi that included a daring morsel of puffer fish and puffer fin sake (we were assured the licensing for serving this poisonous delicacy was very strict in Japan – and we are still here); visited at 65 year old rice cake factory; learned about and tasted nine different types of miso; drank beer and chowed various local appetizers…it was a blast!

The other amazing thing that we discovered on this tour and saw as we wound our way through many a train station is the incredible range of take-away foods available for commuters. I’m talking everything from magnificently packaged fruits and vegetables to every kind of sweet and savory confection you can imagine. We were told that the culture is one of giving gifts for virtually any occasion (or non-occasion) – always bring a small token to someone’s home for a meal, for a casual visit, for a more formal occasion – no coming empty-handed. Indeed, most of the train stations we were in also had very good restaurants and cafe underground to choose from…someone commented that you could likely live in one of the stations for a long time without anyone noticing (remember the movie with Tom Hanks, “The Terminal”???)

Biking Through Tokyo

We thought that a good way to see some of the more well-known sites in Tokyo was by bike, so we took a half-day tour with a great guide and his young trainee who were very careful to keep us off the busiest of streets and still take in the Shinto Meiji shrine, the Parliament Building, the Emperor’s Palace, and a neighborhood cemetery that houses Hachi the famous dog’s grave alongside his owner.

After a day of touring we took a long nap – long enough that most restaurants near our hotel were closed. So we headed into the main train station and found a place to try okonomiyaki.  This involves a massive amount of ingredients on a teppan cooking table in front of you.  The process to prepare this is shared by you and the server and these restaurants have a very social atmosphere, a bit like a Korean hot pot or fondue ritual. Definitely worth trying at least once – but go hungry!

Shimokitazawa

We had heard that one of the neighborhoods of Tokyo was famous for vintage clothing and a more bohemian feel, so we headed to Shimokitazawa. The streets were literally filled with dozens of used and vintage clothing and decorative objects, and there was a large street fair along the same lines in the middle of the center of town. It was pretty funny that Andrew unearthed a Carolina tee-shirt in that mix (didn’t buy it).

Not to ignore our lust for good food, we found a really cute cafe/restaurant called Sunday Brunch that actually reminded me of a ladies tea house. The food was creative and delicious. One dish was a rice mount covered in egg with a brisket type brown sauce (sounds weird but oh yummmm!), and French toast layered with seasoned potatoes, cheese, served with maple syrup and ketchup.

Amazingly, while we were in this neighborhood, a dear friend from Seattle reached out via Instagram to tell me that her daughter, Ashby, was also in Tokyo as part of some world travel with her husband, David, and his cousin, Leonardo. We’ve known Ashby since she was six weeks old – she’s now 34! It had been many years since we’d seen each other, and a quick correspondence initiated her hopping on a train and meeting us! Ashby and Ari – our eldest – were in “Mommy and Me” class together. Ashby and David have been touring and working around the world for nearly a year (check out @dashingthroughtheworld on Instagram) so this was a great reunion along their journey.

An Immersive Sensory Experience – TeamLab Planet

Our last full day in Tokyo included our one and only getting lost on the train system and a very innovative art experience. The routing to get from the Tokyo main station to where TeamLab is located took a bit of Yankee ingenuity and patience that wore a bit thin. It felt like we were on every number and color line trying to get there and back (the word “divorce” surfaced on the way back) – so I’d say if you venture this be super attentive – and buy your tickets ahead of time online as it’s a very popular activity. Nonetheless, it was worth the trip and wait. This is very immersive art: You wade through water that has projected koi in it; you wander through a forest of LED string lights that upset your sense of direction; play in a room full of touch-reactive huge spheres, gaze in surround sound and video of computer-generated images that are mind-blowing, and much more. This was our one truly “touristy” activity and on balance I think it was worth it.

Our next stop – Kyoto – that truly melted my heart.